What are you eating/cooking up today for your meal?

I am curious (and envious) to know what all you permies might be eating at mealtimes!   Care to share (and boast)!?

Unfortunately, much as I would love your lifestyle, I didn't quite make it (explained on another thread).  However, I do live contentedly on the outerskirts of London but don't grow veg.  I favour brassicas and they are more inclined to absorb lead which is quite high in the air pollution here.   That said, I'm a keen cook and love trying out recipes!

Tonight I'm having a sweet and sour combo (leftover from a pineapple and orange sauce I made - now jazzed up with chopped red pepper and finely sliced red chillies) with organic king prawns.  Eating that with some buckwheat and sultana artisan bread I bought.

How about you?

Paneer curry, made from my goats milk, with homegrown greens, and rice cooked in whey, turmeric and mustard.

Also making up a bone broth soup with leftover roast beef and vegetables, baking 2 loaves of bread, rendering beef suet, and making a second batch of bone broth from the same bones.

I am not sure exactly, but we took Venison (deer meat) out of the freezer to thaw. It was a deer taken by my Father-In-Law in November.

Edited to say: We ended up with:

Deer Steak Tips
Brussel Sprouts
White Rice

Today so far I have had the exact same thing for both breakfast and lunch -- a serving of one of my blended soups made in a pressure cooker from onions and sweet potatoes and frozen homemade vegetable broth.  Served and ate them with a handful of commercial saltine crackers advertised as "whole grain" because they have a bit of whole wheat flour added to the ingredient list.

Yesterday, I marinated elk steaks in Italian salad dressing.
Cooked them up in the smoker last night. Then I cast iron fried potato's and onions with a corn on the side.
Sounds like Travis's family and mine have a similar diet.  We call it Montana poor folk food...
Tonight we are having left over's.
Homemade lasagna with my homemade hot Italian sausage ! Hmmmm good stuff.

I'm making some vegan nikujaga (a Japanese simmered potatoes and beef dish, only today I'm using some old dried yuba) with some of the 10000 pounds of green beans my garden is currently pumping out, along with some burdock root with sesame sauce and maybe some soup made out of a kombu preserve I made a few months ago.

My goal for the next month or two is to try to use up all the funky pantry stuff I have, so lots of beans and dry goods in the forecast, along with some lamb chops I have stashed in the freezer! the green beans show no chance of stopping, and I'm getting zucchini and the okra looks like it's about to start. Of course, my cilantro has bolted and I am going to have to hang my head in shame and buy cilantro tomorrow, sigh.

Lunch and dinner: Homemade pizza with sourdough and almost no yeast, which resulted in a very tasty and fluffy crust. Painted with leftover tomato sauce cooked yesterday, some cheese we still had.

Several salads: Asparagus which I had in the freezer (harvested by my neighbour last summer), a kind of Waldorf salad (celery, carrots, apple, homemade yoghurt), crudites for the kids, some kimchi for us adults.

Today is a holiday (epiphany) and the last vacation day for the kids, tomorrow school starts again. During school week we often have a cold dinner only (homemade bread with cheese/different spreads and always fresh fruit or veggies).

-This morning it was rolled oats, organic that I buy in bulk, cooked with raisons that I dry out in the sun here from my Glenora grape vine and a bit of milk.  Also, Black tea ( store bought in bulk) .  Right now, the milk is local, bought.  But, One of my goats should kid in the next few weeks, so hopefully I will have fresh milk again soon

- Dinner last night, and what will be lunch and dinner today is a butternut squash soup, butternut squash, garlic, apple, rosemary and onions grown in the garden here.  This is a creamed soup, and then grated cheese added, alot of cheese, about 1 ounce of cheese per 2 ladle bowl fulls.  It is very filling.  Last night I made a piece of toast to go with it.  The cheese is store bought in bulk also thru the co-op ( azure standard) as last year the goats did not take breeding and I ran out of home made cheese last month.  My go-to cheese is manchego, what is in this soup is a cheddar.

