What's For Dinner #115 - the Dumb Rodent Month Edition - February 2025

This looks really good! Did you cook the red cabbage or is it more like a marinated salad?

Banh mi and cha gio hit the spot tonight.

Some recent meals included a lovely shepherds pie and an assortment of small plates (halibut over cauliflower purée and spinach, more steak tips, and chocolate pie).

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Take-out arugula salad ($15) and gnocchi alla gorgonzola ($25) from Trattoria Taverniti in Toronto. Everything hit the spot.

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The red cabbage was just shredded, mixed with some salt to get rid of some water and then mixed with the sauce

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That is very appealing :drooling_face:

Szegedin Kasseler - kasseler (German-style cured and smoked pork loin from our favorite local German butcher) was braised in the oven with sauerkraut, red bell peppers, onions, tomato paste, sugar and vegetable broth

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I keep Sichuan peppercorns in a pepper mill all the time. It makes it handy to add a dash when something needs a quick shot of oomph.

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From the NYT, Sheet-Pan Scallion Chicken. Minced garlic and ginger are combined with Dijon mustard, miso, chopped scallions and a little brown sugar then slathered on chicken thighs. The recipe calls for baby bok choy (which I didn’t have) so I used up bits of veggies that needed to go - adult bok choy, mushrooms and kale. Everything is thrown on a sheet pan and baked until done. This was really good. I did up the ginger because I can never have too much ginger. And it would probably work a variety of vegetables as long as you make sure their cooking times are about the same as the chicken.

@ChristinaM - This might work for your request for wholes food, less processed meal ideas.

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That’s a good idea. I have an electric one that is hiding in a closet not getting used somewhere. Maybe I could do a blend of Sichuan peppercorns and whole white peppercorns…

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Thank you, and it looks great. Appreciate the gift link.

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Ah, both my pepper mills are full up with pepper. Did you toast them beforehand?

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I do too.

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Mild Sicilian sausage from Fiesta Farms in Toronto.

Roast local Russet Potatoes

Salad

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After promising BF at the beginning of the week and punting it on Monday, tonight I made a half batch of the Chrissy Teigen Mac and Cheese with Garlic Parmesan Breadcrumbs for dinner. Lots of leftovers for tomorrow and at least one other meal, likely this weekend sometime. A household favorite (and I made extra breadcrumbs to store in the freezer)! Steamed cauliflower to accompany, because I ran out of energy for salad making.


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Yum

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Decadent :drooling_face:

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Dinner was Stirfried chicken and zucchini served over rice.

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#faceplant

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Got together with a friend today who also happens to be one of our county commissioners to find out if there are more productive things to do on a local level than scream into the void (we can), then stopped by the Asian market to pick up yu choy for tonight’s dinner: leftover mapo tofu & rice. I really wanted gai lan, but there wasn’t any.

I don’t usually like eating the same thing two nights in a row, but the tofu came out so well I didn’t mind it one bit :yum:

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I made Urvashi Pitre’s chicken and potato curry with a boatload of extra veggies - haricots, carrots, butternut squash, and kidney beans (reducing the 'taters). The sauce seemed pretty thin so I added a cornstarch slurry and a splash of Bragg’s aminos for umami. It was really good over a brown rice-cauli blend. A broccoli-quinoa salad with buttermilk dressing on the side (didn’t love it).

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