1/2/2020

Nan asked the other day what kinds of dinners we have been preparing. Here are some examples.

The pandemic isolation has brought Karen and me to focus more attention on our cooking. Karen in particular has taken up much more of the work. She actually follows recipes, plans, buys, and schedules things to cook and eat. We have continued to cook for leftovers. Almost nothing better than a night when we graze in the refrigerator for dinner made up of a potpourri of leftovers. I maintain my “open the refrigerator and make something out of what I find” approach.

Though we have held many shared meals with friends over the years, the pandemic has reduced the participants to David Drake. We get together with Dave almost every week for a joint dinner. Recently his friend Hazel Matera has made it a foursome. He is working his way through 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyar. Generally Karen and Dave settle on some set of dishes that we will serve.

Dishes

 

 

I did make some whole wheat bread in April. But my favorite bread (Karen rarely eats bread, excepting the oaccasional raisin bread toast snack) remains Berkshire Bakery breads which we get at the weekly farmers market. The local supermarket stocks only one brand of bread that can be consider traditional bread consisting of wheat, water, and salt – Heidelberg Whole Wheat. Most bread in the US is a venture into the land of monopolized industrial production. The emphasis is on profit all around. Looking at the ingredient labels requires a PhD in chemistry to decipher. For example,  Pepperidge Farm Whole Wheat contains: “WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, WATER, CRACKED WHEAT, WHEAT GLUTEN, SUGAR, YEAST, MOLASSES, SOYBEAN OIL, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: SUGARCANE FIBER, SALT, CALCIUM PROPIONATE AND SORBIC ACID TO EXTEND FRESHNESS, MONOGLYCERIDES, DATEM, SOY LECITHIN, WHEY.” Other whole wheats from industrial bakeries contain even more chemicals. Almost every bread sold in our local supermarket contains sugar in many forms.

My favorite is Whole Kamut bread from Berkshire. Kamut is one of the hundreds perhaps thosuands of different wheats that used to be grown around the world before the advent of industrial food. It is only grown in North Dakota in the US so the supply is frequently iffy..

Other Food

• Garlic sautéed spinach
• Garlic roasted Brussels sprouts with mustard sauce
• Yellow split pea dal
• Celery and fennel salad
• Thai crunch salad with peanut dressing
• Italian chopped salad greens
• Bacon wrapped Brussels sprouts
• Horseradish deviled eggs
• Salmon roasted in butter with dill
• Creole fish stew
• Harira soup
• Tomato soup
• Southwestern pork stew
• 1770 House meatloaf
• Roasted lamb chops
• Cuban black beans & rice
• Breakfast oatmeal
• Brown rice, pearled faro, bulgur – cooked plain or with added veggies.

Recipe Resources

Recipes

I make carrot mushroom loaf in a big flat glass baking dish – roughly 9 x 16 inches. Double the recipe. I also sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top towards the end of the cooking. Then we get 6 ample servings. Freeze 4 and we have future dinners at the ready.

Bran muffins used to be ubiquitous in every greasy spoon restaurant in America. Somehow they seem to have fallen out of favor. This is my version. Karen is always asking me to set a 1/4 aside as a treat for her. I freeze them. 20 seconds in the microwave defrosts enough to cut in half. A shmeer of butter or peanut butter and another 40 seconds in the micro and breakfast is ready.

(Click on image to see both pages of PDF.)