I made Polish kotlety mielone which are sorta like if a hamburger patty, meatloaf, and meatballs all had a party together.
Many traditional recipes call for ground pork, but I’ve only ever had them with ground beef (that’s how my mom made 'em, and she grew up in Warsaw) so that’s what I did.
They always involve finely minced onion, stale bread soaked in water or milk, and breadcrumbs on the outside. Shallow-fried, and never served on a bun like a burger - this is a knife’n’fork situation.
Not exactly on the topic of what’s for dinner, but very closely related as it HAS been dinner a few times. When I was shopping a few weeks ago at one of the better supermarkets that I frequent, on a whim I picked up about three-quarters of a pound of Grandpa ham, some premium hamburger buns, vine tomatoes, and romaine lettuce. It was an inspired purchase!
“Grandpa ham” is the product of Sikorski, a relatively small local producer of excellent smoked meats and sausages. You can’t go wrong with Sikorski – their garlic sausage (similar to kielbassa) is to die for, and Grandpa ham is equally fantastic. You wouldn’t normally think of describing ham as “marbled”, but this stuff is, and when sliced very thin (almost like shaved ham) it makes fantastic sandwiches on toasted buns with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Bacon, red onion, or a slice of full sour pickle optional. As a sandwich fanatic I love this stuff, and picked up more of the same a few days ago, enough to last through the holidays.
We got suckered into doing a soup fest each year on xmas eve for my family. We buy pretty mugs for everyone and we serve 5 soups along with appetizers, breads, etc. The soups are in crockpots or on the stove and everyone helps themselves. There is much discussion about which soup is the best.
My gf suggested doing this our first xmas together as a one-off. It went over so well, my family assumed it would be a yearly event.
Each night we’ve been preparing one of the five soups (then freezing it). So far we have Gumbo, ramadan soup, and lasagna soup. Should be another good year.
ETA: At the end of the evening (or early the next morning) people take their soup mugs home with them.
Christmas dinner: crab quiche, green beans amandine, garlic bread, fruit salad, champagne. And the junkiest dessert I could think of: cookies and cream Dream Pie!
Our xmas dinner was a beautiful smoked turkey breast from our local turkey farm. It was delicious, served with stuffing, cranberry walnut sauce, green bean casserole, and macaroni & cheese.
Dinner was okra masala with basmati rice. Leftovers for lunch.
Big lunch today (almost the last of the Grandpa ham) so dinner will be a snack-like thing, Japanese gyoza dumplings with gyoza dipping sauce (half soy sauce, half rice vinegar, with Japanese chili sauce and a splash of sesame oil). Huy Fong chili garlic sauce standing by in case the dumplings need to be adorned with a bit of it, as dim sum usually does.
Dessert will be Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream with a few scoops of mixed berries drizzled with four-leaf sweet balsamic, followed by a glass of Bacardi Gold and a couple of Lindor chocolates.
Breakfast for dinner - the rest of the holiday French toast I made for Christmas breakfast, bacon, clementines and some leftover tortilla pinwheels I had in the freezer.
Damn, that sounds interesting. Would it work using frozen okra? I used frozen okra in my gumbo recently and sauteing the okra did not go well.
I don’t know. It was at a restaurant. Considering it’s not a super-popular menu item, it might have been frozen, but who knows? There was no slime evident at all.
This recipe claims that if you stir-fry it her way, the slime disappears. I haven’t had much luck, but maybe I wasn’t diligent enough. I’ve had more luck with oven-roasting.
My Gumbo recipe made the same claim, but I had a hard time, due at least in part from having too much okra in the pan at once. The moisture in the frozen okra was also a problem.
I’m having an odd mix: sardines with freshly sliced lemons and onions, plus some green onion and capers … on Triscuits …
… plus a Stouffers turkey/mashed potato/stuffing frozen TV dinner
I wanted, nay, needed food that was filling, high in protein, would fortify me for the two long shifts I have ahead of me … and required little effort.
Yum.
As it’s 3 in the morning (I was at work ‘till 2) it’s another Stouffers for me tonight - meatloaf this time, with a generous pour of gravy for the mashed taters - but since life is short, I’m having dessert first.
One a’ them fancy yogurts, the “Oui” brand in the cutesey glass pot that pretends to be all French-like but is a subsidiary of a multinational corporation.
New flavor to me. I usually get plain vanilla (which is anything but plain) or occasionally raspberry, but this was like a cookies’n’cream thing, with tiny, delicate chocolate shavings, and it is was GOOD.
For those who like to reuse/upcycle, the Oui pots make decent votive holders.
Tonight’s going to be jalapeno black eyed peas with jalapeno cornbread!
mr. romans requested pulled pork, so I roasted a butt yesterday and we’ll soon be having porky goodness served with cole slaw and beans.
Had a big breakfast from the Mexican place down the street, so dinner was frozen Trader Joe’s Fiery Chicken Curry washed down by a dram of Redwood Empire’s Pipe Dream bourbon.
Wood-fired pizza with prosciutto, wild mushrooms, basil, fresh mozzarella, and balsamic glaze drizzle.
Sounds fantastic! I think I mentioned somewhere that one of our supermarket chains introduced a new line of premium frozen pizzas that are wood-fired, and they have a delicious subtle smoky flavour. As I expected, the tastier varieties quickly sold out, but I have a whole freezer shelf full of the good ones!
On a different topic, New Year’s Eve dinner was not dinner. It was just indulgence in a lot of great snacks, just the way I like it. In the process I discovered that champagne and cashews is a really great combo!
We got a bit bored at work tonight.
I brought some of it home, along with today’s leftover sandwich lettuce (it goes in the trash otherwise, might as well) so basically, I’m having bread and lettuce for dinner.
With lotsa garlic butter and Thousand Island dressing, so don’t go feeling like I’m terribly deprived.
I wanted to make tortellini last night. Started out making a cream sauce, then diced three red bell peppers and added them. Simmered for a while, then cooled a bit. Ran the stick blender, then put the beautiful sauce through a chinois.
Sautéed some sausage and then added it and the tortellini into the sauce. Heated it all a bit then served it on warmed plates. A small side salad was served in chilled bowls.
(My kitchen New Year’s resolution is to be more conscious of plate temperatures.)
