Dinner! 2008

[C. sapidus]

Mrs. C and grandma collaborated on a delicious salad – spinach, shredded carrots, lingonberry-soaked apples, walnuts, and blue cheese, tossed with raspberry vinaigrette.

Grandma leaves tomorrow. For her "last meal", we fired up the bullet and smoked pork ribs (click). Mrs. C's biscuits and Braised endive with prosciutto accompanied the ribs. We used disposable plates because our piece-of-crap Whirlpool dishwasher died again – third time in three years.

[David Ross]

Mrs. C and grandma collaborated on a delicious salad – spinach, shredded carrots, lingonberry-soaked apples, walnuts, and blue cheese, tossed with raspberry vinaigrette.

Grandma leaves tomorrow. For her "last meal", we fired up the bullet and smoked pork ribs (click). Mrs. C's biscuits and Braised endive with prosciutto accompanied the ribs. We used disposable plates because our piece-of-crap Whirlpool dishwasher died again – third time in three years.

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Those ribs are a thing of beauty.

[David Ross]

Last night I started with my Caesar Salad, but this time I changed up the recipe and added a garnish of tapenade that I made with Kalamata olives, garlic, oregano, anchovies, black and red pepper. I make the traditional Caesar dressing with coddled egg and anchovy. As you can imagine, I like anchovies. I always use a lot of fresh lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce in the dressing so it cuts through the saltiness of the anchovies:

Then my basic rotisserie chicken and mashed potatoes. This time served with green beans and a basic jus made from stock and the chicken drippings in the rotisserie pan. Sorry, not a great photo but it was late and I needed another glass of wine:

[dockhl]

What's not to love ? I'd dive in in a minute......

[jayejo]

This is my first post to the dinner thread. I think I figured out how to do it correctly

Hong Kong Style Sea Bass. The recipe is from Eddie Vs restaurant, and while I've never had it at the restaurant, I've made this at home twice and it's super easy and tasty.

[C. sapidus]

David Ross, thank you very much! That salad is beautiful. Did you make the lovely croutons?

This is my first post to the dinner thread. I think I figured out how to do it correctly

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jayejo, welcome to Dinner! Your sea bass looks absolutely luscious. I do hope you will make a habit of sharing your meals with us.

[AmritaBala]

Good job everyone!!! There are just too many good things on this thread! Arrr!

I made this for my sister yesterday...

Pork Loin with Wilted Baby Spinach and Smashed Potatoes

[prasantrin]

Tonight I made sausage patties, cheese biscuits and gravy. It was so good I ate two. I think I might have another biscuit, too!

[austramerica]

Since sonny brat came home for his Spring break, with all the stuff he emptied on my laundry door, it was such a hectic day with him also bringing over an old high school friend over. So for a quickie, we just had some simple pizza roll out of pita bread with capsicums, cheese, pepperoni, tomato paste, mushrooms, practically put anything we like in the bread, rolled it up and squashed the whole thing in my panini maker. While they were munching on them rolled up garbage, I made some mini blueberry muffins for dessert with ice cream. They all thought it was yummy, when all I wanted to do was take a photo of them pigging out .... too bad!! as soon as I got my camera out, they disappeared...out of sight!!

[Ce'nedra]

...

pot pie:

I totally cheated it!  We had theatre tickets and I had to get this on the table in 1 hour - including baking time.  I used microwave thawed frozen veg, prepared pie crust, soup and canned gravy  .  I fixed it up with some with Worcestershire, though  .  It tasted good.  Actually it tasted so good that I want to do it again soon the right way.  I served the feta salsa on the side to smear on the bread.  And thought of Bruce with my cucumber side  !

Gosh! The thoughtfulness of the hearts are so adorable! And cheating or not, that is one BEAUTIFUL pie.

Hong Kong Style Sea Bass. The recipe is from Eddie Vs restaurant, and while I've never had it at the restaurant, I've made this at home twice and it's super easy and tasty.

That looks so delicate and delicious; almost melt-in-the-mouth. Please do post here as often as possible

Would you say the dry cherry could be substituted with Shaoxing wine (sounds traditional too)?

Also, are those greens spinach?

[Kim Shook]

Underfoot - Man, I love risotto - since I had a gastric bypass, I can't eat but maybe one bite of rice and I miss it so much. That is some lovely stuff!

Shelby - the salmon cakes look wonderful. With you and suzilightening making the salmon lately, I am thinking I need to do some soon!

Bruce - those ribs are amazing! I am doing ribs tonight, but I know that they won't look that good! Congrats!!

David - are those onion rings on top of your chicken??? They are gorgeous! How do you do them?

jayejo - Welcome - great first post! The sea bass looks perfect. I went to the linked recipe and printed that out. I does sound easy and we love sea bass!

Thank you for all the kind remarks about my pot pie - I don't feel so bad about cheating now !

We were supposed to finish them up Friday night, but Mr. Kim arrived home from work that night and abducted me! He walked in the door and said grab your toothbrush and clean drawers and come with me ! We got in the car and he had me pick from 4 different pieces of folder paper. The one I picked was East, so we took the slow road to Williamsburg, ate subs and good fries and bad Greek salad at a dive near Willam & Mary. We stayed overnight, had a terrible breakfast (the biscuits were microwaved so long you couldn't bite through them ), drove home on a different slow road and I was back in Richmond in time for an 11:30 massage! Whew - it was a whirlwind trip, completely spontaneous and wonderful! So Mr. Kim had the last of the pot pies for lunch yesterday and dinner was fresh food Yay!!!! I cooked an almost-all-Marlene meal! We had her bleu cheese dressing on iceberg wedges, Ground Round w/ Red Wine Sauce and Crispy Smashed Potatoes. I also made butter beans. Everything was wonderful. Even though I messed up a little. I didn't realize until the patties were cooking that I was supposed to make 1 large patty and not 4 small ones. Still great. The potatoes were a giant hit w/ Jessica (the child), especially - those will become a regular thing around this house:

[David Ross]

David Ross, thank you very much! That salad is beautiful. Did you make the lovely croutons?

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Yes indeed, homemade croutons, although this time I cut the bread into cubes that were a bit too small for my tastes. I start with a good loaf of Italian or French bread-I don't use an artisan style bread because I don't want a bread with big interior air pockets. That doesn't make for solid croutons.

I cut the crust off the bread, then cut the bread into good size cubes so that they can soak up all the stuff I'm going to add. I spread the bread cubes on one layer on a cookie sheet. Then I toast the bread cubes in a low oven for about 15 minutes to get them a bit hard. Then I take the croutons out of the oven and put them into a bowl and add salt, pepper, melted butter and a good measure of garlic olive oil. I don't want the croutons soaking wet, but I do want them well-coated with the butter and olive oil. Then I put the croutons back on the cookie sheet and put them back into the oven to brown-about 15 more minutes. Finally, after I bring the croutons out of the oven I put them back in the bowl and toss with a bit more melted butter and olive oil.

You end up with these buttery, crispy croutons that are far better than anything you'll buy in the supermarket.

By the way, I make garlic olive oil by pouring 1 cup of olive oil into a small dish and then adding 4 crushed cloves of garlic. I let the garlic steep in the olive oil for about two hours before using it. I've read in some older cookbooks where this is a dangerous technique-letting garlic sit in oil can make the oil go rancid. I've never gotten sick off my garlic olive oil so I guess it's ok.

[suzilightning]

kim- marlene's crispy smashed potatoes made an appearance here, too!

it was sunny - off and on between the snow showers- but cold so some more comfort food following friday's lasagna.

the aforementioned crispy mashed potatoes(made with purple potatoes), honey glazed carrots(a johnnybird favorite), fried zucchini and braised tarragon chicken.

this one is another keeper. i love the mix of tarragon, dijon mustard, shallots and white wine braised in the oven.

after looking at the photo i think this might just belong in the bad dinner section. what was i thinking with those purple potatoes?

[meredithla]

I've made this two days in a row. Seared tuna with a Meyer lemon, shallot and olive salsa. The Meyer lemon adds such a floral note to the briny olives, honey, vinegar and shallots in the salsa. It hits all my favorite flavors!

[David Ross]

David - are those onion rings on top of your chicken???  They are gorgeous!  How do you do them?

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Thanks, yes those are thin onion rings on top of the chicken. I'd love to get that recipe for that bleu cheese dressing. Your salad looks delicious.

The onion rings have a thin coating of seasoned fry mix rather than the heavy batter you find on most onion rings. It's a different taste than battered onion rings where you have to fight through a mouthful of doughy batter to get to a sometimes soggy onion.

The thin coating helps the onion ring to be crispy but still allows for a lot of natural onion flavor to come through. Here is my recipe:

Frizzled Onions

4 cups canola or vegetable oil for frying

1 large yellow onion (I use Walla Walla Sweets in season)

2 cups milk

1 cup frying mix (I use Pride of the West fry mix made in Portland)

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. black pepper

½ tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. paprika

Heat oil in a heavy stockpot to 375°. Using a mandoline or vegetable slicer, thinly slice onion into rings. Place onion rings into a large bowl and cover with milk. Let the onions soak in the milk while the oil heats.

In another bowl, mix together fry mix, salt, black pepper, cayenne and ½ tsp. paprika.

Drain onions from milk. Dredge onion rings in seasoned fry mix and shake off excess. Deep-fry onions until golden and crisp, about 2 minutes. Drain onion rings on paper towels. Sprinkle with remaining ½ tsp. paprika.

