Dinner! 2005

[lesfen]

Farfalle with broccolini, garlic, onion and balsamic vinegar.

Gorgeous soup and sandwich, Percyn!

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Gorgeous!!!

[Ann_T]

Percy that Tuna looks amazing.

Ann

[wattacetti]

Cooked dinner for some friends (thread here): bison striploin with sautéed chanterelle and shiitake.

[Basilgirl]

Tomato, onion, garlic, basil, queso fresco frittata

Jimmy Dean sage sausage

Buttered toasted Ray's bagels. These frozen bagels are outstanding. They just started carrying them at my store. They're from NYC and are really, really good.

[Priscilla]

Last night, a nice top sirloin which had been soaking in ex. virg. olive oil, some sliced garlic, rosemary, sage, mint from the garden, cracked black pepper for a couple of days, cooked in a hot oven with convection as an experiment, an experiment that worked! Rested and sliced thinly and arrayed over red potatoes mashed with sour cream and chives and butter. Il Fornaio ciabatta. Caprese salad with basil also from the garden, and fresh mozz.

[avocado]

Friday night bachelorette supper:

A whole pound of parmesan roasted asparagus.

An entire gorgeous Bullheart tomato, sliced with sea salt.

A ripe mango with fresh local yogurt.

I'm going to miss summer.

[racheld]

Leftover smoked pork loin skillet-smothered to creamy fall-apartness in a slightly-sweet barbecue sauce, on skillet-toasted buns; tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden, with salted dill mayonnaise; Zatarain's red beans and rice, just because.

Friday Sci-Fi TV lineup.

Hubby made us each three S'mores for dessert.

[Susan in FL]

Corn pudding. asparagus with lemon butter, summer squash with basil, and a tomato salad.  Yum.

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That sounds so good to me! One of the friends we have over for dinner occasionally is a vegetarian, and your meal sounds like a great menu for a time she is here.

I decided today to try harder to get out of the funk I've been in about Katrina, so I'm watching less TV coverage and getting back to posting dinner photos.

Last night's dinner...

This, johnnyd made me do it. Following his blog got me hungry for clams.

Then we had bruschetta.

Fried fresh flounder was the main course.

It's been more noticable that the days are getting shorter. Most evenings, it's light when we start dinner and dark when we're finishing.

[Chufi]

That's a lovely dinner Legourmet!

Susan those clams look fantastic.

And that bowl of pasta, so simple but so good. I can almost smell the balsamic vinegar..

It's funny because in our house, 'pasta in a bowl' usually means 'tvdinner' (which we don't do very often). The thought of eating that farfalle in front of the tv immediately popped into my mind!

Anyway here's our dinner from today: grilled portobello-burgers, with balsamic red onions, slices of roast beetroot, and blue cheese mayo. On olive rolls (bought). Zucchini sauteed with thyme and lemonjuice.

And afterwards this lovely cheeseplate: st. marcellin (lovely and runny and perfectly ripe), morbier, and a truffled goatscheese. With date/fig sourdough bread (from the market..)

We drank one of the wines we brought back from Germany with the cheese, a 1995 Riesling Auslese, which is slightly sweet.. a very good match.

[avocado]

Farmer's market dinner:

Heirloom tomato gazpacho with spicy curry grilled shrimp

Grilled pears with brown sugar rum glaze, with strained yogurt and raspberries

All the produce was local and organic. Delicious.

Edited September 4, 2005 by avocado (log)

[Chufi]

Corn and tarragon soup;

Pumpkin gnocchi for the pasta/gnocchi cook-off, only they desintegrated into pumpkinporridge (but still, with sagebutter).;

Salad of roast beetroot, yellow plumtomatoes and parsley.

A large piece of white chocolate with hazelnuts to comfort me after the gnocchi debacle.

I'll have some more of yesterdays' delicious cheese later.

[Susan in FL]

Last night we cooked pig at our home -- just ribs of a pig, though. I was under the influence of all that's going on at Varmint's Pig Pickin' in Raleigh this weekend. We started with salsa, chips, and vodka & tonic. The potato salad is pictured after I made it, before serving time. Along with ribs in the dark of the night we had fresh kale, the potato salad, and cheap Italian jug wine sort of in honor of my late Italian father.

