Dinner! 2005

[monavano]

Here's some pics from over the past few weeks. I hadn't been able to post them due to some technical glitches it seems a few eG's have been experiencing. I fortunately came across a solution in another thread and viola! I'm back in business.

Here's rack of lamb with a cherry and port reduction, along with mushroom and parmasean rissotto and harico vert with proscuitto.

Rigatoni bolognese with lots and LOTS of cheese.

Wedding soup. Didn't have my favorite little stars pasta, so I used some ditalini on hand.

And finally, some chocolate with almonds biscotti, and stamped ginger cookies in rehearsal for holiday gift giving.

Edited November 30, 2005 by monavano (log)

[Daniel]

Quick dinner.. Start to finish, an hour with clean up.. Thanks to cooking 10 lbs of ham hocks for 3.5 hours some other time..

Cooked swiss chard,kale, and collard greens in 8 cups of pork stock I had in the freezer.. The greens were phenominiminal ... Broiled a Pouisson salt ,white peppered and sent off with a shot of brandy for the road.. .. Mashed parsnips,broiled with parm topping.. Buttermilk skillet corn bread..

Edited December 1, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Megan Blocker]

SUPER quick dinner for me tonight - I had to clean the apartment from top to bottom and wait for a wine delivery. Penne carbonara (didn't realize I was out of spaghetti till I got home) and a tomato, onion and basil salad with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Still mulling over dessert...

Eaten in front of "America's Next Top Model," because I'm just that self-loathing.

Hey, a girl has to watch something before "Lost!"

[I_call_the_duck]

Daniel, Megan, Susan, and Monavano...that all looks so good.

Tonight we ate the last of Thanksgiving, Part 2.

Turkey quesadillas sauteed with a a bit of tequila. Added black beans and a cheddar-jack combo, topped with semi-homemade guacamole, salsa and sour cream.

A bite. Out of focus, but this is what it looked like inside. (If you squint really hard, you can almost see it clearly! )

[Megan Blocker]

Looks good, Karen! What goes into "semi-homemade" guacamole? Extra tomatoes or jalapeno?

[monavano]

Some of the best stuff comes from the last bits of turkey day! Great pics everyone. Here's the last of my spuds turned into potato pancakes. Not the proper latke (which I'ma gonna try later) but, the way it was done with leftover spuds in my home.

[Ling]

Eaten in front of "America's Next Top Model," because I'm just that self-loathing.

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ANTM is my secret guilty pleasure...though this season isn't grabbing me as much. (Still...I've been rooting for Bre since Day 1). Season 2 was still the best though, imo.

So...I had fresh red snapper with tofu, and this homestyle Chinese dish of sliced beef, tomato, and scrambled eggs. (I love the latter with fermented bean curd and hot rice.) And a few pieces of baby bok choy...to avoid scolding from mother.

[curlywurlyfi]

Bunch of mates over - one of those evenings where you invite two people, then another, and he says "can I bring my friend", and all of a sudden you are eight*. Fortunately had just bought several bottles of fantastic 2004 Madfish Riesling, so we had a couple of those with some Brindisa chorizo.

Then chicken + butternut squash laksa - garlic, ginger, red chili + lemongrass whizzed to a paste, fried briefly to take the raw edge off the garlic, then simmered with tinned tomatoes, coconut milk, nam pla + a slab of very concentrated chicken stock from the freezer. Slid in some cubes of previously-roasted butternut squash to warm through; then cubes of chicken breast to poach in the liquid; then a bag of spinach till just wilted. Served over noodles, with extra chopped red chillies, lime wedges + chopped coriander to add at the diners' discretions. This was really good.

And then, cheese-fest! A fantastic Vacherin (it + its spoon had to be pried out of my hands to let the other children have a turn) and some excellent Beaufort; disappointing Manchego + a Gorgonzola that tasted of Fairy Liquid - huh?? Celery + galetti [Maltese water biscuits] alongside, and marshmallows + orangettes to follow.

* nine, if you count Canuck, Paul's gorgeous large + fluffy black + white malamute bitch, who was insanely excited to be in a fourth-floor flat with a low coffee table, whence she finished off the anchovy-stuffed olives while we were in the kitchen

[I_call_the_duck]

Looks good, Karen!  What goes into "semi-homemade" guacamole?  Extra tomatoes or jalapeno?

