Dinner! 2004

[arielle]

Last night: Chicken and coconut curry, with butternut squash, sweet potato and chick peas. I love roti and west-indian curries, served with lots of hot sauce, but I also like an east-indian curry. Though I don't serve with with the traditional rice, rather on a bed of steamed baby bok choy, with a side of cilantro raita.

Inspired by the purchase of an enormous bunch of beautiful cilantro!!! I think that's sort of like purchasing some beautiful lingerie and then having to find the perfect outfit to accompany it!

I used the cilantro root in making the chicken stock that I used as well - infusion of flavours at all levels gives the dish much greater depth than can otherwise be achieved.

Also: purchased a tree-like basil plant, so made a traditional pesto I lurve pesto! (it's going onto everything, even breakfast toast!)

[FoodMan]

We had a very French dish for dinner last night, braised short ribs with Porcini-prune sauce. It took about two days to prepare but very well worth the effort. The sauce alone would make a great meal with some bread.

We had very buttery and creamy mashed potatoes and a glass of red wine in Julia Child’s honor as well.

Elie

[Malawry]

Pork-turkey meatballs, in a slow-cooked tomato mushroom sauce

Zucchini parmesan

Coffee with cream and Splenda

[Milt]

Beef spare ribs baked at 300 degrees with a bottle of bbq sauce poured over as it started to bake.

Healthy potato salad (and delicious, too) from Five Star Cooking Light - one of the best recipes in that book.

Tossed salad and fresh relish tray

Banana nut bread

Spicy Oatmeal Cookies

[bloviatrix]

A quick and simple dinner:

Salmon painted with dijon mustard and coated with seasoned breadcrumbs, roasted at 350

Sliced zuchinni sauted in an evoo/butter combo with a chiffonade of mint

Mint infused iced tea

Dagoba Dark Chocolate, 59%

[Malawry]

Shrimp cooked with white wine, garlic, basil

Seared herb-rubbed duck breast on organic green salad, matchstick vegetables, creamy mustard vinaigrette

Watermelon

[Susan in FL]

Post Charley Dinners...

Sunday night when I got home after flying in from Philly, my husband had dinner for us on the porch at 1 AM! He greeted me with a vodka and tonic when I walked in, and for dinner it was a shrimp risotto, salad, and Chardonnay while he told me all about the hurricane coming through at 85 miles an hour two nights earlier. It was the next morning, yesterday, that I got to see it all... downed trees and power lines, only minor structural damages to homes in our neighborhood, and lots and lots of debris... I'll be working off dinners for weeks by the exercise of the clean-up that is needed. We were lucky, compared to the west coast.

I got to cook for us last night night and made a Provencal-Style Dinner, a menu from the July 1987 Bon Appetit which has been a favorite of ours all these years since: Grilled Steak with Provencal Herbs; Fusilli With Garlic, Herb and Caper Sauce; Tomato, Avocado and Red Onion Salad with Roquefort Cheese; and an added item of grilled corn on the cob in the husks for "dessert."

The wine, 2002 Concha Y Toro Marques Casa Concha Cabernet Sauvignon was deeeeelicious.

Tonight I had a working dinner and instead of going out for our meeting over dinner, I cooked for my clients and made Pasta with Mascarpone and Roasted Grape Tomatoes; skinny green beans just blanched and then dressed with EVOO, garlic, and mint; a chopped salad, and Chianti. The pasta was luscious, a definite make-again dish. It was also a make-ahead dish... prepared in advance up to the point of baking it in the oven for 20 minutes, very convenient for an occasion such as this.

[bloviatrix]

Dinner tonight was eggplant parmigiana. I found kosher pecorino and grated it on top. I was ambitious - I even made the tomato sauce from scratch.

Sweet Corn ice cream for dessert

[Malawry]

Roasted chicken thigh quarters, with crackling "chicken bacon" skin

Boston lettuce salad with blue cheese dressing

[RSincere]

Today I made a chunky soup, the best I've ever had, verrrry loosely based on a recipe from Food Network.

The ingredients:

Boneless skinless chicken thighs, mild chorizo, a poblano pepper, 3 cloves garlic, a yellow onion, 2 diced Yukon Gold potatoes, a can of black soybeans, a can of Muir Glen fire-roasted diced tomatoes, a quart chicken broth, ancho chile powder. Grated Colby cheese on top. It was very simple but very delicious!

[eunny jang]

The wayback machine...

Friday night - a big pan of chicken enchiladas (half tomato/bell pepper and half tomatillo). This was supposed to be a quick thing I could assemble and tote up to Jeff's house for final baking, but it turned into a debacle - no tortillas at the store; so had to make my own; was originally planning to make a spicy pumpkin sauce, but didn't find the ingredients, so improvised with some sad tomatoes and bell peppers lurking in my fridge. My broiler kept going out with no warning, so charring the vegetables took forever. The stick blender didn't like the big chunks and kept spitting at me. By the time I finally had the thing sprinkled with cilantro and wrapped up, the corn salad I was going to make went out the window and turned into a corn saute with some hastily chopped onion, tomato and arugula folded in. But ohhh, man, were these enchiladas beautiful, and good - smoky and tangy with lime and fresh with herbs, and a distinct difference between the two sauces.

