Dinner! 2005

[fud]

Fud,

everything looks great.. Its always so stressfull and fun to try new things during crunch time.. The dishes look great.. And will only get better.. It only gets easier.. The eventual goal for me was to feel as comfortable as a guest in my own home.. A big part for me was to be  an hour away from finishing the main course when guests arrive..  So this automatically has you relax and enjoy and almost stall.. Never have the food be finished early or on time..

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Thanks Daniel! Thats a good idea. As long as the guests don't arrive early (or I can provide a cheese platter to keep em quiet) leavin a bit of time to finish the meal is a great idea!

[chuckyoufarley]

We are in the middle of moving so taking a cue from Susan's dinner last week we decided to use up the ricotta and the spinach in the fridge.

this was good but for me it needed some protein or crunch. I would add toasted pine nuts or hazlenuts next time, or some pan fried salami! 

Inexpensive cotes du Rhone in the glass... and boxes..... lots of boxes..... 

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Wendy,

Thanks for the props on the frenchyfeast.

Looks like a great way to turn cupboard staples into a satisfying meal.

Most of the time I "black box" it with the stuff I have on hand I tuck into a dish I can finesse into something special.

If I lived in Seattle I'd just bop down to Batali's dads place Salumi http://www.salumicuredmeats.com/

Toss in some of the Lamb Prosciutto that they make there.

A lot of the meats they do there are cured with a hint of Nutmeg or Cinnamon, which would be a great match with the spinach and ricotta.

I don’t know if you’re ever down by the stadium there but its well worth the trip.

Weird daytime off-hours and a line out the door make it kinda a pain in the kiester to get in and out during business hours.

But if you can swing it its worth it.

Shaun

Edited November 17, 2005 by chuckyoufarley (log)

[Basilgirl]

Last night, tired, stressed out from bad rainy windy commute home. Was going to make pan roasted chicken with proscuitto, garlic & white wine, but instead dumped a can of Trader Joe's lentil soup and a can of diced tomatoes into the pot, added thyme and balsamic vinegar, and made English muffin "paninis" in the oven with provolone, rosemary ham, and Genoa.

This a.m. I threw the chicken into the Crockpot with some homegrown tomato puree from the freezer and some Stubb's BBQ sauce. We'll see how THAT turns out

[little ms foodie]

If I lived in Seattle I'd just bop down to Batali's dads place Salumi http://www.salumicuredmeats.com/

Toss in some of the Lamb Prosciutto that they make there.

A lot of the meats they do there are cured with a hint of Nutmeg or Cinnamon, which would be a great match with the spinach and ricotta.

I don’t know if you’re ever down by the stadium there but its well worth the trip.

Weird daytime off-hours and a line out the door make it kinda a pain in the kiester to get in and out during business hours.

But if you can swing it its worth it.

Shaun

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Shaun, I basically live at Salumi, I work about 3 blocks from it! In fact we had some oregano salumi and proscuitto for a snack before dinner! haha!.

If you take a look at my blog (in my signature) you'll see Salumi on the very first day Great minds..............

[handmc]

Butter Braised beef, twice baked potato casserole, green beens. Klary's recipe is a definite winner.

[Daniel]

Took beef ribs and put it in my indoor smoker.. Used mesquite chips.. Served with yellow rice, black beans and boiled yuca in a garlic lime sauce..

Edited November 18, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[percyn]

Tonight's dinner was

Stuffed beef roll stuffed in spicy tomato sauce, served with wild rice

Yesterday's dinner was as at Birchrunville Store Cafe, a small but famous restaurant.

[M. Lucia]

Elie, I always wanted to try that beet cake, but who knew it would come out so red!

Tonight for dinner I adapted this recipe for Wild Rice and Chestnut Salad. I made a salad of wild rice, fresh chestnuts, radishes, cortland apples and some shredded spinach for garnish.

Dessert is apple galette served with coffee frozen yogurt and pistachios.

It is so pretty- too bad I am too lazy/busy to ever take pictures.

