Kenwood shrimp. 6/19/25

Posted on June 21, 2025 by Beebamom
Prawns in a saffron Pernod sauce

The Kenwood was a restaurant that opened in 1987 in a beautiful location amid the vineyards of Sonoma Valley. In 2013 their chef retired but we managed to get the recipe to one of his delicious dishes which we always refer to as Kenwood Shrimp. The recipe was pretty bare bones and in fact did not mention the shrimp in its list of ingredients but we have managed to replicate it fairly well.

Below is the original recipe that they copied for us. You can see we have several notations on it. We normally double the sauce adding 1 cup of tomatoes and 1/2 cup of the other vegetables. We also flame off the Pernod because otherwise it turn out too booze-y. We increase the liquid to 1 cup clam juice or shrimp stock and 1 cup (usually less) of cream. Our Thursday night dinner included six 21-25 shrimp cut in half per person.

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Chilean sea bass, potatoes, asparagus. 6/17/25

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Beebamom
Chilean sea bass, roasted new potatoes, and asparagus

Yesterday’s economical meal left room for a splurge tonight. John stopped at Costco and picked up a very nice piece of Chilean sea bass to divide amongst the three of us. Since we were already turning on the oven (425F) we decided to cook all three components in the oven at staggered timings. The potatoes went in first and got a 15 minute head start over the fish and asparagus. The fish and asparagus went in for 12 minutes. Everything was seasoned with salt and olive oil. Each component was perfectly cooked and served with a little butter, parsley, and a squeeze of fresh lemon. This was a really delicious dinner and we all enjoyed it immensely.

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, pescatarian, Sheet pan, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Lentils and turkey sausage. 6/16/25

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Beebamom
Lentils with turkey sausage, carrots, celery, and kale

This is a quick and easy to make dinner. The lentils cook in about 25 minutes. I started off by sautéing chopped onions, minced garlic, sliced carrots, and celery. Next came the sausage, lentils and chicken stock. With five minutes to go I added the kale. This dinner really fills you up and is very economical.

To make this dish vegetarian or vegan use vegetable stock and replace the turkey sausage with mushrooms or a non-meat link or crumbled sausage.

Posted in American, Easy, Legumes, Methods, Poultry, stew, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Weekly Menu. June 16-22, 2025

Posted on June 16, 2025 by Beebamom
Screenshot
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Seared tuna, rice, broccoli, nuoc cham. 6/14/25

Posted on June 15, 2025 by Beebamom
Seared tuna, rice, broccoli, and nuoc cham

For dinner on Saturday we had very affordable but delicious pieces of tuna. The frozen 10 oz. pieces were on sale for $3.99! John marinated them in soy sauce, ginger and garlic powders, and Old Bay. After a short marination he rubbed on a little sesame oil and patted on white and black sesame seeds. The searing was done in a hot cast iron pan for two and a half minutes per side. Perfect.

I reheated some previously cooked rice and cooked the broccoli in a little sesame oil until it was crunchy. As a sauce I made Vietnamese nuoc cham using the following recipe and tweaking it to our taste. This was a company grade dinner.

https://www.seriouseats.com/sauced-nuoc-cham-recipe

Posted in Asian, Easy, Fish, pescatarian, Recipes, rice, Vegetables, Vietnamese | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Chicken burrito bowl. 6/13/25

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Beebamom
Chicken burrito bowl

Sarah loves to make bowls. She came up with the idea of a burrito bowl when I was trying to figure out what to do with shredded chicken other than make enchiladas. Other people make burrito bowls as seen here –

https://www.budgetbytes.com/poor-mans-burrito-bowls/

We added a few more components. From the bottom of the bowl we layered in rice, corn, black beans, chicken, cheese, cabbage, salsa, avocado, cilantro, sour cream, and tortilla chips. It was super tasty and easy to make.

Poor Man’s Burrito Bowls
Posted in American, Easy, Legumes, Mexican, Poultry, Recipes, rice, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Chile Crisp Alfredo with kale. 6/12/25

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Beebamom
Photo courtesy of NYTimes Cooking

When Sarah and I were talking about what she would make for dinner we decided she should try something new. She suggested she would like to make a pasta dish using the chile crisp I had recently bought. We looked through recipes and found one from NYTimes Cooking called Chile Crisp Fettucine Alfredo with spinach.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023609-chile-crisp-fettuccine-alfredo-with-spinach?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

Using what we had on hand she subbed in spaghetti for the fettucine and kale for the spinach. I was concerned that it was going to be blazing spicy hot but instead it came out rather bland. We all added extra chile crisp to up the spice level. Also it needed quite a bit of salt. We were disappointed with the results and I do not know if we will make it again unless we do quite a bit of reworking the recipe.

Posted in Easy, Italian, Pasta, Recipes, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Do-almost-nothing dinner. 6/11/25

Posted on June 12, 2025 by Beebamom
Chicken breast slices in gravy, mashed potatoes, asparagus and carrots

Step one: buy a rotisserie chicken and remove one of the breasts disposing the skin

Step two: make chicken gravy and mashed potatoes from packets

Step three: warm sliced chicken breast in gravy and sauté vegetables

Step four: enjoy

Mostly we do not use “instant” ingredients but on a busy day with not a lot of time for baking a chicken or peeling, boiling, and mashing potatoes we have shortcuts to use.

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Grill night! 6/10/25

Posted on June 11, 2025 by Beebamom
Grilled hamburger with salad

Yum! We love grilled hamburgers night! Look at the cook on my hamburger. It is medium rare and has a nice crust on the outside. Yay, John, for an outstanding hamburger. It was voted by Sarah and me as best burger of 2025 (so far.)

I made a salad, ho hum.

Posted in American, Beef, Easy, Grilling, Salad, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Afghani dal with rice and kale. 6/9/25

Posted on June 10, 2025 by Beebamom
Afghani dal with rice and kale

We were supposed to be having chicken tonight but there were no rotisserie chickens available at Costco when Sarah stopped to pick one up. So we looked at our menu and decided we had all the ingredients for Afghani dal and went forward with a new dinner plan. Dal is another name for lentils and in this case we used red lentils (coral colored) which turn yellow when you cook them. They are quick cooking so are a great choice for weeknight dinners.

Here’s a link to the recipe I use.

https://www.afghancultureunveiled.com/humaira-ghilzai/afghancooking/2010/01/dal-afghan-soul-food.html-san92

Posted in Afghan, Asian, Easy, Legumes, Recipes, stew, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment