I made moo goo gai pan yesterday with chicken and shrimp. Sauteed the chicken in a big pan and to that I added onion, carrot, broccoli, snow peas, baby corn, mushrooms, water chestnuts and steamed everything. Added the shrimp and cooked them with the chicken and veggies. Mixed everything with a batch of homemade ginger sauce and served it over basmati rice. Usually I make different Italian dishes though. Peasant soup is one of my favorites: chicken stock, chicken, sausage, spinach, onion, tomato, mushrooms, scallions, cannellini beans, and lots of garlic.
My son found a curbside smoker the other week, and gave it to me. I spent a little time cleaning it up. Applied a new coat of paint. Today was the first cook.
Simple chicken thighs on the grill. With red beans on cast iron with extra bacon added also on the grill tonight. Chicken will be glazed with a mixture of barbeque sauces
Got up early and made scratch tomato sauce with sweet sausage. It will simmer all day while we sit sit on the beach under a canopy with a few friends sipping CC & Gingers, and a few beers on ice. Nothing like the smell of sauce simmering all day...
A quick culinary tip, the litehouse brand of blue cheese dressing is the best on the planet! That is, if you’re not making your own.
Standard burgers here tonight, going to do a little nacho cheese, refried beans, and sour creme on them. The 20% fat from the local grocer makes the best burgers....oh, and doing my peanut trick for a snack tomorrow
The MGGP is about the only Asian dish I make, I tried it one day to see how close I could get to the takeout version. This is the sauce recipe: https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.tarladalal.com/Chinese-White-Sauce-4188r?amp=1 This is the peasant soup recipe: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/italian-peasant-soup/ At the point where you add the basil and oregano I like to add 1 tsp of Italian seasoning, it makes a big difference IMHO. And you can add whatever veggies you want to use up. It's like pizza topping soup almost.
I can cook lots of things as my mother passed when I was 17 and I cooked in a very good Italian restaurant during high school and college but for BBQ guys, there's nothing like cooking on real wood(only). I live in a heavily treed area and have a good supply of oak, maple, cherry, apple, cedar,etc. While a lot of people use wood chips to augment charcoal or gas, pure wood gives a flavor that can't be matched. It doesn't matter which meat, fish or vegetable is que'd this way, it all comes out awesome provided the fire is correct...steak hot, ribs slow for example. Try it, you'll like it!
Pressed for time so just whipping together stove top turkey burgers sautéed with guacamole, sautéed onion, Swiss cheese or American, tomato slices, hydroponic baby lettuce… you know the drill
I am a tequila guy so, another culinary/libation tip that I can offer has to do with El Mayor reposado tequila I’m going with it tonight!
I usually do blue cheese crumbles with French dressing. Local restaurant does it the same way back home.
