Dinner 2015 (Part 2)

[Shelby]

Happy Easter, everyone!

 

I don't have to go to a family dinner today ( yay!   ) so I'm sitting around thinking about what I wanna make tonight.....pork loin is in a brine.  I want a tender one...so I'm googling.  Do I want to stuff it or leave it whole? I have some new potatoes, so maybe creamed peas with those.  Deviled eggs for sure.  Breaded tomatoes sound good--using some that I canned last summer.  And, lemon bars.  Maybe some lemon bars.

 

Last night I fried fish.  I couldn't hold out any longer.  I did them in a beer batter like the onion rings I posted earlier.  My husband went to the river and caught a nice drum and small catfish so I did those along with some bass that was frozen from last summer.

 

 

 

[BonVivant]

Fish with lots of fresh dill and tumeric. Some bits on the fish are pounded fresh tumeric. Had this meal 10 years ago in Ha Noi, trying to recreate it at home today.

 

There is rice noodle underneath.

 

 

 

I used 2 different fish

[gfweb]

Easter dinner

 

 

Pickled veg

 

Deviled eggs

 

Potato salad and cheeses (a goat and Montamore, a Parmesan-ish cheese with hints of a sharp cheddar )

 

 

Smoked pork tenderloin with a savory lingonberry sauce

 

 

Smoked trout pate and Lemon cake not shown

[Shelby]

Beautiful, Gfweb, simply beautiful 

 

Love the tulips.  Love the pickley stuff.  Love the pork.  

 

Are those pickled red onions on some of the deviled eggs?

[gfweb]

Thanks, Shelby!

 

Yes there were two kinds dev. egg. One the usual yellow mustard/mayo and the other mayo/worcestershire/ horseradish/pickled onions with more onions on top.

[huiray]

My April 5th ("Easter") "dinner" - the Sunday spread/buffet at Sichuan restaurant in Carmel, IN.  What I had included: Pork meatballs & daikon soup (hot); Chillied beef honeycomb tripe, smoked tongue, pig maw (chillied and garlic-style), marinated pig ears, ma-la chillied pork, sichuan-style chillied glass noodles, dan-dan noodles, marinated mung bean sprouts, savory "pickled" cucumbers (all cold); tea-smoked duck pieces, Sichuanese "pancake", pork pot-stickers w/ savory soy-sauce, battered deep-fried chicken pieces (all lukewarm), seasoned salted pickled & chillied broccoli stems; mapo tofu w/ rice, garlic stir-fried baby bok choy, crunchy prawns stir-fried w/ peas and carrots; more pork meatballs & daikon soup.  I passed on other items (which I have had before at this place) including various "traditional" renderings of this-and-that such as beef brisket stewed w/ daikon, fried shell-on shrimp, pork chunks w/ carrots, etc etc ... I just didn't feel like them today.

[mm84321]

Happy Easter everyone. My dinner..

Violet artichoke soup

White asparagus 

Rack of veal with vegetables

Lemon tart 

[Okanagancook]

Gfweb, wonderful looking meal and table! Complete with candles too.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I'm posting here because it was entirely non-traditional to Easter, but it was Easter dinner, and for my little existence that's special.

 

We had a cookout on one of the very few days in North Carolina when it's not too cold or hot and humid. It was before the bugs really got started, but we had carpenter bees harass us all day.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_bee

 

Wikipedia will not tell you everything you need to know about Carpenter Bees. These guys bore half-inch diameter holes into your house. They're the size of bumblebees (should not be able to fly according to scientists and engineers) but shiny black instead of furry. They eat 1/2 inch holes into your eaves, deck boards, whatever, they don't seem to discriminate. I am very afraid of them. Anything that can bore a half inch hole in hard wood without a steel drill bit need to be steered clear of IMO.

 

Insects in NC are a SERIOUS problem. This is just the beginning of the season.

 

So we ate outside on the deck.The guys were talking about shooting the bees with the BB gun. (That's illegal lately in our municipality, but they probably could've gotten away with it, because that little weapon is very quiet.) Fortunately, they just continued to drink more beer. One of those bees got in the truck with my brother when he took off on a short errand and caused some real concern, but for NC this was a good day to be outside. We only have a handful of them a year. It's a very inhospitable climate, always too hot or cold, and whenever it's hot or even warm the insects come out in droves.

