Dos Coyotes

Lisa cooked...we had take-out Dos Coyotes.

Meat Loaf

Lisa loves meat loaf, but I have never made one that I really cared for. This was from Cooks Illustrated's Best Recipes. I didn't much like this one either. And I even ground the meat myself...

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=3227

Zuni Cafe Roast Chicken and Bread Salad

The best roast chicken ever...or maybe it's the bread salad. This is the way I roast chicken ever since I got Judy Rodgers' Zuni Cafe Cookbook. The chicken needs to be a small fryer (we use a Rocky Junior). Then it needs to be salted with Kosher salt and left overnight in the fridge. Then it needs to be roasted at pretty high heat.

But the most important part of the dish is the bread salad. A good chewy non-sourdough is toasted, then tossed in a tart/salty dressing with pine nuts and green onions. The salad is finished by tossing the bread mixture with arugula and served with the chicken.

Clam Chowder

Another staple in our arsenal...this is from a Cooks Illustrated recipe for Quick Pantry Clam Chowder where you use canned clams and clam juice instead of fresh clams. We like chopped clams instead of the minced clams because we like the occasional big bite of clam. This is a really easy recipe.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=946

Pressure Cooker Chili

Cross rib roast on sale...see the January 5, 2008 blog post.

Bistro 33

We had an awful dinner at Bistro 33 in Davis. The service was poor. The food was poor. But Lisa had a gift certificate...

Lemongrass Beef on Cool Noodles

This is a recipe from Mai Pham's Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table. Rice Noodles are tossed with lettuce, bean sprouts, cucumber, mint and basil. They are topped stir fried sirloin beef strips that have been marinaded with lemongrass, oyster sauce, fish sauce and garlic. The salad is then garnished with Scallion Oil, Roasted Peanuts and Vietnamese Dipping Sauce (recipes in the book)