Usually we cook together but today I got home earlier and got started earlier alone.
My partner: what kind of mushroom is it? So meaty!
Me: chicken heart.
My partner: the mushrooms are called “chicken heart”?
Me: yeah. They look a bit like straw mushroom, don’t they.
My partner: it’s meat, isn’t it? “Meaty mushrooms”.
It was not bad at all.
Should have added a spoonful of my smoky Greek chili flakes for the photo. I did it just before eating and it looked so nice with the chili.
WFD: Dabs from the F/V William Flynn out of Gloucester Hahbah. We’ll make Jasper White’s recipe for “Sand-Dabs Doré”. This is a typical quick sauté with first a dusting of AP flour, then into a seasoned egg wash (eggs, milk, peanut oil (my choice), salt, parsley, hot sauce or cayenne), last into the skillet for the sauté in ghee. Ghee is magic with seafood!
There will be the usual while wine pan sauce and lemon wedges to accompany.
Harvest Hodgepodge from TJ’s. This is a medley of a little bits each of broccoli, carrots, baby corn, mushrooms, water chestnuts, sugar snap peas, red peppers, and onions. Just the VGs nothing else. Because I cannot abide baby corn I pick around it but everything else is excellent. Just a quick pan braise brings out the fresh flavors.
Baked Brown Rice, one of Food 52’s Genius Recipes.
It’s a dreary, gray, rainy, cold, nasty-ass day in HV… perfect weather for our Sichuan jour fixe.
Mapo tofu, sliced fish in hot chili, diced chicken w/peppers, dry-fried green beans, smacked cukes, garlic eggplant, bok choy – all these dishes will help warm our cockles and misc other body parts.
We got 9 folks signed up so far, but I’m hoping for a few more!
Last night was pasta and a veggie drawer clean out. Sauteed some onion, garlic, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and spinach in olive oil, a touch of white wine, fresh lemon juice and zest, and a large pinch of red pepper flakes. Served over rigatoni, with garlic bread and wine for the sides.
OK, I have a confession to make.
Tonight’s dinner was a supermarket ready meal - Malaysian butternut squash curry & rice (yeah, dead traditional). Five minutes in the microwave. Together with a jar of tarka daal - two minutes in the microwave.
Oh, and I defrosted what I thought were two flatbreads but turned out to be Staffordshire oatcakes.
Don’t hate me - I already know I am not worthy of the thread.
(PS: No, it wasnt that good)
Of all the people in this world you are not hate-able. No shame in “supermarket ready.” I have named Friday as Fickle Friday because it’s whatever we feel like eating at that particular evening. Prepared elsewhere, frozen, easy peasy, whatever.
Last night was an autumnal and tasty dinner! We had:
-Pan-sautéed chanterelles, leeks, and Belcampo Meat Co. back bacon – thick-cut, chewy, lean, and flavorful stuff!
-Cubed, roasted hubbard squash with sage, thyme, garlic, olive oil and balsamic
-Left-over roast chicken
Tonight was the first bona fide meal I’ve cooked for myself since Thanksgiving. I went a little too crazy buying vegetables, so this meal was an attempt to make a dent in some of the produce that’s currently crammed into my fridge. Baharat-rubbed cauliflower steak, wilted spinach, beluga lentils, roasted golden beets & red carrots, pomegranate seeds & molasses, tahini, preserved lemon, toasted nigella seeds & parsley…
Tonight I needed something that was quick yet of course delicious
Patagonian scallops to the rescue. Small and sweet these little morsels come in handy in a pinch. Tossed with a mixture of guaillo, ancho and morita chili powder then seared they were a great addition to a corn tortilla topped with black beans with chipotle purée, shredded lettuce, cilantro and diced tomatoes
Had to get my steak on tonight. Tomahawk Rib Eye and NY Strip, cooked a perfect medium. Yeah that’s the stuff right there…
I guess I should mention I had a companion with me for dinner.
Another simple solo dinner at Harters Hall (whilst herself and sister continue to live the high life in Las Vegas).
Sausages (a farmers market purchase - farmer makes them using the meat from his free range Gloucester Old Spots). Alongside, mashed spuds & onion gravy. Hard to think of a more traditional way of having sausages.
(PS: We’re used to American restaurants often being more expensive, like for like, than here in the UK, so I was surprised that Mrs Harters was telling me just how expensive eating is in Las Vegas.)
Breathing air costs money in LV. It’s insane.
Mrs H says she got a takeaway breakfast from the hotel’s Starbucks this morning . Coffee, juice & a croissant for the two of them - over $30. As she comments, last time she heard about that level of extortion, the guy was masked, on a horse and shouting “Stand & Deliver”.
It’s just steamed mussels with celery today. I call this fast food in my house.
Eating the last of my super hard aged Gouda now, with wine.
PS: I went to LV in the mid 90s. Only remember how hot it was, couldn’t stand it. Was it expensive even back then? I can’t afford LV now if breakfast costs that much (see Harters’ reply above).
WFD: Five-Spice Chicken with Shanghai Bok Choy and Bean Sprouts. Bite size pieces of boneless chicken thighs will be marinated in lime zest & juice, garlic, ginger, five-spice powder, soy sauce, covered and set aside till needed. When everything else has been prepped the chicken is stir-fried till cooked through, then removed to a platter. The greens and sprouts are then stir-fried in peanut oil till wilted. Chicken is brought back and all is stir-fried and mixed thoroughly. And lived happily ever after.
Brown Rice Pilaf. L/O baked brown rice, heated in a bit of stock, adding sauted garlic and scallions, cayenne.
Getting together with a couple of gal pals tonight – if I could afford being hungover tomorrow, we’d likely drink ourselves into oblivion over yet another “tragic” event due to that good ol’ 'murrcan tradition of mowing down random strangers with automatic weapons.
Liquid dinner sounds just about right at the moment. #fuckyeah
I hadnt realised there had been another till I read your post. Such things usually hit the main headline in the UK but Parliament is debating whether we should start bombing targets in Syria. One of the arguments in favour relates to the mowing down of random strangers in Paris. Everyone seems to accept that the UK joining the bombing will have negligible effect so it’s something of Cameron waving his dick around saying “Yeah, mine is as big as Hollande and Obama’s”.
My sympathies with folks in California. It takes a certain kind of fuckwit to target a disabled persons facility.
Remember Obama is only half white, I’m pretty sure he has Cameron and Hollande beat there.
I don’t read the new til morning before I leave the house but I have just looked it up. At a social services for the disabled? WTF?!
Drinking yourself into a stupor again? 
Had better have some good food with that. Enjoy your night out.
14 dead. No words.
