Coincidentally I also made the kenji taters this weekend! Had it as a side dish for ribeyes with chantarelle (freshly picked!) mushroom sauce. So good. Dem taters are so goddamn awesome!

How good, and how hot, is that sauce? Obviously going to vary based on the jalapenos.

Also lol at finding Ají amarillo here. There's not much I can't find, but I'm guessing that might be it. Not a lot of latinos in France.

ETA: I have yet to make really tasty skinless chicken breasts on the grill - though to my shame I have a gas grill (charcoal grills BANNED by the communists on the tenant board or w/e). I'm blaming the grill rather than my nooby skills. Sticking with thighs.

To head off EV's VERY ORIGINAL question, for the eighth consecutive week, about how my weekend cheat day is going, I'll present the birthday dinner I made for the wifeacore:

Course 1: Caprese made with both red and yellow heirloom tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil from our garden, and drizzles of aged balsamic and olive oil

Course 2:

Chicken Marsala with Shallots and Mushrooms

Served with either/both of steamed white rice/Kenji's Roasted Potatoes

Bacon braised green beans

Dessert: Strawberry Shortcake

Some thoughts:

Probably the fifth time that I've made that chicken, and it's extremely tasty; ended up doubling the recipe and making about four and a half pounds worth, so there's plenty left over. Using real marsala instead of the **** that's in the cooking wine aisle is a must. Spending a little time up front to do the entirety of the mise en place beforehand makes it a surprisingly low effort meal.

Not much more to say about Kenji's potatoes that hasn't been said before.

Only the second time I'd made those green beans, but I'd forgotten how tasty they are. Highly recommend.

My first time making the shortcake recipe, and it was a hit. The wifeacore requested it, and although I make biscuits fairly regularly, somehow I'd never done this. The biscuits are denser than a breakfast biscuit, so the recipe doesn't make a ton. For any group with more than two adults, just roll with at least a double recipe, since there's essentially no marginal increase in effort. I didn't roll them out (just used a spoon to scoop out four roughly equal portions) and they came out great. Fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream made it a crowd pleaser.

Do you really use skinless chicken breasts though? Even with the flour and sauce I think I'd prefer skin-on breasts served separately and sauce on top/on the side or chicken thighs.

Somehow missed the shortcakes as well, looks nomzy!


Made my French-version spaghetti bolognese yesterday. No recipe, but key ingredients are:
- 50/50 cuts leg/shoulder of lamb and beef, ground up by the butcher (to-do: get a grinder attachment myself, this is a sad state of affairs)
- Generous amounts of red wine
- Home-made beef stock, reduced, for umami punch
- Generous amounts of various herbs (had thyme, oregano and sage at hand)
- Cook for 1-2 hours, depending on meats used
- Good-quality parmesan, tomatoes, pasta
- **** celery, that awful ****ing vegetable
- Use something sweet (I used honey) and/or acidic to balance the sauce at the end if needed
- Smoked bell pepper spice adds a bit of smokiness/depth (heresy!)
- Wine pairing suggestions: chianti or barbera (this is a decently priced example, very good value for money: https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/c...+tuscany+italy)

9/10, would eat again, would fool Italians apart from the heresy. Hard to find truly fantastic tomatoes in France unfortunately.

Damn, i would have hooked up with montecore after that dinner.

Sounds like mrscore rode monte to an oblivion last night, slamming the DDs all over his face.

Take day off from the gym monte, well deserved. Maybe just a recovery walk at the local park.

Soulman,

Re: chicken breasts, I did! They somehow work and stay moist, plus the wifeacore prefers them for some reason. I have enough chicken thigh recipes anyway.

That bolognese sounds awesome; I have had the Kenji super fancy lad recipe in my queue, but it's kind of involved and I need to work up the will to make it. Maybe football season will provide the inspiration.

I'm guessing there are more involved/authentic shortcake recipes, but I liked the cakes and, as I said, they were super easy to do, so it's potentially a weeknight recipe, which is rare for dessert stuff.

loco,

Unfortunately she is recovering from an illness and likely still has a comparable viral load to '90 era Ryan White, so I had to take a rain check.

Yeah I have that bookmarked as well - I'm skeptical about the cream and milk, I gotta say. Fish sauce is a great idea though!

I'll give the chicken marsala (with skinless breasts!) a run soon, looks nice - and I've never cooked with marsala before somehow. Cooking breasts in flour helps a lot, as does drenching them in a nice sauce.

