What are you cooking?

[Rusty_Shackleford]

Cold and snowy tonight, making homemade chicken noodle soup.

 

[jaylach]

Cold and snowy tonight, making homemade chicken noodle soup.

Man, I haven't done chicken soup in ages. If given a choice I'd take chicken and dumplings but I also love soup. When I do soup I never add the noodles to the soup until ready to eat. If making a large batch I don't add noodles until I've thawed what I'm going to eat that day and add raw noodles to the soup and heat until the noodles are done. Just personal preference to keep the noodles from getting mushy. Whether noodles or pasts I'm a believer in al dente. If interested the term 'al dente', if literally translated from Italian means 'to the tooth'. This means tender but firm with some chew.

For tonight I don't know what I'm doing but it will probably include a rib eye steak. My normal football Sunday dinner is a rib eye and baked tater. Didn't realize I was out of baking taters so that is out although I could come up with something using baby taters. Another option is to cook the rib eye on the rare side of medium rare and thin slicing. Add some bell pepper, cheese and onion and I'd pretty much have a Philly cheese steak but would do as a wrap in an extra large flour tortilla. Except for onion rolls I keep for burgers, garlic bread and such I seldom have bread in the house.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

Man, I haven't done chicken soup in ages. If given a choice I'd take chicken and dumplings but I also love soup. When I do soup I never add the noodles to the soup until ready to eat. If making a large batch I don't add noodles until I've thawed what I'm going to eat that day and add raw noodles to the soup and heat until the noodles are done. Just personal preference to keep the noodles from getting mushy. Whether noodles or pasts I'm a believer in al dente. If interested the term 'al dente', if literally translated from Italian means 'to the tooth'. This means tender but firm with some chew.

For tonight I don't know what I'm doing but it will probably include a rib eye steak. My normal football Sunday dinner is a rib eye and baked tater. Didn't realize I was out of baking taters so that is out although I could come up with something using baby taters. Another option is to cook the rib eye on the rare side of medium rare and thin slicing. Add some bell pepper, cheese and onion and I'd pretty much have a Philly cheese steak but would do as a wrap in an extra large flour tortilla. Except for onion rolls I keep for burgers, garlic bread and such I seldom have bread in the house.

Onion rolls are da bomb!

The soup was pretty good. Warm and satisfying on a cold winter night. I'm with you, I added the noodles in the last 20 mins. Nice wide egg noodles.

 

[fishorama]

Chicken soup sounds great! I haven't made in a long while.

I made a big batch of spaghetti sauce for dinner & the freezer. My husband has been wanting it but no tomato paste or onions, so he made a special shopping trip today. Teamwork & some nagging, we've been married a long time (48 years!) At least he shops & helps now with retirement. Old dog, new tricks!

 

[jaylach]

I'm having a rib eye steak that I planned for Sunday's NFL games but just had leftovers instead. To go with will be green beans with red bell peppers. As to starch it will be baby taters pan fried with rosemary , garlic, salt and black pepper. I'll dress the taters with apple cider vinegar. Malt vinegar would be better bit I don't have any and apple cider vinegar still works. The tater thing with the vinegar is a throw back to an amusement park I used to visit as a kid but still love. They served a bunch of fries in a big paper cone that was heavy with salt and malt vinegar. Think salt and vinegar tater chips. LOL! They were greasy and limp but Just REALLY good stuff. Sigh, whether corned beef, or any other stew, no matter how many carrots you add there is never enough. I LOVE a good pot roast but the cooked down carrots are a big reason why.

These days vinegar has sort of become under rated. Even when I do corned beef and cabbage vinegar goes on the cabbage and taters. The acidity of the vinegar is just awesome on such stuff.

 

[fishorama]

We had husband's 1st try at stromboli this weekend (not pretty but tasty to me, he was disappointed). We had shredded beef burritos yesterday as a consolation for our sad Eagles football loss.
Tonight we're having a lentil/pumpkin/potato curry from a pouch on brown rice. No effort on my part beyond zapping while watching football. A spoon lick tasted pretty good, needs a bit of salt I think.

