Dinner! 2005

[gourmande]

Friday we enjoyed grilled salmon fillets glazed with a white balsamic reduction and crushed peppercorns; tiny new potatoes roasted with rosemary and lemon; green beans with toasted almonds; and leafy greens with tomato, cucumber and olives lightly dressed.

Saturday we had lemon basil chicken; a warm potato salad with fennel, green beans and shallots tossed gently in a vinaigrette; garden fresh tomatoes and cucumbers dressed simply with a spritz of lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper and some crumbled feta

Sunday was a light (and late) dinner since we'd spent most of the day at an outdoor reception savouring hors d'oeuvres and sampling wines. So once the outside temperature cooled down a bit, we had simply prepared "moules marinières" enjoyed with a baguette and a bottle of wine out on our front porch.

[Basilgirl]

Sunday: Roasted chicken chunks with garlic, rosemary, grill seasoning, lemon & white wine

Roasted corn on the cob with thyme butter

Broiled tomato halves with garlic & olive oil, sandwiched with fresh mozzarella and basil so the cheese was slightly melted YUM

Sourdough boule to soak up the juices from the chicken and tomatoes

Saturday: Spent ALL DAY processing the 400 POUNDS of tomatoes that all came in at once in The Basilman's garden. I was tired and drank my dinner.

[Susan in FL]

A little picture, and I was more than a little disappointed in this dinner. I didn't even try hard for the photo. The view from the porch was way better than the food, and it was raining! The fish itself was great, but the crust (more like crumby topping) was not crisp enough, and the flavors just didn't come together well. I'll try again another time, and if I make a macadamia crust, maybe another kind of fish would be better than grouper. Anyway, it was macadamia-crusted grouper...

[Chufi]

Hey Susan, if it's any consolation, it's been raining and about about 60 F - 16 C here for the past weeks. Not very ususal for a Dutch summer!

Any wayy.. we had a good dinner to compensate for yesterday's bad one.

strips of chicken and strips of portobello mushroom, wrapped with some rosemary in Jambon d'ardennes and panfried. A sauce made of the panjuices, Marsala and creme fraiche.

Roast butternut squash and red onion

..and a very delicious stuffed focaccia (with rucola, basil, mozarella and smoked cheese. A Jamie Oliver recipe only I used different herbs and cheeses).

it looks weird though. Only when it was on the plate, did I realize that everything had the same shape!

[Priscilla]

Last evening, after a hot day working in the garden, chicken grilled not too fast on the old Weber after being skinned & marinated in Golchin brand chicken kebab seasoning.

Tomato & onion salad with mint, lemon, olive oil, s & p; wonderful farmer's market tomatos and deelicious sweet CA high-desert onions. Eggplant from the same nice lady at the farmer's market, sliced grilled dressed.

FoodMan's perfect Rice & Vermicelli (in RecipeGullet), with the addition of a couple of T. of rich chicken stock I had kicking around.

A nice flatbread I'd made a couple of weeks ago and stashed in the freezer which had Turkish Aleppo pepper, little bit of Pecorino Romano, crunchy salt on top, heated over the dying embers.

Cold pink wine, rose of Cotes du Rhone, so good.

[stephenc]

Plated dish

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I want that

[guppymo]

Vietnamese style chicken leg & rice

Pumkin soup and pork rib

Edited August 8, 2005 by guppymo (log)

[percyn]

Had a roasted chicken for lunch

and with the leftovers made..

BLC open face sandwich

andHomemade chicken broth soup with organic baby carrots

After being inspired by Dave the Cook's blog, I decided to make some short ribs with marrow and roasted corn

Dessert was Amish blueberry pie with homemade ice-cream (which had a touch of dark rum in it)

[Alinka]

I had Alinka-style garlic tofu, served with spinach sauteed with red onions and brown sugar and butter glazed baby carrots.

Alinka, it was delish! More of your recipes in RecipeGullet, please!

Glad you liked it!

A little picture, and I was more than a little disappointed in this dinner.  I didn't even try hard for the photo. 

I like your solution: if you don't like the picture, make it smaaall . From now on, a good indicator for me whether you liked your dinner or not will be the size of the posted photo .

Great dinners, everyone! I don't even have to cook: I get to enjoy a variety of dinners by just looking at yours!

