Gulf shrimp in a “sauce” of a sauteed minced shallot, honey, soy, garlic, lemon juice and white wine, served over Basmati rice with sauteed spinach alongside.
There was wine. Like DUH after I admit being stoopid and going to Home Goods at 2:30 p.m. on a Saturday only 2 weeks before Christmas. Oy.
That looks so delicious! I haven’t been in a Home Goods in years. I found such great deals there - my favorite is a cedar chest we have at the end of our bed (teak Scandinavian platform from Fuchs in Chelmsford). I was cruising through and behold! A modern design. I was by myself in Hyannis after work. Tagged the piece, paid for it and two guys brought it out of the store on a trolley. I had a Saab 9000 CSE hatchback. They looked at me and said “Lady, this ain’t gonna fit” and I said “You just wait and see” - I opened the hatch, laid the back seats down and it slid in like a stick of butter. I just hate it when I’m referred to as “Lady” by a male of our species. My father-in-law used to talk down to me with it when he thought I was being unreasonable LOL.
To stay on topic, we’re having leftover Cincinnati chili (5-ways) for dinner tonight.
An ad hoc soup with canned beef and garden veg out of storage: carrots, onions, potatoes, bay and green peas.
This is why my Mom gave me the job of filling the dishwasher at the holidays. I’d start rearranging the way she would fill the dishwasher when we had big holiday meals, and I ALWAYS was able to fit more in there than she did!
As for “finds” at HG…I have a leather-look trunk in an alcove in my hallway that hides all of the cat litter stuff, including a 30 lb bucket of cat litter, and 3 geometric prints on deep discount from a HG closing in my town soon after I moved here. Still on my bedroom wall.
We enjoyed another excellent dinner at Cafe Panache in Ramsey, NJ, including gnocchi with a venison ragu; panko crusted tuna with a wasabi sake sauce; lobster bisque; octopus with avocado lime puree; and tuna tartare. It all went great with an excellent Amarone and cabernet.
I had an eight hour power outage yesterday so dinner plans were scrapped. I had no soup in the freezer so I had to improvise for my one Coleman burner. I had a small chicken breast that I was defrosting for dinner, so I diced that and sauteed, cooked egg noodles in chicken broth, added butter, sour cream, chopped green onions. Et voila dinner. Ate it out of the pot with bread and butter. Lots of wine.
I spent today making split pea soup for the freezer. Dinner was shrimp and chorizo over cauliflower cheddar grits. Little Gem wedgie, Green Goddess dressing, red onion, tomatoes and avocado. Garlic toast. A strong Manhattan and wine.
Oops, I did it again, I played with your heart… actually just made a salad instead of a braise. Greek this time, with little gyro “croutons.” It was actually a real time saver the last time I made a gyro loaf to double the recipe, and freeze 1/2 lb slabs of it for uses like this.
I can get twice as much in our dishwasher than my spouse, but I frequently don’t feel well enough to work in the kitchen. I can’t find fault with someone who cooks and does the dishes - but I do surreptitiously rearrange things and subtract/protect what he puts in there.
Around this time last year, I began my Adventures in Low Carb(ish) Living. I drastically curtailed my consumption of bread, potatoes, rice and pasta. I didn’t bake any bread except when H requested it. I made no pasta at all. And I didn’t suffer too much, but I did miss those things. I don’t know that it did me all that much good, so I’m gonna ease up a little. To whit.
Tonight’s dinner was Bean, Corn and hamburger soup with arepas on the side. I like my arepas plain, whereas “Sunshine” likes them hot out of the oven with butter on them.
Thanks! I’ve never stuffed a squash before but I followed a recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook of all places. It was pretty straightforward. I used a delicata squash and cooked it inn a 350° degree oven for an hour. When I popped the squash in the oven, I put it in the oven cut side down then sauteed some orange and yellow peppers, an onion and a sausage. At the half way point I added the pepper/onion/sausage mixture then I popped it back in the oven for another half an hour. I’ll bet it would taste really good au gratin.
Minestrone with pesto mixed in, plus some Whole Foods multigrain bread for mop-up duty.
The minestrone is EVOO, garlic, onion, carrots, potatoes, zucchini, kidney beans, a can of tomatoes, rosemary, dried ground sage and dried ground thyme. Plus salt and pepper, of course. I forgot the bay leaves again.