[Susan in FL]

I am way behind in posting what we've had for dinner this week, and hope to catch up tomorrow. For now though, I just wanted to mention that tonight is an annual event. It is Beaujolais Nouveau night! Surely, someone else besides us celebrated!? As I've done for the past four years, I went to a tasting at the same specialty food store (by myself -- Russ isn't much for squeezing into this small store on a night like this), and bought a few bottles. While I was gone, he made the dinner to match the wine. Tonight it was all "stove top roasted": chicken thighs, and mushrooms, shallots, & garlic cloves; with rosemary & black pepper bread and brie, on the side.

Nouveau is just a fun thing -- an excuse to drink light fruity wine, and party -- and nothing more. Some years are better than others and this year was not among the best, but it's still fun. 2003 was our favorite in recent years. This year was not as good as last year which was not as good as 2003. I usually get at least one bottle of each of five makers, but this year I only bought Duboeuf and Mommessin. It's too tart this year! However, I still think this is fun, despite the negative criticism by the wine snobs.

[little ms foodie]

Susan, I must have been with you in spirit! We are still packing and Dayne has class tonight (Russian for our holiday trip!) so I stopped by my favorite cheese shop The Cheese Cellar for a glass of Beaujolais Nouveau (this one is Joseph Drouhin which I preferr over the dB) and some cheese and pate. Picked out my dinner:

there's a nice camembert, cantalette, smoked paprika sausage from Salumi and some petit toasts. And of course a glass (or 2) of the wine!

You'd be frightened to know how much of this I can do away with before Dayne gets home!

edited to say 'Viva la France!'

Edited November 18, 2005 by little ms foodie (log)

[Megan Blocker]

Inspired by Chufi and Kevin72, I invited my friend Miles over tonight and we made ragu bolognese together. He made the homemade fettucine earlier today...he meant to make tagliatelle, but he has a new pasta press and used the wrong setting. It was delicious in any case!

Susan, I forgot that today was first day of season, but realized it when I saw all the balloons outside of the bistro around the corner...

Edited November 18, 2005 by Megan Blocker (log)

[Zucchini Mama]

Took beef ribs and put it in my indoor smoker.. Used mesquite chips..  Served with yellow rice, black beans and boiled yuca in a garlic lime sauce..

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Yum! Daniel, What do you use to color/flavor that yellow rice. Is it saffron or turmeric?

Foodman, How did that beet cake taste? One of my favorite cakes is made with chocolate and beets!

I was in a domestic mood today, and the late afternoon sun bathed my kitchen in a golden honey light. I decided to fill the kitchen with the aromas of slow-cooked food. So first, I made some homemade ginger beer (bartender style) from the recipe at Epicurious.com. I tossed a few cloves and peppercorns into the ginger mash, which sits for an hour in boiled water, filling the house with a lovely fresh lemony ginger perfume. Then I dragged my son to the shops to buy ingredients for supper. I decide to cook a recipe out of "The Thirsty Traveler--Road Recipes," which I bought at a thrift shop for 25 cents. The recipe is called "Limbering Up Lamb in Stout." If you want instant respect from a butcher, tell him you are going to cook his lamb in stout. He cut a lovely boneless leg roast into thin strips against the grain and sent me on my way. I headed to the liquor store where I had to drag a salesperson out of the back room and he ferreted out my Guinness stout. It was hidden between boxes of hideously sweet fruit cider. Go figure.

While I was cooking the lamb I sipped on a Moscow Mule cocktail made with the homemade ginger beer. The lamb cooks in stout with onions for one and an half hours. I added criminis as well. I made a bed of polenta, using some of the gravy for liquid to cook it up. We also had a cucumber salad. The lamb was was all right, but I think it will be much better tomorrow when the flavours have melded. I'm tempted to add Worcestershire sauce when I heat it up again--or I may even make it into a curry. I had a really interesting Stout and lamb curry once in Wolverhampton. We drank a Rosemont Estate Grenache Shiraz, which I just grabbed on a whim. Hmmm, it was too fruity tooty for me. I should have just bought a Shiraz.

