Be cool! 8/3/18

Posted on August 4, 2018 by Beebamom

Here we are meandering off the menu again. Why is it that I have trouble getting enthused about fish? Anyway, cut the fish and paste in vegetables! I am trying gazpacho for a third time and think I get it right this time.

Gazpacho

I make enough that we each have two bowls and it is plenty for dinner.  I use a combination of fresh tomatoes, canned diced tomatoes, and fresh salsa for the tomato component. I also add some V8 for more liquidity. There is cucumber, onion, garlic, and cilantro along with sherry vinegar and olive oil in the mix. And speaking of mixing I really enjoy plopping everything in the blender roughly chopped, hitting the button, and seeing my ingredients turn into soup! This is a great way to keep the kitchen cool on a hot night and a wonderful way to eat lots of veggies.

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Steakhouse dinner at home. 8/2/18

Posted on August 3, 2018 by Beebamom

You do not need to spend big bucks at a steakhouse to get a great quality steakhouse dinner. You can make it at home! We buy prime cuts of beef at Costco and split one steak between the two of us. The beef tonight is the cap piece of a rib eye steak which comes rolled up and tied.

You could grill it full time on the grill but since we are the House of Gizmos we use the immersion circulator to cook the steak to 125F and then slap it on the grill for 2 minutes on each side. The baked potato halves which have been cooked in the microwave get the grill treatment as well. A little embarrassing since I am the queen of vegetables is to admit that the spinach is Stouffer’s spinach soufflé and also cooks in the microwave.

So our fancy steakhouse dinner cost less than $20 for the two of us and we did not have to get dressed up!

Steakhouse dinner at home!

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Lentils with turkey sausage and vegetables. 8/1/18

Posted on August 2, 2018 by Beebamom

Gosh, here it is August already. I know a lot of people love summer because the weather is warm. I prefer the other seasons. Fall, winter, and spring are much more comfortable seasons in Northern California. The fires are so bad this year. My heart goes out to my fellow Californians who are suffering from the fires. Also many kudos and thanks to the firefighters!

Today’s dinner is really more of a cool weather dish. Lentils are a quick cooking legume and have a delicious earthy flavor. We add turkey sausage, carrots, onions, celery, and a lone mushroom into our stew. I top mine with some fresh oregano from the garden. It turns out very tasty. It helps that we have not prepared this in a long time so the taste is unexpected.

Lentils with turkey sausage

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Cacio e pepe. 7/31/18

Posted on August 1, 2018 by Beebamom

When I was in Rome in March I had this plate of cacio e pepe and it was just delicious. It was maybe the best dish I had on our Italy trip-simply made but perfect! Big shout out to Leonetti’s! Since then I have been dreaming about that wondrous plate of pasta and getting up my nerve to try and prepare it at home.

Cacio e pepe at Leonetti’s in Rome

Cacio e pepe has only a few essential ingredients. You need some boiling salted water, strand pasta, pecorino cheese, and pepper. We start by grating about 4 oz. (100 grams) of pecorino. We are using 8 oz. (200 grams) of whole grain linguine and when the linguine is just al dente we drain it and put in a bowl that has been heated with hot water. We also reserve a cup of the pasta water. Now we slowly add the pecorino to the pasta while stirring vigorously. The cheese and the pasta water and the pasta itself create the sauce. I am also adding fresh ground pepper along the way. The creamy sauce just happens!

My cacio e pepe

Although my cacio e pepe is pretty good, I can see that more practice is needed. There is quite a bit of congealed cheese left in the bowl. Luckily this does not go to waste as John is very happy to adorn his bowl with it.

You should definitely try this!

 

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Chicken Marsala. 7/30/18

Posted on July 31, 2018 by Beebamom

We start off the week with a nice twist on Classic Chicken Monday. John sautes some mushrooms and makes a sauce of chicken stock and Marsala and mounts it with some butter. I absolutely hammer the rutabagas in the Instant Pot because last time they were not quite done. They have a rather funky flavor which really needs that Marsala sauce! Otherwise, same old, same old. The chicken breast cooks in the immersion circulator and the broccoli is just quickly steamed.

Chicken Marsala, rutabagas, broccoli

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This week’s menu – July 30 to August 5, 2018

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Beebamom

There are a couple of new things on our menu this week. We are taking our classic chicken dinner and turning into a Chicken Marsala dinner by changing up the sauce. On Tuesday we are trying the classic Roman dish, Cacio e Pepe. When we were in Rome in March I had this for lunch one day and it was great! Finally on Sunday we are trying one of our daughter’s recipes, Mujaddara with Spiced Yogurt.

Weekly menu

 

 

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Egg salad Sunday. 7/29/18

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Beebamom

Kudos to us! We actually planned, prepared, and ate our exact weekly menu. It is not too often that such precision on our part takes place. As a result not only did we have some tasty meals but I lost a couple of pounds!

Sunday’s dinner is egg salad sandwiches and leftover salads. Obviously this is not a great strain to make. By having these minimal cooking meals, though, our air conditioning has not come on for two days. Yay!

If you want some easy peeling perfectly cooked eggs, follow the instructions over at Serious Eats. The key is to take the eggs straight from the refrigerator and put them into boiling water. Then simmer them for 11 minutes. The shock of the hot water on the cold eggs makes the skin pull away from the egg. Peel under running water starting at the fat end of the egg.

Egg salad on dark rye with potato/zucchini salad and cole slaw

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Grilled chicken with salads. 7/28/17

Posted on July 29, 2018 by Beebamom

Tonight’s grilled chicken thighs are the best that John has ever made. They are juicy and cooked through and have a great BBQ sauce char. Yum! I cannot even begin to describe how great these are.

Grilled chicken thighs with BBQ sauce, cole slaw, olive potato/zucchini salad

We make our own salads this week. The kit for cole slaw that we bought a week or so ago had a dressing so sweet that it rattled our teeth! We needed to use a lot of fish sauce to tame it down. So our own salad is a much better idea. I also take some leftover zucchini and add it to the potato salad.  Doing this makes the potato salad a little weird but I do not like to waste food!

We are closing in on the last day of our menu. Amazingly we have managed to cook everything on our list. Hopefully we can follow through for a perfect week tomorrow.

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Hamburger and salad. 7/27/18

Posted on July 28, 2018 by Beebamom

Summer U.S. cooking, a hamburger off the grill and a fresh salad made with vegetables from the garden or the farmer’s market. John grills the perfect medium rare hamburger …

Hamburger with onion on a whole wheat bun

and I prepare a fresh vegetable concoction.

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Salade Niçoise. 7/26/18

Posted on July 27, 2018 by Beebamom

It has been really hot for over a week now. I am attempting to find different dishes to make for dinner that will not heat up the kitchen. Today’s attempt, Salade Niçoise. This is more of an assemblage of various components rather than an integrated dish. I have no idea why it is famous.

Salade Niçoise

Key components are tuna, hard-boiled eggs, haricot verts, and potatoes. My least favorite ingredient was the tuna. I bought fancy Italian oil-packed tuna but it was pretty meh. Honestly I would have been happier with a bunch of chickpeas instead. The eggs came out the best, no green around the edges and just cooked through. I managed to get the shells off without destroying the eggs!

It was not a very exciting dinner but John seemed to like it so maybe I am just too picky!

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