Those chops look terrific. As does your setup for outdoor cooking. 
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Looks delicious!!!
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thanks! i’m going to remember this prep for sure.
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Dinner was simples - hah - for me, since the BF cooked. Toulouse-style sausages, the BF’s leftover mashed taters, and a small beet salad (also leftovers) with feta cheese and pepitas. Butter lake for the win!
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Mixed Asian tonight.
- Skirt steak - marinated chinese-style, cooked sous vide, then seared and finished with a pan sauce using the SV juices mounted with butter
- Beyond meatballs and tofu, baked, with spicy peanut sauce on the side
- Broccoli in garlic sauce
- Roasted kabocha squash finished with sesame oil and seeds
- Japchae with spinach and a bit of cabbage that had been prepped for rice cakes that didn’t get made
I am still soft-fooding it though… so I made some plain white rice for myself, and pulled chicken meatballs (Chinese) from the freezer, reheated in the same sauce as the beef.
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It amazes me you accommodate all these varied and often conflicting food preferences!
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Lovely @tomatotomato!
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Pulled chicken meatballs? I’m fascinated - mind sharing any basic sketches of a recipe?
Pampering helps with healing, I like to think. Hope your son feels better quickly afterward.
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@Barca, is that a delicious risotto on your plate? I am curious about what kind it is.
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I spent some time thinking about this.
Food allergies and religious diet can’t be counted as accommodations - so the GF and vegetarian choices are a necessity.
But everyone could just eat that, so maybe the actual accommodation is adding animal/fish protein and gluten breads? It’s just perspective.
Aside from that, sometimes the adults want to eat something the kids won’t (and vice versa). We could go with the lowest common denominator (and often do), but it gets tedious.
At least after all this time we got it down to my original suggestion of themed meals (indian, asian, italian, mexican) - so the majority of the meal is common most days.
The only thing I do notice is that there’s always at least one extra side than is necessary (and commensurate leftovers of everything). But that’s an idiosyncrasy of the person in charge (and I attribute it to childhood food insecurity of some sort, so it is what it is).
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Ha - this reminds me of the book “Eats Shoots and Leaves.”
I pulled
chicken meatballs
from the freezer
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Yes, it is risotto with “Spanish Piquant (spicy) Chorizo” … (sautéed it in Asturian butter) … Quite good … Reggiano Parmigiano, butter from Asturias and white wine and shallot & some white cap mushrooms.
Just a quick lunch with a wonderful Barbaresco …
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But you put so much work into the meals. That’s why most of us are in awe.
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Thanks @bcc.
Some days are more elaborate - the indian and asian nights, which are multi-dish.
But also, we all really enjoy food - from my parents (and grandparents before them) down to the kids.
When it’s just me again, it’s often too much work to do more than one or two things, so I don’t and won’t bother.
But when there are many to enjoy the output of the effort - it’s fun to cook, and to eat together!
And speaking of grandparents - some of the effort has been to make up for the rest of the family that we’ve all been deprived of. Last night’s dal reminded my nephew of a related dish of my mom’s that he loves. So that’s tonight’s menu, with the leftover dal.
I was telling a friend this week, I think my cooking has really improved over the pandemic - the sheer practice of making things over and over again, and the sight and smell and palate experience of repetition and recognizing and adjusting - small nuances. So that’s been to my benefit 
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