Thursday night: after last night's blowout, just a pizza.

Cappriciosa

Friday night: Maiale ubriaco

Lasagna with salad. I never used to put cheese through the layers but after reading US style recipes, and hearing discussions on this site, I decided to do this. Nothing fancy, just a few spoonfuls of ricotta sprinkled over the meat layer. Cheesy bechamel sauce on top. Was pretty good.

Continuing the Italian theme ....

Saturday night and we're by the sea:

Cold seafood platter

Cozze marinara (my death row dinner choice)

Fritto misto di mare

Some really nice summer meals here. I had the urge to make caponata, and the days of buying eggplant at a good price are long gone. $4 lb, I'm not buying one.

But watermelon was on sale and the 2 I bought were the best I've had in years.

Do your cut yours like this? Easy to cut, and to eat. and lining up the sticks to trim the rind is easy.

Of course I had to make my favourite watermelon salad.

We're in a heat warning here again. Fall can't come soon enough.

Monday night:

Last night in Italy. More seafood.

The popped corn, lol.

Watermelons have been excellent. And the best cantalope in memory.

Looking forward to a seafood Boil-Up outside now that we have fresh corn, local seafood. Was too cold to eat outside....now too hot. Or days and days of thunderstorms.

Beautiful bowl of seafood.

Challenging myself to add to my very thin Vegan recipe file. Always looking for something that fits the bill for VG, V, GF as seen on most restaurant menus now. Vegetarian is easy as is Gluten-free. We make meatless meals all the time. GF just needs some careful label checking.

Cooking for Vegan does not thrill me. Why i have been having DimSum brunches when entertaining. (we had one house guest for SuperBowl) Snow blizzard the night before. Varieties of dumplings in the freezer until steaming. Just taking out what is needed over the 3-4 hours.

Attending friends gatherings/BBQ's, my go-to is fresh spring rolls. Pleases everyone...even the meat lovers.

I've been making Japchae. (chop-chay)...again last night

Like a deconstructed spring roll.

It is a 20 minute meal including the chopping.

I watched a half dozen videos 4-5 months ago. Maanghi, AmerTestKitchen, NYTimes, etc, but like this one from a Chef...

I like the method of seasoning her noodle cooking water. Easy to follow her videos.

Sleeve, I'm glad you mentioned cantaloupe. I stopped buying it years ago, as it was so hard and tasteless. Anytime I see them on fruit plates, I skip by it. Your noodle dish looks real tasty.

LOL the popcorn one IS cute!

Floral, what a delicious looking seafood bowl!

I don't know any vegans, but if I did I'd probably make a beetroot tarte tatin.

Light lunch today, Tuesday. Caprese bruschetta and a glass of beer. Flying home tonight, back to the self catering grind.

You’ve had some wonderful meals floral, totally envious. Beetroot tarte tatin sounds yummy as does deconstructed spring rolls Sleeve. As you can see I’ve served lasagna again with spinach. I had made a large dish of it as I was expecting visitors from Ireland but they didn’t show up.

We don't know any Vegans. Just a small gaggle at work. Not close friends. We do have some 'leaners' in both families and close friends are meatless a few days during the week. My cooking group has been sharing meatless recipes for a couple years.

My SIL has long Covid and recently diagnosed with Afib. When she visited last Feb, i made 4 meatless meaty meals. Hard to give up red meat and eggs living in BBQ country SouthCarolina. Bacon, biscuits and gravy. Inherited her parents sweet tooth gene. (DH never did).

2020 i did binge a couple Vegan channels. More to get some ideas for our diet. Not the pea protein meats/seafoods.

The issue is the cast of dietary characters around us that include dairy, gluten, nuts, shellfish, beef/pork sensitivities. Halal, Kosher.

DH is my tester. Having a dozen 'mains' rather that depending on those sensitive relying on side dishes like restaurants used to do. Vegetable and porchini risotto comes to mind. Tomato and beetroot tarte tatin starter?

I do have an acceptable vegan parm and cashew miso cream 'bechamel' that is ok but would rather not. (lol)

We love any lasagna. I've made this one a few times. Added a base vegetable layer, then spinach....need more food value. Lots of mushrooms.

After a few meatless meals i made a locally caught polock bake to-the-table.

