Calibur burger carryout:
double cheeseburger
cheeseburger
fries
cheese fries
chocolate milkshake

Cooked at home:
grilled cheese & avocado (too big!)

cookie assortment - we received a new box by mail today, and I still have my assortment from my Momz group’s cookie exchange.

Your house is like a buffet on a cruise ship. You got cheeseburgers AND made grilled cheese? And cheese fries? :eek:

my family wanted Calibur carryout and we were nearby for after-school sports.

but I have zero desire to buy carryout so I cooked my own grilled cheese, especially since I learned about grilled cheese and avocado at Calibur in Winter when we would eat there post-basketball... pre-shutdown of course. Actually I was too full to finish my grilled cheese. I’m going to refrigerate it and maybe I’ll make it into an omelette for Wednesday luncheon.

Today we received cookies by mail from friends, so I’m testing them out. Mega yum. Freezing extras and I can dole them out as needed. Our child made snickerdoodles for their classmate (emphasis on mate! Omg!!) so we will also have some extra snickerdoodles.

I so have to get cream and buttermilk for upcoming baking.


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Roasted beets with yogurt and preserved lemon served over lentils from Ottolenghi's Simple.

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Last night we made red curry lentils with sweet potatoes and spinach. It was one of the New York Times top recipes for 2020, and I highly recommend it! Do not omit the toasted coconut.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/...es-and-spinach

Beef Wellington.

Not for tonight, but two weeks from today... for five years now we've dined at Bavette's (Chicago) on Dec. 30. The first time was the night of our engagement, and since neither of us are big fans of NYE, we've kept up the tradition. This year dinner at Bavette's is not to be, but they're offering takeout, so we just ordered a Dec. 30 dinner. Typically we get the seafood tower, which isn't currently being offered, but we'll make do with a la carte cold shellfish and a bunch of our other faves. (And for anyone who's familiar with Bavette's, we'll recreate the ambiance by dimming all of the lights and eating by candle. I always joke that Brendan Sodikoff has never met a lightbulb he likes.)

I hope you're not disappointed. We've ordered takeout from our favorite place in Scottsdale and after two times we decided no mas. Just kind of blah.

I have tamales in the steamer....pork and also green chilies with cheese. What an absolute pain they were to make this year---corn husks were awful to work with. I am sure they will taste great though.
ETA: They are delicious!!

Me too! That said, most of the things we ordered should travel pretty well. I think Chicago's upscale places -- the ones that never offered takeout before the pandemic -- have generally done a good job figuring out how to create a great takeout experience and package things to travel. We have had one fine dining takeout meal that was a bit of a disappointment, but that's primarily because a meal we got from them earlier in the year was spectacular and anything would pale in comparison.

Nyt sheet pan Lemony chicken with Brussels sprouts - mega big hit
Trader Joe’s latkes with applesauce and sour cream
leftover reheated mashed potatoes

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/...cipe-iOS-share


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looks wonderful .

We make tamales too, about once a year, 100% from scratch. About 50-60, and freeze most of them. Incredibly labor intensive. Better part of 2 days. Worth every minute.

aww thanks. It was not difficult and super delicious. Just wish I had used even more Brussels sprouts.

We've seen a range of quality, but our experience has been that the upscale places have generally done a good job. I think you'll be fine.
Too bad about the seafood tower though. Given the lack of upscale restaurants in the suburbs for our first NYE out here, we have talked about perhaps creating our own seafood tower at home to celebrate. We'll see.

Oddly, the place we've found that has the highest quality, nearly "in the restaurant" quality, is a Greek place near us. I may have mentioned it before. Demetri's, in Deerfield. It's a nice steak and seafood, but not upscale, kind of Greek restaurant. We've ordered takeout from there most often simply because the food seems to travel so well compared to others we've tried.

I like the eggs place that they also own. I’m not surprised that Demetri’s is good.

phoenicia in hp has very nice Mediterranean cuisine. I don’t know what they’re currently doing for carryout.

Thank you, I'll have to give it a try.

Labor intensive indeed but even more so when the husks tear, are too thick or too small, not pliable enough. I was at it for 4 hours and could have cranked out a lot more if not struggling with the husks. I would guess the 3 of us made about 50-70. We buy the masa so that is the only thing we don't do from scratch.

Tamales are too labor-intensive for me to make as while this house has two people who like them during their military years in El Paso, they don't like them as much as I do and it is not worth my time.

When I asked what they wanted to cook for Christmas, the conversation was short.

