Sunday: duck breast, roast onion, apple and squash, steamed cabbage, red wine and orange gravy.

Woah, fancy dinner!

Yum floral.

White Anchovy Tagliatelle pasta. This had strong flavours ( garlic and the anchovies ) mellowed a little by the lemon juice. I forgot to add fried bread crumbs until after we started. This tagliatelle is a little too wide for my liking. This is a ’dry’ pasta dish without a sauce and only olive oil and lemon juice to moisten.

Sometimes called Sicilian anchovy pasta , I think… probably not.

Whenever the word "anchovies" pops up, I remember being a kid with my father on the half day fishing boats. The full day boats going for game fish would pick up squids on the far side of the Channel Islands for bait, but the half day boats were mostly going after seabass, rockfish and bonita, and had tanks of live anchovies for bait. :) Happy memories! Though Father was the only one in the house who could eat fish and he shared the catch with his siblings.

Monday: just a big tray of roasted veggies with a fried egg on top.

Love anchovies.

Tuesday: intersection with the Autumn eating thread. Butternut squash risotto.

My seafood-related memories of growing up in SoCal are mostly the crab feeds at scuzzy beach joints! A bucket of crab, dumped on newspaper over an unclean table, heavenly.

A friend and I used to take a skiff into the harbors and flyfish for mackerel, who hit harder than any trout and towed the skiff around as they fought, both against us and against the harbor seals that saw snack opportunities. Sometimes we’d reel in half a mackerel, once a seal almost scared me overboard.

Most of my ocean fishing was down in Baja, Ensenada and San Felipe. We’d drive down, carrying decoy wallets with some cash and library cards for the ”Federales” who liked to stop and “toll” travelers back then. The actual money was hidden in the Jeep. Drink all evening, go to the dock at midnight and negotiate a panga for the next morning, sleep for a few hours, back to the dock negotiating to get the panga we’d negotiated for the previous night rather than the sketchy wreck on offer, get a slightly less sketchy boat and spend the day fishing for whatever the captain could find - yellowtail, rockfish, eel - and noticing we could barely see land and the boat had no discernible life vests.

Later I did a lot of kayaking in Baja, no longer rod fishing but seeing whales and eating spearfished rockfish sashimi, sleeping on beaches, debating who should try launching through the surf to see if it could be done.

Eventually I had to stop going to Mexico. I had a case that turned out to involve local Baja drug gangs, and my Mexican co-counsel took me aside and counseled me about what was no longer wise for me to do.

I started fly fishing in the San Gabriel, San Bernardino, and Ojai mountains, and lost interest in ocean fishing. The trout couldn’t be eaten, of course, rather they had to be carefully handled and returned to the stream, but if you fly-fish enough trout become almost mystical creatures, whose killing is as much of a sin as killing a baby unicorn. You also become a rabid environmentalist and, if unchecked, an insufferable snob.

My friend goes to France every summer and surf fishes the beaches around Nourmontier. The rest of the year he surf fishes the coast around Pt Reyes and north. Someday I’ll visit and see what surf firshing is all about. Of course, being a snob, I’ll have to do it with a fly rod.

DD’s tomato fennel onion tarte tatine. We are still desperately trying to use up tomatoes.

Wednesday: Also finishing up the tomatoes, but nothing so ambitious. Pasta sauce from tomatoes, anchovies, black garlic, onion.

DD’s TTT looks delicious John. Question… does she saute the onions and fennel first or is the baking enough for them to soften.? Of course the tomatoes would only need the oven bake.

I would imagine the tomatoes etc are sauteed in butter and/or oil first, then the pastry put on top, baked and inverted. Just like the apple or beetroot versions. They need to semi caramelize.

DD says you carmelize the fennel and onions in a saute pan, then add and cook the tomates several minutes (to get rid of some liquid), then all in the baking pan with the crust on top to bake for 25 min. As served, the tatine is flipped over so the bottom becomes the top.

I just love the goofy things at the Japanese market. Here is a yoghurt drink that comes in a BABY BOTTLE. After it is done, I am going to save the bottle to drink cocktails from.

Thursday: slow roast turbot in anchovy oil, baby potatoes, carrots.

That looks very satisfying!

It was. I was trying to find a recipe without butter. This one used the oil from a can of anchovies.

You guys are giving ME some GREAT ideas! 🔪

I grilled Tomato + Avocado on Sourdough bread sandwiches. With butter.

Sadly, I'm trying to avoid butter. I'm attempting to get my cholesterol down without drugs. I've done it before but it's harder as one gets older.

Friday: sort of vaguely Chinese inspired drumstick tray bake invention, brown rice.

Saturday: roast salmon on fennel and other veggies, crash potatoes.

Dinner was partially cooked by DH. Baked chicken fillets covered with grilled bacon, zucchini, stock and crusty bread.

Sunday: no photo tonight. DH had already started carving before I remembered. Roast chicken with leeks, lemon and rosemary, roast carrots, roast potatoes and spinach.