Edited August 9, 2005 by Alinka (log)

[Basilgirl]

Black from Tula and Beefsteak tomato, basil, garlic (LOTS), EVOO, sherry vinegar bruschetta

That was all.

Edited to add the forgotten Belgioso "fresh" mozzarella - yummy, salty goodness

Edited August 9, 2005 by Basilgirl (log)

[Almass]

After being inspired by Dave the Cook's blog, I decided to make some short ribs with marrow and roasted corn

Dessert was Amish blueberry pie with homemade ice-cream (which had a touch of dark rum in it)

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I'll take these fantastic ribs and marrow any time with this wicked blueberry pie with rum ice cream.

I need to wipe my keyboard now and next time you wana post pics like that, could you please put a warning so we can place the bibs on.

[kategoldston]

Vietnamese style chicken leg & rice

Pumkin soup and pork rib

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Would you be willing to share the recipe?

[Alan Vick]

I am (perhaps inordinately) interested in what folks cook in their own kitchens.  I can pretty much WEAR OUT those who cross my purview quizzing them on the subject; not everyone is renewedly galvanized by the Search for Ingredients as I am, it seems, or, has even a superficial interest in those beatifying moments when raw materials and inspiration converge serendipitously.

Would it be of interest to anyone else to have an eGullet topic here in Cooking about what we cooked for dinner?

I am edified by the restaurant discourse, and of course home cooking finds its way into many posts already, I know I know I know, but what I am imagining would be a quotidian communal journal-type chronicle documenting what eGulletaires COOKED, for DINNER.

Fancy, homely, good, not-so-good, hardcore full-on from scratch, or delicately supported by convenience foods.  And then of course whether the sponge gets run through the dishwasher after cleanup, or not.

What do you all think?  And, what did you cook for dinner?

Well I have to say a nice rack of lamb seared and roasted with some veg and demi.

Priscilla

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[little ms foodie]

I've got some catching up to do!!

Last Friday we had a picnic at a winery while watching the Gipsy Kings concert. I made chicken salad with red grapes and served it in endive leaves; roasted potato and green bean salad with a tarragon mustard dressing and chocolate cream cheese cup cakes...many bottles of wine!

Saturday we started with a cocktail out of Killer Cocktails (can't remember what it was called- gin, bitters, grand mariner........) and some flatbread crackers with a Piedmontese cheese

Then we grilled lamb chops marinated in EVOO, rosemary, garlic and lemon. Served with marinated zucchini from Mario's new book and pan fried zucchini blossoms

Sunday after an entire day of sailing around the San Juan Islands Dayne's aunt and uncle made us a wonderful dinner on the beach.

Sorrel soup, beer battered salmon, sauteed turnips and cucumber/mint salad. here's a shot of the salmon being started

for dessert we had blueberry cake

and this............

not a bad view !!!

last night we started with mojitos with a twist, used a bit of grapefruit juice. paired with some Salumi finocciona salami, local farmers cheese and crackers. Then grilled halibut in tarragon mustard sauce, some leftover marinated zucchini and some herbed rice.

for dessert Dayne's first attempt at homemade ice cream- fresh raspberry:

[vanderb]

First time into the fray and no pictures, sorry.

Saturday night, BBQ'd rack of organic lamb marintated 24 hours in EVOO, rosemary, garlic, whole seed mustard, crushed red pepper, black pepper, salt and done to medium rare. To accompany whole artichokes steamed with whole lemon, bay leaf, pepercorns and garlic cloves, aioli to dip.

Couldnt' have been happier, with this meal.

Monday night, ground buffalo/bison kofte (turkish meatballs - egg, bread crumbs, mint, cumin, chilli flakes, hot sauce, salt and pepper) BBQ'd and then wrapped in a pita with salad greens. To accompany, green and yellow bean turkish salad (blanched green and yellow beans), tossed with finely chopped garden tomatoes, garlic tops (no cloves), EVOO, salt and pepper to taste.

Always great to return to Turkey, even if we never left the back patio.

Edited August 9, 2005 by vanderb (log)

[Priscilla]

LMF I have often contemplated battered fried salmon, but never have done. Can you elaborate on the preparation?

Last night when the temp began to drop a little just NY strips grilled over mesquite, baked potatoes with butter, sour cream, chives, loads of s & p, lovely Romaine salad bracingly dressed with the not-at-all-bad supermarket Colavita Balsamic and ex. virg. olive oil. Baguette from the Vietnamese bakery.

