Perpetual "What's for Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Today" thread

Post by **Darb** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:28 pm

Dinner tonite:

* A fresh loaf of crusty ciabatta bread, part of which I sliced and toasted for garlic crostini.
* A very ripe and pungent wedge of talleggio ... one of my favorite cheeses.
* Some fresh goat milk from whole foods. Billy jean was a little jealous, but she's been dry lately ...

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 7:04 pm

Tonight's dinner was a mixed bag of stuff I had in the fridge.

Five brats sliced with kitchen shears, browned until cooked through. Added some baby potatoes (I'd bought them frozen) and a frozen vegetable medley that had cauliflower, baby carrots, brussel sprouts and leeks. Fried the whole thing up in one pan, and served it with warmed sauerkraut. Dessert was individual cherry pies. The whole thing was delicious, and even the kids loved it. I even have enough left over for my lunch tomorrow

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:52 pm

mmm I just finished making lunches for tomorrow. I have some quasi-guacamole (it's really just mashed avocado, tomato, a bit of grated tex-mex cheese and some lemon juice) and home-baked tortilla chips for me, and for the kids, I made a packet of Butter and Herb noodles and tossed in some broccoli florets and cauliflower

Zack loved the bacon & scrambled egg wrap he had for today's lunch, but Skye apparently isn't too enamored with chicken bacon *sigh*.

gpackin · Post by **gpackin** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 6:58 am

tollbaby wrote:... but Skye apparently isn't too enamored with chicken bacon *sigh*.

Chicken Bacon? I like chicken and I like bacon, but there should not be chicken bacon.

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:04 am

it's actually quite tasty (much better than the vegetarian bacon, but not as good as turkey bacon).

Some of us can't eat the fatty goodness that is regular bacon

(at least, not very often) and chicken bacon is an acceptable alternative that won't send my digestive system into shock.

Post by **gollum** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:03 am

tollbaby wrote:it's actually quite tasty (much better than the vegetarian bacon, but not as good as turkey bacon).

1. Never heard of <strike>either</strike>any of those
2. Think I'd rather remain ignorant on what constitutes 'bacon' of the chicken, turkey or vegetarian variety.

gpackin · Post by **gpackin** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:10 pm

For lunch today: re-heated left over pizza

, and a bottle of Ommegang Hennepin

violetblue · Post by **violetblue** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:25 pm

Leftovers for me too, but good leftovers. My favorite pasta made with pancetta and cheese, with some leftover asiago cheese bread. It's one of those dishes that actually tastes better after it has sat overnight.

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:34 pm

Last night, my aunt hosted a dinner at which my brother (the near red-seal certified chef/cook) was cooking. Theme was cajun (mostly).

1st course:

Baby spinach salad with toasted pecans, strawberries, diced tomatoes, and my aunt's homemade balsamic vinaigrette (literally just balsamic vinegar and olive oil) with a garnish of fresh Cilantro.

2nd course:

PurÃ©ed carrot soup with cream & cilantro garnish. (this is the same carrot soup I make myself, but I use a bit more onions for flavor, and black pepper. My brother omits both - I found it a bit bland, but meh. it was good.)

3rd course:

Jambalaya (variation thereof, to cater to everyone's dietary restrictions) on linguine (not terribly cajun, but my aunt doesn't like rice). The jambalaya was a combination of diced tomatoes, green bell peppers, hot Italian sausage, zipperback shrimp, sea scallops, chopped cilantro, cajun seasoning, and mushrooms. The whole was served topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese (again, not very cajun, but meh). It was my brother's own recipe, adapted from a traditional jambalaya. I was a bit disappointed by the omission of okra and chicken, but that was necessitated by the company we were in

It was FANTASTIC, and I got to take home some leftovers which I ate for lunch today

4th course:

Traditional cheese course (my family doesn't do meals without them - at least, not group meals). I can't usually remember what was had, but I'll try - there was a double creme brie that was VERY good and at its peak, a jarlsberg (my aunt's favorite), a creamed chÃ¨vre rolled in herbs, some hard cheese with a vein of wood ash through it, and an olive havarti. Served with sweet green grapes, strawberries (paired with the chÃ¨vre so perfectly, we couldn't have planned it better), almonds, pecans and a bit of dark chocolate.

The 5th course was sort of cheated. It was supposed to be a traditional cajun dessert (my brother won't tell me exactly what, I think he's saving it for Thanksgiving dinner), but there was a slight miscommunication and the ingredient list was never passed along to the buyer (me), so we had chocolate covered cream puffs from M&M Meats (they come frozen).

My aunt, about a month and a half ago, made a huge jug of Sangria (not sure what this size bottle is called, but it fits 20L or 5 gallons). She used 9 litres of wine, four litres of orange juice, one litre of triple sec, and chopped apples, peaches, pears, oranges, lemons, limes, strawberries and raspberries, and let the whole thing stew for six weeks. It was lovely

gpackin · Post by **gpackin** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:54 pm

violetblue wrote:My favorite pasta made with pancetta ...

