What's for Dinner, Wed., Jan 21, 2015

[NJCher]

I made beef-tomato soup with tortellini and lots of herbs in it. Other vegetables, too. It's in the slow cooker.

Brrrr, cold here! Soup sounded good.


Cher

[cbayer]

1. Leftover albondigas soup. It was definitely worth the effort

and I am very glad I made double what I needed.

[Galileo126]

2. Fettucini aglio e olio con formaggio

Hit-tip to Pinto for getting this stuck in my brain yesterday.

For the cheese, it's percorino romano.

[pinto]

3. Good stuff, no? It's a staple go-to simple dish for me. Usually add lentils, but it worked as is.

[Galileo126]

6. Good stuff, indeed

Last time I made it, I added sun-dried tomatoes. The sweetness of the tomatoes balanced the saltiness of the cheese quite nicely.

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. The last of the Italian sausage and pasta.

Salad.

[pinto]

5. Jalapenos stuffed w/ cheese, wrapped in thick bacon. Rice and salsa.

Saw the stuffed jalapenos at the butcher counter in the market this morning, again. They carry them occasionally. Looked good and plump. So we'll see. Hard to go wrong with peppers, cheese and bacon...

[cbayer]

7. I like those with cream cheese.

[pinto]

10. These were cream cheese stuffed and killer.

Just turned & browned them in a skillet while the rice finished. Simply set the salsa to one side for a taste.

(aside) Seems to be risotto week. Have seen a few examples on my food channel marathons and some mentions here. Have never made it, so next on my list.

Might just take a stab at albondigas but I think I'll invite a Latina friend, a good cook, for some pointers. She's great at being lovingly direct. " No, no (my Spanish nickname). ¡Mira! "

[cbayer]

11. I usually do them in the oven, but the skillet is a great idea.

Definitely make risotto. It takes time, but it is so delicious. If you have your own chicken broth, that will be the best.

Sounds like fun to make soup with your friend, no, no!

[msanthrope]

8. Potato Leek Soup. Biscuits. nt

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

9. onion gravy with roundsteak in the crockpot.

But I got careless and put in too much stock, then tried to boil it down, and the round steak got tough.

[noamnety]

12. Continuing from last night ...

I made my grape pie, but the directions were annoying and it wasn't in me to follow them. Seriously, who has the patience to pop the skins off 4 1/2 cups of grapes? So instead of boiling the pulp, I boiled the whole grapes and had to add water, and then it took forever to cook and thicken. So tonight we'll actually eat it. This is the recipe I (mostly) followed: http://www.food.com/recipe/concord-grape-pie-3582

I'm also doing some pork ribs in the oven, and we have a salad of grapefruit, apples and avocados. I'm moving into my avocado phase now. Today I got a deal on them - 99 avocados for two dollars. I got some pureed and frozen, but it's an awfully big pile of them.

[cbayer]

13. Lol! When you said grape pie the other day, I wondered how in the world

you would deal with the skins.

If you still have them, think about making juice. I have started making juice out of everything and it is wonderful - cucumbers, pineapples, any kind of citrus.

But not avocados, lol. I love them and have found that once ripe, they will keep much longer if I put them in the refrigerator. Pureeing is a good idea - basically guacamole, right? I also love a cold avocado soup - basically just blend with chicken broth, cream and a serrano pepper, chill, then serve with cilantro and chopped tomatoes on top.

99 is a lot, though.

[noamnety]

14. The avocado soup sounds good.

and remember the wax beans? That box actually contained 50000 wax beans (give or take) plus one single random japapeno pepper that's still in my fridge. The soup sounds like a good use for it.