Me: (to the Parents): What do you want for Christmas dinner?
Mom: I think you should cook us a Rib Roast.
Pops: Yea! (in "Trading Places" voice)
Me: You know, as soon as the pandemic hit and there were thoughts of stores closing, I bought two beef tenderloins which are in your garage. I showed them to you when I got them and Mom, you were questioning why I bought that cut of meat.
Mom: Oh, yea. Just cook that but make sure you buy another pecan pie or key lime.

Now I have to get all the other stuff together.

Trader Joe’s chicken enchiladas
homemade guacamole
Homemade pico de Gallo
tortilla chips
latkes With applesauce

junior’s cheesecake
Haagen Dasz chocolate & Robbins rocky road

As a gift to myself, I'm considering an annual subscription to NYT Cooking. I'm generally skeptical of paying for what the web can provide for free. is this a worthy exception for someone who cooks ~2 hours a day?

no. I just use existing cookbook inventory and free online recipes. We have a nyt cooking subscription because we also have NYTimes subscription yet I only use it when my spouse sends me a Request with link.

i get NYT emails almost daily with "what to cook this week" and about half the recipes are behind a paywall but many are not. I don't know how much the subscription costs but maybe try the free thing that I have (I can't remember how I signed up) and see if they are offering a lot of things that you might be interested in but that are not free. I like Smitten Kitchen and that is free.

Thanks. It's between this subscription and a cast iron mini cocotte.

Those things are a bit too small to be usefull IMO but they look really cute.
I don't know if NYT has a trial subscription or if you can cancel after a month if you decide you don't like it and get a refund for the balance but I would check that out before I commit for a year.

It's makes for a great butter and soup warmer and my gas range came with an adapter, which I feel is a tease. But like my kettle, good intention may turn into decoration. Yes, maybe a 1-month trial is the way to go.

But if you had $50 burning a hole in your pocket, what for the kitchen would you buy?

My butter and soup warmer is called a microwave. :p
That is a very good question....I have a very small kitchen and have most of what I need but interesting to think about. I worked at a nice cookware store for the past 4 years (no more since covid) so I got most of the lusting for kitchen stuff out of my system. Maybe a nice new wood salad bowl.

I'd say that 75% of the new recipes we make are from NYTs. I have a subscription to the paper via work, so I can access recipes but can't use the NYTimes cooking app -- wish I could! Mr. CE uses it and it's great.

grilled steak (Costco prime sirloin tip)
sautéed mushrooms
baked potatoes
roasted Brussels sprouts & onions
junior’s cheesecake

That sounds decent... the cocotte!

Costco red king crab legs.

Grilled tuna salad* sandwiches on 9 grain bread. Loaded green salad.
*Line caught albacore, celery, green onions, dill pickles, mayo, black pepper.

I appreciate the suggestion, but I've probably done shellfish less than 10 nights this year, and that was mostly scallops. I do owe Costco a visit since I'm unconvinced I really need a membership, let alone my executive one, for the limited shopping I did there in 2020.

then I would spend the $50 on more nice steaks or the $42 caviar ounce at Costco.
i shop at Costco because their prices match my grocery needs, but supermarkets also can do a great job :-)

I'm about to throw in the slow cooker a 1.2kg piece of top rump roast with a beef stock and red wine bath. Ill use the bath and juices to make the gravy in about 8 hours when the meat is cooked and will fall apart.

Fusilli with Rao’s marinara & pecorino
fresh spaghetti with Rao’s marinara & pecorino
fusilli with Parmesan
snow crab claws (still delicious)
leftover chicken with Brussels sprouts
assorted olives

junior’s cheesecake
assorted holiday cookies
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Leftover Lou Malnati's spinach and pepperoni deep dish. Good. Not as good as my go to, which is pepperoni and green pepper, but still tasty.

Dessert - Tillamook Mud Slide. OMG! It may be the best ice cream I've had that was not from Berthillon in Paris. (Or maybe it's just been too long. :D)

Are you back in Chicago?

No, but enough Chicagoans live in Arizona that Malnati's now has three locations here.

Lou Malnati's is fantastic. I was skeptical about deep dish pizza, but was blown away by how non-stodgey it was.

No Lou Malnati locations here, however, a year ago, Gino's East opened a restaurant in Sherman Oaks, which is within driving distance for me. Haven't tried it yet.

There was one in Phoenix too but it closed before I had a chance to try it. I hope it's not like Pizzeria Uno, which was (is?) not like the original in Chicago. All Lou's are operated by "la famiglia." ;)