Going out tonight for Ethiopian. I usually get the vegetarian combo, but tonight I may get the combo that also includes a pile of meat.
Had a hankering last night & made lobster rolls. On deck for tonight (and the next few) is stuffed pork chops with mashed potatoes. Not fancy, but good.
I’m gonna make fake cheesesteak with Steak-umms. I will gussy them up with shallots and re-hydrated shitake mushrooms.
We had skillet bbq chicken with baked potatoes and green beans. The chicken seems to be a hit the past few times I’ve made it.
As I’m about to have lunch, my thoughts have turned to a particular type of delicious bun that I picked up half a dozen of recently. They’re baked in different shapes and sizes but what they all have in common is a distinct pattern on top that I think is made by cutting a slit in the dough at some point in the baking process. My local supermarket uses a larger version to make their subs, but strangely, their bakery doesn’t sell the buns separately. The ones I got from a different supermarket are smaller, and they make great little sandwiches or even hot dogs.
After doing a bunch of research it appears that these are called spaccatelli buns, but a Google image search also turns up similar looking buns that are referred to as “hoagies”. They look more or less like the picture below. Slicing one in half, toasting it on a hot crepe pan, and adding sandwich ingredients produces excellent results! They are always wonderfully soft inside, while the outside may also be soft or may have some crispness.
Tonight was stuffed green peppers.
Tonight will be one of my faves – spicy Vindaloo lamb curry!
I was lamenting the fact that the stores around here usually only have expensive lamb chops, which is wasteful for lamb curry because it’s basically a stew and doesn’t need a tender cut. But today they had New Zealand lamb blade shoulder chops, too, which is much more reasonably priced and perfect for stewing in a curry.
In a better world I would have remembered to get some mango chutney and naan bread, but I’m not going out again. I think I can survive the deprivation!
Make sure to have a few cans of lager nearby if it turns on you.
" We’ve created the mutton vindaloo beast. Half man, half extra-hot Indian curry!" 
I’m not much of a beer drinker any more, but I can quench super-hot food emergencies with iced vodka. I have been chastised for calling it a vodka martini by certain nitpicky posters, so I’ll just call it iced vodka, or vodka on the rocks.
The curry was not had tonight because the local supermarket has just introduced various kinds of rice bowls, and I picked up a chicken teriyaki bowl that was quite yummy and very filling, so the curry is postponed till tomorrow. And yes it will be hot – the Vindaloo sauce has a four-pepper rating!
Jambalaya and lemon cake.
I decided to simplify tonight’s dinner prep by pre-searing the lamb blade shoulder chops, cutting all the meat away from the bone and some of the fat, and refrigerating the pieces ready to simmer in the curry sauce later.
Good news and bad news. The good news is that the cheaper cut of chops smelled very tasty after searing and there was lots of it, as I expected. The bad news is that cutting the meat away from the bone and some of the excess fat was a major PITA. Maybe partially because it was intentionally underdone so it could later stew in the curry sauce.
Anyway, the task is done. There is now a bowl of about a pound of seared and partially cooked lamb pieces in the fridge ready to throw into curry sauce and simmer later tonight.
I foresee a bright future for anyone who sells ready-made stewing lamb for this purpose. I’ve never seen it.
Do you mean packaged lamb stewing meat?
I won’t say it’s always in stock here, but more often than not. But it’s normally more pricey than bone-in chops (not that even cheap chops are cheap) and then you don’t have scraps and bones to make a nice stock later. Then again, I can’t remember the last time I bothered to make a brown stock - just don’t buy enough beef or lamb to bother.
Sadness.
Eh, I’ll join this thread…
Last night Inna and I made our 2nd home-made pizza. Damn good, but it sure wasn’t as pretty as a typical pie.
Tonight we are doing trout and shrimp. I’m pretty Midwest basic in my food preferences, so they will likely be paired with rice, green beans, and a salad.
ETA: We also got some Russian ice cream from the European grocery store near here. I enjoy my Tillamook like everyone does, but Eastern European ice cream is something else. Almost worth going back to Ukraine for…
That’s the kind of stuff I had in mind, though I’ve never seen it around here. I also note that this particular product has some negative reviews but it would probably be fine in a curry.
Most of the time, all I consistently see in local supermarkets is classic lamb chops. I may have to see if I can live with chicken curry instead. I note that even the upscale Pusateri’s that I mention from time to time has switched their prepared curry from lamb to chicken because of cost. Speaking of lamb chops, they carry a type of marinated and seasoned Frenched lamb chop that is to die for when grilled on an outdoor BBQ, but it’s not something you’d ever waste in a curry.
I need to know more! What flavor did you get? What makes Eastern European ice cream different? Different flavors, or difference base?
Different base. I mean, it’s still milk, but it’s a heavier, creamier milk than what is produced in the States. Took a while to get used to it (as milk) when I was in Ukraine last July, but it makes for heavenly ice cream.
Same flavors though- vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. I’m sure there are different flavors than what I’m used to, but they likely don’t sell well here in America.
Breaded pork cutlets and saffron rice. Peas on the side.
Pork souvlaki, made with some nice lean pork tenderloin so I don’t worry too much about the fat, which I started marinating last night. Along with it, a made from scratch tzatziki (greek-style yogurt, fresh mint, green onions, minced garlic, lemon juice, salt, diced fresh cucumber) that I got maturing in the fridge. To go with I got a selection of fresh salad greens in the store, and some cubed butternut squash that I’m going to air fry later. This way, I can get something to keep the carb-craver in my happy, but pack in a lot more nutrition.
I’m being lazy tonight. Commercial pot stickers with a cabbage, red pepper, carrot and onion salad with peanut dressing I made awhile back.
It’s because I’ve spent the day prepping for a birthday dinner I’m giving for my bestie tomorrow afternoon.
We’ll start with my version of a Waldorf salad made with butter lettuce dressed in a homemade champagne vinaigrette, then topped with shredded celeriac, sliced green apple a little hunk of smoked salmon filet and topped with toasted chopped pecans.
Then we’ll move on to a pork shoulder roasted for 6 hours with an herb paste crust of garlic, salt, pepper, fennel seeds, sage, rosemary, white wine and olive oil, some nice mashed potatoes (sans skins, sadly, but it’ not my birthday) with an herb wine sauce made from the roast drippings. Also some steamed green beans with a bit of lemon zest and homemade French bread.
We’ll finish with a homemade lemon meringue pie. It’s one of my friend’s favorites. I haven’t made one in donkey’s years, but I think the old muscle memory will kick in. Fingers crossed, anyway. 
None of this is hard, just a lot of steps. It didn’t help that my friend’s husband surprised her with a couple of days at the coast on Sunday through Monday. Our dinner was originally scheduled for Monday afternoon, so we had to move my portion of the proceedings up to tomorrow. Cleaning with one hand and cooking with the other!
Looking forward to loafing and leftovers on Sunday. 
That sounds like a feast to remember! And there’s nothing wrong with some commercial pot-stickers or gyoza. I decided a while back that while I make good ones, the fiddly effort with folding (I have fat fingers) and filling means that I’ll settle for some good enough frozen ones most of the time. Doubly so for another dim sum favorite, soup dumplings. Damn I love them, but the work is insane, and if you screw it up, you have sadly deflated dumplings steaming (or sitting in a pan) of soup-flavored water.