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store brand Hawaiian rolls too.
We buy King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls from the grocery store to go with certain meals, and this past Sunday was one of those times. Chicken apple sausage atop a sheetpan of chopped up vegetables and apples.
I am considering buying a bread maker. Zojirushi.
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I made an amazing sheet pan salmon recipe last night. Pretty simple roasting of the broccoli (although I used sesame oil and olive oil, which was new), but the trick was roasting the salmon with a glaze made of garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and honey. It was a pretty big hit.
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Had a picnic date with a vegetarian, so I made sandwiches using my go-to summer recipe.
ciabatta rolls
sliced apples
arugula
vegan mayo
onion jam
gruyere (for a dairy inclusive vegetarian)
(can add turkey if you want meat)
It's a nice summer sandwich that can easily tailor to dietary requirements (could easily make it a lettuce wrap for GF).
I had some ground beef sitting around, so I used the leftovers from the above to make burgers. Subbed out the mayo for some "everything aioli".
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Sunday night was braised boneless beef shoulder with cubed russets cooked around it in the juice. Monday night was leftovers.
Been sifting through recipes on the Internet to come up with a version of Mediterranean/Greek chicken to make in the slow cooker tonight, so we'll see how that goes.
I love Greek braised lamb, which is in a nice seasoned tomato sauce; I wonder if how tomato-braised chicken would work?
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I deliberately avoided using tomatoes and onions in the recipe. I love tomato and onion flavors in cooking, but I was making an attempt to keep all my cooking from tasting similar. I went with "Greek" as the taste profile/theme mostly because 1) it was outside my comfort zone, and b) I wanted an excuse to use up some of the 6oz cans of California black olives before they go bad (I don't know Mom kept buying them, as she never seemed to use them. Oh well, 1 can down, 3 still to go).
Tomato-braised chicken is pretty good. McCormick used to make a chicken bruschetta seasoning mix that was excellent with pasta, but either the local stores have all stopped carrying it or McCormick has stopped making it.
I've always wanted to try lamb, but the cheapest I've seen it for is $7.99/lb on sale at Aldi, and it's more expensive at the local butcher shop. So for now, it's outside the budget.
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Sticking with the "outside my comfort zone" cooking theme, I'm trying a fairly different version of new meatloaf new gravy recipes for dinner tonight. Serving with the usual mashed potatoes and green beans. We'll see how it goes.
I'm brunching at peaches.
I'm brunching at peaches.
I'm brunching at peaches.Peaches?
Yes that's it.
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Tonight, a White Bean and Tomato Stew is on the menu. Simple, delicious, and hearty. The only downside to this recipe is that we make it with a variety of fresh herbs, and I hate prepping fresh herbs.
Sticking with the "outside my comfort zone" cooking theme, I'm trying a fairly different version of new meatloaf new gravy recipes for dinner tonight. Serving with the usual mashed potatoes and green beans. We'll see how it goes.
Well, the "beer pub" meatloaf had too much black pepper in it, the accompanying gravy didn't have enough salt, and the can of green beans was only half full of beans (the rest was all water/liquid). And a pale lager is too subtle to use for the beer ingredient. Other than that, it was pretty good for a first attempt with cobbled together recipes.
Dad ate his meatloaf anyway, and now he's eating a Snickers ice cream bar to cool off his tongue.
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Making Sunday dinner for the woman I'm courting. Going to make a black bean mexican lasagna, and she's been a little frazzled on prepping her own meals, so I'm making extra for her to keep as leftovers.
I'll pre-cook the beans and mash about half of them into a paste with the seasoning. Layers of corn tortillas, cheese, mash/beans/green chilis. Served with some verde taco sauce.
I'll make a second smaller pan for myself for leftovers as well.
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Those both sound good, Irontruth and Bjorn. And IMO, leftover homecooked meal portions that can be warmed up in a few minutes are a wonderful, thoughtful gift.
