The Official What's For Dinner thread:Thursday 1-24-08? Recipe finder in OP. Enjoy!

[sugarpie]

Thank you everyone on your pie crust advice & yummy pie recipes!!!!

I think I've come to the conclusion that my "homemade" pie crust will be Pillsbury. What are they going to do if my crusts are store bought, kick my daughter out of her outrageously expensive preschool? The whole point of the bake sale is to raise money for the scholarship fund, so whatever I do should be good.

Last nights pot roast was SO GOOD. Thanks Glynis! Of course I didn't have all the ingredients & had to improvise. I used a 2.5 lb. chuck roast, a pkg. of gravy mix, half a pack of ranch dressing mix, a splash of prepared Italian dressing, a small can of beef broth, & some onions. It was the best roast I've ever made.

What's for dinner tonight??? I can't bring myself to cook on Friday nights, so hopefully we'll go out or order a pizza.

 

[TigerKat]

Tomorrow we have to go to DS's high school football game, so I think I'm going to do Glynis's pot roast. But I only have a rump roast in the freezer. Do you think that would be OK, or should I get a chuck??

 

[liamsaunt]

So…last night’s dinner…I told you I was making pizza. Pizza is usually a foolproof dinner at my house. Simple: heat up the pizza stone for about an hour, sprinkle with cornmeal, stretch the dough over the stone, add toppings, and bake until browned and bubbly. Yummy, easy, and tasty. Well, I must have annoyed the kitchen gods, because that is not how it went last night.

Things started out normally enough: I popped the stone in the preheated oven and headed off to do something else. After a while, I noticed a smell. A ‘toasty’ smell. Then all the smoke detectors started blaring. OK, no problem, every once in a while the heat from the oven trips the detectors. I got my giant fan and set it up under the smoke detectors, which stopped the alarms. Off I went again, but after a while I noticed that the “toasty” smell was getting stronger.

I went back in to the kitchen to find smoke pouring out of the oven. Hmm…it turned out that the stone had absorbed some oil from some pizza I reheated a while ago, and now the oil was burning off. I knew there was no way to get the stone to stop smoking without running it through the oven’s cleaning cycle, so I just pulled the stone out of the oven and let it cool off. Apparently, all these warning signs were not strong enough for my addled brain, because I continued with my menu plan.

So. I sprinkled the now cooled stone with cornmeal, stretched the dough, etc., and put it into the oven. About 10 minutes later, it looked done. Bubbly cheese, toasty edges…time for dinner! I got the pizza peel and went to remove the pizza from the stone. Except. The pizza would not come off. The dough had fused to the stone, creating a completely unremovable concrete-like crust. OK. Deep breath. I pulled the entire stone out of the oven to see if I could break the seal with a knife. I managed to get an edge to release, and peered under the crust, only to find that the bottom of the dough had not completely cooked. Of course it hadn’t! The stupid stone was cold when I put the crust on it! At this point I actually started jumping up and down in front of the stove out of frustration.

Fine. Back into the oven to cook the bottom of the crust. 10 minutes later, the pizza was back out of the oven. The edges were quite brown. The cheese was…definitely melted. But darn it, we were having pizza! So. I hacked, and I scraped, and I swore, and eventually, with the help of DH, was able to extricate approximately half of the pizza from the stone, which we ate in grim triumph.

The other half of the pizza is still sitting on my stove, permanently fused to the stone. When I get home tonight I will be throwing out my stone. And DH will be taking me out to dinner. And we will not be ordering pizza.

 

[Disney4Drew]

Sorry about your pizza disaster, but I was at the visual I had of this whole incident. Enjoy your dinner out!

 

[FormrCastMbr]

Tomorrow we have to go to DS's high school football game, so I think I'm going to do Glynis's pot roast. But I only have a rump roast in the freezer. Do you think that would be OK, or should I get a chuck??

I'm no Bobby Flay, but I think it would be fine...enjoy!

 

[FormrCastMbr]

Liamsaunt,

I am sorry you had such a rough time last night...you deserve a night out after that! I must say that all of the meals that you post in these threads sound fabulous...if that makes you feel better.

I am on my second pizza stone. The first cracked in the oven. It was Pampered Chef and the salesperson said that happens every now and then...just my luck!

