Food and Recipes while under Coronavirus quarantine #5

[Tbone144]

PF changs is a favorite as I can find gluten free on the menu. The Mongolian beef was a favorite before I dropped the gluten and learned to make my own. I should make some, lord knows I have enough beef in the freezer.

Whole chickens were on sale so we had one roasted in the air fryer with mashed potatoes, gravy and sautéed spinach. Herbal tea and snickerdoodles for dessert.

Still trying to find beef heart for next freeze dryer run. I do have some frozen cheesecake I could slice up and freeze dry. Wouldn’t hurt to have something sweet other than fruit. I need ice cream sandwiches and frozen novelties to go on sale. Ice cream is supposed to be wonderful.

 

[PayrollNerd]

Food prep morning. Roasted the chicken with 2 bay leaves and a cut up an orange. On the outside I coated it with onion, garlic, kosher salt, pepper, paprika & parsley.

We had a big potato so I tossed it in to bake. The tiny potatoes I coated in olive oil and used the same spices. The steamed zucchini & sugar snap peas were from my garden. The pasta mix was Knorr Fettucine that I found at the Dollar Tree. It just looked good and I never buy those.

Everything was delicious. We are stuffed now! I need to debone the bird while my drill battery charges.

 

[Tbone144]

Found my beef hearts at a nearby butchers. Once they are thawed I will cube them up for the freeze dryer. Have a sweets run in there now. Cheesecake thin sliced, ice cream sandwiches and some mochi balls. No idea how any of it will turn out.

Leftovers for dinner tonight, grilling steaks tomorrow. Thawing out some ribeyes and will make more mashed potatoes so we can make a cottage pie with some venison with the leftover potatoes. Making some beef and barley soup for my husband for the week for lunch. Not sure what I’ll have yet.

Pork loins and tenderloins were buy one get one free so I stocked up on those. Maybe a pork asparagus stir fry with lemon grass if I can find lemon grass in town.

 

[PayrollNerd]

Food prep evening. Not quite as successful as this morning. The chicken & steak pinwheels were to be cooked at 350 deg.

Well, after 30 minutes the steak was supposed to be done. It wasn’t even close. I snipped the string and cut them into quarters. I let them cook about 20 minutes more, checking them numerous times. I finally gave up thinking I had over cooked them. Nope. They were still pink but not raw. I tasted a piece and it literally has zero flavor. The spinach and cheese did nothing for it. Barely tastes like flank steak which is usually a nice cut of beef. Maybe if I had grilled them, or even increased the temperature, they would have been more flavorful. Oh well. I tossed them because I will not eat them. What a bummer.

The chicken came out well. I am not wild about the Italian lunchmeat in the middle. I may pick it out and freeze the chicken.

The apple pie was a bit doughy in the center. I warmed it in the oven to dry it out a bit. The filling is good and the crust that is flaky is good too.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

^ Nino's has those steak pinwheels - "London Broils". Our favorite is the spinach and feta, but there are a couple of other varieties. DH seasons them with salt and pepper then grills. We haven't had them for a while; maybe we'll get some when we stop at Nino's today on our way to Picano's. Today we celebrate our 30th year in our "new" house. We closed on our "empty nester" home on Friday, February 19, 1993, drove back & forth in our vehicles with items we could easily transport over the weekend, moving van came on Monday that was President's Day.

DH went to Costco yesterday when he learned that the pool was closed due to a power problem. It's open today but the water is cold, so he'll get back on track tomorrow. He got a rotisserie chicken that will make three meals for the two of us. I haven't made Chicken Divan in a while and will get broccoli and cheese for that today. DH also got a beautiful piece of sockeye salmon that we'll have on Ash Wednesday. Will get a couple of paczkis for Fat Tuesday. I'm not particularly crazy about the sickeningly sweet filled donuts, but it's a tradition in metro Detroit.

 

[Tbone144]

Leftovers tonight for everyone, I wasn’t hungry so I skipped dinner. I’ve been ravenous the past couple of days and tonight it just stopped. Tomorrow I’m going to try to make Shepard’s pie with venison and the leftover mashed potatoes. If Shepard’s pie is made with lamb and Cottage pie is made with beef, I wonder what the venison version would be called?

Sweets turned out okay in freeze dryer. Won’t do the mochi balls again, all the ice cream came out. The ice cream sandwiches and cheesecake turned out fairly well though. Yogurt bites are up next.

