what's for dinner?

Looks like a late dinner.  I had a welcomed energy burst and put a solid 7 hours of prewinter fence repair and brush cutting…as well asan hour in the study sorting through papers.  I am planning on another 2 hours of basement cleaning.  Anyway, I am going to cop out and have stew tonight.

I smoked pork shoulder and served it with stuff from our garden.

Spaghetti sauce: commercial ground beef, but the tomatoes, walking onion greens, garlic, and oregano were all from my gardens. I used Holy Basil that my DiL bought two pots of on sale, and are happily living on my living room window sill. (My idea of "house plants".)
Noodles were leftover commercial.

We had our local Syrian chef's delicacies today, leaving more time for gardening! But we did have our own golden cherry tomatoes with this, and our own purple grapes for afters (and we had home-grown frozen red raspberries and blackberries with breakfast).

(Specifically, handmade falafel, Syrian baba ghanouj (which is a fine chopped smoked aubergine [purple eggplant] and tomato salad]), mutabel (which is the smooth smoked aubergine and tahini dip), hummus, hummus Beiruty (with diced chillis and herbs), spicy friend potato cubes with capiscum pepper chunks, rice stuffed vine leaves, & flat bread).

I have successfully grown potatoes, chillis, grape vines, a few chickpeas, and parsley that could be a start for making this ourselves.  But we don't have a "hot house" (glass or plastic) to reliably grow many of the rest of the ingredients.

We had the first pumpkin and lentil soup of the season!

Home grown pumpkin and red lentils cooked up with some onion, coconut and korma paste in bone broth. Then whizzed up with a stick blender and served with some slices of fried chouriço and freshly picked parsley. And a big slice of cornbread with butter to go with it.

White muscat grapes for afters.

My other half managed to pick up a half-price morçela (blood sausage) yesterday so we had some of the batch of rice-and-lentils I had in the fridge (cooked in bone broth, with added turmeric and black pepper, and with a handful of finely chopped pork scraps that I'd rendered the lard out of) cooked up with the morçela, onions, mushrooms, red peppers, chard, tomato and parsley.

And afterwards a handful of the mystery purple grapes with the amazing licorice-type flavour that grow up the mystery fig-tree that grows by the stream on the boundary between our place and my son's place.

Ahhhh, Burra, I'm not sure but I may just be starting to feel a little hungry.  Nahhhh, couldn't be, I just finished a ramekin with nine pills in it.  What more could I want???
I'm still laughing, ok everyone, join in laughing with me, it sure doesn't hurt!

Peace

Deane Adams wrote:Ahhhh, Burra, I'm not sure but I may just be starting to feel a little hungry.

Wait til you see the next one...

Yesterday's dinner was a bit special.

We usually use free meat scraps, or cheap meat, or reduced-price-because-it's-a-bit-close-to-the-expiry-date meat. But yesterday's doesn't really count as any of those. It was either free or the most expensive we're likely to eat depending on how you look at it.

I'd been sorting out the depths of our little freezer to sort out space to stash the supply of blocks of frozen prickly pear pulp, and unearthed a really nice bit of meat that had been saved for a special occasion. It was the butt end of a goat leg, which was part of a thankyou package given to us after we did several weeks of emergency milking for a neighbour.

So, after thawing it out overnight, into the slow-cooker it went. Along with leeks, carrots, salt, pepper and a few bay leaves.



The goat was from a kid born while we were doing the emergency milking. It had been fed exclusively grass and milk from its mother and had been allowed to run free until he was getting big enough to become a nuisance and the owner was really needing to divert the milk to feed himself. We went down to help him harvest the goat and it was just such a wonderful full-circle-of-life feeling. No money had ever changed hands between us, and yet everyone was more than happy with the exchange and lifelong friendships had been struck.

Here's the complete meal.



Meat was served in a big hunk, because we're so used to eating scrappy bits of meat it felt only right to treat this special bit with the respect it deserved. Served with mushrooms and sweet potato. With a handful of green moscat grapes for afters, a bit later than usual because we kinda stuffed after that feast...

There's some left for another meal too. It will probably be turned into goat curry using some of the rice-and-lentils we nearly always have on hand. Likely not today though as Himself is working this morning and it might stretch to an all day session. So today might be a super-basic lunch of the rice-and-lentil mix with greens from the garden. Which might, or might not, give me time to catch up with some posts I've been meaning to write for ages...

