"What's for dinner?"

[Rockabilly]

Went to my Amish neighbor and got the first fresh sweet corn and tomatoes of the season. I also got green beans, green peppers, new potatoes, squash and eggplant. Some of this will be dinner tonight. I also got just picked blueberries. I'll make muffins with them tomorrow.

[Canyon]

Some friends from Germany are on a tour of the Southwest. They are in town for a few days, so we invited them over last night. I decided to serve a traditional US Thanksgiving meal. DH spatchcocked and smoked a turkey; I made dressing, smashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and gravy. I was going to make a pumpkin cheesecake (I don’t like pumpkin pie), but I ran out of steam. So we had vanilla ice cream topped with blueberries and strawberries, accompanied by interesting discussions on the state of Europe!

[StraightForward]

Tonight I'm making blue potato gnocchi with andouille, sautéed mushrooms and Caramelized onions over the top, served with a salad. Dinner is going to be a rhubarb, raspberry, blueberry and cherry cornbread muffin cobbler.

[StraightForward]

So. A couple weeks ago DH happened to go to the feed store with me and he spied an electric smoker on clearance, so it came home with us. We smoked a whole chicken last weekend, which was good and all, but. Tonight I smoked pork belly slices that had cured for a couple days in a salt and brown sugar rub. Yes, that, and some red wine was my dinner tonight. As if bacon wasn't decadent enough.

[Rockabilly]

Dinner will be fresh vegetables. I went to my Amish neighbor and got fresh corn, peppers, kennebec potatoes, okra, green beans, carrots pulled fresh from the garden just for me! I also got onions, blueberries and 2 watermelon and 2 cantaloupes for Leo. I am making yeast rolls right now. Kennebec potatoes make the best mashed potatoes ever. I won't have time to do anything with the blueberries today, but tomorrow I will make muffins. I haven't decided what to do with the carrots yet. Do any of you have good carrot recipes you would share with me?

[silk]

On Saturday I made a stroganoff with some wild-caught goat. Absolutely delicious! Really simple, too: fry onions gently, turn up heat, add diced goat, add spices/seasonings (one whole red chilli, seeds incl, diced; one small head of garlic, smashed; paprika, lots; salt/pepper, and a halved lime from the freezer for good measure), add tomato paste, can of chopped tomatoes, stock, water. It cooked slowly for 3+ hours.

Last night I was at my boyfriend's house, we had venison meatballs with a simple tomato sauce, served with pasta and green peas, and aged cheddar grated over the top. Lovely!

[Canyon]

I just picked the first big batch of basil from the garden. So, it's pesto served over zucchini (from the garden) "noodles" and some linguini pasta, for us tonight.

[Rockabilly]

I have been craving a Chick Fil A sandwich. No Chick Fil A near me. I went online and found a CopyCat recipe by Kenjii and wow, was it ever good! Not exactly like their chicken sandwich, but mighty mighty good! My husband ate 2 sandwiches. Brining the chicken breasts just may be the secret.

[heddylamar]

Rockabilly, I just perked up that there's another Kenji/Serious Eats fan here

We're having the wilted kale, roasted potato and tahini salad for dinner. Varying from the original Epicurious recipe by adding chickpeas (and not actually following the recipe -- I've made it a time or two) with a side of indigestion in the form of RNC coverage.

For the DC-ites: Baked and Wired cupcakes for dessert.

[silk]

Cheese, crackers and wine.

And maybe some whine.

[StraightForward]

Wine and tacos.

Tonight is the last real night of my vacation. Don't go back to work until Monday, but tomorrow I'll get home and back to the routine. Went to Portland, Seattle and the Olympic Penninsula and now going home through Yakima wine country. So much good food. I've eaten: tandoori scallops and roasted carrots with pickled rhubarb, bone marrow, lychees, black apricots, roasted striped bass, Dungeness crab, gorgeous salmon, duck liver pate, Chinese crepe, Voodoo donuts, Brie, charcuterie, various pickled things, octopus, street noodles, morel mushrooms, deep fried pot roast, Logan berries, boysenberries, cherries, gorgeous desserts and who knows what else, not to mention craft beer and esoteric cocktails. Going back to reality is going to suck.

[Racetrackreject]

Just got back from vacation and had some really great food. Grilled lobster and scallops with grilled seasonal veggies and garlic bread and St Helena Ribeye Crustini were my favorites. The Crustini was sliced ribeye on a pesto cream cheese topped crustini with shiitake mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, and seasonal mixed greens. It was to die for!

[Rockabilly]

Oh, that sounds beyond delicious!

A few days ago I was craving a Chick Fil A sandwich so I got a copy cat recipe from Serious Eats and it was so good! So good I decided to make my own buns for it which I did and we had the sandwich again with the fresh buns.

[silk]

Roast chicken, seasoned with a basil, garlic, chilli spice mix.
Scalloped potatoes (if I had to choose only one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be these).
Plus roasted pumpkin, balsamic onions and steamed cauli & carrots.

