What Did We Eat Today?

[PRgal]

Yesterday's takeout brunch confirmed why I'm never ordering from a certain restaurant again.  My husband and I both ordered shakshouka, a dish from Tunisia that is very popular in many middle eastern countries, including Israel.  Eggs in Purgatory is a similar dish).  When it arrived, not only was there barely any sauce, but the takeout container for it was all wrong.  When we order from another restaurant (such as our favourite bagel place), it actually comes in a container made for saucy foods like stews or pasta so it would be kept warm.  We ended up having to microwave our meals while our son happily enjoyed his over medium egg and toast.  The bread they sent was all wrong too.  And it claimed it came with a mini baguette, but the bread was not really a baguette.  More like a hotdog bun.

[Bookish Jen]

I love French Dip sandwiches, and not a whole lot of restaurants near me serve them. So I started making them at home. I buy shaved steak and bakery rolls from my local grocery store, and then use Johnny's French Dip au jus. This is what I'm having for dinner tonight.

[annzeepark914]

Frittata with chicken sausage and spinach, roasted potatoes with aioli, and baked Parmesan tomatoes.

[isalicat]

18 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Frittata with chicken sausage and spinach, roasted potatoes with aioli, and baked Parmesan tomatoes.

Ah, frittata! Has there ever been a more useful dish? You just throw in whatever you like/whatever you have and a meal is born! My son now makes a big frittata every Sunday night (usually involving mushrooms, bacon or sausage, cheese, spinach, onions) and then packages big individual slices to take to work for his breakfast every day (he has to be at work at 8 AM and his commute is awful), thus saving lots of money he used to spend buying breakfast out.

[annzeepark914]

@isalicat It was a happy day when I discovered frittatas. Never liked quiche due to the pastry crust (I just associate a pastry crust with dessert pies ☺️). Your son's frittatas sound good!!

[BooksRule]

I've been trying to eat healthy for the last couple of weeks (no processed foods, no fast food, no junk, etc.) and I've done well.  I'm allowing myself one cheat meal each week.  Today I decided that I would skip all green veggies, so I'm having a couple of chicken tenders (oven baked), yellow & gold corn for dinner with a little ice cream for dessert.  As an appetizer, I oven-roasted some peanuts in the shell this morning, so I'm having a serving of those right now. 

[annzeepark914]

Light Sunday supper: chicken & cheese quesadillas, & a mega tossed salad.

[EtheltoTillie]

Speaking of French Dip, I had a horrible one at a Maryland bar on Sunday. It was more like a bad cheese steak. 

[annzeepark914]

16 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Speaking of French Dip, I had a horrible one at a Maryland bar on Sunday. It was more like a bad cheese steak. 

Bar food--hit or miss 🥴

[EtheltoTillie]

6 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Bar food--hit or miss 🥴

Yes. It wasn’t my choice of restaurant. Someone was holding a post funeral lunch. 

[chessiegal]

We went out to lunch today at a waterfront restaurant we haven't been to in years. They've revamped their menu. I had Maryland crab soup and fried green tomatoes on remoulade sauce topped with shrimp salad and grilled corn salsa. The Maryland crab soup was the best I've ever had. In addition to crab claw meat, it had some jumbo lumps of crab in it. The fried green tomatoes dish was good too.

[annzeepark914]

You're fortunate to be so close to really fresh seafood. I've given up on fresh shrimp. No matter where I've bought it in the past 8-10 years, it smells fishy. Back in the day, we'd toss shrimp that smelled this way. So I only buy Wegmans frozen shrimp in a bag. At least it tastes like shrimp (which has become a rarity).

[EtheltoTillie]

I made a Dutch baby yesterday, from an Instagram recipe.  It called for 6 eggs for a large skillet, so I reduced the ratio for four eggs for my smaller skillet.  They showed it with blueberries, but I combined blueberries and raspberries.  Delish!

It looks a little off center, because I think the stove may not be level.  But I got a good puff. 

 

[Ancaster]

I'm not a big fan of cottage cheese but through some misplaced sense of needing to eat more healthily, every few years I buy tub.  As soon as I take the lid off I regret it and wonder what I can do with it to make it more appealing/tasty.

Well, my "banging my head against a brick wall" moment came again this week, but today I found a solution that actually worked (for me).  I added a little salt, some TJ's crunchy chili onion, finely diced Persian cucumber, mixed that and added sunflower seeds on top.  It was actually delicious!

Cottage cheese is still not going to be part of my regular rotation, but at least when I can't stop myself, I have a solution.

Edited August 31 by Ancaster
cottage cheese not cottage fan

[annzeepark914]

@Ancaster No idea what Crunchy Chili Onion tastes like, but is there something else you could put it & the cucumber, etc., on?  It sounds like an interesting mix.