Last week I made other various soups/stews like lemon lentil, with garlic, lemon juice ( freezer), wild fresh Malva and potatoes all homegrown and store bought lentils. There was an African butternut stew which had chunks of the butternut, homegrown, plus the homegrown onions and canned homegrown tomatoes, store bought garbanzo beans, this was served over store bought rice.  There was also a "light" vegtable soup, no heavy protein inside it, which was mashed butternut, onions, canned tomatoes, dried kale, all home grown, various curry spices.

There are whole persimmons hanging up all over to dry, I froze alot of persimmon pulp and made persimmon cake to snack on.

Yes, there is a theme right now as I harvested alot of better butternut squash and persimmons ripened late, right before christmas.  

Thanks so much for all your reply posts!  Interesting and greatly appreciated.

Hopefully this is equally interesting for you all too to discover!

Keep them coming!  

😉

Sue Reeves wrote:raisons that I dry out in the sun here from my Glenora grape vine

how AWESOME! I miss my grapevine (old house, new house has space for one vine and I went with passionfruit). Enjoy those wonderful raisins!!

Yesterday I started a bone broth from bones of our cows. That will become vegetable beef soup & beef bouillon by tonight. It will have dried beans & peas & corn from our garden. Along with some canned tomatoes & green peppers also from our garden. It will have some chopped onion greens & maybe a bit of (purchased) wild rice too. Plus a butternut squash cooked separately, also from our garden. There will be a loaf of fresh sourdough bread if I get around to making that. I try to eat at least a little something we produced every single day. Some days it is just a spice or an egg. Today it's more like 95% home grown. Most days are in the 50-75% range.

Eat what you grow. Grow what you eat. That's my basic concept of food acquisition. It takes some effort & practice. It is not a perfect system but it works pretty good most of the time.  

Soup made with chicken stock from the freezer, carrots, leftover goose, mushroom ketchup and rye grains that I scavenged from round the field after the combine had been though.


I'm surprised there is significant lead in the air anymore in London, last statistic I can find is from 2008 and that's at 0.25ugm-3 or half the limit value. As lead pollution in the air is still falling I would expect that to be lower still 12 years later. somewhere between 60 and 85% of atmospheric lead pollution came from cars but that was stopped many years ago. so unless you are near some heavy industry or recycling I doubt lead in the air is going to be an issue with cabbage. (soil lead might be)

Skandi Rogers wrote:Soup made with chicken stock from the freezer, carrots, leftover goose, mushroom ketchup and rye grains that I scavenged from round the field after the combine had been though.


I'm surprised there is significant lead in the air anymore in London, last statistic I can find is from 2008 and that's at 0.25ugm-3 or half the limit value. As lead pollution in the air is still falling I would expect that to be lower still 12 years later. somewhere between 60 and 85% of atmospheric lead pollution came from cars but that was stopped many years ago. so unless you are near some heavy industry or recycling I doubt lead in the air is going to be an issue with cabbage. (soil lead might be)

Ah yes you have a point!  Whilst the lead air pollution has decreased in London, the nitrogen dioxide levels are very high and adversely affect the beneficial glucosinolate levels in brassicas.  I omitted to update the situation!  

Not just bad for veg!!!  You may know that air pollution levels in London EXCEED the WHO safety levels. Research by the London Air Quality Network states that it shortens the lives of Londoner's leading to up to 9,400 extra deaths per year.....(don't get me started!!!)

I was tempted to try a recipe that has proved to be very tasty and also quick - Cavolo Nero Pesto!!  
Very savoury and a far better flavour than the usual pesto (with basil).

I am having it with flageolet beans and some good quality penne pasta.

Yesterday I made a pea and ham soup from the bones and hock leftover from one of the hams I cured last year. I used split red lentils instead of peas, added lots of carrot, onion, and kale, and it was amazingly tasty, and with leftovers for today and maybe tomorrow.

Kate Downham wrote:Yesterday I made a pea and ham soup from the bones and hock leftover from one of the hams I cured last year. I used split red lentils instead of peas, added lots of carrot, onion, and kale, and it was amazingly tasty, and with leftovers for today and maybe tomorrow.

