Dinner tonight - or last night.

Snacked at a gathering. Most brought home made dishes. Highlights were sesame cookies, garlicy crusty miniature sandwiches, liver pate.
Opposite of highlight, was a pasta dish, cold served, with a bottled ranch buttermilk dressing.

We put steaks on the grill, baked potatoes and fresh sautéed spinach

Some leftover chicken (earlier baked after being marinaded with cherry preserves/soy sauce/mustard/olive oil) over brown rice.
Maybe my famous to myself weird green peas dish - thawed green peas, salt, lots of pepper, olive oil. Something of a new addiction.

I'm envious. The spinach at my local market is too too weird or more often absent, or frozen. I love good fresh spinach and can't bring myself to buy the frozen, having tried it once. I've switched some of my favorite recipes to using chard or kale, which are tolerable. Says the california grouch.

This was fresh, I didn’t know how easy it was to make but Marco is such a great cook. He sautéed it in a pan with a little olive oil and pine nuts. It was wonderful.

pb sandwich with a piece of good Emmentaler on the side
not too exciting but tasty enough

Yeah, that's a classic.

I've never tasted Emmentaler..

My mom use to make excellent stuffed bell peppers, I’m going to try to make them tonight. Stay tuned.

My stuffed bell peppers came out lousy. Marco said I used too much meat and cooked them too long, they were a little hard, not at all like my mom use to make. I blame the electric oven.

I'm going to give it another shot tonight, I found this Italian three cheese chicken recipe online and I'm making it tonight.

1 lb. dried bow-tie pasta

2 T. olive oil

2 lb. skinless, boneless, chicken breast halves, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-wide strips (4 breast halves)

2 small yellow onions, sliced

2 medium green bell peppers, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced

1 can (14 1/2 ounces) stewed tomatoes

2 T. tomato paste

1/4 C. red wine vinegar

1 container (15 oz.) ricotta cheese

1/2 C. freshly grated Asiago or Romano cheese

2 C. (8 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

2 large eggs, beaten

1 t. salt

1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper

Bring 3 quarts water to boil in 6- to 8-quart pot over high heat. Stir in pasta and return to boil. Boil, stirring occasionally, until pasta is tender, 7 to 9 minutes. Drain pasta and set aside until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Heat oil in large (12-to 14-inch) cast-iron skillet over medium-heat for 1 minute. Add chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, for 6 minutes or until no longer pink. Remove chicken and reserve until ready to use.

In same skillet, cook onion and bell peppers over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until onions and peppers are tender, about 8 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine vinegar and reserved chicken, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and stir in reserved pasta until distributed.

Stir together ricotta cheese, Asiago cheese, mozzarella cheese, eggs, salt and pepper in medium bowl until well blended.

Spread ricotta mixture over skillet contents in even layer. Bake in preheated oven 30 to 35 minutes or until heated through. Serve directly from skillet.

Makes 6-8 servings.

My dinner didn’t come out very well so we ordered Chinese take out tonight.

it sounds good, if a bit heavy.

what went awry...?

My three cheese chicken recipe, the page got turned in the book before I noticed and I got off track from one recipe to another, it was aweful.

You have to put some cooked rice into the mix, season it good and then stuff the peppers - don't take the green ones, they become bitter when cooked, use red peppers. On the side you make a sauce with diced tomatoes, peppers, onions, and season to taste.

yup.

that'll throw it off every time...

we're doing the bbq pork sammich with baked beans and baked frenchies tonight.

hmm I didn't think of that, sounds good. I'm really not very good in the kitchen, but I'm trying to learn. I may have to take a cooking class or something because I just can seem to follow a recipe.

Never mind, jc!
It sounds to me like you're learning to cook .... a situation I can relate to, trust me!
Let me assure you, the more you do it (cooking ... especially for others, it's different for when it's just for you), the better you get!

I need a lot of practice. The chicken came out very tough, and it tasted awful. We couldn’t eat it so we just ordered take out. I was trying to follow the recipe but half way through I noticed the title of the recipe was for something else, so I think I must have turned the page.

I think I only made stuffed green peppers once, and eh...

I also remember my cousin making them once and our then making tuna sandwiches with a side of potato chips.

I did make successful stuffed tomatoes, but the trouble with tomatoes is that if they're really good, there are better ways to eat them.

My take on your photo, jc, was that they were too stuffed, but I'm no expert, as I just said. The second recipe, even if you followed it, seemed like too much filling too. Four chicken breasts (I know, divided) plus all that other stuff, in two peppers?

So, not you, but the recipes - remembering that I may be wrong.

But it might be your cookbook.