What's for Dinner ~ Wednesday June 13th

[Lucinda]

?

[noamnety]

1. It's my birthday

and we're going to my favorite restaurant - a local Ethiopian place. Cheat day on the diet! Yay!

[cbayer]

3. Happy birthday, noamnety!

Enjoy your Ethiopian meal.

[noamnety]

13. Thanks!

It's my favorite restaurant and my parents sent me a gift certificate to it for my b'day gift. So it's not just a great meal, it's a great FREE meal!

[livetohike]

4. Have a very Happy Birthday noamnety and many, many more!

Sounds like a great dinner out .

[noamnety]

14. Thank you!

I'm sitting at home all dressed up fancy, waiting for the husband to get home now.

[fizzgig]

6. happy birthday!

enjoy your dinner

[noamnety]

15. Thank you!

I'm soooo looking forward to it. I've been dieting since August (maintaining, not losing now for 3 months), and the occasional splurge is a great thing.

[yellerpup]

8. Happy birthday!

I love Ethiopian food and if you're going to cheat do it with a little heat. Celebrate yourself tonight!

[noamnety]

18. I'm excited.

I also made myself a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and spread some of the costco rhubarb-cherry-pomegranate jam in the middle frosting layer. It's ugly enough to be on cake wrecks but I don't care.

[yellerpup]

20. That will encourage you to rush home for dessert!

What's a birthday without chocolate? Mmmmm.

[maddezmom]

16. Happy Birthday

Hope you have a wonderful dinner.

[freshwest]

25. Tell us tomorrow how it was. Happy Birthday!

[cbayer]

2. Taking guests to a local gathering (pot luck)

We plan to make some chicken & sausage kebabs and a big ole tub of baked beans.

Should be lots of fun.

[yellerpup]

9. Nice.

I'm sure both dishes will be a hit. Enjoy yourself!

[livetohike]

5. "Tri Tip" Tofu, which is marinated and baked tofu squares and mashed potatoes with a

mushroom gravy, peas and some sliced tomatoes .

[yellerpup]

10. I'd try that.

Have a great evening!

[fizzgig]

7. i'm thinking steak sandwiches

i picked up some eye of round steaks last time i was at the store, i've never cooked them but they were on sale and i had a craving for meat.

i've got them marinating in what i could cobble together for a marinade - plum vinegar, soy, worcestershire, brown mustard, garlic, garlic salt and some chili powder. i'm roasting off a couple bell peppers for the sandwiches and plan on picking up some tomato, avocado and crusty rolls on the way home tonight. i'll just broil the meat and slice it thin.

we do something similar with skirt steak on the grill, so i know it's tasty

[yellerpup]

11. That marinade sounds delicious.

Let us know how that turns out!

[fizzgig]

26. i inhaled that sandwich

my husband buttered the rolls and sprinkled them with garlic salt before he toasted them. it was incredible. the only thing that would have made it better is if i had remembered that we have red onion.

i could totally eat another one, but i'm having to settle for a brownie and a glass of milk. my life is so hard

[yellerpup]

31. I don't blame you.

It makes such a difference when the rolls of a sandwich get special treatment (toasting, seasoning, etc.). Glad they turned out so well!

[yellerpup]

12. I started cooking for the fundraiser I'm catering in July.

I made a 7 lb. pork roast, pulled it and am simmering it in chilorio sauce. We'll have it in flour tortillas tonight, but I'm making tamales with it for the party. I'll be cooking for about 80 people. I also found a recipe for a pumpkin bread very much like the 18 hour no-knead loaf that has been popular on this forum for a long while. I'll report on those tomorrow! Happy Hump Day all!

[cbayer]

19. I've never made tamales, but would be interested in learning.

Also interested in your pumpkin bread. I have not been successful at adding anything to the no-knead bread.

