Dinner! 2005

[SuzySushi]

Grilled Chicken with Mint has become a real favorite of ours. Served tonight with Moroccan-spiced orzo and a lettuce-cucumber-tomato salad.

[suzilightning]

usual before concert cookout for the revelers:

beer

water(for the one in recovery)

lemonade and iced tea (for the grill chef - me)

ribs that had been dry rubbed, cooked slowly in the oven and finished on the grill

hamburgers

nathan's hot dogs

coleslaw

slllooowwww baked beans

macaroni salad

then made them sandwiches for the after concert gorging, shipped them off and took a cool shower

[Eden]

Thursday (Bastille day):

Assortment of cheeses and olives

fresh greens & flowers with vinaigrette

good bread

boudin blanc* sauteed with apples onions & much butter

home-made Peach sorbet

fresh peaches macerated in sauternes

bakery cream puffs, served with fresh cherries & drizzled with chocolate sauce

*that was what I asked for, but the sausage shop gave me some unknown spicy sausage by mistake which I didn't realize (since I had helpers in the kitchen) till it was already in the pan & cooking. tasted OK but NOT the dish I was trying to make...

Saturday - Bastille-day inspired wine & cheese party:

Cheeses: Morbier, roquefort, pepper boursin, Pyrenees Mont cayal?, young & old goudas, home-made goat cheese , gorgonzola & home-made marmalade.

Breads: baguettes, mini coissants, crackers, big coissants

Olives: lucques, nicoise, picholines, picholines? with herbs de provence

Brie tartlettes with an apricot chutney drizzled on top

Fruits: wild berries, fresh cherries, casaba melon

Desserts: One friend brought a chocolate tarte with orange cream topping

another brought pain au chocolate & almond coissants from a local bakery, and a third made a "buche du Bastille" Theories differed as to whether it was a torch carried on the way to the bastille, or a piece of wood from the Barricades - the only thing certain is that it was as tasty as it was silly....

[Chufi]

Brie tartlettes with an apricot chutney drizzled on top

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what a wonderful idea.

I have some catching up to do, but not many memorable meals to tell you about. I did make a wonderful rice cake with spinach and ham last week, like a very dense risotto, with a high ratio of spinach to rice. Baked in the oven until firm. Delicious.

Another good thing were redcurrantcreams for dessert, with home made redcurrant jelly.

Yesterday I made a fresh sweetcorn and basil risotto. And some fantastic meatballs. The mix was half pork half beef, I mixed in garlic, thyme, salt and pepper.. and then, thinking of Marlenes peanutbutter burgers, I mixed in a tablespoon of peanutbutter. Lovely, juicy meatballs and nobody could detect the peanutflavor!

Today, the best thing to do with leftover risotto (maybe I like this even better than risotto ):

We also had vegetable soup (leeks, tomato, onion, garlic, chucks of zucchini, rosemary) and bluecheese toasts made with a delicious dutch blue.

[Alinka]

I hope I'm not tiring you with my dinners every night . Tonight I had Susan in FL's oldie-but-goodie salad:

I did make some changes: used whole wheat pasta, champaigne vinegar, and hazelnut oil. It might be a strange combination, but I like it!

[Susan in FL]

Before:

After:

Tonight we grilled lamb on skewers of rosemary from our yard, and had mushrooms, limas, baby carrots, and beet greens with it.

[Nathan P.]

First post here as I don't have a digital camera and am not exactly a heavy poster, but motivated by tonights meal and the residual effects of the wine I thought I would add to this mega-thread.

Started with some thin long radishes with irish butter and maldon salt.

2nd was some toasted Acme wheat bread rubbed with tomato, a drizzle of local olive oil and a piece of serrano ham.

3rd was a napolean of japanese eggplant with some very good ricotta and a tomato sauce with a bit of genovese basil from the garden

4th was halibut cheeks on creamed leeks with green beans.

The final savory was meat from the bones of a leftover pork roast that had been braised in the tomato sauce stuffed into zucchini w/ a maitake mushroom sauce.

For dessert I made quenelles of the leftover ricotta with some candied orange zest. These were then sprinkled with some crushed spanish turron and a drizzle of warm honey and a bit of an 8 yr balsamic.

All of this was washed down with a nice Isabel Sav. Blanc from NZ, a Ribero del Duero and a final shot of Limoncello.

I was fortunate that the northern California weather was kind and the fog just barely stayed away for this long late afternoon outdoor meal.

[FoodMan]

Thursday:

Angel hair with garlicky shrimp, chilli and crunchy bread crumbs.

Nectarine crostadas with vanilla ice cream for dessert

Friday:

beer braised homemade brats with parlsey-chive mashed potatoes

Homemade ice cream (mint and chocolate) with chocolate sauce for dessert.

Saturday:

My son's 2nd B-day. We had:

baked zitti with ham and ricotta

brined baked chicken with rosemary, vermouth lemon and garlic

chickpea and carrot salad

The cake was the Tuxedo Cake from the Pastry Queen book (Click here for the book thread)...of course the Thomas The Engine theme is mine .

Sunday:

Leftovers

Elie

[tupac17616]

Braised Rabbit with Homemade Tagliatelle

My terrible picture and complete lack of any presentation does no justice to the amazing deliciousness of this dish. My whole family loved it (except my mom, who refused to eat rabbit because it was too "weird" and then had a panini and potato chips instead of the rabbit and pasta ). This batch of pasta turned out to be by far the best I've ever made at home. Wonderful texture and great flavor. Can't wait until the next time I've got time to make some more.

[Grub]

Seafood crêpes.

