I absolutely adore that lemony bean & shrimp stew. Might be time to make it again!
1 Like
They could be cleaned beforehand.
After working out in the morning and getting really frustrated with the limited upper body exercises I could do (basically just biceps & triceps) bc of my whiny lil bitch shoulder I tried to uber some, but it was pretty dead. Instead, I did much needed housekeeping on my laptop.
We hosted the gang for our first post-adoption poker game yesterday. It’d also been a while since anyone else hosted — the semester’s been busy for everyone.
Our first choice, the most popular Indian place in town wasn’t taking any orders when we were ready to get food, so we picked another with which we’d had mixed results in the past. Last night it was really very good, so much so that we want to go back and explore some of the items unfamiliar to us (like their Indo-Chinese dishes, or an entire page of parantha variations). I’d made a note for the lamb curry to be “desi hot, or how you would cook for your mom,” and it might have been The Best Lamb curry I’ve had in this town — complex, and with a nice kick. A little too hot for some of our guests 
. Other dishes were the lamb biryani, an excellent, kicky palak paneer, and their very good, smoky bangin’ bharta. Everyone was happy 
It also happened to be one of our friend’s 60th bday eve, and his partner had dropped off a (store-bought) chocolate peanut butter pie earlier that we put candles on and surprised him with after everyone was done eating.
Nice to see everyone before Thxgiving, and the bday boy’s partner already confirmed her availability for grabbing a drink or two Wednesday night — it’s been forever since we had a chance to catch up.
11 Likes
Sunshine had her surgery? How is she doing? Sending healing thoughts her way. 
5 Likes
It looks great! What cheeses did you craft this with?
English cheddar and mozzarella
2 Likes
Yes… Sunshine had her surgery late Friday afternoon. I’ve been able to get some food into her, since then. The doctor did tell her to attempt to say a few words after 24 hours. Her words were a whisper and quite raspy, but that is to be expected as she heals.
Late last night (right before bed) she came to me and was hungry. So, I made up some instant mashed potatoes and she ate it all. So, her appetite is coming back. I’m still going to feed her soft foods for the next week and see how she feels after that.
We are due to go back to the doctor on Dec. 15th, so I guess we’ll know more then. For now, she is eating and sleeping and feels OK. The doctor doesn’t want her to do much, so she can watch movies and old game shows on TV (and read her book).
I guess (at this point) we are in a “holding pattern” until she heals up from the surgery and the doctor evaluates everything on the 15th.
Thank you for the well wishes.
17 Likes
You’re the reason I copied it to a text file on my phone so I’d always have access to it, since I don’t have a NYT subscription.
1 Like
You wouldn’t be the only one, but it’s a major hit with many of our fellow HOs.
TBH, I don’t even remember whether I learned about it here first, or in one of the NYT cooking emails 
1 Like
Picked up 4 lovely pomegranates at BJ’s Club yesterday, which directed dinner tonight.
Pomegranate Chicken (Morgh-e Nardooni) was halved and made with 2 BISO chicken thighs after popping the arils from a single pom.
Near East Rice Pilaf, with added freshly minced parsley and some arils, and steamed green beans with butter, s/p, and dried marjoram.
There was wine before and during dinner.
Dessert was a slice from a Gingerbread and Apple Loaf that interested me because of grating the apple vs finely chopping (which I think I’d prefer) and took WAY longer to bake than her recipe said (55 min vs her 35 min). The batter was way too thin and literally poured into the loaf pan. But after a full bake at 55 minutes, it was pretty good (although it did try and fall apart as I removed it from the pan, but I was able to keep it together). Since she had no measurement, I grated 1 large apple vs her 2 medium.
One day of upcoming work, and then a 6 day “weekend”. 
16 Likes
Chill Sunday @casa lingua — I decided to catch up on some reading while my dood watched a few sportsing games.
He joined me for what we thought would be “just a quick run” to Wegner’s for a nice variety of shrooms for tonight’s dinner: maitake specifically plus oyster shrooms, as both Asian grocers we stopped in on the way didn’t have any. Despite it being Ssspicy Sssunday, we felt like a break from hot food — I know, hard to believe! — and I had shroom pasta on my mind 
Wegners no longer carries maitake 
, and the oyster shrooms were $$$. After a stop at TJ’s we finally lucked out at the Giant…. which happens to be the supermarket closest to us and would’ve saved us a LOT of driving had we gone there first 
While down that way we also picked up fresh local heavy cream & a dozen local eggs for my boo’s Biscoff ice cream and orange almond cake for 
day.
