Food What's For Dinner Tonight?

considering that im in the middle of Ramadan right now, i really shouldnt be reading this thread.

in saying that, this thread really does need pics. ill see if i can help by taking pictures when i break my fast tonight.

 

Spaghetti Iprovisatori con Funghi 'n'stuff.

Fresh spaghetti boiling.

Fry chopped garlic and chilli peppers until almost done.
Add chopped mushrooms and cook til still firm but bouncy.
Add chopped ham
Serve.

Or ... and I'll decide at the last minute ..... do the above, then add a sachet of instant muschroom cup-of-soup and, incrementally, enough water to achieve a desired thickness.

Doing it now and will report back

 

No thickening. Instead, I added soy sauce to push the flavour.
Added some whole plum tomatoes. Then served all with Parmesan.

 

Glazed Sesame Pork, Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans. We have made the pork chops many, many times. The sauce goes well with potatoes.

Glazed Sesame Pork (Cooking Light)
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
5 (6 oz.) center-cut pork chops
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
3/4 cup low-salt chicken broth
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 table spoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Sprinke 1/4 teaspoon salt and peopper evenly both sides of the pork. Heat oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork, and cook three minutes on each side or until browned. Add remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, broth, and remaining ingredients; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes. Uncover and simmer an additional 20 minutes or until tender. Serve pork with sauce. Yield: 5 servings (serving size 1 pork chop and about 2 T sauce). Calories 275 (45% from fat).--- merged: Aug 12, 2011 at 8:36 PM ---

I hate when my chicken's boobs become a uniboob. It's very dissatisfying.

(I've actually never tried that. I tend to stuff the lemon in the cavity a la Marcella Hazan.* You stuff the lemon between the skin and the breast? You must slice the lemons. Eh? Otherwise, it seems like the skin over the breasts would burst leading to a far more gruesome scene than a uniboob).

*Roast Chicken with Lemons
from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan Knopf, 1995
If this were a still life its title could be "Chicken with Two Lemons." That is all that there is in it. No fat to cook with, no basting to do, no stuffing to prepare, no condiments except for salt and pepper. After you put the chicken in the oven you turn it just once. The bird, its two lemons, and the oven do all the rest. Again and again, through the years, I met people who come up to me to say, "I have made your chicken with two lemons and it is the most amazingly simple recipe, the juiciest, best-tasting chicken I have ever had." And you know, it is perfectly true.
For 4 servings
Ingredients

• A 3- to 4-pound chicken

• Salt

• Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill

• 2 rather small lemons

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Wash the chicken thoroughly in cold water, both inside and out. Remove all the bits of fat hanging loose. Let the bird sit for about 10 minutes on a slightly tilted plate to let all the water drain out of it. Pat it thoroughly dry all over with cloth or paper towels.
3. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and black pepper on the chicken, rubbing it with your fingers over all its body and into its cavity.
4. Wash the lemons in cold water and dry them with a towel. Soften each lemon by placing it on a counter and rolling it back and forth as you put firm downward pressure on it with the palm of your hand. Puncture the lemons in at least 20 places each, using a sturdy round toothpick, a trussing needle, a sharp-pointed fork, or similar implement.
5. Place both lemons in the birds cavity. Close up the opening with toothpicks or with trussing needle and string. Close it well, but dont make an absolutely airtight job of it because the chicken may burst. Run kitchen string from one leg to the other, tying it at both knuckle ends. Leave the legs in their natural position without pulling them tight. If the skin is unbroken, the chicken will puff up as it cooks, and the string serves only to keep the thighs from spreading apart and splitting the skin.
6. Put the chicken into a roasting pan, breast facing down. Do not add cooking fat of any kind. This bird is self-basting, so you need not fear it will stick to the pan. Place it in the upper third of the preheated oven. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken over to have the breast face up. When turning it, try not to puncture the skin. If kept intact, the chicken will swell like a balloon, which makes for an arresting presentation at the table later. Do not worry too much about it, however, because even if it fails to swell, the flavor will not be affected.
7. Cook for another 30 to 35 minutes, then turn the oven thermostat up to 400 degrees, and cook for an additional 20 minutes. Calculate between 20 and 25 minutes total cooking time for each pound. There is no need to turn the chicken again.
8. Whether your bird has puffed up or not, bring it to the table whole and leave the lemons inside until it is carved and opened. The juices that run out are perfectly delicious. Be sure to spoon them over the chicken slices. The lemons will have shriveled up, but they still contain some juice; do not squeeze them, they may squirt.
Ahead-of-time note: If you want to eat it while it is warm, plan to have it the moment it comes out of the oven. If there are leftovers, they will be very tasty cold, kept moist with some of the cooking juices and eaten not straight out of the refrigerator, but at room temperature.

