What's For Dinner #27 - 11/2017 - the Giving Thanks Edition

Thanks. It’s very rich so you eat less and savour it more.

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I have been really removed from here since last March. I had been caring for my baby sister who lived in Maryland. Additionally I ditched that other site a long time ago, because the people here are the ones I want to share with.

Need less to say, at 57 my sister ended up without a spouse or children. Given her diagnosis for stage 4 cancer…my brother from Florida, and myself from NYC relocated ourselves to hospital/ home In Maryland to take care of her since March.

My statement here is not for support, but to tell you I was humbled…and that my baby sis was a huge foodie… Even at her lowest moments she had me go home and make her something we discussed…and she would taste and critique…and believe me she did not hold back on me…we always have been “cookers” since we were 10 or 12 years old…Heck we even took a baking class together when we were in college some 40 years ago!

Needless to say, she is in a better place, and I know she is happy I am back here…talking food as we loved…
Her legacy aside from getting flumist vaccine approved was her old fashioned pea soup…
So please don’t shed a tear, that is not what this for but to celebrate !!!..as she said…just follow your “stomach” and imagination and cook your heart out!
Which we all do here everyday!..
Phreddy

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Ahhhh, Phreddy, I’m still shedding a tear for you and your brother. You are both good men to have taken care of your sister. <3 <3 <3

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Holy crap…I MADE FRENCH FRIES! And they were GOOD! Fuckit. They were GREAT!

I needed to get far away from turkey - so burger it was. Cheeeeeeeseburger, that is. And I topped them with the frizzled shallots that no one but me ate on Thanksgiving.

French fries were Yukon Gold, cut using a handy-dandy French fry cutter from Crate and Barrel, and par-boiled, drained, dried off, then fried twice in vegetable oil, and then drained and shaken in a paper bag with some of my friend’s Salter’s Point Provisions Cape Ann salt.
https://salterspointprovisions.com/

I had something healthy with a salad of red leaf lettuce, cukes, red bell pepper, sunset Zima yellow tomatoes, and slivered red onion. And homemade Thousand Island dressing. OK. Maybe not so healthy with that dressing. But it looks healthy in the picture, pre-dressing. Doesn’t it?

BUT I MADE FRENCH FRIES! AND THEY WERE GOOD!!!

There was wine, too. Like, DUH!

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We were going to get dinner out at my favorite little Italian bar where I always get the salad flat bread, but we spent the afternoon out so decided to stay in and make salad pizza. Arugula, olives, caper berries, sun dried tomatoes, and Parmesan on top of pizza dough baked with prosciutto. Wine to drink.

We also picked all remaining lines off our tree today. Tomorrow , I need to make some curd, and freeze a lot of juice.

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They are !!!

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You made them good and they do look dayaammmm good! Love the colourful salad, too.

To us!

wine01

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Wild duck. SV whole, brushed several times with a sauce I made then crisped the skin the oven. Every time I brushed the whole duck I put it in the fridge and kept repeating. The cold and dryness make the skin crispy. Also, this retains the colour of the sauce on the skin.

What’s in the sauce? Tamari, rice wine, five-spice powder, ketcap manis, jelly I saved from previously SV duck legs. Plus a tea spoon of liquid smoke. So. bloody. good.!

There are a few pellet entrance wounds on the chest and sides. Found 4 pellets in the bird. Whenever eating game I have to be careful when chewing and swallowing. Sometimes the pellets are well hidden.

I also made rice with a tea spoon of liquid smoke added to the water. It gave the rice a faint taste of smoke and made it look a bit brown.

Wild ducks are only half the size of standard tame ducks. The taste has more depth, the breasts are a lot smaller. You can see here the sternum (breast bone) protrudes sharply between the breasts.

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The leftovers are either gone or in the freezer, and we’re back on the low carb bandwagon. Sigh. I’m going to miss apple pie with cheddar for breakfast, but I won’t miss the bloat! Anyway, tonight is going to be spicy crispy sauteed beef with tofu, and I’ll likely integrate some leeks and bell peppers into the dish for a one-pot dinner.

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I am going to make turkey soup this afternoon. Have some for dinner.Freeze the rest. Headed back to Santa Cruz tomorrow to get my car and kitchen items. Back to Mt Shasta next Sunday. Wine to drink .Cheers.

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Friday afternoon i decided it had been too long since i made smothered cabbage, so i made that wonderful marcella hazan recipe for smothered cabbage. I use a lot less oil, prob 3TB or so. I was out of homemade veg stock and started a pot alongside the cabbage with my leftover fennel stalks, celery, onion, bay leaves, thyme, carrots, and a serious amount of cracked black pepper plus salt.
Dinner was just a big bowl of the smothered cabbage with some added white beans, i’m always a bit amazed how such a simple dish can be so delicious!

