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Budapest and the Sheet Pan Dinner
Budapest is honestly, hands down, one of my most favourite places in the world. I don’t speak the language (though I’m trying to learn), yet I feel like I belong. I’m just so at ease there. The city is absolutely beautiful and so accessible by foot or public transportation with two sides of the river, Buda and Pest, that are diverse in personality and terrain. I often wonder what it would be like if I spent any length of time there. I’m hoping to find out soon.
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Chuck Steak Shepherd’s Pie
It has been quite cold the past week. The cold and rainy weather is making me crave all things comfort food and the other night the comfort dish I was craving was Shepherd’s Pie. But I really wasn’t wanting Shepherd’s Pie with ground beef so I decided to give it a go with chuck steak instead. It took a bit longer than if I had used ground beef but the result was so worth it and the hands on time was minimal. Alternatively this is a great way to use up leftover pot roast.
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Steak and Potato Salad with Mustard Dressing
So it seems that Sunday Gravy was my 50th post! Who knew?! And it only took me two plus years to get there. So hooray for an LSL milestone! Let’s hope the 100th isn’t another two years away. I’m glad my 50th was Sunday Gravy. I really like that recipe but don’t worry #51 isn’t a bad one either. (really great transition there Laur; really great) Anyway……
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Red Wine Braised Lamb Shanks
Today, friends, I have a fantastic weekend dinner for you. One that you let cook all afternoon and then sit down with good wine and good company to savor. It’s the kind of dish you take a bite of and melt right into. The kind where you take your time to eat and drag it out because there’s good food, good wine and good conversation and you have nowhere you’d rather be. These are my favorite kind of meals.
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Lamb Ragu
I once entered into a pasta sauce cooking competition with my team at work. We were to each make a pot of our own homemade sauce and we would be judged by our peers. So I made sauce!! And it was good!! Really good!! And I lost…. The sauce I made was a really fantastic red sauce with small meatballs. Compared to the sauce that won, mine wasn’t particularly hearty and considering I was feeding a team of ten men, it was a big error on my part. I didn’t cook to my audience. I wanted my audience to love what I wanted to make. Lesson learned eh? -
Turkey “Cobb” Salad
When thinking of what to put together for dinner this past week, I was really thinking of a true Cobb salad. Chicken, egg, avocado, blue cheese and bacon among a pile of greens and tomatoes and onion. All of this of course to be topped off with a thick and creamy dressing. You know, one of those salads that end up with more calories than a bacon cheeseburger?
Yeah, that’s what I really wanted.
Using my better judgement (for once) I opted for this Turkey “Cobb” Salad instead. Beautiful, fresh leafy greens topped with chopped turkey, thinly sliced carrot, sliced cucumber, chopped tomato, blanched green beans, blanched broccoli, and topped with a lightened up buttermilk ranch dressing.
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Leftover Revamp ~ Greek Nachos
With just two of us in the house it can be really hard to not waste food. One of our biggest pet peeves is throwing food away. It is just so wasteful and I feel guilty throwing it away.
We always try to do better. I’ve stopped cooking dinner one night a week and we just pull out all of the little containers in the fridge and we each make a plate with what’s available. Somehow there’s always bits that still get thrown away. Enter ~ Leftover Revamp. I’m hoping you enjoy this and that it will become a regular feature on LSL. The goal here is to take a leftover item or two and combine it with pantry items and staples from the fridge to create a completely different meal than the original.
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Roasted Chicken with Shallot White Wine Pan Sauce
I’m sure we are like most households; we eat a lot of chicken. I do try to be aware of it though and really do try not to serve chicken more than once a week. I mean one can only eat so much boneless skinless bla bla bla. Don’t get me wrong boneless skinless chicken has its place (like Thai Green Curry) but it can get boring. Enter the roasted chicken.
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Parchment Baked Fish with Steamed Baby Bok Choy
If there’s one thing I can count on this would be it; nights my better half comes home from a week away at work, the one and only request I ever get is to have veggies with dinner. Not that I don’t always serve up a vegetable with dinner but on these nights I do try to make sure there are extras and they are a more substantial part of the meal. Apparently at work he is quite deprived of all things leafy and green. Now I’ve never seen it, but I’m sure the cafeteria up on site does serve up veggies on a regular basis but considering the amount of people they cook for daily I can only imagine that they are a lovely frozen precut variety that sit in a bain marie after being over cooked to begin with. They likely take on that green-gray mushy color. Is mushy a color? Ah well, you get my drift. Not appetizing at all! -
Chinese Beef and Cabbage
There’s a Chinese restaurant in Seattle I love and miss now that I have moved away. Everyone I have ever brought there has loved it too. Now don’t get the wrong idea about this restaurant. There are no fancy tablecloths. It is not fine dining and I’m not even sure there is a sign out front. It is located in a shopping center in the International District and it is the end unit. There must be a dozen other restaurants in the same center and on a Friday or Saturday night even when it is cold and rainy and even when there is no one in the rest of the restaurants in the center and there are plenty of tables available for the taking, this favorite restaurant of mine will have a line out the door and people are happy to wait. Amazing. The food is great. The ingredients are fresh and the portion sizes are generous and very favorably priced. Above all it is consistently all of these things. It doesn’t matter what day of the week you walk in there or how many times you order a dish, it is always the same and always amazing. And let me tell you, over the six years I lived in Seattle I have been there maybe ten to twelve (dozen) times. Have I mentioned that its amazing?
