What's Cooking (Take Four)

An idea popped into my head last night for a weird dinner tonight. We had grilled Elvis sandwiches using bread I had just baked. And bowls of tomato soup. Not bad at all.

Soup and sandwich is a classic. What's in an Elvis?

I tried the Elvis sandwich a couple of times with the kids, but no one cared for it and our daughter said, "bananas do not belong in peanut butter sandwiches!" I liked them, they would make a great dinner along with tomato soup..

A couple of thick port chops have been marinating in soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, honey, toasted sesame oil, and juice from a jar of Sweet Banana Peppers. Tonight I will brown both sides in cast iron and then put into the oven to finish. It is Japanese Sweet Potato season and I picked a couple up at our local grocery store. They will be paired with Brussels Sprouts and Mushrooms, coated with olive oil, low sodium soy sauce, hoisin sauce, balsamic vinegar, honey, red chili paste, garlic, and fresh ginger. They will roast in the oven to a nice char, then green onions for garnish.
We've had a few new Asian mom-and-pop restaurants open up in Redding over the past few months and after reading their menus I am craving Asian. It is nice to see the growth and even nicer are the comments from folks who travel I5 saying good things about the Redding eateries. It has taken a few decades but we are finally getting into the food world and the locals are loving it. Their grocery stores opened first, did well and it was great to pick up locally sourced products.

Soup and sandwich is a classic. What's in an Elvis?

Peanut butter, bacon, and sliced banana on bread. I buttered the outsides of the bread and cooked it like a grilled sandwich. Sounds weird, but it's good. But, then, I like peanut on bananas. And everything tastes good with bacon.

FWIW, don't say you don't like it until you try it, though.

[Jenise]

Yesterday I marinated one large pork chop in chile oil and soy sauce, which we shared along with a wokful of stir-fried bok choy with celery, onions, water chestnuts and roasted/unsalted cashews.

I'm making ham and bean soup from the remains of my Easter ham. Some scraps I'm leaving out near our bird water supply for our neighborhood roadrunner. Beep, beep.

Last night it was just a couple of walnut/apple and rabbit food salads with blue cheese. We weren't very hungry, plus I didn't feel like cooking.

Tonight: coq au vin. Fennel, carrots, mushrooms, fingerling potatoes in the sauce. (As well as cheap Bordeaux.)

Breakfast this morning is the usual tomato juice concoction, a small bowl of sliced banana, juicy blackberries, and mandarin slices drizzled with D'Anjou Pear vinegar, a sprinkle of Vietnamese cinnamon, and a fat sourdough pretzel.

...and a fat sourdough pretzel.

Ooh! Now I have to go to that German place near my house!

[Jenise]

Made a huge tomato and artichoke paella yesterday for the Dorks. Spent the night in town afterward because we expected to have to get up in the middle of the night to compete a pet adoption. Will grill some seasoned chicken breasts purchased that way at the Food Co-op and serve those on salad. We'll probably be in bed by 8 p.m.

, and a fat sourdough pretzel.

What a coinky-dink. I'm considering making Bavarian pretzels in the next few days.

Made a huge tomato and artichoke paella yesterday for the Dorks. Spent the night in town afterward because we expected to have to get up in the middle of the night to compete a pet adoption. Will grill some seasoned chicken breasts purchased that way at the Food Co-op and serve those on salad. We'll probably be in bed by 8 p.m.

Please tell me, are you getting a fur baby dog or kitty? Or maybe a turtle, bird, what? Curious minds need to know...how fun.

The sourdough pretzel was fist size and delicious. I only had one...have to be a good girl!

[Jenise]

Karen, a cat. I'll post about it in the F&F section when I get a little more time later, it's been quite an ordeal.

A variation of shrimp scampi on polenta.

[Jenise]

Finger food tonight: garlic chicken meatballs and warm green beans finished with garlic, oil and vinegar.

[Jenise]

Well, the garlic chicken meatballs didn't happen last night. Instead, Bob asked for Mexican food and I was suddenly thinking of some Thai meatballs with lettuce wraps I had somewhere and the whole thing turned into Mexican chicken meatball lettuce wraps. Seasoning was just cumin, garlic and oregano but lots of all three. So fantastic Bob asked me to make them again next week.

Tonight I'm working with ground chicken again, experimenting with a smash taco dumpling thing wherein a corn tortilla is spread with a Chinese-dumpling seasoned ground meat mixture and fried on both sides then folding around a fresh filling, like diced cucumbers and avocado maybe. Anyway, should be delicious. A fun thing to try even if one never does them again.

Our town is full of beautiful cars for Cool April Nights all week, PLUS our famous Red Bluff rodeo, one of the largest rodeos in the US...the cowboys love it here and are partying! So tonight I decided to cook a fun slow-cooker meal with Polish sausage, Rio Zappe beans, Hatch Chili peppers, baby potatoes, onion, garlic, Worcestershire, Inglehoffer stone gr. mustard, sauerkraut, caraway seeds, and a squeeze of tomato paste. I decided to add multi color cherry tomatoes so I could use them up. If the cars decide to parade in our neighborhood tonight like they did last year, I will take a paper plate, sit on my porch with my pup, and watch the cars. The cowboys and car owners rule for over 1 week!

