Basically this dinner was all short cuts. I used Rao’s tomato basil sauce and Rosina’s frozen meatballs. Usually I dump the cooked pasta into the sauce but since I had a lot of sauce and a lot of meatballs I poured some sauce and meatballs over the pasta so I could save the rest of the sauce and meatballs for another dinner. I am not crazy about the frozen meatballs and I think in the future I will make my own. Rao’s sauce is very good but pretty pricey.
John cooked the salmon in a 400F oven for about 8 minutes since the pieces we had were fairly thin. I almost did not have enough time to get the rice reheated and the broccoli cooked! I had made the mustard sauce earlier in the day.
We use this mustard sauce frequently with fish and it is good with the rice and broccoli too.
Mustard Sauce
2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon whole grain mustard (optional)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar (or whatever vinegar you have)
1 tablespoon water
Dash of sugar or sweetener
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon capers
2 cornichons, finely chopped (small un-dilled pickles)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Mix all the ingredients except the parsley in a bowl. Adjust the levels of salt and pepper. Can be made ahead up to this point. When ready to serve, mix in the parsley.
I have not stopped cooking. I have just gotten busy and did not have time to write up our dishes. So here they are a few days late.
On Monday John grilled a steak and I made my IDBS, incredibly delicious Brussels sprouts, And mashed potatoes.
On Tuesday I defrosted the chicken I shredded last week and made up a tray of enchiladas. We used a large can of enchilada sauce instead of the pricier jars and it actually ended up tastier.
On Thursday after a fancy dinner out on Wednesday we made a simple dal. The red lentils broke down into a soupy consistency and I served it over rice and Lacinto kale.
Except for stirring the polenta and washing up the three pots and pans this is a pretty easy dinner to make and delightful to eat. We make the polenta with a 6:1 ratio. John has made a shrimp stock tonight but usually we use 3 cups of water to 1/2 cups of polenta. You bring it to a simmer and cook it for twenty minutes adding a bit of butter when it is almost done. We take turns stirring it. It comes out pretty loose and is almost like a sauce for the broccoli and shrimp.
I steam the broccoli and John sautés the shrimp and we are done. It’s another fairly easy dinner that is almost company quality.
The easiest way to stretch 3 ounces of pasta into a really satisfying meal is to add a lot of vegetables. Ahead of the pasta getting cooked I sautéed 8 ounces of mushrooms and a big handful of asparagus spears cut into bite-sized pieces. When the pasta was cooked I added it to the veg along with some pasta water, a little butter, and olive oil. It was a tasty and enjoyable dinner for two.
When we were first married John and I lived in Massachusetts. Since we never ate any sort of seafood in my house growing up (New Jersey) the first clam chowder I ever had was New England clam chowder. I wasn’t much of a cook then so the chowder usually came out of a can, gloppy and thick. But I knew there must be a better recipe.
In 2017 I ran across a recipe by Giselle Hamilton in an article about her in The NY Times.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018768-chowder-soaked-toast?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share
It was too fussy and there was too much cream but I figured I could use it as a basis for my clam chowder. You can keep adding cream until it is as creamy as you would like.
Light clam chowder
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
2 ribs of celery, diced
2 leeks, dark, woody green parts removed, ¼” coins
10 ounces russet and new potatoes, medium dice
2 sprigs thyme, picked
2 sprigs tarragon
6 ounces dry white wine
2 bottles/16 ounces clam juice
Juice from 2 cans chopped clams (~8 oz.)
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons to 1/2 cup heavy cream (your choice)
12 ounces chopped clams (2 cans, reserved liquid, see above)
3-4 slices of toasted hearty bread or oyster crackers (optional)
In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil, and add onion, celery, leeks, potatoes, tarragon, and thyme, stirring to coat. Season with salt, and cook over low heat until the vegetables have just started to soften, taking care not to brown, about 5 minutes. Deglaze with white wine and then add the clam juice and reserved clam liquid. Simmer until potatoes and vegetables are cooked through.
Stir in the cream taking care not to boil. Add the chopped clams, and season to taste with salt and ground black pepper. Remove from heat.
Serve with toasted bread, saltines, or oyster crackers (optional)
Last week we made leche de tigre not as a marinade for ceviche but as a sauce to put over our fish. We had a bunch of it left and I thought I could improve on it and use it with our fish dinner this week. The lime juice I put in it really took over the sauce last week. I added additional sugar, some fresh orange juice, and fish sauce. It really helped out! Fish sauce is like a magic ingredient.
John cooked the fish in a 400F oven for 12 minutes and it came out perfectly. He also made the rice. I cooked the carrots in some brown sugar, butter, salt and pepper. The whole dinner was a success.
This is such an easy dinner! Sarah took the chicken apart. One breast was sliced up and heated in chicken gravy. The other breast was shredded and frozen. The legs and thighs are for soups and lunches. The bones are for stock. We make a $4.99 chicken from Costco go a long way. I used a packet of dehydrated mashed potatoes that you add butter, milk, and water to. It’s not as good as real mashed potatoes but with the gravy it tasted pretty good. The broccoli I cut into florets and steamed.
Prepping the vegetables is the most time-consuming part of this dinner. I made two traysful. On one tray was a head of cabbage divided into eighths, an onion also sliced into eighths, and a small piece of fennel divided in two. Before putting the vegetables on the tray I put them in a plastic bag with olive oil and salt and shook them around. The other tray held carrots and Brussels sprouts. I started the Brussels sprouts 10 minutes after the carrots.
The vegetables cooked in a 425F oven for about 35 minutes (and 25 minutes for the sprouts.) they had some nice browning.
We opted not to cook the sausage on the sheet pan. I was afraid they would exude too much grease. John cooked them in a little water and then when the water evaporated they browned in a little olive oil.
Omnivore 