[Ancaster]

2 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

@Ancaster No idea what Crunchy Chili Onion tastes like, but is there something else you could put it & the cucumber, etc., on?  It sounds like an interesting mix.

It's a "more-ish" kind of condiment - I add it to salads, sandwiches, soups, raw tomatoes, veggies, stir fries, etc, etc.  I'm sure it would be good stirred into hummus.  With cooked food I use it as a garnish at the end.  (It's very oily, but you can drain off most of the oil when you're getting your teaspoonful out.)

The concoction I made with cottage cheese would be good on crackers, on a sturdy romaine leaf, an endive leaf.  Probably other stuff, but as you've probably guessed, I'm no cottage cheese expert!

(Not sure if that answers your question!)

Edited August 26 by Ancaster

[Bookish Jen]

On 8/20/2024 at 1:03 PM, EtheltoTillie said:

Speaking of French Dip, I had a horrible one at a Maryland bar on Sunday. It was more like a bad cheese steak. 

That sucks. I had a homemade French Dip once again for dinner last night, and it was delicious.

We have a café in my office building, and though most of their food is pretty good, their French Dips suck. The au jus is like dirty dishwater. Ugh.

[annzeepark914]

We just had Caramelized Onion, Mushroom, Gruyere Tart(let). The recipe is for tartlets but I'm not going to mess with that. It was delicious and went well with a salad of mixed greens and a Lemon Vinaigrette dressing. 

[Anela]

My dad made chili, last night, so I had some of that last night, and just now. I also had leftover pizza, from Saturday. dad accidentally got this really thin crust, that was more like rice paper - I didn't like it, but I ate it. 

I've been feeling ill, on and off, so I bought a bit of prepared chicken soup from the store, after finally getting there before they removed the soup from the counter, and I'll make my own tonight or tomorrow. I keep feeling like I have the beginning of a cold, but I've been able to sleep, so I've been sleeping it off. Still wearing my mask, as always. 

[annzeepark914]

10 minutes ago, Anela said:

My dad made chili, last night, so I had some of that last night, and just now. I also had leftover pizza, from Saturday. dad accidentally got this really thin crust, that was more like rice paper - I didn't like it, but I ate it. 

I've been feeling ill, on and off, so I bought a bit of prepared chicken soup from the store, after finally getting there before they removed the soup from the counter, and I'll make my own tonight or tomorrow. I keep feeling like I have the beginning of a cold, but I've been able to sleep, so I've been sleeping it off. Still wearing my mask, as always. 

Bronchitis and regular colds are making the rounds. It may be time to wear masks in crowded or small places. Good soup weather.

[Bastet]

Beef stroganoff for dinner tonight.  It's not something I normally make, but I've been cooking for my parents again while my mom recuperates from surgery and gets used to her new cancer meds, and I know they'd like it.  I'm not a huge beef fan, but I love ribeye so used that and it came out really well.  I'll have it over some egg noodles, with roasted broccoli as the side.  The salad will just be a simple mixed greens with balsamic vinaigrette.

I also made them chicken piccata, so had a small piece of that for lunch today. 

[chessiegal]

I started following a group on FB that is for the little peninsula we live on. Yesterday they announced it would be Food Truck Friday at a nearby neighborhood. We went to check it out. It was a seafood truck. We got shrimp tacos and a crab pretzel (it's a thing around these parts). The tacos were excellent! The crab dip on the pretzel was good, but the pretzel was too mushy. I'd say that's a hit.

[annzeepark914]

With the cool weather we've been having these last couple of days, I decided to celebrate by making tomato soup & grilled cheese sandwiches for Saturday night supper. 

[annzeepark914]

Just had Ina's Broccoli & Bowtie Pasta (except I used Mostacccioli). I tossed in some sauted shrimp. Very good meal.

[PRgal]

We tend to stay in for lunch on weekends but get takeout.  I had a salad with poached eggs and the guys (i.e. my son and husband) shared two pasta dishes.  Seriously, my son isn't even 6 yet and he DEVOURED pretty much half the ravioli and half the spaghetti.  Funny thing is, he used to LOVE the spinach and ricotta ravioli and now doesn't want the filling, preferring the pomodoro (I suppose (nearly) ALL kids like spaghetti pomodoro).  

[Bastet]

9 hours ago, PRgal said:

(I suppose (nearly) ALL kids like spaghetti pomodoro).  

I was the kid who was bummed it was spaghetti night, and mostly ate garlic bread and salad.  I always preferred larger noodles, and wasn't really a fan of the sauce (especially if it had meat, but even when it didn't).  The spinach and ricotta ravioli, though, yeah, I'd have been all over that (still would).

