What's For Dinner #72 - Wait, Summer Is Almost Over? Edition - August 2021

So very long story short, just after he turned 10, I took a job that was 1200 miles away. For the next 18 months, I saw him (+ 2nd son and husband) 2 weekends a month. My job eventually allowed me to work from a closer office, which was still 100 miles away from home. Necessitated a work apartment, and I saw him only on the weekends, but every weekend. That went on for 7 yrs. March 2020, the day after he turned 18, my company announced everyone works from home during covid. So for the last blissful 16 months, I’ve been with the fam everyday. That’s why his leaving now is so hard for me. We finally got some real time to know each other. Anyway, making his favorites (he’s a picky eater) is the least I can do to show him how much he means to me.

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Please share! Looks super.

Happiest of birthdays @mariacarmen !

Your extended celebration sounds wonderful!

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Bummer.

Chewy must have a lot of customers in my area as they contract with a private courier for deliveries who leaves that cat litter at our mail box on the street. That lasted two deliveries and a testy email exchange before we moved on. It’s a moderately long driveway and so just not my idea of a good time to hump that stuff into the house, especially in the rain and without the delivery notifications we get from Amazon, FedEx, UPS, DHL, and even USPS. Even motor freight does a better job. Unfortunately my wife won’t let me buy a fork truck so I have to make do with hand trucks. grin

I’m sorry about the stoop scavenging you have to deal with.

Before I was WFH I always built relationships with infrastructure people at work. Someone would pop up in my office for my car keys and load the deliveries into my trunk. More senior colleagues would grump about my “special treatment” and ask why I got it. I told them. I’m nice to them. I know their names. I stop in their office space in the morning when I get in and start their coffee maker. Said colleagues decided that was too much work. grin

I did similarly as I became more senior myself. My bosses up to the top of the company would come to me to get appointments with senior customers. I did it by knowing secretaries names and keeping track of their lives and asking after them. If you want an appointment you have to know the secretary.

That was a long time ago.

My wife is the one most concerned about FIFO. I have my own issues. grin I have found my cut-proof gloves to be very helpful in unloading and reloading the freezer. I’m definitely with you on consolidating open boxes. “Why are there two mustards exactly the same open?” makes me nuts.

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Used the King Arthur recipe and watched beaucoup knotting videos.

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@mariacarmen

Happy birthday! Maria! Always enjoy your extravagant ( on the good side) celebration meals!

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Roasted eggplant with fried onion & chopped lemon, with vapour-cooked pork ribs in black beans. Both delicious!


The leftover ribs were served with Yakisoba the next day.


Cupboard meal - Canned everything: crab, tuna, corn, avocado and old bay


Hazelnut zucchini parmesan, basil, shisho and balsamic jelly salad and duck!

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Does this mean steamed? Pressure-cooked?
Looks so good! I love the riblets in black bean sauce at dim sum - never tried to recreate at home… yet!

Yes! It’s the dim sum version. And very tender and simply delicious. Mix the black bean sauce with Chinese rice wine, sugar, thinly sliced ginger, minced garlic, light soy sauce, sesame oil, lemon juice, corn flour, oil and pepper. Coat the ribs generously with this mixture and steam for 15 minutes.

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Thanks! I’m amazed they were tender in 15 mins!

Tenderness is due to corn flour rubbed into the meat in the mixture, it acts as a tenderizer. Since ribs are chopped into small sizes, the cooking time is much reduced.

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Gorgeous meal!

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Please do share the link. My last attempt with Kenji’s recipe sucked.

A delay in picking up fresh corn at my local farmstand because they were waiting on the truck from the local farm to get there meant I went antiquing. I got a wooden spoon. I think this is No.38. Or 39. I dunno anymore. Half are used. Half are display. Yeah. For those non-collectors out there, I know I’m weird. :woman_shrugging: But it is what it is.

I made my roasted Red Pepper Chicken Corn Chowder with some of the corn I bought, but by the time it was done, I didn’t want it for dinner. It’ll be work lunches and freezer food.

But I had half a large chickie boobie to use, plus my two small tomatoes I harvested yesterday. So dinner was butter-sauteed chopped tomatoes, with white wine splooshed in and some dried thyme, then the rest of the chicken was sliced up and was added to cook along with a smidge of heavy cream.

Leftover spaghetti was “reheated” in hot water, drained and added to the tomato-chicken mixture with some freshly ground pepper. Crumbled feta cheese was added to give some saltiness to it and sauce it up, and dinner. And it was REALLY good. I love it when dinner comes together like this.

Wine. And filling my freezer with easy to heat lunches of my favorite soup.

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Oh, things could be SO much worse or quirkier than your antique wooden spoon collection @LindaWhit. BTW, amazing pic of your beautiful cat Alfie - those eyes look surreally green, but just beautiful. Food is good lookin’ too.

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Chicken enchiladas Suizas. How can corn tortillas, chicken, onion, cheese and sour cream be anything but YUM?
IMG_1134

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I can’t remember if I posted these, but here goes…

Wednesday - fish tacos, tomatoes, and cheesy zucchini with onions

Thursday - pelmeni, salad, Goldilocks beans

Friday - waffled falafel, Syrian eggplant and yogurt dip with Aleppo chili, Lebanese cucumber yogurt dip, tomato and cucumber salad in red wine vinaigrette, roasted cauliflower with cumin, sesame, and sumac. Falafel should not be waffled - the few we pan fried were much better. Tahini sauce.

Big lunch at a party today, so just random kid leftovers for my own dinner.

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Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans. I confess I have never been but I had to cancel a trip last year so I keep my cravings in check with home cooking. Gumbo was WFD. Shrimp, andouille, okra, with Creole boiled cauli rice. Muffaletta salad with corn. There was several Jungle Birds consumed during prep sans fancy garnish.

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Harissa chicken , Hyderabadi tomato chutney, chickpeas and green beans.

Hmmm. Needs more green

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