Thought it might be fun to see what everyone else is having... we're having bulgogi and rice (Korean bbq beef) and whatever side dishes I can scrape up...  maybe some of the pickled green beans I canned last summer since I'm out of kimchee.  Trying to clean out all the freezer and pantry over the next few weeks/months.  

So what's for dinner at your house?

Funny, I was just thinking what should I make for dinner....

Cool idea, Homegrown. Wife's night out here.... I had a left over baked pasta-dish-without-a-name that I made Monday. Rotini (50-50 mix of semolina & whole wheat), chopped onions, spinach, tomatoes, garlic & thinly sliced zucchini, Bertolli organic olive oil basil & garlic tomato sauce, some ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, and a pepper spice mix I like.

It's my own off the cuff recipe.  

Sigh. Nobody else is eating dinner?

Sounds good, Don... you must cook like we do... make it up as you go.

I ended up adding fried okra (hey, it needed to be used tonight) and some tomatoes from the garden to our dinner, as well as the pickled green beans.  The girls were helping me in the kitchen, and so we ended up with about 2 cups of millet in the rice (because each one wanted to put some in)... by the time the rice was done, it looked almost like more millet than rice.  It was good, even if a little incongruous.  We eat a lot of whatever needs to be used up... makes for interesting meals that way.  Made half of the bulgogi with hot chilies (for us) and half without (for the kids), and doggone it if the spicy stuff didn't get eaten up entirely.  Not even enough left over for lunch tomorrow.  I got the okra from the grocery store... first time in almost three years I've seen it up here.  Got tickled when the check-out girl was ringing it up and announced proudly, "And this... this is okra, which I just learned this morning!"  There was some at the local farmer's market a month or two back, but they'd let it grow to 8-10" long, so I knew I'd need a steak knife just to cut it... I think it was an experimental plant for the grower, but it was something they obviously don't eat since they don't know when to pick it.  

And since we're on the topic of dinner, what is your very favorite dinner for just a regular weeknight?

QuoteSounds good, Don... you must cook like we do... make it up as you go.

Or I work from recipes and make changes. The tough thing is to remember to jot down what worked really well when winging or modifying so they can be repeated reliably.

Quotewhat is your very favorite dinner for just a regular weeknight?

OOOh! That's tough to say. One favorite?

I could be facetious and say it's one someone cooked and where someone else did the dishes.  

I'll give some thought to this.

Every so often (tonight) we like a great big pretty well done hamburger - about an inch thick - I like mine with ketchup and salt-   Sassy made some 7 grain toasted bread and a salad to go with it.  For desert I had about a cup of vanilla and orange sherbet.  A cup of each--

I don't keep regular hours and many times eat at random times of night.

So is that your favorite, Glenn?

I think I only have seasonal favorites... Summer, it's a bowl of black-eyed peas with thick slices of fresh tomatoes, fried okra, salad, and a glass of so-cold-it-hurts-your-teeth milk.  Winter, it's a bowl of stew (I like calabacitas stew with squash, whatever veggies I can find,hot peppers, a little cheese, and lots of cilantro) and cornbread.  Guess I have simple tastes.    One of my uncles and I have started a campaign to forgo all the traditional holiday fancy food and have beans, cornbread, and collards.    Not that I don't like holiday food, but I hate the fact that the aunts and my mom tend to freak out about getting everything done and that there is always so much excess.  

Hmmm... tonight I think we'll have the leftover rice/millet mixture with...well... maybe I'll make fried rice with veggies?  And maybe a little chicken to go with it.    I'm pretty unenthusiastic about cooking right now... antibiotics are having major impact on my appetite... might be the first pregnancy where I'll actually lose weight.  Sigh...and today I've got to make the monthly pilgrimmage to the grocery store to get some stuff with the three year old who is begging to wear her superman getup to the store.

Cool on tthe Superman outfit.  My son used to like to wear his Spiderman Underoos when he went places and he was 16. :-?

I think my favorites are anything that is special and tastes good -- probably Ice Cream of various flavors - then steak cooked in the Round Oak wood stove in a basket with Montreal Steak seasoning pretty well covering both sides.

