Ordered in from our local Pakistani restaurant.
It was very good.
Spaghetti pie, the one with cream cheese & sour cream, also called million dollar spaghetti, out of the freezer, recipe makes a ton!
Chana Masala.
Tonight, we had the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of McDonald’s. The brisket for tomorrow is on the smoker and with any luck I’ll get it finished by 2AM and get some sleep.
Zee escargots are in zee oven.
For xmas I deep fried a turkey. Two people didn’t even put a dent in the 18 pound bird. I’ve had turkey for breakfast, lunch, and snacks ever since.
Saturday evening we had take out that was very good. Tomato bisque with grilled cheese sammiches. The grilled cheese was made using jalapeno poppers.
Tonight is cheese-stuffed chiles rellenos, coated with fluffy eggy batter and deep-fried. Accompaniments are plain pinto beans and flour tortillas. Maybe I’ll make some homemade salsa if I feel ambitious.
Christmas leftovers: Shrimp and crab cocktail, roast duck with orange sauce, cornbread stuffing with cranberries and sausage meat, wild rice and mushroom dressing, ratatouille, honey-glazed roast carrots, and New York–style cheesecake. Probably will wash it all down with apple cider and/or cranberry juice.
Sounds good now, but it gets kind of old after four or five days. What I really want now is a nice bowl of chicken soup.
Pastitsio and Greek salad today, mandarin beef stir fry tomorrow, made with some of the tangerine juice that was left over from Christmas breakfast.
Placating the house vegans tonight. Vegan version of shepherd’s pie, made with lentils, carrots, onions, mushrooms, topped with mashed mixture of potatoes and cauliflower with vegan butter.
Three bean soup and fresh biscuits. I make the soup all the time, but i experimented with dried beans instead of canned beans. You know, when you are just opening cans, it doesn’t matter that some of the beans are larger than others. The kidney beans and canolinni came out okay, but the butter beans kind of disintegrated.
The biscuits were also sort of an experiment, since I’ve only made them once before. But they came out terrific. Light and flaky and soft and buttery. I’m getting better at rolling pastry, too. I managed to make a nice neat rectangle. (Which i cut into squares with a giant knife. Yes, squares, not rounds. Shoot me. They were great.)
Fish & Chips. I reused my turkey fryer to fry batter dipped cod, with French fries were made indoors in the air fryer.
Pseudo-Georgian chicken stew with onions, red and yellow bell peppers, and mushrooms with a blob of tomato sauce, seasoned with Svanetian salt, black pepper, and garlic, and served over baby potatoes from the CSA. I have been on a kick to use up some of the quirkier things in the pantry rather than letting them just age there until they are no good anymore (like the tiny glass vial of saffron I bought Mom when I studied in Spain…in 1988! Yes, she still has it!)
For lunch I had some of @scabpicker’s DanDan Noodles (frozen and thawed from last time I made it), and for dinner I’m having some of @romansperson’s fagioli all’uccelletto. Yum! I"ll probably have some oranges for dessert, unless I break down and make a mug of chocolate cake-in-a-mug.
My darlin’ an I were given a ramen cookbook by my brother for Christmas. Among a vast array of noodles, it also includes what it describes as “Hiroshima-style Tantanmen”, the Japanese version of DanDan noodles. I can’t wait. Between it and the sourdough cookbook we got, we’re gonna have to find new stuff to do to burn off the calories.
But tonight, I ain’t proud. We happily chowed on Trader Joe’s beef and broccoli. Quick and filling. Tomorrow, it’s black eyed peas with jalapenos and chiles, jalapeno cornbread from a HEB box, and a mix of mustard and collard greens.
Frick.
I still have the saffron that Other Shoe was so super happy to buy. Dude has been dead eight years. But … he was so happy that day.
Tonight is New Year’s Eve. Normally I’d throw a party and cook up a storm: Roast goose with wild rice stuffing, Indian barbecued lamb, Indian refried potatoes, rice with whole spices, Indian chickpeas, cookies, lots of purchased treats…
Well, I’m going to stuff a duck with the wild rice stuffing. Maybe I’ll do the potatoes, too.
Sigh.
Pizza. 
Mac and cheese, ham slice, crescent roll, ice water. And leftover (but still good) Christmas cookies and chocolates for dessert with a big glass of cold milk.
After a largely horrible week at work I went the comfort food route. I ordered soup and a half dozen appetizers from a nearby Japanese restaurant.