Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope y'all have a great Thanksgiving with friends and family!  My family is off to New Hampshire, so we will not be delivering dinners on the porch this coming Tuesday - but I suspect you'll have plenty to eat without it!  

We'll be back the following week, so here's a head's up for what's coming!  

Tuesday, November 30th:

Cajun Red Beans and Rice with Chicken Andouille Sausage (mild)

Who Dat? Empanadas (Spicy Beef & Chorizo)

Spinach Salad with Goddess Dressing

Vegetarian Option:  Red Beans and Rice w/o sausage

Kids' Option:  Side of plain sausage & steamed broccoli to serve with rice ($5)

Dessert:  Santa's on His Way Peppermint Chocolate Snowflake Cookies ($5)

Get rid of your turkey leftovers and stop eating old stuffing out of the pan with a spoon!  For the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, we're dishing up a summer DoTP favorite, Cajun Red Beans and Rice with Chicken Andouille Sausage.  If you've been down to Louisiana, you know it's a big speciality down there, and with good reason - it's hearty, delicious & really tasty!  Plus, we're taking a dish that is pretty healthy in the first place (lots of protein and veggies without much fat) and making it even more so, using chicken sausage instead of pork.  The dish will be prepared mild, and we'll leave it to you to spice it up with Tabasco sauce (or Texas Pete's, if you're not into keeping the whole thing "Louisiana").  I'll give you a little side dish of shredded cheese, even though that's not normally part of the dish, since I can't think of anything that's not better with cheese.  (I shred it myself, rather than buying it pre-shredded, in case you, like me, are not into whatever additives they put into shredded cheese to keep it from clumping together - yuck!)

You'll also get an organic spinach salad with fresh mushroom, peppers, croutons and a little blue cheese.  The dressing is an organic sesame tahini that is my absolute favorite!

To whet your appetite, snack on the yummy Who Dat? Empanadas - they are spicy, meaty and so good!  If you're ordering a vegetarian meal, we'll fill 'em with a good veggie and potato mash-up with Cajun spices, so you won't miss out!

I'm also pretty excited about the cookies this week - I love the combination of chocolate and peppermint, and these are a sweet way to start getting excited about Christmas!  Do you have your lights up yet!?!?!

Orders for this meal will be accepted until Sunday, November 28th, but we're on a first-come, first-served basis, so don't delay if you know you want it!  Email your order to dinnersontheporchorders@gmail.com.

Also, feel free to add your Elf on the Porch or a la carte orders onto your weekly email!

Shangri-La Indian Feast!*

Indian food is one of my favorite types of cuisine, and I love to experiment with Indian spices and ingredients, even when I'm making something traditional, like chili or grilled chicken.  This week we'll try a menu of simple, flavorful Indian dishes that I think your whole family will love.  It will also be nice to have some good ethnic food before the Thanksgiving extravaganza of boiled vegetables and turkey!  We are doing everything mild this week, so you don't have to worry about it being too spicy for the kids.

Tuesday, November 16th:
Chicken Tikka Masala
Mixed Vegetable Curry (Add Shrimp $5)
Warm Red Lentils
Rice & Naan
Vegetarian Option:  Paneer Tikka Masala
Kids' Option:  Grilled Chicken and Potato Kebab (plain) - $5
Dessert:  Pear Tart - $5

I love going out to an Indian restaurant with a big group of people and trying a little bit of everyone else's order!  That was the inspiration behind this week's menu - you'll get enough for everyone to sample a bit of everything.  That way, even if your kids are eating Indian for the first time, they can have a little bite of each thing - they may be surprised to discover that they love it all!

The Tikka Masala is a mild, tomato-based sauce loaded with flavor and chicken.  The Mixed Vegetable Curry is a mild green curry mixed with broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, potatoes and snap peas - so healthy and tasty.  I love lentils - they are so versatile and are always a nice change from pasta or rice.  Plus, they are much healthier!  These Warm Red Lentils are tangy, colorful and yummy - they will be great with dinner, and the leftovers will make a tasty lunch the next day.  For vegetarians, or anyone who wants a change from chicken, the Paneer Tikka Masala is Indian cheese - it has the consistency of tofu and is very mild, so it just takes on the nice flavor of the tikka masala.  The kids' kebob might be a good choice if you've got kids who resist trying new things.  You can serve it with a little of the other things on the side, call it an Indian kebob (even though it will be very plain), and then later exclaim over how proud you are that he or she was adventurous enough to try Indian food!  (I always try to convince my kids that they have already tried and liked whatever I am trying to get them to eat - it sometimes works!)

