What are you cooking?

[jaylach]

Tonight looks like a meatball Calzone with bell peppers, onion and an Italian cheese blend of shaved Parmesan, Romano and Asiago also may add some Mozzarella. I'll use raw bell pepper and onion as I like the bit of crisp left in the veggies in contrast to the tenderness of the meatballs. Might even chop up a bit of broccoli to add. Broccoli is actually a really good pizza topping and a Calzone is really nothing more than a folded over pizza. If I had any I'd probably also add some feta cheese which is also very good on pizza.

 

[jaylach]

Yesterday's meatball calzone was great but then I love anything meatball. I think I'm getting better as to visual presentation. I did it seam side down and, as they say, we eat first with our eyes. It would not bother me at all to get this served in a restaurant. I think next time I may make the vent slots lengthwise instead of how they are in the image. The problem with how they are in the image is that they make it a bit hard to pick up as it wanted to break along the slots. Lengthwise slits should give more stability while still serving the same purpose. I've done a lot of cooking but calzones are still a bit new for me. I think I'm getting there and will do seam side down from now on. Really it is just a meatball sub with pizza dough as the bread. My only gripe was that I forgot to add sliced black olives. I did leave out the broccoli.

Tonight will be a 9 ounce pork tenderloin. I know I'll also have left over Brussels Sprouts but not sure as to what type of tater.

Tomorrow, for football, will either be a rib eye steak and baked tater or BBQ chicken wings. A couple weeks ago I did both with just a veggie.

 

[jaylach]

Well my plans on what I was going to do this evening with the pork tenderloin totally changed. It has turned into a sort of pork pot roast but in a pan on the stove. Included are tomato, Brussels sprouts, shrooms and cheese ravioli along with a bunch of spices, mostly Italian. And, yes, the ravioli are a frozen cheese filled brand. I often add frozen to what I'm cooking as that allows the pasta shell to take in flavor as they cook. Here is what I have going... I guarantee this is going to be good stuff.

 

[fishorama]

Thurs we had bar burgers to watch our Eagles lose. Leftover chicken stir fry yesterday. Today husband wanted Jersey Mike's Italian sub for lunch. I went with a cheese steak, not as good as our regular place even with added mushrooms. Chickpea "falafel" salad for dinner.

 

[jaylach]

I'd appreciate an opinion. I often look for new food combinations to try and am thinking about one.

Most like a club sandwich with chicken, ham and bacon. How about a hot club with a burger patty, chicken cutlet and bacon with cheese on a big onion roll with onion and shrooms? The cheese would probably be Swiss.

 

[gwand]

A good club sandwich IMHO is one where you can taste each individual ingredient yet there is still a merging of flavors into something distinctive. If you go with bacon I would leave out either the chicken or the ham.

 

[jaylach]

A good club sandwich IMHO is one where you can taste each individual ingredient yet there is still a merging of flavors into something distinctive. If you go with bacon I would leave out either the chicken or the ham.

I just said ham as an example of the 'classic'. If I do this it would be a lean burger, breaded chicken cutlet and bacon.

<edit>
I guess it is happening as taters are cooking... have to have taters if anything burger is involved. Rib eye ground burger is thawed and ready to go when the taters are close. Breaded chicken cutlet is also thawed and will go in the pan the same time as the burger.

One issue is the sauce. If just burger and bacon I'd use mustard. If chicken and bacon I'd use mayo. LOL! I'm using both.

I'll follow up on how it is but I really can't see it being bad.

 

[jaylach]

My experiment with a hot club using a rig eye burger, breaded chicken cutlet and bacon was really quite good but needed more bacon as I just used one slice cut in half. I'll probably d again but with two bacon slices as it was kind of lost with one slice.

 

[fishorama]

When I do BLTs I want wall to wall bacon & tomato. While I think your dinner sounds good, I tend to like less mixed meats. Just me.

We're trying a Rao frozen pepperoni pizza tonight. I've heard good things Rao pasta sauce so I'm hopeful...& lazy.

 

[jaylach]

When I do BLTs I want wall to wall bacon & tomato. While I think your dinner sounds good, I tend to like less mixed meats. Just me.

We're trying a Rao frozen pepperoni pizza tonight. I've heard good things Rao pasta sauce so I'm hopeful...& lazy.

LOL! I seldom do a BLT but DO do BT. I just don't normally do the lettuce. If I do do green on the thing it is normally spinach. Yet I totally agree as to a lot of bacon and tomato. I tend to like to use Roma tomato as it is more 'meaty' with less water to make things sloppy. I also tend to do heavy mayo and pepper.

If by Rao you mean the same I've experienced I can't say that I really liked the sauce. I've never had their pizza but have tried, once, their pasta and sauce. The pasta was not bad but not worth the price in my opinion. In my opinion the sauce was not all that good but then I normally do my own sauce so may be biased. To me their sauce seemed a bit bitter as if they don't add sugar. From my experience any tomato based sauce needs sugar.

Tomatoes are quite acidic and sugar tends to help cut the acidity. Sugar is really neutral as to PH to lessen the tomato acidity but, under heat, sugar seems to become a mild base that still helps to denture the tomato acidity.

 

[fishorama]

Well, the Rao pizza was disappointing. Crust was doughy in the middle even though I baked it on the oven rack for maximum time. I prefer thin crust. Sauce & pepperoni were ok but the heavy herb bits were a bit too much of some I don't normally use.

