What's for Dinner?

[sour_grapes]

So, Paul: how much time do you spend on cooking each week? You menu always sounds so good, but I cringe thinking how long this stuff would take me to make. Have to admit: while I enjoy cooking, I'm a bit slow though.

Well, sometimes dinner does get on the table a bit late!

I walk past a couple of grocery stores on my way home from work, so I typically buy whatever I am making on the same day. I tend to do very boring menu planning, i.e., one protein, one starch, one veg every day, because making a combined dish would take too much thinking! So, when I get home, I do my mise en place (~20 minutes) and then cooking (~40 minutes). And somehow, these always add up to more than an hour!!

One problem I have, which it sounds like you might share, is that I tend to have to cook in serial mode. That is, I am not good at having a few things going at the same time. So, last night, f'rinstance, I made all of the appetizer ingredients first, then the beans, then the polenta, and then the fish + sauce at the end. (Last night was an even more drawn-out affair than usual, as we had a dear friend over, and much confabulation and drinking was taking place during cooking! )

I used to try to speed things up by starting some dishes, and doing the preparation for the next dish while cooking the first. I inevitably screwed up something, so I have (almost) trained myself to do nearly all the mise en place first.

Thanks for the kind words!

 

[sour_grapes]

I need to find a good Marsala. The stuff you can buy at the grocery store is utter crap.

Good luck here in the States. Let me know if you ever find anything besides good old "Holland House"......

Here is my go-to cooking wine: cheapo Fairbanks Sherry . This sets me back $12 for a 1.5 L bottle. It is not fine drinking wine, of course, but it is actually not too bad.

This has a hint of sweetness and nuttiness, so it is not a 1-to-1 substitute for a dry white wine. However, I find this slight sweetness plays well with lots of dishes, like pan sauces and braising vegetables.

 

[ceeaton]

... and much confabulation and drinking was taking place during cooking! )

In psychiatry, confabulation (verb: confabulate) is a disturbance of memory, defined as the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world, without the conscious intention to deceive.

Paul, thank you for my word of the day!

 

[Boatboy24]

One problem I have, which it sounds like you might share, is that I tend to have to cook in serial mode.

I tend to do the same, but I'm on the path to recovery.

Part of that stems from the way I used to cook from a recipe. That was, buy all the ingredients, then make as you read. Always end up with at least one "Oh s*^t!" moment when you do that. I try to read the recipe in its entirety now (sometimes more than once), then get to work and refer back as needed. Helps me think about things that I can do simultaneously.

 

[ceeaton]

One problem I have, which it sounds like you might share, is that I tend to have to cook in serial mode.

I tend to do the same, but I'm on the path to recovery.

So does that make the two of you serial cookers? Or is that cereal cookers? Hope that the disease isn't as hard to cure as being a soaker of corks.

Having four hungry children has cured me of any serial cooking malady I might have had. If it doesn't get to the table in a timely manner they start chewing on my legs, the furniture, et cetera.

 

[geek]

You guys are killing me with so many delicious looking meals

 

[Boatboy24]

So does that make the two of you serial cookers?

Nah. I just put mine in a bowl with milk. When I have the time to actually cook, I'll top it with banana or strawberries.

 

[sour_grapes]

In psychiatry, confabulation (verb: confabulate) is a disturbance of memory, defined as the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world, without the conscious intention to deceive.

Paul, thank you for my word of the day!

That's in psychiatry!!

In plain ol' English:

confabulate
[kuh n-fab-yuh-leyt]

verb (used without object), confabulated, confabulating.
1. to converse informally; chat.
2. Psychiatry. to engage in confabulation, the replacement of a gap in a person's memory by a falsification that he or she believes to be true.

 

[geek]

That's in psychiatry!!

In plain ol' English:

confabulate
[kuh n-fab-yuh-leyt]

verb (used without object), confabulated, confabulating.
1. to converse informally; chat.
2. Psychiatry. to engage in confabulation, the replacement of a gap in a person's memory by a falsification that he or she believes to be true.

My head is still spinning.....

 

[ceeaton]

That's in psychiatry!!

In plain ol' English:

confabulate
[kuh n-fab-yuh-leyt]

verb (used without object), confabulated, confabulating.
1. to converse informally; chat.
2. Psychiatry. to engage in confabulation, the replacement of a gap in a person's memory by a falsification that he or she believes to be true.

I figured because the wine was flowing that maybe a few memory gaps emerged which produced exaggerations in the informal conversation, that though uins believed they were true, in reality they weren't true.

