We ate our dinner tonight like it was two separate course. First came the salad course which featured an Asiago dressing and tomatoes from our daughter’s garden plot.
We were supposed to be making Singapore shrimp but after our big, fancy dinner on Thursday we decided to go with something a little more modest, tilapia with mustard sauce and steamed new potatoes.
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.
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.
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.
On Sunday we had the whole family over for a Rosh Hashanah celebration. Our daughter made this spiral challah for the occasion.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Omnivore 