Dinner! 2005

[Pan]

Tiramisu tart from The Pie Bible

Hazelnut caramel cheesecake

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These desserts look INCREDIBLE!!!

[Alinka]

Thanks .

[Patrick S]

Tiramisu tart from The Pie Bible

Hazelnut caramel cheesecake

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These desserts look INCREDIBLE!!!

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Ditto that. Great stuff, Alinka!

[Susan in FL]

Happy Hour at home tonight included some left over smoked fish dip on Triscuits, served very informally, as you can see.

After that, we finished up the Celery Root Bisque from last night. Tonight we drizzled truffle oil on top, instead of dipping the hot soup into the bowl on top of a piece of butter like we did last night.

The rest of dinner was a bit unusual. Russ made some uncooked puttanesca sauce, and had that with pasta. I wanted some of the left over turkey and duck from last night, so that's what I had, with a little bit of "Russ's" pasta on the side.

[Ling]

Alinka, your tarts are GORGEOUS!

I made "ma po dou fu" for dinner today, and also a stir-fry of thiny sliced "go bak suon" (a kind of fresh bamboo, I think...I'm not sure what this vegetable is called in English) with sliced pork.

[hzrt8w]

A simple dish of sauteed scallop with snowpeas and some straw mushrooms and bamboo shoots... A Cantonese seafood dish at its best!

For recipe, click here.

[Swisskaese]

Ditto on the desserts Alinka.

Can you please put the recipe for the Carmel-Hazelnut Cheesecake in RecipeGullet? I would love to have that recipe.

Edited November 27, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Alinka]

That I can, here . The only problem is, I cannot remember how much whipping cream I added to the caramel; I just kept pouring it from the carton untill the sauce looked good. Also, next time I'll use 3 packages of cream cheese and 3 eggs as I like taller cakes.

[Susan in FL]

Last night we started dinner with steamed artichokes, dipping the leaves in homemade garlic mayo. They were huge, and tasted as good as the younger ones.

The best was indeed saved for last. Look at the size of the bottom! I couldn't resist taking a Daniel-style shot.

I made braciole and a beefy tomato sauce and served pasta with it. This was the best outcome of all my braciole attempts, staying intact as they did.

[Priscilla]

Last evening a very good pantry dinner, pasta carbonara. If pantry can be assumed to include fridge, of course. Beautiful crisp salad of autumn spring mix with the welcome seasonal increase in frisee, and LBB soudough with saltylicious Tillamook butter. The Sangiovese again that the wine store guy recommended the other week.

[MarketStEl]

Catching up on some recent good dinners...

The Beaujolais Nouveau Dinner Thursday night:

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Now that's what I call a TV dinner!

--Sandy, who dines in this fashion often as well, only with slightly less sophisticated fare and tray tables

[MarketStEl]

Way back on the 16th, I had posted over in my thread about cooking tuna steaks that I had succeeded in producing grilled tuna steaks that were not dry as dust yet cooked through.

I had cut them to half their original thickness, then marinated them in a mixture of olive oil, garlic and spices that a poster on the thread had recommended. Then I grilled them on my countertop grill:

and served them with peas and tortellini tossed in olive oil and Parmesan cheese. The pea-hating roommate got okra instead:

The steaks were completely cooked through, not rare at all. And they were not completely dried out. I have to call this a success, though a modest one.

[Susan in FL]

Thanks, Sandy! There was quite a while that I was not ready to come out of the closet and admit such a thing as how much we enjoy watching TV, including during meals. A few years ago that would immediately mean to some people that we did not converse while watching; and so I often didn't admit it especially when the kids were home, lest protective services would come and take them away. Just kidding, but there was a while it was a taboo. However, we have always been able to manage to have good conversation and eat and watch TV at the same time! Amazing, huh.

So anyway, with the Giants and Seattle tonight we had, cooked by Russ...

Herb Roasted Cornish Hens

Grits and Cheese Souffle

Leftover Thanksgiving green beans and wild mushrooms

Georges Duboeuf 2003 Moulin-A-Vent, Tour du Bief

And a shot of the souffle just out of the oven, it was so pretty...

[Susan in FL]

Sandy, that looks good! It is especially interesting to me, since I like fish -- even tuna -- cooked through, or else raw. I love ceviche and sushi and other raw fish dishes, but if I'm eating it cooked, I want it cooked through. And of course still moist, but that isn't easy with tuna. Congrats!

[percyn]

Susan,

How was that Turducken? I wanted to make one, but I wife did not like the idea

Alina, I would happily swap a piece of pie for those scrumptious looking tarts

[dockhl]

Susan~

Beautiful souffle....got a recipe you'd like to share?

K

[Daniel]

Strickened with the ear funk, Sunday Sauce must go on without me.. The girl of all girls cooked up an impressive Cuban Feast..

We started with homemade chicken and cheese empanadas and homemade croquettes jamon.. These were fried perfectly in lard of course.. Very impressive..

Here is the plate on the table for four people.. Way too much in typical fashion..

Here is the breakdown of the empandas...

First step:

Second Step:

Third Step: ?

Fourth Step:

Profit.. (Thats my South Park reference of the evening..)

Here were the second courses.. Served buffet style in there pots on another table in the dining room.. Counter Clockwise.. Boiled Yuca with a garlic sauce.. Ropa Vieja, Soaked and slow cooked black beans,picadillo over white rice..

Everything was awesome! What a great job she did making all of these dishes..

A bowl of Cuban Bread of course..

For dessert.. Rice pudding and a rum cake..

Great cake.. Dark rum is the only rum you can use for a cake.. Very good..

Edited November 28, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Megan Blocker]

Alinka, those desserts were incredible! Wow.

[handmc]

My daughter had ear infections for years, as I did when I was a teen. I know how much they hurt. I Hope you are feeling better soon Daniel.

Dinner would certainly take your mind off of things for a little while.

[handmc]

My daughter had ear infections for years, as I did when I was a teen. I know how much they hurt. I Hope you are feeling better soon Daniel.

Dinner would certainly take your mind off of things for a little while.

[percyn]

On Sunday a few members of the family gathered from all over to country to enjoy:

Prime bone in rib-roast

Along with crab cakes, roasted pork loin, broccoli salad, potato gratin, potato salad, dhansak and a few other dishes I am sure I am forgetting.

The food seemed extra tasty due to the company

[Daniel]

The rib-roast looks sooooo good..

[Basilgirl]

Friday - cooked T'giving for the Basilman and me. Ina Garten's "Perfect Roast Turkey" (whatever) stuffed with fresh thyme, onion, garlic, lemon - fennel, parnsnips, onions & carrots roasted on side. Doctored up store-bought stuffing with Jimmy Dean sage sausage and fresh sage and scallions. Smoked salmon and capered cream cheese on crackers to start. The Basilman fried up some VERY young venison and ate that instead of the turkey I cut all the breast meat off and threw the rest into a huge pot including the stuff in the cavity and cooked it all night and made nice stock. That morphed into turkey noodle soup Saturday night, with stuffing "matzoh balls" in the middle.

Yesterday I made white bean turkey chili and Jiffy cornbread mix - too sweet for me. The Basilman said cornbread is supposed to be sweet and I called him a damn yankee.

[I_call_the_duck]

Percyn, that is one good lookin' hunka meat. The sides look good too.

[Susan in FL]

Susan,

        How was that Turducken? I wanted to make one, but I wife did not like the idea 

It was OK. I would be interested to know if other brands do a better job, because overall it was a disappointment. However, as I posted in this Turducken thread, I don't regret having bought it. The novelty of it (even though they have been around since the 80's) was fun for us, and we got lots of laughs about it.

It came frozen with directions for cooking if totally thawed and for if it was still partially frozen. We went with the thawed directions and that made it slightly overdone. The thing weighed 15 pounds. Most of the meats were still moist, but I wouldn't go so far as to say juicy. Not surprising, there was more stuffing than anything and next most was turkey, chicken and duck in that order. The stuffing was terrible. On one side was a mushy bread stuffing that tasted like it was seasoned only with Cajun spices, and not good quality spices at that. The other side's stuffing had sausage in it, and its seasoning was too hot. The wings and legs of the turkey were still attached. The drumstick meat tasted good. The turkey, duck, and chicken were tasty, and put together, it was pretty.

Neither did my husband particularly like the idea, but since I was the sucker who impulsively went into the store and ordered it and paid for it, he didn't complain.