Had a dinner I enjoyed last night. Flounder with orange pepper and orange marmalade, roasted onions and peppers (let them roast a bit too long), brussels sprouts, brown rice and a roll.

Looks good Sleeve. I browned a couple ofbreasts then made a cream sauce (garlic, wine, chicken broth and cream) then I added spinach. It didn't come out creamy but separated, but the chicken was nice and tender simmered in the sauce.

Whole wheat couscous, which was meh.

Best wishes for this Easter time.

My Easter Sunday was full of family and grandchildren including a new fur baby. (Golden retriever puppy) When said fur baby tried to eat large chunks of one grandchilds play dough... pandemonium broke out. Great memories to cherish and I only got bitten a little as I tried to get the play dough out of puppies mouth. Hah!

Photo shows part of our table and one of the platters one son made up for us.

ETA

We call play dough that multi coloured non toxic stuff you buy in a container at the $2 shop for kiddies to squeeze and make shapes with.

Puppies! Such a mess but so fun...and entertaining. Nice to hear about family gatherings.

Glad you found a ham Jasdip. It has been a frustating couple of years when the palate is set on something, then hard to find. Makes me want it even more when something is in short supply.

We usually want ham but we just had the last freezer packet from NYearsDay.

Lamb and shrimp sounded good. Land and Sea. Usually means mashed potatoes with lamb but such good vegetables in the crisper i made a tray of roasted.

New method. I always give the white potatoes a head start, but cut the purple and regular sweet potatoes in thick slices. The golden beets whole. Sliced them out of the oven and the beets into quarters. Kept their color for the plate. Should have left the rainbow carrots whole as well. Lots of lemon went well with the shrimp.

Best thing about Misfits is the generous boxing that seems to happen every time. If not one thing it is another. 2 pounds each of huge purple and regular. 90cents a lb and 1.20cents for the purple. Organic. Very firm and fresh. Local health food market had them on sale for 2.50 a pound. Not so fresh sitting out for days.

Monday i made SousVide thick pork chops straight from the freezer, 140º for 3.5 hours. (SeriousEats) Perfect. Green olive, celery top tapenade. Celeriac, golden beet, watermelon radish slaw. Cooked a couple extra chops for Cubano sandwiches.

Last night was a Mediterranean Pasta Puttanesca. Leeks, celery, salmon, merquez lamb sausage. Olives, feta....

Sushi. Shrimp and salmon.

Puppies and good food! Great times.

Would you believe I've never made a lasagna. All week I've been waiting for the weekend to make one in my Pampered Chef casserole dish. It gets very little use.

So egg or no egg, ricotta and Cottage cheese? Sure why not. Waiting for it to set so I can dig in.

@Jasdip, that looks really good.

Oh wow Jas, I'll trade you for a bbq burger which is on the menu here tonight. I haven't made lasagna in ages - thanks for the nudge. I still use the Joey's Killer Lasagna recipe from thathomesite years ago.

Kenji's lo mein with oyster sauce. I used chard for the greens.

Last night's Pad Thai -

Oh my, I'm way behind. I had to laugh at Neely's golden retriever puppy story, LOL, those puppies eat everything!

Mmmm, lo mein sounds good, so does shrimp and lasagna and pretty much everything else!

We didn't really have Easter dinner. Ashley and her girls had supper at her in-laws, and Amanda and Dave and the kids had supper at his family. His Dad is being treated for cancer and his grandma is 96 years old with some current health issues, so I told them they should spend time there. They stopped here for dessert afterward, and I made snacks for the little girls before they went for their dinner. We had an Easter Egg "hunt" and even The Princess got a basket. Her plastic eggs were filled with dollar bills instead of chocolate, that made her happy. She was happily eating a Cadbury Cream Egg and letting cash fall into her lap when she smiled and said "Never too old for an Easter Basket at Grandma's". Nope, she's not. (grin)

Mother was here for a couple of weeks and I have an election to run next week so I've been busy. I did get a Misfits box, though, with some of those enormous purple sweet potatoes. Now I just have to find time to cook them...

The Small Princesses helped with Easter Desserts:

The smallest princesses had an easter egg hunt:

and a visit from the Easter......um.....Bunny? Or something

Madison helped Elery roll up some meatballs wrapped in bacon. They put them into the smoker and when they went back out to check on them, the smoker was in flames. A fire extinguisher later, the meatballs were not appetizing. (grin) Elery needs a new smoker, that one is pretty much melted, but it's snowing right now, so he's not missing it for the time being.

So, we had cheese dip and cupcakes and lots of Easter candy, then sent them off for supper with their Dad. Happy Easter!

Dinner? Heck, I don't even remember. No pictures while Mother is here, it's so busy I don't even think about it. Tonight we had fish sandwiches, which were good but not photogenic. Last night was beans and cornbread, so we're eating, but nothing very pretty.

Oh, but my tomatoes and peppers and cabbages are all growing nicely, so I'm accomplishing something.

Annie

Salmon hollandaise with homemade wine and just harvested carrots -

Recently made lasagna and so good. PadThai tonight. Kenji's video recipes are always full of good information. That must be from his new cookbook 'theWok'. (or similar title)

Road trip to the mountains we made a chili kit prepped at home for ease of heating up on the wood stove.

Dafodils blooming means thinning the ramp plot. Next weekend will be just a snip at soil level.

Butter basted with cherry toms for burgers back home.

Sheet pan of Misfit sweet potatoes, creamers, brussels, and roasted garlic.

Meatless tuesday i made a RG rice and bean bowl. RanchoGordo whipple and black caviar lentils over a fennel, apple, celeriac, celery, radish, slaw.

My work load is slowing down allowing more time for cooking.....and sushi night is back

Such beautiful fresh and healthy food Sleevendog. When you mention thinning the ramps plot do you mean thinning the garlic plot?

Lovely to see your food again Lynda especially your delicious sushi.

Also not forgetting your yummy looking lasagne Jasdip. How was it?

The following is a paella cooked by my eldest son. It’s a Valencia style one.... the green beans. It was delicious and 8 adults finished this off although it was a 12 person paella pan. We all lived in Spain for a year twice when he was little, and as an adult he has returned there several times to live, study and work.

Ramps are often called 'wild leeks'.... all about ramps

First edible up in the Spring. Next is chives and rhubarb. Asparagus and some herbs.

Ramps will multiply so thinning is good for the plot. But not too much so snipping is recommended to keep the patch healthy. (i replanted the root ends of the thinnings)

Your son is quite the cook!

My sushi skills are getting better. Will be in our rotation from now on.

PadThai last night but wrong rice noodles, -bummer. Saw the edge of the package in the pantry and proceeded to prep. Good flavor, wrong texture.

I would swear Annie’s easter post has just appeared. Lovely to see your family celebrations.

Thanks for that link about ramps Sleeve... I always confuse them with garlic scapes for some unknown reason.

Dinner last night was pork slices, baby gnocchi, red cabbage and apple sauce all cooked by DH.

Baby gnocchi, cute. 😀

Just now saw Annie's post scrolling up. I had one last week not show up, gave up, then it showed up hours later.

The purple potatoes are remarkably good. Islighly over-cooked the sheet pan we had with burgers. They were so creamy and delicious like they were laden with butter and cream.

Fridays box. The three sweet potatoes were 50 ounces! That is about 75 cents a pound. 1/2 pound lemons, lol. (i checked my scale with an un-opened can thinking it must be off)

Storage tip. I've been keeping my sweet potatoes in my crisper, uncovered. If i just use half, i rub the cut flesh with oil, then back in the fridge. The last box was the 15th. Exactly two weeks ago Friday. Finished those up last night, still fresh and firm.

Pantry treats.

Friday night we had pork chops hidden under buttered ramps. Sheet pan roots/veg works for us. We both like brussel sprouts but DH goes straight for the russets and creamers then a few others. I go straight for the beets, sweet potatoes, carrots/parsnips.

I pulled a third of the veg tray early for last nights chicken curry.

*my mother had Easter egg hunts well into our twenties. 1,5,10, and a few twenty dollar bills. And some duds filled with cornflakes or similar.

Annie's easter post showed up late for me too. We spent Easter with friends and their tradition was to have an easter egg hunt while the adults pelted the kids with water balloons. I wasn't sure how it would go, but Garrett and the other kids loved it and everyone was respectful of the littlest ones.

Neely, that Paella looks amazing.

Sleevendog, how do you make your pad thai? My sauce this last time was lacking. I think I need to up my game.

This was last nights dinner. SV & pan seared chicken breast with spicy nectarine sauce, air fried potatoes, peppers and shallots, and chocolate pudding.

Water baloons is hilarious. 😂

Nice to have a teen in the home to indulge in chocolate pudding. 😜

My FIL loved sweets and especially my puddings and custards so i made them often.