Om nom nom! Leftovers of last night's dinner for tonight, I can't wait

[Racetrackreject]

Scalloped potatoes (if I had to choose only one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be these).

I'm right there with you! I shouldn't eat potatoes and they tend to make me ill at the times that I do, but I could live on scalloped potatoes. I've even been desperate enough to buy boxed ones and add my own cheeses in before..lol. I probably shouldn't admit that.

[kande50]

Our garden is producing so we've been having a lot of sauteed zucchini and summer squash, and the occasional tomato that I manage to get before the chipmunks do. Got my first artichokes, although there aren't going to be as many this year because the mules got into them and trimmed the plants back. But we have a hanging cherry tomato plant that's been doing great, so one of my staples has become ham salad on toasted homemade bread with cherry tomatoes.

There are also lots of new potatoes out there, and cabbage, so we've been having potato salad and coleslaw with our other veggies.

We really should be having roast woodchuck, bunny, and chipmunk, but we have electric fence wires set close to the ground and that at least slows them down.

[Rockabilly]

So I made hamburger buns today and they are delicious. I grilled hamburgers outside, made a sauce for them along with fresh tomatoes from the garden. Pickles I made myself. It was all so good I wish I could share with someone.

[silk]

I have been away at an equine biomechanics course this weekend. That involved a "weekend" trip to Australia (I flew out Friday and back Monday).
I caught up with many people I know from previous courses, and met a bunch of new ones. We stayed on site in a gorgeous house and were served incredible food (we were totally, absolutely, completely spoiled). The host's sister used to be a pastry chef so you can probably appreciate the high calibre of the morning and afternoon teas Lunches were similarly amazing.

Last night I had venison meatballs in a plain tomato sauce with pasta. Incredible in it's simplicity, even though I really didn't need to eat more food. In all honesty, I think I need to not eat for a week

[Rockabilly]

Tonight's dinner was Shrimp Scampi. I used wild caught shrimp and as little butter as I could get away with. A fresh garden salad along with it and home made cinnamon rolls in their second rising for tomorrow's breakfast.

[StraightForward]

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chic ... n-in-milk/

Good, but will go Rosemary instead of cinnamon next time.

Used the oil from browning the chicken to roast some baby potatoes and also had sauteed Swiss chard on the side.

[Canyon]

Pesto pizza.

[Rockabilly]

I have been brining chicken breasts today and tonight I am going to cook them on the grill. I'm making kebobs with fresh pineapple and wrapping the chicken in a piece of bacon. Sounds good so I'll see.

[Chisamba]

I am experimenting with a sauce for pasta that has no tomato. cauliflower, carrots, onion, celery, blended, its still lacking a bit, i think my carrots were past their best, so i added a bit of tamarind and strawberry for that touch of sweetness. i will report on how the family liked it later

[Chisamba]

I have been brining chicken breasts today and tonight I am going to cook them on the grill. I'm making kebobs with fresh pineapple and wrapping the chicken in a piece of bacon. Sounds good so I'll see.

does sound good

[kande50]

With all the veggies piled on, my sandwiches were getting too hard to eat so I started chopping them up and putting salad dressing on them. I think my fav is a vinegar-mayo-dill dressing. It gets kind of runny with the cukes and tomatoes, but the bread helps soak it all up.

[silk]

I had shepherd's pie inspiration, so pulled what I *thought * was some tomato-y mince out of the freezer. Urrr, wrong answer! It is either lamb or beef (I think most likely beef brisket... but I can't remember and I don't label anything...), delicious, rich tomato stew that I remember slow cooking for a looooong time. Topped with buttery mashed potatoes, and then a mix of 1/4 loaf of dry bread chopped into chunks and mixed with mozzerella cheese, salt, pepper and chilli flakes for extra flavour.

Unfortunately today on the way home I got to thinking about red thai curry so I reeeeeeeeaaaaalllllllly want that instead, even though I know the stew is going to be delicious. In the pouring rain, having left my rain coat and umbrella in the car this morning when I walked to work, I stopped at the little Asian grocery store to get curry paste and tamarind. I also need sambal olek which they didn't seem to have. So this weekend I'll do a red curry with the big piece of pork shoulder I picked up yesterday (marked down to $3.99/kg, which is about half the price I normally see it at 'on special'). Om nom nom nom. I will crisp up the pork skin so we can snack on crackling

[Rockabilly]

Smothered pork chops and mashed potatoes. It was just that kind of day.

[silk]

The curry was amazing. It ended up with two lots of low/slow cooking. I also made naan bread. Delish!

[heddylamar]

Not for tonight's dinner, but I put several future dinners in the freezer this week:
- Spinach, mushroom and zucchini lasagna (3 2-serving containers)
- Tamale pie with zucchini and black beans (3 2-serving containers)

Plus, a bunch of prepped ingredients:
- Two gallon bags of pesto cubes
- Two gallon bags of jalapeños, serranos, and Thai chilis (all washed, frozen whole)
- Three gallon bags of washed whole okra
- Two pint bags of ginger peach cobbler filling

And I canned 28 quarts of roasted tomatoes.

