heating leftovers from last night: risotto with chanterelles and asparagus, topped with a sprinkle of crisp bacon washed down with what's left of yesterday's Muscadet

Sunday I made some great cream of cauliflower soup. My husband cooked during the week and made a great Italian sausage meat loaf from an Epicurious recipe. Simply divine!

Last night actually - Chickpea & Pumpkin Soup, a vegan recipe from The Cafe Brenda Cookbook. Really good. Leftovers for another night this week.


DSCN0906 by MsLynnB, on Flickr

Simplest thing in the world: two corn tortillas with a splat of salsa verde apiece, piled with a sliced Roma tomato, some cut-up crimini mushrooms and some coarsely diced leftover roast chicken thigh meat, all covered with enough cheddar jack cheese and chopped parsley; this, baked at 375 degrees F. for 18 minutes and washed down with sufficient cava, is a good winter meal.

There's usually enough cava left to accompany the dessert of choice.

Fresh mozz panini with grilled radichio, figs and balsamic. Straight from 2005 but very good.

Xmas eve dinner for the 4 of us.
I boned out a 12 lb turkey and stuffed the breast with the leg and thigh meat and rolled & tied
currently in a SV bath at 150 (ish) for 4 to 5 hours then I'll roast it at 450˚ to brown it up.

no too pretty at the moment...
added to the bag, a chopped mix of rosemary, thyme & sage and a stick of butter!

all the bones and various little bits of meat got roasted and added to the stock pot (200˚ 12 oven)
for turkey soup with wild rice post family party on Xmas at my folks.

SE Asian Xmas Eve dinner:
Vietnamese Cha Gio rolls, with shrimp & crabmeat, and a fiery sauce comprised of sweet chile sauce, chile/garlic paste, lime juice, and nuoc mam; Tom Kha Talay (coconut/lime soup with seafood, in my case shrimp and squid); Ka Prao with chopped beef over jasmine rice; and coconut sorbet with coconut/black sesame cigarette cookies and coconut brownies. Good eats, start to finish - and much different than my usual Swedish Jul fare (it's just not cold enough to support eating potatiskorv, bruna bornor, kotbullar, and vortlimpa yet. . .). I used my standard Ka Prao recipe from the She Simmers website, and tried her Tom Kha Gai recipe + tutorial, as well, modified for the use of seafood. Awful damn good result - highly recommended. It was my great good fortune today to get the very last packet of fresh kaffir lime leaves at Golden Pacific, as well as finding sliced frozen galangal, which worked tremendously well. Having a packet of frozen galangal in the freezer is like finding a $20 in the washer after doing the laundry.

Can you tell that I like both shrimp and coconut a great deal? And irrespective of my menu choices, God Jul!

here's the slice shot of the SV turkey breast stuffed with the dark meat (post a browning in the oven)

Once again, Thomas Keller Roast Chicken from Ad Hoc at Home. We take some liberties, using brussels sprouts in the roasted veggies, and not trussing.

Meatloaf, glazed carrots, mashed potatoes and kale.

Fresh (right off the boat) Dungeness crab

fresh crab by Mel Hill Photography, on Flickr

In Half Moon Bay, CA

mhill95149 wrote:Fresh (right off the boat) Dungeness crab
In Half Moon Bay, CA

I apologize for being rude, but I just got hard.

zoid wrote:

mhill95149 wrote:Fresh (right off the boat) Dungeness crab
In Half Moon Bay, CA

I apologize for being rude, but I just got hardSHELL.

FTFY.

Finished!

crab cakes by Mel Hill Photography, on Flickr

Really tasty!

mhill95149 wrote:Finished!

crab cakes by Mel Hill Photography, on Flickr

Really tasty!

