Dinner tonight - or last night.

munched some form of rice and veggie dish. It was tasteless and almost unidentifiable. I will not let my father cook again!!!

Tonight Marco made a grilled steak salad with garlic-roasted zucchini.

I'm cleaning up the kitchen to cook tonight.

chicken tacos.

we'll see how adventurous I get from there...

I had to clean the kitchen, thats the deal, he cooks I have to clean, although I'd rather clean then cook

I gotta do both.

stinky just supervises...

Is stinky the cat?

and supreme ruler of the universe.

yes.

that looks great!


tonight was our last Swiss Chalet date night for a year (thanks to hamburgboy for the meal that started all of this in December)

rotisserie chicken, fries, tea

I need some kinda fruit or veggie now

Navy bean-tomato-beef sausage-onion-some collard greens soup, all of that precooked at other times except for the can of stewed tomatoes. Needs some more spice and rice, maybe tomorrow for the rest of it.

It was wonderful!

I’m experimenting with another roast. I rubbed Dijon Mustard all over it then sprinkled a package of onion soup mix on top. I think I’ll make some jasmine rice and fresh cut green beans.

Looks good! (me, I'd put it on a bed of chopped onions and add any spices I wanted, but I'm a package avoider, too much crap in them)



Well, this will either kill me or make me stronger - I bought two packages of cut up braising pork yesterday, perfect for this Saveur recipe:


Carne Adobada (Red Chile and Pork Stew)
This hearty pork stew is a staple dish in New Mexico. Our recipe is based on one served at La Posta de Mesilla in Mesilla. It calls for New Mexico Chile Powder, an earthy, sweet chile powder available at many specialty stores and online at Amazon.com. This recipe first appeared in SAVEUR Issue #140 along with Jane and Michael Stern's story "Hot Stuff." (osso - there are many different new mexico chile powders, from mild to extremely hot, eh!)


Photo: Penny De Los Santos

SERVES 8–10

INGREDIENTS
5 oz. dried New Mexico chiles, stemmed
2 tbsp. New Mexico chile powder
2 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
Juice of 1/2 lime
5 tbsp. olive oil
3 lb. boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1 1/2″ chunks
Kosher salt and freshly ground blackpepper, to taste
Warm corn tortillas, for serving

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Heat chiles in a 6-qt. Dutch oven over medium-high heat, and cook, turning once, until toasted, about 5 minutes; transfer to a large bowl, cover with 8 cups boiling water, and let sit for 20 minutes. Drain chiles, reserving 1 1/2 cups soaking liquid, and transfer chiles to a blender along with reserved soaking liquid, chile powder, honey, vinegar, cumin, cloves, cayenne, and lime juice. Puree until smooth and set sauce aside.

2. Return pot to medium-high heat and add oil; season pork with salt and pepper, and working in batches, add pork to pot and cook until browned on all sides, about 12 minutes. Add sauce and bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is thickened and pork is tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Serve with warm corn tortillas.

Oh that looks good too! Might just have to try that recipe!

My roast came out pretty good, we have to have Justin home by 6 but I called his grandma and she said it was fine for him to have dinner here. Everyone liked my roast!

Wonderful, you're getting really good at this stuff.

Well, I only have one ounce of dried small red chile peppers, which tend to get weaker as they hang from the riistra or sit in a jar. This is probably a good thing re doing this recipe for the first time. My present chile powder is described by the purveyor as medium hot with no chile name. There's a chile institute here in NM, with photos and descriptions plus they sell the seeds as well as chiles (I think). http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/

Ok, it's simmering. That was easy enough. It's also an excuse to use a certain relatively odd shaped le creuset pot, sort of a round low bowl. All I've done different, so far, as I haven't burned it yet, is to use one fifth the dried chiles (all, she says) and I used red wine vinegar instead of white wine vinegar. White wine vinegar? I've possessed many vinegars, sherry, balsamic good and balsamic not so great, cassis, pear, raspberry, yada yada, back when I was near good stores and had cash, but I've never had white wine vinegar in my cupboard.

All right, that turned out very well. Looked quite like the recipe photo.
However, I find it hard to imagine 5x hotter. Well, no, I can imagine it, but this, using 1/5 of the called for dried chile peppers was quite enough, even perfect. I can imagine it too hot for some, but it was just right to me.

The meat is fabulous, and I'll use that recipe again, or with other spices, in the future. Totally easy, enjoyable recipe. The cooked down sauce I'm going to freeze in aliquots for soup, well, whatever is left. The meat is fork tender.

I had a little trouble washing the pan. Spice wafting up, grabs throat.

shepherd's pie

with which you shall titrate the supernatant solution no doubt

you mean water?

I get a kick out of words I used to use. Live with it. It's like looking at antique post cards. Say titration and I become eighteen again. Supernatant, ooooooh.
On aliquots, I think that's underused, though portions works better.

The wife will be in the kitchen tonight, she’s got chicken breast marinating in buttermilk, sounds gross but she said it will be fabulous!