Sunday night - exhausted from wakeboarding all day, we came home and grilled waaay too much food. It was one of those things where we wandered into the grocery store starving and bought a truckload of stuff Enormous fat shrimp wrapped in bacon and grilled; potato pancakes; grilled tomatoes and onions, and flank steak with an incredible chimichurri I could have drank (have drunk? What is the past participle of drink?!) by the cupful.

Since then, it's been dinner out.

Edit: by the way, this is my boyfriend's kitchen. My kitchen is spotless

Edited August 19, 2004 by eunny jang (log)

[RSincere]

Today I made stir fried beef/onions from How to Cook Everything. My problem is, I'm putzy when I cook. So I was so focused on getting the ginger and garlic chopped and the onions sliced etc. before starting the dish, and it took a lot of time. I even had the hoisin sauce out for later. I got into the thick of cooking; just as my onions were brown and I was taking them out, getting ready to throw in the beef, I realized--I hadn't made any rice! I start cursing very loudly (my husband says I should have my own show, "Cooking with Pottymouth," b/c I swear over my food often) and Jason came running. I was in the middle of stir-frying and I had meat hands so I had to talk him through getting out the can of vegetable broth and finding the right pan and the rice, etc.

The stir fry was finished 15 minutes before the rice was. It still tasted good though.

[FL Heat]

The general idea for dinner was finding a reason to make the chimichurri sauce that tejon featured in her blog. I sprinkled some chicken cutlets with my chili seasoning, cooked 'em til they were done. Had some red beans & tomatoes going in a saucepan, and made a little salad (it gave me a reason to put chimichurri into the dressing to see what would happen). Poured the chimichurri over the chicken, added a dollop to the beans. Perhaps it was chimichurri overkill, but it gave me plenty of reasons to eat it & keep saying, "chimichurrichimichurri".

Oh, wow, green oil dripping down chicken looks sooooo appetizing. Whoops!

Diana

[curlywurlyfi]

11 colleagues came round to see my refurbed flat

- halved plum tomatoes, tossed with thyme, whole unpeeled garlic cloves, olive oil + balsamic and slow-roasted

- Puy lentils + spinach with garlic + olive oil + cubes of feta scattered over

- red yellow green and orange pepper strips, hard fried till caramelized

- tuna + cannellini bean salad with red onion + parsley

- 'Thai' slaw - carrot, red pepper, green mango, courgette all grated then tossed with lime juice, chilli flakes, soy sauce, fish sauce, a little dark brown sugar

- cold sausages

- green salad

- bread, butter, olive oil, mustard

then, a bit later, the most delicious apricot, raspberry and almond crumble, and a lime + ginger cheesecake.

A good time was had by all, as they say, except for this morning of course when no-one is having a good time at all.

[beetee]

Beef short ribs braised in a spicy tomatoe sauce, served on top of plain white rice.

In a mortar and pestle I ground together garlic, toasted cummin seeds, toasted fennel seeds and 4 dried chipotle peppers. That was added to the tomatoes along with one roasted red pepper. Short ribs were browned than braised for roughly 2 hours. First time cooking short ribs, and I was prettty pleased with the way they turned out, but of course I will refine the recipe for months on end :)

[tanabutler]

Green bean soup with basil-butter and lemon (puréed). Grilled wild salmon grilled and Zephyr summer squash (a beautiful new yellow heirloom from Thomas Farms). Mashed potatoes.

So so good.

No pictures, no time.

[RSincere]

Herb-basted roasted chicken breasts with bone and skin on, Yukon Gold potatoes and mushrooms alongside, basted with the same stuff. From allrecipes.

[FoodMan]

Lebanese Eggplant and beef stew

A simple burgul pilaf

A side of homemade yogurt with some salt stirred in.

Freshly made Harissa (following Claudia Roden’s recipe)

Elie

[NeroW]

Herb-basted roasted chicken breasts with bone and skin on, Yukon Gold potatoes and mushrooms alongside, basted with the same stuff. From allrecipes.

How did it turn out? What was the baste?

I have had a few days off work because of a wisdom teeth extraction. It was annoying because I was unable to eat for a few days. The pain was not the worst part of it--it was the inability to chew.

I also had a suprise weekend houseguest in the form of my friend from c. school, Greg. This was not as inconvenient as it may sound because Greg is the type of houseguest that disappears for hours, off somewhere reading a book, or snoozing on the back porch.

Saturday, the first day I could eat beyond banana-and-milk-smoothies (delicious, but repetitive), Greg and I decided over lunch what to make for dinner. Got to love someone who does that.