Sounds great, Kate!  Are you familiar with pease pudding?  It's made with dried yellow split peas (held in a cloth bag) simmered with a hock/ham stock?  It then cooks out into a kind of tasty mash. Delicious!  Have you tried it?  Many recipes for it online.

Amy Francis wrote:

Kate Downham wrote:Yesterday I made a pea and ham soup from the bones and hock leftover from one of the hams I cured last year. I used split red lentils instead of peas, added lots of carrot, onion, and kale, and it was amazingly tasty, and with leftovers for today and maybe tomorrow.

Sounds great, Kate!  Are you familiar with pease pudding?  It's made with dried yellow split peas (held in a cloth bag) simmered with a hock/ham stock?  It then cooks out into a kind of tasty mash. Delicious!  Have you tried it?  Many recipes for it online.

I've never tried it. I've been intrigued by it since seeing it in a historical farming documentary a while ago. The organic yellow split peas we get here in Australia just don't cook through no matter how long they're cooked for, so I'm not sure how they'd go in pease pudding, or if I could use red lentils instead.

Creole seasoned pork chops and mustard greens, cauliflower with butter and turmeric... chocolate fudge and red wine.

Amy Francis wrote:

Kate Downham wrote:Yesterday I made a pea and ham soup from the bones and hock leftover from one of the hams I cured last year. I used split red lentils instead of peas, added lots of carrot, onion, and kale, and it was amazingly tasty, and with leftovers for today and maybe tomorrow.

Sounds great, Kate!  Are you familiar with pease pudding?  It's made with dried yellow split peas (held in a cloth bag) simmered with a hock/ham stock?  It then cooks out into a kind of tasty mash. Delicious!  Have you tried it?  Many recipes for it online.

Oh that's odd!  Is this with soaking them overnight too?  

Here, in UK, we can buy tins of it too (although a very poor rendition of the real thing) which I sometimes have instead of mash.  How about where you are?

My wife made this for me yesterday :

Amy Francis wrote:

Amy Francis wrote:

Kate Downham wrote:Yesterday I made a pea and ham soup from the bones and hock leftover from one of the hams I cured last year. I used split red lentils instead of peas, added lots of carrot, onion, and kale, and it was amazingly tasty, and with leftovers for today and maybe tomorrow.

Sounds great, Kate!  Are you familiar with pease pudding?  It's made with dried yellow split peas (held in a cloth bag) simmered with a hock/ham stock?  It then cooks out into a kind of tasty mash. Delicious!  Have you tried it?  Many recipes for it online.

Oh that's odd!  Is this with soaking them overnight too?  

Here, in UK, we can buy tins of it too (although a very poor rendition of the real thing) which I sometimes have instead of mash.  How about where you are?

Yes, even with overnight soaking.

Today I'm making beef burgers, served with greens, lactofermented pickles, cooked onions, and either bread or potatoes

I am making rye rolls and a tomato-cheese-white bean bake (still working on using up those pantry supplies....). With luck, half the rolls will be left over for tomorrow, when we'll be doing a red lentil soup (in the crockpot. Tomorrow, like all Mondays, the crockpot is the only way we will get any dinner, since work will be nuts).

Wife and I are having oven roasted chicken with potatoes, onions and carrots. And a salad which I don't have a picture of.

made two big pots of jambalaya several days ago, shared one with family of mourners after a death of a beloved son, and ate the other over course of week.
started with creole trinity- sautéd onion, green pepper and celery added a bunch of fresh garlic , browned a bunch of andouille sausage in separate pan, added it to the trinity, added big can of crushed tomatoes , chopped in a couple smoked chops I had in fridge, added some chicken stock, put in bunch of parsley and generous heap of tyme, and some Louisiana hot sauce, but not too much, simmered for a while, Big pot was about full so I divided it into two pots added a couple cups of rice and I/2 pound frozen shrimp to each pot covered pots and let it simmer on low till rice is cooked.
creole jambalaya almost as good as New Orleans jazz festival

