Tonight will be PF Chang’s chicken lo mein. Not the microwaveable tray but the big bag that requires frying on a stovetop. I made some dim sum recently that requires frying and then steaming, so I dragged out a frying pan I have with a glass cover that I keep way at the back of the lower cupboard that’s perfect for that purpose, so you can take it off the heat as soon as the water boils off. Since it’s already out, may as well use it for the lo mein. IIRC, the PF Change lo mein is adequate but not fantastic – the pork lo mein from the local Chinese takeout is much better and actually cheaper. The whole ordering and pickup process is just less convenient.
Made a ‘cleaning out the freezer’ meal for Sunday dinner last night that turned out very well.
Thawed out some chicken thighs and homemade chicken bone broth. Seasoned the thighs with salt, pepper, thyme and rosemary. Browned thighs in a pan. Carmelized onion slices. Added garlic and mushrooms. Deglazed pan with white wine and reduced. Made a roux and added bone broth. Finished cooking thighs by simmering in gravy. Served over baked potato with a side of roasted baby carrots. Sort of a simple French country meal, and it was yummy. Looking forward to leftovers for lunch today.
Tonight was tandoori chicken thighs, with mixed vegetables in mango wala sauce.
Yesterday was beef shepherd’s pie and roasted pumpkin with curry seasoning and homemade chutney.
Tonight was a blue cheese burger, rare, and more roasted pumpkin with curry seasoning and homemade chutney.
Now I’m snacking on roasted pumpkin seeds. I think I could have roasted them a bit longer so they’d be crunchier.
I have too much food in my fridge. There was some leftover chicken, chili, a portion of pizza dough I defrosted a couple days ago, some pesto sauce I made up with a bunch of basil that I didn’t want to go to waste, a ton of salad fixings and some fresh mozzarella.
So the chili is still hanging around, but I used up the dough and made a pesto pizza with chicken, fresh mozzarella, onion, mushrooms, grape tomatoes and sun dried tomatoes. Had a side salad with it.
I’ll have the chili for lunch tomorrow and freeze the rest of the pesto.
Tonight and tomorrow (at least) are going to be pork Katsu Sandos. Quite possibly the best sandwiches in the world.
Sandwiches of History did them a couple of weeks ago, he had no improvements to suggest. We fry our pork chops, though.
I had a pork tenderloin roast with mixed veggies. Slight more well-done meat than I’d prefer, but I took it out of the oven at 135 - 140°F.
More pumpkin seeds for snacking.
Hehehehe, tonight we were joking about how my sweetie made us eat these awful sandwiches for days on end (she cooks for an army). Full disclosure: she marinates the chops in sichimi togarashi and some sort of liquid that I haven’t asked about yet, because she’s a genius and knows how to make me enjoy something. There’s one pork chop left for my dinner (checks clock) tonight. She made an extra loaf of milk bread, I may try to stretch the one chop into two big snacks, because the chops she made were oversized for any conventional bread loaf by the time she tenderized them.
My only regret is that with the holidays coming up, we’re not going to have any chance to make them for the rest of the year. I’m going to have to content myself with green chile pork on the first cold snap, then her wonderful turkey for thanksgiving and the resulting turkey sandwiches. After that, the only thing to look forward to is Christmas smoked brisket, then new years jalapeno black eyed peas and cornbread.
Wow, that’s a lot more planned out than I’d thought it be. I’m pretty sure I won’t starve.
We had blackened pepper chicken Alfredo. It was fantastic!
Tonight was pork chile verdi soup.
Tonight will be chorizo sausages a la Wolfpup, along with baked mac & cheese. This style of baking sausages uses a glass casserole dish thinly oiled with olive oil, then a bed of chopped white onion on top of which the sausages are laid, then the sausages drizzled with a garlicky pizza sauce. Sometime I add chopped green pepper but I forgot to get some – no big deal. It may sound like an unusual recipe but there’s something about the onions that effectively saute in the oven and the added flavour of tomato sauce that works very well with almost any kind of sausage.
There are a lot of sausages and also a lot of mac & cheese, so enough for two dinners plus more leftover sausage to have with Bush’s Homestyle beans and fries the following day. One of them would be great in a large sausage bun, too, with mustard and leftover fried onions as a garnish. Much better and probably much healthier than a hot dog.
Oops – I misremembered one detail of the sausage recipe. Looking at my notes, apparently I don’t oil the casserole dish with olive oil, although that would probably work fine. Instead I spread a thin layer of pizza sauce on the bottom, then the chopped onion, then the sausage, and finally drizzle them with more sauce. I use about half of a big white onion, coarsely chopped. 400F for about 20 minutes.
OMG, that was one of the nicest homemade dinners I’ve had since the striploin roast a few weeks ago! Wonderful aroma wafting through the house, with the sausages done in what turned out to be 22 minutes to coincide with the mac & cheese, and they were just perfect! They’re huge and I intended to have just one with half the m&c, but couldn’t resist half of a second one, and then, what the hell, another half with more m&c.
There are three left with lots of sauteed onion, so not sure whether to bother with beans or just have one with the rest of the m&c and get some big sausage buns and have the last two as comfort food with soup. Am definitely doing this again soon.
I was going to suggest kartoffelengeschmashinundessen.
We had leftover giant hoagie sandwich.
No more fried pork chops left, so last night was a ham sandwich on some slices of the remaining milk bread.
Yesterday was jerk chicken half-breast, salad, and the last of my pumpkin seeds.
Tonight is still up in the air.
… and then I sneaked down in the middle of the night and had a third sausage, cold, sliced like an hors d’oeuvre, with Dijon mustard and some of the onion. Did I mention that I just love these chorizo sausages? 
Dinner tonight will be a big fat smoked turkey sub with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. I’d throw on some red onion but it makes it too darn thick to eat! There is soup (tomato or Won Ton, but it probably won’t be necessary).
Got more chorizo sausages today along with more baked mac & cheese and white onions, but no worries about immediate repetitiveness – the m&c Best Before date is Dec 5 and the sausages are in the freezer. Tomorrow will be a ginger beef noodle bowl with rice noodles, and of course soy and Huy Fong chili garlic sauce.
Early dinner of toasted ham, turkey and cheese sandwiches on caraway rye. Good stuff.
Tonight’s gonna be pizzas from Cenzo’s, mmmmm.