What's for dinner?

[Worm of Despite]

Ate at my mom's. She had a homemade meal of chicken noodle soup, cheesy breadsticks, and some chocolate pumpkin cake. It was kinda strange, cause I had a bad cold that morning, and then she called me and mentioned the soup.

The cake was good, but it wasn't my favorite type: it was all cake inside and no inner cream/icing layer. I like cakes with a soft, dense texture--especially carrot cake and Italian cream. Now my mom is the Goddess of Italian cream cakes!

[Menolly]

What is an Italian cream cake, LF?

[Worm of Despite]

What is an Italian cream cake, LF?

Ask Google!

[Menolly]

Oh boy!!!

[Cameraman Jenn]

LEFTOVERS!!!!




Today at brunch we had fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and cherries mixed with a little sugar as the topping for the waffles. I took the leftover berry/cherry mix and made us a homemade pie. Yummers!

[stonemaybe]

From an email, Spaghetti Puttanesca:

my version...
Can of good quality tuna in olive oil (I use m&s)
Drain some of the oil in a wide non stick pan - add chili flakes and garlic to
taste (lots for me please!).
Add a little tomato puree, a shake of fish sauce, teaspoon of red wine vinegar
and a tin of good tomatoes.
Heat on high, reduce fiercely.
When it's starting to thicken up add the tuna, capers (I like lots but be
careful - they can overpower), dried oregano and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
It should be the consistency of thick paint.

Serve over pasta. A REALLY good touch is to add a few handfuls of spinach to
the colander you drain the pasta in (I do this for all pasta dishes). Finish
with a drizzle of either basil or garlic infused olive oil. Parmesan is classic
but I have the fish sauce in there to give it that umami punch.

That's my version, refined over about 5 years. Play around with the ingredients
and you'll get your perfect balance - things to experiment with are olives,
anchovy, anchovy paste, fresh tuna fillets (nice treat!), white wine.

I've been eating it for years and I absolutley love it - the joy of it is if you
have no fresh veggies or defrosted chicken etc. you can whip this up from what's
in your cupboard in 20 mins.

All hail prostitute sauce!!!

more info on name here
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puttanesca

[stonemaybe]

8.75 out of 10!

[bloodguard bob]

Had dinner at Julie's on Saturday. We had Japanese food as the movie we watched was a Japanese film all about food.
Julie made what she called spicy tuna which was a tuna tar-tar with wasabi and some mayo to smooth it out. The cut of ahi was gorgeous. This was served on either sesame crackers or seaweed. It was such a hit that I had to hide my portion while I was cooking but still lost most of it to little fingers.
I made a simple batch of udon topped with green onions and my sautéd tofu, tempura with vegables and shrimp and seaweed salad.
There was also a large selection of sakis.

[Menolly]

Spicy tuna is a very popular sushi filling here, although it's made with an orange mayo instead of what I call creamy wasabi (the wasabi-mayo mixture). I need to try it Julie's way.

Thanks for sharing, BGB!

[Cameraman Jenn]

Tonight I am making pesto over seven cheese tortellini with a mixed green salad and garlic bread.

[Damelon]

That sounds good, Jenn!

Too bad you're not right around the corner.

I had a Philly steak calzone for lunch. Tonight is darts night, so I probably won't have time for much more than a cheese sandwich for dinner. Though the calzone was so filling, I won't need too much tonight.

[Cameraman Jenn]

You would certainly be welcome for dinner Damelon, and to bring Mani for a playdate with Moose! Imagine the cuteness overload those two would be while playing together.

[Worm of Despite]

Two Chik-fil-A sandwiches and a loaded baked potato.

[Wyldewode]

Tonight was leftover Baked Alfredo from yesterday:

1lb penne noodles (cooked)
1lb bulk italian sausage, browned
1 small onion, finely diced
portabello mushrooms, sliced
alfredo sauce (cheated and bought a jar of high quality stuff)

I browned the meat, then sauteed the vegies in the drippings. I mixed all ingredients and spooned it into a 9x13 pan, and topped it with a generous amount of three cheese blend. Baked at 425 to melt the cheese (was making garlic toast, or the oven could be lower temperature).

It was quite yummy.

[Menolly]

Tonight was leftover Baked Alfredo from yesterday

Ooo Lyr, that sounds awesome.

Would you suggest using more mushrooms if one wanted to kept this dish vegetarian? Or maybe adding some smoked tofu slices?

[Worm of Despite]

Ate at Steak & Shake with a friend last night. It hadn't been to one in ages. Always good to experience a place like that, after a long time.

Got a portobello & swiss Steakburger, cheddar cheese fries, and a cookie dough milkshake (my friend thought it strange, but I'm a sucker for cookie dough).

[Wyldewode]

Tonight was leftover Baked Alfredo from yesterday

Ooo Lyr, that sounds awesome.