We had charcoal-grilled flank steak, soaked for a few hours in garlic, onion, lime, cilantro, and a little EVOO. I made a grilled corn/tomato/roasted poblano/lime relish with a little cilantro. A quick saute of bell peppers and onions, some sour cream, warmed tortillas, beans, and cheese rounded out the fajita meal.

[FL Heat]

I made a roulade. Errrr, 5 of them? Roulades? I don't know, this was my first go at it without a recipe and explicit instructions, and the boyfriend said the flavors were phenomenal (there's a reason we've been together 5 years), but the meat wasn't quite as tender as he expected for such a thin cut of meat. The meat market sells very thinly sliced top round, so I spread pesto in those, baked them, added some tomato sauce, and was very pleased with the result.

I will use one less garlic clove in the pesto next time, though. <burp>

Diana

[petite tête de chou]

Gosh, it would seem that most folks prepare such interesting and to me, very tasty meals! Alas, I cook for a gent with simple "Please don't fook with it overly much" desires.

Tonight it was "thin" spaghetti (he doesn't care for angel hair or "regular" long noodles) with pork sausage (not his fave, which is ground turkey breast!! ). Sausage was browned, drained. Sweated a mirepoix. Added tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, reduced the liquids. Fresh basil, rosemary, oregano and thyme from my garden. Tons o' garlic (a bit much for my taste) and made the sauce a bit spicy with crushed red pepper. A cup (or less/more, who really cares? ) of an Australian Cabernet. A pat of unsalted butter at the end.

Accompanied by a green salad with bleu-cheese dressing and a toasted baguette schmeared with an herby garlic spread. Lots of parmesan on most things. Did I mention the wine? Plentiful.

It's a lovely, storming August day in Oregon. The hearty meal with warm socks and a good DVD is bliss! In August! Rain! So fortunate are we!!!

[curlywurlyfi]

Still more friends over to admire the newly refurbed flat (stop me if this refrain is getting boring).

Slow-cooked shoulder of lamb - roasting tin, inch of water, garlic cloves (unpeeled) + a couple of bay leaves, tented with foil, into the oven at 8am at 130C, I skipped off to work all day. Don't you just love the effort? Out of the oven at 7pm. Soft enough to cut with a spoon. Shredded it onto a serving plate, sloshed a littled de-fatted roasting liquid over, and served with Puy lentils with spinach + olive oil; and green beans roasted with anchovies, garlic + cherry tomatoes. Delicious. But maybe a little heavy on the garlic. The last of the homemade redcurrant jelly.

Followed up with the now legendary apricot raspberry + almond frangipane crumble, with double cream.

Fennel tea for our little digestive tracts afterwards (lentils plus lamb = eek!)

[hathor]

Seems as if garlic was in the air last night!

I made a lemon/garlic/onion/chili pepper/basil sort of pesto sauce over fresh fettucine, and surrounded the pasta with spicy lemon shrimp and fresh cut cherry tomatoes. It was kind of an experiment that worked really well. The cool tomatoes cut some of the heat from the chilis. But there was a lot of garlic!!

And...the really, really good news is that the new stove arrived this morning. The bad news it that I have to wait all day to go home and cook on it!!

[phaelon56]

I've been spending most evenings lately (after my day job) either painting my parents house until dark or roasting coffee (a part time job in anticipation of a career shift - this is commercial roastign - not hoem roasting).

Getting home at 9 PM provides plenty of cause for impromptu meals. I have a few smelly, creamy French cheeses in the fridge - dinners lately have often consisted of those spread on Carr's water crackers and accompanied by a piece of fruit or a small salad. Always followed by ice cream if I did another 13 hour day... a guy's got to treat himself once in awhile when in wage slave mode

This is "let's clean out the freezer" week. I'll get back here with the result sbut so far it looks promising.... leftover paella, shrimp, porterhouse steak... a bit of a mix. I shold also have enough homegrown tomoatoes by late week to do a tomoato/mozarella salad entirely of my own ingredients (well at least the tomatoes basil and parsley - the rest I'll buy).

True confession I could make only hear but keep it to yourselves: dinner last night after the stinky cheese was a bowl of Oriental flavored ramen noodle soup - the ones that are about 10 for $1. I can't say that it was all that tasty but it served the purpose at the time.

Beginning in late September I'll go on a 12 - 15 hour per day work schedule that will last about 15 months - I'm thinking that lots of weekend prep of frozen and pre-portioned meals might be in order.

[hathor]

Beginning in late September I'll go on a 12 - 15 hour per day work schedule that will last about 15 months - I'm thinking that lots of weekend prep of frozen and pre-portioned meals might be in order.

OK everyone! Clearly this is a cry for help. He's been reduced to eating ramen....

We need a sign up sheet for the next 15 months and everyone send some good home cooked food Owen's way!!