Well, i thought i had gas to make it home, but just near my exit we ran out and had to wait for AAA …plus i needed to straighten up as the appraisal for the refi is tomorrow…so we ended ip with air fried tots, gluten free air fried cod…and our health dinner commenced!
2020 is a year of pivots and turns.
Today i planned a meal of meatballs made with my meatless loaf recipe, caraway sauerkraut and “picnic tomatoes” from bon appetit with a nice Riesling
I got this:
It was perfectly good…but not what i planned.
The nut loaf recipe lives in my head but i chose to modify and add garbanzos (because i read too many recipes this am)….after i made it, it was too moist for meatballs even after chilling
Its mushrooms, gf bread crumbs, egg, onion, walnuts, spice and added garbanzo.
So i pivoted and shaped it to be sausages and rolled in foul to cook
Im still waiting for it to firm up…i usually make this a ms a loaf so its open for moisture to evaporate and it cook it long and low….so how did i end up with meatballs?
Lightlife burger in my fridge mixed with some cheese, egg, spice and shaped into balls went i to the counter oven for ten minutes and dinner is saved and they were yum!
Why does my kraut not look like a classic caraway kraut? Someone left the package open on my caraway kraut so it went to the trash.
The tomatoes….good idea! The tomatoes werent the best after i made my first farmers market visit in cv19 era…these will be phenomenal with a good ripe tomato!!
I tried an eggplant panini with mozzarella, pesto, and tomato inside. 
And… roasted cabbage with a mustard-vinegar sauce
And a paloma in our rarely used Tom of Finland glasses.
And thought i took a pic of it plated…but i guess not. Both recipes need a second attempt now that i figured our what worked and what didnt….the cabbage was inspired by an airfryer cabbage recipe…
So many things on the table or used to make this meal came from so many people–gifts, items i received after their death, etc…so even if you don’t see yourself there consider that so many gifts and memories went into the prep as well.
Once again, i smoked a turkey.
I didnt follow my own recipe so it wasnt as perfect as usual (and grilled turkey people is great!)
Heres a peek at her prep:
Mashed potatoes, yams and pumpkin:
Gluten free stuffing:
Gluten free green beans with a nod to walmart for gluten free cream of mushroom and sprouts for gluten free fried onions.
Deviled eggs:
Pickled peppers with goat cheese, cucumber and mint:
A thanksgiving cocktail with sparkling apple, cranberry, sage, lemon and mionetto rose in our waterford flutes:
In the background of the table pic, you will see Jim’s watergate salad of pistachio, pineapple, nuts, etc.
And our pies:
Scratch pumpkin and a pecan with gluten free crust.
Lost of leftovers….just the two of us.
So today was inspired by a bon appetit email about weekday pasta bakes
Turns out i had the items needed for my own bake at home.
Chickpea shells
Ricotta hidden within
Chickpeas
Mushrooms
Spots of sauce
Fresh mozzarella
Had a nice salad on the side
So i bought some kimchi saurkraut (which is yummy by the way….its saurkraut with kimchi seasonings), and had no idea what to do with it. My reference is saurkraut wih potatoes and sausage.
So thats what i did. White rice, potatoes in tamari and shrimp sausage. I basically used a shrimp burger recipe and shaped it as sausages, rolled in foil, froze to firm up and baked them.
I have already misplaced the recipe for the red pepper recipe this week…but i made it! It was an ATK recipe challenge email featuring season produce
I slightly mashed some canned garbanzos
Added capers, lime juice, olive oil, gluten free bread crumbs, garlic and crumbled goat cheese.
Roasted the pepper
Stuffed it..added some goat cheese on top with and olive oil drizzle.
Baked it
Served it up with a pile of salad
I found this recipe in the new BH&G which is not my goto for veggie dishes, but this looked interesting for a hot summer day (100 plus)
I prepped the veggies first:
And got my vinegar, sugar and salt prepped
I want a pickle not a sog so i will combine in a bit. Meanwhile i am draining a block of extra firm tofu.
And prepping my sangria:
And these guys will macerate for several hours before i top with a sparkling rose or prosecco. Im gonna do room temp for a bit to help break things down then i will chill.
The tofu is sliced into steaks and allowed to marinate with sriracha mayo:
Later these slices will be fried with mayo side down. The recipe doesnt suggest any time to marinate but im going to let this sit for several hours.
Meanwhile, my sauces for the fries. All the recipes i saw were basically loaded fries with sauces cilantro and peanuts poured on top. As i write this i havent committed to my process, but i am prepping my garlic mayo, got out hte gf hoisin and i think i will toss fresh potato in sriracha then grill or bake.
The garlic mayo is toasted garlic powder and minced fresh garlic with a touch of lime.
The fries have been cut and smothered with sriracha and then oil.
The fries were oven fried. Rather than the nacho style recipes i found online with sriracha and hoisin over the top with cilantro, i had mine on the side as dipping sauces. Here are the sauces and my veggies:
The tofu was fried mayo side down
And put on a gluten free roll:
And it appears that i failed to take pictures after i topped with the pickled vegetable slices. I decided to make mine open face.
The sangria was topped off with prosecco for bubbles.
Here is the BH&G version all finished.
Okay….this got posted incomplete!!!
Here is my mise en place for this email inspired idea…romaine, parmesan, homemade dressing, smoked blue cheese, tomato, avocado, bacon, garlic, radish, shishito (that i grew!), cucumber….i took like 4 pictures because this has the red pepper that i removed but didnt have the egg i added, etc
Grilled romaine…yep, i flipped and grilled again
Grilling avocado. They made nice grill marks
This is my first try at a grilled chopped blt salad.
It was good:-)
Tonights cocktail was bubbly rose with some Pama splashed in it.
From the silver palate, i am making arancini…and from my brain, shrimp meatballs.
Raw peeled and deveined shrimp in the vitamix
Maybe a little too vitamixed.
I added some gluten free bread crumbs and lemon juice…dill, salt
Meatball shaped, dipped in bread crumbs. Put it in the freezer …
Brought them back out and up to temp and fried
Finished off in oven
TVP soaked in tomato andWorcestershire and vitamixed
Draining the rice before mixing in butter and parmesan
Omg…i could stop here…buttery/parmesany rish rice cooling and drying.
Rolled up, filled with a piece ofmozzarella and tvp/tomato mix…then dipped in egg and then gluten free flour
Aperol spritz for jim and campari spritz for me
Pasta with chard and the shrimp meatballs
Egg noodle gluten free pasta was a fail.
Shrimp meatballs were perfect and arent so delivate icant sauce them better
Arancini…smaller next time. But thatnrice was wonderful, i really did learn a new technique.
Brian and Jim Eat 