Dinner--or Dessert--Tonight

[apl68]

Was considering a quick cup of instant noodles after church.  But services have been cancelled due to concerns about severe weather.  So I figure I'll put some potatoes in to bake while I would have been in church.  Assuming I have power.

[Langue_doc]

Neighbor brought me a traditional St. Pat's dinner yesterday, so I got to celebrate after all. No parade or party this year, alas.

[ab_grp]

That's awesome, Langue_doc! Nice neighbor.  I think this might be the first year in my life (post-toddler, I guess) that I didn't have some traditional foods.  Sadness.  We will probably do it this coming week.

Just too stressful of a week, but it was productive, and we are ending it with some hopefully yummy food ordered from a local restaurant: some salmon, some seabass, asparagus, brussels, a risotto.

[Langue_doc]

Salmon sounds delicious, ab_grp. Our ethnic grocery store (Turkish I'm assuming, based on some conversations I've overheard, but serving an East European clientele) used to have a wonderful self-serve deli with baked salmon, salmon in teriyaki sauce, a couple of other fish dishes, meatballs, chicken (several dishes), shrimp, rice dishes, pasta dishes, and all kinds of salad. They've closed the deli section so I've been at a loss for replacing the protein, especially the seafood part. They still have produce from all over the world.

Today's dinner was rice, roasted brussels sprouts (NY Times recipe), sauteed broccoli rabe, and meatballs. And Assam tea.

Hope you get to eat a traditional dinner. Ex-spouse, of Irish ancestry, would make the corned beef (pickle or brine it). Hope things get back to normal next year. Although I haven't been to the parade in recent years, NYC without St. Patrick's Day parade just doesn't sound like NYC.

[ab_grp]

That sounds like a loss! We actually have more of those kinds of foods out here than I had close to me back east in a much more metropolitan area, with the exception of a more upscale university town near where I worked.  Your post is making me hungry (haven't eaten yet).  And your dinner sounds wonderful! We were just talking tonight about doing broccoli rabe again soon using a recipe that has garlic and cherry tomatoes in it and putting that with salmon at some point. 

I have not had homemade corned beef, so that must have been a treat.  There isn't much St. Patrick's stuff here (aside from the excuse for the university students to get even rowdier), but I am looking forward to making some of the usual items.  I imagine it is really strange without the various parades.  My eldest daughter was in the marching band throughout high school, and they always participated in the large and small parades in Philly, so the current folks must be sad not to be able to do that this year.   I will definitely toast to a more normal 2022, as weird as that year is to write.

[ab_grp]

We're going to try to make za'atar lamb chops in the air fryer tonight.  I may be jinxing myself, but I am guessing the most challenging part of the process occurred earlier when we tried to remember if we actually had za'atar or not, who ordered it or where we bought it, etc.  There was decoy sumac in the pantry, and I figured if we had the more uncommon ingredient in za'atar we had probably tried to make it ourselves.   Apparently, my husband had bought it on Amazon and was eventually able to locate it on our property.  Relatedly, we should probably corral our spices.  I know everyone was excited to hear the outcome of that investigation.

[Langue_doc]

ab_grp, lamb chops sounds delicious. You'll just love our local ethnic grocery store, which has more than one kind of za'atar. They have spices from all over the world.

I found lamb shanks in the grocery store a few days ago, so bought them for Easter. Now the challenge is fitting them in the pan. The last time I cooked lamb shanks I had to use the turkey roasting pan and bake the shanks after browning them in a cast-iron skillet.

Today's dinner was rice, lentils, lamb curry, and, of course, broccoli rabe.

[ab_grp]

Langue_doc, the lamb chops turned out really well! It was very easy to put together, and they were so delicious.  We will definitely make them again.  I don't think I've ever tried to cook a lamb shank (we have done leg of lamb), but your lamb curry, lentils, rice, and broccoli rabe sounds wonderful. 

[ab_grp]

We made the za'atar lamb chops again the other night, and tonight's will be the third dinner with them.  With a baked potato, super easy. 

We've been getting veggies in at lunch making buddha bowls.  I can mention that here because we initially made one for dinner last week and loved it.  We are trying all sorts of combos, but basically a rice base (we've tried brown and jasmine) with soy sauce, a huge amount of greens (kale, spinach, romaine, and some micro greens today) with snow peas and edamame, red cabbage, red onion, cucumber, and either avocado or hard-boiled egg.  We've tried a couple dressings, but a carrot ginger one we made the first night was just right.  Also put some sesame seeds and pistachios on top, and stuff like lime juice or fish sauce.  We eat them out of mixing bowls because they don't fit in regular bowls.  It's more fun that way, anyway! Just had one for a late lunch and tried tzatziki in it.

[Faith786]

deep fried, potatoe and mozerella-cheese fritters/latke, egg-stuffed puff pastry (savory though, not pastry at all), and a little bit of thickened lentil-rice soup garnished with onions, mint, and coriander

[ab_grp]

We made carbonara from a favorite recipe of weird origins (from a friend's book on trying to learn the Italian language), and that's always a hit. 

Yesterday we decided to try to marinate a leg of lamb in Greek yogurt, as previous legs of lamb have not always been too tender.  Looked at a bunch of recipes and came up with a mix that worked for us (yogurt, za'atar, pressed garlic, salt, pepper) and let it marinate in the fridge all day, then picked a set of cooking instructions and roasted at 425 for about 40 minutes.  It cooked a lot faster than the recipes predicted, so I'm glad we checked the lamb temp several times.    Anyway, it turned out to be tender and yummy and smelled great while cooking.   A pretty easy way to prepare it, too. 

[secundem_artem]

I found some ramps in the local market.  Sautéed the bulbs with white asparagus, broccoli florets, mushrooms (button, shiitake and oyster) and grape tomatoes.  Tossed them with some spaghetti and parmesan. Topped with a chiffonade of ramp leaves. Dang fine eatin' if I say so myself.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

We're having homemade meatball subs tonight with a green salad. Cinnamon crumb cake for dessert.

[ab_grp]

Coming back to this thread and rereading some of the recent meals... maybe this is not a good thread to visit before dinner! Everything sounds too yummy.

We ordered a big bunch of food earlier in the week to avoid having to cook while husband recuperated.  I am actually surprised that it is mostly gone, having eaten it for lunch and dinner every day and not seeming to make a dent for a good while.  We have a bunch of leftover fried rice, and there are a couple pieces of salmon in the freezer, so we are planning to make some teriyaki salmon to go with the rice.  I could pretty much just eat fried rice forever, but I suppose the extra effort will be worth it. ;-) Looks like teriyaki goes well with brussels sprouts, too, so we will probably air fry some of those guys as well.  I think my body needs some veggies after this delicious but somewhat unhealthy week of eating.

[mamselle]

I just made the yummiest potato salad.....had some for lunch, I see more looming in my future for dinner....

They had those multi-colored small potatoes as well as the small Yukon Golds, so I got a bag of each (they're small...)

Boiled and eyed them, cut in wedges*, then added:

1/3 cup of mayo
1/3 cup of Ken's Honey-mustard (or honey-dijon) dressing (I like theirs best)
1/3 cup of stone-ground mustard

plus my usual spice go-to's:

rubbed black pepper
rubbed basil
rubbed Herbes de Provence

stirred up while the potatoes were still warm...ummmmmmm.....

The new HdProv. I got were from a different brand, and wow, you can taste the lavender in them.

Made the potatoes even better.


(* True confessions: Some warm potatoes were consumed fresh from the pot once wedged and eyed in making this dish....)