To our former Queen, thanks for the great pics.  It looks really good, if only we had smell-o-vision!!!  I'm about to enjoy my 9 little pills, emm good!

Peace

our weather has gotten very chilly so tonight I'll be making some sort of shepherd's pie out of cassava and sausage, I think, along with a seared broccoli soup with some sad broccoli I found in the fridge (it's broccoli season, two weeks ago I got a great deal and bought so much that I'm still finding it around the kitchen).

I also made broth last night from bones in my freezer- beef, pork and chicken - and I'll take the meat bits that came off the bones to make some sort of gravy to put over our steamed polenta type corn business (called cuzcuz, but not Moroccan type- it's made of corn). That will be lunch for me; the broth will be become noodle soup, either pho or ramen, not sure yet.

Tonight we are serving oven baked chicken breasts (skinless, sob, heart health), lightly kissed white ground white pepper and cayenne.  Rice with summer squash, onions, garlic, peppers and mushrooms (dried from my pantry stash).  All cooked in cast iron !!

Peace

Tonight we had keto pizza-joes... sloppy-joe style pizza burgers on keto buns. It was ymuuy, fun, quick & easy for John to get on the table, when I got home from choir practice.

This was yesterday's main meal.

Himself was working over lunchtime and my usual policy is for me to have a very simple, basic, frugal meal. I might be a bit less frugal the second day in a row that happens, but this time I thought I'd do the equivalent of a 'struggle meal' just show what that might look like for us.



A nice generous portion of rice-and-lentils, cooked in the haybox which lives just outside the door and is made out of an old bee brood-box lined with offcuts of insulation. Cost is around 10 cents including the bone broth and the few bits of meat scraps that are in it as they were freebies.

Galega leaves, which are like a perennial kale, are free. I've been growing from seed saved and selected from the original ones I bought around 15 years ago.

If it was a real struggle meal there would be a bit of lard rendered from the freebie pork scraps, but I splashed out on some real butter. Because I do like a little bit of butter on my spread...

The butter knife in the background once belonged to Austin's granny. It's an old bone handled one and has been used so much over the decades that the bone is wearing through.

Two colours of prickly pear, picked from the garden. I did buy the original pads I grew them from as I specifically wanted purple ones. As you can see, what I paid for and what I got don't always line up. But hey, orange and red are still good colours!

Green moscat grapes, from the grape vine growing up the front of the house when we bought it.

Served on a pretty rosy 'deep plate' and a glass bowl, both bought used from my friend Gordon of Malcata Animal Association
 . I think the plate was 10 cents as it had a couple of little chips on the edge, but I love it. And I'm gradually embracing the pink, rosy side of life. I splashed out a whole 50 cents on the glass bowl.

Guys, enough withe the torture, pleaseeeeeee.  I felt like a world class chef last night spreading some garlic honey on top of the chicken for the last 5 minutes in the oven.  These meals you prepare look and sound amazing, while mine sound more like a knuckle dragging, old single guy playing in the kitchen.  

Burra, I love the dishes and that fabulous butter knife!!!  Good news this morning at my weigh in, are you ready?  I'm now up to 68kg !!!  I'm still laughing

May the light of Peace be with you all.

Ugh. Forever soup. It tastes fine. We've just been eating it, like, forever.

I've been kinda blown away with all these fabulous dish's you guys have been posting.  I felt the need to step things up a bit, so tonight while warming my leftovers I applied a coating of Chick-fil-A , Polynesian Sauce on top. (it has the lowest salt level of all their sauces)  And I did not eat out of the pan !!!

Peace

Maxwell polish sausages with cabbage & onion, & beer.

Tonight I made a stewing hen in a slowcooker (older bird). I took the skin off to make cracklings later. Added garlic and potatoes towards the end. The hen had tons of flavor.

Can't help but post again - I feel like I am so much better at cold weather recipes vs hot weather. I just can't seem to master cold/cooling dishes (like a good potato salad).

Just threw a chuck steak under the broiler and steamed some broccoli. A couple of nights ago, a friend brought us salmon from his fishing trip in Alaska, so we had that with some roasted potatoes, carrots, onions, and the last of the zucchini.

