It’s Sunday Supper time. What did you have?
I picked some berries earlier today.
I prepared a pre-prandial martini, very dry.
Time for a stroll, martini in hand. Touches of color are appearing.
I checked on my mini beef roast and vegetables.
This is about enough for four good-sized portions.
I checked on my Yorkshire puddings. They didn’t rise very much, but they were tasty and moist inside while nice and crunchy outside. I don’t think I put enough batter into the searing hot ramekins. Some day I will make it in a pan.
Here is my beverage for our carvery fare.
Baked potato, Yorkshire pudding, roast beef, roasted vegetables, horseradish. I made gravy from the leavings in the pan and added fresh thyme and a little Malbec languishing in the bottom of a bottle.
Followed by nap.
Berries to follow nap.
And you? What did you prepare for your Sunday Supper.
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slow braised beef cheeks with celeriac salad in creme fraiche and horseradish dressing
Hamburger Helper. Posh, I know. I was planning on doing chicken korma, but I must have naan and I didn’t have time to go get it.
Baked ham with easy glaze of OJ, honey and brown sugar. Just a small ham for the four if us. Scalloped potatoes and fresh peas which my hubby likes with vinegar of all things. Homemade iced tea to drink!
[What kind of tea?]
It’s still the afternoon here, but I’ll be making Engagement Chicken [?] with nugget potatoes and a greek salad. I’m watching football right now, so I’ll put it together during half time, and it should be ready by supper time.
Once again I’ll be dining solo tonight.
Looks very good, and I am pleased to see the choice of an ale local to me.
Re Yorkshire puddings. For a good rise you do not want to use a deep container nor over fill what you are using (the pudding needs a certain amount of ‘wall’ to sustain itself). The most puffy puddings are achieved by using small amounts of batter in a relatively shallow tray.
Perhaps you should add this to your wish-list. If I come into some money (not sure that is going to happen in the Ordinariate) I will try to treat you!
[Thanks for the advice! Interesting pan. I added that to my wishlist. Perhaps someone not as concerned for his fate in the Ordinariate will take note.]
I went out with my parents to the Greek Festival, over at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Parish. They just got back from a trip; and they didn’t think they were all that hungry, because they had a big breakfast very early. But I hadn’t had much breakfast, on account of not having much appetite; and it’s amazing how much food people will eat off your plate if you urge them to try a little…. :) So we had pork souvlaki kabobs, green beans in tomato sauce on rice (well, that was all mine), a little Greek salad (Mom nabbed some olives), a very tasty custard in phyllo dough thing called galakto- pita? (Mom didn’t have that), some spinach pies (trigona), and some dolmades (the grape leaves thing). I also had bought my mom a nice piece of cake the day before, because she has allergies to yeast cakes and I knew she probably wasn’t getting much dessert on the trip. So she had the cake first, out in the car. :)
OTOH, my mom kept telling people at the festival to buy the parish’s cookbook, because they really can cook a lot of Greek dishes at home. So I did have dinner with my family, and we did promote cooking. We just didn’t do any. :) I’m just as glad, honestly. I really needed to get away from brooding over the anniversary and spend time outside in the fresh air with my family.
[Since a possible date of the the anniversary of the Battle of Marathon is upon us, 12 September, I hope you enjoy anything left over.]
We had our parish priest over for an informal lunch of spaghetti and meatballs,caesar salad, garlic bread and fruit. All was served atop a lovely table decorated by my children! They were so excited to have Fr over that they pulled out the tablecloth, real napkins, a hodge podge of napkin rings and coordinating glassware. Not to mention they put out chargers found candlesticks that matched and beamed with pride at their creation! [Fun!]
Heirloom tomato salad with thinly sliced fennel and onions, toasted walnuts, blue cheese, with an oil and vinegar adressing pumped up with parsley and tarragon. Pan-fried pork chops with a pan sauce (chicken broth, lemon juice, garlic, shredded basil). Old-fashioned succotash (corn, green beans, butter, cream). Of course I haven’t quite cooked any of this stuff yet–just did the prep. We eat late. Beverage: Rose (sorry, can’t make the accent aigu).
