Dinner! 2011

[ScottyBoy]

Scotty – I cannot for the life of me find kayb’s post where she gave me the recipe, but here is a link to it on my webpage – I’ve credited it to kayb! I just love panzanella – such a perfect summer dish and really great for using up bits of this and that.

Holy ingredients Batman! Many more than other recipes I've seen. I'm gonna get right on this!

[demiglace]

Shelby

Your pups sound adorable, bringing you presents! Never heard of fried green watermelon..very creative.

Edited July 31, 2011 by demiglace (log)

[David Ross]

Sooooo....where does this magical bacon jam recipe live?

Made some Panzanella for a potluck I went to.

That looks delicious. A perfect summer salad.

[robirdstx]

Pepperoni and Sausage Pizza with Onions and Jalapenos

[David Ross]

Simple and delicious with one of my favorite salad dressings from the 70's.

Grilled Game Hen with Summer Vegetables, Preserved Lemon and "Green Goddess" Dressing-

[Kim Shook]

Shelby – Well, Otis thought that the entire outside world was a smorgasbord just for him, but I don’t remember him bringing anything for me ! Fried green watermelon! That is truly a making lemonade from life’s lemons dish! And I need to show Mr. Kim that pork roast – I don’t roast much pork, because it is generally tasteless unless we hock the silver and go to the butcher shop, but I’m sure smoking it would improve even supermarket pork!

For dinner tonight we had Matthew’s Grilled Spareribs with Cherry Cola Glaze, baked beans, slaw and spoonbread

We really loved these ribs. The sauce is sweet and sticky, but with the added mustard and horseradish not at all cloying.

I was a bit disappointed in the spoonbread:

I used the recipe on the back of the bag of cornmeal mix I bought and thought it was a little bland. I’m not completely sure why. The two recipes that I usually make call for butter and this one used shortening. Obviously, butter tastes better than shortening, but I think that the cornmeal itself wasn’t ‘corny’ tasting enough. I hate to toss the whole bag, though, so I’ll try it again using butter and maybe adding some creamed corn.

Dessert was that crazy pie that Shelby made:

It’s called 10-Minute Lime Cracker Pie. Those are Ritz crackers in the pie. This thing has absolutely no business being as good as it is. Just lime juice, heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk and Ritz crackers. You chill the pie overnight and the crackers turn into this flakey layer. It all firms up in the fridge and cuts beautifully. I confess that I didn’t squeeze the limes – I had some Key lime juice that needed using up. Also – that’s ReddiWhip on top . My mind is spinning with ideas for this method. Strawberry. Orange. Peanut butter with a fudge ripple. Thanks so much for posting the link, Shelby!

[Dejah]

Supper tonight was all done on the BBQ - quick and simple:

BBQ chicken marinated in Bull'e Eye Southern Cajun BBQ sauce, very sweet white corn on the cob, and tater patties.

The highlight was the much anticipated fresh saskatoon pie! I think this berry was mentioned in Peter the Eaters foodblog:

This picture shows the difference between blueberries and saskatoons - the darker berries on the bottom of the plate. They are smaller, sweeter, and I love them on cereal or just in a bowl of cream

Incomparable in a pie!

Even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

[FrogPrincesse]

Dinner last night - grilled veal chops from Siesel's my favorite butcher shop (with a little lemon zest and juice, herbes de Provence, olive oil, s&p, finished with butter), red oak lettuce salad (from my CSA), and grilled baby eggplant from the farmers' market in the background, with a little crumbled homemade ricotta.

[PopsicleToze]

Where to eat in New Orleans can be a daunting question. My friend asked me, "Do you remember that little restaurant we ate at a few years ago maybe a few blocks from here?" ROFL -- NO! Anyway, he described the location and the bartender at the hotel thought it might be Louisiana Bistro, and in his words, it's 'the best kept secret in the French Quarter.'