Everything looks scrumptious. No dinners here. The other day I spoiled my dinner munching fresh made focaccia. Yesterday, I was going to make soup, but had to go out and do stuff, so brought home burgers (In 'n Out). Today pre-sunset was mixed lettuces, salad with shredded beef and braised carrots, tiny tomatoes I don't remember...some starch.

Monday: cold roast chicken from yesterday went into a Thai green curry. Plus inauthentic brown rice.

Tuesday: bits and pieces. Hummus, guacamole, fennel/apple/walnut salad, marinated anchovies.

Yay! That's more like the dinners at my house. :But nicely plated. :)

Yes. Occasionally I like to do a sort of small plates/mezze meal when I run out of ideas. The dishes are all easy to make. I did buy the anchovies though.😉

Wednesday: sweet potato and spinach dhal.

Thursday: pasta again. Spinach and tomato

I’m in admiration, floral.

My dinner was some random unclaimed leftover from a soggy cardboard to-go box. It looked like a grain (unidentified) mixed with pale mottled strips of a vaguely meatlike appearance (unidentified) and had been hiding in the the refrigerator for a period of time (indeterminate). It was accompanied by black beans spooned from the can.

That’s what sometimes passes for “cooking” chez moi.

I'm flattered. But honestly, I cook very simple meals with simple equipment. Often one pan food. Nothing like the multi ingredient, complex process dishes I see posted here. We rarely eat out, very rarely get take aways and never use ready meals. The quality is not as good as home made, it's nutritionally poor and it's expensive. So, like it or not, home cooking is inevitable really. I don't much enjoy it but it's infinitely preferable to other forms of housework.

No pix. Artichokes, asparagus, leftover chicken. Delicious, but no fancy presentation.

It's Cornish mussel season again!

Friday: moules marinières

Floral, those look fun--are they fun to eat, or a bother?

Tonight we went all indulgent and easy after a grody day. Delivery from the classic Indian place which is a neighborhood stalwart. We just got everything that sounded good, not caring if they matched. The highlight was a spiced goat curry.

Easy to eat. We just use an empty pair of shells like tweezers to take the mussels out of their shells. Then mop up the juices with bread. The bottle of white wine helps too. 😉

Indian food is one of the few take out cuisines we get since I'm hopeless at making it myself. Never seem to get the spicing right however assiduously I try.

Hope your grotty day improved.

Yeah. Thanks. The dinner was really nice, and relaxed. I love the image in my imagination of tweezing up the mussels with shells. ;) That sounds fun.

"Grody" is a Coastal word here, popular in my teens. Perfect description for the day. Probably did come from "grotty" originally, though there is a slight difference in meaning, being less about dirt and more of difficult un-right-ness. Some say both are from "grotesque", while others attribute grotty to a Beatles movie, though still could have been from "grotesque". The movie may well be where "grody" is from.

Saturday: I'm away tomorrow so our Sunday roast was transferred to today. Chicken yet again! Traffic light sides: orange roast veggies, green steamed spinach and red wine.😉

Really good dinner: lettuces salad, tomato vinaigrette with cold roasted chicken and matar paneer added. The cheese cubes had firmed up some in the fridge, which was great since everything else but some crushed croutons was pretty soft. The peas and sauce added a lot of flavor. It came about from being too tired to look at things that needed prepping, but definitely worth repeating.

Dinner was deli and stacks of spinach on boughten bagels with chilled small asparagus.

What I cooked, not for today's dinner, is an NZ leg of lamb, shank+thigh. It was too long for my pot, so it went into the small roaster. It was going to be a Middle Eastern recipe, on the sweet side with carrots and pears, but I kind of wandered off when I couldn't find the fresh garlic (found old dead garlic for the compost bin). So, I used the spicy curry from the Indian goat with a drizzle of EVOO to moisten the top, partially spiced the bottom, and used cumin, corriander, paprika, dried fenugreek leaves, granulated garlic, S&P on a lining of red kale, fennel tops and radish leaves, with an onion, medium fennel bulb and a couple tiny stay potatoes on the sides, braised with most of a bottle of cooking quality cabernet. It looked pretty while I was waiting on the preheat, so I remembered to take a picture of some other day's dinner. ;) (I did gnaw the bone—it's very nice, though the meat itself doesn't taste very lamby (is it possible to be too young?)

ETA: pseudosister, last night, invited herself to a delivery lunch, but when she came, she asked if we could eat the lamb. NP. She loved it. :) That makes me happy. I didn't know how it would be cold. It really is good, but now that's not just my opinion. I'm thinking of blending up the braising vegetabls for a soup base..

This morning’s news informed me that it’s national taco day. I decided to celebrate with fish tacos. Halibut.

Salad bowl with the usual suspects plus pickled red cabbage salad, pimento and egg plant spread and a few boiled new potatoes. A vinaigrette dressing.

Yum! Last night's salad wasn't nearly so pretty. I often say, you know it's good when it's cold and still good. For me, that didn't really apply to red meat, with the exception of Chinese food (American restaurant small pieces in sauce kind) and good pastrami. An advantage of the too small for lamby flavor is the leg of lamb was delicious cold in the salad.

