Chunks of red potato fried up in olive oil with jalapeno smoked sausage, onion and green pepper; corn on the side.
Here at CasaRoja, I’m having a panbroiled pork chop, yellow squash sauteed with onions and steamed small red potatoes. White grapes for dessert.
Hey, no reason to apologize! I just threw out my nearly-dead basil plant. It was time. Or maybe it was time when I cut off all the leaves Monday night because I wanted it fresh and there were only a handful of leaves left…
MsWhatsit, do you have a recipe for the peanut sauce?
I make it a little bit different every time, but the gist is:
Mix a little coconut milk in a saucepan with most/all of the peanut butter. The all-natural peanut butter is best, because the regular stuff is a little too sweet for my taste, but either will work. Add curry paste. Stir on medium-ish heat until it’s all smooth and combined, and then add in the rest of the coconut milk.
Throw in chunks of chicken at this point. (Or you can use tofu, or pork, or whatever. I usually use either chicken breast meat, or sometimes chicken thighs.) Bring to a boil then simmer for, I don’t know, 20 minutes or 30 minutes or so, until the chicken is done. As long as it’s not boiling, it’s hard to overcook it.
When you’re almost ready to serve, add the spinach (you can use fresh or frozen, whichever you like), and a few tablespoons of fish sauce. Ta-da!
For plain old peanut sauce, just do the above but leave out the chicken and spinach.
I think the proportions I used tonight were approx:
2 cans of coconut milk
~10 oz peanut butter
4-5 tbsp red curry paste (you can use green, yellow, masaman, whatever; I like my peanut sauce spicy so if you don’t, use less)
About 1.5 lb chicken breast
2 lb frozen spinach
3 tbsp fish sauce
Last night: leftover spaghetti (with home-made sauce. mmmmm)
Tonight: pork chops, baked potato, corn, salad and gravy
I had grilled chicken tenders rubbed with garlic and cumin covered with a black bean and corn salsa. For dessert, we had homemade Bailey’s brownies and ice cream.
Vegetarian red beans and rice, corn with cilantro pesto, multigrain tortilla chips with chili-lime salsa, and a couple of New Belgium “Hoptober” beers.
We had a strange combination because we had leftover pasta sauce and meatballs but not enough of any kind of pasta to make a meal out of it.
So, we had cheese ravioli with the sauce and meatballs, broccoli stuffed chicken, green beans, and garlic bread. I didn’t eat the chicken because the pasta and bread and beans was enough for me. I also had a large glass of milk and my boyfriend had soda.
We still have leftover pasta sauce and meatballs. I think we’re going to be having grinders tomorrow.
I’ve got a super-busy day today, so tonight will probably be carry-out pizza! 
But the hubby will be home tomorrow, and when he’s home (on the weekends), I try to get a little more ambitious with dinners. I’m thinking stuffed pork chops with mushroom gravy tomorrow night, and maybe Asian Plum chicken on Sunday.
Asian Plum Chicken:
5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2TBSP butter
Salt and pepper
1/3C dry white wine
1/3C plum preserves or plum jam
1/2tsp Chinese Five-Spice
1TBSP soy sauce
6-8 scallions
Salt and pepper chicken pieces. Melt butter in large, heavy skillet. Add chicken, cook 5-6 minutes on each side, or until cooked through; remove chicken from pan and tent with foil to keep warm.
Deglaze pan with wine; add preserves, Five-Spice, soy sauce, and whisk until the preserves are nice and loose. Finely slice scallions, add to plum sauce until they are beginning to get tender.
Add chicken back into pan, turning pieces to coat with sauce.
Remove chicken to plate, pour additional sauce into a cup/bowl/gravy boat for serving.
Mmmmm.
Plum preserves aren’t always easy to find, but oh, this recipe is so worth the effort, in our opinion.
Another late night for The Other Shoe. I promised him I’d have a sweet potato in the oven ready when he got home, and he perked right up. Apparently, you *can *buy happiness, for something like 69 c/lb (as long as you put enough bacon and cheese and butter on it).
Bacon on a sweet potato? Huh. To each their own! 
I think I died and went to agnostic heaven reading this. Any particular recipe for cilantro pesto? Beans just canned, or spiced a certain way?
norinew, where is plum preserve found? In mixed with the other jams and jellies? Or is it somewhere special?
Tonight, the family is in town! So Indian or Thai tonight!
Personally, I like a dab of butter, some finely-diced ham and a drizzle of maple syrup! Mmmm. Damn. Now I want sweet potatoes!
I also like to mash them with a splash of half-and-half, a little butter, some vanilla extract, a tiny bit of brown sugar, and some cinnamon and cloves!
When I find it in the supermarket, sometimes it’s in with the other jams and jellies, but sometimes with the ethnic/specialty foods. I have better luck finding it in those little places/booths where the Amish sell home-made jams, jellies, sauces and chutneys.
Because it’s tricky to find, when I do find it, I buy several jars. As long as you don’t break the seal, it will keep practically forever (hey, that’s what ‘preserves’ were for to begin with, right?) and I have it on hand whenever I want to make that chicken. Same recipe works just as well with boneless pork chops, too. (I read, years ago, that pork and chicken and practically interchangeable in just about any recipe, and it’s held true for me).
I’m out of stuff to cook. I might go for some oatmeal or tofu or rice. I’m leaning towards the tofu.
Wednesday, I made two quiches, one for the kids and one for the adults: the one for the kids was straight ham and cheese, and to the grown-up one I added spinach, mushrooms, onion and garlic. Thursday night, I made whole wheat spaghetti in tomato sauce with chicken Italian sausage, and cauliflower baked with cream, parmesan and a little garlic salt. Tonight we broke out the rotisserie and are “BBQing” a chicken. Side dishes to be determined, but I’m leaning toward mashed potatoes and broccoli.
Our kids love cruciferous veggies. Go figure.
Tonight was BLTs. Nothing better if you have fresh, garden-grown tomatoes.
Mmmmm. Can you send us some? 
Tonight we had leftovers.
Cheese enchiladas, Cuban-style black beans and rice (morros y cristianos) and some empanadas I had in the freezer that my daughter made for us. They are to die for - stuffed with chorizo and fresh sweet corn.
Pan-seared salmon and broccoli with blender hollandaise. I am never making hollandaise the old-fashioned way again. This recipe was ridiculously easy and turned out perfect.
Well, sure! You put bacon on a regular baker potato, doncha?
Actually, I forgot one key topping: BBQ sauce. Really. I thought The Other Shoe was NUTS the first time he tried it, off his rocker, cracked, bonkers … and then, he got this blissful look on his face. It turns out that Bulls-Eye Original is Teh Awesome on baked sweet potatoes. Go figure. (Go try it!)
After watching a Generic Cooking Show ™ on The Food Network, I’ve decided that tomorrow night’s dinner is going to be: boneless pork chops seasoned with olive oil, thyme, lemon zest and grill seasoning, topped with escalloped apples. Oh, it sounds good! Kind of a new ‘take’ on pork chops and apple sauce, you know?