So, we went there, and there are maybe 10 or 12 tables in the entire place, and it is one gem of a place. I sure won't forget it anytime soon. They had a chef's special where he cooks up something for you, 4 or 5 courses, but I was the guest, and we didn't get that. Still, the table beside us did, and when they received their seafood-stuffed mirlitons for the starter, and their pan-seared snapper dish for the entree, I was elated and just enjoyed them from afar. The chef would come out and tell him how their dish was prepared, and I just wanted to hug him.

We had boudin balls for an appetizer, and they were amazing. I can't put my finger on why they were so special, but they were. I've had hundreds of boudin balls, maybe thousands, but these were special. The sauce was so good, that if he would have poured it into a coffee cup, I would have drank it!

The blue cheese salad and the paneed frogs legs I had were good, but the star of the show was the Dirty Duck special. It was confit of duck with dirty rice in goo (chef's words). I asked the waiter what was goo, and he told me it was a special sauce the chef called goo. Well, one thing about that man is that he can cook! It was amazing!! I had to make myself only eat off my plate and not have the duck.

Oh, and about not remembering the place the first time, that mistake won't happen twice. I love/love/love this place.

[Kim Shook]

Dejah – that is a gorgeous pie!

Rhonda – all this NOLA food is torture! We absolutely fell in love with boudin balls when we were there and I just found out that a new restaurant in town makes them. Can’t wait to get there!

Dinner was the most enormous chicken I’ve ever cooked. It was 7 1/2 pounds. At just over $5, I couldn’t pass it up. I salted it and let it air dry all day – not long enough, because my skin was still a little soft, but it roasted up lovely:

My gravy turned out especially well:

I also did a panzanella-inspired salad:

Plated with Brussels sprouts, Marlene’s Crispy Smashed Potatoes and leftover spoonbread (which was helped by the gravy):

[nikkib]

KIm your brussels sprouts look fab - and that chicken WOW

[Shelby]

Kim Shook

Those ribs look soooo yummy. I need to make a sauce like that. I just always dump some BBQ sauce out of the bottle.

I'm SO glad you made that pie!!!! I swear I want to drive to a city and hand the recipe out on the street corner, it's SO GOOD. And, yeah, my mind did the same as yours thinking about the possibilities.

Dejah

Saskatoons remind me of gooseberries a bit. That pie is gorgeous!

[Dejah]

KIM: That roast chicken looks perfect - along with the price. We're paying $2.99/LB for a roasting chicken, or $2.50/LB from a Hutterite Colony. I'll have to plan better and be more patient next time I want roast chicken. I presume it air-dried all day in the fridge? We all enjoy Brussel sprouts. I usually make them up with bacon, basalmic vinegar, and Dijon mustard.

Kim,I am especially enjoying your England trip write up. Brings back a lot of memories - of food and of places we visited.

Shelby: I just know the green-coloured gooseberries, so was a bit puzzled when you said they reminded you of them. Then I googled them. Gooseberries - first time I tasted them was in England. They seem to grow wild everywhere - even at train stations!

I also saw "Cape Gooseberries" mentioned in google. Had them for the first time at our farmer's market - called ground cherries. They are lovely to eat out-of-hand.

Thanks for the complements on the pie. It really was perfect! I used a recipe from Canadian Living - lard, butter, ice water. I've used the egg/water/vinegar recipe for so long I was a bit skeptical. But, WOW!

Edited August 1, 2011 by Dejah (log)

[Toliver]

Dessert was that crazy pie that Shelby made:

It’s called 10-Minute Lime Cracker Pie. Those are Ritz crackers in the pie. This thing has absolutely no business being as good as it is. Just lime juice, heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk and Ritz crackers. You chill the pie overnight and the crackers turn into this flakey layer. It all firms up in the fridge and cuts beautifully. I confess that I didn’t squeeze the limes – I had some Key lime juice that needed using up. Also – that’s ReddiWhip on top . My mind is spinning with ideas for this method. Strawberry. Orange. Peanut butter with a fudge ripple. Thanks so much for posting the link, Shelby!

