MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
10 January 2008
What's for dinner?→[More:]Debating between making some Indian food (chickpea-flour pancakes with some kind of yummy veggie curry, maybe some dal and coconut milk); or something with peanut sauce; or some kind of Vietnamese soupy/noodly thing.
I had roast chicken (I bit the bullet and spent £5.80 on a free-range corn-fed bird instead of the usual intensively-raised chicken, due to TV-chef-induced guilt) with salad and my beloved ranch dressing, followed by blueberries and Greek yoghurt.
I ate a big lunch, but I'm going to a pal's house to play cribbage after work, where she'll probably ply me with leftover birthday cake and Ferrero & Rocher candies.
Anybody have any quick cribbage advice? I've got no idea what I'm doing, and I'm totally going to get rooked here.
Every thursday we go to my mother-in-law's and every thursday it's penne with homemade tomato sauce, grilled chicken and rapine (rapini?). She's German and her husband (who always cooks this meal) is British, so who knows where this came from, but it's become a weekly thing. And I usually drink too much German beer. Enjoying one right now.
Cribbage advice for box: Don't allow your opponent to easily get a run. That is, don't play a 3 after they play a 5 ('cause then they can play a 4 and score 6 points!).
Think defensively, not just about racking up your own points. Think to yourself, "If I play this card, is there an obvious big-point card she can play? And judging by the other cards she's played, is she likely to have kept that card?"
Also, eat lots of free cake and chocolate and drink lots of beer.
Not dinner but i had fresh spinach with grape tomatoes and blue cheese with basalmic and oils, dash of this and that, with some whole grain cocktail crackery things with more blue cheese and english cucumber slices.
It was nice.
i have a variety of cheeses and the means to make interesting sauces and nothing to sauce, but yummy left overs from curry to salmon salad.
My mother being here has messed up all my meal plans (I am highly anal wrt grocery shopping and meal planning) so I don't know what we are doing tonight. I'm off to the gym now, anyway.
We'll probably pick up peruvian food from downstairs.
Sandwich and chips at work. Boring but free. My kitchen at home is currently disabled (I'm in the middle of a project) but fortunately my wife and I both get meals at work.
I have changed my mind (or made it up, I guess) and am making stuffed peppers. The stuffing will consist of rice, carrot, chickpeas, golden raisins, garlic, dill, allspice, parsley, almonds, and lemon. The sauce will consist of crushed tomatoes and onion and garlic and allspice.
A Greek pasta toss. . .some sort of pasta with fresh oregano, feta, kalamatas, capers, spinach, red onions, bell peppers, and whatever else I find in the fridge, with some olive oil and vinegar.
Roast tomatoes, red peppers and garlic
Leave to go cold (they're fine for a few days even at room temp)
Sauté an onion with as much of the roasted garlic as you want (use loads!)
Once the onion is soft, add tomato purée, dried chilli flakes and/or cayenne and some oregano; cook for a few minutes, stirring so nothing catches
Add all of your roasted veg and stir/mush together for a minute or so until the cold stuff heats up
Add chicken/veg stock and cook for, what, about 20/30 minutes?
Blend until smooth
If not just eating for yourself, sieve out all the pips/skin etc
Add some creme fraiche (or not if you want to cut down on calories)
Season
Freakin' lovely
Note: this is also good re-heated and, if you add some thickener (eg arrowroot) makes a nice sauce. Which is what I'm using the leftover for tomorrow night with some pasta and steamed broccoli.
I just ordered entirely too much food from the Chinese delivery place, because I'm starving, because I spent 30min. trying to order a regular amount of food from the Thai place, who didn't answer their phone and then let me spend too much time on their poorly designed website before telling me they no longer deliver here. Stupid Thai place.
I'm exhausted and hungry and I just want some comfort food that someone else has made, dammit.
Pancakes! Plus scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, and potatoes. Sounded good this afternoon, smelled good when I made them, don't feel so good now. Note to self - plate-sized pancakes are too big. Healthy eating doesn't start until Monday.
Awkward Pause and mullacc - that's where I got the pickled red onion and jalapeno recipe, but I did a different one for the fish part.
Not sure where I got it from anymore either -
1 lime Juiced
1 pound fresh tilapia
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon chile powder
1 1/2 teaspoon crushed dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon dried cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Canola oil for frying
8 7" corn or flour tortillas, wrapped in foil and kept warm in a 250 degree oven
2 cups green cabbage, shredded
Fresh cilantro
Quartered limes
Sliced avocado
Toss the fish in the fresh lime juice in a ziplock bag and marinate for at least 15-30 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the flour, cornmeal, chile powder, oregano, cumin and salt in a large, shallow bowl. Heat the vegetable oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high . Dredge the fish in the flour mixture and fry in batches until golden and cooked through, about 7 to 10 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towels and keep warm in the oven until ready to serve.
We used spinach instead of cabbage and it was really good. I'd change the spices a bit next time - I'd do a little more corn meal too.
Work dinner here. There was some confusion about the time of our reservation (understandable; we changed it at the last minute) so we sat around for so long having drinks and appetizers that my critical faculties were compromised and I can't report back about the food. Suffice it to say that I was sitting next to a very nice visitor from NH who knows an awful lot about SNMP, and an equally nice new employee from Bristol with some...bracing political perspectives.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