Have you seen a recipe for tomato and beetroot tarte tatin? I haven't and I don't think it sounds like a good combo. I think the flavours would clash. And the tomatoes would be too wet. The idea is to get a sweet caramel around the beets.

I don't use a recipe but this one sounds ok. I add thyme and/or star anise too. I use rounds rather than wedges.

Red onion and beetroot tarte tatin - Recipes - Hairy Bikers https://share.google/3iYXnfsA9d2G8PP0n

For this one I didn't include onions.

For this one I did.

Love the crusted pollock looks delicious and floral both of those beetroot tarts look so good.

Steak and frites with mushroom sauce and salad and Yes the steak got well and truly well done from lack of attention… darn it… thankfully it was still tender.
We hate waste so therefore we eat our mistakes if possible.

My issue is with toast. No toaster here or any counter appliances so i use my oven. It makes perfect toast if i pay attention....

(do not leave the oven while toasting)...Alexa helps.

Sunday dinner....

We had stewed beef with lots of vegetables

Saturday night:

Duck breast, sort of braised potatoes, runner beans and, of course, greengage sauce.

Haven’t cooked in weeks! Just not felt like it, all subsistence here.

But SWMBO is home after a month away, so out of practice or not, cooking was done.

Made a mahi mahi, slow pan cooked in butter, lemon juice, brown sugar, garlic, soy sauce, rosemary. Mostly butter. This tasted good, but I overcooked it a little. I was using a new-to-me pan, a big Griswold, from when cast iron pans were milled and polished smooth, brought from Los Angeles.

Also a mahi mahi - hey, it was on sale - baked with a minced fig, balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, Dijon glaze/sauce. It was served heaped with sliced figs. This needed a bit more sweetness, next time I’ll use more honey and brown sugar. 375F with 80% steam in Giselle.

Explain, please? Figs needed more sweetness on the fish?

The sauce/glaze needed a little more sweetness. I mean, not everyone would think that. But I quite like sweetness in cooking, often use mirin, sugar, honey, so I thought it needed a bit more brown sugar. If I make it for guests someday, I’ll food process the sauce to smooth - prettier. And I’d probably sous vide the mahi mahi in the sauce, rather than baking .

I like the fig wedges. And the sweet stops there. (just put a couple pounds of figs in my shopping cart)

Grazed Saturday afternoon. Big salad, watermelon/feta.

Pumpernickel rye toast

and about the fith batch of squash blossoms....my market is selling them for a buck each! yikes. I could pick a dozen or more a day.

I spelled prosciutto wrong. Need to use the i-before-e rule. Fixed it on my end.

The 'holy trinity'. Egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad. Love them all.

NYTimes keeps doing this to us. Posting fab sandwiches, salads and soups year round. A thousand plus recipes combined. Since the NewYear we have been having brunch SoupSaladSandwichSaturdays. Usually all three.

I've made all of these and then some. Not all sound so good like the Greek Salad Sandwich. Rather just have the salad.

It has been only by association with this forum that I discovered tuna melts some time ago. I do like them very much.,

I made leek and mushroom risotto and I really like this flavour combination.. . Apologies for blurry photo.

Sunday: Ham hock stuck with cloves and brown sugar. Monday: risotto using to the leftover ham. Tuesday: pasta with courgette sauce and spinach balls.

Experimental pudding based on Summer Pudding but made with greengages and with layers of custard through it. Needs work.

Thursday: teatime outdoors

Evening: picnic at the opera

Planned is soup and sandwiches. Last night's loaf--the sandwich--is amazingly good. I was fighting the low pressure front sleepies, but got it kneaded and rising--half a huge Anaheim pepper and a big plump jalapeño, minced mixed veg, plus a handful of blueberries which had partially dried in the fridge and a bunch of starter discard. Then, I fell asleep do to said Low. It over-rose, ao I tried again and it seemed fine, but took an extra ten minutes to cook, and didn't get much over spring. And it turned out ugly. Turns out, it's super delicious with an airy, delightful texture. :)

Saturday: lasagne and salad

Such good baby limas. RanchoGordo. I gave up the bean club a couple years ago. Purchase once or twice a year and oder what we like.

I've been soaking and cooking a full pound at a time and freeze the rest. This pound made 5 half pints for the freezer. Fall sucotash.