I made teriyaki porkchops in the slow cooker Wednesday. Didn't even brown them first, just greased the pot with a tbsp or so of olive oil and stuck them fully frozen by themselves for the first hour. After that, dumped in a cup of a teriyaki marinade that finally went on sale to try and half a cup of reduced sodium chicken stock. And that was pretty much it, other than moving the chops around periodically so they'd cook evenly. Baked some whole russet potatoes with them. Strained the teriyaki jus, then reduced & thickened it in a sauce pan with some cornstarch. It came out pretty good, and Dad quite liked it. We had leftovers Thursday.
Friday night was baked tilapia in parchment with half ears of corn and thaw-rise-bake dinner rolls.
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Saturday I made Dad's favorite (great northern) beans & ham with the leftover rolls... and I used a little too much black pepper again. It wasn't as pronounced as the meatloaf, but Dad is acutely sensitive to spicy. It wasn't too spicy though, as he still volunteered for leftover beans & ham tonight.
I figured my mistake out late last night though. I'd been working through the same 3oz can of ground black pepper for almost 2 years, and it had sat unopened in the cupboard when Mom originally bought it for probably a year or so before that. I finally ran out it last week, so I opened up a fresh can of ground black pepper that I had just bought that week. And being really fresh, it still packs most of its peppery punch. I was used to the older age-weakened pepper and had been seasoning accordingly, so the same amount of the fresh pepper is noticeably too much. I had a bit with this morning's eggs and yep, I can definitely taste the fresh pepper's citrus-y phenol? compounds which I don't remember from the old can.
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I will forever associate you with Great Northern Beans and ham.
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I will forever associate you with Great Northern Beans and ham.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I hate great northern beans & ham! Dad loves them, Mom enjoyed them, but none of us kids like them at all.
Also, smoked pork neck bones are too damn expensive at $5.99/lb. There ain't much meat on them at all, so it's just smoked bones with maybe a bit of connective tissue and marrow.
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I will forever associate you with Great Northern Beans and ham.NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I hate great northern beans & ham! Dad loves them, Mom enjoyed them, but none of us kids like them at all.
Also, smoked pork neck bones are too damn expensive at $5.99/lb. There ain't much meat on them at all, so it's just smoked bones with maybe a bit of connective tissue and marrow.
And lo, thou shalt eat Great Northern Beans and Ham, primarily so I don't have to...
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For dinner last night, I made low-effort BBQ shredded chicken, boiled corn on the cob (bought fresh, shucked, chopped in half, and frozen), shredded potato patties (frozen storebought), and hawaiian-style mini rolls (store brand). I stuck two boneless skinless chicken breasts (close to 1-1/2 lb for just the two) in the oiled slow-cooker pot while still frozen and let them go on High for an hour to thaw and start to cook. After an hour, I diced up a racquetball-sized onion, removed the chicken, and added the onion to the pot as the bottom layer. I cut each now-thawed-but-mostly-raw breast into three large chunks to cook better, then put them back in the pot, added a 1 oz pouch of chicken taco dry seasoning, and poured 2 oz of low-sodium chicken broth over the top. I checked on them every hour-ish, rearranging to ensure even cooking. About an hour before serving, I used a pair of forks to shred the chicken, dumped in 3/4 cup or so of bottled Kansas City-style bbq sauce, stirred it together and let it simmer on Low. Went really well.
Tonight was leftovers, though instead of corn I reheated a can of baked beans. Unfortunately, they were honey chipotle flavor with pronounced emphasis on chipotle. I think at this point Dad must think I'm trying to deliberately kill him with peppers.
No ideas yet for tomorrow's dinner, but that's Tomorrow Amby's problem not mine.
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By the way, this is one of my favorite threads on the forums. It's so pleasant and wholesome. I haven't stolen any ideas yet, because there's 526 posts to sift through, but I always glance here when I see a new post. Thank you for posting it, Ambrosia Slaad! And for "Taking Ten", that dinner sounds delicious and elegant! You always put together so many tasty things in such yummy-sounding combinations.
