Kevin's Watch

I looked at the photos. So raclette is a grilled version of hot pot or fondue? Communal cooking at table?

Tonight is Easy Chicken Divan with planned over chicken.

Yes. You can grill stuff on top or use the little pans under the grill. You prepare your dishes at the table. Very communal indeed. Like fondue it's usually a typical Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve thing over here. But of course it's fun on other days as well.

No idea WFD tonight. At this point I think it is getting too late to pull something to defrost, so it may be either a CORN or "whatever jumps in to the cart" night.

We do have planned over lamb, and planned over chicken divan. If Dam-sel liked curry, I could see using the lamb for such.

hmm...
maybe sliced lamb in tortillas with tzatziki? We have some Israeli salad, as the Dams call it, which could be added, along with some sliced raw onion...

wound up doing the souvlaki-style lamb last night.

SD is cooking tonight. my understanding is we're having smoked chicken breasts and steamed artichoke. not sure if there will be a starch of some sort for SD and Dam-sel.

Sadly artichoke often is a wrongly overlooked vegetable.

I love artichokes, especially ones that are stuffed. But I don't understand cutting away all the yummy leaves for dishes that consist of only hearts.

Yes, I'll make some that call for hearts, but will use frozen or bottled/canned artichoke hearts for those. For me, cutting away the leaves is just too painful.

Just gotta say, I've missed the flavor or real smoke.
Dinner was awesome!

SD found some veal shanks on 30% off special, so I found a crockpot Osso Buco recipe which is mostly five-star rated. hoping it is worth the raves.

will serve garlic mashed yukon gold potatoes and haricort verts with.

(have chosen not to follow WOE the past few days. plan to return to it tomorrow)

SD smoked a whole chicken and served with whole steamed artichoke last night. Tonight he is using dark meat planned overs from the chicken to make Mexican casserole.

crockpot chicken and dumplings
I'm going to try cutting low-carb tortillas in to strips and adding them the last half an hour for my dumplings
I love the Amish style rectangular strips, so am hoping this works

Spaghetti in a butter-pesto sauce with Brucetta (or however you pronounce that) and a side of steamed broccoli.... Ok, the 'butter-pesto sauce' is just melted butter and pesto, all right? *sniffle* I just wanted to sound tough!

[wow, my forum pimping on FB worked!]

made from scratch eggplant parmagiana with home made vegetarian sauce.





I went ahead and did a full photo accounting of all the steps to make tonight's dinner and posted them in my Low-Carb Luxuries album on Facebook.

No idea WFD for tonight yet, but for tomorrow...
(keep in mind I have made this recipe for years; not all comments apply in my new situation, but I will make it this way and adapt if needed)

Corned Beef and Cabbage

3 lb uncooked corned beef brisket (in pouch with pickling juice is okay)
2 carrots, chopped into 2" pieces
5 small red potatoes, halved
1 onion, quartered
1 small turnip, chopped into 2" pieces
3/4 cup malt vinegar
1/2 bottle (6 oz) Irish stout (I like using an oatmeal stout)
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp black peppercorns (whole)
1 tsp dill seed
1 tsp allspice (whole)
1 bay leaf
1 small (2 Lb) head cabbage, cut into wedges

In a LARGE (6.5 qt) Crock-Pot, place the carrots, spuds, onion and turnip in bottom. Add the liquids. Spice rub the brisket. Place on top. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours. Add cabbage wedges. Cook an additional 3 hours on LOW. Serve with Coarse Grain Mustard and Horseradish Sauce.

Pam’s notes:
We’re not fans of boiled potatoes, so I substitute 5 additional chopped turnips for the red potatoes. Although I am thinking of subbing fingerlings to try one day…

We like our cabbage really soft, so I put it in at the same time as everything else.

We like a lot of carrots, so I use a full pound, rather than just two.

The newer crockpots cook much hotter than the older ones that this recipe was written for. Check for doneness after eight hours, although it can cook for twelve hours with no problem.

Some online friends who have tried this recipe find the stout and malt vinegar to be a bit bitter. I have suggested they substitute a lager and apple cider vinegar. This seems to work well for those who try it.

Stuffed cabbage with turkey and brown rice. I'll let you know if it's edible.

Menolly wrote:made from scratch eggplant parmagiana with home made vegetarian sauce.

I always find it annoying to do those kinds of recipes, cuz I never have to feed enough people to use a whole vegetarian in my recipes, and they freezer burn no matter what I do. Even reducing them to stock leaves a lot of waste.

On another note...the corned beef thing is a good, solid, tasty recipe.
The last few years, though, I've added a fair amount of garlic [bout 2 cloves proportional to what you posted], 1 beet for every 4 potatoes [all equivalent sized]...if i don't use any beet, I use 1/2 red cabbage just for color though it doesn't affect taste like beet.

If anyone complains, I laugh heartily throwing back my head, and remind them I AIN'T Irish, and my wife has Russian ancestors...clearly demonstrated by the beets, the kilt I'm wearing, and the claidmhore I'm using to peel and chop.

Even though I know Vraith looks nothing like Belushi (thanks to his FB friending binge a while ago), I could not read the last bit of his post above and not think of this:


Yes, I know the difference between a claidheamh mòr and a katana...but the image of Vraith using such a fine weapon to peel and chop root veggies just tickles me.

Anyway, Menolly's eggplant parm was excellent, and far better as planned-overs when the flavors had melded a day or two. She does indeed use a whole vegetarian in her sauce, but she makes an appropriately large batch and freezes much of it in meal-sized portions for future use.

Dam-sel and I are looking forward to the corned beef Menolly is described for tomorrow. I would use more cabbage and fewer turnips...but when when I asked about this while shopping, she rather insisted that I trust her. Of course; how else?

Tonight, I am making braised pork chops and green beans. Simple fare, but tomorrow we feast.

The sensible Irish make Monday a holiday. So smart...

Savor Dam wrote:I would use more cabbage and fewer turnips...but when when I asked about this while shopping, she rather insisted that I trust her. Of course; how else?

Typically, you left out the explanation that more cabbage would not fit in the crockpot you have. The recipe calls for a 6.5-quart, preferably oval, crockpot. I'll be using a 5-quart, possibly even only a 4.5-quart, round crockpot. The cutting back on the cubed turnips to even half the amount I'm using would still not allow for another pound of wedged cabbage. Once cooked down, more cabbage would probably fit, but not when raw and firm.
[I heard that, SD...]

So yeah, in regards to this recipe, I know of what I speak.
Trust me.

Menolly wrote:So yeah, in regards to this recipe, I know of what I speak.
Trust me.

I repeat, "Of course, how else?"

As for

Menolly wrote:[I heard that, SD...]

I don't doubt that for a moment!

Savor Dam wrote:As for

Menolly wrote:[I heard that, SD...]

I don't doubt that for a moment!

Here are a couple of photos I took of the crockpot ready to go this morning.



It all really did just barely fit inside with the lid down. In Gator Town in the past, before I got my oval crockpot, I have had to start this with a weight on the lid to seal it. Fortunately, that was not the case this time.