 

You might think I feed kids or something but tonight's masterpiece was Fish sticks and tater tots

 

ha! That was a staple meal for weekends at my Dad's when I was a kid

As for me, I had popcorn. I may eat some "real food" later.

 

Broiled chicken with rice and beans on the side. mmmmm

 

S had a chopped brisket sandwich and a few bites of southern-style mac-and-cheese to-go from Mojo Kitchen and Blues Bar.... and some Sierra Nevada Harvest Wet Hop IPA that I got in the growler for him.
I had Santa Fe Rice and Beans from El Leano Cuisino. And a glass of water. I hate when I can't decide what I'm hungry for. I make myself eat from the freezer as a punishment whenever that happens. Good thing I've got dinners in there.

 

@ Sapiens: Yes, roll the lemon, slice it, make a few incisions, gently lift the skin away from the meat, and slide the lemon slices in there, along with some seasoning. Flavor goes straight to the meat, and the skin tastes fantastic. Also stick a few slices in the cavity and some sprigs of rosemary for good measure.

 

Seems like that could produce a very crispy skin. I'm not a skin man, myself, but my wife is. I'll have to try that. Thanks!

 

tonight it will be a big greek salad. I love those things

 

Courtesy of In-N-Out Burger, I will be having:

1. Cheeseburger (medium rare) w/grilled onions
2. French fries (well done)
3. Pink Lemonade
4. Cup of ice water to finish the meal

 

Let's set the record: I am a Chinese Buffet aficionado. One of my life-long dreams is to find the perfect Chinese Buffet. Last night, I found that place. "Hibachi Grill" in Matthews, NC.

The selection was insane, the quality was fantastic, it was all hot, nothing dried out, and $9.25 for an adult dinner on a Saturday night. This morning, I have pork fried dumplings, sushi, shrimp, and an assortment of other Chinese-American cuisine weeping from my pores.

 

Tonight will be a large bowl of chili with some tostitos and salsa on the side.

 

Pizza, roasted red peppers, green olives, light spinach and banana peppers on my side. Homemade tom sauce too.

 

And it smells AWESOME.

 

Right for my tea I had pasta and sauce.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups pasta
bit of french mustard
bit of grated cheese (like 30 seconds worth on the smallest holes)
about 50g pesto
bit of pepper
chicken stock cuce
a segment of garlic

Method
Boil the water up and then put the stock cube in, shake in a bit of black pepper
Pour the pasta and the segment of garlic (smash it into small pieces first) in and boil it till its nice and soft
Now, this bit is technical...

Turn your hotplate off now, drain the pasta, put it back into saucepan
Then put the saucepan back on the plate and pour in a half small spoon (like the size you'd put in a cup of coffee... are they called tea spoons?) of mustard, bit more black pepper, and all your grated cheese. Mix it all up so the cheese sort of half melts in with the pasta. Add your pesto.

You might want to put just a small shake of parlsey round about the top and then have it all on the plate and eat it right away.

_

And there's people on here who laughed when I named myself a Master Chef!

Those individuals will be having a good hard look at themselves right now and reading food of this kind of quality and complexity. I doubt they ever even HEARD of the cheese/mustard/pesto sauce before I cheffed it.