There are lots of holidays in March - but the partyiest of parties happen in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and in Boston, NYC, and Chicago for St. Patrick’s Day! (And I’m sure many other cities, but those are the Big 3 who go nuts on St. Patrick’s Day.)
Colors are prevalent for both holidays - ALL bright colors for Mardi Gras and bright green, reminiscent of the beautifully green grassy fields of Ireland, for the latter. The harbinger of Spring springing very soon!
And the foods associated with both? Oh wowza! King cake, gumbo, jambalaya, shrimp étouffée, beignets, po’boys, muffalettas. And then there’s corned beef and cabbage, colcannon, Irish soda bread, Guinness stew, bangers and mash.
So - are you celebrating either? And what will be your nosh of choice?
Pasta with Parsnip and Sausage - parsnip, onions, garlic and crumbled Italian sausages get sautéed before mixed with spaghetti, parsley, plenty of parmesan and pasta water to make a creamy sauce. Finished with more parmesan
Tonight’s dinner will be leftover vegetable beef soup (made from the enchilada meat creation the other day) and grilled cheese sandwiches.
Looking forward to meals that celebrate these days:
Women’s History Month
Dotter’s 36th bday (Oh Lord!)
Pi Day (14)
St. Urho (16)
St. Patrick’s Day (17)
The First Day of Spring (20)
and many more I just can’t remember this minute
Pan-seared sea scallops in a bit of butter after seasoning with s/p. Added a sploosh of white wine and Meyer lemon juice to the pan after removing the scallops and reduced for a “sauce”.
Sauteed baby spinach in butter and olive oil, seasoned with salt and Aleppo pepper.
Plated, drizzled the scallops with the wine/lemon, and topped the spinach with toasted Mediterranean pine nuts and dried lemon zest.
Excellent stir-fried beef and celery with fermented black beans on jasmine rice. My riff on this recipe. Very sloppy presentation on a too-small plate.
Highly recommend. I increase everything but the beef. I soak the fermented black beans in two changes of water to reduce sodium but they still have tons of umami.
Your scallops are always so beautiful. Also beautiful plating! I need to switch from Whole Foods outlets in Cambridge and Charlestown and Somerville to the Medford Wegmans. It’s further away but if we can plan better, fewer and bigger grocery runs would work.
Thanks. I swear by Wegmans dry sea scallops. These were slightly smaller than usual today. I’ve had the WF scallops in the past (North Andover store), although not any time recently, but I’ve enjoyed the ones from Wegmans more.
These 6 scallops cost me $7.92. I know some people have sticker shock when they see $29.99-$32.99/lb, but if you’re getting 1/4 lb, it is reasonable enough (for me) for my once-every-5-weeks dinner.
And today was a larger shop for me than in the recent past, but that could be because I bought some wine, which I haven’t done in the past 2 visits.
My husband had MD degree and also PhD in cancer biology. He knows far more about math than I do (I never took calculus). My degrees are in art history. Guess who gets branded “esthetic” and “not logical”?
He freaks over high price per pound cheese and fish. It’s ingrained, I think. I say, but we aren’t buying a pound of that expensive cheese. We are buying 3 or 4 ounces. We aren’t buying a pound of scallops, we are buying less than that for two people.
We are both 70 this year. My appetite was never huge and has diminished to the point where I can’t eat much at one sitting. His appetite has stayed the same.
He can do the math, obviously, but the psychological imperative interferes. You spent just under $8 for 6 beautiful, fresh dry scallops. That’s a bargain!
The rain is back. Diner food for dinner. Hot chicken sandwich. Sliced rotisserie chicken breast over sourdough bread, mashed potatoes with butter, sour cream and green onion in a sea of gravy. Sprinkled with crispy chicken skin, parsley. Gravy was made from chicken broth, carcass, onion, carrot, celery and leek broth. Spinach, mushroom, radish, red onion salad, honey mustard dressing.
We enjoyed another excellent dinner @Drew’s Bayshore Bistro in Keyport, NJ. Drew is getting ready for his Fat Tuesday dinner this coming Tuesday, and had some nice specials tonight including Mardi Gras pasta with shrimp, Andouille sausage, and chicken in a Cajun creme sauce; spicy shrimp and grits; sweet potato and Andouille sausage empanada with pickled apples; muffuletta on toasted sour dough bread; mussels and Andouille sausage in a garlic and herb sauce; calamari with jalapeño aioli; lobster, shrimp, and crawfish gumbo. It all went great with an excellent red blend and Zinfandel.
We were low energy today. Plans to catch the 3pm show of a play a friend of ours wrote fell through due to general household laziness, and we both would’ve preferred a quiet night at home … BUT one of my gal pals who is also a singer & who recently joined a new band had her first show with them (my bass & keys are involved as well) at the venue we play regularly, and so some of our lady posse had already gotten tix to check them out and support her
I had a pretty late lunch of luscious leftover youvetsi, so my PIC and I just shared the always good “chips & dip" — fried fingerling potatoes with sour cream & onion dip,
Show was great, my girl had a full house, and it was fun to see the gals. Nice to be home before 10pm, though. And we had a few more bites of the youvetsi
My usual slant on carbonara, whole wheat spaghetti with bay scallops. The DiCecco WW spaghetti is different now, thicker, and rougher from being “bronze drawn”. It needs more cooking time.
