Dinner! 2003

[torakris]

Friday dinner:

aji no hiraki (sun dried horse mackeral)

kabocha grilled and drizzled with ponzu

oishina ("delicious" green) sauteed with bacon

hiyayakko (cold tofu) served atop minced okra (with ginger and soy) and topped with tomato

Japanese rice

[cheeseandchocolate]

Tonight we're having some friends to dinner, and here's the plan:

Tomato and Corn Salad with Basil: sliced heirloom tomatoes scattered with fresh white corn cut from the cob and roughly chopped basil, with a simple vinaigrette (from Janet Fletcher's excellent Fresh From the Farmers' Market). A little sliced baguette to go along.

Mark Bittman's Pasta with Parmesan and Mint (now famous on eGullet)--I'm using linguine and spearmint

Chocolate Mousse (adapted from la Maison du Chocolat, from Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets)

Someone, please keep me away from the mousse until dessert time...

[KNorthrup]

Lamb chops (TJ's preseasoned)

Orzo-mint-feta pilaf

Cherry tomatoes & cucumber with balsalmic vinagrette

[dumpling]

Tom Kha Gai(Coconut Ginger Soup with chicken, shrimp, mushrooms, basil, and cilantro).

Pad Thai with lots of shrimp

Steamed spareribs with scallions, garlic, ginger, soy and chicken broth and some hot oil and sesame oil.

Chicken with carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, basil, cilantro, scallions, garlic and ginger with chicken broth based sauce

Lemon Meringue PIE

[NeroW]

Thursday dinner:

fried zuwai-gani (tiny crabs)

torakris, my cousins, who are your kids' age, wouldn't touch those crabs with a ten-foot pole.

Bravo!

Saturday, a major craving for pizza.

One with grilled chicken, brushed with Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce (the Boy loves BBQ chicken pizza ), with smoked mozzarella, a little Kasseri for something different (never had this cheese before, it melts quite well), caramelized red onions, and a blast of chiffonade-d basil.

The other with a slow-cooked tomato sauce, smoked mozzarella and Gouda, smeared with roasted garlic, sauteed mushrooms, caramelized Vidalia onions, black olives, and raw tomato. Also topped with basil.

OK, so it was overkill. But it satisfied the pizza craving.

Oh. And Bell's Oberon. As summer comes to an end.

[torakris]

Sat. night:

one of those do it aheads and forget about it dinners, so I could concentrate on preparing food for today's BBQ including my husband's birthday cake

chicken adobo (recipe from the NY Times food section a couple months back, probably Bittman)

Asian slaw with cabbage, red onions and peanuts (from New Way to Cook) --this was great and would ahve been better if I had used a variety of vegetables

Japanese rice and brown rice mix

dessert:

instant pudding

[torakris]

had a bbq with friends last night and they left at 7:30 this morning!

These are my Kobe beef friends and they didn't fail us this time either, incredible beef that needed nothing more then a light sprinkling of salt. It was so tender we didn't need a knife to cut we just pulled it apart with chopsticks.

I smoked some Kansas City style baby back ribs (over sakura- cherry blossom chips)

grilled corn and portabella mushrooms

chips with guacamole

roasted chickpeas with cumin and salt

olives

various bruschetta

-tomato and basil

-grilled pepper-anchovy-parsley

-marinated dried tomatoes and black olive spread

dessert:

white cake filled with a black cherry "jam" and a whip cream frosting

[SobaAddict70]

Indian food kick continues:

reheated leftover coconut rice

steamed broccoli

sliced, broiled paneer, along with a little EVOO drizzled over roasted tomatoes and onions

iced blueberry oolong tea

Soba

[Al_Dente]

A spice rubbed pork butt slow cooked on the Weber with some hickory chips. Shredded it and served it with a North Carolina style vinegar based spicy sauce, and a sort of South Carolina mustard based sweeter sauce. It was awesome, if I do say so myself.

How long did I cook it? About 8 beers.

Edited August 11, 2003 by Al_Dente (log)

[Basilgirl]

Pork loin with Tuscan herbed salt from A New Way to Cook in the Set It and Forget It

Lidia's baked potato wedges with lots of garlic, lots of S&P, lots of olive oil and some parsley

Tomato-cuke-red onion salad with feta

Lindeman's Chardonnay

Lots of pork left over for Cubans

[mixmaster b]

Lamb Noisettes, marinated with rosemary, s&p, olive oil. Seared it off in cast iron and stuck it in the oven with a few cloves of garlic. Degalzed w/ red wine for a sauce.

Yukon gold potatoes mashed w/ evoo & parmesan. (River Cafe book.)

Artichoke hearts and peeled stems, sauteed, seasoned w/ garlic, mint, italian parsley, lemon juice, s&p. (Also River Cafe)

Salad was thin sliced hierloom tomatoes with tapenade, coarse sea salt, and evoo.

David Bruce Pinot with all, not bad.

