Dinner! 2005

[Priscilla]

I had made bagels, so we had a platter of smoked salmon, big old sliced tomato, nice sweet onion, cream cheese, saltylicious butter, half-sour pickles, oil-cured olives.

[Pallee]

http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/11249955...1666_864268.jpg

My first post here - hope the picture appears! Had a quartet of salads last night with my focaccia and a sundried tomato, walnut and blue cheese bread. The salads were potato, roasted chicken w/ romaine and veggies w/ aged manchego, red cabbage sauteed in duck fat w/ red wine vinegar, walnuts, bacon and goat cheese, and heirloom tomatoes w/ fresh mozz and basil.

No pictures of dessert, ate it too fast, but was homemade huckleberry ice cream sandwiches w/ chocolate meringue cookies.

Edited to try to get picture to display... hopefully

Edited August 25, 2005 by Pallee (log)

[little ms foodie]

Nopal cactus risotto

mussles soup and tiramisu

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that is lovely, what is nopal cactus?

Pallee, welcome!! what a nice first picture!

[Megan Blocker]

I had made bagels, so we had a platter of smoked salmon, big old sliced tomato, nice sweet onion, cream cheese, saltylicious butter, half-sour pickles, oil-cured olives.

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Yum, Priscilla! That sounds delicious (especially the pickles, onions and tomatoes)!

[Susan in FL]

Mmmm, wonderful dinners going on here.

Dinner for us tonight on this hot, humid, cloudy, and windy evening was this recipe from the August issue of Bon Appetit: Chicken, Rice, and Mango in Lettuce Wraps. Very sloppy picking up the wrap and eating from our hands, and very good!

Getting ready to take my seat on the porch...

One of the wraps, before devouring it...

[Daddy-A]

Nopal cactus risotto

mussles soup and tiramisu

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that is lovely, what is nopal cactus?

Pallee, welcome!! what a nice first picture!

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I'm gonna second that! Where'd I leave that arborio ....

A.

[Susan G]

Cooking for my 6 year old niece and 4 year old nephew for the past three weeks: I grew tired of the pap I'd been making for them, and tonight made something *I'd* want to eat: Ma Po Dofu, Four Season green beans, (Si ji dou); Chinese sweet and sour cucumber pickles (I left out the chili paste), peach cobbler for desert. They *loved* it! They were curious about what the good smells were once the ginger and garlic and soy hit the frying pan........it was an educational meal all around!

[suzilightning]

a photo worthy meal but HIMSELF won't teach me to use his playtoy so....

blue ribbon meatloaf - beef, pork and veal mixed with dijon mustard, salt and pepper, bread crumbs, egg, thyme and onions that had been softened then boiled down with a bottle of newcastle brown ale.

shallots and yukon gold potatoes - tossed with olive oil, sea salt and white pepper

stuffed tomatoes - hollowed out tomatoes stuffed with onions, tomato concasse, grated asiago and parmesan, eggs, fresh parsleyand tarragon and zucchini

maybe i can get HIM to photgraph the leftovers

johnnybird's starter was some whole wheat bread spread with soy margarine, cut into quarters then two were topped with prosciutto de san danielle and artichoke hearts and two were topped with prosciutto de san danielle and olive halves. also served some green olives stuffed with provolone

[racheld]

Mmmm, wonderful dinners going on here.

Dinner for us tonight on this hot, humid, cloudy, and windy evening

Getting ready to take my seat on the porch...

Susan, is this gorgeous porch we see so often screened or glass? I sit there with you often, and want to know if I'm to dress for dinner and sit dreamily in a cool chair, sipping and tasting, or should I wear a cotton shorts outfit and absorb the entire atmosphere as one, a faint dew clouding lip and cheek, making the heat and humidity a part of the overall ambience with that cool, crisp, lovely food?

And wine. Always wine.

Sign me a Southerner who reached a Certain Age and moved a couple of states NORTH.

[Megan Blocker]

a photo worthy meal but HIMSELF won't teach me to use his playtoy  so....

blue ribbon meatloaf - beef, pork and veal mixed with dijon mustard, salt and pepper, bread crumbs, egg, thyme and onions that had been softened then boiled down with a bottle of newcastle brown ale.