[Jenise]

Did they parade for you, Karen?

Yesterday I was having an off day and it was going to rain. I needed comfort so decided to make food out of things that needed to be used up. So I turned two frozen-almost-too-long chuck eye steaks into a beef and barley soup modeled on a Scotch Broth (which normally would be lamb) but the beef worked well--it's the cloves and barley that make the dish. I also made a big bowl of kale and wild rice salad which in my opinion is the best thing ever that can happen to kale. Nothing fancy, but perfect for the day.

I scored a couple of dozen eggs yesterday for $1.19 each, so today was huevos rancheros again--my favorite breakfast. I'm glad I looked at the egg section. Smith's must have had too many eggs on hand, hence the unadvertised price.

Making 'Sunday Gravy' here, with baby back ribs, lamb shoulder, and beef top round.

[Jenise]

I love the whole idea of "Sunday gravy", Jeff. And it's not just because I love spaghetti, but because I love family traditions of the type that play out and repeat over decades. My family honestly didn't have very many at all, and what few we did weren't culturally meaningful. And then Mom became a Jehovahs Witness and there went all that. I should have been born Italian.

Today's Passover? I'm always aware of this event because it's the one time of year I can guaranteed get Yehuda Matzohs (unsalted). We're never without Matzohs in this household (Bob loves crackers) but the pickings are scant this year. In fact, one market had a whole end-cap devoted to Passover but no matzohs--any brand--at all. I inquired and was told they didn't come in, though this store like every store in town usually has at least one brand or other year-round. Very odd. Made me wonder if production (I know Yehuda is actually made in Israel, I don't believe the others are) stopped because of the Israel-Gaza war.

Speaking of Israeli food, are you familiar with a canned olive called something like Gabler? Starts with a G, two syllables, and that's not exactly right but it's close. I grew up on those--definitely one of my craves--but haven't seen them in a couple decades. Used to be a grocery store item, at least in the "gourmet section".

I love the whole idea of "Sunday gravy", Jeff. And it's not just because I love spaghetti, but because I love family traditions of the type that play out and repeat over decades. My family honestly didn't have very many at all, and what few we did weren't culturally meaningful. And then Mom became a Jehovahs Witness and there went all that. I should have been born Italian.

Me, too. I just love pasta, red sauce, cheese, the whole pantry.

Today's Passover? I'm always aware of this event because it's the one time of year I can guaranteed get Yehuda Matzohs (unsalted). We're never without Matzohs in this household (Bob loves crackers) but the pickings are scant this year. In fact, one market had a whole end-cap devoted to Passover but no matzohs--any brand--at all. I inquired and was told they didn't come in, though this store like every store in town usually has at least one brand or other year-round. Very odd. Made me wonder if production (I know Yehuda is actually made in Israel, I don't believe the others are) stopped because of the Israel-Gaza war.

Yes, tonight is the first night of Passover -- ma nishtana ha laila ha zeh and all that. I have not heard of any matzo shortages here. (There is hunger in various parts of the world but afaik not involving US matzo distribution snafus.)
My friends who have some religiosity always splurge at this time for shmurah matzo. These are the round, handmade ones, always slightly burned, that are said to most resemble what the Children of Israel took with them on the flight from Egypt.

Speaking of Israeli food, are you familiar with a canned olive called something like Gabler? Starts with a G, two syllables, and that's not exactly right but it's close. I grew up on those--definitely one of my craves--but haven't seen them in a couple decades. Used to be a grocery store item, at least in the "gourmet section".

Galil? Anyway, we bought whatever olives were convenient. Mom did not seek out Israeli brands or kosher foods.

[Jenise]

Jeff, it came to me: Graber. And I looked them up: turns out they're not Jewish at all. They are (or more correctly, were) grown and canned in Ontario, California. All those years I was down there--so close and yet so far! They halted production, or closed the store, or both, in 2020 and are scheduled to re-open in 2025 though god knows if that's still a solid plan. They were selling for $11-12 a can last time they were available for purchase, which says something about how good they are because I would pay that too. They were THAT good. Here's a short video about production, showing the fascinating multitude of colors they were:

https://www.facebook.com/GraberOlives/videos/10155886186428166

In the meantime, still on the subject of Jewish food, I tried Whole Foods yesterday. They had Yehuda whole wheat organic, but not the basic unsalted white. I was amused though, that our WF had a fairly small selection of Jewish products. Just two shelves maybe 30 inches wide, which included of all things: Bosco chocolate syrup. I thought this was a mistake until I found another shelf devoted to Passover specifically on an end cap--and there, again, Bosco. What's with the Bosco?