[NewYorkTexan]

Had friends over for a Shrimp boil.

There were 2 kinds of sausages, smoked pork from I got at the farmers market and a habenero and hatch chile smoked turkey sausage. I noticed a big difference between the farm raised u15 shrimp from Costco and the wild, smaller shrimp from Central Market.

[Macarons&Mozart]

tomato gratin (with homemade tomatoes!), mache and frisee salad w. white truffle oil vinaigrette, fougasse w/ gruyere and black olives

[FoodMan]

tomato gratin (with homemade tomatoes!), mache and frisee salad w. white truffle oil vinaigrette, fougasse w/ gruyere and black olives

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How do you exactly "make" tomatoes at home ? I'm guessing grown in your garden, right? I just couldn't help but comment on it.

Elie

[Basilgirl]

Chicken-cheese burritos with tomatillo sauce. I had never cooked tomatillos before. I didn't know that they are kind of slimy, like okra. But the sauce turned out great.

Champagne. To celebrate meeting the Basilman 12 years ago at the farmer's market.

[kdl1221]

I believe this is called Muc Xao Thap Cam (or darn close) with spring roll.

Noodles, squid, chicken, peppers, pineapple, onion.

~Kim

[Ann_T]

I didn't get a chance to read this thread the last few days so I got caught up today. The food here is inspirational. Love all the wonderful pictures.

Alinka, One of my favourite meals is a chicken pot pie and your chicken pie looks wonderful. I could almost taste it.

Susan I love rosemary and lamb so I'm defintely going to try the rosemary skewers next time. And Chufi, the sweet corn and basil risotto also sounds wonderful and I like what you did with the leftovers.

I tried a new recipe last night. Shrimp stuffed with Crab with a Cucumber, tomato and mint relish. It was very good but not something I would make again. I have other Crab stuffed shrimp recipes that I like better. Although I will make the cucumber tomato relish again and serve it with grilled chicken souvlaki.

This picture isn't great but it was my first attempt using a new camera. Might take me a while to figure it out.

[racheld]

Our season's first tomatoes, sliced and sandwiched between smooshy potato bread with a slick of mayo, sea salt and some crispy pepper bacon. Diet Pepper sparkled over ice; Chunks of chilled Decker melon for dessert.

I'd never heard of it til we moved here---it's the sweetest, heaviest, juiciest, most flavorful cantaloupe ever. The season is short and the area regional, it seems. Deckers must be what they were serving at Goblin Market, for we long for them all year.

Dead Zone on TV. AMH is pretty yummy himself.

[Macarons&Mozart]

How do you exactly "make" tomatoes at home  ? I'm guessing grown in your garden, right? I just couldn't help but comment on it.

Elie

heh...i can't believe i said that...(hey, it was 3 o'clock in the morning when I posted that) yes, homeGROWN tomatoes- mmm

Edited July 18, 2005 by Macarons&Mozart (log)

[percyn]

Yesterday's dinner started with appetizers of pinwheel salmon on dense, whole rye bread, topped with chives

and seasoned cucumbers and tomatoes on the same bread (I actually added some coriander chutney after taking the picture).

I had prepared this rack of baby back ribs the previous night and planned to smoke it with hickory.

...unfortunately mother nature had other plans and I was unable to smoke it outside and I ended up trying to smoke it in the oven, which did not work out as well. Topped 3 different sections with 3 different sauces (Bone Sucking Sauce, Tony Roma's Original and Stubb's Original).

[percyn]

Saturday's dinner was

Chicken & Shrimp Pad Thai w/macamadia nuts

Dessert - Fresh strawberries and whipped cream (from my new iSi whipped cream maker I have been wanting to try)

[Alinka]

percyn

Pleeease invite me for dinner! (I'd prefer the Friday one)

Everybody's dinners look delicious. I've noticed shrimp seems to be the popular theme lately .

I'm Russian, and I craved some comfort food tonight. But I wasn't up to starting making borsch or pelmeni (takes forever!), so I had the next best thing: a perfect Greek salad with the freshest ingredients. I'm full and happy now .

[Ann_T]

Percyn, wonderful pictures. Especially love the salmon pinwheels. Alinka, I was craving comfort food tonight too. We had what I always call Diner food. Hot chicken Sandwiches with homemade fries and canned peas. One of my favourite restaurants when I was young always served canned peas with their hot chicken sandwiches so it is a tradition.

[little ms foodie]

Well it is finally summer in seattle!!

mojitos!

dungeness crab, papaya and endive salad

seared albacor tuna on avocado and roasted corn salsa. grilled baguette rubbed with garlic.

eaten al fresco....finally!!!!

[FoodMan]

leftovers from the b-day party again, but a little "kicked up". I chopped up the chicken and potatoes and garlic, defrosted some filo dough and made a chicken strudel and topped it with the lemony garlicky sauce from the pan I baked the chicken in. Served it with the last of the chickpea salad. Came out quiet awsome

Dessert- Since I had the filo dough out, I made some baklava. Boy is is this stuff addictive.

[racheld]

Southern-fried chicken wings, soaked four hours in seasoned buttermilk, then breaded and fried. Baby green peas; a bowl of "trash"--my Mother's word for a mix of diced garden tomatoes, fresh-picked cucumbers, green peppers and Vidalias, simply salted and left for half an hour to make their own dressing.

The centerpiece of the meal was individual bowls of just-picked creamed corn, quickly simmered with butter, salt, and all of the crispins out of the chicken skillet--Hubby does all this dish himself, from shucking to cooking.

Rainier cherries and chunks of Decker melon for dessert.