BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / What's For Dinner?

**Posted by mrshouse** July 26, 2015 5:37 pm

Tonight we'll have a treat: steaks from the French charolais beef, which is said to be super delicious... Aaaaand I bought sweet potatoes! We frie them. And a green salad to go with it.
And btw I'm married 15 years this week.

**Posted by This Is The Phantom Lady** July 26, 2015 5:59 pm

*drools* that sounds so delicious @mrshouse! Enjoy!

I had some trouble and I almost skipped dinner today. I had a hot lunch, my mum gave me a portion of pork chops in tomato sauce that I heated and cooked rice. For the first time in my life my rice turned out okay!

But my problem was... I couldn't have a hot dinner if I had a hot lunch, and I think cold dinners are weird... (my head is a bit weird like that with 'rules'). I finally found a middle ground and put cheese on toast and put them in the oven... just waiting for them to heat. Else I would have skipped dinner.

**Posted by Yitzock** July 26, 2015 10:10 pm

Sounds like an interesting dinner, mrshouse! I hope you enjoy, and happy anniversary!

As long as you eat something, Phantom, I'm sure you'll be OK. It's better than skipping a meal, but I know how if I have a big lunch I don't usually want much for dinner.

**Posted by Whisky** July 27, 2015 9:55 am

Our oven is broken, so I'm not sure what to do. I'd really have liked pizza. Maybe now I'm going for potatoes. Potatoes always work. With self made cream and rosemarin... rosemarin... is that rosemary in english? guess so.

I wonder if I should some point try and make my own porridge. I love porridge, I just never made it myself so far. Only had it in british hotels, where it always tasted great. I feel a bit daunted porridge-wise. I searched the internet and they cannot even decide if it's made with water or milk... do you take both?

@phantom: I love toast with baked cheese on top! My favourite quick meal!

Last edited by Whisky (July 27, 2015 10:02 am)

**Posted by Yitzock** July 27, 2015 2:33 pm

Rosemary in English, yes. As for porridge (or oatmeal as it is often called in Canada and the US, I believe) is sometimes made with water and sometiems milk, it dpeneds on the person's preference, though I've always preferred milk.

**Posted by This Is The Phantom Lady** July 27, 2015 5:42 pm

I've only ever had porridge made with water... and I never really liked it. Actually I really, really don't like it... (might be because my family uses it as a natural cure for stomach aches)
But who knows... if I ever tried it from milk I might like it... I usually have dry oats with milk for breakfast...

Tonight I reheated the last of the pork chops with tomato sauce mum gave me this weekend. She even grew the tomatoes herself.
By some miracle I cooked the rice perfectly again. I have NEVER been able to cook rice right. I tried following the recipes on the back of the pack, my mother's way, my boyfriends way... and it always ended up as mush.

I'm a little proud! Only problem is... I don't really know what I did.

**Posted by Yitzock** July 27, 2015 6:44 pm

Congratulations on the rice! Hopefully you'll be able to replicate it again one day, even if you don't know what you did. Maybe it's just a question of the getting the feel for it, which is beginning to happen.
I know rice is different, but I remember it took me years before I could make pasta without it boiling over.

Last edited by Yitzock (July 27, 2015 6:44 pm)

**Posted by Whisky** July 27, 2015 10:19 pm

That's great, phantom :-) I never get the rice quite right. I more and more learn that cooking is a lot about getting the feeling for it. Also the same is true with spices... some people just do it perfectly, others (like me^^) always add too much or not enough :D

I don't know what's so great about porridge really, I'm just crazy about it. Same with weetabix, I could eat them for weeks and months too (I did, and never got tired of them!). I love the variation... some days you can take them crunchy, other days you completely soak them, some days you add raisins, some days just the plain stuff... perfect breakfast Also in the mornings I am too lazy to chew (oh, did I say that out loud??)

And yes, I understand that connection to stomach aches! For me that connection is with peppermint tea and zwieback, and I really don't like those either ;-)

Last edited by Whisky (July 27, 2015 10:25 pm)

**Posted by kornmuhme** July 27, 2015 10:25 pm

HA, I'm not able to cook rice properly either! Either it boils too short or too long, but it's never exactly right. Or I add too much or not enough water ...

**Posted by mrshouse** July 29, 2015 8:20 pm

Oh, rice is a beast indeed... In Germany it's mostly sold in those cooking bags, always works...
Tonight we had Schnitzel. (sounds like we often diet on meat, actually we don't...) A good Schnitzel is a piece of art. It's always fried with butter, never use olive oil! First step use oat meal, then egg, then half bread crumbs, half parmesan. And we didn't use veal tonight but turkey hen. Try it this way, its delicious. And a salad as a side dish is sufficient.