On another note I may be getting old (check: yep, still getting old), but big multi course dinners with lots of wine (I assume!) is not really my ideal recipe for a hot night of sweet marital bliss.

I think there's a good chance you'd hook up with Monte regardless. Eats right, trains on the reg and all natty. Basically all the stuff that you preach, he does.

Ran across these purportedly GOAT chocolate chip cookies somewhere, probably in the OOT cooking other stuff thread -- made them with the minis today while watching football. Pretty tasty, I must admit.

Tollhouse cookie squares are the goat chocolate chip cookies. Just Google the original recipe but sub ghirardelli chocolate chips in for nestle.

I used Ghirardelli semi sweet chips in this recipe!

Did these green chili burgers tonight in the cast iron instead of the grill, as my suspicion was that, as with most of the serious eats turkey burgers, burger integrity may be an issue (it would have been had I grilled). They were super tasty; topped them with more green chiles, jalapeno jack cheese, and sour cream.

Would be a pretty easy meal to make after work on a weekday.

Monte,

I've never had sour cream on a burger. Did it need it for added moistness or would it still be good without?

Nah, it was plenty moist without; my kids just love sour cream, so I tried it too. Worked pretty well but not strictly necessary.

ahahahahahaha

Found the following comment on https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/f...sauce-5638951:
Anyone tried this technique? I'm fairly heat tolerant, but would definitely like to pack more chili flavor without the added heat in some thangs.

I've effectively done the opposite (as in this GOAT kenji white chili recipe) to infuse stock with chili flavor, but never this. I don't see why it wouldn't work, though.

Will try it and report back!

Made this Serious Eats Vietnamese Chicken last night, and it was very tasty. I typically don't eat the skin, but it had the most flavor so I chopped up a bit and used it to top the deboned thighs. In the future, I think I'll just use boneless thighs so as much flavor as possible gets into the meat; regardless, this was pretty simple to make. I came home at lunch, prepped the marinade, bagged the chicken, and then came home after work and cooked it.

I think I'm going to do an old standby, the Chicken Tinga tonight. Excited.

I need to make some cookies. These seem really heavy on the sugar and butter. I might try them but use less.

Just made a double batch yesterday with the boys. FYI, I have done extensive quality control testing and found the butter and sugar ratio to be optimal.

I guess for 3 dozen it might be ok. I should probably put the recipe in the calorie counter and work out how many calories etc per cookie.

No link to recipe, but this is pretty GOAT diet/every day food imo. Paging dr loco.

Romaine lettuce wraps

• 1 pound ground beef or other lean meat (must be relatively small pieces), I think whatever would work fine
• 1-2 table spoons hoisin sauce + more for serving
• 2 table spoons soy sauce
• 0.5-1 table spoons fish sauce (can be ditched for the weak)
• 1 table spoon sesame oil
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 1-2 table spoons ginger, finely diced
• 3 scallions, diced
• red bell peppers to taste, sliced thinly (I used 1)
• toasted sesame seeds
• chili to taste, fresh, flakes, in fish sauce etc
• Other ingredients to taste, e.g. spinach, snap peas, mushrooms etc

- Dice onions, garlic and ginger. Cook for 5 mins. Meanwhile, dice carrots finely. Add to pan, cook for 5 mins. Put veggies to the side.
- Cook meat however you like it. Add the wet ingredients, let cook for another minute or so.
- If other veggies need more cooking, prep them
- Add red bell peppers and scallions at the very end, no need to cook
- Serve in romaine lettuce wraps. I like soaking chili in fish sauce vietnam style and add to taste. Add hoisin sauce to taste.

Low cal, high protein, very filling, quite tasty.

Pic from blog I found the recipe (used some different veggies though):

Looks awesome! Will definitely try.

Got a sous vide for Christmas, so even though I never intended to be about that life, looks like I am. Making these carnitas on Sunday, I think.

Made this Serious Eats Beef Stew tonight for the second time in the last week and a half: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2...ew-recipe.html

Mostly stuck to the recipe, though I used some of the leaner looking pre cut stew meat from Costco (around 4.5 lbs) instead of a 3 pound chuck steak. Also added extra mushrooms and potatoes. This comes out very, very thick and is definitely a great winter meal; there's an essentially identical recipe that doesn't utilize a pressure cooker that just takes an extra hour and a half, if you don't have that equipment. Highly recommended for the winter months.

@Sounds like a French stew, but ok (apparently tagging groups are all the rage on FB now).

Would/do eat! Have you tried versions with (not too heavy) stout in lieu of the red wine? It's fine, but imo wine is preferable.