What's for Dinner? ~ Wednesday ~ January 15th

[Lucinda]

[bif]

1. Possibly pizza

[Lucinda]

4. Always a good option for me!

[cbayer]

2. Hola, Lucinda!

Hope you had a great supper and are feeling well today.

I'm going to finish off the picadillo - serve it on rice with beans on the side. It came out great and I am pretty sure the meat I used is goat.

My try at empanadas didn't go all that well. I need to get better at working with dough.

[Lucinda]

3. Hola chica! I think the secret to dough is to not overwork it!

especially for things like tamales and empanada dough. Glad to hear the picadillo was a winner!

I'm wonky today after trying a new med last night, but i'm functional, so I am calling it a win!

[cbayer]

5. Glad its a win!

I do think I overworked the dough and I also think I didn't let it chill long enough.

In addition, I don't have a proper rolling pin, so that just added to the problem.

Will try again.

[Lucinda]

23. Either one can do a recipe in...hopefully

you will get it the way you want it next time. I used to like tinkering with recipes until I got things exactly how I wanted them, now I tend to go for quick and easy. lol How times change, eh?

[livetohike]

6. Black bean soup, cornmeal scones and a tomato/avocado salad

[Lucinda]

22. Yum... all the way round! What do you put in your black bean soup?

They can carry a lot of strong flavors. I used to experiment with them a lot, now we just usually use them to make homemade refried beans.

[livetohike]

26. The recipe I like best is from "Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home". The special ingredient is sun

dried tomatoes:

Black Bean Soup

10 Sun-dry tomatoes, (not packed in oil)
1 c. Boiling water
1 1/2 c. Onions, finely minced
3 Garlic cloves, chopped or possibly pressed
1 Jalapeno chile, chopped, or possibly 1/4 tsp. cayenne
2 Tbsp. Vegetable oil
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/3 c. Water
3 c. Tomatoes, (28-oz can -, undrained)
32 ounce Black beans, (canned) or 4 c. cooked with their liquid
1 c. Cilantro, minced fresh
Additional water or tomato juice
Sour cream or plain yogurt

Directions

In a small bowl, cover the sun-dry tomatoes with the boiling water and set aside. In a soup pot, saute/fry' the onions, garlic, and chile or possibly cayenne in the oil for about 5 min, stirring frequently, till the onions are translucent/soft. Add in the cumin, 1/3 c. water, and the juice from the tomatoes. Break up the tomatoes by squeezing them into the soup pot, or possibly chop them coarsely right in the can and add in them to the pot. Cover and bring to a boil. lower the heat and simmer; covered, for 5 min. Add in the black beans and their liquid, and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Drain and chop the softened sun-dry tomatoes. Add in them to the soup and cook for 5 - 10 min longer, till the onions are tender. Stir in the cilantro and remove the soup from the heat. Puree half of the soup in a blender or possibly food processor and return it to the pot. If the soup is too thick, add in some water or possibly tomato juice. Reheat gently. Serve each bowl of soup with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream.

[Lucinda]

27. Thankie! I would probably sub a veggie stock

for the water, but it looks delicious!

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. The last of my spaghetti.

More yellow beans.

[Lucinda]

21. I love meals that keep on giving!

Bill gets tired of repeats, but it works for me. Love to make a big batch of something and then just reheat for a few meals.

[maddezmom]

8. Leftover chicken enchiladas for me

leftover lasagna for Maddie and homemade chicken tenders and fries for the TMan.

[Lucinda]

20. That's a very eclectic dinner!

Your post reminds me that I have a squash lasagna recipe floating around here somewhere that I want to try....

[maddezmom]

25. Normally I feel like a short order cook

At least tonight I had leftovers.

[Lucinda]

28. LOL!

With Bill working overnight now, having the same meal at the same time doesn't happen often. He cooks as often as I do (or more) though, so thats some help.

[pinto]

9. Room temp plates - pinto bean & corn salad, sliced tri-tip w/ horseradish, sliced cukes.

We're having an unseasonable warm spell, good week to just have stuff plated, sliced and dressed. Bought some orange mint plants this morning to fill in spots in the herb bed out front. Sounds good for tea, hot or cold, and cocktails. Some chocolate mint, too. Might try that in coffee.

[Lucinda]

19. I love horseradish...no one else I know is a fan

More for me though, so it's all good!

[Galileo126]

10. roasted lemon-garlic chicken thighs

with some leftover baked beans, and (wait for it....) roasted potatoes in a little duck fat.

[Lucinda]

18. I'd be happy with the potatoes all by themselves!

One of the few ways I still eat potatoes is roasted, the duck fat would be a bonus.

[NJCher]

11. curlicue spiral pasta

with roasted garlic, spinach, and herbs. Turkey meatballs topped with mozzarella.

Dessert is grapes, sliced apples, and brie.


Cher

[Galileo126]

12. I'm not a dessert fan...

but grapes, apples and brie sounds awesome!

rock on...

-g

ps: while working at an observatory in San Diego county, the head cook would always try to fill us up with processed sweets, which I abhor. She was one of those vegetarians who was addicted to sweets. Weird. I'm an omnivore, so yeah, I eat my veggies too. Anyway, after much bitching and complaining, "dessert" is now fresh fruit, with a cheese plate.

She may hate me, but my fellow astronomers thank me. (She also held back on the menu to make money, serving us lentils instead of a well balanced meal. Anything she could shave off the menu meant money in her pocket. Long story short, she wasn't fired, but now she's well regulated by the observatory's powers-that be. I put a stop to that.

As my collegues say jokingly..."I am Legend". (Sorry Mr.Will Smith!)



Yeah ...fruit n' cheese started a firestorm.

<bows>

[NJCher]

24. that is weird!

Usually vegetarians are into health and understand about sweets. Anyway, I'm glad you straightened her out because there is nothing worse than processed sweets. Ugh!!

However I have a weird vegetarian story, too.

A couple years ago when my kitchen was being renovated, I hired a contractor who was definitely on the strange side. He claimed to be a vegetarian, so when he and his workers would get lunch, they would go to Burger King. He would get a roll with lettuce, tomato, and onion. Or if it was a pizza place, he would just get a slice with tomato and mozzarella.

I shuddered. I started fixing him real vegetarian meals so he could get the idea of what vegetarianism actually is. He thought he'd died and gone to heaven! I could hear him making comments to his workers, "I don't know what I'm going to do when this job is over."

Unfortunately this has the tendency of stretching out the job, but oh well, at least I enlightened one person about good vegetarian food!


Cher

[Lucinda]

17. It all sounds delicious!

Especially the fruit and cheese.

[laundry_queen]

13. Ready for my flogging

lol, joking. We had McDonalds. I had to clean my parents' house and shovel their extremely large driveway (I have a 'job' cleaning their place every 2 weeks, plus they are out of town so I have to shovel their driveway. Like I need the stress. When do I get my vacation?), so I bribed my kids to help me by promising McDonalds. It worked, it turned a 4+ hour marathon into 1 hour. Plus, we were out of power a good part of the day so I didn't do any prep work for a decent meal (we had wind gusts that reached 75 MPH. fun times). So, McDonalds. I have big plans for tomorrow though

[Lucinda]

16. No flogging from me. Sometimes fast food is a good thing!

And I like Mickey D's fish sandwich!

[LauraNb]

14. Pizza

It was one of those nights that required pizza. Extra cheese topping. Yum!

[Lucinda]

15. Always a favorite choice for us!