St. Valentine really picked a crummy month to celebrate love if you’re in cold weather climes (even though cuddling to keep warm always works! )
But wouldn’t a nice warm Spring or Summertime day be better? The sun would be shining, birdies would be chirping, butterflies are buttering, bright blue skies are…well, blue skying, and you can smell the scent of newly mown grass…Ahhhh-CHOOO!
Hmmm…OK. I guess chocolate in February works.
Even if you don’t buy into the commercialization of this month, food still needs to go on the table. So treat yourself extra-special on Saturday the 14th whether you’re with OR without a special person in your life. Never mind. Treat yourself special on ALL the days!
But don’t tell her its in the house, as she’ll open it and there will be nothing for her to enjoy on the 14th. And yes, this has happened before – I had to go up and get another box.
Tonight I’ll be making Sanfords’ Swiss Chicken Enchiladas by Pati Jinich. It was interesting to learn that, in Mexico, the moniker “Swiss” gets added to dishes with extra dairy, and this salsa verde gets drenched with a cup of crema. Should be super soul satisfying. Can’t wait, got the chicken on the stove now simmering away to shred with the lovely bonus of stock for days. Stock bubbling away is one of the best kitchen smells ever.
Costco had butchered some of their leg o’s lambs down to a reasonable size so DH has a lamb curry simmering away. Big decision to make…rice or egg noodles?
Felt like something a little Asian-y tonight. Pan fried pork and ginger dumplings with gai lan and carrots. Everything splashed with my secret Asian-y sauce..
A busy cooking day. Made my Chicken-Corn Chowder after making corn stock yesterday. My sister and BIL will get a large container; I fed my freezer, AND I have several work lunches. Ka-Boom.
Prompted by a post on the January WFD by @BeefeaterRocks last week, I made Serious Eats’ Pinchos Morunos tonight. Didn’t brine for long…I mean, it’s pork tenderloin - it’s already tender. Grilled it on my grill pan. The picture doesn’t include the garlic aioli drizzled on top because I forgot it was in the fridge. Drizzled after I removed the pork from the skewers.
Served on leftover rice pilaf with a tomato-cucumber-parsley salad with sherry vinegar dressing alongside.
I’m sofa king happy January is behind us! February will probz/hopefully fly by as well. It’s the shortest month of the year, and yet we somehow have 5 gigs in 2 weeks — starting next Saturday. I will have to wear … real, actual clothes. Ugh.
We spent a cozy Sunday at home & never once left the house. I made more stock with the Sam’s Club carcass to cool off in the garage overnight & be degreased and strained tomorrow.
It’s looking so good I decided the freezer ain’t getting this one, and I’ll make some Euro-style chicken noodle soup with it. Will have to get 2lbs of carrots, a celeriac & leeks tomorrow, a new bag of egg noodz, and more parsley
As for tonight, simples: an assortment of steamed domplings from the freezer, i.e. 3 har gow, 2 pork & shrimp shumai, and 3 pork & leek dumplings each. Easy dippin’ sawce with the last of the Sinatra. The har gow weren’t the best brand we’ve had, but the “supreme” shumai will def be a repeat purchase.
Tonight’s dinner was Creamed Chip Ham with peas over a round bread loaf. I put a little lemon juice into the béchamel sauce. The ladies seem to like that over cumin; it is a neat flavor profile.
Couldnt manage a pic that made it look appetizing, but my hambone from Christmas became a ham and bean soup. After a fashion…
The bone just barely slid into my baby IP, then I added chix stock, a couple of cups of several kinds of beans I found in the pantry, and some aromatics. Pressure for 40 min and the beans were tender. Added a bag of frozen soup veggies (those are astaple..7-8 kinds of veggies all diced) and ended up needing to finish it on the stove…just didn’t have room to stir! Added a can of tomato paste, and a dash of smoked paprika to end up with a ham and bean mashup with chili. Tasty, anyway, with a toasted tortilla.
Hot turkey sandwich with mash, dressing and gravy. Little gem, arugula, red onion, grape tomatoes, avocado, pickled beets, mushroom salad, cambozola, ranch. Everything except the mash and salad was from the freezer.
Braised Duck Leg with Celeriac-Potato Mash (German cookbook) and Long-Simmered Collard Greens (Saveur cookbook) - the duck legs are braised in the oven, first alone than after 45 minutes plenty of shallots, rosemary and bit of honey are added and braised for another hour. At the same time, you braise the collard greens with onions and garlic for one hour hour in chicken broth. Served with celeriac-potato mash, made with milk, cream and nutmeg
@LindaWhit are you able to edit the title to “What’s for Dinner” instead of the acronym? Might make it more newbie friendly (and also just for consistency).
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