Any ideas for another 12# of zucchini? Ugh. CSA needs to let up on the gourds, and we're not even into the winter variety season yet.

[StraightForward]

Playing with garden veggies tonight:

Baby beets (3 kinds) cooked sous vide for about three hours with a sprig of fresh Rosemary, lemon slices, pepper and bacon grease.

A hybrid between fritatta and scalloped potatoes - two layers of red potato slices browned in duck fat, then sauteed leek slices layered over that, all drowned in a batter of duck eggs, cream cheese, tarragon and red pepper with some flour and leavener to make it a little more cake-like.

[heddylamar]

Caprese salad and a Manhattan.

[silk]

G&T and leftover curry, which is still delicious.

[Rockabilly]

Tonight baked Teriyaki chicken thighs. a cilantro lime cabbage salad & steamed rice.

[Canyon]

I just had Caprese salad for lunch.

[silk]

Casserole/stew... Beef cheek - diced, quartered beets, chunks of carrot, onions, two tins of diced tomatoes, a whole head of garlic (smashed and skin removed), half a chilli (with seeds) finely chopped, red wine, water, salt, and the last dregs of a box of lemon pepper seasoning (I don't see the point of the stuff, but it needed using up).
I am sure more went in, but I forget. I thickened it up with a flour/water slurry.

It cooked so low and slow on the fire overnight that the diced meat nearly completely melted away.

[Canyon]

Crock-Potted Pork Tenderloin. I doubled the dry spices, tripled the garlic, added two bay leaves, and threw in a cup of brown rice & a cup of water towards the end. I didn't bother thickening the gravy. This was a tasty meal for the autumn season.

[StraightForward]

Last night - fried green tomatoes, chorizo with leeks and collards, and homemade Sourdough the rolls. Dredged the tomatoes with potato starch I stead of flour and it worked great.

[silk]

Last night, roast chicken legs with leeks and other vege. Delish!
Leek and potato soup, with cornbread. Nom nom!
Tomorrow night is lasagne, with leeks in the white/cheese sauce.

Saturday will probably also feature leeks...

Can you guess we over-purchased on leeks this week?!

[StraightForward]

Baby back ribs with homemade BBQ sauce

Smoked mashed potatoes with marscapone, Aleppo pepper and Meyer lemon zest

Kale sauteed with shallot, mushrooms and bacon grease.

[silk]

This week (erm, yeah... cooking for one is not going quite to plan at the moment) I have lasagne for dinner. I'll do steamed asparagus each night as well. Need to make some freezer space as I have too many leftovers that simply won't last until next week.

[Chisamba]

with the onset of cold weather there was a chili cookoff and trunk or treat, so i made chili that i could eat. ( having developed an allergy to tomato, it was an experiment in chili with no tomato, i used cranberries, and pureed beets to make up the somewhat fruity but not sweet umami in the chili.)
spiced with birds eye peppers, hot enough to clear the sinuses without burning your mouth off.
Seasoned with fresh oregano, cumin, smoked paprika and tamarind
I used pinto beans and wheat berries, ( the wheat berries maintain a crunchiness which adds texture )

i got second place in the cook off competition. So i guess no one missed the tomato!

[kande50]

Stir fry again, and I put fish in it this time. Not sure the dh liked it, but I thought it was very good.

[Rockabilly]

I made caramel apples yesterday and cinnamon rolls. They both turned out well, but StraightForward I am intensely envious of your dinner.

[silk]

Guess what? Lasagne again

[PaulaO]

I'm thinking mushroom lasagna with white sauce. Ina Garten's recipe....

[Canyon]

Last night I made a spicy tomato shrimp soup and a rustic/no knead, baked-in-a-Dutch-oven bread. It was a nice meal on our coldest night of the year. And it used up quite a few of the tomatoes that have been ripening inside after I picked them, prior to our first freeze a few weeks ago.

[kande50]

I'm still working on the cabbages from my garden, so made another coleslaw and put oranges in it this time, and it was even better than with apples.

I had made a big batch of sweet-sour relish out of green tomatoes, cabbage, peppers and onions, and mixed a couple of spoonfuls of that in, too.

[Rockabilly]

I have chicken thighs marinating in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and country digon mustard. Later today I will put them on a foil lined tray with cut up sweet potatoes, onions and brussels sprouts. I will roast all together on the tray for about 40 minutes basting every once in a while. It is a delicious and quick dinner.

[StraightForward]

I'm still working on the cabbages from my garden, so made another coleslaw and put oranges in it this time, and it was even better than with apples.

I had made a big batch of sweet-sour relish out of green tomatoes, cabbage, peppers and onions, and mixed a couple of spoonfuls of that in, too.

Thanks, you just solved my side dish quandary for the evening (with apples, no oranges on hand)!

I've got a pot of turkey, chorizo and white bean chili going in the Instant Pot. Perfect for the first day where it's sort of trying to snow.

[Rockabilly]

Because it's chilly and gonna rain I am making foil packet sweet potato tacos today.