Penne with broccoli and tuna. 12/15/25

Whole grain penne with broccoli and tuna

This is an easy but very tasty dinner. And it can all be made in the time it takes to heat up the water and cook the pasta. While John was tending the water and the pasta, I sautéed onions and garlic in olive oil with some salt, chili flakes, and oregano. Then I added the broccoli florets making sure they were cooked but still retained their bright green color. After John drained the pasta he added it to the broccoli mixture and I stirred it around over a low flame adding a little reserved pasta water and a little more olive oil. Right before serving I added the canned tuna trying to leave it in large flakes while folding it into the pasta and warming it through. This is a quick and easy but satisfying dinner.

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Italian, Methods, Pasta, pescatarian, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Red wine braised turkey legs. 12/14/25

Red wine braised turkey legs

At the end of last week Sarah and I went shopping at Grocery Outlet where we saw frozen turkeys for $5. This was too good to pass up so we bought one which I would estimate was in the 13-16 pound range. All weekend the turkey defrosted in the refrigerator until Monday when Sarah butchered it into leg/thigh pieces, breasts, wings, and carcass.

She found a recipe on Serious Eats by Kenji Lopez-Alt for red wine braised turkey legs and made it for us. It was really good! It wasn’t like Thanksgiving turkey at all. It was like a tender meat in a divine sauce. I have copied the recipe below and at one point he tells you to strain the cooking liquid and discard the vegetables and herbs. We picked out the herb stems but kept the vegetables and they were delicious too!

I ate my turkey with rice and John had his with mashed potatoes. It was pretty fabulous. Here’s a picture of what it looks like before you cut the meat off the bones followed by a link to the recipe. Many thanks to Sarah for cooking us a wonderful dinner that probably cost less than $1 a serving.

https://www.seriouseats.com/red-wine-braised-turkey-legs

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Clam chowder. 12/13/25

New England clam chowder

These chilly days really call for a bowl of warming soup. Our clam chowder really fills the bill.

For the recipe please see my post from October, 2025.

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Spaghetti and meatballs. 12/12/25

Spaghetti and meatballs

This is a quick version of spaghetti and meatballs. The Rosina brand of meatballs and a little red wine increased the flavor of Rao’s vodka sauce. All we had to do was cook the spaghetti combine it with the sauce and we were done. We also had acquired a piece of focaccia from a bargain table at a local grocer’s to serve alongside. It was a yummy dinner!

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Salmon with parsley sauce, carrots, and rice. 12/10/25

Salmon with parsley sauce, carrots, and rice

Wednesday night John cooked a luscious piece of salmon for 13 minutes in a 400F oven. He also made some rice. I cooked the carrots in a little butter and water and seasoned them with salt and sugar. I also made the parsley sauce out of parsley growing in our back patio, garlic, olive oil, lemon, and capers. Since we had some of the hollandaise sauce left over from last night, I added that to our parsley sauce as well. This delicious dinner took very little time to make with John and me happily working together in the kitchen.

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Pizza and salad (twice). 12/9/25

Half piece of pizza and a small salad

Today we celebrated my birthday twin’s birthday. We are twins in so far as my birthday is 12/8 and his is 12/9 and he is five years older than I. We have been doing some sort of celebration since I was 29 and he was 34. (Except for the years when they moved away to California ☹️ and it took John and me about 12 years to make the move.) We are 77 and 82 now so that is a lot of yearly celebrations.

George is homebound these days so we ordered pizza and I brought a salad to our luncheon party. We had so much left over that John and I decided to ax the planned chicken wings and just go with sharing a piece of pizza and finishing up the salad for dinner. Happy birthday, George!

Posted in American, Easy, Italian, Leftovers For Dinner, Salad, Special occasion, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Chilean sea bass, new potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise sauce. 12/8/25

Chilean sea bass, new potatoes, and asparagus with hollandaise sauce

Happy birthday to me! John roasted the fish in a 400F oven for 13 minutes and made the hollandaise sauce (from a Knorr packet) while I steamed the potatoes and sauteed asparagus. I think we should have made a beurre blanc instead of using the Knorr packet or at least squeezed some lemon into the sauce because it was missing an acidic zing. But mostly my birthday dinner was lovely.

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Weekly Menu. December 8-14, 2025

Screenshot
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Classic chicken dinner. 12/7/25

Chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes and broccoli

I am back from my trip! John got the ingredients together for a comfort food dinner. I have a bad case of jet lag and we ended up eating this cozy dinner mid-day on Sunday. Since I am typing this up at 3 AM Monday I have not made much progress adjusting to Pacific time yet!

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Hamburgers Monday, Pasta Tuesday. 11/17 &11/18/2025

Hamburger, potato chips, and salad

John went out between rain coming from an atmospheric river to grill our dinner. I made the salad and it was Sarah’s idea to add the chips.

Pasta aglio e olio with tuna

I saw this recipe from NYTCooking and thought it looked good for a chilly Tuesday night. So we made it. And it was.

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