What are you cooking for dinner tonight?

[oxocube]

I love to cook but I am so bored cooking the same old stuff, week after week. What are you all cooking for dinner? Can you give me inspiration

Bozza - glad to hear you enjoyed them

My latest thing is tabbouleh made by mixing cooked bulgar wheat with diced peppers, cucumber, tomato, olives and a generous amount of fresh coriander. I buy a tin of black olives and pour the juice over the finished salad as a dressing. Yummy and perfect for when the weather's warm as an accompaniment for things like barbecued or grilled food. We're having it tonight to go with some humble turkey escalope things.

BTW made Nigella's chocolate lime cheescake today so looking forward to that! Also making the ham in coco cola tomorrow for Sunday lunch which I am most intrigued about.

Frances, cauliflower is lovely if you break into into little pieces, turn it in garlicky olive oil with some soaked raisins and toasted pinenuts and mix it with pasta shapes. That green cauliflower is delicious with a really delicate flavour.

Actually Debster it was a bit of a relief because when DH was unpacking the shopping he came across the goats cheese and announced he didn't like it! So I made it anyway with the simple addition of a few chopped up mushrooms so that I could tell him they were stuffed with "mushrooms and goats cheese" (although really it was the other way round) and he enjoyed it. Both had severe garlic breath this morning though....

For the BBQ last weekend I stuffed peppers with cous cous, mixed the cous cous with spring oinions and garlic, I soaked the couscous in the vegetable water I had used for the carrots. Stuffed some of the other peppers with pilau rice with tomatoes and garlic and even my DH ate them and he is not into veg at all! Topped the peppers with Mozarella cheese and put it into the oven for about 30 minutes at 180.

Quick question - what's the best sort of dressing for a potato salad? I usually do mayonnaise mixed with French dressing but am never very happy with it. Thanks!

Fionn - how about this? (could leave out any of the ingredients you don't fancy..) I seem to remember someone (?Nigel slater) saying potato salad should never involve mayo! (depends what kind of mood I'm in, sometimes I like to mix mayo with wholegrain mustard, a little lemon juice plus sliced spring onions..)

1 lb tiny new potatoes
8 oz broad beans
4 oz feta cheese
2 tbsp chopped parsley
4 oz ham, diced

Dressing:
1-2 oz mint leaves
5 oz tomatoes, skinned
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the potatoes and cook for 7-8 minutes. Add the beans and cook until the potatoes are tender. Drain into a colander and run them under the cold tap to stop further cooking. Drain very well and put into a serving dish with the ham. Mix well.
For the dressing, chop the mint, tomatoes and garlic together in a food processor. Season with salt and pepper and add the lemon juice and olive oil. Process very briefly to combine.

Stir the dressing into the salad and sprinkle with crumbled feta cheese and parsley.

bundle - that sounds lovely, thanks. I've got everything except beans so will try it tonight.

I often do sour cream with chives or mint, or sour cream with mustard, a dash of honey and a generous sprinkling of toasted pine nuts on top. Not as delish as Bundle's suggestion though.

PamT, I've just noticed that you last posted on Sat afternoon. No joy with the car then?

Bells2 - thanks for the chicken breasts topped with parmesan, bacon etc. I did them at the weekend when my parents were visiting - and they went down a treat! In the words of my Dad - 'This is the best topping I've ever tasted'

bells2 - that sounds great too. I've managed to grow chives in the garden (the height of my gardening prowess so far!) but don't know what to do with them, so I'll give it a go.

Also - anyone have a recipe for gazpacho? This hot weather is perfect for it and I loved it when I lived in Spain, but I can't find a recipe that matches my memory of it. I know it's tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, onion (and pepper?) but can't remember the rest.

Hiya. Well we are fond lovers of taglitelli in our house. I tend to use fresh, because it's quicker..but the usual tastes just as good.
A carton of passatta in a pan...brought to the boil, and then simmered..then add some fresh chopped basil, and some diced feta cheese. Continue to simmer for about five mins. Then drain the taglitelli, and add the sauce to it...gorgeous!

Wishing you all the best for the next few days SueW, you must be going private then to have the op so soon?
Obviously you have decided to have it during the school summer holidays.How long does your little girl have to spend in hospital?
Apart from being hungry I hope you are OK.
Love, cam

Enid - Thank-you for lovely cauliflower suggestion. Made it tonight and it was totally gorgeous. I'll never look at cauli in the same light again. Thanks to Ionesmum, too - I'll try it with tomato next week (hurrah). Think I must be a very uninspired cook, you know, having simply boiled it or souped it for weeks. Mind you, I made a nice tarte tatin with pears the other day, so maybe it's just that I'm better with puddings. But toasted pine nuts and cauliflower......yum.

Delicious warm potato salad dressing:
Cook baby new potatoes and set aside, but keep them warm

Mix with a hand held blender:
4 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
grated rind of one lemon
clove garlic
heaped teaspoon grainy mustard.

It will go thick and creamy.

pour over warm tatties, add a handful each of chopped spring onions and chives and serve warm.
I made this for a family party on Sunday and they all loved it.

That's nice Tetley!. Good luck SueW.

Jasper, yum!! Am making this tonight

BTW, Jasper, did I get the time of your post right? 3.23 a.m. and you can thionk about potato salad!! I am impressed !

yes oxocube, it was the night feed!
ps put plenty of spring onions and chives in the tattie salad and let me know how it turns out.
Have the potatoes warm, not hot

Tigger! Oh Tigger Tigger Tigger! You are a genius! Cooked the chickeny baked bean thingy yesterday and was honestly one of the quickest good meals I've ever prepared. We all wolfed it down and it was yummy. Thanks, oh bouncy one!

can i just warn you guys about something .....!! I saw Nigella cooking a delicious lamb stew last week - it's the one where you put a whole bottle of wine and pasta in and it all cooks together into a yummy mush of wholesome loveliness - well i tried it on the w.end - it looked so goos i thought i would cook dbl so that dh & ds could have it for lunch during te week while i was at work (dh just been made redundant -- another story!!) - anyway what looked like a present sent from heaven on TV looked like a sludge of distgusting ness in my kitchen on sunday - and lots of it!! My initial thoughts when watching it on TV were v. nice but (a) where does the starch from the pasta go and (b) isn't that a lot of wine - but it looked good and nigella's mates enjoyed it so i went ahead with it - moral of the story is to stick to your 1st instinct. It was YUCK, i now have a pile of it in the kitchen. The only thing that made it worthwhile was the faces on my poor dh & ds when i made them eat it. Has anyone else tried it? I also had a problem with Nigella's brownies - so maybe we're just not on the same wavelength - althoug i love watching her shows and pretending to be her when raunchily prancing around my kitchen!!

Didnt see the programme but do you mean a greek lamb stew, that has feta crumbled over it? If you do, I have made it many times and think it is DELICIOUS!!!!!!! The one I mean is in the Cooking in Advance section of How to Eat.

no it's not that one - i wish i'd gone for that one! I think the one i did is not in her books and just appeared on the TV show ...... i will try the greek one and if that's a flop too then i will begin to take it personally! thanks for the recommendation.