I had gone to trader joe’s yesterday and was apparently so distracted buying the Kalamon olives i love that are back in stock and other things that i came home without the arborio rice to make the cabbage into soup!! :roll_eyes:
I went with plan B and decided my wild rice blend would be tasty if not the same as the original, used the homemade stock, non dairy butter and nutritional yeast instead of parm. Most of it went in the freezer for lunches and easy dinners in the coming month of crazy.

Decided to make more soup last night, trying to use some of the bizarre amount of lentils i have in the cupboard. It’s been forever since i made this but i vaguely follow this recipe, but i cheat and just use a premade taco seasoning packet. I add in some frozen corn, chopped carrots and skimp on the spicy stuff since my taco seasoning has plenty of heat for me. The lime juice and cilantro garnish are really important

I had a big late lunch/brunch today so dinner will probably just be a mug of the taco soup and some raw veggies.

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Reading.
Patriots whomping The Fish.
Leftover Turkey Chili that includes the leftover mashed squash and mashed potatoes from Turkey Day as a thickener.
Served on elbow noodles with grated cheddar and a healthy dollop of sour cream.
Wine.
That’s all.
Except work tomorrow.
Welcome back to the Real World.

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CTime to get back to something resembling healthy eating. Roasted today’s FM veggies (cauliflower, radishes, carrots, and baby zucchini) and made a salad. Sides were deviled eggs and wine.

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Beautiful.

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Have not been to this site as the new OS installed in my 10 months old MAC AIR will not allow pictures taken from IPHONE to be downloaded into my photo album in my MAC AIR. Will have to go to Apple and solve the problem.
Oyster season over, now the rockfish are here
My son returned home, caught 2 nice size rockfish and 2 huge catfish last week. We had fried rockfish filet using sweet potato starch, egg, and then panko, , panfried in grapeseed oil. We gave the catfish away as usual.

Thanksgiving day, just prior to leaving for our trip to an Asian Fusion restaurant in Va, he saw this fish wiggling from one of his rods

and reels that hunged on the pier, run out and scoop the fish out. Here is a picture that he I took using his phone. it is 32 inch long

So, we had a paella party Sunday, as we did not have thanksgiving at home.
Here is picture of last year’s paella party at about the same time. Pictures were taken by guests but they did not forward it to me. Same i ingredients, same size.

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to naf
you can cook lechon in a hot oven ( 425-475 degrees) but it is easier if you cover the pork ( I prefer pork belly with ribs) with enough water to cover, , add aromatics ( bay leaf, peppercorn, garlic onions etc) let it come to boil, boil it , then simmer it for at least an hour or more, till the pork is cooked, let it cool down in the liquid, pat it dry , even leaving it overnight in the fridge, then cook it in a hot oven or in a turbo broiler.
I f you do not preboil it, it will take longer time, you have to brush the pork skin with drippings frequently. I have not done that since I started using my turbo broiler.
Another way would be to boil it, then cut it into bite site pieces and deep fry, it called lechon kawaii.

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I guess this is a flounder since the eye is is right sided.
I love steaming fluke ( left sidee eye) which is bigger with sesame oil, soy sauce , vinegar, garlic, ginger, spring onions, rice wine and black beans served with rice.
Unfortunately, the fish monger usually dress it by removing the gills etc and I am not given the roe which I love, cooked with bacon fat. I see them selling the roe separately. I just ask them to cut a slit in the belly so I can stuff my aromatics.
Used to charge $4.99/ lb at HMART but for the last year, I would be lucky if the price is $6.99 . T hey run around 4-5 pounds

Maybe I will get around to posting T-Day, though I forgot to take a ton of pictures. Unfortunately, my stomach has had some issues from this week’s treatment. Not really keeping stuff in my system. So last night, we had a baked potato. He also had a bowl of magic freezer chili. The homemade sour cream was the star. Damn that stuff is good! Tonight, after a long day hanging with the grand-scallion I punted. A simple faux-tomato gravy with pasta. Sautéed some pork Italian sausage and some hamburger. I had expect to have to drain a bit of fat, but there was almost none so I added the garlic and oregano. Then some jarred Rao’s sauce. Let that all simmer while the pasta cooked. Added the pasta to the sauce and served.

The turkey stock is done and that means one thing. We will harvest the rest of the garden parsley and I will make Mario Batali’s Pasta e Fagioli soup! I will also make a turkey pot pie filling with perhaps a puff pastry cover.

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Love the fagioli soup.

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Grilled cheese with scallion . Turkey soup. Headed back to Santa Cruz tomorrow to get my car and pack my kitchen items to bring back. Will look for Dungeness when I am in SC . Wine to drink, Cheers .

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