Orrecchiette with winter squash – 10/31/16

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Beebamom
Halloween at our house

Halloween at our house

Well, it is Halloween at our house and we are ready for trick or treaters. Unfortunately, no one shows. Must be a combination of a Monday night, on and off rain, and being at the end of a cul-de-sac. Guess I’ll go make dinner.

In keeping with the orange-y theme of the holiday we are making a new recipe featuring butternut squash.

Grated butternut squash

Grated butternut squash

This NY Times recipe calls for a sauce made of grated butternut squash, walnuts, sage, and pasta water. The dish is topped with ricotta salata.

Orrecchiette with butternut squash, walnuts, and ricotta salata

Orrecchiette with butternut squash, walnuts, and ricotta salata

It turns out too sweet for my taste plus too bland and dry. Don’t think I will make this again.

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All-American burger dinner – 10/29/16

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Beebamom

Tonight’s dinner we ate in two stages. The two salads we had as an appetizer and then John cooked the burgers as the main. It makes dinner last longer!

I really like these two salads. The sweet, oniony, salty dressing with celery seeds is delicious with the broccoli and I think I am addicted to this way of serving potatoes. Tonight I diced the potatoes before I steamed them. Add the salt, olive oil and thyme while they are hot so they absorb the flavor. Serve them warm or at room temperature.

Broccoli salad and warm olive oil and thyme potatoes

Broccoli salad and warm olive oil and thyme potatoes

John did a superb job with the burgers. They were cooked medium rare and served on a bun with a slice of onion and a little mayo and ketchup.

Grilled hamburger with ketchup and mayonnaise plus a slice of onion

Grilled hamburger with ketchup and mayonnaise plus a slice of onion

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Pacific cod with chickpea purée, parsley sauce, and zucchini – 10/28/16

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Beebamom

This is quite a delicious dish but I need to find better fish. I got frozen Pacific cod fillets from Costco and they just don’t have a lot of flavor. I guess next time I will go over to Whole Foods and get the real thing.

Pacific cod, chickpea purée, parsley sauce, and sautéed zucchini

Pacific cod, chickpea purée, parsley sauce, and sautéed zucchini

The chickpea purée is the best part of this dish. It is creamy, lemony, and garlic-y. I see that the parsley sauce looks a bit lurid in the photo, a good choice for a pre-Halloween dinner!

 

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Lentils with turkey sausage – 10/27/16

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Beebamom

This is a really comfort food dish for us. We haven’t made it for a while so we are really looking forward to it. We had a hard workout at the gym today and need some food good for building our worn muscles back up.

As usual I cut up and take care of all the vegetables.

Mise en place ready to go

Mise en place ready to go

I sweat the vegetables and then add the lentils and broth. Lentils cook quickly and within a half an hour everything is cooked.

Lentils with turkey sausage

Lentils with turkey sausage

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Lamb chops, couscous, and broccoli – 10/26/16

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Beebamom
Lamb chops, couscous, and broccoli

Lamb chops, couscous, and broccoli

We buy Australian lamb from Costco. It is always good quality and everyone in the family likes it. I was looking at the per capita consumption of various meats and it looks like chicken, beef, and pork are far more consumed by Americans than lamb. For beef, it is almost 70 lbs. to 1 lb. I wonder why that is.

John grilled the lamb and I made the couscous with lots of extra vegetables. I added some veg to the broccoli as well. I love me some vegetables!

 

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Bucatini and meatballs – 10/25/16

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Beebamom
Bucatini and meatballs

Bucatini and meatballs

Who doesn’t love some what we call “red Italian.” Growing up on the Jersey shore, this was Italian American food to us. I don’t think I realized that there was any other Italian cuisine involving non-red sauces and polenta or risotto until I was an adult!

Tonight instead of just spaghetti we had bucatini, a fat strand pasta with a hole in it. I helped along some jarred spaghetti sauce with some additional tomatoes and spices (along with my secret flavor enhancer, fish sauce) and plopped in several frozen meatballs. Easy, fast, and yummy comfort food!!

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Chicken Monday – 10/24/16

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Beebamom
Sous vide boneless skinless chicken breast with Brussels sprout slaw and warm olive oil potato salad

Sous vide boneless skinless chicken breast with Brussels sprout slaw and warm olive oil potato salad

Using the immersion circulator continues to be our favorite way of cooking chicken. The meat is perfectly cooked and we finish it with a quick run under the broiler for some color. The sides are left over from yesterday although I did jazz up the somewhat wilted slaw with carrots, ginger, and soy. The cute cherry tomatoes are from our daughter’s backyard baskets.

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Family Fall Fest – 10/23/16

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Beebamom

Since my previous post we drove home from Utah and had breakfast for dinner when we got in from 12 hours on the road. Saturday night we opted for Chinese food. But on Sunday we had the whole family over for hamburgers (better known as Zaydeburgers), Brussels sprout slaw, and warm olive oil and thyme potato salad. Plus there was cranberry upside down cake for dessert!

Brussels sprout slaw

Brussels sprout slaw in my 70’s casserole dish!

Warm potato salad with olive oil and thyme

Warm potato salad with olive oil and thyme

Cranberry upside down cake

Cranberry upside down cake

Grandson in a bubble at the Pumpkin Patch

Grandson in a bubble at the Pumpkin Patch

 

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Out of the freezer – 10/20/16

Posted on October 22, 2016 by Beebamom
Cannellini stew from the freezer

Cannellini stew from the freezer

I made this dinner on September 11, 2016 and stuck the leftovers in the freezer. Since we are leaving Utah for home tomorrow and don’t want to mess up our just cleaned kitchen, tonight is the perfect time for planned-overs. I usually make this dish with chickpeas but cannellini work just as well.

The stew tasted just as good as it did the first time but freezing it turned the ditalini mushy. It would have been better to just freeze the vegetable part and add new ditalini into the reheat.

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Polenta and deli meat leftover dinner – 10/19/16

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Beebamom

We are still working our way through the leftovers! What we had left was a few slices of deli meat and a container of polenta left over from our sausage and polenta dinner on Sunday night.

Polenta with deli meat and a salad

Polenta with deli meat and a salad

This was not totally successful. We cut the polenta into triangles and tried to get a crust on them in a frying pan. Mostly they just fell apart. I heated the deli meat up in the microwave and made a salad. It was okay but nothing special.

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