Pad Thai recipes are often a miss for me. I have a gold standard in the city for PadThai and ColdSesameNoodles. Rarely would make at home until recently...(covid).

The Woks of Life is my go-to site for both. I refuse to shop with a list so i hack recipes to use what i have on hand. A healthy pantry always so it works.

Excellent recipes across the board in WOL like Japanese chicken curry i made last night.

Hacked that by using sautéed onion, celery, hatch chilis---as my 'gravy' blending with a stick. Veg a bit healthier than a flour roux thickener.

I just kept tasting the PadThai until it worked---a bit of white miso was the ticket. I only have a bag of mixed nuts but that was fine in a zip-lock beaten with a rolling pin. So mine was a PadThai/SesameNoodle hack. DH had it the next day for lunch cold and raved about it.

Amchoor, dried green mango powder, is a good pantry staple that has a long shelf life. It has a nice citrus tang as well as just basic dried mango strips. Tamarind is easily purchased but i rarely have that. Dried dates and mango work or amchoor.

Sleeve, that is a great blog. I haven't found their pad thai yet. I got distracted by so many amazing CNY and dim sum recipes. I've been wanting to make my own dim sum for the longest time. I bookmarked it and will definitely try some of them as soon as time permits.

This was Sunday night's dinner SV then pan seared salmon with basmati and asparagus. I used up the leftover spicy nectarine sauce.

I had a peaceful (and productive) weekend at our vacation place, but things got crazy as soon as we left. The highway was shut on our way home due to a jumper. We didn't know what was going on and got off the freeway to avoid the shutdown only to end up on the overpass and saw the unfortunate young lady being tackled and dragged from the bridge. Yikes! My clients for today and tomorrow both have major fires brewing, so perhaps I was overly optimistic about my busy season coming to an end. Today, I put in a 10 hour day for my client, managed my homeschooled son taking his state testing exams over the internet, and monitored the construction project at our vacation place over my security camera and text message.

I'm way behind.

I made Fajitas on the weekend, now I need to make more tortillas. I can't get them as thin as the ones in the store, I have to work on that.

Sleeve, had no idea sweet potatoes can be refrigerated. Thanks for that.

I made a pad thai recipe that my sil gave me, but it was too sweet and had too much peanut butter for my taste. I haven't made it since even with cutting down both ingredients. Maybe pad thai isn't for me.

Lynda....a jumper. Yikes.

Jasdip, homemade tortillas sound so good!

This was last nights Cinco de Mayo dinner -- tri tip tacos with homemade/grown salsa and crema. Such a good way to turn smoked tri tip leftovers into something that does not taste like leftovers. When time permits, I need to make my own tortillas again.

Good food everyone. I love the fajitas and tacos you all make so regularly.

The weather here suddenly turned cold so I had a bakng afternoon.

These were Salmon quiche and a sort of raspberry tart.

Had the salmon quiche with coleslaw and spicy potatoes... probably the last of the summer food.

The raspberry tart was good for the day before Mother’s Day afternoon that happened.

Rarely have anything resembling left-overs. Always planned to become something completely different.

Raspberriy tart, ❤️

We had 36 hours of steady rain. Managed to smoke cheese, a couple salmon fillets, and some ribs under the eaves Saturday.

Sushi last night...

Neely, your raspberry tart is making me drool. We are 6 weeks or so away from fresh raspberries here but when they appear I will be a raspberry glutton! I have a recipe for raspberry jam with peppercorns and merlot and another for raspberry jam with dark chocolate and brandy that I am dying to try.

So good. A three cheese panini with roasted garden tomato soup,--(the last i found in the freezer). Blendered with hatch chilis and roasted garlic. Panini--smoked mozarella, parm and gouda. Proscuitto, pastrami, and salami thin sliced and roasted under the broiler.

Not planned at all but sounded good while freezer shopping.

Soup looks so tasty Sleeve. nekotish that raspberry, peppercorn and merlot sounds very good... more savoury than sweet. Alas my raspberries were frozen but I don’t mind them for a tart... no sugar in them at all so was quite sour in contrast to the sweet frangipane on the bottom.

I was given lots of quinces so have been making jam, paste and stewed. Not strictly What’s for Dinner but did have a large spoon full of the jam with some sausages as a chutney.

Before tops on and into canning boil up.

The colour in the sunshine is good.

The funny shaped lump at front of plate is the quince paste, membrilla in Spain

I can’t edit my above post and I think it should be membrillo not ’a’

Fantastic looking soup, Sleeve!