**Posted by This Is The Phantom Lady** July 29, 2015 9:20 pm

I can't even cook those bags right! But I'll keep trying! Perhaps I finally won over the Rice-beast!

The schnitzel sounds amazing, especially with the parmesan! I'm a big cheese fan!

I just stocked my tiny freezer with garlic bread (lately I've had issues with appetite but a garlic bread can always go down). And I had been a bit too confident about the space in the freezer... so I had to take some stuff out. I found some 'Frikadeller' which is basically big pork meat balls... and being lazy I think I'll heat them, chop them up and put them with some pasta and ketchup.

If my body wasn't acting up I could have made my homemade tomato sauce... but ugh. Some other time.

**Posted by Kittyhawk** July 30, 2015 1:42 pm

Whisky wrote:
....

I wonder if I should some point try and make my own porridge. I love porridge, I just never made it myself so far. Only had it in british hotels, where it always tasted great. I feel a bit daunted porridge-wise. I searched the internet and they cannot even decide if it's made with water or milk... do you take both?

....

Porridge made with water gives "Haferschleim" which my mother made when her kids were "sick". It made us want to get better immediately, no matter what horrible school event we were trying to avoid.

Porridge made with milk is really nice, I think. I have if often enough, generally adding honey, or cinnamon and sugar, or jam, or applesauce, or, in a pinch for a quick all-in-one breakfast, even instant coffee and sugar.

It's not difficult to make - the only two critical points are making sure that milk doesn't boil over and the porridge doesn't burn. Oats being the one cereal that's perfectly digestible when raw you can boil them as long or as short as you want.

Two excellent British cookbooks, Kathryn Whitehorn's Cooking in a Bedsitter and Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course would have you boil the oatmeal in water and then add cream, which probably would give a similar result to my using milk.

BTW, Whitehorn also has an absolutely sure method for boiling rice. I highly recommend the book - even if you don't have to live in a bedsitter.

PS: And today I'll have roast pigeons - the easiest-to-cook food there is...

Last edited by Kittyhawk (August 1, 2015 10:53 am)

**Posted by This Is The Phantom Lady** August 13, 2015 7:22 am

Tonight I'm reheating my homemade and self improvised 'bolognese' with pasta and cheese... I finally got a bit of my appetite back.

I am a horrible cook, I lack confidence... but this tastes sooo good!

I pretty much emptied my fridge and cupboards for stuff and to my surprise managed to make something tasty.

It's onions, beef, green peppers (from mum's greenhouse) sweet corn, tomato puré, seasoned with salt, pepper, stock cube, teriyaki sauce, oregano and a pinch of sugar.

I'm just a bit proud!

**Posted by Whisky** October 13, 2015 9:47 am

I just made pumpkin soup. I love this season! Sooo tasty

**Posted by Yitzock** October 13, 2015 1:38 pm

mmm! Sounds yummy.

**Posted by mrshouse** October 13, 2015 4:17 pm

Pumpkin soup is also one of my favorite dishes around this time of year. I love it classic with potatoes and carrots, but it's also very delicious if you spice it up Asian style: you can use coconut milk, lemon grass, a bit of fresh ginger....
And I found a lovely receipt with chicken, mild onions, pumpkin and potatoes out of the oven which was really yummy...
And another one I have not tried so far, its also a soup with a bit of lamb. Sounds also delicious.

**Posted by Russell** October 13, 2015 8:17 pm

Aww…. you guys are reminding me of something my now-gone grandfather did that I thought was such a novel idea and not sure where he picked it up from, recipe-wise or how common this fun little twist is. But for a special gathering we had beef stew that was cooked most of the way, then put in a small hollowed-out pumpkin and stuck in the oven to heat the rest of the way and absorb the flavor (and then put on the table with awesome presentation. Very cool.

**Posted by Whisky** October 13, 2015 8:27 pm

That sounds really great!

**Posted by Russell** October 13, 2015 10:43 pm

It was! Here's a picture to show you, even though you can kinda just imagine a pumpkin with stew in it anyway. But the idea of using a hollowed-out one to let something like that simmer inside was really neat… wish I got an angled pic showing inside it more.

**Posted by Whisky** October 13, 2015 11:43 pm

Wow, that looks cool AND delicious :-) also BIG pumpkin, mine was much smaller...