Speaking of sons and guests. What do you do when your plan is to spend the day vegging, but your sons decide they’re coming over with friends to watch the UFC fight? I’m not quite as inventive. No Adobo. No Savory Pie.
Bowls of Chips and a Giant Pasta Salad w/Everything.
Rigatoni (all we had) Frozen Peas, Scallions, Fresh & Sundried Tomatoes, Jalapeño, Smoked Gouda. Dressing - Mayo, Vegenaise, Lime, Chili Pepper, Garlic Powder, Italian Seasoning, Sugar, Homemade Lemon Salt & Cracked Pepper. It was a little too pea forward. My son’s friend called it pea-centric.
We have a few vegetarians, so I put 2 proteins on the side for peeps to add their own. Sautéed & chopped Chicken Tenders AND browned & braised Tofu (no photo )
I hate buying unpeeled garlic as it makes a mess to peel them even with Martha Stewart’s technique. I also hate buying the 3 -4 heads from my grocery stores as they are from China. I buy the Kirkland’s peeled 3 lb garlic from Christopher ranch in California.Reasonably priced at around 10.00 plus change
Then, when I get to 1/3 left ( around 1 lb), I would roast them with EVOO after mincing them, packaged them in parchment paper and freeze them .Even if I have half left, if I see them at Costco, I would buy again and processs my old ones as the Costco I frequent often rub out of supplies.
Son is often out of the country but when he is home, his friends usually come over and spend the weekend in the boat cruising the Chesapeake Bay. I always expect them to return home on a Sunday or Monday on long weekends, build a fire and stay over till late or overnight. One friend always has an inflatable mattress ( house is big but only 3 bedrooms, and one of them converted to a sitting room for son) I usually know how many people are with him but yesterday was a surprise as some may not have been able to get away Saturday morning till later. However 4 extra guests is a surprise! There is always cheese and crackers , saucisson , etc .
I don’t know Martha’s technique but I smash garlic cloves with the side of a flat knife. If a have a lot to do, I use a cleaver. Mincing is what I find difficult. How long does the Costco garlic last? I’m wary of supermarket garlic and buy it from local farmers when I can.
She smashes them then uses two SS bowl which I have tried ( not for just one but lots of garlic) However, that leaves a lot of skin which I have to unload and they are quite messy.
So, I prefer just to buy 3lbs of peeled garlic from Costco as they are planted and harvested in California and use them until I visit Costco again, often in 4 - 5 weeks.
I use Kitchen Aid 5 speed cordless hand blender’s chopper attachment
( KHB3581)to chop the garlic into very fine pieces, ( often I would do 1/3-1/2 lb depending on availability to get newer garlic from Kirkland as they are often out of stock- very reasonable for around 10 bucks.
This I roast with EVOO and package them in individual parchment papers. which I toss in freezer. I only use them when I run out of garlic and no chance to get to Costco as well as when it is out of stock at Costco which happens often. The closest Costco is 45 min away but it is a Type 3 Costco often does not have what I want bec of geographic
distribution as they say. So, I drive to Pentagon City which is 95 min away ( without traffic) every 4-6 weeks,
They last a while in freezer in those parchment paper and then in zipper bag and then into a freezer container.
A soup and sandwich night. Found a basket of Michigan farmed Beefsteak Tomatoes at my local green grocer, so bought one. It was pretty. It was watery. It had no tomato tang.
I subbed half a roasted yellow bell pepper and a smidge of habañero paste for the aji amarillo - no sources here.
And I hope it’s versatile - I have a lot left! Would probably be good slathered on chicken thighs for roasting. I’m sure we’ll use up ours with the leftover chicken.
Son and GF went out after lunch, had dinner, returned with a box of Panera Pastry Ring. My favorite is the cheese filled ones.
So, dinner tonight for me was left over salad from lunch with the pastry as dessert
Salad was a medium size butternut squash roasted in EVOO , S/P, 2 tablespoon of maple syrup, juice and zest of a lemon, then added organic cooked beets and and1/2 cup of dried cranberries at the last 5 minutes of roasting. When the vegetables cooled off, I added some toasted pecan, apple, sprinkled some dehydrated cherry tomatoes and poblano, asaro castrovetrano pitted green olives, and baby spinach. Vinagrette home made with lemon, red wine vinegar, grain mustard, honey and cider v.
Extra spinach, sun dried tomatoes and toasted pecan on the side for extra if desired.
Very lazy day as it was 21 days on Friday which means shower but since my son took the poms out Sat, they probably went swimming , so shower was delayed till today. As usual, I do not dry them completely, but do not allow them to lie on tile floor, so we spent the rest of the day together in bed watching TV.
Picture taken of the pastry that I had already dug in.
Now, have to catch the poms for their second toothbrushing event for the day. I brush them once a day , spray them at night with freshener, but Wolfie was at Vet on Monday who advised me his molars do not look clean, so twice a day it is since then.( He had dental prophylaxis 8 months ago) They hide after breakfast and now after
here’s another version I’ve made -
3-4 whole jalapeños, depending on how hot you want it, roughly chopped.
one tbs aji amarillo
1/2 to a whole bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
2-4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
about a half cup mayo, about a quarter cup sour cream (I used Mexican crema)
juice of one lime
maybe a tsp. of distilled white vinegar, or just use more lime juice
about a quarter cup of evoo
salt and pepper
Put everything but the oil and s&p into the blender and blend on high, scrape down the sides, and when smooth, start drizzling the olive oil in while the blender is going. Add s&p to taste. it’ll be runny, but thickens up in the fridge.
doesn’t call for the huacatay, although that is traditional.
I’ve also made Serious Eats’ version:
and you can order both the aji amarillo and the huacatay online:
)
