Dinner tonight - or last night.

I love cooking with wine - sometimes I even put it in food.

Dinner tonight is in a posh posh Thai place - have been invited out :p

We want a report! - even a name for the restaurant so I can look up the menu and salivate. I think I still have a link for the Indian restaurant that you and some a2kers went to, years ago.

Osso, my favorite thing to do with various chunks of fish or seafood left over is to saute a chopped onion, (also red sweet pep, if I have it,) garlic of course, then add a cup or two of chopped canned toms, almost all of a can of coconut milk (never "lite",) chopped cilantro if available, fresh chiles or red pep flakes. Simmer for 5 or 10, then add the fish ( that you have marinated for ten minutes in lime juice.) The sauce is almost better than the fish, so serve with lots of crusty bread.

That sounds fantastic, Kara. I've hardly ever used coconut milk, and should. (I ruined a daal, years ago, by adding at the end sweetened coconut milk instead of non-sweetened, and had to throw the whole vat out. I later found out that was a odd recipe, that daal rarely has coconut milk in it, or so I was told). Plus the lime/cilantro connection would be tasty..

Very recently a good fishmonger's opened at my local market (Yes! Yes! ), a 5 minute walk from home, so I've been including more fresh (not frozen) fish in my diet. Last night I made my first ever marinara sauce. From a pretty basic recipe, but hey, it was pretty good! Unfortunately I was out of spaghetti (which I would have preferred) & used fettuccine instead, but my dinner wasn't half bad!

Hi msolga, am in the fishing capital of Australia for a few days and guess what's on the menu tonight? Fish ofcourse, just been out and caught a few decent King George Whitings, have filleted them and they're ready for the frying pan. The girls will take charge from here.

You're gonna grow fins before too long, Dutchy!

I had tofu last night.

And?

I'm sure if I had tofu tonight, it would have been memorable. (cough).

But we went Southern tonight with fried chicken, cantaloupe, raw baby carrots and celery topped off with a sliced banana over chocolate icecream and a ribbon of chocolate syrup. I know. I know. Double time on the treadmill tomorrow.

Abalone, small baked potatoes and salads plus a nice drop of white.

Hey msolga. How ya doin' laydee?

Hope you are well and have something delicious planned for dinner...

I ended up frying the lamb steaks and then for the last 5 minutes, added some red pepper and onions that I had roasted in the oven. It was very very tasty and not tough this time.

:-)

I made a rice salad. Brown rice with a lemon/lime/cumin vinaigrette topped with lemon zest, avocado, grape tomatoes, cilantro and jalapenos. More lemon juice and honey. It was yummy.

Sounds good to me. I can see getting into rice salads..
uh oh.

I'm just about to cook something called "cheat's chorizo paella" ... A recipe I found in the "one pot wonders" section of a quick meals (with generally pretty good results) cookbook. I will report back!

Hmmmmm ... I'll give it a score of 6 1/2. Not brilliant, not terrible. But very easy & quick to make! And that's what I needed tonight.

I had to be creative again last night. I just didn't make my two week grocery store run...because well...I am tired and coming back from vacation in the middle of my grocery weeks...well...it just didn't happen...

so...

I made a roux..nice and brown with chicken broth, garlic and capers and lemon juice...then added some frozen peas and carrots. I saute'd chicken flavored with Cavender's Greek seasoning in butter and olive oil and tossed it in the roux...I then poured that over brown rice. We had a salad...my take on the Waldorf salad...it had raisins, apples and pecans...tossed with romaine and blue cheese dressing. It was good.

of course the boys complained about the capers. But I would have too at their age. But they ate around them.

mismi, I cooked like that when all of my kids were growing up -- they, too, "ate around" the capers -- and the long-term outcome was that the kids became demanding foodies and wannabe chefs. One has more cookbooks than I do!

Kara - this is wonderful to hear! Thank you!

Appetizer: Creamy artichoke and escargot vol-au-vent
Soup: Forest mushroom soup with herbs and wild rice
Salad: Spinach and napa cabbage salad with maytag blue cheese and roasted
beet tartar with Spanish sherry vinaigrette
Entree: Rosemary and pinot noir braised lamb shank with root vegetables and
roasted garlic.