Breakfast centered on the bread that was baking during said salad: Brown bread as in brown white bread. Heirloom tomatoes and watercress (red+green=brown) High hydration, withcitrus pepper and just a hint of dried fenugreek leaves. Served with spicy egg bake containing baby broccoli and red dandelion leaves.

Weirded out one of the minions. Made soup by puttinbg the braising veg and juice into the Vita-mix wit a handfull of green beans for sweetness. :) It's good!

@plllog - Did you heat it in the Vitamix? I tried that once and it was a frothy mess.

Oh, no I just blended it. The kale and fennel tops were very stringy, and needed Vita-mix power to tame them. In the end, it's a large bowl of green puree, which thins some on heating, or can be thinned more with stock or whatever. But it tastes good cold. :) I've never really believed that whole whirr it to soup temperature thing. Perhaps broth could work that way, but I like to reserve some texture and have plenty of heating appliances, A Vita-mix isn't a Thermomix, and I'm pretty sure you can get the latter in the USA, now, rather than bringing it from Canada. I see no point in that, however, unless you're in a postage stamp, urban flat without a proper stove. Like some people's whole kitchen is a hot plate or microwave and a themomix. I've been craving rich soups. This is good!

Oh man, I'm behind again. I really love John's yogurt bottle, though, LOL.

I've been super busy here, mostly with gardening. I've made my way through a bushel of poblano peppers, all of a sudden they were happy. I took a half bushel to the food pantry, gave a 5 gallon bucket to the neighbor and then began roasting/peeling/freezing for future chilies rellenos. Also got a bushel of mixed Anaheim and Pasilla and dried about half of those, then put a tray of chopped red habaneros in the freezer for future Habanero Gold Jelly.

I've canned tomato sauce and salsa and catsup and Sharon's chile sauce and I'm officially over tomatoes, even though I still have this in the backyard. Again, no takers so they will go to the food pantry. So many people here have their own gardens and fruit trees and by the end of the summer everyone has garden burnout, I guess.

I've also been wading my way through the peaches, Elery and I picked 3 bushels before we both gave up and said the rest could fall on the ground. I tried hard to give them away, peaches are $60 a bushel here, but they are clingstones and no one wants to mess with them, so no takers. I froze 18 quarts, made some peach butter and peach cobbler and peach crumble bars and I'm almost done with them.

In the meantime, I have actually been cooking. I made black bean sheet pan tacos last night along with queso fundido:

Tonight it was country style pork ribs with roasted golden beets and kale from the garden.

The Princess was home and came for breakfast and she wanted crepes with cream cheese filling and blueberry topping, and it was so. She is the Princess after all.

I made burgers with our homegrown beef and roasted potatoes with fingerlings from the garden as well as a salad with everything I could find that was still crunchy in the fridge:

Chicken gyros which were just OK:

A chilies relleno casserole which I wasn't optimistic about but it turned out to be really good:

Bratwurst with potatoes from the garden, homemade sauerkraut and some cheese bread from a small local bakery:

I made apple sauce and apple butter with some MacIntosh apples I got from a neighbor in exchange for some of my Red Delicious. They were very dark red and even were red in the center and they made awesome sauce and apple butter. I've never seen Macs go red inside, though.

And, since we got our first frost a couple of days ago, I also had a bucket of sweet peppers to use, we picked them all before they froze. I dehydrated two quarts of them and put 24 in the freezer for future stuffed peppers:

My next project? Cutting an 18 pound cushaw into bakable pieces, then packaging the puree for pies. They have become a favorite with several family members, and I only planted one plant. I got 3 squash, one was chewed by something, we got this one and one more about half this size. I'm sure I won't need any more, that should be about 20 pies, LOL.

The garden is winding down, I still have to deal with the kale and have 3 tubs of leeks in the garage that need to be dehydrated. It's cooling off and although we are officially in drought conditions it seems better than when it was 90F for far too many days. I'll be planting garlic in the next couple of weeks, a sure sign of fall.

Annie

Phew! I so admire you, Annie! I suppose when you have so much to process, you have to learn to move quickly! And I'm not trying to make more work for you, but re the excess tomatoes, if you did wish to do something with them, and if I knew where to start looking for the name (though maybe you already know): There's a way of preserving tomatos where they're compressed (I don't know how they're prepped) and dried to form a hard cake, then you cut off pieces to cook with. I tell you this for amusement, not trying to make more work for you. ;)

I'm exhausted just reading about that amount of effort. What a harvest.

That’s our Annie… so good.

Also, I’ve tried to start a new thread but am unable to do so -Again. Can someone start WFD #423 ? Thanks.

I tried. Cooking doesn't appear on the list of topics.

I'm still on the same tab I had before the update or whatever that was, and had no trouble posting a thread. Neely, I don't feel I should post the WFD, but will if Sleevendog or someone else doesn't soon.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/cooking

I tried again on that link. No go. Also I was asked to sign back in which has never happened before. I'm on Houzz.GW no longer works for me.