I’m in California, so dinner is still a few hours away, but we have planned Roast Chicken and Sweet Italian Sausages with roasted carrots, baby Yukon Gold potatoes, and shallots. I serve it drizzled with combination of balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of brown sugar that has been cooked down into a syrupy sauce. A good meal to feed a crowd of hungry husband, two growing boys, and my mother-in-law and still have a few leftovers. I love Yorkshire Pudding, though I have never before made it. I will have to fix that pretty soon. Yours looks like it tastes so good.
The other trick to Yorkshire pudding and popovers is to make sure the oven and the pan or ramekins are VERY hot and the batter is at room temp… [Yep. Did that. They were at 450F when I put it in, and they were resting on a heated pizza stone, to boot. However, sometimes it helps to let the batter rest a while, and I didn’t give it much time today.] it makes them really puff (allowing for more surface area for butter and gravy!) But really, let’s face it…puffed or not, they are always delicious!
Your feast looks wonderful!
Father,
I think you mean marTini in hand, not Marini, no? If you brought a Marini, was it Piero, by chance? [Guido nodded. I’ll make the correction.]
God bless,
Chris
I’ve got some wonderful Yorkshire pudding pans that my husband gave me years ago. They’re like muffin tins, except that the “cups” are extremely wide and extremely shallow. The pans work like a charm, making huge, puffy puddings, and I don’t even know why. All I know is that, as other commentators have pointed out, you should preheat the pans until they’re blazing hot.
Made Chicken on a beer can. Smoked it with oak for 2 hours. [Gotta try that some day.] I made a good dry rub for it . Added jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese wrapped in bacon and mashed potatoes.
Mexican chicken casserole with charred tomato salsa.
(It’s the Mexican equivalent of a lasagna.)
It’s football day today, so we are being bad. Plenty of leftovers in the fridge, plus I’ll fry up some sausage and peppers. Usually we have nicer meals, but the whole family wanted to relax and watch some football.
My mom’s recipe for sweet tea so I cannot publish it here but I may he persuaded to share it via email. It’s not really dependent on the type if tea, per se, it’s more about the method. It’s very yummy!!
Yum. Everyone’s meals sound delicious.
We are going to have split-pea soup. I usually try to fix something “fancier” for Sunday, but I’m trying to use up things from the freezer and we have lots of Italian sausage leftover from last year’s pig and here we have this year’s pig getting fat outside. I hope my husband will make some of his delicious bread sticks to go with it.
I drank my first Mystic Monk tea today. As I expected, it was superb. Normally, I wouldn’t spend so much for tea, but it’s really seems to very high in quality, and I like to support the monks. It was more robust than the cheapy tea I usually drink. I bought some for gifts for the tea-lovers in my life. It smells and taste so yummy. I want to make it into iced tea for a party, but I’m a little concerned that it’s all caffeine full and this is a night-time gathering. I can’t figure it out. Does anyone know if any of it is decaf?
[C’mon… you can say it! Mystic Monk! It’s swell!]
Everyone’s meal? All the people’s meals? ???
I’m sure it’s been asked before but when will the Monks be making K cups?
Nothing too elaborate for dinner tonight – just some Italian sausages that I’ll do up on the grill. Yesterday, though, I gave my new crockpot its inaugural workout with steaks in an onion-jalapeño sauce. Served with mashed potatoes and a cucumber salad on the side. A home-brewed stout to wash it down. I had leftovers for lunch today.
I did make some Southern sweet tea this morning. Luzianne, not MM. Sorry, Father!
I must say that I’ve not seen tomotoes whole like that in a pot roast. [Rather last minute. I had to use them up. Glad I did.] Then again, I don’t put them on my shish-kabob like some do. All they do is burst and spit all over the grill.
Just made an excellent flank steak grilled after sitting in Carribean jerk marinade as I watched the Detroit Lions pull of a win.
Fr. Z
I am intrigued by your picture of your martini. I was always taught that you shoul put the gin in the glass (Plymouth gin, obviously) and then let the sunlight shine through the vermouth bottle into the glass. You appear to be dispensing with the vermouth bottle – is this the New Martini Movement?
Fr. Z
Engagement Chicken is basically just a roasted chicken stuffed with a perforated lemon and seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, and sea salt.
There’s a story behind it with how it got its name. Some woman made it for her boyfriend, who then proposed a month later. This same woman passed the recipe on to another woman, who made it for her boyfriend and as luck would have it, became engaged shortly thereafter. Another woman caught hold of the recipe and made it for her boyfriend, and he proposed to her as well.
