My meals haven't been worth commenting on lately but today I made a porketta roast for lunch and had leftovers for dinner. I was off this week and I had the boys today but not for dinner, which is why I made it for lunch. It cooked for three hours and Nick kept commenting on how good it smelled. I grew up on porketta in NE PA and it's now a big 'thing' - there is even a popular restaurant in NYC devoted to it. I like mine rolled. I put fresh garlic and seasonings inside, rolled it up and secured it with silicon bands and then seasoned it on the outside. I left it in the fridge overnight and then cooked it for three hours this morning. It brought back a lot of memories of Sunday dinners.

DH invited two couples for dinner tonight. I'm a little tired from all the holiday entertaining and DS just left this morning. I didn't have much time for menu planning so we are pretty much having the same thing we had for Christmas dinner. Filet mignon only instead of Madiera sauce, I made a white wine butter sauce. I made some French onion soup, twice baked potatoes, honey roasted carrots, peas and celery and a salad of bibb lettuce with grapefruit segments and avocado slices with a poppy seed dressing. For dessert, bananas Foster. After tonight, I'm ging into hiding for at least a month! I'd better get to work, they will be here in a half hour.

Neither of us could finish our chicken breasts last nite, so we had the remains of those, with fried potatoes, some stuffing, canned french green onions and pickled beets.

My meal was very light........a piece of tilapia and a slice of toast.

Shirley

georgysmom, is it too late for me to come over for filet mignon?

paula, I've never heard of porketta, but it sounds good.

GM you are amazing.
Paula, can you explain what porketta is, it does sound good.

Shirley what illness do you have that you have to restrict what you eat? You mentioned that it last nite's thread.

we found nathan franks at our sams club...while they were good, don't know if i'd send across the usa for them, lol...

I want what georgysmom is serving!

OK, let's give georgysmom a day to rest up and we will all meet at her house for dinner Saturday!

Porketta (or porchetta) is a seasoned pork roast. I don't believe there is a single authentic recipe for it. Sometimes the seasoning is just on top, sometimes it is a 'rolled' roast and the seasoning is spiraled throughout the roast. That's how I like it. I used rosemary, fennel, black pepper, salt, garlic pepper (I was out of garlic powder), marjoram, oregano and dill. I grind it up into a fine powder. The dill is what I like to be most prominent (I add more straight dried dill before roasting it too) but some recipes might not use it at all. I think garlic is key (I rubbed the inside of the roast with crushed fresh garlic) but the rest is matter of taste. The meat is slow roasted. I like a piece of pork with some fat (I removed the bones from a bone-in loin roast today) but some places add fat (they wrap it over the roast) or use the pork belly. I don't think it has to be that fatty to be good but it wouldn't be the same if the pork is too lean.

It's great hot but it's also popular sliced thin in a cold sandwich in the area where I grew up (you can buy it from the deli in some places). It's best on a 'hard roll' but I can't get those here (a hard roll is basically a crusty, chewy kaiser roll).

Paula, thanks for the pictures of the food. That looks very appetizing.

jasdip, I am on a very strong antibiotic, and will be on a total of 4 wks. It plays havoc with my digestive system if I don't stick to certain bland foods. Only 2 more wks to go.

Shirley

Tried a new recipe tonight, General Tso's Chicken, served on rice. We had tossed salad on the side.

Tobygirl, would you make the General Tso chicken again?
Would you mind sharing the recipe?

Jasdip, yes, I would make it again. My husband really liked it. Where the recipe calls for raw sugar, I used light brown. Other than that, I followed the recipe. I'll include a link to the recipe.

Here is a link that might be useful: General Tso's Chicken

Thanks Tobygirl!!! That looks delicious.

Taco Bell. Apparently I'm a bad mother because there was nothing for them to make (yeah right) so when I got home tonight from work we made a list and Alex took Lauren and her friend to get some food for everyone.

Old neighbors came out to visit, so we had steaks, baked spuds, salad and crusty rolls. Our company graphics guy sent me a lemon Daisy cake so that came in handy!!

DH has been talking about fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy for a couple of weeks now. I had him take the chicken out yesterday to thaw for fried chicken. He was looking forward to it all day. I didn't get home until almost 8 last night ... soooooo ... he ended up with Top Ramen for dinner. Poor guy. LOL