The What's For Dinner Thread - March '11 (recipe index in OP)

[PrincessInOz]

Hope everyone's weekend is going well.

It's Sunday night here in Melbourne and school officially goes back tomorrow. DS still has another day as his school has taken a curriculum day for Monday. And then its back to the routine of lunch boxes, school drop off/pick up and running around for activities.


WFDT? Coming up next!

 

[PrincessInOz]

KL Hokkien Noodles


If you ever go to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and experience the ‘hawker’ street food, then this is a dish that you’ll find the locals talking about. This style of cooking Hokkien Noodles is affectionately known as KL Hokkien Noodles. Here’s my version of this dish.


My starting ingredients:

• Hokkien Noodles, 1 packet – 600 g
• Fish cake, 1 packet – 200g, sliced
• Fish balls, 2 packets – 200 g each, cut in half
• Fried Tofu puffs, 1 packet, cut in half
• Choy sum (Chinese cabbage), 2 bunches, cut into 10 cm long pieces keeping the stem separate from the leaves.
• Dark soya sauce, 6 tablespoon
• Light soya sauce, 3 tablespoon
• Water or stock, ¾ cup
• Corn or plain flour, 1 teaspoon, mixed with a little water
• Garlic, 2 cloves, minced
• Ginger
• Pepper
• Vegetable oil, 2 tablespoon
• Sesame oil, 3 – 4 drops

Soften the hokkien noodles by soaking in warm water for about 10 minutes.

Drain the noodles.

In a hot wok, fry garlic and ginger in the vegetable oil and sesame oil.
NOTE: I ran out of garlic and did not add any on this occasion.

Add the fish cake and fish balls and quickly toss in the hot wok for about 3 – 4 minutes.
NOTE: You can use chicken meat in this recipe. Just substitute one of the fish ball packets with some chicken meat.

Add the Choy Sum stems to the wok and toss for another 1 – 2 minutes.

Add the Fried Tofu Puffs and toss for another minute. The fried tofu has a spongy texture and will absorb a lot of the sauce, when you add it.

Add the well-drained soften noodles and the soya sauces.

Toss the ingredients to mix until the sauce coats all the ingredients. Add the water, the leafy green of the Choy Sum and keep stirring for another 3 – 4 minutes.

Add the corn/plain flour and heat until the sauce thickens. Season with pepper. Serve immediately.

My dinner!

 

[HERSEY]

We didn't have the chicken last night. I decided cleaning out the frig of leftovers was a better idea.

The chicken is on tap for tonight.

 

[TigerKat]

Quick fly by to post WFD, will bbl to catch up. Food & wine planning is in high gear today!

WFD - Grilled burgers and beef kabobs, baked mac & cheese and grilled asparagus with a green peppercorn sauce.

 

[TigerKat]

Sheryl – I’m glad you’re getting some relief already! I’ve got some tentative F&W plans, can’t wait to compare notes so we can plan some stuff together!

Glynis – Sounds like y’all had a great getaway. I knew Katie would do well, she seems to be such a responsible young lady. How is Mary feeling?

Notice my new ticker?

 

[HERSEY]

Kathy WOW BLT

I just finished making Kale crisps I have found my new fav snack

I lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper sprayed with pam. Shredded the kale sprinkle with some garlic powder (light touch) pepper and salt. Sprinkled 2 cups cheddar cheese put in 425 oven. Watch closely it will only take around 10 minutes until crispy.

 

[Nancyg56]

Hi Ladies! Sorry I have ot checked in, it has been crazy here!

dan is doing fine. He went overboard on Friday and was in agony. Learns the hard way, my boy.

Lindsay- Welcome back!

Glynis- glad that your getaway was wonderful!

I give up- my mind is mush and I am off my diet for the night. Sipping a Washington Merlot that Anna brought back for us. Gail is almost ready to move. DO you remember me whining how much stuff she had when she moved 3 years ago? Well.....................she has MORE! I am planning to be there with her tomorrow when the movers come, I think that will be a bad day.

The shower was wonderful!

