What are you making for dinner?

Islandmaid

Spending NYE at home with my favourite people (family), a bit of HM tapas, Padron peppers, gambas Pil Pil, albondigas, calamari and a bottle of fizz and that it.

Happy New Year to you all, hope it brings you all everything you could wish for x

JIL

I really couldn't decide what to make for dinner, so came on here for inspiration and a big thankyou to @Islandmaid.

Tapas will be served here, although I doubt I can get padron peppers. However I have lots of bits in the freezer.

Happy new year to all.

Brie

@kerri_gt
you can't say it's tales of the unexpected if you know the lamb is there!!  

wondering what to do with some freezer/fridge stuff when we've both got the lurgy and don't have much energy.  Inspired by others here with the prospect of beans possibly on toast but alas we have no beans.  Then again I am also mostly out of cough tonic (Bronchostop - heartily rec it!!) so I/he has to go out no matter what.

Also - ideas please...

I've got 2 mystery pots in the freezer.  I think one has some sort of lamb stew kinda thing in it.  The other might be game something.  I'm wondering about thawing them both (maybe not today...) and trying to magic them into something.  It would probably end up like soup (which is fine).  I do remember when I was stacking them away that one of the pots had extra room (mighta been the lamb one) so I topped it off with some LO tinned tomatoes.  I'm thinking thaw, fish out big chunky bits to chop down a bit before chucking back in, add stock, maybe some of the frozen veg.    To be honest I thought that I would have both of these well before now - probably just heated up individually and put on a jacket potato but never got round to it.  Old habits die hard - in the past these would have been rescued from the freezer in the evening to be ready to take to work the next day to be nuked.  Given my current job is 2 hours, 3 days a week and there's no microwave that's not really an option.

Smoked salmon - really good quality stuff.  We'd opened it up for a starter for Christmas day and it was lovely.  OH in his infinite wisdom put the open pack in the kitchen cupboard (coldest room in the house by a long shot so not as stupid as it sounds almost) where I discovered it 24+ hours later.  I put it in a pot and chucked it in the fridge thinking I'd have it at some point but the lurgy descended not long after.  And so there it sits.  Now the big problem is 1) I don't trust my nose currently to do a sniff test & 2) I'm not sure if I'm right in thinking the BBD was 27th.  I wondered if I should chuck it in the freezer to use in a pizza/omelette/carbonara at some future date.  I don't think I'd trust it enough to eat it as is - either now/next couple of days or later if frozen and thawed.  Thoughts???

And would you freeze cream cheese??  I've half a pack and it's going to go to the dark side soon as often happens and I hate to waste it.

Islandmaid

Brie said:

@kerri_gt
you can't say it's tales of the unexpected if you know the lamb is there!!  

wondering what to do with some freezer/fridge stuff when we've both got the lurgy and don't have much energy.  Inspired by others here with the prospect of beans possibly on toast but alas we have no beans.  Then again I am also mostly out of cough tonic (Bronchostop - heartily rec it!!) so I/he has to go out no matter what.

Also - ideas please...

I've got 2 mystery pots in the freezer.  I think one has some sort of lamb stew kinda thing in it. (MAYBE ADD SLICED POTATOES AND BUTTER THYME ETC FOR A HOTPOT KINDA THING)The other might be game something.  I'm wondering about thawing them both (maybe not today...) and trying to magic them into something.  It would probably end up like soup (which is fine).  I do remember when I was stacking them away that one of the pots had extra room (mighta been the lamb one) so I topped it off with some LO tinned tomatoes.  I'm thinking thaw, fish out big chunky bits to chop down a bit before chucking back in, add stock, maybe some of the frozen veg.    To be honest I thought that I would have both of these well before now - probably just heated up individually and put on a jacket potato but never got round to it.  Old habits die hard - in the past these would have been rescued from the freezer in the evening to be ready to take to work the next day to be nuked.  Given my current job is 2 hours, 3 days a week and there's no microwave that's not really an option.

Smoked salmon - really good quality stuff.  We'd opened it up for a starter for Christmas day and it was lovely.  OH in his infinite wisdom put the open pack in the kitchen cupboard (coldest room in the house by a long shot so not as stupid as it sounds almost) where I discovered it 24+ hours later.  I put it in a pot and chucked it in the fridge thinking I'd have it at some point but the lurgy descended not long after.  And so there it sits.  Now the big problem is 1) I don't trust my nose currently to do a sniff test & 2) I'm not sure if I'm right in thinking the BBD was 27th.  I wondered if I should chuck it in the freezer to use in a pizza/omelette/carbonara at some future date.  I don't think I'd trust it enough to eat it as is - either now/next couple of days or later if frozen and thawed.  Thoughts??? - FREEZE IN SMALL PORTIONS. ADD TO PASTA, FISH PIE, SCRAMBLED EGGS ETC

And would you freeze cream cheese??  I've half a pack and it's going to go to the dark side soon as often happens and I hate to waste it.  YES, USE AS BASE FOR CHEESE SAUCE/PASTA SAUCE ETC

@Brie   ADDED IN BOLD ABOVE - hope you feel better soon, Christmas lurgy has hit hard this year x

Brie

@Islandmaid
Thanks for the ideas - hadn't thought of hotpot....

smoked salmon with pasta....cream cheese with pasta.....Oh maybe I'll chop the salmon and pop it all in a pot with the cheese ready for an easy dinner of pasta!!!

C_J

I remember the frozen leg of lamb in Tales of the Unexpected too!

Hope you feel better soon Brie - as IM has suggested I would chop and freeze the leftover smoked salmon and use it in cooked dishes such as pasta. I don’t think cream cheese freezes very successfully, it tends to split and go grainy and unappetising.

I’m making pan fried seabass and scallops with a beurre blanc sauce and steamed asparagus tonight, and there is fizz in the fridge if we fancy toasting 2023 in, however I’m fairly certain we’ll both be fast asleep before midnight! 🤣

Florenceem

I am doing chicken curry tonight.

Frith

Tea was an Indian takeaway, but I did cook these...

sarahj1986

Happy New Year my fellow MSE gang

This month our budget is £250 for 2 adults and child, she’s 4 this month. 

Today I’m doing roast lamb which I got half price in the Tesco offer before Christmas. It’s slow roasting now and already smells great. I’ll do roast potatoes, yorkies (cheating using frozen), carrots, peas, mint sauce and gravy. Pudding is chocolate bread and butter pudding using a loaf of bread I got before Christmas that we never used plus Nutella and chopped up Christmas chocolate. 

This evening if we want anything there’s still Christmas meat, cheeses, crackers etc 

Islandmaid

We’re meeting friends for lunch at one of our favourite restaurants, 8 of us in total - happy new year all 🥂🍾