 

Today was beautiful. So we ate outside on the deck.

 

We had a shrimp cocktail, which my brother brings as frozen solid cooked shrimp, cocktail sauce in a bottle (not bad), and a whole lemon with a container of Old Bay. So when time came around, I thaw the shrimp in a clean sink of cold water, slice and deseed the lemon. I also had to pre-marinate my brother's shrimp in lemon and Old Bay as per his instructions. 

 

I also made a salad with baby organic spinach, green leaf lettuce, a little iceberg, red pepper, radishes, cucumbers, snow peas, and more delicious Scarlet Pearl grape tomatoes.

 

I had made twice baked potatoes the day before with chives and parsley, and cheese buried in them. Then baked them off again today.

 

I made popovers. My brother isn't familiar with them, although I've made them for him at least once before. I think he's starting to become a really big fan. He ate two, and snagged the next to the last one to take home.

 

The entree was really good rib eye steaks over charcoal! SO, SO GOOD. Nothing beats simple beef.

 

My bro even respected my wish for unadulterated steak by insisting on separate tongs for flipping our steaks. His was marinated in some oil and jarred garlic, that frankly reeked.

 

I offered vanilla or chocolate ice cream for dessert, but had no takers. I was going into a food coma while trying to do my nightly crosswords after the cleanup. Yawn.

 

Happy Easter, y'all!

[Paul Bacino]

my Easter Dinner wasn't much,  cuz we had to much other things going on

 

But the  Ham was a Heritage Red Wattle Ham  complete with cracklings

 

 

 

 

 

[Shelby]

Thanks for the Crepes--We have those horrid carpenter bees here at my house, too.   They always burrow in the garage door.  Creepy little bastards.  Your meal sounds lovely  You just can't beat a good steak on the grill.

 

Paul--That ham is jumping off the screen!  Looks delicious!

 

I read up on a thread here about pork tenderloin and also did a lot of google research in order to make sure I made a tender, juicy meat.  The studying paid off.  I stuffed the loin with homemade croutons that I smashed into bread crumbs, mushrooms and onions that I had sautéed in butter.  I tied it up and put it in the oven at 450 degrees for about 10 mins.  Then I reduced the heat to 275 and let it go for a little over an hour until my new Thermopen read 157.  I let it rest for 15 mins and it was up to 160.  Very moist and tender.  Phew.  I was nervous about it.

 

Breaded tomatoes and creamed peas with new potatoes rounded out the meal.  Oh and deviled eggs.

 

 

Mr. Tenderloin all trussed up

 

 

 

I made lemon bars for dessert.  I will post those on the dessert thread......they are very good, but very....flat in stature.  I used Fat Guy's recipe.  Maybe they are supposed to be like that.  I dunno.

 

[rotuts]

""  creamed peas with new potatoes ""

 

dont see this very often.  what a shame.  I grew up on bowls of the stuff.  home made back then.

 

under the 'creamed' category, second only to creamed chipped beef.

 

also recently revived on eG !

[Shelby]

""  creamed peas with new potatoes ""

 

dont see this very often.  what a shame.  I grew up on bowls of the stuff.  home made back then.

 

under the 'creamed' category, second only to creamed chipped beef.

 

also recently revived on eG !

I hadn't made this for a long time.  My mom mentioned that she was making them for their Easter dinner, so I copied her  There was just a smidge left so I didn't save it.....I wish I would have because I would be eating that for breakfast right now.

[kayb]

 

A not-terribly-attractive photo of most of the Easter buffet: from the bottom, corn casserole (Yes, Kim, the one with the Jiffy mix, albeit it was with corn I froze last summer); green pea salad (bacon, cheese, red onion, in a mayo-lemon-sugar dressing) surrounded by deviled eggs (I have learned to cut them in half crossways, then cut a sliver off the bottom, and they sit still on the plate since I do not own a deviled egg platter); asparagus, both wrapped in proscuitto and plain, roasted, with Hollandaise; ham and homemade rolls. I'd forgotten to put out the "other" peas, cooked simply with butter, salt and pepper for the one who likes neither mayo nor onion.

 

We finished up with pound cake topped with strawberries and whipped cream.

