Dinner tonight - or last night.

I think it'll be a pasta with pesto sauce here. Followed by a fruit panna cotta. (burp!)

I have had a wonderful week of meals.

One night I made this sesame chicken in the crockpot, it almost tasted like barbecue...little sweet, little spicy...delish. My rice was perfect. That doesn't always happen.

White bean soup with spinach and ham. Very yummy and it is a HUGE pot which means I have leftovers. Very exciting.

Chuck Roast - in the crock pot - so yummy and tender with amazing juice...I made sandwiches with some amazing crusty bread that held up under all the juiciness and topped it with carmelized onions and cheese.
It was good. SO good.

Love weeks like that.

I have heard that makes the chicken amazingly tender. I think some folks add hot sauce to the buttermilk to give it a little heat.

Sounds great to me.

I have seen you use "soporific" too. I started using it now. I just like to say it.

That sesame chicken thing sounds terrific. Recipe?

I'm still in love with that pork chile adobado braise I did (well, from a recipe, didn't make it up). Have already bought more pork so I can keep my lucky braising streak going and have some stored in the freezer. Meantime I have to learn about the many varieties of new mexico chiles - my ordinary grocery has about fifteen or more varieties, most with no clue re hotness level, 'sweetness', smokiness, etc. People in Albuquerque know this stuff, I'm the newcomer.

Ha! Even my voice is soporific... I have an unfortunate monotone, which I spice up as best I can with some laughter. My singing is so terrible I can't stand it myself.

Delightful charcoal grilled porterhouse steak with Dianne sauce and mushrooms followed by a multicoloured/flavoured Sorbet.

Laughter is always a great thing to spice up a voice. I bet your singing isn't as bad as you think it is...

Here is the recipe:

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken
Recipe adapted from: Baby Center

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (thighs would be fine too)
Salt and pepper
1 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (could also use olive oil or canola oil)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional - doesn't really add heat, just adds more flavor)
4 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 6 Tablespoons water
Sesame seeds

Directions:
Season both sides of chicken with lightly with salt and pepper, put into crock pot. In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic and pepper flakes. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours, or just until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce. Dissolve 4 teaspoons of cornstarch in 6 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot. Stir to combine with sauce. Replace lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes or until slightly thickened. Cut chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce before serving. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice or noodles.

That sounds amazing Dutchy...I think I am going to have a steak dinner for the professor for valentines day. With a bottle of red wine.

waves to Dutchy..

I may add the meal was in our favourite Restaurant for Valentine's day, I even bought my wife a special Rose.

Such a romantic you are.

Thanks, I'm saving that in my A2k Recipes easy and good file..

1/4 tsp pepper flakes, snort! That pork adobado had called for five ounces of dried red chiles plus chile powder, and I only had (thank goodness) one ounce of dried chiles. That turned out to be perfect for the dish (to me) - smashing hot on first bite, but I got used to it - but was hilariously more than 1/4 tsp. But, I'll listen, and go for subtlety the first time I make it, especially since it's primarily a honey soy flavor dish.

You can add as much as you like. But I have young'uns that don't like it too hot...but I think 1/4 was really quite yummy. You are right though - the heat is very subtle.

I'm not sure what the little woman is doing with the buttermilk chicken but she's cooking bacon too, told me to get the hell out of the kitchen.

I made myself crocodile last night (Mrs Hinge is in Canberra being important). Wasn't as bad as I thought - but the sauce was really good. After frying the mini medallions with garlic ( you have to use butter and or olive oil because other oils/margerines can make the meat taste funny) set aside the meat and deglaze with lemon, add some more garlic, jersey cream, season and reduce, in my inimitable style it became a sort of burnt butter sauce colour wise.

A weird tip I picked up was that you should cook the crocodile while it's still frozen otherwise it dries out - and aim for medium rare. I think I overcooked it just, it's hard to tell if it's still froze or cooked through.

Now there's a classic a2k food post.

we get farm raise alligator in Florida and it still tastes like a muddy lizard so whenever our friends make the stuff they doctor it up with all kinds of hot sauces and garlicky tartar sauce.
I dont care for it but I can eat it without gagging. I wouldnt get it in a restaurant unless I had to eat it to save my life.

We had a hoemeade French onion soup with the sauce all cooked down from our own veal bones for the, pan drippins. Well have more for lunch tomorrow. Then we had veal chops served over mash taters all witha veal gravy and a salad. Mrs F went all out cause she wanted tio get the veal out of the freezer before next month when we get a new veal side form thye AMish butcher.

We swap a whole lamb for half a veal and he does the biutchering. The whole 50 lbs of veal cost us 12 dollars and its way better than anything from a butcher. AMish give their veal calves a little more iron and protein than the english farmers who basically raise anemic veal.

I think I could do a better job next time. Pan hotter - less olive oil (i was worried about the butter burning) and then turn it down. Apparently a cardinal sin is to turn the meat more than once, which means you can only really seal one side to keep it moist.

Have you ever had smoked crocodile? That is nice - my original plan was to smoke it but it looked too thick to get it right and my smoker is hokey.

See what happens when Mrs H is not around?
You go right off the rails & do really crazy things!
I hope it's not poached possum tonight!
And I hope she returns soon.

Last night's meal was not quite as exciting as hinge's.
A home-delivered vegetarian pizza at my friend's place.
Which was pretty good, all things considered.
Neither of us particularly wanted to cook, for entirely different reasons.