Claudia made two kinds of lasagna this week for Sunday Dinner. The first was Italian Sausage in red sauce. The second was mixed vegetables in white sauce. Both were delicious.
She also made a nice mixed greens salad and baked some garlic bread to go along. Grammy brought hot fudge pudding for dessert. Wine was Miriam Alexandra Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa County.
It was especially nice to have my son James with us this weekend. He’s marvelous company. 🙂
This week we made chicken and white bean chili for Sunday Dinner.
The recipe came from a co-worker of mine nearly thirty years ago. It was based on a popular menu item from Cody’s Roadhouse in Mattoon, Illinois. I’ve adapted it a bit over the years. My version includes 6 cans of Great Northern beans, 4 cups of chicken stock, some grilled chicken strips, two cans of green chilis, four cloves of garlic, a rough chopped onion, 2 teaspoons of cumin, a teaspoon of oregano, salt, cayenne and white pepper to taste. We serve it with grated Jack cheese and a dollop of sour cream.
I also made Ro*Tel® Queso Dip, and Cowboy Caviar. Dessert was a mixed berry pie à la Mode. The wine was an excellent D. H. Elliott Petite Sirah.
I love meals like this as the weather turns colder.
This week we had Kentucky Hot Brown sandwiches for Sunday Dinner.
It’s been several years since we made these. Aldi’s had a decent price on turkey breasts, so the meal suggested itself, even though it’s not Derby weekend. It was a nasty rainy day here in the Chicago Southland, which prompted us to cook inside for a change. The turkey was done after about an hour and a half in the Nesco roaster at 325 °F. I used white Cheddar in the sauce this time, and I think that was an improvement. We roasted some mini peppers in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper. Claudia made Green Goddess dressing for a mixed greens salad, and also baked a Jewish Apple Cake with fresh whipped cream for dessert.
Wine was a delicious Evangelos Bagias Zinfandel from Lodi. I also snuck in a couple of Jim Beam Old Fashioneds, because Kentucky.
If you’re a fan of food history, here’s the story of the Hot Brown, from the hotel that gave the sandwich its name. They have a pretty decent recipe too, of course. 🙂
This week we tried our hand at an updated version of Chicken Cordon Bleu.
I used the RecipeTin Eats instructions, and they turned out beautiful. These cuts were a little large, so they took some additional time in the oven. Otherwise, I followed the “super easy method” to the letter. The mustard sauce was especially good.
Claudia made mashed potatoes and salad for sides, and I baked a green bean casserole. Wine was a Coloma Zinfandel.
Claudia made one of our favorite dishes for Sunday Dinner this week.
Aunt Pat is back with us from her trip out west, and we also were happy to have our son, James, visiting this weekend. Claudia made Fettuccini Alfredo, with marinated artichokes, roasted red peppers, tomatoes and chilis. It’s been a family favorite for years. She also cooked broccoli with garlic butter, and made a beautiful green salad.
We started with some antipasti (cheeses, salami, olives, etc.). The wine was Jacqueline Bahue’s delicious Sauvignon Blanc. Aunt Pat provided dessert, a lovely lemon pie from Baker’s Square.
Recipe for the pasta dish to come, if I can talk Claudia into it. 🙂
We roasted another chicken on the Weber Kettle rotisserie this week.
This was about a six pound bird. I dry brined it, seasoning with course salt and black pepper Saturday night. Sunday morning I also hit it with garlic powder, onion powder, Herbs de Provence and a little MSG. Hickory chunks added the fire spice. Since it was largish, it took about an hour and a half to get the temp up to 165 °F in the center of the breast. I also par cooked three pounds of potatoes in the microwave for about ten minutes before putting them in the drip pan. There’s really nothing like potatoes that have roasted with chicken drippings.
Claudia made a nice salad and cooked some fresh green beans. We also had radishes and cornichons. The wine was a deliciously bracing Bokisch Andrus Vineyard Albariño from Lodi.
Claudia also baked cupcakes for dessert.
Every now and then I get a craving for corn relish. It doesn’t happen often, but it happened last weekend. I looked around the condiments, pickles and salsas in three different grocery stores and wasn’t able to find any. So I decided to make it myself.
It wasn’t that difficult. The canning jar that I used was big enough for a double batch, so when it was safely in the fridge, it occurred to me that we could have it for a side dish at this week’s Sunday Dinner. Then the question became what to do for a main.
