Dinner! 2007

[Shaya]

Chufi! Looks divine! I'm wondering if you could share your pita recipe -- I have tried several, and while all tasty, have never managed to get any to consistently puff. Yours look incredible!

Emily

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Emily,

Watch this pita video from Julia Child's series. It will change your pita-baking life! Click

[Kim Shook]

What beautiful meals everyone has been cooking. I am just in awe!

Bruce - your Banh mi is just delicious looking, I can almost taste that moist pork and crunch the vegetables!

lucylou - I love that glistening pizza.

little ms foodie - the salmon and asparagus are gorgeous and I don't even like asparagus! And even your freaking ice cubes are beautiful!!

David - every time I see one of your posts, I am so glad that you joined egullet and started posting on the dinner thread. You are such a treasure!

Chufi - as usual, your meals (even the healthy ones ) look scrumptious! The cheesecake is just exactly what cheesecake should be!

I am almost embarrassed to post my pitiful contribution to this thread! I have not been cooking much at all lately. I am finally back to work after my carpal tunnel surgery and too exhausted with standing up all day to come home and cook. Plus, I have so much leftover food in the freezer. The party for my daughter's graduation from college was May 20th. I cooked for 70 (I am a notorious over preparer - typical Southern girl horror of having someone leave my house hungry - so probably more like 80), 70 people having RSVP'd yesses. Probably 45-50 showed up . The menu was:

Tortilla Soup w/ fixings - Avocado chunks, Lime wedges, Mexican cheese, Fried tortilla strips, Cilantro

Quesadilla/Tacos – Ground beef & Chicken w/ fixings

A sample plate:

This was an almost full 18 qt. Nesco of taco meat:

Black Beans

Spanish Orzo

Tortilla Chips w/ 7 Layer Dip

Cornbread Salad

Key Lime Pie Shooters - these were my favorites - very cute and very well received!

Brownies

Poundcake

Frozen Daiquiris, Margaritas & Cosmos

The food was very good and appreciated by all, but there was so much leftover. I am so very, very sick of tacos and beans and taco salad and reheated crap! We retooled the bean into bean soup and gave it to a sick friend and sent home what we could with everyone and took stuff to work, but a lot is still lurking in the freezer - haunting me.

One good meal that I served while both sets of my parents were up for the graduation was:

Grilled Steak Rolls - a little odd looking, but very good. Just flank steak, marinated, rolled and grilled:

Chinese Salad - just one of those middle America standards - Napa cabbage with a green onion vinaigrette and a topping made of ramen noodles and almonds (a version of a Paula Deen recipe, in fact), but everyone at my house loves it.

Roasted Cauliflower and Artichokes - how many pictures of roasted cauliflower do you suppose are on imagegullet ? I always get converts with roasted cauliflower - this time it was my mom. And the artichokes were a great addition:

Scalloped Tomatoes - Southern comfort food at it's best - this dish reminds you that 'maters are, after all, a fruit:

So, there we are. Almost the sum total of my cooking for the last 2 weeks.

I am so ashamed. And I can't promise it is going to get much better. I swing into full time at work this week and we are going to Savannah for a wedding at the end of next week. I think I have cooking-fatigue. I want to cook. I just don't seem to find the energy to do it. Blah.

Cook on, my friends - I'll read along and see if I can get inspired by the wonderful meals that you serve forth!

Kim

[David Ross]

What beautiful meals everyone has been cooking. I am just in awe!

David - every time I see one of your posts, I am so glad that you joined egullet and started posting on the dinner thread. You are such a treasure!

Thanks for the kind words. (By the way, how do I reply with the 'previous quote' in a separate text box from my response).

I hope my love of food and cooking comes through in the photos I post. I'm really looking forward to doing a weeklong foodblog the week of June 18-24. I'll be encouraging all my friends in this Dinner! forum to tune in that week to hear my thoughts on all things food.

[little ms foodie]

Kim those key lime shooters are adorable!!!!

[Shaya]

David - every time I see one of your posts, I am so glad that you joined egullet and started posting on the dinner thread. You are such a treasure!

Yes, David, I agree, your meals look beautiful, crisply photographed and tasty.

Edited May 29, 2007 by Shaya (log)

[Kim Shook]

Kim those key lime shooters are adorable!!!!

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Thank you! They really were tiny. To give you an idea of the size, the spoons are little sample spoons from the deli where I work - about the size of Baskin Robins sample spoons.

Kim

[Kim Shook]

Thanks for the kind words.  (By the way, how do I reply with the 'previous quote' in a separate text box from my response). 

Just hit the reply button under the box of the response that you want to quote. You can delete any text that you don't want to appear. Does that make sense?

Kim

Edited May 29, 2007 by Kim Shook (log)

[Priscilla]

Looking forward to David's foodblog! Guess that lets Dinner! readers out of the guessing, however... shhhh!

Last evening, end of holiday weekend cheeseburgers and crinkle frites.