MIL made pumpkin pie, with duck eggs. Very rich, I can only eat the smallest of pieces. I’ve gained a couple of pounds with all the sweets around. Trading margarita for cookies probably isn’t the best waist wise but my blood pressure is much better.

 

[elliefant]

Gamekeeper’s Pie?

If Shepard’s pie is made with lamb and Cottage pie is made with beef, I wonder what the venison version would be called?

 

[IceIce9]

^ Nino's has those steak pinwheels - "London Broils". Our favorite is the spinach and feta, but there are a couple of other varieties. DH seasons them with salt and pepper then grills. We haven't had them for a while; maybe we'll get some when we stop at Nino's today on our way to Picano's. Today we celebrate our 30th year in our "new" house. We closed on our "empty nester" home on Friday, February 19, 1993, drove back & forth in our vehicles with items we could easily transport over the weekend, moving van came on Monday that was President's Day.

DH went to Costco yesterday when he learned that the pool was closed due to a power problem. It's open today but the water is cold, so he'll get back on track tomorrow. He got a rotisserie chicken that will make three meals for the two of us. I haven't made Chicken Divan in a while and will get broccoli and cheese for that today. DH also got a beautiful piece of sockeye salmon that we'll have on Ash Wednesday. Will get a couple of paczkis for Fat Tuesday. I'm not particularly crazy about the sickeningly sweet filled donuts, but it's a tradition in metro Detroit.

All our grocery stores and bakeries are featuring Paczkis here this week, I have tried them over the years and never found one that I liked. To me they just taste like heavy, fatty donuts with too much sugar.

While I don’t understand the attraction they certainly are popular.

I don’t even like donuts unless they are light and not overly sweet. I don’t waste my calories on desserts and treats unless they are worth it

 

[IceIce9]

Gamekeeper’s Pie?

We have made a vegetarian version of shepherd’s pie for years, and always called it “vegetarian shepherd’s pie.” Maybe we should call it “Gardener’s Pie”

 

[iamshadow21]

Happy because after a couple of months of disappointment, our supermarket began stocking mocha hot cross buns, my favourite kind! They're not quite as intensely coffee as the Baker's Delight ones, but so far, they are not doing theirs this year, so I'll take what I can get!

Also very much enjoying the mango flavour Gelativo sorbet this summer. It's about 50% mango, and has little else but sugar and water.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

All our grocery stores and bakeries are featuring Paczkis here this week, I have tried them over the years and never found one that I liked. To me they just taste like heavy, fatty donuts with too much sugar.

While I don’t understand the attraction they certainly are popular.

I don’t even like donuts unless they are light and not overly sweet. I don’t waste my calories on desserts and treats unless they are worth it

Paczkis have long been a Fat Tuesday staple in metro Detroit - especially in the tiny enclave of Hamtramck. Most bakeries/markets sell them by the half- or whole dozen, but Nino's sells them individually. We didn't get paczkis on Sunday because we wanted them to be fresh today, so DH will stop and get one for each of us after his swim. Nino's has a couple of "specialty" paczkis - cannoli and chocolate mousse - in addition to popular fruit and custard fillings.

 

[IceIce9]

Paczkis have long been a Fat Tuesday staple in metro Detroit - especially in the tiny enclave of Hamtramck. Most bakeries/markets sell them by the half- or whole dozen, but Nino's sells them individually. We didn't get paczkis on Sunday because we wanted them to be fresh today, so DH will stop and get one for each of us after his swim. Nino's has a couple of "specialty" paczkis - cannoli and chocolate mousse - in addition to popular fruit and custard fillings.

The flavor I like best out of all the Paczkis I have tried is cream cheese. It isn’t as overly sweet as the other flavors. I still don’t care for the heaviness of the pastry. JMO

I’ve been to Eastern Europe several times and don’t care for most of the pastries there for the same reason, too heavy and overly sweet. Again, JMO because most people love them.

 

[elliefant]

Fat Tuesday hasn’t caught on in the UK. It’s Shrove Tuesday today and everybody is eating pancakes (savoury or sweet). Maybe our Polish population is more thinly spread, so few larger communities, I don’t know. I had to look up paczkis, they look a lot like doughnuts so I would probably like them

 

[PayrollNerd]

The flavor I like best out of all the Paczkis I have tried is cream cheese. It isn’t as overly sweet as the other flavors. I still don’t care for the heaviness of the pastry. JMO

I’ve been to Eastern Europe several times and don’t care for most of the pastries there for the same reason, too heavy and overly sweet. Again, JMO because most people love them.