The sauce came out MAHvelous, if I may say so. I started the sauce with rendering a thick slice of bacon in a bit of olive oil, then sautéing ½ a shallot and crushed garlic in the rendered fat, saving the crispy bacon bits to be added later, a teeny shake of RPF (can’t go cold turkey after all hahaha) & dried thyme. The maitake & oyster shrooms were sautéed in the bacon fat & olive oil and deglazed with a splash of open red. To add more body to the sauce I also added a tiny bit of BTB mushroom, and some of TJ’s fire-roasted tomatoes I still had in the fridge from the Jamie Oliver Disaster Ragù. Reconstituted shiitakes went in for MOAR shroominess. What can I say — Ima fun gal 
Finished it all with a touch o’ cream & fresh parsley and served over fettuccine with grated Parm Reg. Nice Primitivo to drank with 
Salad was mixed greens with new-to-me tomatoes in a creamy herb mustard vinaigrette.
Speaking of salad — someone dropped a bagged Caesar salad kit in the Wegners parking lot, and we didn’t see anyone looking for it…. so we took it home, as fate clearly wanted us to have it. Having never bought a salad kit in my life, I’m curious to see what it’s like. We have yet to try CK’s Caesar dressing, so the stars are clearly aligning for us. Might have it with our cheeborger meal Tuesday in lieu of fries.
14 Likes
Leftover shrimp bisque from the freezer (soup base only from frozen - the shrimp was cooked tonight). Toasted sandwiches on homemade ciabatta with ham and cheese.
19 Likes
I was wondering what to do with the other half of the chuck roast and then @linguafood reminded me of Mississippi pot roast. Served over egg noodles, red and little gem lettuce, green onion, radish, avocado, cambozola, ranch dressing salad.
16 Likes
Fish sticks on a toasted brioche bun with tartar sauce and a side of Trader Joe’s haricots verts with a dab of garlic chili sauce.
17 Likes
Have some catching up to do here! i’ve been working late all week and then just vegging, so haven’t been posting anywhere but my own FB page. My sister and I got back from L.A. (actually, Simi Valley) Monday after visiting family for 4 days over a long weekend.
Monday night, for him, salteñas (Bolivian meat pies) we brought back from L.A. for him - super juicy, but a little too tomatoey for us - which is not the norm. Still, they scratch our Bolivian itch. He made a big salad for me with fried, diced potatoes. yummy.
Tues., at my request, BF made us Niku dofu with thinly sliced rib eye and shrooms. Delish.
Wed., i was craving an orzo dish so I sent him a recipe with feta and parm and tomatoes. So good. Also, he took some of the leftover ribeye and made a piccata of sorts with it. The mushrooms with the briny capers were the best part, as the thinly cut steak didn’t soak up most of the buttery/lemony sauce.
Thursday night i just wanted something fast and easy after another night of OT - so fabulously delicious quesabirria (lamb) tacos for me, and a giant suadero/chorizo burrito for him from a nearby taqueria.
Friday was back-to-SALAD night - with crispy tofu tossed in various togarashis i brought back from Japan. LOVED. For himself, he made gyudon with tamagoyaki that he made in the little egg pan i bought in Japan - he’s totally mastered it, the bastard!
Saturday, at my sister’s I made us buttery steak sandwiches with bavette, Boursin, arugula, and a quick chimichurri i made. Turned out great - I can’t remember the last time I had a steak sandwich…
Today we had a big brunch the BF made with more salteñas. Afterward, i cooked The Woks of Life’s braised red pork bellt and broken rice, but I’m still too full so we’re saving it for tomorrow night’s dinner.
C’est tout! Now to catch up - slowly - with all of you…
16 Likes
We enjoyed another outstanding dinner at James on Main, in Hackettstown, NJ, including wild gulf shrimp with thai chili marinated squid, green papaya, mango, peanut scallion vinaigrette; ribeye with porcini mushroom risotto; yellow coconut curry with coral tooth mushroom and toasted pumpkin seeds, roasted Japanese eggplant, sticky black rice; duck confit spring roll with pickled hon shimeji mushroom & seaweed salad, smoked lions’s mane mushroom teriyaki hot sauce; baby lacinato kale salad with roasted red beets, crispy chickpeas, caesar dressing; crispy hand cut fries. For dessert we enjoyed profiteroles with pumpkin semifreddo, brown butter toffee,
toffee crunch, toasted meringue. It all went great with an excellent cabernet and red blend.
10 Likes
Happy to inspire 
1 Like
Did you smoke the kassler yourself ?
No from a local butcher. Smokes his own meat . Makes sausage , and cuts premier beef . Mt Shasta. 4th generation from Bavaria. What a great place .
4 Likes
