Dinner! 2005

[I_call_the_duck]

Edsel, Adrienne, noambenami, kiteless -- those meals looked and sounded great.

Adrienne, welcome to this forum. I find this to be inspiring and challenging.

Noambenami, what type of bread was served with the ravioli?

Edsel, nice looking pork loin. And yes, that is baby bok choy.

Kiteless, great looking soup.

Yesterday was part one of my endless attempt to clean out my freezer. We had chicken pot pie. The meat came from the remnants of a chicken soup that my husband made a while back. My camera's batteries were recharging, so there are no pictures.

[Daniel]

Wow.. Really great everyone.. Such pretty meals..

[Megan Blocker]

Incredible meals, all! Wendy, those potato pancakes look delicious...I have a couple of days off this week, and now I know how I'm going to celebrate!

[little ms foodie]

thanks Megan, we put away quite a few!

last night we started with some nice brie, a crotin and some artisan dry salami. Dayne made me a Montemarte and he had a martini

Later for dinner we had spicy red pork chili topped with bacon, creme fraiche, cheese and red onion. Corn bread slathered with butter and to drink Dayne made us Moscow Mules.

Edited December 4, 2005 by little ms foodie (log)

[MarketStEl]

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!!!!

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I tried this combo of ingredients listed in a reply to my "How to Fix Tuna Steaks...so they're not dry as dust?" post in this forum. Proportions are free-form; mine also substituted ground ginger for the diced.

[Chufi]

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Congratulations on your new house Wendy. The food looks as great as ever.. but.. is that your new countertop? Or a table? It's beautiful!

[daniellewiley]

Congratulations on your new house Wendy. The food looks as great as ever.. but.. is that your new countertop? Or a table? It's beautiful!

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I was wondering the same thing - it's gorgeous!!

[little ms foodie]

THANKS GUYS!!!!

It's a huge marble slab on our new kitchen island.

[Susan in FL]

Wendy, it really is beautiful. You must be having so much fun in a brand new kitchen. Congratulations! Have you posted photos of the kitchen and dining areas of your new home anywhere for us to see? (If not, wouldja, please?)

The meals you've fixed so far look wonderful, too.

When we planned our dinner for last night, we called it "A Seafood Feast of Small Plates." The portions turned out a little bigger than we intended, but we ate the whole thing... We had a great time cooking and photographing and eating, starting at 5:30 PM and ending at 11:00 PM.

I'll start with a couple of photos of what Russ brought home from his shopping at the seafood market.

Here, I'm getting ready to pre-crack the stone crab claws.

Then we had the five courses, in the style of cook-eat, cook-eat, cook-eat, etc. Noteworthy for us was that this was only our second dinner at the table, eating inside. The only other time was Thanksgiving. So in order to lessen the grief from the decline in eating on the porch, we made it special.

Icy Cold Stone Crab Claws with Dijon & Dill Dipping Sauce

Steamed Clams and Snow Crab Claws with Butter

Potato Latkes with Smoked Salmon, Sour Cream, and Flying Fish Eggs

Seared Scallops with Black Truffle Vinaigrette

Shrimp Cakes with Chili-Lime Cream Sauce

[Daniel]

So pretty Susan.. Any left over flying fish egg plans?

[little ms foodie]

pretty, pretty, pretty!

I wish we could get stone crab claws out here

[Susan in FL]

So pretty Susan.. Any left over flying fish egg plans?

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We took care of them at brunch this morning, with the two left over potato latkes, and left over smoked salmon, and eggs!

And on to tonight... Pasta, and a real good veal sauce that Russ made, and Goats Do Roam.

[MarketStEl]

Tonight, it was a dish that is probably the most popular item I prepare from leftover Thanksgiving turkey, aside from hot open-faced turkey breast sandwiches or a little leftover turkey breast and stuffing:

Turkey Shepherd's Pie.

It's also one of the few ways I get my pea-hating roomie to successfully down peas.

(Sorry, no pictures. I forgot to take any, and I don't think you all want to see what's left in the casserole dish.)

It's pretty straightforward: Chop up leftover turkey (this is usually how I foist the dark meat successfully on my white-meat-loving partner), mix with carrots, celery and peas (this time, onions replaced the celery), pour about 2 cups of turkey gravy over all the solid ingredients, then cover with about 3 cups of mashed potatoes spread over the mixture. (I do add some seasoned salt and pepper to the mashed potatoes, but otherwise add no seasoning; my partner has to watch his sodium intake.)

Next time, I will remember to freeze rather than refrigerate my stock, however. The stock I had made and saved (see the "Mystery in my stock pot" thread) had either gone or was going rancid, so I had to resort to gravy from a dry mix packet.

I usually make enough to serve six. After the three of us attacked it, there's about enough left for one decent serving.

Edited to add: ...which I ate for lunch before heading to the office the next day.

Edited December 5, 2005 by MarketStEl (log)

[percyn]

Curried saffron butternut squash soup (with a dollop of sour cream)

Chicken Tagine w/aged Basmati Rice

Since I had the oven on, I slit a few small eggplants and stuffed them with coriander chutney

[Sid Post]

When we planned our dinner for last night, we called it "A Seafood Feast of Small Plates."  The portions turned out a little bigger than we intended, but we ate the whole thing...    We had a great time cooking and photographing and eating, starting at 5:30 PM and ending at 11:00 PM.