The pesto is just basil, garlic, walnuts and EVOO.
I ended up with a ludicrous amount of pesto, so I might try freezing some. Has anyone here tried that? Does frozen pesto retain the full basil flavor?
I freeze a good supply of pesto annually.
I don’t think it retains “full” pesto flavor (i.e. same as fresh), but certainly light years better than the stuff from the grocery store. Worth doing.
I know a lot of people like to freeze in ice-cube trays, then rebag the little cubes. When I have the freezer space, I’ll freeze it in 1/2 c. jars, as it’s easy to use them up before the pesto starts to oxidize. When I’m crushed for space, I freeze in full 1 c. jars. In any case, if I have to return an opened jar to the freezer, I pour a little olive oil over the top to minimize oxidation. Thus, a larger jar will get a little diluted over time, but there is not much harm in that.
I would encourage you to do it.
That looks really good!
I have done similar - although rather than pouring olive oil over, I carefully press a sheet of plastic wrap over the top before placing the lid back on. I have done this with other green herb based sauces/condiments (like cilantro chutneys) as well to good effect.
We had a couple of dood frens over for dinner last night. Hendricks martini w/a twist for me, the doodz stuck to rosé/white. We started with Aldi’s trio of cold-smoked salmon. The flavors are cocktail inspired, but don’t really come through (and TFG for that!), save for the “decadent” red wine one – you could actually taste the red wine.
The pasta was our local supermarket chain’s fancy ‘Inspirations’ brand fettuccine…… BUT they’re actually made in Italy, and I was really impressed with the quality. They were a perfect al dente, and the mix of maitake and oyster shrooms was just heavenly. Some of the best pasta I made, according to my darling (and he’s eaten a bunch over the last 21 years 
). Sauce base was shallot sautéed in garlic-infused olive oil, white wine, BTB mushroom broth, heavy cream, fresh parsley.
My first rendition this year of one of my favorite winter salads (shaved fennel, blue cheese, pomegranate in walnut mustard vinaigrette) was also lovely.
The boys all but polished off my sweets’ ridiculously delish pistachio ice cream. I made a blueberry sauce with red wine, sugar, and a cinnamon stick. Good combo, but again not really necessary cuz the ice was bomb.
Might hafta fast all day after all this goodness 
“ Richmond Court, Times Square, Richmond Hill “ - From this consistently reliable but ‘under-rated’ eatery, a rare, limited time $38.99 ‘Peking Duck two ways’ special offer!
A regular Richmond Hill staple for the past few decades. This Hong Kong cafe style eatery, featuring one of the most diverse menu in town……including in-house bakery products, breakfast, late night Dim Sum as well as top-notched Cantonese style roasted and bbq meats….etc., has been serving their wide spectrum of casual, satisfying and comfort offerings to patrons through recessions, SARS, H1N1 and now Covid. Their ability to, not only survive but continuously maintain an elevated cooking standard, through thick and thin, is a mighty impressive feat!
Tonight, taking advantage of this short term offering, our party decided to give their Peking duck rendition a try. To this, we augmented it with a funky fusion mix of some of their famous wok-hay, ‘ one dish meal ‘etc.
These included:
Reflecting the strength and skill of their kitchen’s BBQ/Roasted meat section, the Peking duck was decent and more than presentable. Though, for me, I found the duck meat tonight a bit gamy?! The chopped-up, well seasoned carcass was huge, with plenty of residual meat attached! Adding some of their delicious and exotic tasting Cantonese roasted duck sauce to it was a very nice touch!
The stirred fry dishes were well executed as expected, packed full of gorgeous wok-hay smoky aroma. Toppings for the Ho-Fun, tasty but a touch under-seasoned. The well-seared, caramelised beef for the noodles were superb, both in taste and texture!
The baked Ox-tongue dish was savory and toothsome though personally, I prefer the taste profile of the ‘ New City, Peachtree Center ‘ version better.
Overall, a very satisfying and good value meal.
@ernie_in_berkeley @ChristinaM: recipe for lemon butter chicken.
Lemon Butter Chicken
Thanks Christina, it was delicious - enjoy!
Ditto
