liamsaunt

I can't remember if I replied to this thread years ago (I joined egullet back in 2003 but then left for many years, can't remember why now). At the moment I have about 400 cookbooks. Here they are: I moved to my current house almost two years ago, and at that time I probably purged about 300 others. I have a bad tendency to collect books of all types haha. My two most recent acquisitions could not be more different from each other: Nopi and The Vermont Country Store Cookbook. The bookcases in the picture are ones that my husband and I lugged home from an unfinished furniture store and painted ourselves right after getting married a very long time ago. The walls they are on go up another 10 feet and out about four feet. I am towards the end of a project to upgrade all the bookcases in my house, and am planning on having custom bookshelves made that go all the way up to the ceiling and to the edges of the walls, with library ladders. Room for lots more cookbooks :-)

spaghetti and meatballs

Shelby has Ronnie tried the rare tuna? My inlaws used to insist that they only liked tuna cooked all the way through until they finally tried it rare. Now they fight us for the rarest pieces (and we let them win out of respect for our elders haha). Tonight's dinner was fluke with crispy crumbs, glazed carrots, and cauliflower puree. This dinner screamed for something green, but the fridge is pretty bare after being on the Cape for so long. I brought the fluke home from the Cape and picked up some more local tuna for tomorrow too. I will have to go buy green things on my lunch break tomorrow.

tuna and udon noodles with bok choy

spaghetti with lobster and clams

eggs scrambled with spinach and mushrooms on a croissant

Pizza night. This one is my niece's favorite, bacon and egg pizza. A standard margarita pizza And because we are on Cape Cod right now, a lobster pizza I also made a white clam pizza and a pepperoni pizza, but no pictures of those.

This is my husband's favorite pasta. Eggplant that is peeled, salted, and then squeezed to get the liquid out, sautéed in olive oil until extremely tender and almost falling apart, and then cooked into tomatoes with garlic and basil. Ricotta salata added at the end.

halibut and littleneck clam stew

My family is out on Cape Cod again. Weather was lousy until today (of course the day we are leaving!). Friday I made spicy spaghetti with clams and lobster. No picture because it was too dark. Last night we got take out from Arnold's Lobster and Clam Bar in Eastham. Pictured, a jumbo warm lobster roll with drawn butter. We also got clam chowder, lobster bisque, fried clams, stuffed clams, and fish and chips. All was consumed.

Tomato sandwich. Probably one of the last for the year

That is definitely a parrotfish. I wanted to mention that this fish, and others that feed on coral reefs, are linked with ciguatera, a very painful and long-lasting illness that is caused by a toxin present in the flesh of reef fish. The toxin has no odor or taste and cannot be removed with cooking. I am not familiar with the rate of illness caused by ciguatera in the Gulf of Tonkin, but a quick google search does show that it is present there.

Ramen noodle bowl. I came home from work and processed 25 lbs. of tomatoes into marinara so needed something fast after I was done. 20 gallons of sauce made so far, and I only have one more batch of tomatoes to go. Most people have standing freezers filled with meat. Mine is half filled with marinara sauce.

I made the mushrooms berkley last night. According to the notes in my cookbook, I had made them previously, but I don't remember doing so. I cut the sugar in half and thought they were more than sweet enough. I used them as a sauce for some grilled chicken.

Cliche salad. Chicken, roasted beets, goat cheese, and walnuts.

Ha, the Vegetarian Epicure was one of my fallback cookbooks in college too, 20 years after you. I still have it. I always mark off recipes in books after I cook them so I will have to look and see if I ever made these mushrooms. They do look delicious! The corn and cheddar chowder in that book is still my favorite corn chowder recipe, though I use chicken stock now, and omit the nutritional yeast.

Did you enjoy it? It looks delicious. I have eaten at his restaurant Fatty Crab a handful of times (ironically in a location--now closed--that had no crab on the menu!) and have that cookbook but have never made anything from it. Last night's dinner was a hake and clam stew. That's a roasted red pepper rouille on the toast.

Farro salad with arugula, tomatoes, herbs, parmesean, pistachios and radishes. Recipe from the New York Times cooking site.

roasted halibut with lobster

Roasted salmon with basil butter over tomato risotto. The tomatoes are from my garden. My garden was pretty much a failure this year except for the tomatoes.

More linguini, this time with shrimp

linguini with clams

My husband and I went back to Cape Cod last weekend and were able to get another piece of toro. I followed an idea in Fish Without a Doubt by Rick Moonen and coated it in everything bagel seasoning and just cooked it for 60 seconds. Served on garlicky udon noodles with bok choy and scallions.

Yes, I have had both Sally's and Pepe's pizza. My husband went to law school in New Haven and those were our usual dinner out locations when I visited him. At the time I liked them both equally. It has been many years though.

white clam pizza with arugula salad on top