Someone please pass me a couple tissue papers

Yum those crab cakes look excellent. I am not making dinner. I am going to a friends house who is making chicken osso buco (?), lasagna, and others are bringing other stuff. I am bringing some appetizers such as brie in pastry cups garnished with raspberry and pecan halfs, samosas with dipping sauce I did not make, cookies, and chocolate eclair refrigerator cake for dessert. My DH is bringing dilly casserole bread which he made today.

i made a beef wellington, used some black salt i got for christmas on the top. Happy New Year!

From last night's NYE dinner:

Artichoke flan, Maine lobster and Jonah crab, Pernod scented beurre blanc



Roasted saddle of lamb stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, lamb marrow and brioche crumbs with Parmesan whipped potatoes and lamb jus (not shown)



The raw saddles, stuffed, then wrapped in caul fat and rolled tightly in plastic wrap for 24 hours:

Broke out the crock pot this morning & enjoyed 3 Bean Chili w/ Chive-Flecked Dumplings for dinner.


DSCN0915 by MsLynnB, on Flickr


DSCN0917 by MsLynnB, on Flickr

Every time I use it, I say "I should really use the crock pot more often..."

Dinner tonight was escarole, meatball, and rice soup. It was new to me but ended up being pretty delicious. Of course, adding some porcinis/soaking water and Parmesan rind always helps. I'm also treating my husband like a toddler and trying to sneak some greens into him. I hoped that he would focus on the meatballs and forget that escarole soup is full of, you know, escarole.

Fish (cod) tacos w red cabbage slaw and poblano lime rice on the side.

KajmacJohnson wrote:Sunday I made some great cream of cauliflower soup. My husband cooked during the week and made a great Italian sausage meat loaf from an Epicurious recipe. Simply divine!

Is that the one with mozzarella cheese?

DSCN0918 by MsLynnB, on Flickr

Last night - Garlicky Black-Eyed Peas w/ Collards & Brown Rice, Homemade Cornmeal-Pecan Muffin

I worked from home today and made Ragu alla Bolognese I riffed on a recipe that was in the Nov/Dec issue of Cooks Illustrated. It's still simmering away, but so far I'm really happy. I'm also going to make some lentil soup using the Greek lentils I got as a door prize from Avli at the LTH Christmas Party. Take that, snowy day.

Chicken paprikash with baby dutch yellow potatoes and swabian noodles. Peas and carrots.
spent all afternoon making this with smoked paprika as the snow fell.

toria wrote:Chicken paprikash with baby dutch yellow potatoes and swabian noodles. Peas and carrots.
spent all afternoon making this with smoked paprika as the snow fell.

How is this? Do you just use straight-up smoked paprika or a mix? And how much? I've always been tempted to try this, but I've always been afraid Spanish smoked paprika might be a bit too strong on its own, so I've chickened out (excuse the pun.)

Unfortunately, my dinners for the last two nights has been Hungry Man mashed potatoes with cheese, egg beaters (for protein), and gravy. Yeah, I got a wisdom tooth pulled and it looks like my mouth is going to be out of chewing condition for at least another couple of days. Can't wait for some more solid food.

Steak marinated in Italian spices, olive oil and wine, sour cream and cream cheesed mashed potatoes and sauteed baby bell mushrooms with Old Bay and Oilve oil.

Looks like I'm slowly starting to heal, so it's pan-fried breaded tilapia, mashed potatoes, and (English-style) mushy peas for dinner, drizzled with malt vinegar, of course.

I used a heaping tbsp of smoked and a heaping tbsp of spanish pap. It was not Hungarian.

I took that as a given, being that it was smoked paprika. (I am not aware of any Hungarian smoked paprikas.) Where do you get unsmoked Spanish paprika? I've only been able to find the smoked variety here.

Hmm...looking online seems there are plenty of regular Spanish paprikas out there, but whenever I look (like at Penzey's or the Spice House), I can only find the smoked variety. Looks like McCormick even has regular Spanish paprika, so perhaps I should just check Jewel next time. I've always wanted to taste non-smoked Spanish paprika to see how it compares.