Susan in FL

Thanks for the update, and the info on Zebra. Glad all is well. We'll be coming for closing when our house sells, so I'm trying to narrow down the choices of where to go for a dinner or two. The problem (a wonderful problem) is narrowing down so many good restaurants and too little time, I know. We'll probably take one evening to go restaurant hopping for a progressive dinner kind of thing. Then there's Cultured Pearl, which I miss so much, not to mention family obligations. Jenny, hope I don't have to wait as long as you do for your next visit, to get that house sold. Hey, anybody wanna buy a house in slower lower Delawhere?

Ditto!It's my passion. And...

Bob, please do let us know about AJ's Brewing Company, after you go. Beautiful Foods... oh my, what a wonderful place for cheese. You're right, it certainly is unrivaled in the area. He taught me what really good cheese is. I thought I knew before that, but I didn't. Do you know if it still belongs to Bill W.? There aren't too many things that make me miss Delaware. That is surely one of them. Another question -- you or SWoody might know -- is Ristorante Zebra still alive and well? Hey, I miss your posts, SWoody, and hope everything is OK.

I surely hope you thought it was out of balance as in leaning too heavily on the hoppy side. For me, that's an endorsement! Yum.

Hathor, that dinner sounds delicious. It's tempting especially now, two days after I was dissatisfied with my preparation of some fine red snapper fillets. Next time I'm in the seafood market, I'm going to buy a whole one and do that! The "molten gorgonzola salad" sounds luscious, too. Did you half the pears lengthwise?

My first husband... we grilled steaks and drank terrible wine the first time we cooked together/for each other. My current husband... it was oysters (and good wine) that he fixed at about 2:00 AM one late night, followed by a delicious breakfast, twenty-some years ago.

We finally found a bottle of Strega, for the first time since we moved to Florida. That would be Trails Liquors, in Ormond Beach, for anybody in the Daytona Beach area who might be trying to find it. We got one of those gift boxes, with two pretty little liquore glasses free with the purchase. It was in a restaurant that we enjoyed it in January, when I made the original post. Life is good.

Last night's dinner was disappointing, except for the raw clams as an appetizer/snack while we were cooking... we used fresh clams for clam juice, for the roasted red snapper dish. The crab and asparagus custards was a test recipe for Leite's Culinaria. It tasted good and looked pretty, but was nothing special. It was sort of the same for the roasted snapper with crab meat and roasted garlic and sun-dried tomato butter. That was inspired by a recipe from "Great Chefs Magazine"... good, but tasted like a dish from a mediocre seafood restaurant. The snapper was great -- tasty and fresh. I wish we had fixed it more simply. I can't even remember what wine we drank (white). Good is OK, but I much prefer very, very good. Tonight after a long day working in the yard, planting vegetable and flower gardens, we played "Ready, Set, Cook" [anybody remember that show on Food Network?] and used only what we had in the house. I came up with bruschetta followed by crab cakes, asparagus (using up left-over stuff from yesterday), and roasted feta with olives and red peppers. The wine was Sangiovese.

Welcome, and agreed... Bigfoot is an awesome beer. We do our best to save some each year. We now have five years aging for vertical tastings. LOVE barley wines...

Yum, and I just sent you a PM about this and some Millenium!

Good to see you here! Hope you check in regularly, and post some dinners. It's a great source of ideas and inspiration. But alas, for now, I am just too tired to download the photos and see how they turned out and post tonight's dinner... We're having a couple of days of hard core gardening, 'tis the season. See you tomorrow or Monday.

Sounds good, and WELCOME!

Yes!

I used my Farberware stainless steel pot with a steamer insert. I don't have a bamboo steamer, but after this successful dish and my increasing interest in Asian style cooking, I will probably soon be in the market for one! Any recommendations?

Hi, Larry! You don't sound like the typical starving college student... I think somebody with good taste raised you! It was good to hear from you on this thread. Please do post more about your dinners. This morning before work I browned turkey drumsticks under the broiler, and then put them in the slow cooker, added garlic, fresh herbs, salt and pepper, and maybe a half cup of white wine, and cooked them on low all day. I don't do a lot with the slow cooker, and this was one of the best slow cooked dinners we've had. With the turkey we had spinach and baked potatoes. The potatoes were a new thing in the supermarket this week... I can't remember what they are called, but they are big red-skinned potatoes with nice "clean" skin, and are golden on the inside, by Green Giant. They're very tasty. And, a La Crema Pinot Noir which was really good.

