Today was my effort to make something of the leftovers from my friend's birthday party two nights ago. A ton of leftovers in the fridge - yesterday I stuffed myself on shrimp and potato salad, since those couldn't be kept another day.
On the cooking agenda today, I had left over two kinds of Trapanese pesto, roasted sweet pepper sauce, cold cuts including lemon pepper chicken breast, pork tenderloin with a herb and almond crust, sliced cheese, roasted peppers and zucchini, slices of fresh tomato.
So I made enough noodles for two dishes. Chopped up the chicken and pork into two bowls with half the roasted vegs, and half the noodles. Softened the pesto with a couple tablespoons of pasta water and stirred that in. Pork got the GWR tomato- basil pesto, chicken got the orange tomato-thyme pesto (both made with whole ground almonds) and topped up with some roasted pepper sauce. Spread in foil pans for baking and freezing, topped with sliced tomato, grated cheese, rye bread crumbs and parmesan.
I'm eating some of the chicken one now, will have to freeze the rest and hope the meat is still tender after another reheat.
Verdict is: pretty delicious. Memo to self is: always top with slices of tomato! So sweet.

The Trapanese pesto is something I hadn't made before but found some recipes and ideas when looking for things to do with tomatoes... it's great stuff! I roasted the tomatoes in a little oil for half an hour at 400, let cool then puree in the blender. One cup of pureed roast tomato or about 3/4 cup tomato plus big handful of fresh basil leaves, to 1/3 cup each of ground almonds and finely grated parmesan, and seasoned of course with fresh garlic and a little salt and pepper, juice of half a lemon.
I'm told it freezes well and I'll be testing that out.

Peanut butter sandwich.
I've lost weight but don't know how much but a lot.
Gotta about 20 more pounds to go before I'm at normal weight for height or at least what I think it should be.

Not bad I guess.
Had bacon and eggs for breakfast.

Stir fry. peeled gulf Shrimp, garden red and green bell peppers, bean sprouts, grated ginger, shallots, sliced mushrooms, garden red pepper flakes, toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, jasmine rice. Dad gum delicious.

Whole wheat bread.
2 thick slices of yellow deli sliced real American cheese.
3 slices of thin soppressata.
Bread cheese soppressata.
Cheese.
Buttered skillet.
Toast.
Buttered skillet.
Flip and toast.
Use low heat so cheese will melt.
Great grilled cheese sandwich.

Had a grilled cheese with salami last week. Also delicious.

Sue_CT wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2024 1:05 pm Had a grilled cheese with salami last week. Also delicious.

What salami cotto?
Cotto means cooked but a lot of salami isn't cooked.
The soppressata is actually raw.

It was a hard cooked salami. I think it was Genoa, but it could’ve been Capicola also. Compared to other meats it is very cheap around here, 499 to 699 a pound, although you can spend 1299 a pound if you want.

Neither one of those are cooked.
They're cured and dried.

A trip past the Reduced section at the local Metro Market yielded an extra primo good (and half price) Black Angus Top Sirloin: Brought to room temperature on our newest trivet: And grilled (IMO) to perfection: The Gotch

Fried flounder and fried okra. Yummy. Okra picked moments before cooking. Flounder was caught about 10:30 this morning.

karstopography wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2024 7:18 pmFried flounder and fried okra. Yummy. Okra picked moments before cooking. Flounder was caught about 10:30 this morning.

You's had The Gotch at FRIED!

The Gotch

I had fried fish too.

The Black Angus Top Sirloin was pressed into a heavenly mixture of peppers, garlic, onion for the lovely and long suffering Mrs. Gotch's Steak Fajitas: Wrappers ready: ¡Finalizado! The Gotch

Roasted fresh tomato soup ( I use Gordon ramsays recipe ) and grilled cheese. Keep in it simple

Homegrwoninillinois wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 6:25 pm Roasted fresh tomato soup ( I use Gordon ramsays recipe ) and grilled cheese. Keep in it simple

Provided it's WESconsin Cheese!

The Gotch

I threw together another one of those Creole style dishes today, using a bunch of things from the garden, plus a few other things I had in the fridge, to use up. And I started by browning some bacon in an 8 qt pot, eventually removing it to a PT to drain, then removed most of the fat. Then I added a large chopped onion, cooked until golden, then added about 2 c of diced green bell peppers, 1 c of finely chopped carrots, and 6 cloves minced garlic, and the spices, plus 7 fresh bay leaves, and cooked on medium for about 5 minutes, or until I got all the okra cut up - a little more than 2 c - then while that was cooking, I cut up 2 Ichiban eggplants - a little more than 2 c again - and cooked that, stirring frequently, then added 5 c of tomatoes, puréed coarsely, and rinsed the blender out with at least 2 c water, and added the drained bacon. I brought it to a simmer, and added 1 c whole mung beans, and 3/4 c whole oats, and added salt to taste, and set to simmer on low for 40 min. Checked after 30, but definitely needed more, ending up to about 55 min, and could have used a little more, but I left it slightly al dente, so re-heating won't make it mushy. While that was cooking, I cut up, and cooked the lb of mushrooms I had for a while, and put them in for the last 10 min. This was the only thing that kept this from being one of those one dish meals, though it finished in the one dish. And I would have done this in the Instant Pot, and much quicker, but I have a batch of yogurt in there!
Creole dish started, with all the veggies, except for the tomatoes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Creole type dish, using some bacon, onion, garlic, bell peppers, carrots, okra, eggplant, mushrooms, tomatoes, mung beans, and whole oats. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Creole dish, with a lot of okra. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Chili dogs with extra onions and a Russian movie dubbed in English about their first attempt at bombing Berlin in 1941.

Big pot of chicken heart stew with lots of onions and Super Shepherd peppers, the usual bay leaf, summer savory, red wine.

Also roasted two pans of Super Shepherd, which are cooling while i eat, to be skinned and kept in some evoo I guess.
The supermarket this morning took charge of my day by offering a 5 kilo box of Super Shepherd peppers for $5.96 CAD. Not perfect, some boxes you could see the spoilage but I got a good looking one and thus spent the rest of the day washing and parsing produce to freeze, roast, etc. Very little spoilage in my box, lots of top quality perfect for freezing. I have enough to fill another couple pans for roasting, which are not bad in any way but a little wrinkly in places and some with patches of zippery skins which might as well be roasted and removed.
Just for reference, the bags of small bells or mini peppers that I buy to toss in a sheet pan dinner all winter are $8 or $9 a pound, which is about half kilo bag. 10 times that for 5 kilos would be $80-90. Definitely a big save, and the Super Shepherd is great for the purpose. Sweet and juicy and freeze well for the purpose. So the deal on these peppers... unimaginable!
I don't have a roasted pepper habit but I'm willing to play with that. New habits good.

I made a tomatoless spaghetti sauce.
Active ingredients....
1 pound ground brisket.
Water.
Paprika.
Harissa hot.
Cumin.
Ground fennel.
Salt.
Cilantro cube frozen.
Onion powder.
Oregano.
Cooked down and added a few pinches of corn meal to thicken.
Very tasty.

Breakfast was the remainder of a bag of buffalo Cheetos. I believe in eating healthy.