I got the recipe from Glamour Magazine a few years ago. Apparently women wanting a ring are supposed to make it for their boyfriends and an engagement should ensue shortly thereafter.
I seem to be perpetually single, and only make it because it’s so easy to throw together. I call it engagement chicken in a mocking tone simply because I think it’s so dumb. I’d like my engagement based on something a little more solid than a roasted chicken. I’m just sayin’…
It’s afternoon here in Oregon, so here’s what I made for the Saturday night movie (Desert Fox). On Friday, in a slow oven, I roasted a lot of home grown tomatoes with olive oil and oregano. Saturday I sliced some artisan olive bread, put roasted tomatoes on top of that, then some mozarella, and ran it under the broiler. With a red wine and local grapes, it was a great easy “TV” dinner. Dessert was zucchini bread.
APX,
Sounds like Glamour magazine stole it from Marcella Hazan. Except she uses two lemons. We make it all the time because it’s so easy.
But tonight we’re just throwing some brats on the grill.
Father Z,
If you ever decide to take up retriever work, you have the perfect pond. Nice narrow end for swim-by and enough space for multiple marks and blinds. :-)
I went to the local buffet and got take-out. They had collard greens with bacon and onion. I never cooked collard greens so this was a taste experiment for me. It was very good, and went well with the baked chicken and the pasta salad.
Tacos, made at home, and football! Lots of family to cheer for our boys the Ravens as they soundly threshed the Pittsburg Steelers!
I enjoyed your photos, Fr. Z., beautiful scenery and light glinting from the glass. Thank you for sharing your pictures and food shots, they look great.
We live in Northern California. My wife and I will go out for dinner tonight. I will order the halibut with a spicy thai sauce. We picked blackberries this afternoon. They are big, ripe and delicious. Our black lab has learned how to eat them off the vine! He is a die-hard retriever. He has also been known to pluck tomatoes off the vine.
Have a lovely Sunday evening, Father Z.
Up in Manitoba it is harvest season and the first of the fall/fowl suppers was on. Turkey, ham and all the trimmings. Most people in the town donate desserts. Simple and very satisfying.
For us it was grilled marinated chicken breasts, green beans, mashed potatoes (sorry- instant), and fresh tomatoes from the garden. This was pretty simple, but my wife’s not feeling well so it was the best we and the kids can do. 4/5ths of the children were present- son no. 2 had to work and could not make it, unfortunately. A nice time.
I helped put up multiple American flags in our parish church yesterday morning- but none on the wall behind the altar, since we don’t worship flags- they’re not felt banners, after all! Early Mass was nice- the reader was not so hot (I did the best I could, though).
Father Jim, our uber-patriotic Priest, encouraged us to spend the day in prayer and recollection for the terrorist attack ten years ago.
Unfortunately, I had some concrete forms I wanted to take apart from the sidewalk in front of the rectory. I thought that if I waited another day, I’d never get them apart, so I went over to the church and did the work, but I had two excuses ready in case I ran into Fr. Jim: 1. Fr. Jim suggested to me once, when I asked him about it, that doing servile work at the Parish on Sunday might not necessarily be sinful since it was in service to the church (some fisking on this point would be helpful, Fr. Z), and 2. avoiding necessary work merely because it’s 9/11 would mean that the terrorists already won. As it turned out, it did not take ling, and I did not see him.
Diced boneless skinless chicken thighs in crushed tomatoes with garlic, garam masala, extra coriander, fenugreek, paprika, small amount of cayenne pepper, small amount of turmeric, salt. Simmer two hours. Serve on small amount of rigatoni. Veggie lover salad (premix) with Marzetti sweet Italian dressing. So a mixture of countries coexist peaceably in my tummy. No dessert.
Knights of Columbus picnic and I did not have to cook. Yay!
Last evening we hosted a little Oktoberfest with friends! (Yes, it’s still Sept., but you know the Germans…they are always early).
We started with homemade soft pretzels, bratwurst, liver pate…and beer.
I made pork schnitzel with sour cream gravy, spaetzle, red cabbage and apples, cucumber salad.
For dessert we had apfelstrudel, berry kuchen, linzer tarts and German chocolates.
Fortunately, we had enough for leftovers for tonight’s dinner, as I just finally finished putting away all the dishes!