The pearl balls turned out good! Thanks jo-mel, and all, for your thoughts. I used parts of both recipes -- the Epicurious "Rice-Studded Meatballs," and yours, jo-mel. It was actually more of the latter. The only bamboo shoots available were canned, so I left them out. I figured they pretty much taste like the can, and wouldn't add much to the dish. I think if I followed just the Epicurious recipe, they would have been too bland. I had some dipping sauce left over from another dinner and that helped. What fun to see how they looked! I was especially pleased with that part.

Tonight - Sushi appetizer Fish and Vegetable Soup with Lime, Ginger, and Cilantro, adapted by using two kinds of fish fillets, and fresh clams and fresh clam juice Edamame Pearl Balls Oriental-style salad with avocado 2001 Hugel Alsace Gewurtztraminer

Geekdoc, welcome to eG! Your posts have me almost drooling on the keyboard, and have me wanting to try some higher quality grits than what I've used so far. My ex sister-in-law used to make a mean dove pot pie... yum.

I'll gladly come to eat with you on your planet! So sorry to hear that... Take care of yourselves. It sounds like you're doing a great job so far, and please keep us posted. He's not even able to eat toast dope? Yesterday we were thinking of you two, as we finally made some lima bean "spread" and enjoyed it very much as a bruschetta topping. That stuff is good, and could be a side dish. My husband asked me if potato was in the puree. After bruschettas, we had the Fettucine with Duck Sauce, which turned out real fine, and the wine we decided upon was a Rancho Zabaco Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel. Good match. Another extra busy week is coming up... probably won't be taking as much time as usual for cooking and photographing.

Last night before dinner, Saga Bleu stuffed celery and Mojitos; it was summertime. Then: Lamb chops with rosemary-cherry sauce, inspired by an award-winning recipe from the Academy of Culinary Design at Seabreeze High School. I am trying to find a link to the actual recipe, Greek Lamb in Rosemary-Cherry Sauce, to give the students proper credit, but so far I haven't found it. Will edit to add it, if I do. Cucumber, onions, and garlic in yogurt... I let the yogurt drain all day, and salted the cucumbers and onions and let them drain all day, before mixing it all up just prior to serving. Sauteed matchstick-sliced zucchini and yellow squash Israeli coucous cooked risotto style. Salad of lettuces, cherry tomatoes, red onion, Kalamata olives, and feta, drizzled with our favorite Greek EVOO, no vinegar, and topped with toasted pine nuts. 2000 Rosenblum Zinfandel San Francisco Bay Oakley Vineyards Haagen-Dazs Vanilla with strawberries and balsamic vinegar, toasted pine nuts. Victory Storm King Stout Tonight we are starting with bruschettas with different topping choices... so far, the classic tomato and basil; roasted red peppers; and Suzilightning and Johnnybirds's lima bean spread. Also, made pate with the duck liver... The main course is Fettucine with Duck Sauce and then we'll have some kind of salad. We're not sure what we're drinking yet... maybe a Sangiovese.

Good news, thank you much for the link.

As always, beautiful food being displayed and described here. Thanks everyone for the continued inspirations. I haven't been able to keep up with posting even our highlights, but I did want to take time to mention a dinner my husband cooked this week. I've had a lot of business + pleasure dinners out recently, and Thursday my vegetarian colleague and I ate here, with my husband. He made the Risotto Primavera recipe from April's Bon Appetit. It was delicious, and just as pretty as in the picture, which I forgot to take. An amusing thought... had I remembered, I wonder what our guest would have thought about our routine of photographing our food! Not too many of my coworkers or closest friends do this sort of thing.

This is making me hungry for cooking fried chicken, and gave me some good ideas to try. These days we use peanut oil. Soaking in buttermilk and a little hot sauce before breading appeals to me. Edited to add this P.S.: My favorite thing to do with homemade pan fried chicken is take it on a picnic. Mmm... it's in the 80's today!

That's the way I like grits! Or, with cheese. And, for dinner... I don't care about grits for breakfast.

Some thirty-plus years ago my ex-husband's mother taught me how to make pan-fried chicken, and way back in the day, I loved it... Dip chicken parts in egg and then in a seasoned flour mixture, and pan-fry in bacon fat, in a cast-iron skillet! My how times have changed.