This mornings breakfast is Spaghetti squash from our garden, coverd with brown sugar and butter and a dash of salt , along with leftover steak.

Your recipe sounds good, MtnDon - I make a pasta dish sorta like that - love it, although it doesn't always sit real well in Glenn's stomach - he gets heartburn pretty easily...  :-/  

I like stews & soups, made a big pot of pinto beans the other day - was gonna make cornbread but never did get around to it - broiled some French bread that had garlic chunks in itto go with it.  Blackeyed peas are a favorite - I like to cook them with bacon & onions - yummy!

Have made a lot of "frittatas" with our garden veggies, ham or bacon & eggs - with cheese sprinkled on top - those are always good.  Don't have any eggs anymore - there still must be possums or skunks eating them.

I like Oriental dishes - you can concoct all kinds of stuff... I have to watch it with the hot peppers/chile etc - I like it but Glenn is too "delicate"  

Some hot is not too bad -- but Chile powder tears me up... and it varies --- sometimes  no problem. :-/

QuoteMontreal Steak seasoning

That's a great pepper/spice mix. You can use it on just about anything. Very good on fish fillets as well.

As far as a favorite... no such thing here really. My tastes are fairly eclectic I think.

Tonight will be: a stir fry; white and dark chicken, extra firm tofu cubed, sugar snap peas, broccoli, julienned carrots, sweet onion, red pepper, with a mix of diluted lite soy sauce and Bragg liquid aminos seasoning sauce. All over angel hair pasta.

I really like the flavor of the Montreal Steak seasoning, but around the time I had our first child I developed a real strong reaction to MSG, so I try to avoid it nowdays.  Instead, I use Mrs. Dash extra spicy or southwest chipotle and then add a little salt.  Even the thought of eating Chinese food out gives me a headache (I used to really like it, but now just associate it with head splitting pain.)  We also don't usually eat out at chain restaurants because a lot of them rely heavily on MSG, and the waitstaff has no idea if it is in anything or not.  We went to a Lone Star steakhouse up here once and I found out the hard way they use it (I'm assuming in their spices/marinades?)  Anyway, it's cheaper to eat at home and know what I'm putting on my food.  I still really like the Montreal steak seasoning flavor, and every once in a great while, use it anyway.  Most Asian food we prepare at home because I've found that even if the a lot of ethnic restaurants don't knowingly put msg in stuff, they sometimes use soy sauce or other flavorings with msg already in them.  

I am still not sure what I'm making for dinner... need to use up the leftover rice still, but starchy stuff sounds absolutely terrible to me today... about the only things I'm remotely hungry for are greens... maybe it's like when the dog is sick and goes out and eats all the grass and dandelions in the yard???  Lunch was eggs with green and red peppers and onions, drowned in tabasco and sprinkled with a little feta cheese.  Maybe I can talk hubby into grilling catfish and he and the kids can eat leftover rice if they so desire.  Meanwhile, I think I'll go pick some dandelions and chard.

Finished dinner off with fresh strawberries and a square of dark chocolate (Lindt Excellence Extra Fine Dark) plus a glass of Two Buck Chuck Cabernet Sauvignon. [Two Buck Chuck is Charles Shaw wine, only available at Trader Joe's ($1.99 - $3.49 per bottle, depending on the region)].    http://www.traderjoes.com/locations.asp

Mashed Potatoes and Tomatoe(Homegrown Tomatoes- -really -- Green Zebra, Brandywine and Cherokee Purple) with club crackers.  Trying to get over the McDonalds Double Cheeseburger I had on the way to Fresno to get parts - 150 mi RT.  Ice cream when the fullness goes away.  Note - no cholesterol problem here.

Homegrown -- I checked the McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning we use and MSG is not listed -- doesn't mean it's not there -- could be disguised but not much listed there.  Spices?

Quote... McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning we use and MSG is not listed -- doesn't mean it's not there

I checked the bottle too Glenn, and then their website. No other info there. So I used the contact us email thingy and asked specifically if the product contained MSG. Answer may take a week or so. Will post the reply.

