What's for dinner tonight?

Today was spaghetti and meat balls, the old fashioned way. In olive oil I clear cook 2 cups of chopped onions and green pepper with 1 heaping table spoon of chopped garlic, oregano or basil and a little salt and pepper. After about 20 minutes I add a small can of tomato paste, a small can of tomato sauce and about 2 cups diced tomatoes and bring to a simmer, thinning with about 1/2 cup dry red wine, and cooking for about 1 hour on simmer. About 45 minutes before serving I add about 18 to 24 small meatballs and bring back to simmer. Dinner today was meatballs and pasta.

I will reserve enough sauce to make eggplant Parmesan for this weekend. After peeling the eggplant and slicing it in about 1/4 slices, I dip each slice into an egg and milk mixture and then coat them thoroughly with 1 part bread crumbs seasoned with garlic, oregano and mixed with 1 part grated Parmesan cheese. My preference is to fry them to golden brown but lately I have been baking them to reduce the fat. I then stack the sliced and cooked eggplant with alternate eggplant, sauce, Parmesan or Mozzarella cheese depending on how I feel, then bake them until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese is melted.

 

One of my favorite suppers is actually normally considered breakfast. For some reason I can't eat much of a breakfast. I am simply not hungry when I first get up. Sometimes I force myself to eat a half serving of cereal or a slice of toast with my coffee, but I am just not hungry. Just wait 4 hours or so and I am ready for food. When I am busy or away from the house I might eat a small lunch, more likely a small Poboy, (sub)

Today I am planning for waffles, bacon and maybe a fried egg or two for dinner (supper). When I make waffle batter either with a popular mix like Bisquick or what ever, I always add more milk or butter milk than the recipe calls for. Think crepe when you think of thin batter. Or if you use your own scratch recipe:

2 cups all purpose flour
2-3 tsp baking powder (or baking soda if using butter milk)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
Milk (or butter milk) added until the preferred thickness of batter is achieved.

I use this same batter for Crepes such that a stack of 8 crepes is no more than 4 regular pan cakes. The difference is, I turn my crepes over instead of just cooking them on one side.

I also prefer melted butter instead of spreading a couple of pats on a waffle and my favorite topping is fruit syrup. (black berry, blue berry, boysenberry)

 

Today we had sweet and sour fish...one of my favorite meals

Dinner for 2

1 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

Mix well

4 medium filets Tilapia
Dip filets in batter and put on floured tray. Sprinkle flour over top side of fish. (I use a large salt shaker with flour in it. If the flour does not sprinkle well, drill out some of the holes to improve the sprinkle.

Fry floured filets until golden brown in medium hot oil, about 1/4 cup oil in wok

Fry 1 cup mixed chopped onions, sweet pepper and celery in 1 tbs oil. Add 2 cups shredded cabbage frying until just getting limp. Sprinkle with soy sauce. There should be some crisp left in the cabbage. (sometimes I add a little white wine, Rhine or Saki)

Fry 4 or 6 spring rolls until golden brown. Be sure grease is not so hot they brown before very hot through and through.

Serve with sweet and sour sauce

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup tomato sauce or catsup
Mix 1 tbs corn starch with the juice of a small can of pineapple tidbits
Add pineapple to sauce and bring to simmer insuring that the cornstarch is fully integrated in the sauce. Simmer for 3 to 5 minutes. I like it served hot in small dipping bowls.

 

That sounds great, Mr. Smith. We had some stir fry, vegetarian though, and grapes for desert. Grapes are very yummy this year.

 

This afternoon as it so happened I also had a stir fry meal. First since I already had a t-bone marinating I cut the beef into thin slices and then set that aside. Next I diced a shallot and then fried this in peanut oil to make the diced bits crunchy and still faintly onion tasting.