We ate at the annual parish picnic. The food was great and the smiles on our children’s faces were beyond fabulous.
Roast pork loin rubbed with equal parts of salt, black pepper, crushed rosemary, ground sage, garlic powder, and onion powder and served with a marsala wine gravy; roasted potatoes tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and oregano; and broccoli marinated in balsamic vinaigrette and finished with capers (I forgot to add the crushed red pepper). Paired with a cheap sauvignon blanc and a glass of uisce beatha for dessert.
My favorite recipe martini recipe calls for putting the gin bottle in the freezer and keeping the vermouth at room temperature. I pour the cold directly into the glass and leave the vermouth in the pantry.
A simple garbage pasta: penne, al dente, with ground elk, shallots, garlic, thyme, basil, in reduced heavy cream. Fresh ground pepper and Trader Joe’s blend of romano & parmagiano (sp?). With a cuppala glasses of champers while contemplating the events of 10 years ago. And this morning: Constantino ended his six year battle with cancer this morning with grace and dignity and humility befitting a Christian gentleman. May his memory be eternal!
I had walleye I caught myself a couple days ago, never frozen, with garden green beans. After dinner my wife and I retreated with the recent film verision of Jane Eyre, some organic wine, and then some decent Scotch. Worse ways to spend a Sunday evening.
That roast beef and yorkshire pudding reminds me of the dinners my English Mum would make when I was a kid, she was and is a wonderful cook and made the best yorkshire pudding.
At a software conference all weekend, so dinner had to be simple, Italian Casserole, a recipe I got out of the newspaper, lean ground beef (I used bison), onions and garlic, a jar of roasted garlic spaghetti sauce, a couple cups cooked whole wheat penne, a few handfuls of mozzarella and parmesan cheese and pop it in the oven for 25 minutes while we have a drink and talk about our day.
Friends had us over for paella, a simple salad and a mixed-fruit tart. Appetizers of roasted figs with parmesan and prosiciutto “lollipops” on breadsticks. Very tasty al fresco dining all around.
Boun Appetio Don Z
Georgia boiled peanuts. Delicious and addictive
Fr. Z, the Yorkshire pudding pans now on your wish list are exactly the kind I own–and they never fail. I have a feeling, too, that thin metal instead of heavy ceramic might have something to do with the rising: the swift and steady infusion of oven heat through an excellent conductor of heat. The shallowness of the pan I don’t understand–because I also own a metal popover pan with ultra-deep cups (another gift from the H.) that produces towering popovers. [I have made very nice puddings with these before. It just didn’t happen this time for some reason. And they were HOT.]
Letting the batter rest for a half-hour or so also helps with the rise.
Came home late after being at two 9/11 events (memorial concert of Mozart’s ‘Requiem’) and a ‘Silent March’ ceremony, so dinner [supper to you, Father Z] was chicken nuggets, corn, califlower, broccoli and carrots, black olives, flatbread with pretzels [yeah, I’m weird], and ice tea [sorry, no Mystic Monk here-too expensive for me right now].
I ate while listening to football highlights and later games on the radio. I think I also tried to read the Sunday NY Daily News, with its 80-page 9/11 special supplement.
But your supper looked pretty good, Father!
Fresh salmon with lemon and black pepper, small new potatoes mixed with crunchy smoked bacon bits and a little mayonnaise to bind, cauliflower and broccoli florets and carrots. Glazed pear flan on a thin marzipan base. The vital missing ingedient: that very dry martini.
Saving the big number – tartiflette – for my sister’s visit from France.
I tend to give Yorkshire puds several whippings to get the air in but even then some fail. Yorkshire folk tell me the real thing stays flat and puddingy.
Crumbled a chocolate muffin into a bowl, topped it with vanilla ice cream.
I’d like to recommend substituting Lillet for Vermouth
And I’m looking for a reasonably priced London gin recommendation!
Interestingly, Plymouth Gin used to have a picture of a monk on the bottle.
Grabski: Try Cocchi Americano.
Thanks!
One of the best amateur cooks I know told me that the secret to Yorkshire puddings is to put a little oil in the bottom of whatever dish you are using and put that in the oven first, leave it until the oil is spitting hot and then add the batter. [I believe the general practice is to use drippings from the roast. But, yes, this is the right way to do it.]