Tonight we do Italian 

 Fist up bread-sticks with garlic butter and parm (fresh made from scratch of course)

 A twist on Cesar, ran pout of romaine, so here you'll see a spinach and kale Cesar (fresh made dressing) I like to use a lot of garlic and anchovies when I make Cesar

and finally chicken Marsala

Continuing with the effort to improve my bread skills

 As I searched for a "bulkie" roll recipe it became apparent, that 1: bulkies are primarily a New England thing 2: they are very muck akin to either a kaiser roll or a Portuguese roll, as for my first foray into the world of bulkie I say they turned out ok, not quite as flaky and buttery as I'd hoped but certainly well suited to being stuffed with pulled pork :)

Pulled pork, I put about a pound and a half of "picnic shoulder" in the slow cooker with lots of garlic, salt, black pepper, basil, coriander, and dried mustard for nearly 10 hours, "pulled" it then mixed in some BBQ sauce and some of the cooking liquid, and brought it back up to temp in a sauce pan.
I didn't have any cheddar (my first choice) so I opted for provolone on the sandwich. the sprouts I simmered in a bit of the cooking liquid from the pork shoulder, the mac n' cheese is not homemade

Cold and clammy New England nights sometimes call for drastic measures...

 Rice porridge with extra thick chicken soup

Basic beef stew, i always try to make stew a day in advance, this not only allows for extremely long cooking time but I find the flavor tends to be better after a day of co-mingling......

Grilled Chuck eye

Ok, so here's another of those "secret steaks" that you won't find in every market, but you will in some, or if you have a butcher handy you could ask them for it. Chuck eye, aka chuck fillet, mock tender, fish steak, etc. etc. is a well marbled relatively* tender cut with great flavor and very minimal price tag. this is not to say I'm above spending a little money on a quality steak once in a while, it's just that we can't all be eating tenderloin every time we get that hankering for a steak, and in all honesty I actually enjoy having to chew my steak a little bit, save the "melt in your mouth" for the chocolate thank you.......

Breakingdown a chicken

Most often when I'm shopping, I opt to buy a whole chicken. not only is it less expensive than buying the various parts, but also for a couple of reasons, I like to make my own stock, , 1 I can control how much salt is in it (store bought tends to be loaded) and 2 I always give a jar or two to my grandmother (she loves it) so, that being said, here is a short video which I hope is helpful to anyone toying with the idea of following suit, who may not be sure of how to break down a chicken, you will see as I go about it, I place certain parts (namely the bones and organs) directly into a stock pot, keep in mind I only go so far in this video, one could go further still and separate the thigh from the drumstick, the breasts could be separated and butterflied (cutlets) the wings can also be split into drumettes and flats, but for today i just went for the basics

So I was thinking of that spinach/artichoke dip that I like so well 

 here's what I came up with, the only things not in the picture that I did use are salt, pepper, and a splash of lemon juice

 I de-boned and butterflied a whole chicken breast, chopped and mixed all the stuffing ingredients 

made a ball of the stuffing wrapped the chicken around it and anchored it with sweet potatoes, onion, and button mushrooms, all of which I had tossed lightly with salt, pepper, paprika, olive oil and a splash of rice vinegar

*Please note, I only used half the package of cheese, obviously one should use their judgment as for the proper proportions, also the green onion is really just to keep the foil off the chicken skin during the cooking process 

Frequently on Tuesday it's "taco Tuesday" this particular day it was fish tacos

 I put together a rub consisting of cumin, coriander, paprika, black pepper, salt, garlic powder, and a splash of lemon juice which I then "rubbed" all over this hake before broiling it, I'm sure i don't need to explain the remaining taco accouterments

The finished product

we are big fans of dim sum, unfortunately there are no good places near our home, I made the pork ribs, rice and slaw, the shumai was store bought (I haven't quite got the hang of making that yet)

Indian night. curried beef, lentil salad, rice, naan 

 my first time making naan, made me start thinking about building a tandoor......

Bacon wrapped chicken cordon bleu, sprouts, mac n' cheese

Chicken soup with rice, salad with parm cracker

Chicken chow mein with leek and mushroom soup

Grilled ribeye with mashed and salad

Mixed berry tart with lemon vanilla custard

Beef and broccoli is a favorite around here 

I guess i do a fair amount of baking? banana muffins here

I've been trying to hone my bread baking skills this is a baguette 

Bacon, asparagus, garlic, onion, red bell pepper and cheddar quiche  

Bacon cheddar burger rye biscuit deep dish

Tempura soft shell with old bay and lemon aioli, wilted spinach with garlic lemon butter, herbed cream cheese and garlic stuffed jumbo shrimp, mac n' cheese 

Lasagna

Hugo 

Shrimp scampi, shrimp cocktail, garlic bread with tomato and cheese 

Chicken parm

Mini eggrolls, chicken lo mein, boneless ribs, jasmine rice

Burger time!

steamed lobster, baked potato, corn, coleslaw, raw oysters

Scallops n bacon, bacon fried rice, pork dumplings, steamed monk fish (in cabbage)

Twice baked taters,double dipped pork chops, corn

Pizza night (again)

 spinach and flax seed pesto, balsamic glazed shrimp, fresh mozzarella

 Buffalo chicken, celery, green onion, three cheese

Sweet italian, mushrooms, onion fresh mozz.

Asian style pepper steak, jasmine rice, iced jasmine tea 

Sliders, tater salad, cucumber salad 

Chicken skewers, grilled veggies, tex-mex rice

Steak*, waffle fries, asparagus 

*this is "Chuck blade" steak, or "secret steak" as I like to call it. possibly the most underused cut there is (as far as grilling) it is a fairly tender well marbled cut that happens to be very inexpensive. People tend to shy away from it for some reason, could be the price? one would think they must spend top dollar to get a quality steak, but this is not always true. When choosing a blade steak I always try to find cuts with minimal connective tissue running through the center (see left of photo) as this is a bit tough, and probably another reason this steak is not more often grilled. I didn't do so well in this instance, but if you play your cards right, the bulk of this tissue will cook away leaving you a very pleasant "cheap" steak

Fried chicken* taters with gravy, biscuits, corn, strawberry milkshake 

* I find myself constantly playing around with the breading for fried chicken, of late I've been using a combination of bread crumbs, all purpose flour, corn meal, and semolina and of course what ever seasonings I might be inspired to use that day.....

Baked stuffed salmon with asparagus and jasmine rice

I guess I make a lot of pizza, this one is deep-dish with a biscuit crust 

Baby back ribs, cheesy bow-ties, broccoli  

Baked whitefish, fiddle-heads, snap peas, jasmine rice