Sunday evening, after a nice day watching our niece's softball tournament fortuitously taking place in a city nearby, friends to dinner who are soon relocating to Turkey. From a well-used Charles Perry tearsheet, Persian lamb marinated in onion puree, coriander, and cumin, and chicken marinated in onion puree and saffron. FoodMan's Rice w/Vermicelli, muhummara (remarkably similar to Chufi's walnut-pom molasses dip up there), Claudia Roden's tahini sauce, yogurt-cucumber-cilantro-parsley-garlic salad, Paula Wolfert's grilled eggplant w/pomegranate molasses, garlic, mint, olive oil, grilled big sweet summer onions, wedges of tomato, seedy flatbread made by me, all arranged on the huge platter pressed into use on such occasions, on the outdoor table. Cold red wine (heavily infl. by a recent guest on Evan Kleiman's Good Food), sparkling water, etc. Later, coffee and Korova cookies.

[Chufi]

I love your pita, Chufi.  Just beautiful.  That lamb looks wonderful, and the topping of potato and cheese, yum.  How did you keep the topping from drying out while the lamb cooked - was it covered the whole time?

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lots of olive oil drizzled on top, and I guess the moisture from the milk that was bubbling up around the potatoes!

Chufi! Looks divine! I'm wondering if you could share your pita recipe -- I have tried several, and while all tasty, have never managed to get any to consistently puff. Yours look incredible!

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I can PM you the recipe, but I have to say, I made 4 breads, 3 puffed, 1 didn't...

So, there we are.  Almost the sum total of my cooking for the last 2 weeks. 

I am so ashamed. 

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Kim! you cooked for 70! or 80! and it all looks so good! why be ashamed? thanks for sharing all that.. I wish I could come over and help you eat the leftovers

muhummara (remarkably similar to Chufi's walnut-pom molasses dip up there),

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muhammara was the reicpe I used! except I messed around with it so I did not want to call it that anymore.. funny you still recognized it..

[C. sapidus]

Shaya: Thanks!

Chufi: The beef noodles, the walnut-red pepper paste, and the tahini eggplant look particularly delectable. Heck, any of your pictures would ably grace a cookbook.

Kim Shook: Let me get this right – you are beating yourself up for being tired after feeding 70 people very nice food while returning to work and recovering from surgery?

Tonight we filled flour tortillas with papas y chorizo and guacamole picado, both from Rick Bayless’ Authentic Mexican. I jazzed up the potatoes with roasted tomato and Hatch chile rajas. Toppings included feta cheese, more Hatch chiles, and Frontera chipotle-garlic salsa. The boys loved it – perhaps we are making inroads with the boys and Mexican food.

[lucylou95816]

Oh my Bruce, that looks delicious.

[lucylou95816]

Here is our dinner tonight. We had a delayed Memorial Day BBQ, since we hung out with friends last night. We started off with a little cheese and sourdough bagettes. I was inspired because of you all here (food blogs, etc.) to try some new cheese, and tried the Beechers which I really liked. The other cheese was also very good too.

Dinner was grilled New York steak, baked potatoes and roasted vidalia onions with butter and balsamic. The steak is topped with a chimachurra sauce that a friend gave me yesterday, that he and his sister in law produce and sell. It is very very good and fresh tasting.

Although I am stuffed, I may have to break down and have a couple of spoonfuls of this for something sweet, which if you've never had it, is fantastic.

[Kim Shook]

  This was an almost full 18 qt. Nesco of taco meat:

Everyone please say goodbye to Mrs. Kim. If I have to eat ONE MORE TACO this week, you're going to be reading about us in the newspapers.

- Mr. Kim

[MiFi]

Grilled Soy/Smoked Vinegar Marinated Flat Iron Steak

Chinese Flat Wheat Noodles w/Bok Choy, Sesame Sauce

[rwsweet]

Here's the five course dinner I made on Sunday. Sorry for the horrible quality of the pictures; I am currently without a good camera, so a phone camera had to suffice.

First course is roasted bone marrow with a parsley salad.

Now onto seared foie gras with honeydew mint soup, cantaloupe, and muscat reduction. This recipe is from the terrific book Tru by Rick Tramonto.

Next is my attempt at a French Laundry recipe, butter-poached lobster with leeks, pommes maxim, and red beet essence. This one turned out looking pretty sloppy, but tasted excellent.

The fourth course is filet mignon with a sweetbread and wild mushroom ragout. This is an Emeril recipe. While the man is insufferable to watch, his food is usually quite good, although sometimes heavy-handed.

Finally, another venture into Tru, this is Wabash Cannonball with cherries and rosemary.

Again, sorry for the poor picture quality, but it was the best I could do at the time.

[sadistick]

Fantastic Lineup RW - - Love each of your courses...

Edited May 30, 2007 by sadistick (log)

[DanielM.]

Spring pasta with fresh peas.

[suzilightning]

frito pie made with a wet chili(ground buffalo, pinto beans, beer and tomatoes as well as spices), baked scoops instead of fritos(hey, the same company makes them), diced red onion and 6 year old aged cheddar. salad of romaine lettuce, cucumber and green goddess dressing.