Hi! We had "Flat Jacks" which was found in any old Country Stars cookbook, this particular recipe submitted by The Statler Bros. It is Pillsbury grand biscuits peeled apart and spread out to cover the bottom of a cake pan. Then brown hamburger and onion and add bbq sauce. Cover biscuits in cake pan. Top with slices of cheddar cheese and bake.

I'm hoping to do a whole week of these...

This was yesterday's - another fairly simple one with another portion of rice-and-lentils but this time with the galega leaves mixed in with and added onion, red peppers and a handful of  chopped up cooked meat that I usually have a ready supply of in the freezer, as per my thread on what I do with freebie meat scraps.



Also 'seasonal fruit' in the form of green grapes, red prickly pears and a couple of persimmons, eaten at random times throughout the afternoon.

I am really enjoying this thread, having a glimpse into what other's eat is really enlightening. I feel like I am behind on utilizing creative ingredients or types of dishes. Thank you all for the inspiration.

Yesterday I went to the butcher to buy a large quantity of pork leg, they were having a sale and I got enough for 12-15 meals.
They also had a special on pork ribs, and they were beautiful, so I figured I'd splurge. This weekend we both will work on Saturday so this will be two days worth of main meal.
The pork ribs were much more meat and very little bone, so I cut off the skin (to be rendered tomorrow with the rest of the fat from my pork leg), and threw it in the slow cooker, to make a chinese-style super soft boiled-then-broiled pork. https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/poppa-wans-show-stopping-twice-cooked-melting-pork/  It cooks in the slow cooker in a wine-ginger-spice broth til soft, then goes under the broiler (in this case, air fryer) with a honey-soy sauce to melt off the cap fat and get pretty.

When I take a work break later I'll mix up a real quick steamed yeast bun dough, and make them maybe cinnamon-roll style with sesame and white pepper to eat as a side. I also have some nice greens, because it's the law that you must eat fatty pork wtih greens. I have a bunch of dandelions, which are lovely with soy sauce and sesame oil. I killed off the chard-stem pickles the other day, but we have some homemade kimchi still, and the homemade takuan daikon pickles should finally be ready. And I think I saw more snow peas out in the garden, that would make a nice side too.
Whatever is left will be made into noodle soup tomorrow, using the meat cooking broth as soup broth.
We rarely eat so much meat as this, but the remainder is a pretty typical meal for us (instead of a large lump of ribs, it might be a small bit of pork or chicken sliced thin and stir fried or stewed with veggies).

I just put on a pot of beans. It has plenty of time to get ready before dinner tonight. I think I’ll probably stirfry brussels sprouts to go with the beans.

(The BS were oven-roasted instead, after being tossed in salsa macha.)

I guess it is a good thing I cannot embarrass myself, I'm way beyond that. Here goes, I like fish sticks with Mac & Cheese (homemade) not the kind in the box.  And I've been thinking about making this delight.  But it's kinda hard to make it for just one, so like rice I end up eating it for days.  But I'm up for it and I'm tough enough to take it on!!!

Peace

Deane Adams wrote:...  But it's kinda hard to make it for just one, so like rice I end up eating it for days.  

Hubby's away, so I'm cooking for one at the moment. I've been working on the same jar of homemade spaghetti sauce for most of the week. And that's with feeding a helping to my DiL and putting a container in the freezer.

Some dishes you've just got to go big or go home! I hope the homemade Mac and Cheese is yummy and filling! My son considers it comfort food.

Himself was home at lunchtime yesterday. There was enough rice-and-lentil mix left for a good meal, and a good portion of the goat meat too.

He offered to cook, therefore, curry!

Hariyali to be specific, which based on mint, coriander and tamarind.



Our standard rice-and-lentils-cooked-in-bone-broth-with-added-turmeric, with goat meat, yellow peppers, mushrooms, onions and garlic.

Served with a great big dollop of apple chutney, made with windfall apples scrumped from our neighbours' tree.

Rosa didn't approve of the lack of colour in the meal, so suggested prickly pears for afters.