I want a break from cooking tonight, but haven't decided what I want to order in.  I'm leaning towards Thai or Vietnamese, but then a pizza keeps sounding good, too.  I'll see what wins out in an hour or so when I'm ready to order.

Edited September 15 by Bastet

[Anela]

On 9/8/2024 at 6:57 AM, annzeepark914 said:

With the cool weather we've been having these last couple of days, I decided to celebrate by making tomato soup & grilled cheese sandwiches for Saturday night supper. 

I’m making a tomato soup, too, with other vegetables, all roasted a couple of nights ago. Tomatoes are from my garden. Smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper added, with chicken broth.  I’ll blend it up tomorrow   

we had pizza, last night. I made the mistake of having a grilled cheese, around 4 am. That was all too much cheese for me. 

I made a cabbage soup, the other night. Recipe by Kimberly Snyder.  A lot of cabbage, celery, and some zucchini, in vegetable broth. 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper.  I’m putting some of it in the freezer. 

Edited September 15 by Anela

[annzeepark914]

Chinese delivery from new (to us) place. Very good food. 

[chessiegal]

Soup! We had an Amazon return that we took to Whole Foods. I like their fresh soups. I picked up Shrimp and Corn Chowder (it has a little kick to it) and Turkey and Wild Rice, finished it at lunch today. Yesterday I picked up Hungarian Mushroom soup at The Fresh Market when I picked up salmon cakes for their Monday BOGO.

We picked up Mexican Shrimp bowls for dinner tonight from the fairly new Mexican place near us.

[EtheltoTillie]

Those all sound good!

[PRgal]

We met up with a cousin and his family for brunch today.  They're from out of town and are here because he had a conference.  I had cilbir (Turkish eggs:  poached eggs on labneh/yogurt) and the little guy had sliders (the restaurant didn't have a kids' menu, so I ordered an appetizer for him).

[annzeepark914]

Ina's Herb-roasted Fish, steamed asparagus, and Roasted Potatoes w/ aioli on the side.

[PRgal]

Last night's Rosh Hashanah dinner was SOOOO GOOD!  We had the traditional sweet(er) challah (my son kept on asking for more challah, but I told him he had to eat other things) plus apples and honey, of course, plus chicken, fish, beef, falafels, vegetables and rice.  We are all completely stuffed, even the next day.  I guess it's soup for dinner tonight!  

[isalicat]

23 hours ago, PRgal said:

Last night's Rosh Hashanah dinner was SOOOO GOOD!  We had the traditional sweet(er) challah (my son kept on asking for more challah, but I told him he had to eat other things) plus apples and honey, of course, plus chicken, fish, beef, falafels, vegetables and rice.  We are all completely stuffed, even the next day.  I guess it's soup for dinner tonight!  

L'shana tova!

[chessiegal]

We had lunch outside at a nearby waterfront restaurant. I had blackened shrimp tacos and my husband had a crab cake sandwich. This place is known for their steamed crabs, which many folks were having. I love blue crab, but picking steamed crabs is too much work! I'll take my crab in a sandwich. 

[EtheltoTillie]

I made brisket for Rosh Hashanah.  Someone convinced me to try a sauce that is kind of sweet and sour tomato based--like my stuffed cabbage sauce.  It got better after two days.  I usually just make a basic savory sauce with onions, beef broth, maybe wine. 

Edited October 8 by EtheltoTillie

[isalicat]

23 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I made brisket for Rosh Hashanah.  Someone convinced me to try a sauce that is kind of sweet and sour tomato based--like my stuffed cabbage sauce.  It got better after two days.  I usually just make a basic savory sauce with onions, beef broth, maybe wine. 

Hmmmm...in my opinion your basic savory sauce (especially with a little red wine included) sounds best. Brisket is so tender and rich, properly cooked low and slow, that I would not want to overwhelm it with a sweet and sour sauce. Maybe just me...

I made lamb burgers (with chopped red onion and some hot curry paste mixed in) for a non-traditional Rosh Hashanah meal. Good and lots of leftovers!

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, isalicat said:

Hmmmm...in my opinion your basic savory sauce (especially with a little red wine included) sounds best. Brisket is so tender and rich, properly cooked low and slow, that I would not want to overwhelm it with a sweet and sour sauce. Maybe just me...

I made lamb burgers (with chopped red onion and some hot curry paste mixed in) for a non-traditional Rosh Hashanah meal. Good and lots of leftovers!

I'm with you.  I'm going to go back to my regular sauce in future. 

