I thought the kids were not coming over this weekend, they have been on and off on a low carb diet. Myr just got back from Italy and they had a friend’s wedding on Saturday, so I thought they were not coming over. Jan had challenged me to do a gourmet “pigs in a blanket.” The kids have changes their minds and are coming over, but they will eat high carb.
Category Archives: Main Dishes
Karl’s Tarragon Potato Latkes with Fresh Pear Sauce
Eilene has been asking for latkes lately. She has a friend coming over for dinner, so this seems like a good day to make them. Always trying new things, I decided to use tarragon and replace the usual apple sauce and sour cream with pear sauce and crème fraiche.
Filed under Breakfast, California Fusion, Main Dishes, Vegetarian
Karl’s Pork Sausage Empanadas
This was a rather spontaneous meal. I was wondering what to do with several things that were cluttering up my refrigerator: one quarter pound homemade pork sausage, one quarter pound of ground pork, a Russet potato—that I had peeled for another meal and ended up not using—half a red bell pepper (ditto), one small yellow onion. I could just chop it all up, throw it in a skillet, fry it up, and call it “hash,” but that would not be me. I am not the first person to face this dilemma, World Cuisine is full of solutions. Hash in a pocket bread is called an empanada.
Filed under bread, California Fusion, Main Dishes, Pork
Karl’s Lemon Grass Chicken Soup II
When I join my wife for lunch by the university we sometimes go to Café Pomegranate. While this is primarily a Persian restaurant, sometimes they go a bit wild with their soup of the day. Last week it was lemon grass soup. It was so good that I decided that I would have to deconstruct it.
Filed under Chicken, Main Dishes, Poultry, Soups, Vegetables
Karl’s Chicken Curry
This dish started out as a butter chicken, but as I read about the confusion of this dish with Chicken tikka masala, the only conclusion I could come to was that neither one was a traditional Indian dish before about sixty years ago. Both dishes were adaptations of traditional Indian dishes to British tastes. One origin story for chicken tikka masala is a chef in Scotland, although this is disputed in Punjab.
Filed under Chicken, Main Dishes, Poultry
Karl’s Greek Honey Lemon Chicken
Last year, I made a heavy chicken and “roasties” dinner that Jan had requested. For this weekday meal I wanted something similar, but much lighter. I am making a spinach and orzo salad, so I wanted just the chicken and the Greek flavors tonight.
Filed under Chicken, Main Dishes, Poultry
Karl’s Italian Sausage Lasagna with Vegetable “Noodles”
The kids are on one of their low-starch diets—South Beach this time—so I have to adapt my Sunday meals to this. Personally, I believe that the secret losing weight is in not eliminating any particular “evil” food group, but in eating healthy and eating less—a bit of exercise wouldn’t hurt (the pot calling the kettle). There is no healthy way to eat massive amounts of food and still lose weight—still I try to accommodate.
Filed under California Fusion, italian, Main Dishes, Pork
Karl’s Lentil Soup with Chicken Sausage
Sometimes I have a derth of ideas for what to make for dinner. At times like this, I will type “dinner suggestions” into Google and see what comes up. This search produces lists of recipes with pictures that I can scroll through and think, “No, no, no…maybe?”
Filed under California Fusion, Chicken, Main Dishes, Poultry, Soups, Vegan, Vegetarian
Karl’s Open-faced Chicken Salad Sandwiches on Pita Bread
I made chicken stock yesterday, which always leaves me with the problem of what to do with the chicken bits I pick off the neck and back bones. I know that the professional chefs consider this meat “used up” after they have made a stock. They simply discard it as being tough, flavorless, and too much trouble to pick off the bones. As a home cook, I cannot help but think this is wasteful.
Filed under Chicken, Main Dishes, Poultry, Salads









