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

Today was shrimp tacos with red cabbage slaw and refried beans.

An hour, usually.

I’m making beef stew with oven roasted potatoes, parsnips, and carrots. I’m contemplating cooking some farro in broth and adding that in at the end. I don’t want the farro stealing all the liquid from the stew.

It’s looking like Shepherd’s Pie tonight.

I am a fan of putting the carrots and parsnips in the stew and serving with mashed potato, but you can never go wrong with roasted parsnips and carrots in any circumstances.

Swedes and turnips had a great tang as well to a stew, and at some point I neeed to try and make suet dumplings.

Tonight we are invited over to some friends for turkey, not sure why more roast turkey, but anyway. We will be taking some roasted brussel sprouts roasted with a balsamic tangy spice powder mix thing Mrs Mollusc found at HEB.

Having finally made it out today to stock up on groceries, there is naturally lots of convenient comfort food.

First course tonight was many slices of fresh baguette, well buttered, with herbed liverwurst and a very nice Wakefield Clare Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. That just about finished me off and I only needed something small to follow. Was considering fish & chips but that wouldn’t be consistent with carrying on with the lovely Cabernet. Aha! One of my acquisitions today was a small shepherd’s pie with piped swirly mashed potatoes. It’s in the oven right now!

Sprouts were roasted with some carrots, went down a treet. Just got back to the house and it reeks of cooked brussel sprouts in a slightly obnoxious way . Going to need a bigger air freshner.

Steak Salad. Basically a nice chef’s salad topped with fries and a perfectly grilled and sliced rare steak. With homemade Blu cheese dressing. Served with Heady Topper!

More comfort food. I have to announce my first disappointment. I love the chicken burritos from one particular grocery, and they also have beef and veggie ones. But yesterday I picked up a “Thai chicken wrap” from the same place. Meh! Edible, but not particularly enjoyable (and I generally love Thai food). I’m sticking to burritos from now on!

Will probably have fish & chips later on.

Grilled a big hunk of tri-tip , seared it , then on the top rack until 140 ish, then wrapped in tin foil to rest up. Also grilled some more carrots and brussel sprouts in a grilling basket liberally doused in salt pepper and olive oil. Some brats, and a loaf of french bread to mop up the juices.
2019 Durigutti malbec to accompany.

Meat and brats for a few days left, probably meat sweats for the rest of the night, but it was worth it.
Also grilled a couple of habernos.

Sharp cheddar cheese, Ritz crackers, five slices of salami, and some Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos, with a glass of ice water. Later, chocolate orange sticks and a glass of cold milk.

A very festive dinner, but made by a local store, not by me. Turkey with stuffing and mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and green beans. Turkey was moist and tender, and the stuffing surprisingly delicious. This is the place that sells jars of turkey gravy that is the best I’ve ever tasted, and I think the little gravy container that came with this was the same stuff. No wine with dinner this time, as I have to make a run to the airport later to pick up my son.

The turkey farm had beautiful turkey breast cutlets, so we had Turkey Piccata and Spaghetti Squash.

Went to my mother’s for spaghetti last night. She uses ragu out of the jar and I find it very bland so I just made garlic butter noodles. She looks at me like I’m crazy lol

Tonight I am going to fry up some bacon cheeseburgers!

Dinner last night was chicken wings & nuggets, brightened up with an amaze-balls sauce I made, consisting of garlic, sweet chili sauce, and some cilantro paste from a squeeze-tube.

Breakfast is … more of the same!

Defrosted the last of the chile Colorado I made last month and had that with some Italian bread I slathered with tomato pesto and shredded cheese.

Sushi!! We each had an Òra King Salmon Poke Bowl and we split a firecracker tuna roll.

Reading through the posts here, I remembered we have a pot roast in the freezer. I just took it out to thaw, and I’ll make it in the Instant Pot later. Also - a loaf of frozen bread dough is thawing (and rising!) on the counter to go with it.

Last night was so simple and good! We had leftover wood-fired filet steak from this awesome restaurant we went to Sunday night. Along with leftover grilled smoky asparagus. I made a four-egg steak and mushroom omelet with asparagus on the side, and toasted English muffins. Not a bit was left, except for the tiny bite of steak I saved for my dog Harley.

PSA: Be careful with rising dough when there are dogs in the house. A friend noticed her dog looked a bit like a blimp, then realized the dough was gone from her kitchen counter. It turned into an expensive bread loaf (veterinary bill). :dog:

Cold pepperoni pizza with hot pepper sprinkles and spaghetti sauce for dunking the crusts, and a glass of ice water. Later, some green Spritz cookies and a glass of cold milk.