A craving for something from the Wayback Machine hit me yesterday as I was shopping for what to cook for dinner last night, and that craving won out for tonight…Sloppy Joe’s. Or a form thereof.
So that’s WWFD tonight…about 3/4 lb. ground beef and a link of sweet Italian sausage squozen out of its casing (yes, I know it’s not traditional) was sauteed with diced onion and red bell pepper and drained. Added back to the saute pan and stirred in one 8 oz. can of tomato sauce, 2 Tbsp of BBQ sauce, 1 Tbsp of tomato paste, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp of Worcestershire sauce, 1 crushed garlic clove, 1 tsp dry ground mustard, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper.
Stirred it all together and let it simmer, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Served it on a lightly toasted Brioche bun, with deviled eggs and a potato salad with minced celery and chopped egg and a honey-mustard-tarragon dressing alongside.
Freezer dive NY Strip (cast iron sear; soy sauce, olive oil, dry vermouth, Montreal steak seasoning marinade) over Trader Joe’s asparagus risotto. Can hardly call this cooking. While I enjoyed the flavor of the risotto, it was a little too “loose” and I needed to add a decent amount of Pecorino Romano for flavor, salt content, and solidity. It certainly helped. I’ve never done a frozen rice before and I guess I would do this again-- I have a bag of their mushroom risotto in the freezer from a recent visit last week.
Chairman Mao’s red braised pork belly tonight, from Woks of Life. I believe it was @Saregama that posted this recently? Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! It was fabulous. Tho I’d add more chilies next time. And I’d definitely make the full recipe next time. I only bought 1 lb of pork belly so I had to cut the recipe in half.
Broccolii rabe with sesame & chili oils, and smoked shoyu on the side. The bitterness worked well with the sweetness of the pork.
Sat we had a pretty heavy burger and fry takeout lunch, so dinner was light. A savory clafoutis with onion, asparagus from the garden, and cheese. 1/2 goat, 1/2 parm. Parm clearly browns much faster! Served with garden grown arugula on the side. Not shown. Neither of the kiddos was down with it. They said it was too bitter/sharp on its own. Too bad my lettuce seeds didn’t sprout this year!
I adore sloppy joes. No one in my family understands why. My school lunches growing up were actually quite good for the most part, and it was during those years I was introduced to the sloppy joe. Good stuff!
Right? It’s definitely a high school lunch meal. I always avoided American Chop Suey…I had 7th period lunch in my senior year and the elbow noodles had soaked up so much sauce they were mushy and as big as my thumb…or so it seemed! But Sloppy Joes would almost always have me go through the lunch line.
The nonvegetarian version of what I recommended to emglow for her special veg dinner. Summer rolls. Shaved steak, bean curd noodles, peppers, carrots, bean sprouts, daikon, mint, thai basil, chives, cilantro, and fish sauce and oyster sauce for dippers. Sriracha for the H. Everybody rolls!
It was a private school and no one brought lunch. We had lunch ladies who brought out dishes family style to our tables - each table had a teacher at it. Jr high rather than high school. No chaperones by 9th. As a Russian kid, all the foods were foreign to me and nothing I ate at home. I most fondly remember the SJs, the chicken a la king, and the hot ham and cheese sandwiches!
Penne, sautéed chicken, spinach, and Trader Joe’s creamy tomato basil pasta sauce. While I did add some garlic, onion, and crushed red pepper, I must declare that to be one of the most flavorful jar sauces I’ve ever had. Good texture too.
We hosted an impromptu outdoor BBQ dinner on Sunday with friends. It was really nice to host and everyone cleaned their plates. We are moving and I’m feeling a little nostalgic about the fun we have had at this house. I loosely followed a Indian spiced marinade for chicken thighs with lots of curry powder, coriander, garlic, curry leaves, yogurt and salt. I made a yogurt, cilantro, cucumber sauce to go with that. Sides of a red lentil salad with various veggies, a cucumber salad and a few grilled eggplants I had. Wine to drink!
I like how you think! We need to meet up at one of them again. @CurlzNJ, The Sprout and I met a couple of times over the winter but it’s not nearly as much fun as when its warm. Hopefully that will be soon!
Yesterday was my husband’s birthday. We weren’t able to have a properly celebratory dinner, given kiddos’ baseball game and dance class. Dinner was ricotta gnocchi pulled from the freezer with some bolognese, but was followed by a show stopping dark chocolate mousse cake. My husband isn’t one to get excited about particular foods (!!!) but he does love chocolate desserts and mousse cake, in particular.
This was a total home run – moist cake with the perfect crumb, and not too cloyingly sweet. the mousse also was light and rich at the same time. The ganache on top was a bit much for me and one kid. file this one away as a keeper.