A couple weeks ago, we tried to make some pork skewers in the slow cooker (along with red pepper slices and pineapple chunks). It was just okay. The meat was a little tough, and the flavors were washed out. Probably not something to go into rotation, but I'd be willing to try again if we cook it on low for 8 hours instead of on high for 4 hours.
Last week, we made a half-assed chicken pot pie. We made all the filling in a pot, poured it into a traditional pie pan, and then put a puff pastry sheet (with some cookie-cutter shapes removed) over the pie tin before putting it all in the oven. Nobody in my family likes peas, so we subbed them for edamame seeds. They were good, but it was too much edamame. If we make this again, and if we use edamame, we'll use less of them. I also might try it with celery instead. <-- Ideas for substituting peas welcome!
Thursday night, I put three slices of salmon and some asparagus in a large pan, and cooked them by sautéing them in olive oil and butter, and seasoned them with salt, pepper, lemon zest, and lemon juice. We like better the salmon I roast in the oven, but this was a hit mainly because it was pretty fast and still tasted good. We're making it again some night this week.
Tomorrow night we're making chicken noodle soup, at the request of my 10 year-old, who slurps the egg noodles up like they're spaghetti.
And for "Taking Ten", that dinner sounds delicious and elegant!
Yeah, she takes 10, but I can't because of the rule about being in "immediate danger or distracted," so I have to roll most weeks. :)
Raw carrots are awesome*
I have a friend on a health kick, and she shared a picture of her Friday night dinner, which included carrots and peanut butter. I love both of those things, but I cannot fathom how they would tasted together. I am determined to find out.
Y'know, when I remember to try it.
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Made my first ever goulash, last night (because October, and someone thought "GHOUL-ash" was cute), and I have to say, it was delicious! Is cheese a common topping for goulash? Because it was delicious without it, but adding some shredded cheddar to it made it even better.
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I somehow abandoned this thread while I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago. Sorry. I remember carrots and peanut butter as a kids snack at daycare. It's pretty tasty. The salt compliments the sweet of the carrots, the creamy of the peanut butter works with the crunch of the carrots. I should probably make it when I'm working from home rather than look for an excuse to walk to the shop to buy a snack.
Last night, I had a little piece of frozen salmon that I panfried and put lemon on and I think I liked it better than some fancier recipes I tried. Accompanied with reheated frozen green beans and smashed potato with scallions that I was pretending was champ.
Tonight I've no idea and I expect to get home late, so it's probably going to be overpriced takeout or something super basic like scrambled eggs... Or carrots and peanut butter...
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Sorry I wandered off again. Not a lot of energy most days.
Yesterday was my brother's birthday, so he and his wife had an early dinner with us. She picked up a couple large carry-out Domino's pizzas (I boggles my mind she won't use their website deals to save almost half off, instead just paying full price) and an ice cream cake. She left a couple pieces of the cake and 2/3s of a pizza with us for lunch today (or whenever).
Tonight I'm making paprika chicken in a cooking bag. It used to be a regular in the meal rotation when Mom was still cooking, and this'll be the first time we've had it since she's gone. Defrosting 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (~2 lb worth) right now that I'll be cutting up, and I'll put in about 10 oz or so of frozen green beans (haricot verts) to cook around it. When the chicken is done, I'll thicken the juice and serve with mashed potatoes.
I'll probably make chili in the slow cooker tomorrow, found a recipe for Carroll Shelby's chili from scratch. My sister makes it from the kit, but I want to monitor the heat for Dad's sake.
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Ground beef cooked with scallions, ginger, and soy sauce.
Green beans in szechuan chili oil and oyster sauce.
Rice.
Covered with sauce: (mixed together) mayo, siracha, soy sauce, hoisin sauce
Made enough for two big bowls, one for lunch, one for dinner.
(breakfast was leftover dolsot bibimbap from eating out last night)
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Italian sausage, gnocchi, and grape tomatoes in a sheet pan. Seasoned only with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Probably some roasted broccoli on the side. Super simple.