Please keep Bud in mind tonight. Thursday morning his friend who he has know all his life passed unexpectedly. He was 53. We went to the wake which had to be held in the Church in order to accommodate all of the callers. We were in line for 90 minutes before finally reaching his family. So many of Bud's friends were there, all shell shocked. This man has suffered since 2004 when he was hit and was expected to die. He came through and now this

Dinner is grilled rib eyes, grilled squash, a sweet potato and a salad.

 

[HERSEY]

Nancy Please extend my prayers to Buddy It is hard losing a close friend especially one so suddenly.

Since it is so blasted hot outside I had nothing else to do but clean and do laundry I am not looking forward to stepping outside tomorrow to go to work.

 

[TigerKat]

Nan - Please extend my condolences to Buddy as well. It's so very hard to lose someone so young and especially when it's unexpected.

 

[liamsaunt]

Lindsay, welcome back!!! I am so glad you are rejoining us. I want pictures of all those baked goods you make!

Nancy, I will definitely keep Buddy in my prayers. 53 is so young.

So, this weekend I was in Atlanta for the wedding of my cousin. It was a beautiful casual and special wedding. But no cooking, again. Two weekends of no cooking! I even had to give away my csa box to a coworker.

I do have a picture from tonight though: grilled striped bass with a mustard crust on a salad of arugula, cured olives, tomatoes, and vidalia onions. Laura grilled the fish and it was awesome:

 

[TigerKat]

Becky - Did you have any good southern eats?

 

[scotlass]

Nan - that is so young to go,I will be thinkin of Buddy and the poor mans family.

Kathy - BLT....

 

[Glynis]

Sheryl – I’m glad you’re getting some relief already! I’ve got some tentative F&W plans, can’t wait to compare notes so we can plan some stuff together!

Glynis – Sounds like y’all had a great getaway. I knew Katie would do well, she seems to be such a responsible young lady. How is Mary feeling?

Notice my new ticker?

Mary is fine! She was sore from the shot, but within 2 hours, her throat no longer hurt.

Nice ticker! I'm a mite jealous!

 

[Glynis]

Nan - I'm so sorry about Buddy's friend. Please pass along my condolences. That is much too young!

Dinner tonight was roast chicken, steamed broccoli and cauliflower and rice with gravy.

 

[Aimeedyan]

Did I ever mention on here that Alan wanted to go back to school for his Master's degree? Well, he filled out the applications, made a demo reel for the film school, and we waited... and waited... and waited. There were only 4 slots available, so after a couple of months, we figured that he'd been passed by. However, last week, we got word that he's been accepted! He's so thrilled!!! I'm so proud and happy for him! It means that he'll be working full time, and taking classes in the evenings. Basically, I'll be a single parent for the next 3 to 4 years. Oh well. Once it's all over, he'll be able to transition into teaching at a university, which he'd love to do, as he's getting older and it's harder to carry all the equipment, etc. Anyway, that's our big news here! Oh, I also forgot to mention that he received a 5% pay raise!!! He hasn't gotten a raise in almost 5 years, due to the economy, and before that raises were only 1%. So, this is going to help us immensely!!!

Congrats to Alan!!!

I had a epidural neck injection today. Praying that it helps as much as it did the last time. I going to follow up with the low back in a 1 wk &1/2, like I did last time. Also checked to make sure I could get them again in early Oct. before F&W. I can, so that's good.

Oh, I hope you get some relief!

Life has been awesome out our way. I don't know if you guys knew it or not, but we were a part of the catastrophic tornadoes that raged through the south on April 27 and hit 3 states. Our town is still recovering. One of the tornadoes struck just a mile down the road. We sustained only a few missing shingles and some siding damage. Some neighbors lost their roofs.

Hi Lindsay; nice to see you! I'm so sorry your area was hit with those wild storms but thankful your damage wasn't too bad. Those images were completely haunting.


Becky, I'm so jealous of your trip! I'd love to get there someday.

I'm back from my wild week and ridiculously exhausted. I had a busy morning at work but got the rest of the day off to nap and rest. Both events were amazing - seriously had a great time!! The food was normal kid friendly fare.

I had DH pick up dinner on the way home. It'll take me a couple days to get my groove back

 

[PrincessInOz]

Catching up!

Sheryl - Glad you're feeling better.


Glynis - Sounds like a great getaway, albeit an inauspicious start! Hope Mary is feeling better...pain in the butt aside.


