Category: Dinner

This is a great meal for feeding a family of four dinner, and usually makes enough that everyone gets either lunch or dinner the next day too. Reheats well!

Basic process (about 20 minutes):

– cook some pasta (we like spinach rotini to get some extra veggies into the kids), drain, and set aside

– while pasta water is boiling and pasta is cooking (remember to set a timer so pasta doesn’t overcook — rotini takes 7 minutes), work on the next steps

– chop an onion or two and sauté in olive oil

– if you feel like chopping garlic, do that, and add some in; garlic powder also works

– cut up some mild or spicy Italian sausage (take off skin first if it’s already formed into sausages) and add it to the pan, brown for a few minutes on medium-high, stirring occasionally

– cut up a couple chicken breasts and add to the pan, brown for a few minutes on medium-high, stirring occasionally

– stir in 1/2 t. salt & 1 c. of white wine; cover and turn down to medium high and simmer 5-10 minutes, so chicken and sausage will cook through

– chop up some bell peppers (ideally a couple different colors), remove lid, and add them in

– add some frozen peas for more veggie goodness

– stir in 1/2 – 1 c. heavy cream, turning down to medium-low, so cream doesn’t curdle

– taste sauce and add more salt if needed, but usually the sausage adds sufficient

– add cooked pasta to pan, stirring to coat with sauce

– if sauce is a little thin, you can simmer it down a bit to thicken

– if you want, grate fresh Parmesan in (don’t use shaker Parmesan, as that has additives to prevent clumping that will also keep it from blending smoothly into the sauce); alternatively, serve with shaker Parmesan, which is frankly what we’re likely to do most of the time, because the kids love it and it’s easier during a busy week

Had some Thai seafood curry sauce left from takeout a few days ago, and some rice that was starting to dry out. Sauteed a filet of red flapper in a tiny bit of oil, added the sauce, added some frozen peas, stirred in the rice — that’s dinner, breakfast, and lunch, all v. tasty.

Turkey sandwich for dinner, and I’m here to tell you that mayo + cranberry sauce + spicy cilantro chutney = deliciousness.

Cilantro chutney homemade by local cafe Wise Cup, so good!

What goes on your turkey sandwich?

Confession — I don’t like chicken breast. Oh, it’s fine in a chicken salad, or in a sandwich with plenty of mayo, but on its own, for dinner? I would much rather have flavorful, moist thighs.

But sometimes my husband buys it, so what’s a girl to do? Poach them — at least poaching helps keep chicken breast as moist and flavorful as possible. Here’s a fusion approach with Sri Lankan spicing, adding in butter and wine.

I kept this dish mild; it felt appropriate for the gentle poaching process, and also meant my kids were happy to eat it. (But if you wanted to add a few chopped green chilies, that would also be fine.)

1/2 c. sultanas (golden raisins)

1. In a large pan (one with a lid), sauté onions in oil or ghee on medium-high, adding in ginger, garlic, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and curry leaves. Stir as needed, until onions are golden-translucent.

2. Add chicken breasts, saffron, white wine, and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then cover and turn down heat to a simmer; cook 15 minutes, until breasts are cooked through.

3. Remove chicken to a plate and keep warm. Turn heat back up to high, add sultanas, and and boil liquid until reduced to a thick sauce, about a quarter of its previous volume. Stir in butter and lime juice, then taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

4. Return chicken to the pan and reheat with the sauce. Serve hot with rice or bread.

Interesting — the Montreal Gazette had previously ran a piece on Feast, but they’ve also now pulled out the deviled shrimp recipe for a separate piece.

Six O’Clock Solution: Shrimp a devilish if costly delight

Serves 6 to 8 3 tablespoons (45 mL) vegetable oil 3 to 5 medium onions, diced 1 teaspoon (5 mL) black mustard seed 1 teaspoon (5 mL) cumin seed 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 mL) cayenne, to taste 2 pounds (1 kg) shrimp, peeled, deveined 2/3 cup (150

Can you tell I’m cleaning out my phone? An uppuma photo from last week that I forgot to post. Now I want uppuma again. It was pretty funny listening to the latest episode of Home Cooking, and hearing Samin Nosrat learn about uppuma. I think of her as such a professional, I figure she knows basically everything about food, but she’d never heard of uppuma, and I just felt so sad for her.

This is very very basic uppuma, the kind I make when I’m in a rush — five minutes from start to finish, and just water, cream o’ wheat (semolina), butter and salt for ingredients. I lived on this stuff in grad school, generally with mackerel and egg curry. Very cheap, incredibly delicious.

If you have a few extra minutes to make it more fancy / nutritious, you’d start with melting the butter (or ghee, or just using oil), sautéing some cashews and peas and mustard seeds in there, maybe some curry leaves and chopped green chili, etc. and so on — but honestly, I love it just like this.

Welcome to day 4 of Tuesday. It looks like an end is in sight, perhaps, but I am resolutely not counting any chickens yet; I’m not even looking at the chickens, there ain’t any chickens around here, we are on a strictly vegan diet until the AP News and the NY Times and maybe 3-4 other places tell us it’s time to look at chickens — this metaphor is getting away from me.

Plan for today is to keep my head down and work for as long as I can make myself do so, while the fate of the nation hangs in the balance. I have a recipe to post, masks to sew, student work to review, some optional assignments to assign (at this point in the semester, during a pandemic and a national election, a whole bunch of work that is normally required is turning optional, and I am very fine with that decision), a sci-fi podcast Kickstarter to launch, and Patreon treat boxes to announce.

Those are the important things that have to get done today. Beyond that, a Wild Cards story to work on, garden clean-up tasks, house clean-up tasks, laundry, maybe an exercise walk with a friend, etc. and so on.

All fueled by a nice fusion breakfast this morning — I toasted up some sausage rolls from our local Irish store (they bake them themselves), and had them with fresh-made brinjal moju (eggplant pickle). The spicy sweet tang of the moju cuts beautifully through the richness of the flaky sausage roll. Yum. Brinjal moju recipe coming very shortly!