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Hee hee! Men and their technological toys, eh?

Suzi, would you be willing to share the recipe for your meatloaf? Sounds delicious!!!

[Susan in FL]

Susan, is this gorgeous porch we see so often screened or glass?  I sit there with you often, and want to know if I'm to dress for dinner and sit dreamily in a cool chair, sipping and tasting, or should I wear a cotton shorts outfit and absorb the entire atmosphere as one, a faint dew clouding lip and cheek, making the heat and humidity a part of the overall ambience with that cool, crisp, lovely food?

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...Rachel, that's beautiful! What you wrote put a lump in my throat.

It is a screened porch, so when you come this time of year, wear the cotton shorts, and experience the latter. Come late fall and most of the winter, you are welcome to "dress for dinner" on the porch. Most important is to be comfortable.

[Chufi]

While I was on holiday, I made a promise to myself to cook more New Things. New recipes, unfamiliar ingredients, new techniques.. here are the resultas sofar:

my first gyoza/potstickers. They had a filling of beef, cabbage, spring onions, ginger and garlic, and some chinese 5-spice powder. The filling was good but even though I thought I had put a LOT of seasoning in, I still thuoght they were a bit underseasoned. I also definitely need more practice with the potsticking part of the potstickers. I made a mess.

Also in the pic is stirfried Chinese cabbage with chillies, red pepper and carrots. A dipping sauce of limejuice, sesame oil, soysauce and chillies.

My first time cooking Swiss chard. I saw them at the farmers market and they were so beautiful, a mixed bunch with bright yellow, pink and purple stems, that I had to buy them. Here's a soup made of the leaves, chorizo sausage, potato and onion. Wit a raw eggyolk cracked into the hot soup because I just love the combo of spicy sausage, potato and runny egg.

[Ann_T]

Megan your bread pudding looks so good. Bread and Butter Pudding is a favourite dessert of mine. I serve it with a caramel sauce or a lemon sauce.

I grilled some baby back ribs Greek style last night and served a Tomato and Feta Salad on the side.

[Susan in FL]

While I was on holiday, I made a promise to myself to cook more New Things. New recipes, unfamiliar ingredients, new techniques.. here are the resultas sofar:

...My first time cooking Swiss chard. I saw them at the farmers market and they were so beautiful, a mixed bunch with bright yellow, pink and purple stems, that I had to buy them. Here's a soup made of the leaves, chorizo sausage, potato and onion. Wit a raw eggyolk cracked into the hot soup because I just love the combo of spicy sausage, potato and runny egg.

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I grilled some baby back ribs Greek style last night and served a Tomato and Feta Salad on the side. 

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Food Porn is Good.

I want to do that and that.

[FoodMan]

Been away from this thread for a while again so here goes a few dinners...

Sometime last week:

Chicken Rollades, stuffed with roasted peppers and bread crumbs.

Pumpkin gnocchi with spinach and mushrooms

Also this past week:

One of my entries for the "Build A Better Burger" contest, was this

Beef burger with bourbon onion relish, cheddar and smoked paprika mayo. I made the buns myself. The friesare also from scratch. (wish me luck).

Tonight's mostly-Italian dinner:

Fresh baked Pane Siciliano with an olive oil-caper-parsley dip

Roman fried rice balls, these are stuffed with mozz and dried porcini and are VERY addictive

Homemade Fetuccine with lemon sauce, chilies and parsley.

Charcoal roasted pork shoulder (picnic). this roasted slowly for about 4.5 hours and came out fantastic. It was basted with a mixture of Sherry and stock and vinegar. The best part is that I needed no more than one chimney full of briquettes! I am thinking of doing the Thanksgiving turkey on the grill this year now. Here it is towards the end of the cooking time.

Jim Dixon's roasted cauliflower (I added some red peppers also)

Dessert, Vacherin filled with homemade Blackberry ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce.

Elie

[Megan Blocker]

Sesame beef, broccoli in garlic sauce, and steamed meat dumplings from Pig Heaven on Second Avenue, all washed down with Amstel Light while watching All About Eve. Sometimes you just ned something REALLY low-key.

[Pan]

I grilled some baby back ribs Greek style last night and served a Tomato and Feta Salad on the side. 

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Wow, I love the look of those dark heirloom tomatoes!