There are even more possibilities when you use the different kinds of Ritz crackers that they make these days. Cinnamon & Sugar (sold in my area) or the Honey Butter...plus riffing on savory puddings, too, with their savory flavors.

I was at a BBQ recently where the host had made an ice cream sandwich recipe from the FoodTV magazine that had Ritz crackers, vanilla ice cream and a schmear of caramel sauce. The salty-sweet combo was quite good.

[rotuts]

the Lime Pie reminds me of one of the first things I ever made:

there used to be a thin dark chocolate cookie that came in a single long pack. it was not very sweet and very chocolate -y it had this recipe on the box: make whipped cream flavored as you like and coat each cookie and place them on their sides eventually making a chocolate log with whipped cream between each cookie and the whole log coved with the rest place in the refrigerator ( called ice-box then but not the freezer) and eat the next day..

fabulous. I made it many times. it was the 50's and I was 4 !

Yum! im sure everybody here has made it if not y0ou have to find those nonsweet thin cookies.

[Parmhero]

Mega Pizza Burger, The Perfect TV Dinner

[Zeemanb]

I wonder if I have very strange pets, or if this happens to anyone else....

My lab and my Brittany have begun to pick the just beginning to get ripe fruits and veggies from my garden. They actually sniff out the tomatoes that have a beginning tinge of redness. Cucumbers? Yep. Watermelon? Yep. They bring them all to me....slightly poked with tooth holes.... sigh.

So, the other evening, here comes Roxy--the Brit--rolling a football sized black diamond watermelon to us. Not even close to being ripe. My husband was SO mad.

Anyway, I brought it inside, hacked off the outer layer and had an idea.

Fried green watermelon!

You just triggered a very dangerous part of my brain that keeps repeating "Fried Green [fill in the blank]!". Watermelon makes sense, and I'm ALWAYS looking for something new to try whenever I've already got a pan or pot of oil ready for frying. Way to think outside the box!

[Norm Matthews]

Lunch today was clean out the refrigerator soup. I know, I know. It's hot. Who wants soup? but I was watching Jaques Pepin and and he did a soup so I got inspired, besides I needed to use up the last of the chicken stock I made last week. I cut up some eggplant, carrots, celery and onions and sauteed them in butter and olive oil for about 5 minutes, l then added the chicken stock, and cut up tortilla strips. I tasted it and added some cooked green beans, salt, little bit of Goya Sazon seasoning and adobo and boiled for 7-10 minutes. Today is son's birthday so we will probably go out for dinner.

[ScottyBoy]

Had a potluck at the house yesterday,

[heidih]

Had a potluck at the house yesterday,

Lovely pics but help us out with a bit of description please

[Parmhero]

...and Dessert, Vanilla Gelato with Peaches, Cherries, Blueberries

[percyn]

With all the talk of Bacon Jam, I had to make myself a batch, with slight modifications such as a touch of bourbon and balsamic vinegar to add some depth.

Almost finished Bacon Jam before it went in the food processor

Chef's snack while the bacon jam was being prepared.

Proper use of Bacon Jam

[ScottyBoy]

Oh sorry heidi!

pesto pasta

marinaded mushrooms

fried eggplant

sous vide then smoked flat iron steak

flank steak with farro, chimichurri and beet tops

grilled garlic eggplant

chicken, artichoke, olive and pepper salad

panzanella

almond and pine nut cake

Edited August 2, 2011 by ScottyBoy (log)

[Katie Meadow]

I too made my first batch of bacon jam! Two days ago I came back from Walla Walla with a precious 10# bag of sweets, so I used two of those to 1 lb bacon. And yes, bourbon. Percy, did you use balsamic vinegar in addition to apple cider vinegar, or just balsamic? My dinner last night included bacon jam & black prince tomato sandwiches on a rustic baguette.

Tonight's dinner will be home made pizza topped with caramelized Walla Walla sweets. I should have gotten the 20# bag. They're going fast.

[ScottyBoy]

I'm guessing everyone's consensus is bacon jam = great?