I just finished making leek,carrot, rutabaga, potato soup. The stock was from the head of one of our pigs this fall and the veggies are from our garden :D Yummy

bruce Fine wrote:made two big pots of jambalaya several days ago, shared one with family of mourners after a death of a beloved son, and ate the other over course of week.
started with creole trinity- sautéd onion, green pepper and celery added a bunch of fresh garlic , browned a bunch of andouille sausage in separate pan, added it to the trinity, added big can of crushed tomatoes , chopped in a couple smoked chops I had in fridge, added some chicken stock, put in bunch of parsley and generous heap of tyme, and some Louisiana hot sauce, but not too much, simmered for a while, Big pot was about full so I divided it into two pots added a couple cups of rice and I/2 pound frozen shrimp to each pot covered pots and let it simmer on low till rice is cooked.
creole jambalaya almost as good as New Orleans jazz festival

Wonderful!  Thanks for describing how you made jambalaya - both informative and interesting! 👍

I am keeping it simple tonight as it is just me eating.

I put some buckwheat in warm water and whey to soak this morning.
I went into the cold room and I cut up 3 pieces of bacon from the pigs I grew this year and fried them up with some maple syrup.
I washed 2 eggs from our chickens, than cooked them sunny side up :D
I took out some mixed sauerkraut from the fridge which we made around sept last year, from the our garden.

Buckwheat was drained/rinsed and than put on to boil. Once it boiled i added butter and salt.

Boy did the food disappear!

Today we're having the leftovers of a soup I made the other day.

I made broth from the leftover meat and bones from 2 pork roasts, simmered for 24 hours. Strained the broth, finely shredded the meat,  added this back into the broth,  along with onions, carrots, turnips, herbs, and some homemade salami. When the vegetables were cooked I added lots of greens and served it up.

I only shop once a week and between efforts to clean out the pantry and travel last week, the cupboards were pretty bare... last night was a true iron chef meal with whatever I could scrape together!

I made wood ear mushroom salad with Barbados gooseberry greens, onions, and vinegar dressing (pantry+garden) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pereskia_aculeata )
Taiwanese 3-cup chicken with carrots and peppers (all from the dregs of the freezer and produce drawer)
Chinese pickled cabbage (pantry)
whole wheat steamed breads (pantry)

I thought the cupboards were bare before.... now, I may as well give the fridge a scrub down, since it's nice and empty.

Today I slow-roasted a venison shoulder, cooked some slippery jack mushrooms with lots of garlic, butter, and chicken broth, and served these with roasted floury potatoes. Very tasty, and nice to have lots of hunted/foraged stuff in there, I regreted having not made sauerkraut to serve on the side, and I think I will have to make some sauerkraut very soon for meals like this.

Generally I don't cook at home but for the sake of my son I have to prepare some restaurant style recipes. Actually he loves cottage cheese (paneer) more than Chicken or lamb which are my favorite. I am going to make a creamy curry gravy with green peas, my wife's favorite as well known as Matar paneer and one spiced scrambled cottage cheese also known as Paneer bhurji. These both are goes well with some homemade flat breads and flavoured rice.

We are still not having "real" school so my three teenage kids plus my husband are home all day.
I confess that getting all the food, trying to plan a meal and then cooking takes a lot of my time and energy. Often I make one fancy meal a day and the other is just bread and salad or I leave it up to the rest to cook.

Still I find satisfaction in getting a healthy meal together that is tasty and inexpensive and usually superior to what you would get in a canteen.
So today I bought red cabbage as one daughter needs it for her chemistry class (I also offered her one of my precious tiny blue potatoes but I prefer it this way). Part of the cabbage went into a salad (first scalded with some boiling water), together with orange and caramelized almonds.

Then I made a quiche (you would probably call it pie) with custard-cheese filling and topped with spring onions and baked cherry tomatoes that I canned last summer.

I also made "Sellerieschnitzel", slices of fried celeriac served with lemon (I steamed and seasoned the slices first). I almost made dessert as well (raspberry tiramisu) but I ran out of time and energy. I will leave that for tomorrow.

Husband and I ate all three dishes, daughters ate quiche and celeriac, son ate nothing as he had prepared himself some waffles in the morning! (he is 13 and enjoys cooking at the moment and I absolutely encourage him)