We have this dinner periodically when we feel like treating ourselves . The shrimp is bathed in a Pernod and white wine cream sauce and is flavored with a brunoise of vegetables and saffron. The recipe is in my post from 11/5/18.
Shrimp in a white wine and Pernod cream sauce with yellow rice
This is really rich and very tasty but you have to be willing to cut up a lot of vegetables into tiny pieces.
This is supposed to turn out like a creamy, tasty risotto except it doesn’t. It is more like a tasteless bunch of barley. I had great hopes for it. But if you really love barley then it is for you. Not me.
Barley risotto with mushrooms and carrots
P.S. John likes it which is good because we have a whole container of leftovers!
We did not quite get to all the dinners I meant to prepare for last week so I have shifted a couple of them to this week. After all I have done the shopping for them already. Instead of carrying the frittata forward we settled on a new dish, barley risotto. I will report on how it works out.
I’ve also upped the number of vegetarian or close to vegetarian meals this week. Usually we have one or two but this week there are three full-fledged vegan or vegetarian meals and one, pasta fagioli, that just has a little meat seasoning. I am happy about this. 
As it often happens, life interrupts my meticulous menu planning. This came in the form of going out to lunch on both Friday and Saturday leaving John and me unhungry and not motivated to make much of a dinner. So out goes spinach and mushroom frittata and Kenwood shrimp and they are replaced by chicken sandwiches made from the leftover Costco chicken and a one egg omelet with a vegetarian sausage pattie and an English muffin.
One egg omelet with vegetarian sausage and English muffin
At this point we decide to just start over with a new menu for the coming week. I will be posting that later today after John and I hash it out. (No actual hash involved!)
I make eggplant parmesan for my honey on Valentine’s Day. I rarely put this on the dinner menu since it is fried and a mess to make. But it is a special request and it is Valentine’s Day plus I know John will do the clean-up.
Eggplant parmesan with whole wheat linguine
I decide to use Chinese eggplant because they have a thinner skin and are sweeter than the Italian ones. In addition the Asian market sells them three to a bag for $1.19 per pound. I cut them on the bias so the pieces are bigger. Each piece is about 1/2 inch thick. I season each step of the breading, flour, eggs, and fresh breadcrumbs, and use canola oil to fry the slices in. This is a shallow fry with the oil just coating the bottom of the pan. Once the oil is hot it only takes a minute or so for each side to become golden brown and delicious. Once I have all the eggplant slices cooked I put them in a glass baking dish with some tomato sauce on the bottom and layer the slices with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. No sauce on top! That would ruin the crispiness.
John cooks the pasta which we top with some of the tomato sauce. Looking back making eggplant parmesan was not such a big deal and it tasted great. Added bonus is that I have two eggplants left over. I think you will see spicy Thai basil eggplant on the menu next week!
While John is at work today I put together a white chicken chili. This simple recipe is from the Neelys on the Food Network website. It is easy, uses pre-cooked chicken and canned beans, and can be made in about an hour.
After John leaves for work this morning I get all the mise en place done. Since I am a “morning person” cutting everything up in the morning makes the cooking a snap for me later in the day. For the chicken I am using our leftovers from Classic Chicken Monday and half of a rotisserie chicken from Costco. Here is my pot of chili burbling on the stove.
White chicken chili
I like that I am in control of the spiciness. Although there is a jalapeño and two poblano chiles, the actual heat is not too intense. I figure John can add some additional spice to his if he wants to. In fact we both add some sriracha to our finished bowls along with cilantro, a dollop of cooling yogurt, and some crushed tortilla chips. I really like this chili with its overtones of coriander and I hope we will make it again!
My finished bowl of white chicken chili garnished with cilantro, yogurt, sriracha, lime, and tortilla chips
Seared scallops and tartar sauce with snow peas and new potatoes
I love scallops. I especially love them breaded and fried but since I am trying to eat reasonably, I am having them pan seared tonight. The steamed new potatoes only take about twenty minutes to cook and, after they are done, I use the same pan to quickly sauté the snow peas. I mix up a small batch of Fish Market tartar sauce (secret ingredient yellow mustard) and my contributions to dinner are completed. In the meantime John gets our cast iron frying pan ripping hot with a little vegetable oil and butter and quickly sears the scallops on each side for about one and a half minutes per side. Less than a half hour and we are totally done.
In an attempt to make today’s post more interesting, I will report that I read an article about how rutabagas are the perfect vegetable for making spaghetti type noodles. And I have just spent the last 15 minutes trying to find the article to no avail. So no link, sorry. Our rutabagas are merely boiled and mashed. The broccoli is just cooked in a little water and then finished with butter. Along with a ho-hum boneless skinless chicken breast this is a pretty boring dinner. May I make a New Year’s resolution in February? If so, I resolve to make more interesting chicken dishes!
Sous vide chicken breast au jus with mashed rutabagas and steamed broccoli
I am looking forward to a more interesting chicken dish on Wednesday, white chili with chicken!
I am feeling pretty good about ourselves. We made everything on last week’s menu. That’s a lot of cooking. We tried a couple of new things with so-so sucess and had some favorites as well. This week includes a special request from John for Valentine’s Day plus a new recipe. Happy eating!
We are supposed to be eating these cutlets with frisée, lemon, and capers but it is pouring rain out and it seems like going with what is in the refrigerator rather than making a special trip somewhere just for frisée is the wiser thing to do. So I use some rice left over from Jerk Chicken night and saute some celery, carrots, onions, snow peas, and broccoli for a vegetable-rice combo.
Crispy pork cutlet with veggie-rice combo, and lemon
John pounds out the pork and it becomes this gigantic piece of meat. In fact our daughter stopped by later and made a dinner for herself out of my leftovers. He breads and pan fries the pork and heats up a bit of sauce left over from the boneless pork ribs a week ago. I cut up a lemon and sprinkle some capers on top and we have a pretty presentable looking dinner. We rarely eat anything fried but this technique of shallow frying has kept the pork from having the consistency of shoe leather. Good job, John!
Omnivore 