Setting them aside I added ponzu sauce (a citrus flavored sauce) to the empty wok and then dumped the marinaded beef slices in and stir fried them and then removed the wok from the heat. Next I took lettuce -- any sort will do -- put it in a couple of bowls -- though small plates would work as well -- added cucumber slices then put the fried, diced shallots on top and then the beef slices and then added roasted sesame seeds (from a shaker that I keep on hand). I could have whipped up an Asian style dressing but for this meal but balsamic vinegar worked just fine.

 

Stirring and frying T/O the land. Its a good day

 

Yep! One of my favorite stir fry is onions, pepper, celery and cabbage, throw in some cashews and viola' tres bon! Add French cut fresh green beans with rest also makes a good stir fry.

 

Stir fried slices of steak and shrimp is one of my non-vegetarian favorites too. I can go for a dinner like you posted too.

 

Also celery can be substituted for bean sprouts if you can't find fresh ones but want them for the taste or texture anyway. Just take a celery stalk and cut it into four or five roughly equal lengths and then split those sections lengthwise as many times as possible so that they are mere slivers of celery. There you have it.

 

Also if you want to take the time to do so you can pre-slice your cucumber and then marinate the slices in lemon juice or soy sauce (whatever works for you) so that when everything is assembled you have a cross spectrum of surprisingly different tastes.

 

Home made tacos yum.

 

I like the sliced cucumbers marinated in a German style vinaigrette.

 

Oh yeah . . . that sounds delicious!

 

Oh don't get me started. I love Tex-Mex cuisine but although I can whip up a great tasting Salsa Verde in several variations I can't produce a red salsa that I really like for love, money, or any recipe that I can find. It's very frustrating.

 

Not sure about your taste buds, but we like salsa with a hint of smokiness, so I use

Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce to taste
fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
tbsp or so tomato paste
salt, pepper, lime juice
mexican sugar to taste (you can substitute with brown sugar)

Once you have the base, you just add onions, garlic, cilantro, black beans or fresh corn.....whatever floats your boat

 

Yes, that's more or less my basic approach. I think I am getting the ingredient proportions wrong though. I just can't reproduce the taste of our favorite restaurant salsas . . . and they always claim, "Sorry. Old family recipe. Can't share it." Arrrrrgh! On the other hand, though, my Salsa Verde is almost always spot on for our tastes.

 

Chicken soup today.
I do roast the chicken first, pull off the meat and make stock from the carcass........
Of course any good chicken soup needs to be a bit spicy, so some pepper flakes are a must.

 

Maybe a little ginger as well...........

And chopped scallions when you serve it.

 

Oh absolutely, ginger is a must. Spinach or finely chopped Swiss chard is also very good.
I serve sauteed mushrooms, scallions, more chicken, fresh herbs etc on the side.

 

Today will be Pork Chops in tomato gravy.

1 lb boneless pork chops carefully selected to have some fat still on the chops
2 medium tomatoes skinned and diced with juice (about 1 1/2 cups if canned)
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped green/sweet peppers
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 tbs chopped garlic
2 or 3 slices of lemon or lime
1 cup mushrooms
3 bay leaves
1 small whole habanero pepper.
1/3 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

In dutch oven brown chops on both sides and reserve. Stir fry all the vegetables (except green onions and parsley) until clear cooked. Add diced tomatoes. Bring to simmer. Cook for aboit 30 to 40 minutes on a simmer. Slice the pork chops into 2" strips about 1/2 wide. Add to the sauce. Cook only long enough to make the pork chop well done, about 10 more minutes. Add the green onions and parsley just before serving. Serve on rice.

 

For dinner today stuffed pork chops baked potato salad.

 

I like stuffed pork chops too. Sometimes I stuff them with Italian seasoned bread crumbs with a little Parmesan and sometimes I make oyster dressing (bread dressing with oysters and the oyster juice for moistening to stuff them.

 

Just got back from the store.

Chicken breasts on sale, so it's Butter chicken tonight.

With Basmaiti rice, Tandoori Cauliflower, and samosas.

 

.........................BRT

 

Butter chicken (Murgh Makhani) is one of my favorites. Probably even fewer restaurants know how to cook it than know how to cook real Vindaloo.