[MarketStEl]

No photos tonight--my roomie brought the digicam, but the memory card filled up after about 20 pix. And my feet are killing me--I've been on them since about 4 this afternoon--but I had a great deal of fun.

This wasn't dinner, strictly speaking--it was a cookout/party to which upwards of 50 people had been invited by the host and about 30-40 showed up. I was doing the honors at the grill and smoker.

The menu was standard barbecue fare--barbecued ribs, grilled and barbecued chicken, burgers, hot dogs, macaroni salad and whatever the guests brought (which wasn't much--the person who said she would bring potato salad must have gotten cold feet from the intermittent showers during the day).

What was unusual for me was the quantity: 30 pounds of ribs (nine racks), 20 pounds of chicken (10 pounds each of thighs and drumsticks), 10 pounds of ground beef, 5 pounds of hot dogs, three grills--two of them smokers. About a half gallon of homemade barbecue sauce--most of it now in my fridge, but I had two bottles for the guests, one regular, one kick-ass. (The regular bottle is almost full; the kick-ass bottle is half empty. For you sriracha fans, it and black pepper were the extra ingredients in the kick-ass version.) A huge bowl of macaroni salad with tuna, made the day before.

The ribs are all gone or accounted for. All but two drumsticks were cooked. I have about 15 uncooked two-ounce burgers out of 76, and about a pound of franks left. Everybody left satisfied, and a few people raved about the food. (Including one guest fairly early on who scooped up half a pan of chicken and a heap of macaroni salad, put the stuff in her bag, and left. Taking leftover cooked food with you--or a platter to take home to family, a friend or for later--is a custom at many parties thrown by African-Americans, but swiping food in large quantities before the party's over is IMO boorish. Not that I haven't seen it happen before, though.)

Times like this are what make cooking for crowds fun. Next year when I do this party, however, I think I may put out a tip jar.

Edited August 28, 2005 by MarketStEl (log)

[Susan in FL]

Elie, good to see your food again! It all looks great, but wow your homemade fettucine is beautiful. Homemade pasta is a possibility in one of the upcoming eG Cook-offs. When/if that happens, I hope you'll share some of your expertise.

Last night we had a one dish meal... that can take two or three hours to eat, and even then there are sometimes leftovers; and for those of us who like to photo our dinners, requires a before and after shot.

We had four dozen steamed crabs.

[Bombdog]

No special story, just a grilled rack of lamb with oven roasted rosemary and garlic potatoes with a Greek style cucumber salad

[Alinka]

Food Porn is Good.

I want to do that and that.

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You've picked exactly the ones I was most fascinated with!

Loved your "before" and "after" pics!

[Jinmyo]

Wit a raw eggyolk cracked into the hot soup because I just love the combo of spicy sausage, potato and runny egg.

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Oh yes.

[Patrick S]

No special story, just a grilled rack of lamb with oven roasted rosemary and garlic potatoes with a Greek style cucumber salad

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I changed the image URL so we can see the full-size image!

[Chufi]

Elie those riceballs lok fantastic. I've made them before but never with dried porcini in the stuffing, that sounds like a very good idea!

Tonight, another First Thing: duck legs. These were braised with white wine and stock, together with potatoes, carrots and shallots. Served with sauteed chard with balsamic vinegar, lots of garlic, and sprinkled with pinenuts.

the duck was very good but the chard was fantastic! I am a chard convert!

edited to add dessert, which I just finfished: greek joghurt with homemade plum compote and a sprinkle of apple granola for crunch.

Edited August 28, 2005 by Chufi (log)

[Priscilla]

Another excellent run of dinners.

Wow, SO glad to get a better look at Bombdog's rack of lamb. Beautiful!

Susan, I notice amidst the carapaces that the Sierra Nevada PA level remains the same. Surely a coincidence of photo-taking.

Yesterday, after seeing Hiroyuki's instructional pictorial over on the Japan forum, ran out to the Japanese market for what we needed and experienced success with yakitori at home! A perfect dish to cook outside over the butane burner.

We also had a sashimi selection from the Japanese market. Broccoli florets with a touch of Kewpie mayonnaise on the side, and my homemade cabbage pickle. Icy Sapporo beer. Yum.