[Malawry]

Tofu satays with peanut sauce and Thai-style cucumber salad

Pan-fried catfish, spiked with Chinese five-spice powder and drizzled with Chinese mustard glaze

Hansen and bibb lettuce salad

Blueberry trifle

[rxrfrx]

Udon, thinly sliced sirloin and bell pepper sauteed with chili-garlic paste, fish sauce, egg, and lime juice

Baby bok choy braised in chicken stock

Honey graham grackers

( Four thousand. )

[cheeseandchocolate]

White beans cooked with fresh rosemary and sage, pureed with some of their cooking water and some minced garlic, and then drizzled with EVOO and balsamic

Green beans and yellow wax beans with argan oil

Pain au levain from our local (Seattle) Tall Grass Bakery

And for dessert: fresh apricot clafoutis (from the new Joy, with creme fraiche substituted for half of the milk)

I feel very right now.

[SethG]

Tuesday night:

Made the famous Bittman pasta with mint and Parmesan. It was indeed refreshing.

And another tomato salad-- peeled, seeded, in wedges, with EVOO and vinegar and a handful of basil leaves.

Edit: Did I say Tuesday? I meant Monday. Wishing the days away, I guess.

Edited August 12, 2003 by SethG (log)

[sandra]

All cold food, it's waaay too hot here to eat hot...

Pork loin roasted with oriental spices and flavours, then shredded and rolled up in Vietnames pancakes with cucumber and spring onion - dipped in soy/rice vinegar/chili oil mixture

Cold sesame noodles

Cucumber ribbon salad with rice vinegar/soy/sesame oil/chili dressing

Edamame, cold and salted

[Basilgirl]

Oscar Mayer BLT's on toasted English muffin bread, chipotle Gourmayo on one side, blue cheese on the other. Onion rings.

[suzilightning]

it's date night so fish/seafood of some sort. john requested shrimp wrapped with (turkey) bacon so it is ready to go in the oven when i see the blue of the outback. brochettes of yellow squash and green pepper drizzled with olive oil and sea salt. toss up between udon and rice.

also did the dinners for the next two days(when i work late we eat at work so we have more time together) - chicken cordon bleu with parsley potatoes and a spinach salad and unfried chicken nuggets with trader joe's peach salsa. not sure what i will send with that protein but i have two days

[snowangel]

New York strips, sweet corn, Brandywine tomatoes, green beans (latter two from our garden).

We have had sweet corn every night since I last reported. I should correct this and say "I" have had sweet corn every night; Peter, Paul and Heidi had pizza one night.

[mixmaster b]

Pork loin roasted with oriental spices and flavours, then shredded and rolled up in Vietnames pancakes with cucumber and spring onion - dipped in soy/rice vinegar/chili oil mixture

Sandra. by Vietnamese pancakes do you mean the big rice-paper rounds that are used for wrapping summer rolls? This sounds like a treat!

[Ondine]

Got my butcher to stuff a good 1.5 kilo (3lb) pork neck with some fresh hot chorizo sausagemeat, which I roasted/braised in the oven in foil for 2 hours, with 1/4 bottle of Cabernet Sauv poured over and dotted with homemade garlic butter. For the last hour I opened up the foil and scattered handfuls of tiny unpeeled garlic cloves all around the roast. (You know the tiny not-really-worth-peeling cloves you get in heads of garlic? I saved them up from the garlic butter making.) When the roast was done I set it aside to rest while I mashed the garlic cloves and fished out the skins, before pouring the pan juices off for gravy, as there was very little fat.

For goeswith, I had blanched broccolini, tossed with a little light soy and some sesame oil, and heaps of mashed potatoes, made with half Royal Blue and half Ruby Lou potatoes, cream, butter, milk and sea salt. Oh, and a smidge more garlic butter.

Well, it's late winter here and stormy outside, and the whole household is down with a flu, so I thought garlic would be the way to go.

When sliced, the chorizo stuffing showed through in a pretty star-shaped pattern - I love my butcher!

[Elissa]

second attempt at a 'thai' fish curry:

lemongrass ginger cilantro basil onion garlic in cuisinart

fry up a couple few tablespoons

add sea bass for a couple mins

add coconut milk and tumeric

remove sea bass

add green beans (pre-steamed and lemon-zested long beans)

reduce liquid

reheat fish thru

serve over rice with basil/cilantro chop

not yet great a great dish, but not half bad. considerably improved with chili sauce. maybe fish sauce lacking. would that be best added with coco milk?

watercress cuke and red pepper salad

mango/papaya/ginger/lime/mint

Edited August 13, 2003 by lissome (log)

[laurel]

Dinner for one out of the CSA basket:

Stir-fry of Tofu, Shiitakes, and Greens:

For dessert, one excellent peach.

[browniebaker]

Dinner was inspired by a gift of morel mushrooms that my husband's colleague at work had picked and dried:

morel soup (dried morels, minced shallot, bay leaf, thyme, chicken stock, sour cream, egg yolk, salt, pepper);

cheese platter (triple-creme Brie, St.Andre, Bleu d'Auvergne, water crackers)

tossed green salad

chess pie

[Malawry]

Laurel, your meatless meals are beautiful. Mm.

Tonight:

Raisin-pine nut whole wheat couscous

Cinnamon chickpeas with caramelized onions

Farm market haricots verts, blanched shocked and then rewarmed in veg stock and butter

I'm about to go pick up some ice cream for dessert. My ice cream consumption this summer is at its lowest since I started seeing my partner lo those many years ago. (He's an ice cream fiend, and turned me into one too.)