For dessert, I had a few spoonfuls of the quince curd I made (see the baking forum). I made it using local wildflower honey. The smell of the quince and the honey cooking was very flowery and sweet. The taste is not as interesting as the aroma, but I'm not sure I cooked the quinces long enough. The recipe was a bit vague. Any help would be appreciated. It turned out more like a creamy custard than a translucent curd.

Zuke

[Grub]

Jamaican Beef Patties: (Well, there's one patty here, just sliced in half)...

There was a thread on this board recently about these things, and I figured I'd try make one -- I've made a lot of puff pastry and phyllo dough stuff, and wanted to try make the pastry stuff myself. It was a bit of work, but pretty interesting.

I'm wondering though -- where'd this stuff come from? Seems like this would be something the Brits brought to Jamaica -- Cornish pastry looking things, they are. Just done with Jamaican ingredients, maybe? (Although that'd probably be goat, not beef -- but it probably got translated to beef for import to the US; people don't dig on goats here, heheh).

Oh, the two sauces -- the dark one is a peanut-soy-curry sauce, whereas the yellow one is a mint-yogurt sauce (seeing that the patties were pretty hot, with a habanero pepper going for it). The rice just got some paprika, as much for the color as anything else.

[Ling]

^Those beef patties are STUFFED! I love it! That looks 100x better than the Jamaican beef patties I buy from school.

I had curried short ribs (also ate them for a midnight snack last night ). And a box of Glosette peanuts.

[prasantrin]

I had half a toasted bagel with scrambled eggs. Then for dessert, I used the other half of the bagel and spread half with butter and peach mango jam, and the other with just butter. I was thinking the dessert bagel tasted a bit weird, and then I realized that I only had onion bagels...Oops...But it was still good!

[Basilgirl]

The Crockpotted chicken I threw together yesterday morning turned out great. I shredded the chicken and let it sit in the sauce (homegrown tomato puree & Stubb's BBQ sauce), added salt & pepper and some chipotle Tabasco. Really good and tangy, on hard rolls.

[I_call_the_duck]

Jamaican Beef Patties: (Well, there's one patty here, just sliced in half)...

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Them's good looking patties, Grub! Is it the habanero that gave the filling that lovely rich color?

[Brad Ballinger]

No photos again, and I won't post again until I have some, but. . .

I had a couple of uncooked short ribs in the freezer that weren't needed for a recipe a while earlier. I thawed them, seasoned them liberally with salt and pepper, then browned them in a dutch oven. I removed them, took out some of the oil, and added chopped onion, carrot, and celery, sauteeing until caramelized. Then I added about a tablespoon of the triple-[pwer tomato paste, and sauteed for a bit longer. Then deglazed with a cup of red wine and two cups of beef stock. I added some rosemary, juniper berries, and a bay leaf. Returned the ribs, and braised in a 300 degree oven for three hours.

I let the whole pot sit in the refigerator overnight. The next day, I easily removed the fat that had solidified, took out the ribs, and placed them on a baking sheet, rewarming them in the oven. I heated up the braising liquid and veggies, removed the bay leaf, then pureed the works in a blender. I returned the puree to the pot and added a bit of water. I shredded the short rib meat, and added it to the puree. Boiled some egg noodles (wasn't quite in the mood to make gnocchi), and served the beef sauce over the noodles.

[handmc]

Jamaican Beef Patties: (Well, there's one patty here, just sliced in half)...

There was a thread on this board recently about these things, and I figured I'd try make one -- I've made a lot of puff pastry and phyllo dough stuff, and wanted to try make the pastry stuff myself. It was a bit of work, but pretty interesting.

I'm wondering though -- where'd this stuff come from? Seems like this would be something the Brits brought to Jamaica -- Cornish pastry looking things, they are. Just done with Jamaican ingredients, maybe? (Although that'd probably be goat, not beef -- but it probably got translated to beef for import to the US; people don't dig on goats here, heheh).

