Winery dinner in Sonoma. 9/21/23

Posted on September 22, 2023 by Beebamom

We are having a second celebration of John’s birthday with a fancy dinner at a winery inSonoma, CA. Each dish is paired with a wine from the winery in a multi-course dinner. We do not go out to dinner or even get take-out very often. We would rather dine out less frequently and spend our dining dollars on something special.

My dinner varied a bit from the set menu as the chef prepared special dishes without gluten for me. All the produce, meat, and seafood is sourced locally. I took pictures of each course.

Clam chowder with new potato, Manila clam, dill, and caviar
Smoked Mt. Lassen trout, tomato, cucamelon, and runner bean
Shredded summer squash and zucchini with a ricotta sauce ( The dish for everyone else was summer squash and ricotta tortellini.)
Dry-aged beef with maitake mushroom, ruby beet, and farm greens
Farm plums, almond cake, coconut ice cream, and preserved quince I thought I would have to send this back but was assured that the almond cake was made with almond flour.

By the time we got to the “pasta” course I was getting pretty full and handed some of the last three dishes over to John. He was more than happy to help me out.

The dinner was delicious and I was sos grateful to the hospitality staff and the chef for going out of their way to make sure that my dinner was according to my dietary needs.

Posted in American, Beef, Desserts, Dining out, Fish, Shellfish, soup, Special occasion, Vegetables | Leave a comment

Tofu bowl with rice. 9/20/23

Posted on September 21, 2023 by Beebamom
Tofu bowl with rice

The bowls we make whether they feature tofu, shrimp, or salmon all feature the same vegetables, dressing, and rice. The vegetables are edamame, cucumber, cabbage, peppers, and green onions. The dressing is a soy vinaigrette. We chose a fairly spicy jalapeño pepper and a really spicy red cayenne which was mismarked as a Fresno pepper. It was too hot for me and I had to take them off. Otherwise a good vegetarian/vegan dinner.

Posted in Asian, Easy, Hot weather meals, Legumes, Salad, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Weekly Menu. September 18-24, 2023

Posted on September 19, 2023 by Beebamom

Better late than never!

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No menu for the week? 9/18/23

Posted on September 19, 2023 by Beebamom

On Sunday we had the whole family over for a Rosh Hashanah celebration. Our daughter made this spiral challah for the occasion.

Challah

I made Autumn soup and a salad and we also had a whole bunch of symbolic foods such as apples, dates, hard boiled eggs, carrots, etc. which we presented on individual plates so that each person had their own group. John explained all the meanings and we made the requisite puns. A good time was had by all.

Autumn soup

By the time everybody left and we cleaned up we were exhausted. So we went to bed without making our weekly menu! And now here it is Tuesday and I still have no idea what we are preparing or what we need to shop for!!

Between what I had in the freezer and crisper and a leftover we managed to cobble together a Monday chicken dinner of sautéed chicken breast with a lemon caper sauce, polenta and broccoli.

Chicken breast with lemon caper sauce, polenta, broccoli

Last night I put some lamb chops in the refrigerator to defrost but who knows what else will be on our non-menu on Tuesday!

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Chicken enchiladas, guacamole, chips. 9/16/23

Posted on September 17, 2023 by Beebamom
Chicken enchiladas, guacamole, and tortilla chips

Whether it is enchiladas, tacos, guacamole, or chili, everyone in our family loves Mexican/Southwest food. In fact we are planning on having an all-North American Thanksgiving this year featuring a taco bar. Because we will be out of town in November, we will be celebrating in October around the time of Canadian Thanksgiving and although Mexico does not have an actual Thanksgiving holiday, we will celebrate Día de Acción de Gracias with Mexican foods. Of course we will have a few standard U.S. dishes as well.

Back to the Saturday night dinner! The chicken came a rotisserie chicken and was rolled into corn tortillas with salsa verde, shredded, cheese, and diced onions. The entire dish of enchiladas was covered with more salsa verde, cheese, and onions. I baked it covered in a 350F oven for 30 minutes and then raised the temperature to 450F for the last 10 minutes uncovered. Our side was guacamole and tortilla chips.

Posted in American, Methods, Mexican, Poultry, Southwest U.S. | Tagged | Leave a comment

Buffalo chicken wings and salad. 9/15/23

Posted on September 16, 2023 by Beebamom
Buffalo chicken wings and salad

Tonight we took an easy route to dinner. The wings were Foster Farms Take-Out Buffalo Chicken Wings and the salad was Taylor Farms Steakhouse Wedge. John and I both love Buffalo chicken wings. He likes the drumettes and I like the flats. They cook up from frozen in about 25 minutes. The salad with its blue cheese dressing was the perfect accompaniment.

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Seared scallops with Brussels sprouts and potatoes. 9/14/23

Posted on September 15, 2023 by Beebamom
Seared sea scallops with Brussels sprouts and potatoes

This is sort of the dinner that John requested for his birthday. He actually asked for asparagus but all the ones in the store were those very thin pencil-ly type. So I substituted Brussels sprouts. (As an aside I looked up Brussels sprouts and found out that the B in Brussels sprouts is always capitalized. They were named after the capital of Belgium where they were first cultivated.)

Even though it was his birthday John generously cooked the scallops since he knew if I did the cooking I would probably screw it up. It is much wiser just to leave the vegetables to me.

I cooked the sprouts in a little water, butter, dry sherry, sugar, and salt. Once the water evaporates the sprouts fry in the remaining butter getting nice and brown on the cut side. Yum!

The potatoes were simply steamed and I added a little butter since it was a special occasion. I also made tartar sauce and our daughter made a zucchini cake for dessert.

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Fish tacos with kale salad. 9/13/23

Posted on September 15, 2023 by Beebamom
Fish tacos with kale salad

Easy-peasy hump day dinner! Shred some cabbage, chop an onion, buy a container of salsa and a salad kit. The fish, in this case tilapia, cooks in minutes and you’re done!

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Mexican, pescatarian, Salad, Southwest U.S., Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Polenta with cheese, black and white beans, salsa. 9/12/23

Posted on September 12, 2023 by Beebamom
Polenta with cheese, spicy black and white beans with salsa

Easy dinner with polenta, beans, and a homemade salsa. John made his regular recipe of 1/2 cup of polenta and three cups of water. He added some cheese near the end of cooking. The beans were both white and black with seasoning of chipotle powder. The black beans came in a South American sauce. The white beans were drained and rinsed. The salsa was a combination of tomatoes, cucumber, onions, jalapeño, and parsley. It was seasoned with salt, cumin, and hot sauce.

This is a filling vegetarian dish which can be vegan with the omission of cheese.

Posted in Easy, Grains, Legumes, South American, Southwest U.S., Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Deconstructed hamburger and salad. 9/11/23

Posted on September 12, 2023 by Beebamom
Deconstructed grilled hamburger with salad

My experiment with introducing gluten back into my diet did not go well. So I am back to my old lactose and gluten free self. Tonight for our burger meal I decided to deconstruct the way I like to eat hamburgers and eat all the components with a knife and fork. The hamburger bun role was played by a slice of Trader Joe’s multi-grain gluten free bread. It is the most tolerable gluten-free bread I have found. It comes in expensive tiny loaves of petite slices.

In my New Jersey diner youth, my favorite burger was a California burger. It consists of the patty, lettuce, tomato, and red onion. The condiments are ketchup and mayo. By artfully stacking these ingredients on my fork I was able to recreate my fave.

We have a salad and some chips. It is a very enjoyable dinner.

Posted in American, Beef, Easy, Grilling, Hot weather meals, Salad, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment