Dinner tonight - or last night.

I never thought to do that...will give it a try next time. Sounds great...

I had a kitchen surprise this afternoon when I went to thaw some of my premade pizza dough and figured out it wasn't dough but sourdough starter. So.. I ended up try to mix that with a Jim Fahey no knead bread recipe, using an italian hearth bread recipe with way less than usual yeast and switching the types of flours. A fool and her kitchen will soon be parted, or at least sorry. We'll see when I try baking that tomorrow. That all didn't take too long, but left me with no pizza on the horizon for tonight.

So, I've got a soup going - sauteed onion and then some garlic at the end of that sauteing, can of stewed tomato slices and juices, carton of chicken broth, some tomato canfuls of water, some sliced porcini mushrooms, thawed baggie of previously cooked black beans, 3/4 cup of barley, and that is all simmering until the barley is done. Then I'll add some sliced cabbage (maybe a quarter cabbage) and some sliced brussel sprouts, and part of a package of frozen broccoli florets and cook the soup further but not too long. Probably add lots of pepper. As with all my soups, I'd better like it or I'll have a vat of stuff I don't like. Anyway, I'll freeze at least some of it, and try to remember to label the containers so they won't be a future mystery.

This sounds like work, but the gas burner does most of it and it saves me cooking every evening.

[img] I'll freeze at least some of it, and try to remember to label the containers so they won't be a future mystery.
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i think i have more labels than food in the freezer compartment !

Tonight (the weather being a wee bit nippish) I'm making Lamb Shanks in an Oriental Braise ... from a cookbook recipe, of course! This will be my first opportunity to try out my brand new French (beautiful blue enameled) cast iron casserole ... super expensive & weighing a ton! Pray I don't drop it on my foot!
But more importantly, it is the perfect excuse to make mashed potatoes for the first time this year! O joy!

Msolga, lamb shank with braise, and new blue iron casserole sound wonderful. I usually cook lamb chops, never did a shank. Three shanks ago, restaurant ordering wise, was the best shank I ever had. I will be back in shank heaven second week of May.
Why need an excuse for mashing potatoes? Surely they do not mind.

Hamburger, I had calves liver with onions last night - afterwards apple strudel.

MsOlga, that sounds so good, and I bet it was delicious. Those Le Creuset pots and pans are indeed beautiful but sometimes too heavy.

Ha. They didn't, Alex.

And they were great! Yum. (I'd better not make this too much of a habit!)

The lamb shanks were pretty good, too. A very simple, easy to make recipe. Happy to post it here if anyone's interested. A nice (Asian-ish) change from my usual osso buco type treatment.

How do they cook shanks at Three Shanks Ago? (I presume that's the name of the restaurant.)

Oh that sounds good, Jane!



Agreed. Next time I cook with it, I'm considering hiring some lifting help!

lazy, lazy, lazy

bowl of frozen fruit (peach slices, grapes, strawberries, pineapple and honey dew melon) and green tea

Sounds good to me, djjd!

And healthy!

Balsamic Chicken w/spinach and tomatos.

Joe(red wine)Nation

what was your address again?

Oh nice!

Cooked by your good self, Joe?

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/balsamic-chicken-with-baby-spinach-recipe/index.html

When I get to the part of putting the vinegar/broth in, I do, but I also pinch the broth back a little and add a bit of red wine, then let all of that reduce by about a third before tossing in the tomatoes. I let that whole broth/wine/vinegar/tomatoes simmer away for about eight-ten minutes before tossing the chicken back in, let that simmer some, stir, and then top with the wilted spinach.

The recipe says couscous, right. This stuff also works on rice, fettuccine, angel-hair pasta (cut the chicken up in very small pieces) or just thrown in a bowl with some Romano grated over the top.

Note: I don't believe in buying boneless skinless chicken anything. Way too expensive. I buy whole roaster chickens and, er, roast them, pull all the skin off, chop up all the dark meat and keep the breast portions in large pieces (not necessarily whole).
All the meat goes in approx. 1/3 pound portions in freezer bags. All the bones go in a pot with celery, onions, garlic and whatever is left from last week's veggie meals to make chicken broth.

I start with enough water to cover all the bones and veggies, simmer for a couple of hours, remove all the bones and veggie pieces then let the broth simmer away to reduce by about a half. Refrigerate overnight and skim off any fat in the morning. Freeze the broth in one cup and two cup portions.

What you end up with is really good broth, natch,,,,, and chicken pieces which you can throw onto a salad or into a pasta sauce or defrost fully and put between some red peppers and tomato slices on big hunks of whole wheat bread (Grate some Parmesan on instead of salt, you'll never touch the shaker again.)
What else? Fajitas. Of course.
And you can take a big can of Progresso Chicken Soup, add a bag of your own chicken and a big handful of chopped up green beans and baby carrots, simmer for about a half hour. Add some crunchy bread or crackers and feed a small army.

Joe(so good.)Nation

It DOES sound so good, Joe!

Excellent work!

Thank you for including the link to the recipe, I'm going to give this a go myself.

For ease of preparation (& ease of eating!) I'll probably stick with the boneless, skinless chicken breasts, though.

Went to a Hungarian resto with brendalee before a concert last night.

I had a small bowl of beef goulash followed by a cottage cheese crepe. It was a wonderful meal.

The cottage cheese filling in the crepe was very much like the ingredients for mrs. hamburger's cheese cake - quark, lemon, lemon, lemon, and raisins. They brushed on a layer of their home-made apricot preserves as well. <swoon>

Can you buy quark locally? I have to get it by mail order.

Tonight I will attempt to create my own recipe for red snapper. I have left over salsa flavored with lime, cilantro and honey , so I'm going to pan fry the snapper fillets with a spice blend of coriander, paprika and cayenne. The salsa will go on top of the fillets. I have some asparagus that I will just roast. Can't decide whether to have rice or potatoes. Probably rice.

I totally wimped out and just made up some tuna fish sandwiches. I like a little celery salt, pepper and chopped up dill pickle tossed in (and of course the mayo). I usually like to add sliced up hard boiled eggs too, but I was in a hurry.

How do you like your tuna fish? There seem to be more ways to make it than fish in the sea.

Aldistar, my tunafish sandwiches vary, depends on what is in the refrigerator. Sometimes I add chopped scallions, or minced garlic, a smidge of curry powder; sometimes black pepper, sometimes chile pepper; chopped celery? chopped dill pickle? sesame seeds? sliced good green olives like bellas?


Last night's dinner -
- 4 brown onions sauteed slowly in olive oil/a little salt, black pepper/fat teaspoon of stone groumd mustard/squeeze of 1/2 small lemon

with
- 1 farmed codfish filet baked on ~ 2 tbs olive oil and wee salt, lemon squeeze at the end of baking

Some onions left over, yay.
I usually do this with salmon filet and put the filet on the onions to bake. This time I tried cooking them separately and liked it.

Ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole,,....traditional Easter fare.

Usually, I wait until ham is cooled, take a biscuit, roll, or whatever bread is available, and make a ham sandwich. Lat year, I scored big time, for there was a fresh baked loaf of marble rye.