[yellerpup]

21. Tamales are my soul food.

I started out making them about 30 years ago with my neighbor, Peter Feliz, who is from AZ. The chilorio filling is very rich and spicy. We had some of the chilorio for dinner on a flour tortilla with refried beans, salsa cruda, creamy goat cheese, and lettuce. Soooo good! The thing about tamales is they are (as is most Mexican food) very labor intensive. They are the traditional Christmas treat and are made by all the generations working in the kitchen at the same time. I can and do prepare them by myself, but it would be so nice to have some help. I'm glad I started out with first-hand instruction so I could learn about the dough consistency. The dough is supposed to float in cold water and it does if you've made it just right. I'd teach you, but I'm not a good flyer.

[fizzgig]

24. there are few things i love more than a tamale

there is a little mexican market across the street from my work. the only thing about having to get up ungodly early on saturdays was the fact that i could pick up a dozen fresh tamales before i had to go in. add a half pound of their barbacoa, some fresh salsa and bag of fresh corn tortillas and i'm eating happy for a couple of days

[yellerpup]

30. If I lived close to a Mexican market

that sold tamales, I'd be a regular customer.

[EFerrari]

32. I found a recipe that makes only 10 tamales when I learned.

The small quantity took away the intimidation factor, lol, and made it very manageable to do on my own.

[yellerpup]

33. I've never seen a recipe for that amount

but it does erase the intimidation factor. I don't mind making bucketsful, though, since they reheat so beautifully. I always think that a few dozen will last a while--but then I think of what I want for breakfast or lunch and I remember that I have tamales in the freezer. I am such a pig for Mexican food. I use Diana Kennedy's recipes. Every one is outstanding.

[EFerrari]

37. Tamales really do reheat better than anything!

I got the recipe from the Coyote Cafe cookbook (Mark Miller). I've never seen Diana Kennedy's stuff, will have to check it out.

[yellerpup]

38. And I will check out Mark Miller.

Love your icon, BTW.

[EFerrari]

40. Looking for the Miller recipe on line

I find Miller put out a whole book on just tamales. Woohoo!

The thing I love about him is that he's great at helping you with ingredients that might be unfamiliar -- where to get them, what the heck to do with them once you do. His recipes are really clear as well as good.

[grasswire]

22. I encourage you to try making tamales

They are not difficult, just time-takers, as Yellerpup says. And you can make a great big batch and freeze some.

[yellerpup]

29. Thanks for pointing that out, grasswire.

They freeze beautifully. You can haul them out, zap them in the microwave-the corn husk wrappers are fantastic for that...and in seconds you have a delicious hot tamale!

[yellerpup]

35. On that punkin bread recipe.

I made 40 small rolls from one recipe and they came out really good. The crust is crackly and the pumpkin taste is subtle but not too subtle. Easy as pie (easier, truth be told) and good. Nice crumb.

Here's a link to the recipe: http://americanfood.about.com/od/pizzaandbreads/r/No-Knead_Bread.htm

Highly recommended!

[freshwest]

23. Gosh, I love homemade tamales. When I fly south, mi hermana makes venison/pork ones.

I can't say no, and then have to wean myself off of them when I come home. About a century ago, my family lived in a rural area on the Texas Gulf coast.

There were three families living close on the river and they got together around Christmas to share what they made with pork. The Latinos made tamales, the blacks made sausage, my folks made ham and bacon. They all took turns taking care of each other's children and they were all brought up together.

One time they all went to pick a bale of cotton for the cash to pay for the black lady to have a midwife as she had trouble. One of those big bales, not the little things. My family said picking cotton was the worst work ever. That's all I know about tamales.

[yellerpup]

28. I'm going to try to find someone to donate game

for this fundraiser. Venison tamales--now that sounds authentic! Thanks for sharing your memories...what a lovely family you have. Cotton pickin' is harsh labor, backbreaking and cruel. Those bolls will rip your hands right open.

[freshwest]

34. The pork was needed to keep the venison from being too dry, so don't forget that.

Yes, that was my family before the Great Depression ran all of those people off of their land and they had to come to town.