[racheld]

Small sub sandwiches---several meats and cheeses, black olives and pepperoncini for Hubby; cucumber, several color peppers, lettuce, tomato and avocado for me, all wrapped and snugged down into a small carry-cooler with a bag of grapes, one of macadamias, toasted pecans, almonds and walnuts, one of six Lindts in the blue wrapper, a bottle of water, and two Diet Peppers, with ice packs, a bagged wet washcloth, two nice napkins, and a handful of paper towels.

We sat on the lawn and ate our dinner during Symphony on the Prairie, along with several thousand assorted revelers, picnickers, wine-toasters, quilt-sitting families and wandering folk, all enjoying the music in the soft Summer air. Candles twinkled, little braziers sent sparks aloft, wee ones wore glowing halos of blue and neon orange and purple, and the backdrop of the stage faded from crimson to blue to lavender with the mood of the music.

We left the chocolates for another time, and succumbed to the aromas of fresh-popped kettle corn and the tongue-aching scent of its browning sugar anointment, being stirred in an immense cauldron by a formally-dressed, smiling young man who dodged the escaping kernels with deft aplomb. We ate alternate bites of warm corn and cold grapes, whilst the brasses played and little girls danced in the aisles, each rivaling the conductor with the perfectly-timed whips of their lightsticks.

Hubby disappeared toward the concessions and returned with a scoop of Ritter's vanilla and two spoons, which we shared during the last number, then sat hypnotized, amazed and delighted as the fireworks filled the sky.

[avocado]

Casual dinner party for eight tonight.

On the menu:

Classic lasagna with ground beef and tomato/bechamel sauce- Giada DeLaurentiis' recipe. Haven't tried this one before.

Baked rigatoni with sour cream, ricotta, spinach, and herbs.

Simple salad with walnuts and bleu cheese vinaigrette and crusty bread.

For dessert, vanilla sponge cake with dark chocolate caramel icing and vanilla ice cream.

Probably won't take pictures- my fellow 20-something friends seem to think that's a little weird.

[Alinka]

avocado - would you believe me if I told you that I also threw a casual party for eight last night, and also used De Laurentis' recipes? Only I made baked polenta with three defferent sauces, and white bean dip, which went well with pugliese. To follow the Italian theme, a friend brought tried and true, but always delicious when made from the freshest ingredients, platters of tomatoes-mozzarella (tomatoes were funky red with green stripes, soooo sweet!) and melon-prosciutto:

For dessert I made a mascarpone tart with crystallised ginger. When I was dicing the ginger I was wondering if it would give the tart weird texture, but the pieces became soft in the filling, and the flavor was so exquisite. Not sure about those plums though, but it was either that or the strawberries, that was all had in the fridge.

Also prepared watermelon and mango with lime from Epicurious.

Edited September 5, 2005 by Alinka (log)

[Daniel]

Gorgeous photos...

[Grub]

Not the best looking picture, but this was extremely tasty.

Salmon fillet brushed with a mixture of olive oil, orange zest, ginger, crushed green peppercorns and salt, grilled over coals -- with zuccini and squash. And some hollandaise sauce. Got some good grill marks, too.

It's really strange how the sauce looks completely pale on the salmon, but much darker and red, on the plate... I guess that's what digital photography does for ya, uh?

[curlywurlyfi]

Following a special request from two separate guests, supper on Saturday night was that well-known summer dish - lasagne

Ragu made with beef mince, smoked speck, San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, onions, thyme, red wine, bay leaves, fennel seeds + red chili.

Besciamella made by the new-to-me Delia Smith method of putting everything in the pan (butter flour milk bay leaf nutmeg) + stirring with a balloon whisk till up to simmering, then simmering for 10 mins. Gorgeous, and saved all that faffing about frying flour.

Ricotta stirred with a beaten egg + some chopped cooked rainbow chard (not that you could tell it was rainbow after it was cooked).

Egg noodles were lovely + silky. But too much mozzarella on the top.

Served with romaine lettuce with sharp mustard vinaigrette; roasted golden beets (random I know but I had already bought them when the request came in for lasagne); and mini yellow + green courgettes roasted with lemon + rosemary. For pudding, fantastic farmer's market strawberries, with sliced oranges + raspberry sauce, and almond thin biscuits. And double cream.

And far too much rosé, and House FM and cigarettes on the roof

[Alinka]

This thread is responsible for many cravings.

What a wonderful statement! I am tempted to quote this phrase in my signature .