 

[fishorama]

We're having spaghetti sauce from the freezer with a salad. I think I may have discovered why husband didn't like his stromboli, he had bought spinach & baby kale thinking it was just spinach. Neither of us are big kale fans & I didn't notice or didn't get any in mine. We will see in salad...If there's some left when I get around to making chicken soup I may throw some in.

I braved the grocery store pre-holiday crowds today to get some non-turkey sale items: ham, celery, potatoes, ground beef, mandarin oranges & few others.

My husband's traditional Thanksgiving in all about Italian hoagies & football, lol. That started when I would travel to my mother's big holiday event & he stayed home so he didn't waste his limited vacation time. He hates all the usual foods & the pressure to visit both family sides in a very short stay. Weather is also apt to be ugly for a very long day's drive. Now we'd have to fly & that's been iffy for more than a few years. Plus, my mother died in 2018 so I don't get guilt tripped as much.

So, what is anyone in the US doing for Thanksgiving? I think Canada's was in Oct. Do other places have a similar holiday? How do you celebrate?

 

[jaylach]

Just doing simple and easy tonight; chicken tenders and fries. Both are pre-done and just throw in the oven. The kick is in the dipping. I'll have cat soup (ketchup) for the fries along with BBQ sauce and blue cheese dipping sauce for the chicken. LOL! I'm sure that I'll be doing cross dipping.

 

[fishorama]

We're having meat cakes, mashed potatoes, gravy & broccoli +/or spinach salad.

 

[jaylach]

We're having meat cakes, mashed potatoes, gravy & broccoli +/or spinach salad.

Could you describe "meat cakes"? Is it sort of like a crab cake but with meat instead of crab?

Tonight I'm cutting up a rib eye steak that was supposed to be for Sunday football. The cuts will be fried up with broccoli, pear onions in a Jamaican Jerk sauce tossed with egg noodles.

 

[fishorama]

Meat cakes were my MIL's thing. All her kids love them, but I was the 1 who asked how to make them. They're sort of like meatloaf, but denser & pan fried as patties. Garlic makes them different than my meatloaf & less bread crumbs, no milk, no veggies beyond fine chopped onion. & it must have brown beef flavored gravy mix & served with mashed potatoes. I make & freeze several when ground beef is cheap.

Here's a general recipe:
~1.5 lbs ground beef
1 egg
~1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup fresh bread crumbs, loosely packed (I use wheat, but any)
Garlic powder or garlic salt
black pepper (you can add more if needed)
I sometimes add a finely chopped jalapeno pepper for some zing.

Mix well w/fork. Shape into patties, freeze extras

Fry in a skillet, turn low to finish. Remove & make brown gravy mix with the yummy crud left in the pan.

This is nice for various amounts of people. 1 biggish or 2 smaller meat cakes per person but more than 2 you'll probably need more gravy, I sometimes use leftover pot roast gray for part. All measurements are approximate.

 

[fishorama]

I forgot to say were having Indian korma from a pouch, again. On brown rice, almost healthy while we watch football

 

[fishorama]

I forgot to say to cook meat cakes fairly low & covered.

We're having black bean salad with Fritos tonight. Since I made it only a couple hours ago, the jalapenos are still pretty hot. The lemon juice & balsamic vinegar calm them down a lot with longer chilling. My husband is less than happy, he's less picante tolerant than he used to be, I was the spicy hot wimp.

 

[gimme30]

I'm chowing down on a tasty buffalo triple cheeseburger as I type this and working on my second pot of coffee. It's not quite 4am but it's never too early for burgers!

Tonight I'll be getting into the venison stew that's been simmering away in the crockpot. Bambi is delicious!

 

[jaylach]

Good thing I did a movie marathon last night so I still have plenty of time as I didn't get up until around 2:00 PM today. I haven't done this in WAY too long.

Just put a casserole of caraway and salt spiced kielbasa and kraut with just a little yellow mustard in my oven at 250F Have to do this low and slow in my opinion. It will cook for 2 hours and then I'll test the kielbasa for being totally tender but will likely take a third hour. Will have as as a sandwich on a soft hoagie bun. Didn't make a large batch but enough for, probably, 3 servings. Totally LOVE this stuff and it is so super easy. The hardest part is slicing the kielbasa loop into small slices.