What was the last meal you cooked?

Home made spicy bean burgers, peas, crinkle cut oven chips. It was too big a dinner and I felt very overfull.

Pasta-penne-with wild smoked salmon in a cream sauce. There's nothing left!

Steamed broccoli and smoked sardines

My birthday today. I made broccoletti (broccoli di rape) with whole wheat pasta (Molisana-stone ground whole wheat) and EVOO just poured on top at the end. I also had an orange and a piece of cake.

I cut a acorn squash in half and de seeded it. I then rubbed a bit of plant based butter into it and sprinkled thyme and ground black pepper on it. Placed it on a covered baking sheet and roasted/baked it at 375F for 35 minutes. While it was baking I cut 2 small new potatoes into chunks and boiled in prepping for mashing. Once both the acorn squash and potatoes were done I removed the skin from the squash and mashed the two together. I added a bit more plant based butter and more black pepper. Last I added some steamed fresh green beans on top of the mashed squash/potatoes and some roasted brussel sprouts on the side. During the winter its one of my favorite dinners.

I made hack's cassoulet because I had a confit goose leg taking up space in the freezer. Have decided that cassoulet is essentially dutch pea soup (ie a casserole of beans, salty meat and alliums) with more airs and graces because it is french. After looking at a couple of recipes online went with this simplified technique.

Soak white beans overnight. Discard water and boil with aromatics such as crushed garlic cloves, thyme, celery. In the meantime in a large casserole brown the skin of goose or duck confit (if you happen to have confit, but otherwise brown raw chicken thighs). Put the poultry aside, removing bones if using confit when cool. Brown some sausages and chop cooled sausages in coarse chunks. Put sausages aside and brown some chopped bacon. Toss in a minced onion and several cloves of minced garlic. Most recipes call for a little tomato paste which I didn't have so I squirted in some ketchup for sweetness. If you have any leftover gravy or wine lying around toss that in too. When beans are almost done drain, remove aromatics and stir into the casserole dish with the reserved meat.

Tonight I will add chicken stock to barely reach the top of the bean mix and bake another two hours in the oven with bread crumbs on top. If breadcrumbs are over browning, stir them into the bean mixture and top with a new layer of bread crumbs. Serve with a green salad. Leftovers freeze well.

snowflake954 wrote: »

Today I made fusilli pasta(spirals) with mushrooms and zucchini in a sauce of EVOO and white wine, freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano on top.

Yummy! Simple, but so good.

Today Sunday special--Funghi porcini ravioli (store bought, not made by hand), sauce of EVOO, chopped cherry tomatoes, green peas, garlic, broth and wine--topped off with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Then a friend gave us fresh buffalo milk mozzarella from Battipaglia (Famous for buffalo mozzarella). This is a town south of Naples on the way to Caserta. We also had a small cream pie topped with wild strawberries for desert. There were 6 of us and 2 babies.

Back in NJ from more than a week visiting family in Ottawa, Canada. Tonight's (Monday) dinner: baked chicken, roasted root veg (carrots, parsnips, beets) and side tom/cuke salad. MFP thinks the plate is about 719cal, 68g protein, 20g fat, 55g carb. Running out of counter space making 6 or 7 loaves of bread of three types for a large family party tomorrow - this boule loaf in the background (shaped by baking in a cast-iron skillet) is savory: rosemary/garlic/sesame flavored. The other two types are honey whole wheat and white (unbleached) cranberry (which will all be typical loaf-shaped). Happy Holidays, all!