Following a special request from two separate guests, supper on Saturday night was that well-known summer dish - lasagne 

Ragu made with beef mince, smoked speck, San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, onions, thyme, red wine, bay leaves, fennel seeds + red chili.

Besciamella made by the new-to-me Delia Smith method of putting everything in the pan (butter flour milk bay leaf nutmeg) + stirring with a balloon whisk till up to simmering, then simmering for 10 mins. Gorgeous, and saved all that faffing about frying flour.

Ricotta stirred with a beaten egg + some chopped cooked rainbow chard (not that you could tell it was rainbow after it was cooked).

Lasagna! Sounds good... I've a question about San Marzano tomatoes. In the cookbook I was using, they insisted on San Marzano canned tomatoes for the pasta sauce. So I went and found some, and also bought a can of regular organic tomatoes. After the taste test at home, I understood why they wanted San Marzano . Now, question: is San Marzano a brand of canned tomatoes, or is it the variety of tomatoes themselves?

[Eden]

Since we were feeling tired & lazy last night (and wanted to clear some odds & ends out of the fridge) we opted for bruschette for dinner.

1) chopped fresh tomato from the farmers market mixed with pesto. Classics are classic for a reason...

2) chopped leftover roast chicken, and a few little pieces of asparagus over some herbed cheese spread (drizzled with pesto/tomato dribbles from the bowl I mixed the toms in) for a lovely "main dish " bruschetta

3) tapenade. this actually went best with the wine of all 3 flavors

Wine: Chateau Ste Michelle '01 Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley

dessert: home-made vanilla ice-cream with Fran's ephemera chocolate sauce

[percyn]

Good looking (and I am sure tasting) dinners all....

My uncle owns a fishing charter business so when he brought we some fresh caught flounder, I decided to make:

Pan seared flounder with preserved lemon and caper sauce: Used some shallots, greek wild capers and thyme. Drizzled with some Manzanilla Olive Oil, which is a cold pressed, unfiltered Spanish olive oil.

The lemons were preserved for 2 months, after reading Eric Ripert's cookbook.

[Chufi]

Spinach tagliatelle with bacon, chestnut mushrooms, sage and parsley. A little bit of cream. When tossing the pasta with the sauce, I cracked an egg into it which made the sauce lovely and creamy. Lots of grated pecorino on top.

Suateed zucchini and cherrytomatoes, left to cool, with tarragon and lemon juice as a side.

Piece of chocolate for dessert.

[Megan Blocker]

Spent the weekend taking full advantage of my grandparents' place on Long Island Sound (in Connecticut). Three friends and I spent four days out there, and we made ample use of our access to the grill (here in Manhattan, the grill pan is but a pale substitute). Here are the results!

Night #1 was barbecued chicken, steamed corn with lime butter and tomato and basil salad (raspberries and strawberries with cream for dessert). We were too hungry and tired to take photos! Far Niente chardonnay to drink!

Night #2 was flank steak marinated in garlic, rosemary, olive oil and red wine vinegar, grilled veggies and a warm tomato and green bean salad with a shallot vinaigrette (Cakebread Cabernet Sauvignon to drink):

Night #3 was grilled shrimp (brined first in salt water, wine, lemon and peppercorns) with garlic oil, grilled bread, green salad and tomato, basil and corn salad (Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc to drink):

Dessert on nights two and three was blueberry pie with homemade whipped cream (with Far Niente's delicious Dolce to go along with it)! Again, we got too excited (or tipsy ?) and didn't stop to take photos. Yum!

Aha! Someone, at least, took a pic of the pie, so here it is:

Edited September 6, 2005 by Megan Blocker (log)

[Megan Blocker]

And that bowl of pasta, so simple but so good. I can almost smell the balsamic vinegar..

It's funny because in our house, 'pasta in a bowl' usually means 'tvdinner' (which we don't do very often). The thought of eating that farfalle in front of the tv immediately popped into my mind!

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That's what it means here, too! I live alone, so sometimes I just eat in front of the TV - much easier to do with a bowl than a plate!

Delicious cheese plate, Chufi...yum.

[percyn]

Chicken and Lamb with roasted vegetables (Fennel, Carrots, Celery, Red Onion, etc)

While I had the oven on, I put in half a slab of Organic, grass fed beef ribs

Since it was a holiday, I also decided to make from Lamb Biriyani: