Dinner! 2005

[Eden]

roasted rack of veal, marinated in herbs & garlic

celery root & apple puree

green salad with edible flowers + vinaigrette

vanilla ice-cream with fresh blackberries

[Ling]

Last night:

-30 Fanny Bay oysters

-burgers

-grilled sausages

-shrimp

-chips and dip

-a few slices of caramel cheesecake

-sangria

Tonight:

-Chinese roast duck with plum sauce (siew ap) and Chinese roast pork (siew yook)

[Macarons&Mozart]

-BBQ pork baby-back ribs (smoked 8 hours!)

-Tomato Salad, w/ home grown heirloom tomatoes, shaved red onion, and basil

-Potato Salad w/ pesto mayo

-homegrown fresh fruit (white peaches, raspberries, fraises de bois) with vanilla ice cream

mmm

[Chufi]

Swordfish rolls (stuffed with a mixture of breadcrumbs, parsley, capers, parmesan and mozzarella.. oh they were sooo good)

yellow pepper stuffed with bulgur, sultanas, pinenuts, tomato, mozzarella and fresh oregano

[dockhl]

Roast chicken with a honey lemon glaze

Pappardelle with chicken juices

Cool green beans with minced tomatoes and vinegrette

White Stilton with mango and ginger

Trader Joe's gingeroos (Chewy cookies with crystallized Australian ginger)

Wilson Creek Almond Champagne

AWESOME !

[Chufi]

Inspired by Kevin72's great Italian thread, I made pasta con le sarde (with fresh sardines).

still in the freezer, firming up, is dessert: blueberry coconut lime icecream

edited for link

Edited July 4, 2005 by Chufi (log)

[2roost]

Pork tenderloin marinated in soy sauce, garlic, ginger, brown sugar and lime juice - then wrapped in pancetta and grilled (indirect heat) over charcoal, finish over direct heat to crisp the pancetta, accompanied by green beans and red peppers grilled (direct heat) and saffron rice.

Drinking Radeberger Pils while prepping/grilling and Valdivieso Reserve Malbec with dinner.

[ellencho]

I used Jamie Oliver's pasta dough recipe to make the pasta for my tortellini. I believe it has only eggs and flour in it, which made it a giant pain to knead, more so than doughs with water and oil in them, but it had an excellent texture and chew. The tortellini were filled with a mixture of ricotta, mozz, pec romano and an egg.

Edited July 5, 2005 by ellencho (log)

[percyn]

Yesterday: Crab Civiche

Today: July 4th BBQ for 15 - Burgers, Steak, Chicken, Sausage, Smoked Pork Chops, Potato Salad, Macroni Salad, Broccoli salad, corn, etc

Boy...am I full !!

[Eden]

mmm Ellencho I really want to go make pasta now!

Tonight:

kebabs: made from local pasture raised beef marinated in EVOO, lemon juice, w/home grown parsley, dried oregano and S&P. Skewered with local peppers & baby tomatoes, portobellos (rubbed in evoo, S&P) & onions

cepes (king Boletes): sauteed with garlic & finished with parsley & lemon

Locally grown salad mix with flowers & vinaigrette

washed down with Kiona Lemburger (nice local table wine)

Here are the kebabs:

Inspired by all the lovely dinners here, I was planning to actually plate tonights dinner nicely before dining and taking a photo, but the kebabs finished up earlier than expected so you only get a picture of them, because after that we were cooking & eating at the same time, which precluded photography. The best laid plans...

[FoodMan]

Playing catchup again....

Thursday:

Salmorejo, a type of gazpacho based on a recipe from Paula wolfert and made from tomatoes and veggies from my garden. I also served the last of my dried Spanish sausage with it and slices of homemade sourdough topped with olive oil.

Dessert- bruleed rice pudding

Friday:

A sort of very tasty Thai inspired dinner with minced pork with sweet soy, chilli and lemongrass, steamed sticky rice, steamed (not boiled) eggs and homemade chili jam.

Saturday:

Our favorite quick pasta, angel hair with garlic, canned oil packed tuna, chopped spinach, lemon juice and olive oil.

Dessert: Frozen nougat with dried fruit and nuts. Topped with candied orange peel. This was absolutly divine.

Sunday:

Homemade pizza with a variety of toppings

July 4th:

BBQ at the in-laws. chicken, sausage, fajitas, ribs, corn, guacamole, potato salad.

[SuzySushi]

BBQ at a friend's:

I brought two kinds of chicken kabobs -- chicken marinated in the Korean sauce that's normally used for bulgoki (soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, sesame seeds, garlic, scallions) and Middle Eastern chicken marinated in a sauce made from lemon juice, chopped fresh mint, garlic, and olive oil, seasoned with ground cumin, ground coriander, and turmeric. There were no leftovers!

Also brought fresh pineapple cubes and watermelon cubes.

My friend made assemble-your-own burgers with all the trimmings.

A great, relaxed time was had by all.

[curlywurlyfi]

steamed (not boiled) eggs

Elie - all your dinners look outstanding! Would you mind explaining why you chose to cook the eggs this way (and how you do it)? Thanks!

[FoodMan]

steamed (not boiled) eggs

Elie - all your dinners look outstanding! Would you mind explaining why you chose to cook the eggs this way (and how you do it)? Thanks!

←

Why? well the whole meal was more or less based on David Thompson's Thai Food. Steamed eggs is what he used. Since I've never tried steaming eggs, I thought it would be cool to try it out, besides the photo in his book looked so good of steamed eggs with a still soft yolk. As you can see the eggs came out perfect with a nice soft white and a just set yolk. No rubbery whites or green tinged yolks!

How? The process could not be easier and I followed his instructions from the book down to the timing. Put the eggs in a steamer basket (I use the one that comes with my pasta pot) and steam for exactly 10 minutes. Cool in a cold or ice water bath, peel and enjoy. This might actually become my favorite way to hard cook eggs.

Elie

edit: fixed typos.

[TMus1111]

For the 4th I had probably the best tasting dinner I have ever prepared for myself. Shrimp and Scallops (marinated in lemon juice, sage, evoo, basil) and then wrapped in prosciuto grilled on a cedar plank; salmon with a spicy rub grilled on cedar plank; grilled asparagus with lemon juice, lemon pepper; rice with sweet slivered almonds and grilled pineapple (marinated in honey and cinnamon) all enjoyed on my patio.

[hathor]

Curlywurlyfi your back! I miss your humor!!

I finally have my own kitchen back...after 10 weeks at school and then some travelling around, its good to be home!

We thought we'd celebrate the 4th by having a little inaugural BBQ. My dear sister gave us a 45 pound grill that sits in your fireplace, and my very strong and patient husband lugged it all the way back from NY to Italy. Unfortunately, there must be something to Italian 'carbone' that I haven't figured out because the carbone gave off zero heat. We had nice little lamb spedini marinated in lots of herbs from the garden, and around 10:30 we gave up and threw them under the broiler. They were still pretty good, along with some bietole and a buttara/tomato/rucola salad. Buttara is just too good, I need to avoid eating that delicacy too often! Oh, and some home made olive bread. And that's how 2 ex-pats celebrated the 4th of July in Italy!

[Ann_T]

Susan, thank you for your warm welcome.

Looks like there was some wonderful 4th of July eating going on here. Everything looks so good.

Canada enjoyed a long weekend too with the celebration of Canada Day on Friday.

Saturday night's dinner was fresh grilled Halibut with new potatoes and grilled tomatoes.

Last night we had a steak dinner. I had the butcher cut me a nice thick Porterhouse which I had planned to cook on Sunday but never got a round too it. I had rubbed it with fresh garlic, rosemary, lots of peppercorns and some olive oil.. It smelled so good when it hit the grill. We shared the steak and had sides of Black Bean Salad and potatoes fried with onions and green peppers.

Dessert Sunday and Monday was White Chocolate Cream Cheese Raspberry Tart.

[Malawry]

Burgers and salad for dinner here. The freezer is almost completely emptied of meats. (We moved out of our old house last week, and are staying with friends--we got rid of most stuff before coming to the friends' place, and have been chowing through the remainder since we arrived.)

[little ms foodie]

tonight was goat cheese stuffed squash blossoms with a tomato coulis from our Mario Batalli book, these were awesome!

then we decided to try a grilled duck breast recipe from Andrea Immer's book, cherry pinot noir sauce. Also grilled some new potatoes and garlic scapes. I didn't like the duck done this was but hubby thought it was good.

I REALLY want that tart for dessert!!!

[SuzySushi]

No cooking tonight. One of the supermarkets here has just redone the front of the store as a gourmet food destination, with a cheese counter where cheese is sliced to order.

So, dinner tonight was a European & American deli feast:

Hazelsauer (sunflower kernel) bread from Germany

Cheese platter: a ripe Taleggio (Italy), Zamorano (Spain), aged Gouda (Holland), blue Cabrales (Spain). There would've been goat cheese, too, but my son polished that off.

Sliced pastrami (USA), each slice rolled-up.

Spinach, cilantro, and grape tomato salad with Kalamata olives (Greece) and vinaigrette dressing.

Now if we could only score a couple of Rocamadour cheeses...

Edited July 6, 2005 by SuzySushi (log)

[nan]

Chicken Oaxaca, based on a Cooking Light recipe - it called for the chicken to be stuffed with avocado and cheese, then breaded and fried, but I just cooked the chicken on its own, then topped with avocado, cheese, and the VERY spicy sauce. Not the prettiest as far as color goes, but an interesting dish. This is day #2 for this dish, which is why the avocado is not so nicely green as it was the day before. In my new quest to learn more about wine in general and especially food-wine pairing, we tried this dish the first night with a Sauvignon Blanc and last night with a Dancing Bull Zinfandel. I enjoyed both but think the Zinfandel worked better.

[Susan in FL]

First night home from the trip, Russ made us Buffalo wings, steamed shrimp, and grilled vegetables, and then I went to sleep for 15 hours. On the 4th, for dinner we were going to a gathering that was rained out, so we ordered pizza delivery. Last night we had the dinner most requested by the kids when they're here, steak and pasta. We grilled big porterhouses and portabella mushrooms, and the side dish pasta was with an herbed cream sauce that had a touch of tomato in it.

[jm chen]

Stomach is still a little touchy from something I picked up in Peru, so soup sounded good for last night. Whipped up some French onion soup loosely, loosely based on the F.O. soup recipe from The New Best Recipe (which I received as a gift and highly recommend -- it's a test kitchen approach so they explain all the things that don't work as well as those that do.)

Two giant red onions sliced at 1/8" on the mandolin, plus two sliced shallots and 1/2t salt, sauteed in a tablespoon of butter for, oh, 45 minutes. Boiled water in the teakettle and poured it over two double-size Knorr boullion blocks, one chicken, one beef. Added a glug of red wine to this, poured it over the onions with 1T Herbes de Provence, added more hot water to cover the onions, simmered for another half hour.

I don't have ovenproof bowls, but hit upon this for the bread/cheese topping -- toasted two thick slices of bread, cut each in six pieces and carefully arranged them on a baking sheet in the original shape. Put a healthy serving of shredded cheese over this -- 2/3 aged provolone and 1/3 robusto. Under the broiler for 7 or 8 minutes. Come time to serve, the bread/cheese slides right off the baking sheet and onto the soup, and the pieces are easy to separate with the edge of your spoon.

Turned out so well, I'm having it for lunch again today. Planning to heat the soup in the microwave and the bread/cheese in the toaster oven.

[Basilgirl]

Made "pizzas" with Trader Joe's garlic naan, cherry tomatoes, banana peppers, serranos and Armenian string cheese. Strange yet good. My boyfriend added tomato sauce to his after they came out of the oven.

[Jinmyo]

Hi Jim. What is "robusto" please?