I guess I failed my vocabulary quiz for the day!

 

[sour_grapes]

Tonight, we enjoyed pork tenderloin medallions, seasoned, dredged in flour, seared, then set aside. Then a pan sauce of mushrooms, onions (sweet + regular), garlic, and tons of sherry and some chicken broth, and fresh herbs (rosemary and thyme). We also enjoyed roasted cauliflower (butter, cumin, garlic, and lemon). And garlic. Did I mention garlic. We had garlic. Also, some smashed/fried ‘taters.

Since I am not giving you a photo, picture what I just described: pork, cauliflower, and potatoes. A little ecru, no? Rocking the beige! We laugh about these monochrome meals; I am working around some dietary restrictions that DW’s health imposes, and so beige, ecru, and taupe meals happen a fair amount these days. (She needs to limit beef and leafy greens. But we eat a fair amount of pork, chicken, fish, rice, pasta, cauliflower.... )

 

[ceeaton]

I didn't "like" the fact that you have dietary restrictions that limit your ingredient pool, just that you are making the best of the restrictions, and if you hadn't brought those to our attention we might never know you were cooking with any restrictions in the first place. Keep on cooking and sharing!

 

[JohnT]

Tonight, we enjoyed pork tenderloin medallions, seasoned, dredged in flour, seared, then set aside. Then a pan sauce of mushrooms, onions (sweet + regular), garlic, and tons of sherry and some chicken broth, and fresh herbs (rosemary and thyme). We also enjoyed roasted cauliflower (butter, cumin, garlic, and lemon). And garlic. Did I mention garlic. We had garlic. Also, some smashed/fried ‘taters.

Since I am not giving you a photo, picture what I just described: pork, cauliflower, and potatoes. A little ecru, no? Rocking the beige! We laugh about these monochrome meals; I am working around some dietary restrictions that DW’s health imposes, and so beige, ecru, and taupe meals happen a fair amount these days. (She needs to limit beef and leafy greens. But we eat a fair amount of pork, chicken, fish, rice, pasta, cauliflower.... )

Ahem.... you left out the most important component of any meal.....

 

[sour_grapes]

Ahem.... you left out the most important component of any meal.....

Ahhh, of course! My bad: I washed down the above beige meal with a couple of glasses of my WE LE14 Oregon Pinot Noir. This wine is in pretty fine fettle at this point.

 

[geek]

Dominos and a "pupusa".

 

[sour_grapes]

Went out to a funky little local bar/restaurant. I am not even sure what to call it. It is set up like a bar and grill, but you walk in, find an open table yourself, go to the bar and order drinks and/or food. They give you your drinks, and later take your food to the table. Kind of a nice compromise between bar, fast casual, and restaurant, really.

Anyway, we had: deep-fried brussels sprouts, breaded and deep-fried cheese curds with garlic ranch dressing, a chicken spring roll that was the size of a small car, and a steak sandwich with chimichurri sauce. We only ate ~1/2 of this bounty, and now have lunch for tomorrow!

Now sipping on a 2-yr old CC Showcase Argentinian Malbec. Dayyum, it is shaping up pretty nice!

 

[geek]

Paul,

Good to know that CC Showcase Argentina Malbec is getting better.
I haven't tried mine in a long time as I wasn't impressed with it at all. Maybe time to give it another try but my hopes are not high

 

[sour_grapes]

Paul,

Good to know that CC Showcase Argentina Malbec is getting better.
I haven't tried mine in a long time as I wasn't impressed with it at all. Maybe time to give it another try but my hopes are not high

I admit, I tend to get your Malbec experiences mixed up between the WE and CC. But, IIRC, your CC was maybe too tannic? If that was the case, then time may have indeed improved it.

The flaw with my WE (and yours??), on the other hand, is that it is a bit thin and weak. It is fine, but just nothing to write home about.

I have been through about half (16 bottles) of the WE, but this was only the 4th bottle of the CC that I have had.

 

[ceeaton]

Wanted to smoke a chicken on the Weber, but beer making got in the way, and my Son got off work late (and he had my car), so I couldn't go get more charcoal. Did it on the grill instead, threw a used oak spiral that spent some close contact time with a Merlot batch onto the flavor bars. Nice and juicy, smoked paprika shined through and the kids loved it. Now making a batch of chicken stock for soup next week from the carcass.

 

[dralarms]

Hunk of venison, placed in crock pot, can of cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup, cooked all day. Mashed potatoes and asparagus.