I don't understand the fascination either. After I did my DNA and learned 50% of my ethnic origin is Czech, I've been reading recipes. My paternal family is always telling me about these foods - all the pastries and a pasta filled with potato. I'm like what? You put a carb inside a carb?

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I don't understand the fascination either. After I did my DNA and learned 50% of my ethnic origin is Czech, I've been reading recipes. My paternal family is always telling me about these foods - all the pastries and a pasta filled with potato. I'm like what? You put a carb inside a carb?

Sounds like pierogi, and they are awesome! They are similar to dumplings and are filled with potato, farmer cheese, sauerkraut, or a combination of these. Can be boiled or sauteed. Sprinkle with paprika and serve with sour cream. We're not Polish but went to a Catholic school with many Polish classmates. During the holidays, Polish moms made pierogi by the dozens. I've never made them from scratch, but Nino's carries a few different varieties of frozen pierogi that are very good. I always serve them as an appetizer for family gatherings.

Homemade Pierogi

Pierogi, dumplings stuffed with a filling, make for a wonderful change-of-pace side dish. —Diane Gawrys, Manchester, Tennessee

www.tasteofhome.com

 

[IceIce9]

I don't understand the fascination either. After I did my DNA and learned 50% of my ethnic origin is Czech, I've been reading recipes. My paternal family is always telling me about these foods - all the pastries and a pasta filled with potato. I'm like what? You put a carb inside a carb?

One popular dish from Ukraine I remember: fried potatoes stuffed inside dumplings, then the dumplings are fried, and served with butter and sour cream.

Fish was fried and then rolled in thick breading and then fried again.

My friends and I went to the same restaurant for dinner almost every night after we discovered they served wonderful salads.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I made Chicken Divan yesterday with the rest of the Costco rotisserie chicken. It was really good with plenty left over for another dinner this week. I'm going to make a veggie frittata tonight, and tomorrow we will have Naan pizzas with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil. Salmon in the freezer, but we'll save that for another dinner.

We went to Picano's on Sunday and had a lovely dinner served by our favorite waitress. Now that the holiday season is over, the menu now includes weekend specials that are always amazing. The regular menu is extensive, but it is always nice to try something different. DH had Shrimp Scampi Risotto, and I had Veal Morel which was featured on the holiday menu but is now offered as a special. I had wanted to order another special that sounded awesome, but it had a cream-based sauce that might have wreaked havoc on my sensitive digestive system. It was a salmon filet wrapped around two diver scallops, topped with lobster cream sauce with lump crab. I'm sure it would have been delicious.

Both of our entrees were served with a side plate of grilled veggies that looked good but were cold. Our waitress offered to replace them (and alert the kitchen) but we asked her to wrap them for us, instead. I will add grape tomatoes to the grilled vegetables for tonight's frittata.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Metro Detroiters flock to Hamtramck, Detroit for Fat Tuesday paczki

The line for Hamtramck's New Palace Bakery wrapped around the block as customers waited for their annual Fat Tuesday paczki.

www.detroitnews.com

The smell of fried dough wafted down Joseph Campau Street, fueling the line of customers already waiting for New Palace Bakery's Fat Tuesday paczki before the 115-year-old Polish bakery opened in Hamtramck at 8 a.m.

The line wrapped around Yemans Street and some customers such as Jerry Costanza had been waiting since 7 a.m. Costanza drove from Ann Arbor to keep his annual paczki Fat Tuesday tradition alive.

"In a world of dying traditions, it's nice to keep it alive," Costanza, 52, said. "They are completely different than grocery store paczki. The way they're made and the flavor is unique."

Paczki are made from a fluffy, yeast-based dough topped with powdered sugar and they can be eaten plain or filled with custard or jelly. They are reserved for Fat Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras, or the day of indulgence before the Christian observance of Lent begins Wednesday...

 

[Tbone144]

The venison version of cottage pie turned out really well. Had little to no gamey flavor to it. Will definitely make again.

The gravy I didn’t use is freezing for the freeze dryer as well as the cream gravy, and the chicken gravy. We’ll see how they rehydrate. Beef hearts are prepped and freezing for dog treats too.

I ate my freeze dried chicken vindaloo and some apple slices for lunch today. It worked really well. Just add some hot water and wait a bit. It was tasty and I didn’t have to eat out. Apple slices are really good as is, like crunchy sweet chips.

 

[anneg]

At my chorus rehearsal tonight, a member brought King Cakes (for Mardi Gras) to share. Delicious! They looked something like this: