What's Cooking

[Cheese]

Thanks we used Lidia Bastianich's recipe for the Minestrone soup. We like her recipes because they're pretty straight forward and simple.

Well thanks for that info.   I've never heard of her before but she has 6 restaurants and 5 market places. I think I'll try one of her recipes for tonight.  [big grin]
https://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/

Also of interest, is she has a market in Chicago that may be interesting to visit.
https://www.eataly.com/us_en/stores/chicago/

My favorite non-celebrity Italian chef is Giuliano Bugialli and one of my favorite cook books is "Bugialli on Pasta". Two of his recipes that are a staple are "Sweet & Sour Carrots" and "Chicken with Black Olives".
http://www.tantemarie.com/blog/chef-giuliano-bugialli/

 

[GoingMyWay]

Lidia has also had several tv shows on PBS. That's how we came to know about her and also where we specifically got her recipe for the minestrone and the octopus and spaghetti that I posted a while back. I noticed that the recipe for minestrone soup online was a little different than how she made it on the tv show. The beauty of her recipes is that they're really easy and don't require very specific measurements. Handful of this, spoonful of that.

Is Lidia also involved with Eataly?  I thought that was a partnership between her son, Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali.

We might check out Eataly as we're currently in Chicago. We're heading to Chinatown today.

 

[Cheese]

We might check out Eataly as we're currently in Chicago. We're heading to Chinatown today.

If you do check out Eataly, let us know what you think. [smile]

 

[six-point socket II]

Afternoon, plum pie.

Evening, BBQ.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[Tinker]

[member=61712]six-point socket II[/member] and [member=66216]GoingMyWay[/member] I have just been torturing--- Er! showing --- my wife some of your dishes. She is from Germany and she was going crazy over some of your offerings. I have been with her to visit her family south of Stuttgart several times. We have never gotten a bad meal anywhere in Germany. I think I gain 10 pounds everytime I have visited. Thanks for showing so many enjoyable meals.
Tinker
PS She just visited our German Deli today and we are having Weiswurst for dinner. Definitely not in the same class as some of the meals you  have shown, but my wife gets excited anytime she brings home any of those sausages that remind her of her previous home

 

[Jesse Cloud]

.....
My favorite non-celebrity Italian chef is Giuliano Bugialli and one of my favorite cook books is "Bugialli on Pasta". Two of his recipes that are a staple are "Sweet & Sour Carrots" and "Chicken with Black Olives".
http://www.tantemarie.com/blog/chef-giuliano-bugialli/

I have a Giuliano Bugialli story.  I took a class back in the 90's from a guy who was close friends with Bugialli.  He would meet Bugialli whenever the chef came to D.C. and get him whatever materials he needed for classes, etc.  He also took him to restaurants in the area.  I asked which Italian restaurant Bugialli liked best.  His answer "He hates all American Italian restaurants.  All his favorite U.S. restaurants serve Chinese food."

I really enjoy Bugialli, too.  Have cooked many of his recipes.

 

[six-point socket II]

[member=61712]six-point socket II[/member] and [member=66216]GoingMyWay[/member] I have just been torturing--- Er! showing --- my wife some of your dishes. She is from Germany and she was going crazy over some of your offerings. I have been with her to visit her family south of Stuttgart several times. We have never gotten a bad meal anywhere in Germany. I think I gain 10 pounds everytime I have visited. Thanks for showing so many enjoyable meals.
Tinker
PS She just visited our German Deli today and we are having Weiswurst for dinner. Definitely not in the same class as some of the meals you  have shown, but my wife gets excited anytime she brings home any of those sausages that remind her of her previous home

Hey Tinker,

that's great! Oh, and while I'm not from southern Germany, I still love me a good Weisswurst.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[GoingMyWay]

If you do check out Eataly, let us know what you think. [smile]

Eataly was quite good.  We got a dozen oysters (even though I had mentioned earlier about being a little scared about getting sick from raw oysters.  Usually I seem to care less when I'm on vacation - you know, when in Rome do as the Romans do.)  The oysters weren't that great - I found a lot of larger than normal pieces of shell inside.  We also got the Octopus, which was exceptionally tender.  We shared the Squid Ink Tagliatelle.  The pasta was perfectly cooked and tasted great.  The overall meal was over $100 with a glass of white wine, but that seemed to be pretty much par for the course for our dinners in Chicago.

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Eataly also had the largest selection of Italian items that I have ever seen.  Literally everything in the 2 level store.

 

[GoingMyWay]

I'm a bit behind in posting dinner pictures.

Last Sunday we made kind of our own teppenyaki at home with some american style wagyu that I bought at the local asian supermarket.

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Last Monday we made pork chops with sauerkraut and instant mashed potatoes.

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Last Thursday we made wonton noodle soup.  We were actually using frozen broth and frozen wontons from when he had made it fresh back in May.

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We still had leftover wonton noodles so my wife made stir fried noodles with chicken on Friday.

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On Monday we made Okoyonomiyaki.

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Last night we made Chicken Kabsa using Martha Stewart's recipe.  I had never heard of the dish before I saw it Martha Stewart's cooking school, but evidently it's the national dish of Saudi Arabia.

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[GoingMyWay]

I may have tried to attach a few too many images in the last post - it looks like the last 6 images didn't make it.

I added the missing images to this post:

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[GoingMyWay]

Last night we made lo mein with baby octopus.  I would have preferred beef, but we had leftover baby octopus from the okonomiyaki so we used it up.

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[GoingMyWay]

Chicken and dumplings for dinner tonight.

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[Cheese]

That’s interesting, after having some shavings from the now infamous mystery block fall into last nights lamb chops, I feel both dazed and confused, albeit not in the same way that it affected Led Zep.

What first caught my eye was the Trinity, yet it was not the traditional Trinity that we think about. It appeared to be onion, carrots and celery as opposed to onion, peppers and celery. Is that a local twist?

The dumplings look great, my grandmother made some of the best. Her mashed potatoes (RIP Nora) were like eating cement but her dumplings were delicious.

That’s some great looking thigh meat. It makes me want to take a break from the chicken breast syndrome.

 

[GoingMyWay]

I read the other post about that mystery block. It sure looked like graphite and appeared to be used as a lubricant to me, but I don't know much about these type of things.

I believe the "trinity" is regional. In cajun country it's usually onions, celery, and green pepper. Traditionally (at least in classic French cuisine) I believe the mirepoix is carrots, onions, and celery. There's also a similar Italian soffrito.

The dumplings are more like drop biscuits. I have seen other variations of chicken and dumplings where the dumplings are more like extra wide/thick noodles.

The thighs were pretty good. I was just commenting to my wife today that I really don't like chicken legs or thighs that much. I most prefer wings, but eaten as wings on the bone of course. I also like breast meat.

 

[Cheese]

You’re right...I forgot about the soffrito.  [tongue]

The thighs do look good and I need to expand a bit as chicken breasts in our household are like gold bullion (according to my wife), while chicken thighs are considered more like Bitcoin.

A thought...Maybe some pizza with lots of cheeses and some chicken thigh meat may confuse the princess.  [big grin]

 

[GoingMyWay]

We made chili for dinner.

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[GoingMyWay]

I used some of the leftover chili to make chili mac for lunch.

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[GoingMyWay]

Last night we made a corned beef and cabbage casserole with some cheddar cheese biscuits.

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[semenza]

That's a cool way to get the cheese into the biscuits!

Seth

 

[GoingMyWay]

Yup I saw it in a YouTube video - same video where I got the recipe for the casserole.  It is such a simple way to get the cheese in there - just cut a cross and insert a couple of pieces of cheese.