Weekly Menu (Feb. 14)

Posted By under Weekly Menus

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Saturday  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sunday

  • Braised Halibut w/ Leeks & Mustard, English Jacket Potatoes

Monday

Tuesday

  • Take-Out

Wednesday

  • Grilled Teriyaki Flank Steak, Grilled Zuccchini, Crispy Polenta Cakes

Thursday

  •  Chicken w/ Sour Cream & Paprika, Couscous Salad w/ Tomatoes & Mint

Friday

  • Dinner & a Movie

New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp

Posted By under Main Courses, Main Ingredient, Recipes, Seafood

One of the many things we love about New Orleans is the vibe. It’s a place where we feel like we belong, the moment our feet hit the quaint, festive, balcony-lined streets. There’s an indulgent “anything goes” atmosphere that dovetails with a welcoming spirit and sense of community—even for tourists. This shrimp dish evokes that Big Easy experience with its bold, spicy, complex flavors and communal, one-pot serving that encourages a little bit of messiness and finger-licking as you peel and eat the shrimp and dip your bread in the sauce. In our humble opinion, New Orleans is one of those places that everyone should visit at least once in their lifetime. But if you’re not able to get there, try making a big pot of this shrimp, then eat it with your favorite person (or people) while listening to Van Morrison (or jazz, or whatever music puts you in the most relaxed, happy mood possible), and you’ll get very close to the next best thing.

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Grilled Peri-Peri Chicken Thighs

Posted By under Main Courses, Main Ingredient, Poultry, Recipes

In response to a reader request (Hi Jill!), this post is more recommendation than recipe. If you’re interested in the most uniquely spicy and tangy grilled chicken that you’ll likely ever eat, do yourself a favor and order a bottle of Nando’s PERi-PERi sauce. We first encountered this addictive flavor at a Nando’s restaurant in London many years ago, and we were hooked after just a few bites of flame-grilled chicken marinated and basted in their signature sauce made from African bird’s eye chiles. Although Nando’s has restaurants all over the world, none of their locations are close enough for us to get our fix as often as we’d like. So we do the next best thing and make our own version at home. All you need is chicken, your choice of Nando’s PERi-PERi sauce, and barbecue sauce to tone down the spice a bit (unless you can handle the heat from straight-up PERi-PERi – we can’t.) We promise you won’t be disappointed.

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Slow-Cooker Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

Posted By under Main Courses, Main Ingredient, Recipes, Vegetable

There’s nothing quite like a big bowl of hearty, spicy, comforting chili to warm you from the inside out on a cold winter day. Our recipe repertoire includes several different kinds of chili:  Dan’s famous, Texas-style sirloin chili that actually won an award; a healthier white chili made with ground turkey that we like to have simmering on the stove while we decorate our home and tree for Christmas; and the peculiarly delicious version that Cincinnati is known for. Since this was our first attempt at vegetarian chili, we used a recipe by the experts at America’s Test Kitchen from their book “Slow Cooker Revolution.” It was really good, with all the right chili-esque flavors and texture that you expect from a cold weather, comfort food favorite. As I usually do when trying a new recipe, at the end of the meal I asked Dan if he would do anything different with the dish. He replied, “Two things:  increase the amount of chili powder, and add about three pounds of sirloin.”

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