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Crazy day with a (routine) drs appt that took 2 hours instead of 20 minutes because they were running behind. Almost got takeout but decided to cook anyway.
Made bison fajita-ish dish. Marinated bison skirt steak that I found for a decent price at Whole Foods (I know "decent price at Whole Foods" is not usually a thing that happens but I did) in a bit of cold brewed coffee, lime juice, powdered chili pepper (mild), and salt. (You could of course do this with various cuts of beef, pork, or chicken. I'm pretty sure the marinade would work well for anything.)
Pan seared the skirt steak and then while that was resting in the same pan sauteed onions and yellow bell pepper. Served that with a salad/garnish of tomato, scallion, and lime juice (basically pico de gallo without the jalapenos--stomach is disliking heavy spice these days) and dollops of greek yogurt (standing in for sour cream which I don't tend to keep around the house). Served on shredded hashbrowns from frozen, which may sound weird, but that's how a restaurant I like serves their fajita fixings and it's yummy. Just did the potatoes for the starch; no tortillas (if I want something in tortillas I'll make tacos).
Andostre: I looooove gnocchi. And all of y'all's stuff sounds good.
Ideas for what to do with the leftover onions/pepper and also some leftover greenbeans from earlier dinner? Don't want the good veggies to go to waste, don't really feel like just eating them reheated.
Out of the summer place which only has a microwave and back to making real food.
But nothing new or creative- it's been so long (since about May) since I had access to a real kitchen that cooking the same old junk is still hugely rewarding right now.
Bison steak with sauteed mushrooms, raw carrots, and some rice most recently...
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Cook up a couple potatoes, cut them up in a pan with a little olive oil and crisp them a bit, put the leftovers in, add whatever herbs you want.
Ideas for what to do with the leftover onions/pepper and also some leftover greenbeans from earlier dinner? Don't want the good veggies to go to waste, don't really feel like just eating them reheated.
Maybe bake the potato chunks once at 350F or so to cook them all the way through, then toss/shake them with baking powder and salt, and rebake at 450F to crisp them up? Baking powder lowers the pH so they brown better. Then toss them while hot with a little olive oil and spices/herbs, and mix in the leftover veggies.
Those leftover veg would probably work well tossed into a wok with fried rice towards the end of the cooking time.
Tonight I'm making paprika chicken in a cooking bag. It used to be a regular in the meal rotation when Mom was still cooking, and this'll be the first time we've had it since she's gone. Defrosting 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (~2 lb worth) right now that I'll be cutting up, and I'll put in about 10 oz or so of frozen green beans (haricot verts) to cook around it. When the chicken is done, I'll thicken the juice and serve with mashed potatoes.
Tastes like McCormick changed the recipe on the paprika seasoning blend, so it didn't have enough tangy (non-spicy) kick like it used to. Probably didn't help I used skinless chicken instead of the skin-on bone-in like Mom used to; that rendered fat would've helped the taste. Some of the green beans got a bit singed, and they didn't have much flavor either. Mashed potatoes and the gravy/thickened sauce were OK, but I found a broken off loop from my coil whisk in the bottom of the sauce. The whisk was a little rusty, but I guess my vigorous extensive whisking was a bit too much for it.
Dad ate like a bird (he'd been working outside, so he doesn't have much appetite when he gets hot & sweaty), so we still have half the chicken left over, as well as some mashed and gravy/sauce. So maybe we can have leftovers tonight, and I'll make up a batch of cheddar biscuits to go with it? I've give him the option of that or chili when he gets up for breakfast.
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Amby and Bjorn: Good call on the taters (and the baking soda). Am trying that out tonight.
Amby: wonder if a little lemon juice added right before cooking might help with combining the seasoning with the boneless meat? It will both tenderize the meat (since there is less fat) and add a tang.
Tangent: My religious community is not far from a McCormick plant. It's fun to go to the area some days and smell all the spices roasting. (Sometimes it depends on the spice combo though...)