[Shaya]

rwsweet, that is a very ambitious menu. Did you prepare it all on your own? What was the occasion for the elaborate meal?

Bruce, love the look of that tortilla dinner. I never think of making potatoes that way; they look amazing.

Tonight we had a dinner from the Basilicata region of Italy, Strangolapreti alla Potentina. It is typically made with pork but I used beef instead. The meat is rolled around a mixture of parsley, garlic, pancetta, pecorino romano and spices, is braised in a tomato-based sauce and served as a second course. The sauce is used to dress a homemade pasta called "Strangolapreti" which means, literally, strangle the priest. My little guy and I had fun making the pasta together. It was chewy and wonderful.

Beef Rolls with Yellow Beet Greens - blanched and sauteed with garlic, chiles and olive oil and still super-duper bitter

Strangolapreti - chewy, tasty, divine!

Dessert was some of summer's bounty, cherries, nectarine, and these beauties which I'd never seen before. Any guesses? (Answer at bottom of post).

red apricots!

[Live It Up]

Tonight we filled flour tortillas with papas y chorizo and guacamole picado, both from Rick Bayless’ Authentic Mexican. I jazzed up the potatoes with roasted tomato and Hatch chile rajas. Toppings included feta cheese, more Hatch chiles, and Frontera chipotle-garlic salsa. The boys loved it – perhaps we are making inroads with the boys and Mexican food.

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I have Rick and Lanie's Excellent Kitchen Adventures, which includes this recipe as well. It's one of the few things my husband has actually learned to cook, so we have it a lot...in fact it's on the menu for later in the week. Perhaps your boys can cook them for you next time.

[Bella S.F.]

lucylou,

I have never seen dr. bob's ice cream. That particular variety sounds amazing. Is it just local for the Sacramento area? I've never seen it down here in the Bay Area.

[Kim Shook]

Bruce - your flour tortillas with papas y chorizo look amazingly good, and that's saying something considering how Mexican-fatigued I am !

lucylou - that steak dinner almost sent us back out to go to a steakhouse when we saw it tonight! Wow. I am not even a huge steak eater, but the combination of that wonderful looking meat, the amazing onion and the perfect baked potato almost got us!

rw - everything looked wonderful, but I really, really want to try making butter poached lobster. I think that is the most wonderful and appropriate preparation for lobster that I have ever heard of!

DanielM - is that just prettily shaved cheese on top of your pasta? If so, what did you use to shave it with?

Shaya - what did the red apricots taste like? I haven't had a truly good apricot in years!

Thanks to all for your kind comments! Poor Mr. Kim did not have to eat tacos tonight! Breakfast for dinner, nothing too exciting - but it was good:

Ham & Cheese Omelette (don't tell Mr. Kim, but I used leftover Mexican cheese ) and hash browns:

Toasted Coconut Waffles w/ Raspberry Syrup and Whipped Cream:

Kim

[lucylou95816]

lucylou,

   I have never seen dr. bob's ice cream. That particular variety sounds amazing. Is it just local for the Sacramento area? I've never seen it down here in the Bay Area.

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Bella,

Here is their website. It appears that you can order them online. They show a bunch of stores in SF area that they sell it at. Scroll down to the bottom of the locations page. It's really really good.

http://drbobsicecream.com/index.html

Thanks Kim for the compliment.

Edited May 31, 2007 by lucylou95816 (log)

[rwsweet]

Shaya, I did prepare that dinner on my own. I did as much prep as I could before, then basically cooked between courses as I went. As for the occasion, my girlfriend is out of town for her brother's high school graduation and I decided this would be a good time to make all the foods she doesn't like (although she wasn't happy about me making lobster and filet mignon without her). On a funny note, she has always told me she has no desire to try foie gras (although she is generally an adventous eater), and then I hear she ate some last Saturday! Oh well.

Kim, definitely try Keller's recipe for butter poached lobster. It was the softest, most succulent preparation of lobster I've ever had. And how can you go wrong by cooking something in a big saucepan of butter?!

This was my first post on the dinner thread, and I think it's high time I get a digital camera. Now I finally have an excuse, right?

[Chufi]

Bruce , potatoes and chorizo, one of my all-time favorite combo´s. I never would have thought to add avocado, that´s a really good idea.

Shaya that beef looks very good, really tender.

This was my first post on the dinner thread, and I think it's high time I get a digital camera.  Now I finally have an excuse, right?

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Oh yes. And welcome to the nicest addiction you'll hever have > taking pics of your food!

I played with asparagus yesterday. I had a bunch of white asparagus in the freezer (peeled and frozen raw). When cooked they were flavorfull but the texture suffered a little. So I made creamy asparagus soup with butter-fried breadcrumbs

and asparagus ravioli. The stuffing is pureed asparagus, a boiled potato, ham, parsley and abit of parmesan. They were wonderful, very subtle and elegant.

the only problem was maybe, that the whole dinner was beige.