The posole is on the stove this morning. Not a favorite so searched for some ideas. Seems used mostly for soups and stews. The one using poblano and tomatillo sounds good. I see Ina has one.

Last Sunday i listed meals based on my freezer stash. Stopped at 22 without and re-peats. I do that about once a month while starting a grocery cart. (delivery this morning)...ordering about every 5 weeks.

I also finally got around to making a greens produce soup base using Andy's recipe as a starting point. My market sells a local caterer's soups. Usually 12-15 varieties at any given time. Using simple clean ingredients. Also gave some good ideas.

The owner of LadleOfLove soups was making soups for her community....pot lucks, the elderly.9-11 she got some friends together and made soups for the recovery effort. So popular she started a catering business, then opened a local coffee shop....soups, saalads, snadwiches.

Six concentrated half pints for the Fall freezer.

...and some re-stocked flavor cubes.

Green SoupBase was the missing link to my ChowderBase and TomatoBase.

Sunday: roast chicken, roast potatoes, chard, carrots

Blackberry and apple crumble and ice cream.

We like a Sunday roast...rack of lamb, ribs, chicken. Wanted a birthday boil-up. Lobster prices dropped thursday from $21lb to $13lb. Sold out fast. NewYorkers had a feast except us.

....next weekend.

I've been bingeing Fallow restaurant in London...their Sunday dinner roast

LINKFallow

We will have a nice chowder tonight

Colds and flu like nasties have seen cooking taking a back seat… cheese on toast, soups and take out. However tonight we had nice pork chops and cabbage and bacon with zucchini and stewed apples

Yikes. Nothing worse than waking up and realizing "here it comes", knowing the next 5-7 days will be miseable while it goes its course. And sometimes longer will secondary issues. Nice to be on the mend.

Usually early Spring here can be miserable with cool temps in the 40-50ºF rainy and damp. Freezing snowy weather is dry and not so bad.

I was planning to use a chowder base, SummerTonic, a fish corn chowder-ish. Did a 180 and made something up making a fish stock with one of the smaller heads and a collar. (butter, white wine, leek, celery, shallot) Fish stock is a quick 30-45min. Broth was epic with the miso-ginger-lemon-wakame-hijiki Tonic.

Poached two of the larger collars in the broth 8-10 min and into our bowls under the noodles.

(collars are full of tender meat)

Shared at the table between us...

Larger head and two collars food savered for the freezer. A pint of cubed fish, (tuna, salmon, halibut) and two collars. Future chowders.

Seasoned glass noodle was an excellent choice.

I've mentioned a couple times that i binge/follow some chef content.

Not sure who decides FoodNetwork content, but often un-watchable. CakeWars and now HaloweenWars. Competition everything.

Chef content is excellent. I always learn something new!.

I follow a few professional chefs...

excellent menu from Fallow

Their smoked cod's head...

And the video being made...

Big junior high crush on Jack...Will is adorable as well. Jack comes on-board at about the 5 minute mark....

Oh wait, Jack is married. Oh well, so am i.

Tuesday: chicken pie and salad, nectarines in red wine.

For those who once said they don't like the idea of leftovers. The chicken and wine were left from Sunday. The nectarines were three bashed fruit too far gone to eat alone.

That chicken pie looks very good floral, is that a hot water pastry?
Getting back to cooking again. Stir fry vegetables with noodles and bought duck dumplings. I made up the sauce using oyster sauce, soy sauce a touch of ginger and some chili.

Yep, hot water crust. My mil always said it was easy. I thought it sounded a bit of a faff but I've recently discovered it really is simple.

Wednesday: leftover leftovers

Remaining chicken pie stretched out with hummus and a sautee of carrots, chard, turmeric and a spoonful of double cream left from Sunday's blackberry and apple crumble.

floral, what does the filling of the chicken pie contain besides chicken?

Just chicken. Leftover roast which was done with lemon and thyme. After it's baked you pour jellied chicken stock into the hole in the top to hold the contents together and add flavour. But you can include ham, bacon or anything you like in the way of veggies. The chicken jelly sets making it sliceable when eaten cold.

At Christmas I make a pie with short crust which includes anything left from the dinner: turkey/goose, sausage, stuffing , vegetables, cranberry sauce, gravy, bread sauce etc. but it's not bound with jelly. It's served hot and the slices aren't free standing.