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Wow! That looks mighty good. I can't wait to go back to the Netherlands where I can get some really good seafood. With pictures like that, I just might have to go into town and hop on SouthWest for a quick flight out to Las Vegas where I can get some good fresh treats from the sea.

[snowangel]

Percyn, please talk more about the cilantro cutney.

[I_call_the_duck]

Beautiful, everyone! Yesterday I made a basic three-cheese lasagne. Pretty good but it fell apart as I was taking it out of the pan. The pieces looked more like it belonged in the Gallery of Regrettable Food forum.

Wendy, congrats on the new house.

Edited December 5, 2005 by I_call_the_duck (log)

[racheld]

Last night we had two racks of babybacks, to feed our grillsmoke withdrawal pangs. We grill all year long, and Chris thinks nothing of standing out in the driving snow, manning the Weber, cooking up Mahogany Chickens or racks of Country Ribs or marinated tenderloins (pork or beef). His only consideration is that the snow not actually fall upon the meat itself. I've been known to stand beside him in a blizzard, holding up a big old blue and white golf umbrella, whilst he brushes each piece of meat or vegetable with marinade or sauce.

And these were perfect: the very essence of porky tenderness, not that first creamy tenderness of a piece of meat cooked just SO, nor the long-pitted drop-from-the-bone tenderness of a piece of Memphis-done perfection, but the middle-ground, a tender, softly-tearing mouthful of smoky, porky realness. My tongue could feel the little ragged edges as the meat ripped gently apart.

We started with bowls of Navy-bean soup, cooked Saturday with beef stock and three beef shortribs from the freezer, the leftovers from an earlier grill-binge, which I simmered in the stock until they fell from the bone, then cut into bitesize pieces to add back to the long-simmered mixture of pink beans, onion, garlic and seasonings. Very warming and delicious on a snowy night.

Usual side of crisp sweet onion, Duke's mayo, seasalt sandwiches on Wonder Bread. 40-weight iced tea.

He had a slice of Claxton's; two mini-squares of Hershey's ultra-dark for me.

[Susan in FL]

Rachel, you reminded me of us. When we lived up north we grilled all year too, even when it was snowing. Your description of the ribs had me drooling!

[racheld]

I knew Chris was an avid griller soon after we met, and when we drove to Memphis to purchase our wedding rings, he stopped on the way out of the mall to admire the nice rank of Webers lined up outside a store. We purchased one right then and there, and he referred to it as "the first piece of FURNITURE we purchased together."

And when we moved up here, he came in late October, a couple of months before me, and went to buy a grill for our apartment. Somehow, the summer supply had gone, had been put away for the icy season, but a man at WalMart said he'd bought one of his own earlier, had only used it once, and he'd call ahead to his wife and let her know that a stranger was coming with MONEY to buy their grill.

I've always wondered what the dear woman thought about some Southern weirdo coming in and buying their grill right off their patio.

And now we have seven (sigh) in all sizes and types, all stages of use and decrepitude; all for one specific use or another. I recently bought several hundred pretty yellow bricks on sale, for a walk out to the back gate of the garden. THEN I saw him surreptitiously eyeing the book of build-your-own-pit plans at Home Depot.

[Megan Blocker]

Rachel, you reminded me of us.  When we lived up north we grilled all year too, even when it was snowing.  Your description of the ribs had me drooling!

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Yup, us too! My mom always had a path shoveled to the grill all winter long...

[Daniel]

I knew Chris was an avid griller soon after we met, and when we drove to Memphis to purchase our wedding rings, he stopped on the way out of the mall to admire the nice rank of Webers lined up outside a store.  We purchased one right then and there, and he referred to it as "the first piece of FURNITURE we purchased together."

And when we moved up here, he came in late October, a couple of months before me, and went to buy a grill for our apartment.  Somehow, the summer supply had gone, had been put away for the icy season, but a man at WalMart said he'd bought one of his own earlier, had only used it once, and he'd call ahead to his wife and let her know that a stranger was coming with MONEY to buy their grill.

I've always wondered what the dear woman thought about some Southern weirdo coming in and buying their grill right off their patio.

And now we have seven (sigh) in all sizes and types, all stages of use and decrepitude; all for one specific use or another.    I recently bought several hundred pretty yellow bricks on sale, for a walk out to the back gate of the garden.  THEN I saw him surreptitiously eyeing the book of build-your-own-pit plans at Home Depot.

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Thats a great story rachel..

[sadistick]

Grilled Porcini cream sauce with leeks, shallots, garlic, white wine and mush stock with fresh egg noodles.

[avocado]

New York Strip, cooked medium and sliced on top of greens, radishes, red onions and spiced pecans. Dressing was Green Goddess from Penzey's mix. To drink, Montepulciano D'Abruzzo, the cheap kind from Whole Foods, which went well with the steak.

There's nothing like a big plate of salad to justify the juicy, fatty meat on top of it...

[Jason Perlow]

Testing out my new Canon Powershot A620:

Chopped Sirloin Steaks with Onion Confit (in burger mix) , Sauteed Dou Miu, Sherry Mushroom Saute', Potato Latkes fried in Schmaltz with Fresh Applesauce and Sour Cream.