What's For DINNER Tonight?

[vickie gee]

Re-arranged the two freezers a couple of days of ago so I could tell what was on hand. Last night was parmesan crusted baked tilapia, buttered corn on the cob, garden salad, and a relish dish of jalapeno stuffed olives, pickled green tomatoes, and pickle strips.

Night before grilled chicken drummies outdoors. Part had barb-b-que sauce and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper as a marinade. Part had a marinade of honey, o.j. lime juice, ginger, and garlic. It was 99 degrees in the shade but worth the swelter as these turned out pretty dang tasty. Created a red cabbage slaw with some apple, onion, and pickle relish in it. Poured a light dressing over made up of evoo, red wine vinegar, and honey.

Both evenings topped off with my new addiction of tiramisu gelato.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

This is the Vietnamese chicken curry I made on the weekend , it is the perfect kind of dish to be eating here at the moment with the weather the way it is.

Was quite an easy dish to make , though I did add a little extra coconut cream before serving as I added a little bit too much chili ( for my liking ) and it seemed to do the trick.

I topped it with fresh mint, Vietnamese mint and coriander.

Ill bring the recipe in from home and add it to the chicken recipes section.

I also made (but forgot to take photos) Banana and coconut bread and also a lemon and lime sour cream slice.

Vickie you must be a great cook, I haven't even had breakfast yet and after reading your last two posts , my mouth is watering.

 

[vickie gee]

That looks and sounds great Ryan. I am a decent cook. Number 1 reason being I really enjoy eating, number 2 reason is I choose to eat healthy most of the time and number 3 reason is that I hate to see food wasted. Tonight was the exception in that the only thing I made was beef tacos that we washed down with a couple of brewskis each. Oh, well, we have both been working hard and Mondays are my husband's Fridays so it feels like we deserved to chill.

I need to start experimenting with curry. I used to think I dis-liked it but actually now believe an overseasoned dish at a Vietnamese restaurant may have disillusioned me. Right now in the pantry I have unopened red curry paste, hot chili sesame oil, fish sauce, and canned coconut milk sitting in a basket waiting on me to hunt down the recipes that caused me to buy them in the first place.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Haven't felt like cooking anything the last few nights, needing to food shop could have been one of the reasons too.

Last night we had Spinach and fetta sausages and steamed vegies ( sweet potato, zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower)

Followed by some salted caramel Icecream

 

[chandab]

Spaghetti tonight.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Been living off homemade chicken and Vegie soup the last few days, will finish the last of it tonight.

Im not sure if any of you are chocolate fans ? One brand here " Cadbury " has released a range called " marvellous creations"

its like a mixture/ combo of ingredients and the latest creation is called " jammy doughnut " For my own sake Im hoping its only a limited edition , I seem to have eaten a block per night for the last few nights....

Its pretty good though if you like the occasional Jam Doughnut

 

[vickie gee]

I made lasagna last night...using wheat lasagna noodles with lots of ricotta in the middle and lots of mozzarella on top.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Last night was Salt and pepper Calamari , baked sweet potato and salad.

The night before was Butternut pumpkin Risotto W/ fetta & rocket.

Does anyone have any tips on a good crumb.?? Mine never seems to stick to the calamari. Now currently I just use bread crumbs and Lemon pepper.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated

 

[vickie gee]

Ryan,

I have some frozen calamari in the freezer right now. I have never cooked any although I often order it as an appetizer at restaurants. The directions say fry in 3 " oil at 350 degrees. The batter is 2 cups all purpose flour, 3 T dried parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. I says roll small batches in the mixture and fry for 1 minute per batch.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Excellent Ill try that batter next time, Thankyou

That's how I cooked mine. The more you cook it the tougher it will be.

let me know how your batch turns out

 

[chandab]

Crockpot beef and noodles tonight, ok so only the meat and sauce/gravy is cooked in the crocked pot, the noodles and veggie are heated on the stove. Love this dish, basically just brown round steak and cream of mushroom soup cooked in the crock pot, then served over noodles.

 

[vickie gee]

Last night was chicken and dumplings with a garden salad as a side. I used those frozen flat dumplings. It was ok. The juice was really good, but honestly-I need to learn to make the home made kind like Ma and Grandma and Ma-in-Law make. Putting that on my to do list...#4007 LEARN TO MAKE REALLY GOOD HOME COOKIN DUMPLINGS.

 

[chandab]

My MIL has a recipe for really good dumplings, at least everyone here likes them, they are a bit of a heavy dumpling (want to say the recipe is just flour and eggs, but would have to look). There is a recipe for dumplings on the Bisquick box, they aren't too bad, and fluffier than the homemade ones.

 

[chandab]

If you want the dumpling recipe, let me know, and I'll grab it (if I can find it, I think I know where it is).

 

[Ryan Johnson]

I would love the dumpling Recipe if that's ok

Ok , couple of things I made on the weekend for meals.

One was curried Sausages that I make with really thick Coconut cream. Used different sausdages this time as they were on special "Pork and fennel". Onion , carrot, Zucchini & beans go into the mix and then served on Jasmine Rice

The second was called "Tangy Chicken" one I did in the slow cooker. This one was cooked in tomatoes, marmalade, orange juice, lemon and orange zest. Dried herbs of basil, oregano, Thyme and the last of the fresh thyme I had left in the garden. This was really nice, ill definitely be making that again.

I love making these kinds of meals in the winter mostly because its too cold to eat anything else and the other reason, im trying to stock up the freezer for summer when I just cant be bothered cooking.

Left over Curried Sausages with mash tonight

 

[chandab]

Ryan, gone all day, and it's late, but wanted to get this done before I forgot.

Here's what my MIL wrote on the recipe card she gave me.

Drop Hard Dumplings:

2 cups flour

6 eggs

salt if you want

Stir together - drop into boiling juice (beef, chicken canned soups or boullian). First put spoon into boiling liquid, then put it in flour egg mixture, then mixture will come off of spoon quicker. Boil with lid on kettle 20 min or until done.

 

[chandab]

Forgot to mention, I usually end up making a huge mess when I make dumplings, cause my kettle isn't quite big enough for all the broth and dumplings; I need to get a bigger kettle, cause the dumplings are too good to make a smaller batch.

 

[chandab]

Ok, Ryan, when are you going to try some dumplings? And, I hope you like the recipe, we all do, but then I have very simple tastes.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Ill try making them this week at some stage. And Im looking forward to trying them

Im working later this week each night as im in the office by myself so had prepared ahead, by having plenty of left overs in the freezer that I can use this week.

I got some fresh eggs off a friend that I have put aside that ill be able to use in the dumplings.

I made a lovely leg of Lamb for dinner Saturday night with roast Vegies. I had stuffed the lamb with Garlic, rosemary and a lamb herb rub. Cooked the leg for 3 hours on really low heat. Got to the dinner table to serve and realised I had no mint sauce, so I made my own

 

[chandab]

We always seem to do chicken and dumplings, so not sure how they would be with a different type of meat or even just veggies (we don't go meatless around here for meals).