Anything made with pancetta is bound to be good. The same with regular bacon, add it to anything and it just makes it better.

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:28 pm

gpackin wrote: The same with regular bacon, add it to anything and it just makes it better.

I'll have to try it with chocolate ice-cream....

gpackin · Post by **gpackin** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:48 pm

voralfred wrote:
gpackin wrote: The same with regular bacon, add it to anything and it just makes it better.
I'll have to try it with chocolate ice-cream....

HaHa

. Maybe not anything, but many savory things.

Post by **Darb** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:15 pm

voralfred wrote:
gpackin wrote: The same with regular bacon, add it to anything and it just makes it better.
I'll have to try it with chocolate ice-cream....

Believe it or not, but a little really good bacon, fried crisp, and crumbled, goes very well with certain dessets ... say, apple strudel with vanilla ice cream. It adds a salty savory crisp back note that intensifies the sweet and fruity flavors of the dish itself.

However, I dont think chocolate would work.

Post by **Darb** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:16 pm

TB: that sounded like an excellent meal.

Post by **Darb** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:21 pm

In about 45 mins, I'm having my new neighbors over for an informal impromptu bite.

App:
* Cheese platter - crackers, saga blue, sliced local sopressatta, diced apples (tossed with a little lemon to prevent browning) <<< pretty much whatever I had handy in my fridge

Grilled Entree:
* Bourbon-teryaki-garlic marinated flank steak.
* Foil roasted rosemary potatoes.
* Foil roasted vegetable medley.

Bev: Choice of
* Sauvignon blanc
* Pinot Grigio
* Wakatashi Onikoroshi Junmai Daiginjo Sake

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:42 pm

/me resolves to move closer to Brad's house.

violetblue · Post by **violetblue** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 7:18 pm

I want to be Brad's neighbor, too! (stomps feet and throws a foodie tantrum).

Oh, and I agree, gpackin. Pancetta is wonderful, wonderful stuff.

tb, the dinner you had sounds good. As you know, I'm a fan of Cajun. That's interesting that your family has a cheese course with their meals. I kind of miss that family tradition stuff. After my mom died, we kind of broke off and started doing our own thing and lost that (morbid music plays in the background, must be a Sunday night).

Post by **Darb** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:18 pm

Agreed on pancetta ... and dont you DARE let the butcher slice off the excess fat.

Mmmm ... nice hollowed out hoagie roll, with roasted red peppers, buffalo mozz, pancetta (or parma ham with the fat), sopresatta, a little mortadello, some balsamic vinegarette, some shedded onion, some fresly ground black pepper ... food of the Gods.

BTW, after dinner tonite, the oddball pairing of the night was some tawny porto paired with some girl scout samosa cookies.

They'd showed up with the cookies in hand, I thanked them, set it aside, and after dinner grabbed the porto from my cabinet, and poured it with the cookies. This was old hat avante garde to me, but they were blown away by pairing girl scout cookies with portugese wine.

haelwen1 · Post by **haelwen1** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:43 am

Brad:

Have you ever eaten at Carnegie Deli? Is the cheescake awesome? A friend down here extolls their virtue.... Have you ever tried to duplicate their cheesecake with the recipe they post on their webpage? Thanks, Haelwen(Laura)

gpackin · Post by **gpackin** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 12:49 pm

My lunch today, since I stayed home from work, was a turkey and provolone sandwich with cranberry honey mustard, and a bottle of Duvel. Since I don't have a proper Duvel glass I used my Corsendonk glass.

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:09 pm

An unlikely combination, or, Another one of Lyn's experiments

Tonight for dinner, I was kind of stuck. I hadn't thawed any meat, and the whole day had been pretty protein-heavy up until now anyway, so I decided to get creative. I recently bought myself a little rice cooker, so I decided to christen it.

I made about 2 1/2 cups of brown rice (the rice cooker's measuring cup doesn't really correspond to standard measures, but I used 3 of those full of rice), added canned baby peas, frozen corn, a can of sliced black olives and.... a generous handful of frozen cranberries. (also 1 Tbsp of margarine).

It is... FANTASTIC! My daughter is wolfing it down as we speak, I'm enjoying it myself, and there's tons left over for tomorrow's lunch

yay!!!!

Had I wanted more protein/fibre in it, I'd have added a can of black beans, or some chopped up cooked chicken or shrimp, but it's quite good without.

Post by **laurie** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 9:28 pm

I'm going to try that, Tollbaby. (Minus the black olives -- Do. Not. Like.)

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 9:31 pm

don't feel bad, I'm having difficulty digesting them. I just saw the can on the shelf as the rice was cooking and decided that you could never have too much colour... I was wrong. LOL

Post by **Darb** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:28 am

Experimentation is half the fun of cooking.

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 10:13 am

it's still really tasty

And it's better than a cheeseburger (right Scotty?)!