What's For Dinner #86 - the Apples, & Cider, & DONUTS, Oh MY! Edition - October 2022

Thank you! It was all outstanding, and we are looking forward to having the leftovers for the next 2 nights :blush:

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Trumpet pasta with ‘fresh’ (I actually cook some down to get more tomato flavor) tomato sauce, basil, mozzarella. Tomatoes have been great this year.

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Dim sum at home for dinner tonight.

Tried my hand at turnip (radish) cake, and steamed some frozen siu mai.

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Baked potatoes with mushroom and pea ragout, loosely adapted from this Food and Wine recipe. I used a mix of fresh cremini and shiitake, along with some rehydrated morels. Sage and parsley in place of the tarragon. I had veal demi glace in the freezer so that got swapped in for the beef stock. Used half of the ragout tonight and the other will be had with store bought fresh ravioli tomorrow.

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I cooked tonight’s dinner yesterday before heading out to a friend’s wedding celebration. Kinda sorta followed a NYT recipe for mapo ragu - a Korean/Chinese mash-up with pork, gochujang, sichuan peppercorns, and greens. I took liberties, using pork shoulder, and adding a thick soy sauce and Korean syrup, as well as a couple of bird eye chilies for extra heat. For the greens, gai lan, and I added carrots, radishes and mushrooms that needed using. I cooked everything way down so it was all fork tender, even the greens. I did go with the rice cakes (in the form of coins). Really tasty, though not as sichuan-y as i would have expected with 2 tbs of peppercorns. I’d never cooked with those rice cakes - loved the texture. Made lots, froze half for another night.

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Wagyu burgers on the grill. Pub buns from a local bakery. Lettuce, pickles, tomato and red onions from the garden.

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Warm quinoa salad with harissa-grilled chicken thighs (marinated overnight in a olive oil, harissa and lime juice mixture), oven roasted tomatoes (roasted in a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cumin and harissa), avocados, chorizo, baby spinach, scallions and cilantro. Served with sour creme with lime zest

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Rice, beans, corn tortillas, scrambled eggs, tomato, and sour cream.

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Jambalaya is another great meal for a cold, rainy night. It has now been pouring steadily for two days. I used a Zatarain’s rice packet (with less water than called for) and added to it cubed boneless skinless thighs rubbed with my own Cajun seasoning which includes 10 different spices. I also wanted to use up some tiny shrimp in the freezer so I threw those in. I didn’t have any sausage but used some non-traditional bacon bits for the smokiness.

Now let’s play Guess the Cocktail. It wasn’t a martini and no gin was involved!

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A Sazerac?

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Boom! You got it!

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Last night’s dinner was hot sesame noodles with pork and scallions.

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I just saw and saved this recipe as it sounded so fun. Thanks for the detailed review and changes. I am looking forward to making it. Just have to get to the Asian grocer to pick up those noodles. I usually have a stock in the house but just recently ran out.

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I was going to guess a Hurricane.

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Years ago (thank goodness), I drank three Hurricanes at Pat O’Brien’s. Not a good idea…Still makes me shudder!

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Was it good? Looks great.

ETA just clicked through and read your comments.

Last night my DH made MarleySpoon’s ranchero shrimp with black beans and rice. He followed my suggestions to season and sear the shrimp separately and add some Goya sofrito to the bean mixture. It was OK, not sure if we’ll repeat. The avocado, cherry tomatoes, and crema garnishes were good additions on our part. He finds cooking these meals a little stressful because he doesn’t read through the recipes first. :woman_shrugging:t2:

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and all my favorite hot sauce choices!

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Sazerac was my first guess as well!

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We had a chilli this evening. It’s cold and it’s been raining all day so it was really comforting to have a giant pot bubbling away all day. I imagine it’ll be even nicer tomorrow after sitting overnight. I think we’ll freeze a good amount of it too as there is loads for just us two so it’ll be good to have as a lazy meal some other time.

I had mine with white corn tortillas for dipping and my fiance had his with rice.

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