thanks, that is sweet of you!
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both of those pics are just gorgeous!
thank you for sharing…
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We were all fooled by paella . I’m changing my recipe next time too . Less Spanish paprika. Though after having much wine to drink I ordered some fish stock and base from Spain off Amazon. The sweet life . Cheers.
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Apparently I made an Olive Garden soup! 
Though I’d never had theirs (only been to OG once, in the 80s, which was more than enough.) Italian sausage, bacon, potatoes in chicken broth with heavy cream. instead of kale, i used the radish greens i had on hand, and arugula, fresh rosemary & oregano. Also chopped red bell pepper, a red fresno chili, and a parm regg rind. Mostly it was to use stuff i had in the fridge and tooth-friendly for the BF. White beans would have been even better than potatoes in this. it was good if a bit salty.
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Tonight was an adventure! This afternoon, the museum I co-manage opened for the season and had a very successful first day in this COVID-era world. Mind you this is a volunteer position that manages to be more work and stress that my two other jobs. But I love it, so whatever.
Got home in the late afternoon and had drinks and snacks outside in this beautiful weather. Twisted Tea for the BF, and a martini with gin, elderflower liqueur, and Rose’s lime juice for me. A basket of “roasted” popcorn and some endive salad to snack on while we decided what to order. And decided and decided and decided…
We ended up DoorDashing Indian food from our favorite place. We ordered at 7. The time of delivery was confirmed to be between 8 and 8:25 PM. Okay, not a disaster…more time to drink! 7:45 comes, we check the app, and it says no driver has confirmed pick up. The restaurant is less than 10 minutes away, neither of us are sauced, so I call the restaurant. They say the food is ready. I tell them that I’m going to cancel the DoorDash and come in and pay directly. They said no problem. I add another appetizer. BF goes on the app to cancel and we are told that we would only be refunded $9.97 of our $71 order if we cancel. No f*ckin’ way. So I call the restaurant AGAIN and say nevermind, we can’t cancel, and forget the appetizer since it’s not through DoorDash. They understood. Finally, 8:30 comes around and a driver confirms pickup. It arrived at 8:45. Not that I didn’t mind waiting, it’s just the not-knowing factor. Lesson learned? Unless we’re incredibly inebriated, no more DoorDash (a rarity anyway). No pics of the food. Was too buzzed…and hungry!
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We enjoyed another fabulous dinner at Bistro D’Azur in South Orange, NJ. We enjoyed black bass and shrimp escabeche; NY Strip steak with spinach and truffled fries; duck confit salad, and tuna cru with spicy chili paste. We also enjoyed our usual excellent Spanish chips. It all went great with a couple of excellent reds.
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Back to the soft food series (I tried some braised short ribs last night and ended up with pain and a headache, so a few more days of soft won’t kill me, I’ve decided - no pizza for me tonight, which is what everyone else is having).
Shepherd’s pie compiled from freezer leftovers - kheema and scalloped potatoes - ta da!
It’s been getting tedious not to eat what everyone else is, but this was pretty tasty,
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Not too shabby!
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What a great idea you had. A flavorful filling like kheema sounds so appealing to me.
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Kheema can be used for lots of things like this! It makes a fantastic pasta sauce too. Chili. Stuffed peppers. And so on.
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I only recently tasted and fell in love with keema. We’ve ordered it from our fave Indian restaurant until now. I want to try making it. So delicious.
ETA: Peppers stuffed with kheema need to be in my future.
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It’s among the easiest indian dishes to cook - very forgiving, and endlessly variable.
Try this Madhur Jaffrey recipe - I use only tomatoes (double), no yogurt. My personal preference is potatoes vs peas (medium dice, added once the tomatoes are half cooked).
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I’ll be on the lookout for my invitation.
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Totally adapting this vegetarian-style for me and B this week (gonna use soy ground beef). Funny, B has been craving his mom’s stuffed peppers which I never ate as a kid up. I think I ate it once at a friend’s house when I was in elementary school and I was like “yuk” in my head but I politely ate it. It was probably highly under-seasoned.
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Butter!
Dover Sole Meunière & Braised Leeks
The fish was so delicate, but not bad for my first try.
I added potato to my butter. 
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Lol. Their Zuppa Toscana is actually not bad - I occasionally go at lunch for the soup and bottomless salad (i.e. the only reason to go to OG)! But it is very easy to duplicate and improve upon at home - I make it frequently, sans potatoes. I agree with you that white beans would be better than potatoes, too!
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Perhaps subconsciously inspired by the kheema discussion upthread, i made kheema tonight, no potatoes and/or peas, but with chickpeas and some sauteed greens. served over brown rice with roasted masala cauliflower. easy and flavorful, even though i toned down the heat for the kiddos. still quite tasty.
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i know it’s not March! Second St. Paddy’s Day dinner, cuz we had corned beef, and the BF loves it so. He made a honey mustard sauce for the carrots/cabbage, and the buttery mashed potatoes. I sauteed beets I’d already roasted which gave them a nice crispiness - first time frying beets. So good, so earthy! With a goat cheese/cream/chive sauce, they may have been my favorite part of the meal. Maybe.
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both dishes look perfectly decadent.
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