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Thanks, Megan. I (or usually Mr. Duck) uses fresh avocados and adds the jalapenos, tomatoes, onions, etc. This time, I used Trader Joe's frozen guacamole (trying to clean out my freezer), added fresh salsa from Whole Foods, some tabasco, and some jalapenos. TJ's guac is pretty good, and a great price esp. when you can't get a good deal on fresh avocados.

[Megan Blocker]

Looks good, Karen!  What goes into "semi-homemade" guacamole?  Extra tomatoes or jalapeno?

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Thanks, Megan. I (or usually Mr. Duck) uses fresh avocados and adds the jalapenos, tomatoes, onions, etc. This time, I used Trader Joe's frozen guacamole (trying to clean out my freezer), added fresh salsa from Whole Foods, some tabasco, and some jalapenos. TJ's guac is pretty good, and a great price esp. when you can't get a good deal on fresh avocados.

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We need a TJ's in Manhattan!

Sounds very yummy...

[I_call_the_duck]

Looks good, Karen!  What goes into "semi-homemade" guacamole?  Extra tomatoes or jalapeno?

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Thanks, Megan. I (or usually Mr. Duck) uses fresh avocados and adds the jalapenos, tomatoes, onions, etc. This time, I used Trader Joe's frozen guacamole (trying to clean out my freezer), added fresh salsa from Whole Foods, some tabasco, and some jalapenos. TJ's guac is pretty good, and a great price esp. when you can't get a good deal on fresh avocados.

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We need a TJ's in Manhattan!

Sounds very yummy...

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Thanks. Turned out pretty good. TJ's is great, but like Whole Foods, I wouldn't do all my shopping there. But you have Fairway, Gourmet Garage, and Zabars. (I miss that!) While we're talking wish list, I'd also like a Stew Leonards.

[Megan Blocker]

I miss Stewie Baby's (as my mom called it), too! Used to go there all the time growing up in CT. Now I am a true Manhattanite (sans auto) and just don't get there more than once or twice a year. They have the best bakery.

[racheld]

We had somebody's leftovers again...it's becoming a habit. DS#2 just returned from visiting DS#1 down South for Thanksgiving, during which they sallied forth into the woods with all manner of firearms and bright vestage, seeing a few deer, getting off nary a shot. (Yessssss!!! from their don't-kill-Bambi Mom).

So DS#1 gifted him with several tenderloins, a few roasts, and some other body parts from his well-stocked freezer. He had flour-and-Ritz-crumbs fried some well-pounded little steaks of some sort, and brought six lovely browned pieces to us via baggie yesterday a.m.

I made a pan of plain brown gravy with the leftover drippings from the fried pork chops of Tuesday evening, slid three of the little steaks into the pan, called Chris to dinner, flipped the steaks for a moment in the steamy pan, then served them forth. They seemed to just relax and lie limply in the languid heat, sagging into a tenderness not to be arrived at by hours of braising.

He ate all three with evident delight, along with saffron rice with raisins and almonds, creamed spinach with queso fresca and fresh Parm, and a little salad of romaine and grape tomatoes. My dinner was curry turkey salad made with the last of the bird, a Fuji apple, lots of crisp celery and a scoop of the Duke's mayo brought back from our foray into Georgia last weekend, along with some of the yummy sides.

He cut two little square slabs from the freshly-opened one-per-season Claxton's fruitcake, and I had one well-chilled Hostess orange cupcake. The entire cake was creamy, very fresh, very orangey, and possibly the best one of my life. Not that I'm an expert, mind you, but it was GOOD.

[jrichman]

What were they marinated in and how long did you marinate for. I am a big fan of grilled tuna and would appreciate any new cooking ideas! Thanks!!!!

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.

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[Priscilla]

Because it's finally what passes for cool weather here in SoCal I was able to make something like carbonnade. Made carbonnade, in fact. And a fire in the fireplace.

The ingredients had serendipitously presented themselves to me, big old yellow onions, nice-looking piece of bottom round (a cut I otherwise would never ever buy, but which is right for this dish), superconcentrated beef stock in the freezer, beer. And dinner was somewhat delayed but of course that was a feature not a bug. Very yellow yellow potatoes sent through the old ricer and then seasoned and enriched with butter and cream.