Neely, there's a quince tree on the landlord's property. No one picks them. They're yellow globes. Would they be red inside like yours? The landlord said they're cooked like applesauce.

This week we've had unseasonably warm temperatures, we broke 140 year records. 30C. I'm sick of summer already. LOL.

Today I made a vegetable salad with some pasta added. Tossed in some cooked chicken as well.

Hi Jasdip.... quince flesh starts out yellow and gradually turns that pinky red colour with long cooking.

Another hot day, so time for taco salad.

@Sleeve Your sushi and three cheese panini both look amazing

@Neely that raspberry tart caught my eye as well. Our berries and just starting to come in and I am looking forward to making some tarts.

This was tonight's dinner, made by my DH - lightly seared ahi with brown rice and asparagus.

Lovely dinner Lynda.

I’m out of cooking action for a few weeks... broken collar bone. One handed cooking is a real pain literally. Thankgoodness DH is happy to take over.

How did you do that, Neely???!!!

Your DH made a lovely meal Lynda!

Pineapple, peppers and onions don't photograph all that well, too bland. But I made a skillet of that plus breakfast sausages. A cornstarch slurry was made with brown sugar, pineapple juice, vinegar and soy sauce. Served over rice.

I’m out of cooking action for a few weeks... broken collar bone.

Ouch! 🙁 Quick healing thoughts.

We hit 90º. AC is working like a charm.

Easy salads here. Peppers, onion, and sausage is a classic. Looks great.

@Jasdip, your pineapple, peppers, onions, and sausage dish sounds delicious. I have copied it and hope to make in the near future.

Neely, I hope you are on the mend.

My schedule has settled and I am back to cooking and tending the garden.

I've been making jams, syrups and sauces.

These are, from top, blackberries, boysenberries and ollalieberries. I make a triple berry jam from them. I also made a blueberry sauce and raspberry syrup.

Yesterday, I canned eight large jars of nectarine jam and still have a tree full of fruit.

Chicken with spicy nectarine sauce.

My first attempt at a soft pretzel.

This is the wine we made from last fall's harvest. From back, 1. Golden Muscat - juice only, 2. Golden Muscat - Juice and skins, 3. Golden Muscat - Skins only, and 4. California Chablis (Thompson's Seedless) - juice only. After tasting them all, we started blending. We decided to bottle a 50-50 blend of 1 & 4 and not blend 2 or 3.

After bottling, I used the last partial bottle of the wine to make this lemon cream herb sauce, which we served over pan seared salmon.

My second attempt at pretzels. I added an 'everything' flavor that was a hit with Garrett.

I tried a new recipe - Poulet a la moutarde, which was tasty with brown rice and asparagus.

@Lynda (Zn9b/23 - Central CA Coast) So much good looking food. Looks like you've mastered the pretzels. If you share recipes I would love your recipe for the lemon cream herb sauce.

Beautiful meals Lynda. Your mustard chicken is particularly calling to me.

Walnut the sausage pineapple dish really is good and easy to make. I don't measure, just throw in whatever I have. Mushrooms are also good in it, I didn't have any on hand.

Tonite I finally made an air-fyer chicken dish I'm ecstatic about. I have one or two that are keepers. I've decided that I'm not going to bother with breading recipes, mine never turn out like the pictures.

This is a NYT recipe where the chicken is marinated in oil, balsamic, soya sauce, honey, brown sugar. I served it with orzo that I put lemon juice, oregano and feta.

@Jasdip, I, too quit breading anything to cook in the air fryer. Never worked for me, plus fewer calories and tastes just as good without any breading/coating, IMO. The marinade for your chicken sounds delicious. I don't subscribe to NYT so hit their paywall when trying to view one of their recipes, but I have noted what is in the marinade.

WC, I too hit a paywall but I scribbled out the recipe from another source....

Marinated Chicken Thighs NYT

Poke holes in chicken and place in ziploc bag. (I used chicken leg quarters separated into thighs and drumsticks)

Marinade

1/2 cup olive oil

3 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp worcestershire

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp honey

Pour over chicken and marinate 1 hour

Air-fry skin side up at 385F for 15 minutes, turn and cook another 10 minutes.

Fantastic. I am going to make tonight for dinner. I did look for another source but was unable to find one. Thank you so much, @Jasdip.

Ooops it seems we're posting on the older thread. I'll post a comment in the latest one to bring it up to the top again.

Well, I didn't notice that either.