What Did You Have For Dinner Last Night?

I'm glad its cooling off, as I find it difficult to cook at times during the summer. I hate to turn the oven on, plus a lot of things (stews, chili, casseroles, etc.) are just kinda heavy and filling.

I made a risotto with turkey cutlet, spinach, tomato, bell pepper, and rosemary on Saturday night. The wife requested a carbo load as she took a big marathon training run yesterday.

Last night she made these homemade corn tortillas and ort of turned them into empanadas stuffed with mushrooms and beans and onion and cheese. The Mexican book I got for her birthday is paying dividends!

 

2300 calories in the whole thing according to the site's info. I think we've discovered the reason Jane looked so plain.

What on Earth do they put in the toppings on that potato, and how do they grow them so massive in the first place? I suspect steroids...

 

I rotissarie'd a chicken, mash potatoes, corn with home made gravy. What is left of the chicken will become a delicious chicken salad for lunches this week

 

YUM!!! Those both sound great!

I'm a big fan of Mexican food. Oddly, I sort of avoided fish tacos for the longest time. They just sounded ... not right somehow. Then, The Hubby tried this recipe and I was bowled over.

I know what you mean about the heavy "fall" fare not working well in the summer. But, I do love the fall woods. Which is why I've got the roast in the crock pot right now (ended up not making it Saturday.) We've definitely got the weather for it today. At least this morning when I had the dogs in the park, it certainly felt fall like.

 

Frozen pizza.

 

They get the potatoes from Idaho and actually do it so it's like a potato and a half.

Also, toppings? It's pretty much butter and cheese with a side of potato.

 

One pound (or larger) potatoes are not unusual here in the States Holdfast.

 

Well on the positive side of losing my job...which I still can't beleive I'm one of the "unemployed"...I won't be eating much anymore...finally lose that last 5lbs at least.....so until I get a job I'll be eating nothing for dinner.

 

I always liked Mexican food, but it tended to be more Americanized, with the few exceptions of when we went to authentic type restaurants.

My wife ate Mexican food like there's no tomorrow growing up. So she helped expand my horizons beyond tacos and burritos. I too thought fish tacos sounded weird. But she originally is from the west coast where I think it's a lot more popular.

I guess the thing is that I was expecting your standard Old El Paso tacos with fish instead of ground beef. When in reality, the sauces and seasonings are totally different. I'm 'hooked' at this point, if you'll excuse the bad pun.

For what it's worth, this is the book we've been using for ideas lately. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Mod-Mex/Scott-Linquist/e/9780740768651/?itm=1
It has nice, authentic looking recipes with ingredients you can usually find.

Yeah, in the cooler weather, we never have problems figuring out something to make. Various soups, chilis, stews, stuffed pasta, etc. And those are all great because they make leftovers.

In the summer, it's a lot of salads, sandwiches, eggs sometimes. Stuff that is light and quick to prep. They don't keep so well, and we run out of ideas quick.

 

Had BBQ Chicken with a squash salad with potatoes and green beans, it was declious.

 

Barbecue chicken, cabbage, salad of spring greens.

 

Pretty decent four seasons pizza I got from Waitrose while getting the rest of my grocery shopping after work. First time I've bought a supermarket pizza in about 5 years or so, but it wasn't half bad really.

 

^They've really come along in recent years. DiGiorno's and other ones like that are a far improvement over those Elio's carboard pizzas with waxy cheese from my youth.

 

Gaspacho, rotisserie chicken, sauteed spinach, and roast potato, all bought from Freshdirect.com

 

I don't know, I still wouldn't buy a frozen one, though I'll take your word that they've improved. This one was a fresh one rather than a frozen one (just needed quick cooking in the oven when I got home), so I figured I'd give it a go. Yeah, it was OK. Go figure.

Amusingly, it came with a little miniature bottle of anchovy & olive dressing to sprinkle on top after cooking. I'm guessing it was separate so you could avoid having the anchovies if you're not a fan. Quite a cute touch for a supermarket pizza.