(I had planned plain boiled potatoes but was overruled by the Mash Faction, for whom the mention of potatoes on the menu has an effect not unlike that of the semi-bumbling Stargate Atlantis crew awakening the hibernating Wraiths.)

LBB sourdough, saltylicious Tillamook butter. Crisp cold bracingly dressed autumn salad mix on the side, perfect foil. More of the beer used for the dish.

[Daniel]

My gross photos are unbelievable.. Out of 9 shots of dinner, not one worth saving..

Had chicken in red curry with string beans and eggplant..This was served over coconut rice.. Watercrest salad with flank steak.. Exremely spicy.. Geeze how boring nothing to show.

[FoodMan]

I've been more or less still eating Tortellini in Brodo for the past couple of days. It has to be the best dumpling "soup" ever. Actually yesterday I used up the pasta dough scraps (nothing is wasted) to make an impromptu "Pasta e Fagiole" with some canned red kidney beans and stock.

[little ms foodie]

very simple penne carbonnara with a green salad and a sangiovese in the glass.

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Penne carbonara (didn't realize I was out of spaghetti till I got home)

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Oh great minds.............. lol!

[M. Lucia]

Ahh no..My girls empanadas will make you wanna slap yo momma, these are so good..

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haha, I had this terrible image of my little grandma in the kitchen rolling empanadas

Dinner here was:

- spice-rubbed grilled quail with rose petal jam

(inspired by the Moro cookbook and done on a little indoor grill)

-served with mushy peas and couscous

this is my new favorite way to do quail (they also are really good flattened in a panini press or George Foreman grill)

[Malawry]

I had three mini-dinners tonight:

Dinner 1, 5:30pm: PB&J using Polish Aronia jam on toasted crunchy whole wheat bread.

Dinner 2, 6:30pm: A Texas grapefruit, peler a vif and sectioned clean.

Dinner 3, 7:45pm: The last bits of hanger steak from last night's dinner, with a kosher dill pickle.

Gotta love being pregnant.

[spaghetttti]

I had three mini-dinners tonight:

Dinner 1, 5:30pm: PB&J using Polish Aronia jam on toasted crunchy whole wheat bread.

Dinner 2, 6:30pm: A Texas grapefruit, peler a vif and sectioned clean.

Dinner 3, 7:45pm: The last bits of hanger steak from last night's dinner, with a kosher dill pickle.

Gotta love being pregnant.

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Rochelle, congratulations! The kosher dill pickle was a dead giveaway

[Malawry]

Rochelle, congratulations!  The kosher dill pickle was a dead giveaway

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Hee hee. I've always been a pickle lover so that's nothing new. We almost always keep cornichons and Kosher dills around the fridge. But now people look at me funny when I eat a pickle! Last week I made some turkey burgers and was grumping to my spouse that we were all out of pickles. He just stared at me, so I added, "And a gallon of ice cream to wash it down!"

[Megan Blocker]

Oh great minds.............. lol!

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Hee hee! I totally forgot about your penne, Wendy! So true, so true. We ARE great!

That's quite the feast, Rochelle - and congrats!

[Susan in FL]

Delicious-looking and pretty food -- as always, but it's all so good I just have to repeat that every now and then.

For a change in the shots of dinner tonight, first the cooking of it...

I knew today was going to be a long and busy day of work, so I decided I would go to the store after work and buy what looked good for the amount of time I wanted to spend on cooking. Lamb rib chops were on sale, and the broccoli and turnips looked good in the produce section. Dinner was quick and easy and tasty: The lamb chops skillet-seared; the turnips boiled, and mashed with butter and S&P; the broccoli just a little past blanched; creamy Israeli couscous; and my current favorite "house wine," Meridian Pinot Noir. I love it.

[I_call_the_duck]

So does being pregnant mean that I can have THREE dinners?! Cool. Rochelle, congrats.

Susan, that lamb looks great (I love Israeli cous cous). Dinner tonight was a big spinach salad with tomatoes, bacon, and a hard boiled egg with garlic bread on the side. Not attractive, but good and almost healthy.

Edited December 2, 2005 by I_call_the_duck (log)