Pork burgers came to mind, and my memory went wandering back to the first time I ever ate them as a child. I can still vividly remember the smell of the charcoal, and that first amazing umami bomb bite. It’s my first memory of charcoal grilled food, and I remember it being the most delicious thing I had ever tasted at the time.
The way I remembered it, my brother-in-law, Berwyn, had grilled them, and he had used a special seasoning from the Illinois Pork Producers Association. This was fifty years or so ago, though, so I wasn’t sure. After researching online to no avail, I fired off an email to my sister, which began “This may sound crazy…”
Turns out that the memory was correct, and that their family still uses the spice to this day. Vicki was able to give me an Amazon link, and even went so far as to contact the Pork Producers to find out if it was the same spice recipe as the one made in the 1960s. They said that it is. It’s made by the folks from Custom Culinary in Oswego, Illinois.
So I was all set to relive the taste this weekend, except that the shipment of the seasoning wouldn’t arrive in time.
I improvised, after looking at the ingredients label, with a mix of onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, dry mustard and MSG. I also seasoned the burgers with salt and pepper. They turned out great. Mrs. Noe said “I like these better than hamburgers.”
I also made potatoes with vinegar and salt, which was a hit.
Claudia made a terrific salad, as usual, and she and our daughter, Caroline, made apple crisp for dessert.
Wine was a Columbia Valley Riesling from Aldi’s that was really quite nice.
I still have some of the Custom Culinary seasoning on the way, and am looking forward to trying that before long.
And we’re counting down two more weeks until Aunt Pat joins us at table again. 🙂
We attended a performance of our local theater company this afternoon, so we wanted to prepare a crockpot meal for Sunday Dinner.
Louisiana Red Beans and Rice is one of our favorites, and couldn’t be simpler. I gently sautéed some Cajun Trinity (onions, bell peppers and celery), adding some minced garlic towards the end, then added it to a crock pot with red beans, Worcestershire Sauce, black pepper, a couple of bay leaves, some dried parsley, Tabasco Sauce and liquid smoke.
This turned out delicious, as always. Claudia made a lovely banana cake with chocolate frosting for dessert. In keeping with the Louisiana theme, I had a Sazerac cocktail before dinner, and we opened the last bottle of one of my favorite French wines (a Côtes Catalanes) to drink with the meal.
Claudia is on a ten day green smoothie cleanse, so I wanted something for this Sunday that wasn’t too incompatible. This dish is mostly baked veggies, so I figured it would fill the bill.
I sautéed some onions and garlic in a cast iron skillet, deglazed with red wine, then added a can of tomato paste, some thyme and S&P. Then, off heat, I made concentric circles of yellow squash, eggplant, orange pepper, zucchini, and red pepper. Once the whole thing was in place, I drizzled olive oil over the top, and sprinkled with the same seasonings.
After about 45 minutes in a 375 oven, and a little grated Asiago, it was ready to serve, along with Penne, salad, and some French Bread with olive oil and HDP.
Grammy brought another nice pie for dessert this week.
Wine was a marvelous Cabernet Franc from Jacqueline Bahue.
We’re missing Aunt Pat during her travels, and look forward to her joining us at table again in a few weeks. I think she would have liked the “Traditional French” music station from Pandora that we had playing during dinner.
This is the first time we’ve repeated a main course for Sunday Dinner in 2018. We had a six pound Boston Butt in the freezer, and the weather was favorable, so it was hard to resist the long cook.
I was up at around 6:30 AM to set up the Weber Kettle and start the coals. I’d rubbed the pork shoulder Saturday Evening with my usual seasonings, and set up the Kettle as usual with a drip pan full of water between ten unlit briquettes on each side. I added several lit coals and some wood chunks before placing the pork on the grate. After about three hours, I wrapped the pork in foil to get it through the stall, and eventually moved it over to the Genesis Gas Grill to finish. After about six and a half hours total, the internal temp was 203 degrees F. We let it rest for about another hour before shredding.
I’d made pasta salad on Friday evening, and Claudia made a delicious green salad, plus some truly amazing green beans with onions and bacon for sides. The wine was from F. Stephen Millier (a Lodi Shiraz which paired perfectly with the barbecue). Claudia also made brownies for dessert.
We’re missing Aunt Pat while she spends some time with family out west. It was another lovely Sunday with Grammy and Grampy, though. It’s such a blessing to be able to be in their company each week.