We spent a little time trying to think of an Indian dessert that would be a crowd-pleaser, but in the end we decided that a simple pear tart would be the perfect light ending to the meal.  Fall fruit is so good, and this tart highlights the lovely flavor of a ripe pear - so tasty!

I hope you'll enjoy this week's tour of India - and if the weather holds out, you may even get to enjoy it on the porch!

Email orders to dinnersontheporchorders@gmail.com by Saturday morning!

Thanks,
Claire

*I know (because I just googled it), Shangri-la is fictional utopia, not a place in India, but you will feel like you've been transported to another world when you open your dinner and enjoy the array of Indian delights!

Mamacita's Tortilla Soup with Roasted Pork

Tuesday, November 9th:
Mamacita's Tortilla Soup with Roasted Pork and Avocado
Organic Baby Greens Salad with Homemade Jalapeno Ranch Dressing
Soup & Salad Toppings:  Rice, Black Beans, Cheese, Limes, Salsa, Cilantro
Mimi'sChile con Queso & Chips
Vegetarian Option:  Black Bean Tortilla Soup
Kids' Option:  Shredded Pork Soft Tacos ($5)
Dessert:  Monster Cookies! ($5)

This week's menu is a tribute to my two wonderful grandmothers - Mamacita and Mimi.  Mamacita was my mom's mom, and in all the years I knew her, I'm pretty sure she never turned on her stove.  When we visited, we were treated to such kid favorites as tomato aspic or a dry tuna fish sandwich with bread and butter pickles.  Mmmm.  Kids love that.  So in honor of Mamacita's lifelong rejection of cooking, I've named this very tasty, hearty soup after her.  She would probably be relatively indifferent to the honor, but I'm sure she would have liked the soup.  Mimi was my dad's mother, and she and my grandfather were both great cooks.  She created this queso recipe and I've really never had any that even comes close to being as tasty.  It's really a work of art.  Cheesy art, but art nonetheless.

This week's meal really is a make-your-own extravaganza, so it will be fun for everyone, no matter how picky!  You'll get soup, of course, made with roasted pork, cilantro, chipotle, corn, tomatoes, and fresh avocado chunks.  It's so flavorful and savory that no one may notice that it's actually really healthy & filled with veggies.  You can dress your bowl up in a million different ways.  Stir in rice & beans, top with cheese and cilantro, crunch up some chips on top, squeeze on a lime and dig in.  Or maybe you're a purist and will go with naked soup.  It's up to you, but it will be fun to let everyone make his or her own perfect bowl.

If, like me, you're more of a salad person than a soup person, you can make that the main event.  Have a little cup of soup, just because it's so tasty, but then create an awesome salad by adding beans, cheese, salsa or whatever else you like to a bed of fresh greens.  I have to say that all three of my kids will now eat salad, and I think it's largely due to the fact that there are always so many things on top of the lettuce that they love.  The "salad" may be mostly cheese and ranch dressing, with a lettuce leaf in there somewhere, but I'll call it progress!

Even though this week is - in my opinion - very kid-friendly, I'm adding a kids' option because we had a very ugly scene one night over this very recipe.  I normally don't make my kids eat things they don't want to, but for some reason I really, really, really felt that Finn should at least try it.  He felt strongly the opposite, and it became, in family lore, "Tortilla Soup-gate."  Not pretty.  If you've got very picky eaters, you can get a small portion of plain shredded pork and flour tortilla and let your kids load cheese or beans or whatever they want on top, thus avoiding tears and hair-pulling and saving more soup for you!

The dessert this week is so good!  We got to be taste-testers for these chewy, decadent cookies and they made everybody happy.  They are peanut butter cookies mixed with oatmeal, brown sugar and M&Ms, and they are monstrously big!  (The cookies are made and packaged in a different kitchen from the rest of the meal, so if you have a peanut allergy issue, the main meal is totally nut free.)

That's all folks.  I'm excited that the weather is going to be cold and the soup will be hot.  I hope you have a great fall weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing you on the porch!

Email order info to dinnersontheporchorders@gmail.com.