What's For Dinner #77 - the "Let's Start Anew" Edition - January 2022

A follow up course for this evening, my wife wanted to make a loaf of Italian bread, noble effort best used for:
Garlic bread with fresh ricotta and spinach with drizzled hot honey! My Sunday gravy for dipping!!!

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Dinner was leftover chicken fried rice & a yogurt. We’re well stocked but not motivated.

A good Salisbury Steak & Mashed is wonderful. So is Shepherd’s/Cottage pie.

We’re supposed to get 5-7" of snow in Portland-- think we hit the 7 a few hours ago. Our apt has a big picture window & it’s been quite a show all day long.

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Officially blizzarded all day.
Didn’t lose power. :+1:
Deck remains clear because of the wind pattern, whereas decks across my spoke road are piled up with 2+ foot drifts.

A big-ass pot of meat sauce was made with ground beef, squozen sausage, chopped and sauteed onions, red bell peppers, mushrooms, and minced garlic, a 40 oz. jar of Rao’s marinara, a can of chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, s/p, dried oregano, basil, parsley, fennel seed, bay leaves, and parm rinds. A half jar of Lucini’s roasted garlic marinara was added to help thin out the sauce even more (it was very thick!)

Some of the sauce was used for a pan of lasagna that also had a blend of ricotta, a beaten egg, grated mozzarella, dried Italian herbs, s/p.

Twas dinner with half a mini ciabatta roll heated in the still warm oven while the lasagna rested. And wine. :wink:

And still waiting on the Baby Bobcat guys to take care of the driveway…hopefully overnight. Not that I’m going anywhere tomorrow, but I’d rather they do it since that’s part of what my condo fee pays for.

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The lasagna looks fabulous!

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I made a half recipe of these biftekia,
using all beef instead of pork and veal. Would make them again.

Served with a tomato cumin sauce from a Soutzoukakia recipe.

Sides of from freezer fries, from freezer sweet potato/beet/parsnip fries, Caesar salad with commercial dressing & commercial croutons

Grocery store cake for dessert.

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A VERY LONG time ago, we 3 visited Greece. Totally enthralled, I wanted to return. Husband said not until “one of us”, meaning me, could read Greek enough to interpret maps, signs, newspapers. So i went to night school college level Greek class. At the end of the year we had a class pot-luck party. I took Soutzoukakia. The teacher was stunned, as she had grown up in Nazi occupied Crete where food was very limited. “Meat!” “She brought meat!” They were a great success.
I’ve always loved this dish and, yes, its particular seasoning.

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What a nice story!

While I’ve got some relatives in my extended family who had roots in Izmir/Smyrna (they would have been relocated to Greece from Turkey in the 1920s) I wasn’t familiar with Soutzoukakia until I saw a recipe in my late 30s. We just had regular Greek meatballs without sauce until I tried a Soutzoukakia recipe. This was the first time I’ve made biftekia, which I have ordered several times at restaurants.

I added DuoLingo to my phone 5 days ago, and have started learning intro Russian, and have been brushing up on my Greek and German. Haven’t practiced my Greek (beyond very basic conversations) since 2004, before the Olympics!

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Is that ice cold gin I see?

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Tacos and beans, avocado and radishes.The tacos had a big schemer of sour cream, left over beef enchilada filling, salsa and cotija cheese.

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Yes! The remainder of my Roku Gin. BF has been into dirty martinis of late (he constantly switches).

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Is there a better winter night’s meal? Mom’s slow-cooker roast beef with mushroom gravy and stuffed mini peppers, with my sour cream mashed potatoes.

To drink: Tonight’s themed cocktail is my creation called a “Snowball”. Shipwreck Coconut Cream Rum, Stoli Vanilla, and Bacardi white rum. I’m told it’s delicious.

I stuck with a snow-chilled Stoli martini while the BF eventually moved on to a dirty gin martini. His ability to mix and match is impressive! LOL

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Icky smow

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We had a foot here. Similar living situation as you. While I did shovel our cars out (and those of two elderly neighbors-- hey I earned tonight’s martinis!), the rest was thankfully taken care of by Bobcat.

Had myself a snow day today. I woke up earlier than normal this morning, seeing the wind whipping, snow falling, and reading one local restaurant closure after another on social media to a text from my boss saying, “Open regular hours. How early can you come in?” I responded in the most polite way possible: “Sorry”. I worked a pharmacy job once which was essential to travel in all kinds of whether. I deemed traveling today not essential. God forgive me.

Enjoy the comfort food!

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Love that it says “Something for everyone”. LOL


Gumbo with potato salad. I know, right?

Last night my daughter was expecting snow in NYC and is excited. :roll_eyes:. I’d be happy with a bit of rain in Nor Cal again please.

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Burger with freshly ground sirloin steak tips (which were much better, beefier than the regular store bought ground beef)

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Godammit @gcaggiano ! Under your influence, I purchased Cointreau and bourbon today, in addition to the brandy I had on hand, and made my first at-home Sidecar! Meyer lemon juice, and a brown sugar rim, cuz that’s what I had. (Plus I stocked up on wine from my favorite little wine shop.) I’m going to have to do some major reshuffling from the liquor cabinet to the bar cabinet Worth it.

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I low key love when I have accumulated so much booze that it has to be reshuffled. Fun! Any pics of your collection?

Beautiful Sidecar too!

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Across-the-country virtual arm twisting, and you caved! ATTA GIRL. :wink:

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I’ll take a pic later!

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