It may be one of the many things that legally can be included under "natural flavors". Not sure.

I also noted there is a lower sodium version, 25% less.

Got my curiosity raised....

MSG is in anything that lists the following as ingredients...

MSG       Gelatin       Calcium Caseinate
Monosodium glutamate       Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP)       Textured Protein
Monopotassium glutamate       Hydrolyzed Plant Protein (HPP)       Yeast Extract
Glutamate       Autolyzed Plant Protein       Yeast food or nutrient
Glutamic Acid       Sodium Caseinate       Autolyzed Yeast

Interesting -- I had heard it can be hidden by other names.

I'll try this again... I posted a reply (or attempted to) a few minutes ago to have it not work.  

I feel like an idiot now.  I just went and grabbed the Montreal steak seasoning off the shelf, and lo and behold, there isn't msg listed on the label.  I wonder now if I just figured it did have it since so many pre-mixed spices do (like taco seasoning, fajita seasoning, and ranch dressing both in bottles and mixes).   I am sure the last bottle of it that we had did have msg, though... the bottle we have now hasn't been used much because I thought it had it!  On the bright side, even though I'm an idiot, I can enjoy it on my steaks and burgers again, woohoo!  

FWIW, almost all ranch dressing has MSG, unless you buy Annie's organic, as well as the packets of stuff you mix with sour cream.  So do most seasoning mixes.  Taco seasoning is easily replaceable with cumin, oregano, chilies, and so forth... tastes better, too.  


Hmmm.... maybe we'll have steaks off the grill today... I even checked the Worchestershire sauce and it doesn't have it, so now I'm royally confused as to how and why I decided to lay off the steak seasoning.

See how you benefit - and we do -from hanging out here?

Now you can have great tasting steaks without worry.

Well, tonight we had grilled chicken breasts (with montreal steak seasoning, of course  ) and collards, and cranberry-orange-mango relish) and homegrown maple cornbread.  I didn't make the maple syrup that went into it, but we grew the corn.  It was pretty delicious.  And now my husband has run out to fill a prescription that he didn't have time to fill earlier in the week, so he took the kids and the house is excessively quiet... I should get off the computer and go try to get all the dog hair cleaned up in the bathroom!  (We had a major dog-washing today...we homeschool and because it took so long to finish trimming and washing the dog, my oldest asked me, 'Mama, is Grover the lesson today?")

We had our son over for dinner this evening. Yesterday I put an elk chuck roast in a bag with some marinade [lemon juice, olive oil, sliced onion, Worcestershire sauce, mustard powder, garlic, Montreal Steak seasoning and a splash of Almaden Mtn Burgundy (box wine)].

This morning it went into the crock pot with an onion, 1/4 cup of the Burgundy, 1/4 cup H2O, some chopped tomato a little Real Salt broke down and bought some after Glenn mentioned it.   Cooked on low for about 9 hours. Made some gravy. Served with mashed potatoes and a peas & corn mix.

Tomorrow we're up in the mountains. Probably have the left over elk with rice & some veggie.

Boy, that smells good.

And I just finished dinner....

We love that Real Salt.  So much better than other normal store bought salts.

http://www.realsalt.com/

You are making me hungry too, Don.  Sounds great.  I'm sure I don't have to say enjoy your trip -- you will.

I remember when we went to Wisconsin my Granddad and family back there made Maple syrup, Homegrown.  Dinner at your place sounds great too.

My oldest daughter had a conniption (that's somewhere between a hissy and a hickeydo fit) last winter because we have three big maple trees in our yard and I didn't make maple syrup.  

Tonight we had naeng-myun (cold Korean noodles with hot mustard and vinegar.)  It sounds weird, but it grows on you.  Needed something light as we spent the whole day outside painting the trim on the house to match our three random windows upstairs.  Actually, my husband painted and I alternately held the ladder still, dug sweet potatoes and carrots, and turned over a spent garden bed, as well as burned off brush.