[jayejo]

Hong Kong Style Sea Bass. The recipe is from Eddie Vs restaurant, and while I've never had it at the restaurant, I've made this at home twice and it's super easy and tasty.

That looks so delicate and delicious; almost melt-in-the-mouth. Please do post here as often as possible

Would you say the dry cherry could be substituted with Shaoxing wine (sounds traditional too)?

Also, are those greens spinach?

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I'm not sure about the wine because I'm not familiar with it, but I say go for it! This is so easy that I can't imagine you could mess it up. And you're right, it really is melt-in-the-mouth delicious. The greens are spinach that I sauteed with some fresh garlic, olive oil and s/p.

[jayejo]

We were supposed to finish them up Friday night, but Mr. Kim arrived home from work that night and abducted me!  He walked in the door and said grab your toothbrush and clean drawers and come with me  !  We got in the car and he had me pick from 4 different pieces of folder paper.  The one I picked was East, so we took the slow road to Williamsburg, ate subs and good fries and bad Greek salad at a dive near Willam & Mary.  We stayed overnight, had a terrible breakfast (the biscuits were microwaved so long you couldn't bite through them  ), drove home on a different slow road and I was back in Richmond in time for an 11:30 massage!  Whew - it was a whirlwind trip, completely spontaneous and wonderful!  So Mr. Kim had the last of the pot pies for lunch yesterday and dinner was fresh food  Yay!!!!  I cooked an almost-all-Marlene meal!  We had her bleu cheese dressing on iceberg wedges, Ground Round w/ Red Wine Sauce and Crispy Smashed Potatoes.  I also made butter beans.  Everything was wonderful.  Even though I messed up a little.  I didn't realize until the patties were cooking that I was supposed to make 1 large patty and not 4 small ones.  Still great.  The potatoes were a giant hit w/ Jessica (the child), especially - those will become a regular thing around this house:

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Wow! First, I need a whirlwind, spontaneous weekend like that. That sounds like so much fun! And second, that dinner looks exactly like what I'm in the mood for right now. Too bad today is a no cook day for me

[Marlene]

Kim, I am particularly fond of that blue cheese dressing. And the ground round, which was my father's recipe, is deceptively simple, but incredibly rich! We love it here.

Suzi, I've never made the crispy potatoes with purple ones, but why not?! Those potatoes are a favourite of ours, particularly since they can be made partially ahead, then just baked off at the end. Great for when you are having company.

David, I'm going to try that onion ring recipe soon! Thanks.

[MikeHartnett]

This was a sous vide kinda weekend...

First up was rack of lamb sv'd with sun-dried tomato butter, served with Rancho Gordo runner cannellini bean salad and rosemary.

Next was citrus marinated salmon fillet over orange confit, served with Rancho Gordo good mother stallard beans in a Sriracha-mustard vinaigrette.

I guess it was also a bean kinda weekend.

Also, can someone please advise me as to how I turn my pictures right-side-up?

[meredithla]

Mrs. C and grandma collaborated on a delicious salad – spinach, shredded carrots, lingonberry-soaked apples, walnuts, and blue cheese, tossed with raspberry vinaigrette.

BEE-YOU-TEE-FULL!!!!

[Shelby]

This was a sous vide kinda weekend...

First up was rack of lamb sv'd with sun-dried tomato butter, served with Rancho Gordo runner cannellini bean salad and rosemary.

Next was citrus marinated salmon fillet over orange confit, served with Rancho Gordo good mother stallard beans in a Sriracha-mustard vinaigrette.

I guess it was also a bean kinda weekend.

Also, can someone please advise me as to how I turn my pictures right-side-up?

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I can't figure out why they are doing that. I assume they are facing the normal way when you view them on your computer?

[Ann_T]

Shelby Gorgeous Roast Chicken.

Dr. J Love your plating of the cornish hen with rice.

Bruce As always your photos are the best. Your meals are amazing.

Kim Your pot pies are so cute. Love the little heart cutouts.

A few of the meals we have had over the last week.

Roast Chicken Dinner Thursday Night.

Chicken again Friday night. Chicken Legs roasted wtih potatoes, olives, onions, garlic, tomatoes and lemons and served with deep fried asparagus.

Saturday night was Beef Tenderloin with Shittake Mushrooms over noodles.

Sunday night I roasted a Rack of Pork.

And last night I used the leftovers in Hot Pork Sandwiches with homemade fries.

[Shelby]

Ann, all of it looks to die for especially those hot sandwiches. I want one RIGHT NOW.

[monavano]

Recent cooking and baking in the kitchen:

"Mediteranean" Stromboli with seasoned ground meat, orzo, spinach, Manchego cheese, kalamata olives and roasted red bell pepper.

Irish soda bread with raisins (Spotted Dog)

[Toliver]

Also, can someone please advise me as to how I turn my pictures right-side-up?

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Google has a free program for images/photos called Picasa. You can resize and rotate your pictures using that program.