We also went out later and picked some more of the purple grapes together. I've had to promise not to go alone to pick them as they grow up a fig tree that's in a crazy difficult place to harvest as it's essentially been planted where a culvert enters a stream and it's too easy to fall in and not be found for hours. So we tend to go together a couple of times a week to stock up.

The batch of rice-and-lentils is all used up now. But there are rumours that today's lunch might something a bit different...

My turn to cook: keto fried chicken & keto fried green tomatoes. Happy taste buds!

We went with Borscht.  It is a fall favorite of ours … and a good excuse to clean out the refrigerator.

It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. That means that I need to up my game and invite a couple of friends over...

The slow cooker now has 6 Muscovy duck thighs from last fall's harvest, slathered with $10,000 Chicken Sauce, although I left out the Basil, as my friend has decided she doesn't like the flavor of Basil. I *haven't* added enough garlic... sigh... that means going over to Sgt Pepper's Land and climbing into a trailer to collect some from this year's harvest... and it's raining... motivate me fellow permies! You know I can do it! It's just such a PITA.

I intended to serve it with cooked beans, but is seems my friend has been eating beans all week, so I need to dress those beans up somehow. Suggestions welcome. Do green beans go with tomatoes?

I have no amazing dishes to post here. I've been admiring, and drooling over, all of yours! But daughter and I are essentially eating nothing but meat, salt, and a little fermented dairy. The only plant foods I've found that I'm sure are safe for both of us are sauerkraut, dill pickles, and blueberries (in moderation). Once in a while, we get away with a little garlic powder or onion. Last time I tried lentils (cooked in the pressure cooker, in hopes that would help), my daughter lost ten pounds or so because she was in pain and couldn't eat regularly for several weeks. Pepper (black or capsicum) is even worse, triggering autoimmune conditions for both of us.

So, right now I have about five pounds of ground beef in the oven - that's lunch today and tomorrow for the two of us. Then there's a big ham in the frig to use up, followed by some chicken legs. I'm not really complaining - our food is tasty enough (you come to appreciate the base flavor of the food, if you aren't putting a lot of seasoning on it). But I have to admit that I do miss some of the flavors of the plant foods we can't eat.

Thankfully, contrary to some of the information floating around out there, meat is highly nutritious, and yes, you can live just fine on an all-meat diet. So we don't NEED the plant foods, they'd just be nice.

Happy Thanksgiving, Jay! Green beans can be great with tomatoes. My Bulgarian neighbour makes delicious gree beans simmered in a tomato and garlic based sauce.

I'm feeling lazy today, so might 'invent' something....toad in the hole made with leftover black pudding. I think it should work OK. We'll have it with a tin of baked beans in tomato sauce, and home grown kale.

edit - black pudding in the hole turns out yummy!

Mine was a mish-mash -- baby potatoes, sweet potato, a Quorn fillet, med veg left over from Thursday's homemade pizza, baked in a spiced tomato and onion sauce with blobs of hummus on top (which bakes up beautifully brown and crunchy!).

Loaded spaghetti tonight and pretty basic ham and beans tomorrow.

Last week hubby remarked that we hadn’t cooked roast beef with Yorkshire puddings for ages (we usually do roast chicken, lamb or goat).

So last night it was a slow cooked rolled chuck roast marinated in red wine, garlic, ground pepper, thyme and bay leaves done in the romertopf, roast potatoes, purple and orange sweet potatoes (kūmara), cauliflower cheese and of course, individual Yorkshire puddings in muffin tins - made the batter in the morning.

Mum had seconds and still three portions left over to freeze for my weekday work lunches.

Tonight is just a simple quiche and salad with our own eggs and greens.

I finished the baked chicken and rice from a few nights ago along with the organic creamy tomato soup I've been eating for lunch.  Dumped all into the pot warmed on the stove top and no I did not eat out of the pan!  I used my 1 qt. blue and white enamelware cup, but eating out the pan does save water when you wash the dishes.

Peace

Samantha Lewis,  greens and onions sounds splendid to me! I cannot get my wife of 48 years to even try greens...Her loss...I love them! Any and all kinds!

Mustgoes, aka, leftovers! I'm good with them. It doesn't get much easier, and I don't know about y'all, but mustgoes almost always seem even better, than freshly made. Some things more than others, of course - like soups, stews, chili, casseroles...