Have a great weekend...BTW, I think I am addicted to this thread...maybe addicted to food if the right way to put it!!!

Lauren

 

[sugarpie]

liamsaunt - you've convinced me to never make pizza from scratch.

I've changed my mind & I'm going to make Rueben Chicken tonight. Now I just have to figure out what to make with it.

 

[JennyMominRI]

I'm making Carne Asada Tacos, refried beans and fresh guacamole

 

[Glynis]

Tomorrow we have to go to DS's high school football game, so I think I'm going to do Glynis's pot roast. But I only have a rump roast in the freezer. Do you think that would be OK, or should I get a chuck??

I think that should be just fine! I always get whatever's cheapest. It cooks so long, it gets nice and tender! Enjoy it!

 

[TigerKat]

I think that should be just fine! I always get whatever's cheapest. It cooks so long, it gets nice and tender! Enjoy it!

I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow, that is, if I can tear myself away from my latest addiction - GOLD RUSH on aol. YIKES!!

 

[nucpharm29]

Friday's are pizza night at our house. We have our favorite little pizza joint in town, that we haunt so regularly that they know what we'll order when we walk in! But I"m ready to try the Chicken Reuben and pot roast recipes this week--need to hit the grocery store!

 

[TigerKat]

liamsaunt - you've convinced me to never make pizza from scratch.

I've changed my mind & I'm going to make Rueben Chicken tonight. Now I just have to figure out what to make with it.

When I have the time I like to prepare a german potato salad with the reuben, but if I am short on time I usually roast red potatoes to go with it!!

 

[Swimnoid]

Throw out your stone!?! I'd be lost! Sorry about the pizza!

Out of town tonight so no cooking for me. I think it will be fast burgers while driving to our destination. No cooking until Sunday.

 

[MerryPoppins]

Sorry about the pizza disaster. I wouldn't throw away the stone. I bet if you soaked it in water you could scrape it off. I have three pizza stones and I don't know what I'd do without them.

Speaking of stones, do any of you have a gingerbread house mold? I found one a few months ago at a garage sale and thought my DD 15 and I might attempt to make a gingerbread house this winter, just for fun. I wondered if anyone had a good recipe? And any tips for baking on these house mold stones? You push the dough into the different parts and then put them together once they're baked. It's like the Pampered Chef ones, just a different brand.

I still don't know what I'm fixing for dinner. I could fix dirty rice or spaghetti or grilled cheese. Guess I'll wait until DH gets home from his trip to decide.

I'm hoping to try the Reuban Chicken sometime this weekend. DD won't eat Swiss cheese, but I'll fix hers with Provalone or Mozzarella and she'll be happy.

 

[TigerKat]

Lindsay,

Totally loved Kitten's scramble, I was all alone and enjoyed it so much!!! Thanks.

Kathy

 

[Nancyg56]

I'm sorry about the pizza disaster, but I also got a bit of a when I visualized you and the stone facing off! I love all of my stones, and would be lost without them.

I did not cook tonight. I am having a new mattress and foundation delivered tomorrow, and needed to shop for new linens, so we finished the leftovers in the fridge when I got in.

Now all that I can think of is Glynis's pot roast, so I am thawing 2 chuck roasts out for Sunday dinner. I think of something for Saturday.

 

[liamsaunt]

Thanks for all the comments on the pizza thing. I do have my disasters, and am more than willing to share them with you as they occur if you find them interesting! Let me tell you about the time I set myself on fire in the kitchen! Or, maybe not...

Anyway, I decided I did not want to go out after all. I seared a veal rib chop for DH, and made myself a broccoli-cheese stuffed chicken breast, but I really didn't want it (BOR-ING). The best parts were the sides, a new pasta-cheese recipe, and the first brussel sprouts of the year, yum!

 

[tinker1bell]

great recipies

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

We had steak fajitas and sopa azteca (tortilla soup) - the recipe from San Angel Inn that's in the WDW cookbook. I really wanted a warm autumn soup and the avocados were on sale and perfectly ripe so it was a good choice. I couldn't find pasilla peppers, so I just used some jalapeno from my garden and ground ancho. Tasted great!

 

[LindsayDunn228]

As we usually do on most Saturdays, we are going out to eat. We are going to go see The Black Dahlia, too.

WFD at your house?