 

My wife is out of town for work for a few days. We had picked out chili as one of the dinners we would make this week when we went grocery shopping.

Since she is not here though, I can make 5-alarm, devil's breath, melt your tongue kind of chili.

I like to use a variety of fresh peppers, and some chipotles in adobo sauce in lieu of dried chili powder. Then when I serve it sprinkle some grated pepperjack cheese on it.

Usually I have to make it kind of bland to suit the mrs. and dump some hot sauce in it to fire mine up, so this is good.

 

Yeah, I think you're right about the west coast influence. I grew up in the Pacific NorthWest, but also lived in California. Obviously, there's a lot of Mexican food and influenced food in Cali, but it also seemed to have trickled up to Oregon by the time I came along, both fast food and more "authentic" fare. I have to admit, there's a part of me that still likes the "Americanized Mexican food" sometimes (by that I mean burritos, tacos, chimichangas but not chain fast Mexican food.), but the Authentic stuff will get me every time. I had a great Mexican-American Spanish teacher in High School. He and his wife would have the "honor students" over for dinner occasionally and man the stuff they served us!!! I can still taste "Mrs. G's" mole and hot green salsa.

But I digress ....

Thanks for the link to the cookbook. I think I'm gonna have to pick that up!

This is going to sound lame, but I've gotten so spoiled over the years. I make pizza sauce and freeze it in single serving sizes. I like to make pizza dough when I have time (whole wheat, usually), but you can also buy it in the bakery section of most stores. And, seriously, with the store bought crust and your own sauce, a package of "pizza mix" cheese from the dairy section and a few choice ingredients, you can have a really good pizza in about the same time it takes to cook a frozen store-bought one, and it is 10 times better. This time of year, I make them on the grill, and it works like a charm. Give it a try sometime, I bet you'll be hooked.

Now that sounds like my kinda chili. I love making chili, and it's perfect for this time of year. Nothin' like football and chili. I usually have to tone mine down, though, for most people. You sound like a man after my own heart.

Oh, and I should mention, one of the key ingredients in The Hubby's fish tacos is a condiment made with sour cream and chipotles in adobo sauce (among other things), as well as a cilantro lime marinade. Love the chipotles in adobo, but they'll blow the top of your head off if you're not careful. Just the way I like it.

LOL! And I just realized, this is a SmothieX multi-quote fest.

Oh, and finally, I did make the aforementioned merlot pot roast and horseradish mashed potatoes Wednesday night. Made stirfry last night, and it was wicked good, if I do say so myself.

The Hubby's turn to cook tonight. We'll see if it's worth reporting on.

 

Cool! Just the ego trip I need!

The chili was good last night. I got an assortment of mild to hot chiles from the Stop & Shop and roasted them up, skinned 'em, and diced 'em. I went all out and instead of using chop meat, cubed up a steak into little pieces.

Browned the meat and an onion, threw in 3 cans of assorted beans, couple cans of diced tomatoes, and a can of hominy. I let it simmer for a bit so the flavors would mingle, then just spiced it to taste.

It came out well, but the diced peppers kidna ended up in pockets together. You'd get a nice bite with some heat to it, followed by a mouthful of lava in the next spoonful. Oh well.

I'm paying for all the chiles today though...

I don't need to cook for the rest of the week as I have enough leftovers to hold me over until the wife gets back on Sunday.

I still can't believe they scheduled a conference over Labor Day weekend. I could see it if it were international, and holidays are different, but who the hell wants to sit in a Minneapolis conference center over the unofficial end of summer holiday weekend.

 

I experimented a little bit the night before last and made this:



I seasoned basmati rice with a hint of cardamon, cloves, and cinnamon, then topped it off with sauteed new potatoes, red peppers, and onions. Came out surprisingly good.

 

Pasta salad with a hint of chili. It's really the only thing I crave nowadays.