Oh, the two sauces -- the dark one is a peanut-soy-curry sauce, whereas the yellow one is a mint-yogurt sauce (seeing that the patties were pretty hot, with a habanero pepper going for it). The rice just got some paprika, as much for the color as anything else.

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OMG Grub! MUST SHARE RECIPE NOW!!!!!

[handmc]

The advantage of having a full kitchen in the office. Pate @ 5, with some raw milk stinky French cheese on poppy seed water crackers with a glass of Toasted head Merlot. I really need to get some stemware here good wine in solo plastic cups is kind of tacky.

Meanwhile cornbread stuffed pork chops and cauliflower roasted in the oven to be served with green beans and mushrooms sauteed in shallot, brown butter and fresh sage and a fresh sliced tomato

[Varmint]

No photos for this meal, but it was great nonetheless. Simple cod marinated in mirin, sake, soy and ginger, pan fried, and served with basmati rice and a green lemongrass and basil Thai curry. For dessert, white chocolate bread pudding with caramelized roasted bananas and vanilla ice cream. Very simple, very decadent, and quite good.

[Grub]

OMG Grub! MUST SHARE RECIPE NOW!!!!!

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Ah, thanks -- I used this recipe from recipezaar.com. The recipe author says it comes from a friend who runs a restaurant, and it a five-out-of-five stars rating -- however, there are only three reviews, so I'm not sure if that is entirely justified. I'm not knocking it though -- it was good, but it was also a bit of work. It was fun to do, but I would probably do other dishes again, that gives more uh, payback for the efforts, before I made this again. I guess what I'm trying to say is, maybe it looks a little better than it tastes, heheh.

The only thing I did differently from the original recipe, is that I added more flour (as much as 3/4 of a cup, actually) to the dough, because it was extremely wet...

The sauces were just improvised. The mint sauce wasn't very good -- it was just some plain yogurt and sour-cream with chopped mint and a touch of tumeric (mostly for the color) and the curry sauce was based on this thing from cooking.com: Satay Sauce, but I found the soy sauce to come through too strong, so I dilluted it with water and thickened it with a cornstarch slurry. It tasted pretty nice, but ended up looking more like a gravy than anything else...

The color of the filling was probably just the paprica, ketchup and the meat itself. It was left so simmer quite a bit, and also to cool off before the pasties were formed.

Edit:

Okay, I gotta say this -- maybe I undersold the taste of these pasties a little (possibly, because they took a bit of an effort to create, but also because they seem so obviously to just be a Jamaican version of Cornish pasties) -- I've tasted them as leftovers now, and whoa -- they make great leftovers!

Just make sure you pay attention to that habanero pepper... It makes for an extremely spicy pasty. I mean, the thing I put together was just 1.3 lb. worth of ground beef, and it made about 8 pasties (all bigger than the ones in the picture -- so it's a great way to food a lot of people!) -- but as much food as that made, that one single habanero pepper made it as hot as hell.

I'm thinking, this should be some excellent food to bring along for a camping trip. Make some more traditional pasties with potatoes and carrots and peas and such -- excellent convenience food. I mean, this is kinda slow-cooked, good-food, fast-food.

Edited November 19, 2005 by Grub (log)

[Chufi]

Friday we had creamy chickpea & leek soup, with crunchy garlic croutons made from sourdough bread fried in oliveoil.

With that, a watercress salad with smoked duck breast. (I have such a craving for duck lately. Why ??)

Today I made Marcella's roast chicken. Served with parsley couscous per my husbands request, and carrots & leeks in a mustard cream sauce.

I'm coming down with yet another cold and none of tonight's dinner tasted right to me. Dennis said it was delicious though.

[Daniel]

Sounds like a great dinner Chufi, sorry you arent feeling well..

[Sid Post]

It sounds yummy

I hope you get to feeling better soon. With all the great dinners you post about, it's a shame you're not able to fully enjoy all they have to offer.