[yellerpup]

36. Fat carries the flavor.

And venison is so very lean, I'm sure adding pork to the mix improves everything. I made lard after trimming the skin-on pork roast, and the lard makes the tamale dough taste authentic. Your people had to move off the land in South Texas? My people were in Oklahoma where the Depression came with the Dust Bowl. Don't know how they managed, but they did. Grandpa's farm is the iconic place of my childhood.

[freshwest]

39. Some oil barons had their eye on that region and went to the courthouse to prey on the locals who

Were getting behind on taxes. There were no small towns to work in, and thousands of acres were seized for pennies or less on the dollar worth of the land. It was not that great an area for raising food and the land was as it is now, sparsely populated.

In the case of my family, their parents died young when they were minors, to fend off all the vultures with no local family left. The people around there eventually sold off their stock, lived on fish caught in the river. They hung on as long as they could, the boys going to work for the oil companies buying up the properties around them, the girls at least getting their high school diplomas.

There was no cash to be had, and the state only took cash for taxes. Those laws have since been changed, though, to not seize homestead for taxes while there are people living there. I'm glad your family managed to hold on to their place, but it was a long dry spell for mine and their neighbors, and not a full rouster of hands to do the work. They were only able to save a few acres out of the thousands of acres of that old palmetto land my grandfather spent the majority of his life and worked to buy.

He died at 42, my grandmother at 36, leaving 6 orphans trying to bring each other up. They came to town to live and worked to build the unions there. I went down to the little piece of land a couple of times, and saw the remnants of the old smokehouse. Some of the old people remembered our family but they had managed to make the transition of living in big cities and pay the taxes and were able to return. It's a bit painful to discuss all these people who died young. My parents also died young. EOM.

[yellerpup]

41. It is a painful story.

Coming from poor people myself, I know that hardworking people whose hearts have been broken don't live to be old. Such tragedy for your family. Any time rich men want what you have they wear you down until they can take it. Such cruelty--I can see how this happened in my mind's eye. You have a very compelling story to tell about these loved ones who should never be forgotten. I'm glad you found the strength to share it.

[freshwest]

42. Makes me tearful. I learned later the names of those who became famously rich off it.

Thanks very much for the hug.

[yellerpup]

43. As a Cherokee

I feel that very deeply.

[freshwest]

44. Cree in my family. I was thinking a while ago about maybe why we didn't make it. My aunt told me...

That they weren't considered WASP enough in that area. They thought the family were Jewish, with the black hair, olive skin, etc.

I've completely lost contact with that side of the family, just impossible to find them in the years that passed. My last spouse's mother was full blood but separated from her birth family and given to an old couple who made it clear she was not loved, she was their servant.

There was a lot of hurt and damage there that went on for the generations that followed. In many lives there are things that reduce one's place in the social order and many have similar stories.

No matter their faults and failures, I think they still tried to give the next generation a better life. And then here we are.

[yellerpup]

45. I had a feeling from the start

about what happened to your family and how easily it happened. It's a method that has been used for the better part of two centuries here on this continent and as long as people walked on the other side of the Earth, I guess. That's why armies were invented, to take from others what they would have for themselves. People can try as hard as they can, they can be smart and wise and funny and resourceful to try to give their families the best lives they know how and not quite get there. Sometimes, especially when they are in a desperate situation ill-considered choices are made. Even though we do our best, someone else may hold a slightly better hand. Your ancestors tried and they had dreams for your mother and for you, I'm sure, in their hopes for the future. They were counting on you.

[maddezmom]

17. Surf and turf

One lobster and one ribeye....T-man will only be having turf, Madster will only be having surf and I'll be having a bit of both. We'll all be having corn on the cob and strawberries for dessert.

[eridani]

27. Nibbling from the smorgasboard at our local Dem organization meeting

DH had leftover sphaghetti and marinara sauce, and I made him a supplementary salad when I got home. I have sure not done a whole lot of regular cooking, let alone experimentation, lately.