(So nice to have chives back in the garden. The stand of years-old plants mysteriously and in concert packed it in last year. Burgeoning new plantings are a pure joy to see. And eat.)

Been years since I had a regular old baked potato -- mmmm good. More essential than the steak, I thought; a minority opinion of one against two.

[little ms foodie]

LMF I have often contemplated battered fried salmon, but never have done.  Can you elaborate on the preparation? 

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Well I just watched the preparation but basically they made a batter with eggs, flour, spices and dipped salmon that had been cut into log shapes or fingers. then pan fried in shallow vegtable oil

They served an arugula sauce with it but I preferred it on it's own.

[Priscilla]

Thanks! Seems like if the salmon were nicely coated and dropped into a hot enough medium, activating the interior fat, the contrast between rich inside and crunchy outside could be very good.

Perhaps I will finally give this a try here before salmon season is over.

[M. Lucia]

Sweet Summer Corn and Crab Risottto and Tomato Salad

We're really hitting the peak of summer produce- super sweet white corn, ripe red tomatoes, it's almost unnecessary to cook at all. Today was damp and cool so the risotto was a good option, jumbo lump maryland crab, sweet white corn, chives.

Homemade peach ice cream with basil syrup for dessert.

This stuff is fabulous- peaches, honey, milk, cream, ginger, triple sec. A simple syrup with basil to top it off. Great texture from my cheapo ice cream maker, too.

[percyn]

Pizza with homemade tomato sauce. 1/2 with basil, other 1/2 with crimini and shitake

Orval Trappist Ale

Homemade ice-cream with mango

[bilrus]

Grilled ham steaks with a molasses dijon glaze, and disappointingly tasteless corn (from a stand on a back road) and tomatoes (from a farmers market).

1 out of 3 would be great for one of the Washington Nationals right now, but not for a dinner in the middle of the summer.

But they are nice to look at.

[Ann_T]

Greek Ribs with roasted potatoes

[Basilgirl]

BLTs! With Black from Tula (unreal), Beefsteak, and Pink Ribbed tomatoes; Safeway Select bacon - from Canada - very salty & lean (and comparatively cheap)

Lay's Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Vinegar potato chips

Sierra Nevadas

[Susan in FL]

A little picture, and I was more than a little disappointed in this dinner.  I didn't even try hard for the photo. 

I like your solution: if you don't like the picture, make it smaaall . From now on, a good indicator for me whether you liked your dinner or not will be the size of the posted photo .

Well, here are big pictures of the past two nights' dinners. The recipes are big favorites of ours, and both dinners were a big success.

Last night I made Marcella Hazan's "Chicken with Two Lemons" (Roast Chicken with Lemons, on page 327 of Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking -- my book automatically opens there, where the binding is split down the length of the it). This is my all time favorite way to roast a chicken. It's always juicy and tasty. I usually use a kosher chicken or brine it if it's an ordinary supermarket chicken. Last night it was the latter, and the lemons were so big I just used one. I really want to try this recipe with a Smart Chicken, if I can find one.

Russ looked at me a bit perplexed when I took so many pictures of it after taking it out of the oven. I explained to him that for those of us nuts about everyday food photography, a pretty roasted chicken is a beautiful sight to behold.

To accompany it we had our favorite frozen vegetable, leaf spinach, and oven-baked potatoes which were first rubbed with peanut oil and coarse salt.

Monday night the old favorite I made was Linguine with Tomatoes and Basil (and Brie and garlic and olive oil ) from The Silver Palate Cookbook. We usually make this once a year, in the summer. It's too decadently good to have it any more often than that.

[Priscilla]

Aaah I love the Marcella chicken method. Looks just beeyootiful, Susan.

Last evening, tostadas. Nice flour tortillas fried crisp. On top: Homemade refried beans, nice beef braised 'till way falling-apart done with ground New Mexico chile, also some Penzey's Chili Powder Medium they sent me as a free sample with my latest order; a good way to get some cumin in, and not bad overall, as blends go.

Chopped farmer's market tomatoes. Delicious Hass avocado cubed. Shredded Colby-Jack. Finely shredded cabbage. Homemade green salsa, whose tomatillos, cilantro, and jalapenos were from the same nice lady at the farmer's market. Crema.

For the grownups, icy Sapporo, Japan's Oldest Beer.