Fourth of July grilling 7/4/18

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Beebamom

We had a small Fourth of July celebration. Our daughter-in-law is recovering from having her wisdom teeth extracted so there were no big party either at their house or at ours. Plus it is a little hard to get revved up when so much is going wrong (in our opinion) in the U.S. at the moment.

Happy Fourth of July hamburgers, potato salad, and broccoli salad

A few years ago our grandkids, our daughter, and I made a patriot tissue flower bouquet. I saved it and bring it out for July 4, Memorial Day, and Labor Day when we are apt to have grilling parties. We also play a mixtape that John made in 1984 of patriot and celebratory music. That year when the kids were 4 and 7 we organized a giant block party with games, swimming, and even a fire truck. It was great fun.

Our dinner consisted of grilled hamburgers, an olive oil rather than mayo potato salad and a sweet and tangy celery seed broccoli salad.

It was all good but I felt a little sad that the whole family had not gotten together. I guess it is up to me to make things happen. Sigh.

 

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Vegan pantry pasta dish! 7/3/18

Posted on July 4, 2018 by Beebamom

Spaghetti with tomatoes, capers, olives, and breadcrumbs

This is a super easy and delicious vegan pantry dish. The sauce is made up of a can of tomatoes, some capers and olives and garlic and onions. The topping consists of some toasted garlic and breadcrumbs with parsley. From start to finish with me cooking the sauce and topping and John cutting up the garlic, boiling the water and cooking the pasta, the dish took us around 35 minutes. We used a combination of regular and whole wheat pastas. This dish is definitely a keeper!

Nom, nom

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Salmon, salsa, beans, and potatoes. 7/2/18

Posted on July 3, 2018 by Beebamom

Finally found some decent salmon to buy to start in on our two pescatarian dinners this week.

Pan roasted salmon with Greek salsa, new potatoes, and green beans

John used the America’s Test Kitchen technique for cooking the salmon which starts with a quick brine and continues with beginning the cooking in a cold pan with a scattering of salt in the bottom. It came out quite well.

I had a lot of vegetation to deal with. I made a Greek salsa from cucumber, tomatoes, olives, capers, and onions in a vinaigrette. It was really tasty and when dinner was over I ate the rest of it! Since I could not find loose small new potatoes I opted for some larger ones and steamed them cut into quarters. I added some butter/olive oil and mint at the end. They were super good.

I continue to have problems with green beans. These were pretty mealy. I think that I need to buy them the day of a meal rather than when I am doing my weekly shopping. After two disappointing renditions I think I’ll give them a rest for a while.

 

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Grilled chicken with corn and slaw. 7/1/18

Posted on July 2, 2018 by Beebamom

We were originally supposed to have take-out from our favorite Chinese restaurant but we had too many vegetables that needed eating so we opted to move our menu one day ahead.

Grilled chicken thighs, corn on the cob, and Brussels sprout slaw

Nothing says summer better than some chicken grilled out on the patio with corn on the cob and slaw. This was such a yummy dinner. John cooked the chicken thighs mostly on the cool side of the grill and then  at the end put them on the hot side with some BBQ sauce for that slightly charred taste. I cooked the corn in the microwave and then finished it on the grill. The slaw was made from shredded Brussels sprouts, carrots, and onion with caraway seeds and a sweet mustard vinaigrette.

A close-up of delicious summer eating!

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Whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce. 6/30/18

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Beebamom

Whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce

It has been over three weeks since we had spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner. That is way too long! I was looking around in the freezer and found a container of sauce already made. It was like the spaghetti sauce fairy had left me a gift. I was willing to boil a pot of water for pasta even though it hit 100F in our part of California. (That is too, too hot for here!) We poured a little vino and watched the Great British Baking Show while we slurped up our spaghetti. Bliss!

Yum-um!!

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Shrimp with rice, chard, and corn 6/29/18

Posted on June 30, 2018 by Beebamom

This is the same shrimp with saffron and Pernod that we made a few weeks ago. The recipe is here.
https://dininglite.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=3781&action=edit
We like the shrimp cooked this way and the sauce is great with rice and vegetables. Our sauce last night came out a little too stringently Pernod-y and we will have to take care to make sure that the alcohol burns off completely. Pernod is really strong tasting stuff.

Saffron Pernod shrimp with rice plus chard and corn

The rice I had left over from Chinese takeout last Sunday. The chard was supposed to be for a chickpea and lentil dish that I never got around to making. Usually I use collard greens in this preparation but the chard was just as good. To prepare it, take the center stem out of the leaves, roll them up like a cigar and chiffonade. They cook in the water that is still clinging to their leaves from their wash. I add a little butter to the pan, some garlic slices, and the frozen corn. It is done after about five minutes.

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Menu for the week +

Posted on June 29, 2018 by Beebamom

Here’s the menu for the next three days and then the new week starting on Monday. Remember the goal is 2 poultry, 2 pescatarian, 2 vegetarian, and 1 red meat plus lots of vegetables!

 

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Wrapping up the week. 6/28/18

Posted on June 29, 2018 by Beebamom

Last night we just ate a variety of leftovers so I thought I would just talk about how the past week went today. My goal was to prepare two poultry meals, two seafood/fish meals, two vegetarian meals, and one red meat meal. What we actually ate were two poultry meals, three vegetarian meals, one meat meal, and one seafood meal. Originally we had not planned on going out to lunch on Sunday so that threw the week off a bit.

I am pretty pleased with what we prepared this week. The new Afghani lentil dish was so good that I am sure it will be in at least a monthly rotation. I think starting the week on a Thursday is too confusing so we are going to free-lance the next three days and start our weekly regimen on Monday.

Since I do not have a food picture for today, here is a nice one from our trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon earlier in the month.

View from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona

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New dish! Afghani lentils. 6/27/18

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Beebamom

(This is a vegetarian dish when made with vegetable stock. For vegans omit cheese and yogurt or use substitutes.)

We had such a delicious lunch at the Khyber Pass Afghani Restaurant that I wanted to try to recreate it at home. Seems like there are a lot of different spellings for lentils-dal, dahl, daal- that I am just sticking with “lentils.” Our dinner consisted of the lentils, a yummy Mediterranean chickpea salad of chickpeas, feta, onions, and cucumbers (https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a19885314/mediterranean-chickpea-salad-recipe/) and some warmed pita.

The lentils are super easy to make and you can find the recipe I used at http://www.afghancultureunveiled.com/humaira-ghilzai/afghancooking/2010/01/dal-afghan-soul-food.html. Next time I would cut back a little on the ginger and add some butter or oil but these lentils were so good!

My rule of thumb is to always make a recipe I find on the internet, in a cookbook, or  a magazine exactly as stated the first time. Then on my printout of the recipe I make notes about how I would improve it (for my taste) the next time I make it.

Afghani lentils and Mediterranean chickpea salad with pita

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Curried chicken and rice. 6/26/18

Posted on June 27, 2018 by Beebamom

This is a curry-type dish that John likes to make. He toasts the spices in butter, adds onions, garlic, and ginger and then the rice and liquid so they cook together. The pre-cooked chicken, carrots and raisins get added later. I thought it had too many raisins and along with the carrots made the dish a little on the too sweet side for me. I seem to be on a sweet hating kick for some unknown reason. I usually do not like sweet flavors in my savory dishes but lately I am more intolerant.

Curried chicken and rice with carrots and raisins

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