Would you suggest using more mushrooms if one wanted to kept this dish vegetarian? Or maybe adding some smoked tofu slices?

Glad you like my little invention! I think you could increase the mushrooms, and I would add a little more cheese for the sake of protein. I haven't had much experience with tofu, but I'm sure you could use it too. . . or TVP. Let me know how it turns out!

[Menolly]

Tonight was kielbasa night. I always make kielbasa the same. Pan sautéed with Kraft blue box and peas on the side. Tonight Hyperception said he wanted something different done with it. More along the lines of jambalaya.

I was skeptical, as Beorn really prefers his food bland and separate. But I figured we could give a recipe a try, if I could find one. So I searched and found this recipe. But, by the time I found it, it was too late to do it in the crockpot. So I, Miss “never tweak a recipe without making it totally per directions the first time,” attempted to make it on the stove top…

…and it was a big hit! I’ve been told to hold on tight to this one, by both Hyperception and Beorn.

So, here is what I did.

Cajun Sausage and Rice

24 oz Kielbasa sausage, cut in 1/4" slices
2 (14 1/2oz) can diced Tomatoes with liquid
1 medium Onion, diced*
1 medium Green Pepper, diced*
4 Celery stalks, thinly sliced*
2 TBS Chicken bouillon granules
2 TBS Worchestershire sauce
6 Bay leaves
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce

2-1/2 cups uncooked long grain white rice
3 cups water
1/2 cup chopped Parsley (optional)

*trinity

In a sauce pot, sauté kielbasa on medium high heat until it is starting to brown. Add the trinity and sauté in the kielbasa juices until limp. Add the rest of the ingredients through the Tabasco sauce, turn the heat down to medium low, and cover. Simmer for one hour.

Cook the rice in the three cups of water in a rice steamer. After the rice is finished, stir it into the sausage mixture on the stove top. Heat through, and sprinkle with parsley.

[stonemaybe]

Tonight I made my Winter-Warmer Staithi (my word, I think, pronounced 'stYA-he') which is like a thick beef stew where everything you have in the kitchen goes into a big pot and ends up delicious and hot and thick and is great on a chilly winter evening. I'll try and describe how I made it, and as i go I'll put the ingredients I used this time at the top. 'Exp' means experimental!
(This was enough for two very hungry people, with enough left for a very hungry me tomorrow)

about 500g beef (cheap!), small-ish cubed
butter
two large potatoes, quartered then quartered again
3 medium carrots, thickly sliced
1 parsnip, thickly sliced
2 medium courgettes (zucchini), thickly sliced
5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 chilli, roughly chopped
16 small onions (bitesize, whole)
12 small button mushrooms, whole
8 broccholi florets(is that the word?)
1.5 pints beef stock
half a bottle red wine
sprinkling of fish oil exp
sprinkling of Worcestershire sauce exp
2tbsp parsley, chopped exp
3 bay leaves exp
5 sprigs thyme exp
2 tsp flour exp
salt and pepper

Using a BIG pot (with a lid), melt the butter and brown the beef.
Once it's brown, spoon it out into a bowl.
Throw in the courgettes(Zucchini), mushrooms and onions and fry for about 5 minutes.
Add garlic and chilli and the beef again, fry for another 4-5 minutes.
Add potato, carrots, parsnip.
Add red wine.
Add enough beef stock to cover everything.
Add fish oil and Worcestershire sauce.
Add parsley (I had some frozen)
Tie up bay leaves (I used dried) with thyme (I had some frozen) with some thread and throw it in.
Cover and cook on low heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

At this stage I ralised it wasn't thickening up at all, so I spooned out all the potato I could find, mashed them up and put them back in. I also sprinkled a heaped teaspoon of flour in and mixed it all up well.
Left lid off and turned the heat up to medium for another 15 minutes.
Add broccholi.
Heat for another ten minutes, or until the liquid has gone really thick.
take out the thyme/bay leaf bouquet thing and serve.

Eat with a spoon, blowing lots first to cool down first ten mouthfuls!

[stonemaybe]

Tonight's recipe reads much like that one above, but it's very very different and mmmmmm so delicious! As I was given by a friend....

pack of venison sausages
3 red onions, chunkily sliced
half bottle red wine
6 big chestnut mushrooms
tin of tomatoes

brown the sausages and onions over a high heat and throw them into a casserole dish. Add other ingredients , plus seasoning, a few chilli flakes, garlic and thyme and fire in the oven at about 180C for 30-40minues. It should have reduced to a nice casserole consistency - if not, a little cornflour will do the trick. Serve with rice.

Couldn't get venison sausages so I used 8 chunky high quality pork ones, I added a chopped chilli to the frying pan, and included some baby onions left over from last recipe, and I had to reduce....ahem,fiercely..... after I took out of oven as well as the flour. Enough for 3, or 2 very hungry!

This was deeelishshsshshhshshhous!