Hamburgers made out of Kobe ground beef and grilled outside along with a southwestern inspired salad with tomatoes from the garden makes for an excellent late summer/autumn dinner. (Summer lasts a little longer here than in other climes.)
I have been trying to get some dinner prep done earlier in the day when I have more energy. Early in the afternoon I made the mustard sauce and cleaned and sliced the Brussels sprouts.
Here is the recipe for mustard sauce —
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.
Later John pre-heated the oven to 400F and put the seasoned tilapia in to cook. At the same time I started cooking the Brussels sprouts. Here’s my recipe for what my family calls “incredibly delicious Brussels sprouts.”
BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH DRY SHEERY
1 pound Brussels sprouts
½ cup water
Salt
½ teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons butter
2 tablespoons dry sherry
Trim stem ends and halve Brussels sprouts. Cook sprouts cut side down at high heat in a covered pan in the salted water for a few minutes. When sprouts are getting tender uncover the pan let the cooking liquid mostly evaporate. Then add the butter, sugar, and sherry. Continue cooking until sprouts have browned.
The fish cooked in 12 minutes in which time the Brussels sprouts were done and I had reheated the rice. We served the fish and rice with some of the mustard sauce and enjoyed the incredibly delicious Brussels spouts on their own.
John and I are not going to be home on Thanksgiving so our son, Jon, offered to host Thanksgiving on Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. In order to represent the entire North American continent (and to make the grandkids happy) we had a Mexican menu.
First we started with a cranberry margarita and chips and guacamole plus crackers with jalapeño cheese spread. Dinner consisted of a taco bar and make your own chicken, steak, shrimp, or vegetable tacos. There was also salsa and refried beans. It was all very yummy!
For dessert I brought my traditional Indian pudding made from my mother and grandmother’s old cookbook. It is a cornmeal and molasses custard which isn’t much to look at but is divine when served warm with vanilla ice cream.
Happy Thanksgiving, North America and many thanks to Jon and his family for hosting our great meal!
On Friday we had our postponed Rosh Hashanah celebration because it was too hot for baking and cooking on the actual date. Sarah and I got up early and she got the challah started and I started peeling and chopping all the vegetables. The soup recipe is from The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia. I have never been but my sister had dinner there and got the recipe for the soup. I think their soup is called Apple-Rutabaga Soup but we just call ours Autumn Soup.
If you make the soup per the directions it is very rich. I use a half stick of butter and a half cup of cream. I add a little extra chicken stock to make up for the lesser cream amount. Also since the butternut squash is a pain to peel this year I roasted it in the oven and scooped out the pulp. Much easier! I also use less maple syrup because I don’t like sweet things and I do not pass it through a sieve. It is fine just whizzed up.
Autumn Soup
from The Inn at Little Washington
1 stick butter
1 onion, chopped
1 cup peeled and chopped Granny Smith apple
1 cup chopped rutabaga
1 cup chopped butternut squash
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped sweet potato
1 quart chicken stock or low-sodium broth
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup maple syrup
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt, to taste
Lemon slices and chives for garnish (optional)
Melt the butter in a large pot set over medium heat. Add the chopped vegetables and cook until the onion is translucent, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook 20-25 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Puree using a blender, food processor, or stick blender. Strain through a fine sieve. Add the cream, maple syrup, cayenne, and salt. Bring to a bare simmer and serve.
Makes 2 quarts. Can be made in advance and frozen.
Our dinner consisted of soup, challah, and apples with honey. It was lovely and super tasty. We toasted each other with a glass of Rombauer 2023 Chardonnay. We are hoping for a sweet and peaceful year.
Today no one felt like cooking so we had pizza delivered. It’s not super great pizza but it’s fine. The Italian sausage is very tasty.
John sliced up one of the breasts from our Costco chicken and heated it up slowly in chicken gravy. I reheated some rice made earlier in the day and sautéed asparagus and mushrooms.
Easy dinner.
On Monday morning I got up early to beat the heat and made stuffed peppers. Since I only had 8 ounces of beef I extended my stuffing with chopped onions, bell pepper, and mushrooms along with leftover rice from our take-out Chinese food last week. I had 4 red bell peppers and one small yellow pepper so I used the red peppers for the main dish and the yellow pepper chopped up in the filling. I also had a little of Rao’s basil and tomato sauce left which I extended with Muir Glen tomato sauce.
First I divided each pepper in half and microwaved them for four minutes to slightly soften them. Then I browned the ground beef and skimmed the fat off. Adding the vegetables was next and I cooked them with the meat until the onion was translucent. After adding the tomato sauce I popped the peppers in a 350F oven for 40 minutes.
At dinner we microwaved our peppers one at a time with a little more tomato sauce. They were so good that we decided to eat them again the next night!
This is my favorite Sunday egg dinner. It is so easy to make and hits what I like about food – crunchy and salty elements. I lay down a layer of tortilla chips, maybe 10 or 12. Next I mix some canned black beans with salsa and add that on top. I scrambled the egg for the next layer making sure to keep it very soft because it is going to get a bit more cooking. Finally I put some cheese on top and microwave the whole thing for a minute or so. It is tasty and fun to eat!
After a horrible week of temperatures over 100F and very little cooking I am going to post a menu for this week in the hopes that we will actually be able to use the stove and oven.
Since we missed celebrating Rosh Hashanah due to making soup and bread in 100+ degree weather was a non-starter, we will have our traditional dinner before sundown on Friday. And since we are moving holidays around we will have our non-traditional taco Thanksgiving on Saturday at our son’s house.
Omnivore 