I don't do lettuce on bacon & tomato sandwiches either, lol. No mayo just some salt. Wheat toast preferred. When we grew our own tomatoes, I ate them 2-3 times/day. Often with cottage cheese or cream cheese & crackers It took a while to realize I was allergic to tomato. I thought it was acne from the bacon so I did plain tomato sandwiches & it was worse. Not acne, itchy hives!! I'm careful now but still eat tomato, I often take a Benadryl.

Tomatoes used to be more acidic than most are now. I remember being weirded out a friend's family put sugar in chili & spaghetti sauce. According to an aunt, they don't can the same way either.

Another tomato thing, I don't like yellow, brown, striped, etc. tomatoes. I can't tell when they are perfect ripeness, & to me, they don't taste as good.

 

[jaylach]

Having something tonight that I've not done in like since the 1990's.

Take a boneless chicken breast and cut into bite size chunks. Cook in a wok at fairly high heat until well seared but not totally cooked. Push the chicken up the sides of the wok; a good wok will hold it in place. Unfortunately I don't currently have a true wok so will be using a sort of flat bottom skillet with rounded sides.

Anyway, while the chicken is searing cook some egg noodles most of the way but, again, not totally done. When the chicken is put up the sides of the pan add a touch of olive oil, shrooms, diced tomatoes broccoli and/or peas and a lot of basil to the middle of the pan/wok. When at a hard simmer bring back in the chicken and add the egg noodles. Cook, tossing pretty constantly, on pretty high heat, until just the edges of the egg noodles start to brown.

Of course the combination of meat and veggie stuff is going to be good but the kick is the edge browning of the egg noodles as it adds another layer of texture. Good stuff!

<edit>
Oops! Add the noodles before all the other stuff to brown the edges. Also, since I don't have a true wok, I'll remove the partially cooked chicken to a plate and add back from the plate. Other spices can be added to taste. Of course ground black pepper is a must along with garlic, .Rosemary and thyme are also good in this but, if Rosemary is used, go lite on it as it can overpower other flavors. Also, with Rosemary, I would suggest ground instead of whole. Whole Rosemary just takes too long to break down and soften for the pretty short cooking time for this dish. Whole Rosemary, to me, is more for stews, roasts and, for me, sketti sauce.

Thinking Rosemary, if anyone is interested I'll throw out a basic vodka and Rosemary low and slow cooked brisket. This would also include tomato. Hey, if vodka and tomato had a baby it would be a Bloody Mary. They just seem to always blend well together.

 

[jaylach]

Just having sketti and meatballs tonight although I may keep the meatballs for a calzone and do Chicken Parmesan instead.

Would not have bothered posting the above but it made me think of something from when I was a kid... say 10-12 years old.. Even then I would bust restaurants as I was already cooking and would challenge a restaurant's menu. One evening my granddad took my family out to an Italian place and I got sketti and meatballs. I asked the waitress if the meatballs were made in-house fresh or frozen. She assured me that they were never frozen. When I got my plate I returned it to the kitchen as the meatballs were still partially frozen.

Another time when I was ~15 my granddad , again, took us to dinner. I got northern pike and was assured that it was fully de-boned. Sigh, it took me a while to get out the bone that was stuck in the back of my mouth. This one didn't bug me as much as the frozen meatball as pike have a secondary 'free floating', very fine, set of rib bones that are totally a pain to fully remove and anyone can make a mistake. With the still frozen meatball I was lied to by the waitress and that is totally wrong.

Ya, I could be a pain in a place but I'm the customer; give me what you say you are giving.

Soooo, if you have ever busted a restaurant, what was it about? I'm hoping to see some interesting stories.

 

[jaylach]

Tonight will just be a bacon cheeseburger with fried up taters wedges.

I ordered, in the soon to be delivered grocery order, both whole and ground rosemary. I just love tater wedges with rosemary.

Have a local grocery order coming as a delivery a bit later which will include all the stuff I need to make a batch of burritos. The wraps are an 8-pack that works out great for my rice and chicken burrito mix but I think I may make a couple less for freezing and use the extra wraps for other stuff. . A couple of chicken tender wraps sounds pretty good.

 

[jaylach]

LOL! Back to a bacon cheeseburger tonight. I just love the Omaha Steaks' ground rib eye burgers! They are like having a steak sandwich that just happens to be ground. At 6 ounces they are large enough to stand up to all the other stuff I put on such as grilled onion, cheese, bacon and mustard. I DO use ketchup but as a puddle on the side for the taters and an occasional dip with the burger. I like ketchup on a burger but not every bite so I dip edges.

The taters will be baby reds cut in thirds. They will be pan fried with salt, a lot of pepper, a little garlic powder and a dose of rosemary. Right now the tater wedges are sitting in a bowl of salt water. The salt water bath draws out some of the starch resulting in a more crispy tater. Not as crispy as double frying but crispier than not soaking. I MAY even add some bell pepper and onion to make home fries but I doubt that I will as home fries are more, to me, a side for steak and eggs.

Along with the lack of "wet BBQ ribs" I experienced in Florida and Texas I missed what I consider proper home fries. For me home fries are sliced taters pan fried with onion, bell peppers and spices. The same for potato salad. The first time I had potato salad in Texas I didn't really understand. It was basically mashed taters with some other stuff thrown in. For me, tater salad needs decent chunks of the tater that are still firm. I want texture, not paste.

LOL! OK, tater rant over. It is really just a matter of how things are regional.