What's for Dinner, Sun., Mar. 29, 2015

[NJCher]

Italian sausage, ravioli, and tomato sauce. I will put this in the oven on a slow (250) temp. It's so delicious when it's slow-cooked. On top, mozzarella. Out of parmesan, unfortunately.

Tossed salad with this dressing from Todd Wilkins' copycat recipe. Can't recall the name at the moment, but will post it when I find it. It's a vinaigrette.




I really get a kick out of this guy's books.



Cher

[fizzgig]

1. i have to do some grocery shopping

it's been nothing but takeout and convenience foods for a week. i'm still trying to climb out of my funk.

[hippywife]

7. Totally understand, Fizz.

It's very hard to be motivated to do any creative cooking when you're in a funk. Sending feel better wishes your way.

[fizzgig]

15. thank you

this has been a terrible month and i'm just plodding along. i got to the store and found that i couldn't deal with a full trip, so i just got coffee and beer. we'll scrounge tonight and there's stuff in the freezer i can pull out for tomorrow.

i'll try a real shopping trip again in a few days.

it is great to see you back, by the way

[hippywife]

16. Thanks, doll.

Again, I totally get it. Everything you said. Really good to see you, too.

[MerryBlooms]

2. Honey-Dijon chicken w/rice

I made up a batch of this Cheesy-Bacon-Jalapeno-Corn dip for my husband to nosh on throughout the day... lol, he's so happy. It really is the little things that matter.

[Galileo126]

3. 1/2-rack of baby backs

with a spicy BBQ sauce. I made a classic spud salad this morning, and I have some cole slaw leftover. Also, some leftover roasted Brussels sprouts.

Currently making some chix stock from a whole chicken I just butchered. Using the spine, neck and other unmentionables.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

4. za. neither of us was up to much work

with everything else we're trying to get done in the next week or so.

I'm still a bit 'meh' on the new foster beagle mix, but the housemate thinks it will settle down some and quit attacking our current senior beagle, so she's for keeping it at this point. It's not housebroken yet at 1-2 years of age, and I'm suspecting it was previously an outdoor dog. It's got one more week with us before we decide whether we keep it or take it back to the vet for them to keep trying to find it a forever home.

[cbayer]

9. I hope for the dog's sake that things work out, but

I hope for your sake you will carefully weigh what you've got on your hands before making the decision.

Not housebroken would be a deal breaker for me.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

12. Well, our prior male never did get fully housebroken, in his entire 13 years.

He was MOSTLY there after he hit 2 or so, but every blue moon, if he couldn't wake me up to hold open the doggie door, I'd wake up to a nasty surprise. He'd fetch, but if he had to go, he had to go, whether or not he could get a human to let him out. (He stopped letting himself out at roughly that 2 years old, when the electronic doggie door we had at the time malfunctioned and shut on his back. Ever after, he made a human come let him outside.) The new dog learned how to use the doggie door watching the older dog the first day, and after 3-4 days seems to have mostly figured out to go outside, again from watching the older dog.

[cbayer]

13. I had one of those and much as i loved him, it was hell.

Once my kids grew up and left and it was just me, it got much worse because I wasn't there to let him out. Doggie door was not an option because he was a runner.

I don't think I will ever have a dog again unless I can live in a place where the dog can freely get in and out and roam as s/he pleases. It could happen, but I'm not counting on it.

I know you lost your other dog this year, and I truly hope this works out for you.

[greatauntoftriplets]

5. Spareribs.

Leftover Brussel sprouts.

[Phentex]

6. Spouse is grilling a chicken...

this could take a while!

Green beans and don't know what else yet.

[cbayer]

8. Leftover pot roast and root vegetables and a cucumber/olive/almond salad.

Slow sunday around here.

Enjoy your raviolis and sausage.

[hippywife]

10. Oven Roasted Chicken Shawarma

from a NYTimes recipe. First time making it and I recommend it. Served in whole wheat pita and topped with homemade zatziki, fresh veggies, sliced olives and crumbled feta.

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017161-oven-roasted-chicken-shawarma

I did change it up just a little. Those of you who know me, know I usually do change up most recipes.

First, I had to use the bone in chicken thighs that were on sale this week, rather than boneless, skinless. I really wanted more of the marinade to have contact with more of the meat. So when skinning and deboning, I went ahead and cut the meat into strips before adding to the marinade this morning rather than after roasting. I also didn't remove it from the marinade. Since there wasn't really all that much marinade to meat, I just dumped it all on the sheet pan, spread it out good and put it in the oven that way so it would be moist, juicy and saucy. Also cut the onions horizontal and then cut the slices in half again since the cooking time on the smaller pieces of meat would be shorter.

The recipe says 4-6 servings, but since there were no sides, our servings were two half pitas each, so it really comes out to about 3 servings that size. If fixing for two or more people with normal appetites, I would adjust up accordingly.

Everyone else's dinners sound pretty dang good, too. Bon appetit, y'all!

It's also been husband approved as a keeper recipe (He's having a procedure Tuesday morning and is allowed no solid food at all tomorrow, so wanted to fix him something super yummy tonight. Will try to eat something cold myself for dinner tonight rather than heat the leftovers and create yummy smells to make him miserable.)

[japple]

11. Leftovers. I cleared some stuff out the of the freezer--a few servings of pot roast,

a few slices of grilled pork loin. Roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli, sauteed squash. We ate the first harvest of asparagus for this year, picked during the past week. Unfortunately, we had a hard freeze last night and the few spears that came up yesterday were frozen and limp. We each got about 2 spears!

Also needed to use up some milk, so I made a chocolate and a vanilla pudding. It was Jello pudding cooked on the stovetop, cooled, then poured in a dish--vanilla on one end, chocolate on the other, with vanilla wafers all around. I did make whipped cream for the top. This is a huge favorite with the kiddies in my family.

[hobbit709]

14. Grilled pork loin sandwiches with ciabatta bread buns.