[Anela]

I made a mixture from Plant You's scrappy cooking cookbook. A mix of chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, lemon juice, feta, salt, pepper, and oregano... eaten with pita bread, but I didn't make the dressing to go with it, because I don't have plain yogurt.

[PRgal]

SO FULL after Thanksgiving dinner.....the place we ordered our meal from is about a million or more times better than the place we used to get our holiday meals.  But there's just SO MUCH FOOD.  I ended up freezing half the turkey before we heated the remaining up.  And we only ate half the pie.  

[EtheltoTillie]

I just came back from a street fair in our neighborhood (NYC Upper West Side).  There are so many more varieties of international foods than they used to have.  Prices are also higher than they used to be :(.

However, I got a Peking Duck crepe dish that was outstanding.  It was pretty large, and my husband and I shared it for lunch.  I could eat a whole other one, though, it was so good. 

[PRgal]

Last night, I had tomato soup with kale (didn't eat until after we went out trick or treating.  Kiddo was fed first) and one part of a fun sized KitKat (i.e. half a fun sized KitKat) for dinner.  The KitKat was part of the "parent tax" hahaha. 

[BooksRule]

I took a 'baking hen' out of the freezer several days ago in anticipation of making gumbo this weekend.  I got around to boiling the hen earlier today, but ran out of motivation before I finished the gumbo.  So, I have a nice big container of chicken (I did take it off the bones before I stopped) and a huge pot of broth that's still cooling on the stove. I'll freeze both (tomorrow morning, which will give the broth a chance to let most of the fat rise to the top for me to skim) and will probably make the gumbo next weekend.  At least the messy part is done (picking through the carcass getting all of the meat and having to wash my giant stew pot).  I'll just have to make the roux, add it to the broth with some file powder and make a pot of rice.  

There really wasn't that much left to do, but I'm also trying to eat healthy and had my 'cheat' meal on Friday.  So, it's really another week until I can have something like gumbo (it's mainly the roux that's the problem--pure fat and flour).  I've never frozen the 'fixin's' before, so it if turns out well, I might buy up several hens, cook them, and freeze the broth/meat for later gumbos (sometimes it's hard to find hens around here except during holiday time and hens give chicken gumbo so much flavor).

So now I have to figure out something else for dinner!

[Anela]

I wasn't feeling well yesterday, even after going back to sleep for three hours, in the morning, but I made a basic chicken and vegetable broth for a different chicken soup recipe. I finally got it strained, and went to sleep, last night, but I forgot to add the ginger and lemongrass for that specific broth. It's for a recipe on handmethefork.com. 

I just made my own egg, cheese, and sausage breakfast muffin sandwich, but it didn't have much flavour. The sausage patty was too small for the muffin, and I did sprinkle salt on the egg, but I guess it wasn't enough. The cheese slice was supposed to be sharp cheddar, but I could barely taste it. 

I've been up since 4am. I also made tofu breakfast burritos, and had two earlier on. 

[PRgal]

I had a Niçoise salad for lunch.  It's the only way I'll eat anchovies.

[isalicat]

On 11/17/2024 at 5:54 PM, PRgal said:

I had a Niçoise salad for lunch.  It's the only way I'll eat anchovies.

I did not know a Nicoise salad required anchovies...I thought there was just tuna (no other fish) and since I don't like anchovies at all, I'm glad I have never included them! (I love Nicoise salad and since I have salad pretty much every day for lunch, I have it at least once a month). Today was mixed greens with a lot of baby arugala. tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and some chopped black forest ham with homemade ranch dressing.

[PRgal]

10 hours ago, isalicat said:

I did not know a Nicoise salad required anchovies...I thought there was just tuna (no other fish) and since I don't like anchovies at all, I'm glad I have never included them! (I love Nicoise salad and since I have salad pretty much every day for lunch, I have it at least once a month). Today was mixed greens with a lot of baby arugala. tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and some chopped black forest ham with homemade ranch dressing.

According to this page, it does.

[Anela]

My mistake with the McMuffin, was not using butter.  

[annzeepark914]

On 11/19/2024 at 11:47 AM, PRgal said:

According to this page, it does.

Some do, some don't. I had this salad in Portofino (where the waitress said, "We say nic-oh-see"...loved that 🤗). I do recall there was no anchovy in my salad, thank goodness.

[Bastet]

It can be made with either or both, but my understanding is anchovies came first, then tuna.  Said understanding is limited, though; I hate egg yolks, so the hard-boiled eggs don't do it for me.  I'll eat a niçoise if served to me (picking around the yolk to eat the white), but I don't make/order that salad.  (And if it's a version with potatoes, that's another thing I have to eat around.)  So I've never done a deep dive on the history.