Janice - Thanks for that Kale recipe. I like to try growing Kale in my garden but don't really know what to do with it after its grown. I'm going to try to chips...assuming I get out and start preparing my garden soon. Hope it's cooled down for you.


Nancy - condolences to Bud and his friend's family. 53 is way too young!


Becky - two weekends of no cooking? I wish I were so lucky! Atlanta sounds like another fun weekend.


Kathy - Lucky you! Two tickers and both to the World. Have fun! I'll be enviously watching them tick down.


Aimee - welcome back. Hope you've rested up.


I'm planning another batch of cauliflower soup tonight for dinner. Cauliflower is in season and it looked really good at the supermarket today so I got some. I'll cook it up with leek and a potato tonight.

Two days down the salt mines coming up. Have fun all and I'll try and catch up when I can.

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Please keep Bud in mind tonight. Thursday morning his friend who he has know all his life passed unexpectedly. He was 53. We went to the wake which had to be held in the Church in order to accommodate all of the callers. We were in line for 90 minutes before finally reaching his family. So many of Bud's friends were there, all shell shocked. This man has suffered since 2004 when he was hit and was expected to die. He came through and now this

I'm so sorry for your loss

Today Scott has a dentist appointment and is getting to work from home afterward. Woo hoo! Since he'll be home, I'm making us tacos.

As a side note, since we all last yakked, I've switched up my cooking a bit for dinner. Instead of cooking dinner every night, I cook lunch. It's kind of a "cook the day before" philosophy. That way Scott can have a meal for lunch instead of just a sandwich or something. For example, normally today Scott would be eating lunch that I made yesterday and today I would be cooking for tomorrow's lunch. Make sense at all? So since he's home with me, I will cook us lunch. It's cool when he works from home because we can lunch together. Just FYI, he works about 45 minutes away so it's not really practical for us to meet for lunch often.

Whew! Talk about rambling!

I am making Kevin and Amanda's dinner tomorrow but am going to do a little bit of it today. I am going to make the orange tea* and the coconut cake. I will post the recipe for the cake later. It was my Papaw's absolute favorite sad1 and I wanted to share it with them. It's a refrigerator cake and the longer it sits, the better it gets, so I am knocking it out today. Recipe and pics coming later.

I'm off to pour my third cup! Have a great day ladies!


*The story of the tea There is a store in our mall called The Street Corner. It's basically anything you could want or need from a convenience store, but it's in the food court. I refer to it as "The Movie Store" because it's the place you'd want to hit before you went to the movies, lol. It's got gum, candy, candy bars, mints, drinks, etc. The place is known for the most heavenly iced to man ever created. It's sweet as all get out and it's got orange slices in it. Having spent WAY too much money in this place buying this tea, I started making it at home. It's kind of an eyeball recipe, but I will post it later on with my cake recipe.*

 

[HERSEY]

Princess Unfortunately it seems the whole country is under this severe heat. It is already 80 degrees with the humidity is 84%. No sitting outside for us.

I thought last nights chicken was good but Mr A didn't like it. It was to spicey this is a kid who puts hot sauce on just about anything that moves or did move.

Tonight will be a chicken salad. No cooking here.

Aimee Glad you had a great time.

Glynis I am glad Mary is feeling better. Glad you and Alan were able to get away and have some alone time.

This heat is wrecking havoc on my satellite this morning

 

[HERSEY]

Lindsay Please do post the cake and tea recipe later. I made some sun tea yesterday. It was refreshing on a hot hot day.

Stay cool and safe everyone

 

[Nancyg56]

Good Morning girls!

Thank you for thinking of Buddy. Losing Eddie hit very close to home. He had just stopped by the farm to see Bud a week ago.

Janice- I keep seeing the wicked heat all of you are experiencing and hope you are all okay. I know that with the heat the storms come

Lindsay- Erica brewed the best tea last week. She served it with big wedges of lemon...............refreshing!

Glynis- hoping Mary is right as rain today!

Princess- I have been eating a lot of cauliflower. It is too hot for me to eat soup this week but if you post the recipe I will love it come Falltime.

Becky- that fish looks like a magazine cover! Glad you had fun at the wedding

Aimee- glad you had a great time!

I have another filled day so dinner is going to be easy. I think grilled chicken and veggies. BBL!