What's Cooking (Take Two!)

[Jenise]

Dinner tonight: a vegetarian repast of warm rapini salad first course (steamed rapini simply doused with a drizzle of lemon juice, olive oil and salt, followed by spinach fettucine in a sauce made from gift fresh black trumpet mushrooms, garlic, parmesan and cream.

I took out the gas grill last night and made Jamaican jerk chicken.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Take advantage of that great weather whole you can, Paul!

Leftover goose, stuffing, and gravy warming up in the toaster oven, and will soon nuke the leftover braised red cabbage. Looking forward to all.

[Jenise]

Leftover goose, stuffing, and gravy warming up in the toaster oven, and will soon nuke the leftover braised red cabbage. Looking forward to all.

Mmmm!

The only downside of not cooking Christmas dinner at home is not having any leftovers.

Winter has finally arrived here in New England. To help keep warm, I made a Thai green curry and threw in a couple of strings of green peppercorns.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Sounds so good, Paul. We went to an Open House but didn't eat much, so dinner was popcorn and champagne when we got home.

Not sure what we're doing tonight, but it might be 'steaks' of rolled and skewered prime rib cap.

Finally have enough tomatoes from the garden sosomemake it to the kitchen!
Tonight a beautiful panzanella salad with a side of grilled chicken, mm.

I know some people aren't Bittman fans, but he tends to be quite good with easy no-meat meals. Tonight made his "loaded" miso soup. Starts off pretty standard- steep the kombu, whisk miso (I was using red) in cup of stock add back to bowl. Then add shredded carrots, turnip, and ginger, some shelled edamame, some silk tofu. Top with crisped shiitakes and scallion. Good stuff for meatless Monday on a winter night. Side was leeks Climens (braised in some Sauternes that was sitting around for couple weeks) and rice with furikake and kimchi.

[Robin Garr]

I know some people aren't Bittman fans ...

A few years ago I was in the not-a-fan category. I felt that he was lazy and careless, and suspected that some of his recipes couldn't possibly have been tested.

But I like his writing on food justice and food politics, and as he has grown in that role, either his cooking has gotten better or I have become more forgiving.

Anyway, looks like a good recipe, Dale!

In keeping with my status as a gourmand of the highest order, last night's supper was Spam and egg burritos. I'd never actually purchased one of the blue cans before, but we had some that was fried up with eggs for New Year's Day brunch and it was kinda good. So I fried up a few slices last night, put them on top of flour tortillas, added some scrambled eggs, and rolled them up. Really pretty good, although a little Spam goes a long way due to the saltiness.

I don't think this is going to make it into the regular rotation but it was worth doing.

In keeping with my status as a gourmand of the highest order, last night's supper was Spam and egg burritos. I'd never actually purchased one of the blue cans before, but we had some that was fried up with eggs for New Year's Day brunch and it was kinda good. So I fried up a few slices last night, put them on top of flour tortillas, added some scrambled eggs, and rolled them up. Really pretty good, although a little Spam goes a long way due to the saltiness.

I don't think this is going to make it into the regular rotation but it was worth doing.

Cool! Which Manischewitz did you uncor...open with it?

Oh that's a Bud Light meal if there ever was one. Not that I'd do that. I'll eat Spam but I have my limits!

[Jenise]

Next: spam sushi? There was a club in Anchorage, Alaska, that served several SPAM dishes in honor of Alaska being the second highest consumer of SPAM (next to Hawaii). They all cost $90 each, and each came with a bottle of Dom. I was so tempted....

I guess I will mention that I bought a "musube maker" (a plastic contraption) so I could try spam musube, one of Barack's favorite dishes when he visits Hawaii. It produces a rectangle of compressed Japanese sushi rice, with a thin slice of fried spam on top, wrapped with nori seaweed. And pretty tasty, but it didn't become a habit with us. Louise looks down on Spam more than I do, I did grow up with it as pretty much a staple when I was young. And I don't mind eating it although to use a wine word, it is pretty clearly "spoofulated" meat, you taste the processing and chemicals more than you taste the meat.

[Jenise]

And I don't mind eating it although to use a wine word, it is pretty clearly "spoofulated" meat, you taste the processing and chemicals more than you taste the meat.

True. Personally, if I'm going to eat spoofulated meat, I'm going to eat Slim Jim's. (They're a weakness.)

I love Spam musubi, as does my daughter. One of the families we spend New Year's Eve with always brings several Tupperware containers full of them for eating that evening and more for everyone to take home. I've also had grilled Spam that had been marinated in a teriyaki-type sauce that was very good. The marinade cut the heavy flavor of the processing agents and gave it a bit more of a refined character (not that you could get any less of a refined character than that of Spam).

[Jenise]

My neighborhood wine group is doing a Meet The Winemaker tasting this month, and tonight I've got the winemaker and his wife coming for dinner to get to know each other better and solidify our plan. One of his specialties is zinfandel--there are only two vineyards of it up here and he gets better results from those grapes than anyone. So I decided that a fun dinner would be other California zins and Mexican food to go with them. The menu will be: pork belly and grilled pineapple mini tacos with champagne, a first course of tomato-avocado-scallop ceviche topped with a seared scallop and served up in a martini glass, a main course of chile verde and red chili rice garnished with fried tortilla strips and strips of fresh, marinated pasilla chiles, and a meyer lemon-polenta cake for dessert.

We had a dinner party Fri, the usual "any foods to avoid" led to the usual series of jokes ("I'm on a raw diet" "I'm only eating foods that start with ",. etc) and of course included at least one spam reference. So I decided Hormal Strikes Back (having read Mike F's comment). So Betsy (for me) made spam musubi for a starter. OK, I admit, I loved this. As did all but one person (I love her, but doesn't really care about food, very ideological) who basically wouldn't try. One can (lower sodium, but that's like a skinny elephant). Betsy and I had for lunch following day,. and I finished with scrambled eggs this AM. Pretty good for a $3 can.

Underwood Deviled Ham is next!

Sichuan this past weekend: stir-fried ground pork and hot peppers on Saturday and dry-fried beef and celery on Sunday.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, sounds great as always. I love Chinese dishes that have an intense celery presence--no doubt a holdover from the Cantonese chicken chow mein that was a standard of my childhood.

Tonight we're having a lentil soup, a potage debris of all manner of bits left in the fridge. Ginger, some beef leftover from French dip sandwiches, the last 3-ish ounces of sauvignon blanc leftover from yesterday, carrots that are starting to grow hair, tomatoes too long in the tooth for serving in salads, fennel fronds, three limp green onions...you get the picture. I seasoned it with fennel seed, garlic, black pepper, powdered fennel and ginger, and berbere. I'll serve that with a green salad or baby romaine, cilantro and avocado.

Tonight: a pair of boneless pork roasts, seared, rubbed with a mix of crushed black peppercorns, crushed fennel seeds, salt, and orange zest. Then braised with lots and lots of fennel, a handful of other veggies, and a broth made of juice squeezed from the zested orange, half a cup madeira, sliced fresh ginger, smashed garlic cloves, a cinnamon stick, and enough chicken broth to get it all halfway up the roasts.

Dinner last night was Creole Chicken with Mushroom Dirty Rice.

-Paul W.