 

The night before, we had grass-fed ribeyes, sous vided for 4 hours at 125 and then seared on the grill. Magnificent. My SideKic immersion circulator played out, so this was my maiden voyage with my "Merry Birthmas" combo Christmas-birthday present, a new Anova circulator.

 

As we were eating off our laps to watch the Kentucky-Wisconsin game (Yay, Badgers!), I went ahead and cut up my steak whie fixing my plate. Accompanied by my first try at Hasselback potatoes, which were quite excellent, although they should have cooked a bit longer -- these were the big doggoned baking potatoes.I may never make a regular baked potato again.

 

 

[rotuts]

""  I would have because I would be eating that for breakfast right now. ""

 

good on a ( water ) poached egg.

[ninagluck]

I did not cook much lately, but tonight I felt like having this ham mousse in quick puff pastry with red pepper salsa

[Norm Matthews]

With some of the leftover ham I made some ham salad and split pea soup, neither of which were photogenic.

[mm84321]

Morel mushroom royale

[FauxPas]

I hadn't made this for a long time.  My mom mentioned that she was making them for their Easter dinner, so I copied her  There was just a smidge left so I didn't save it.....I wish I would have because I would be eating that for breakfast right now.

 

I hope you had some leftover breaded tomatoes. Ever since you introduced me to them, it's been one of my fave side-dishes, but the leftovers can be even better! 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

kayb,

 

Your Easter spread looks amazing!

 

Yeast rolls (drool icon). I looked up my bookmark for Mrs. Mary Lloyd Young's roll recipe on your blog, and was going to make them myself for Easter dinner until I remembered popovers and how well they go with beef.

 

I think I have the same glass plates your deviled eggs are sitting on. From Bed Bath and Beyond? I have really enjoyed them.

 

I usually put chopped hard cooked eggs directly into my pea salad, which I make much like yours, but without the sugar. I even insist on sugar free mayo (Duke's) for all purposes. Your idea of serving the eggs deviled on the side is a great one which may be stolen. 

 

Another trick to keep deviled eggs from skating around a slick serving piece is to just line it with lettuce leaves. Iceberg works okay, but green leaf works better and makes the colors pop. The rounds of the eggs settle into the nooks and crannies in the leaves, and are pretty stable.

[mgaretz]

Wood-fired chicken.  This is a shot of the leftovers which will be dinner tomorrow as well.  A skin-on breast with bones and the rest are boneless, skinless thighs.  Breast rubbed with Meathead's Memphis Dust and the thighs with McCormick's Montreal Chicken Rub.  Cooked at 400F for one hour.

 

[liuzhou]

Dinner last night was taken with old friends (whom I hadn't seen for 8 years) in a Sichuan/Hunan influenced restaurant in Guilin city, an hour north of where I am. Four adults and a child.

 

We ate

 

干煸四季豆 (gān biān sì jì dòu) or dry fried green beans,

蒜炒空心菜 (suàn chǎo kōng xīn cài) or stir-fried water spinach with garlic,

蒜泥白肉 (suàn ní bái ròu) boiled pork in garlic saice with sesame seeds,

香辣田鸡 (xiāng là tián jī) or spicy frogs, and

干锅香辣干叶豆腐 (gān guō xiāng là gān yè dòu fǔ) which is easier to explain than to translate. It is a hot pot with tofu and Hunan bacon (ungreen!) and vegetables.

Served with rice and beer.

To my great regret, no pictures.

The lighting was awful and I haven't bought new camera yet. Next weekend!

 

Edited April 7, 2015 by liuzhou (log)

[CatPoet]

Yesterdays dinner was this  http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/italian-crescent-casserole/805166ea-f1fb-43fe-ab0a-93a8a32b4530

 

Why?  Well I was asked if I could try to not do posh food for one day and I did, well I made the  meat sauce from scratch  and people did love it.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Dinner tonight was planned over rib eye tacos with asparagus and salad on the side.

 

I'm not sure this was a great use of terrific beef, because the pico de gallo sort of over powered the wonderful beef flavor. Still, I would never kick the dish off of my plate.

 

I used the last of the queso fresco, and it was really good and all, but I just really like good beef pretty unadulterated.

[kayb]

Thanks for the crepes, I don't remember where the glass plate came from, but I have three identical ones, wherever it was!

 

I'm still eating ham sandwiches on Mrs. Mary Lloyd Young's rolls. The perks of being the cook for Easter.