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Amby and Bjorn: Good call on the taters (and the baking soda). Am trying that out tonight.
Amby: wonder if a little lemon juice added right before cooking might help with combining the seasoning with the boneless meat? It will both tenderize the meat (since there is less fat) and add a tang.
Hope your taters turned out delicious. I tried the potatoes before with baking soda instead of baking powder, but the soda-ed potatoes had a bit of a metallic aftertaste. No bad by any means, but I noticed it.
The baking soda/powder trick to lower pH is Kenji López-Alt's idea; I've tested it on skin-on roast chicken, chicken wings, and turkey, and it works on all of them. America's Test Kitchen had a trick using a warm cornstarch slurry for crispy potato wedges (Youtube, web text version of recipe is behind their paywall), but I haven't tried it yet.
Tangent: My religious community is not far from a McCormick plant. It's fun to go to the area some days and smell all the spices roasting. (Sometimes it depends on the spice combo though...)
My aunt retired from a career at a Nestle plant in Ohio, and by the end she couldn't stand the smell of chocolate anymore and was developing a strong aversion to the smell of coffee.
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I'll probably make chili in the slow cooker tomorrow, found a recipe for Carroll Shelby's chili from scratch. My sister makes it from the kit, but I want to monitor the heat for Dad's sake.
The chili turned out really good. I didn't have suet and I need to use a much better brand of beer than what Dad drinks, but other than that it went well. Nice deep beefy and chili pepper flavors without being spicy -- like you could taste the peppers, but the heat was not noticeable. Best of all, you just brown off the ground chuck, dump almost everything in the slow cooker at once, and let it burble away with occasional stirring.
Dad's having dinner out at my brother and his wife's home tonight, so I'm eating leftovers. This afternoon, I'll probably bake off some honey all-bran-cereal muffins for my nephews (they love them for some weird reason) and some cranberry-orange muffins for me.
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Hope your taters turned out delicious. I tried the potatoes before with baking soda instead of baking powder, but the soda-ed potatoes had a bit of a metallic aftertaste. No bad by any means, but I noticed it.Amby and Bjorn: Good call on the taters (and the baking soda). Am trying that out tonight.
Amby: wonder if a little lemon juice added right before cooking might help with combining the seasoning with the boneless meat? It will both tenderize the meat (since there is less fat) and add a tang.
<probably getting food science wrong> I used baking soda, as baking soda is a pure alkaline. But if there's not a lot of acid in a dish to ultimately cancel out the soda, yeah, you'll be able to taste it. Baking powder is soda premixed with a dry acidic substance (like cream of tartar) that activates when it gets wet. So its alkalinity effect will be subtler (because it's already reacting with itself as soon as it gets wet) but yeah, you don't risk getting that weird metal-soapy taste. </probably getting food science wrong:
I used a bit of soda on the remains of the frozen shredded potatoes for hash browns I had used to cook with the fajita meat/veggies--I'd had an issue with them being too soggy and sticking to the pan. I tossed them with a little oil and baking soda and spread them on a parchment-paper covered sheet tray, and they began to brown nicely and didn't stick to anything. I only added a little so I didn't taste it. Then I finished them off in a pan with the leftover veggies and mixed with cheese. Since it was preseasoned potatoes they were very salty but other than that it was really good.
The baking soda/powder trick to lower pH is Kenji López-Alt's idea; I've tested it on skin-on roast chicken, chicken wings, and turkey, and it works on all of them. America's Test Kitchen had a trick using a warm cornstarch slurry for crispy potato wedges (Youtube, web text version of recipe is behind their paywall), but I haven't tried it yet.
ATK also recommends a bit of baking soda for browning meat for things like sloppy joes and chili and that has worked really well--it both helps the meat brown and the sauces for those dishes thicken a little.
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Made an apricot lentil soup tonight. It was okay. It was filling, but the flavors were pretty mild. Hoping that it "settles" for a couple days in the fridge and has better flavors when we eat the leftovers.