What's For Dinner Tonight: Episode 2021 – A New Hope

Cafe Society
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We had an interesting soup last night that my gf invented and is now part of our dinner rotation. It all begins when we have Indian food from a food truck we like. My gf loves the palak paneer, but also likes an appetizer. She eats 1/2 of the palak paneer and takes the rest home.

When the food truck shuts down, the guy comes into the brewery and I “buy him a beer” (they don’t charge him, so it’s kinda a joke). He always brings us a serving of leftover rice that he otherwise would throw out.

At home a few days later, we heat up some chicken broth. To it we add the palak paneer and the leftover rice. We also have a rotisserie chicken and I shred the breast meat and add it. Our parrot gets the wings and our dogs get the remaining meat.

Palak paneer chicken and rice soup is fantastic.

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We finally finished the Turkey day leftovers!

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Last night was grilled salmon and roasted butternut squash. My gf pointed out that my roasted butternut squash was no better than her roasted butternut squash.

See, I buy whole butternut squash from the farm store and chop it up into cubes. She buys already cubed butternut squash at Giant Eagle. I never claimed I was buying whole squash because it tasted better. I buy it that way because it is way cheaper.

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Made another seared lamb chop, but this time I put anchovy-garlic-butter on it. It was heavenly! IPA to drink with it.

The leftover anchovy-garlic-butter will go on crostini.

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We did that yesterday - to me it’s an endurance contest and to mr. romans it’s one of the best times of the year, lol.

Tonight was eggs in cocotte with prosciutto, dill and shredded parm; clementines; apple scones, and some tortilla pinwheel apps I made awhile ago to use up some leftover tortillas I had from making something else. Martha’s Hard Chard to drink.

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Made a big turkey pot pie and some cranberry applesauce. A little close to Thanksgiving, but it was a nice meal.

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Hehe, tonight started the magic of my birthday. It goes on for like a week or so.

I worked kind of late today, so my wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday dinner. I said I’d love a bacon cheeseburger and fried onions from Chip’s, a Dallas favorite that is relatively nearby. But it was rainy, and she seemed hesitant to make the trip. I offered that she could do it tomorrow when the weather is clear, and we’d do something at home. Through a brief discussion, hat ended up being that I get to pick the frozen pizza. That seems mundane, but she does seem to keep a wide variety of frozen pizzas around.

So, tonight ended up with me selecting a Newman’s Own pepperoni pizza. Tasty as ever, even if it isn’t the best frozen pizza I’ve had. But I get Chip’s tomorrow!

We originally planned to have my “formal” birthday dinner at Mr. Max, an Izakaya in Irving this weekend. I’ve loved it for decades, and it’s often been my pick for a birthday dinner. But, we realized pretty late that I’d be on-call this week, making that a touch and go prospect. To make that up, my darling asked me what I’d like her to make, and I asked for her fried chicken, with french fries and her cider slaw. We’re planning on making that Saturday night. There’ll almost certainly be enough leftovers for Sunday.

And well, since I was on-call on my birthday, and my company offers a free day off for your birthday if you take it within a reasonable window near your birthday, I asked to take it off the first day I wasn’t primary on call. That was granted, and I have Monday off now. So, I am hoping to meet my wife while I am holding our place in line for Mr. Max as she returns home from work Monday.

So. five days? That’s almost a week. I feel like an emperor or something. It’d never happen if my rockin’ sweetie didn’t feel like she had to do stuff to make a person feel special, but I think she might be going overboard. On the other hand, she gets to eat it all too.

Either way, the TL;DR meal plan is/has been:

Thur: Frozen pepperoni piizza
Fri: Chip’s Bacon Cheeseburger w/onion sting things
Sat: Homemade fried chicken, fries, apple cider slaw
Sun: See sat
Mon: Whatever I see that I wants at Mr. Max

If there is nothing leftover on Tues, I may actually try fasting.

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Turkey breast cutlets in a sauce made with garlic and capers, served with faux mashed potatoes (cauliflower).

We are eating lots of turkey, since the turkey farm had a Thanksgiving traditional sale where shoppers got a percentage off if they purchased a turkey, which we did.

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Whole wheat reginetti with pork ragu, salad and focaccia. Nom!

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Had an old-fashioned hot roast beef sandwich (open-face) with brown gravy. It hit the spot!

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Clam chowder, green salad, and some rustic style sourdough bread I picked up at the farmers market this morning. I thought I had more oyster crackers on hand, but really all that were left in the box were the dregs at the bottom.

Imgur

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I was going to make spaghetti and meatballs tonight, but since I have a frozen lasagna for later this week, I decided to do something a little different, so I added a jar of alfredo and a cup of sour cream to the pasta, plenty of pepper and parmesan cheese, frozen spinach, a can of shrooms, and then the meatballs (which were frozen) and let it simmer all together for a bit. I think I’ll call it Strogazzini Florentine a’la Janis. It was lovely. A big glass of iced tea and half a Tastykake (those things are huge!) finished off the meal. Definitely making again!

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Tonight was this:

tarted up with chopped fresh spinach, a drained can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes, and some dark meat from a rotisserie chicken. The tomatoes really made it - the bright acidity really brought home the flavor. Will make again!

Served with a green salad and a bottle of on-sale California Sauvignon Blanc.

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Tonight will be latkes with applesauce and sour cream.

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That was my lunch, along with potato knishes, bagels, smoked salmon spread, and chopped liver. And a chocolate truffle. It was a buffet lunch; I didn’t prepare any of it.

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We have two left over that will have eggs on top of them for breakfast!

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Sunday night dinner tonight: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, gravy and cranberry sauce. Thanks to the lovely supermarket that makes prepared meals and features special dishes for the holiday season, this involved nothing more than popping a tray in the oven and nuking the turkey gravy. For me, a great example of the efficiencies of “mass production”. :slight_smile:

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Beef gyro, caesar salad, IPA.

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I made a crazy pasta sauce using some hot sausage, tomato sauce and paste, and a sliced up delicata squash. Mixed in some cooked seashell pasta. Served with a salad.

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Breakfast for dinner: Waffles, bacon, scrambled eggs with cheese, apples.