Dinner 2015 (Part 5)

[Paul Bacino]

Shelby  _   I'm gonna make my own buns!!  Would be a first and something I have always wanted to do!!

 

Thanks

[huiray]

Hot gabagool is great stuff.

 

Ah, the Neapolitan dialect strikes again!

[scamhi]

Scottadino lamb chops with white beans and salsa verde

 

[rotuts]

Shelby

 

Wow   Chili dogs on home made buns !

 

they look so goooooood !

[Kim Shook]

Okanagancook – those ribs are gorgeous.  What a perfect crust you got on them.

 

Shelby – ok – time for tacos!  And your fish dinner looks scrumptious!  Even the potato salad and I’m not a big fan of it.  Looks like it has LOTS of egg, which I DO like.  Care to share the recipe?  And, BTW, your hot dog bun is a work of art!  I’m very impressed!

 

Thanks for the Crepes – great minds think alike!  Yesterday I got some GOOD Gruyere and am going to make a cheese sauce like you described to go with the rest of the filled crepes.  And, yes, those are chives in the crepe batter.  I use an Alton Brown recipe for them and he recommends that.  I screwed up, though.  I meant to leave a little of the batter plain so we could have what we call “English pancakes” for dessert (my stepfamily is English).  I forgot and I don’t think the chives will go with sugar and lemon juice!

 

huiray – your pasta dish looks and sounds incredibly good.  I haven’t eaten yet today and I would truly dig into that!

 

Last night was breakfast for dinner.  Fruit:

 

Mr. Kim’s egg and Benton bacon (  )sandwich:

 

I opted for egg on toast with my bacon on the side:

[kayb]

We've had a bit cooler weather, so I've been enjoying soup. One night, it was butternut squash soup, after someone (I forget who) upthread posted about that and made me crave it.

 

 

I don't have a finished photo -- could have sworn I took one, but can't find it -- but here were most of the ingredients, save the diced apple, the spices, the broth and cream. I had it with a grilled cheese sandwich of butterkase and fontina, on homemade white sandwich bread. 

 

Then I took a flyer and crafted what I am calling Street Corn Chowder, a corn and potato chowder flavored with pimenton, chile powder, sour cream and cotija cheese. Had that with a quesadilla -- bacon, queso fresco and avocado grilled between a couple of corn tortillas.

 

 

Good stuff.

[David Ross]

Red Wine braised Lamb Shank-

[ElainaA]

Dinner tonight: roast chicken with tomato chutney, roasted potatoes (my mother's version - you have to do them in butter for a very long time), breaded and fried cardoon and a salad with the last of the garden beets. I harvested the cardoon today - this is my first experience growing and cooking this vegetable. We liked it a lot.

 

[Okanagancook]

Red Wine braised Lamb Shank-

IMG_0998.JPG

My lord, that sauce looks so rich and sticky meaty if you know what I mean.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Everyone's food looks so good and inspirational, especially Shelby's catfish from yesterday, apparently, because we had it for dinner. 

 

Tonight we purchased fresh catfish from the Seafood Depot, a neighborhood fish monger. It was only $4.99 a pound, no worse than ground chuck these days.

 

Interestingly, I found out that they source it from right here in Cary out of Fred G. Bond Park Lake. Many years ago, I used to go to the area that was later turned into a municipal park when it was still completely wild land. We had a path around the lake, and it was a beautiful walk. We even went fishing at times.

 

I found a video on YouTube about catfishing on Bond Lake that does show some greenery scenery of our local part of our beautiful state, but watch it only if you can be patient and tolerate: 1. gratuitous shot of cute baby in car seat on ride into park 2. some of the worst videography I've ever seen, including, but not limited to headache inducing shaky-cam, several seconds of camera staring at board flooring on pier, etc. I almost quit myself, but if you persist, you'll see the automobile ride into the park, a pretty Lab romping in the lake and lots of successful catfishin' in 7-1/2 minutes, and a little slice of North Carolina.

 

 

I had to fry the fish indoors, because the hurricane hasn't moved out of the area (but it is going, thank the weather gods), so there was moisture, intermittent rain, and falling branches from the trees on the deck, so that was a total no go. I set up the big electric thermostatically controlled Dutch oven first on the stove top so it could be under the exhaust hood. I anticipated problems with heat from the oven because I had it running too, and it's ancient, with not much insulation, so get's really hot on top. I put the fryer on a cookie sheet lined with a towel and wrapped the electric cord in foil to protect it from the heat, but apparently the heat from the oven messed with the thermostat. I set the control at 365 F like I usually do, and the indicator light went off, but the oil wasn't shimmery or fragrant. I knew it wasn't hot enough. It finally dawned on me what the problem was so I raced around, dug out an appliance extension cord (safe for heavy electrical loads) moved the fryer off the stove to a big glass trivet, put the electric cord with thermostat in the freezer for a few minutes and plugged everything back up. Worked like a charm and in a few minutes, I had shimmery oil and was in the frying business!

 

This meal was so good I think we both may have hurt ourselves a little bit. I chopped onion, parsley, capers, tiny dill pickles, to make tartar sauce, but didn't make my own mayo when Duke's is so good.

 

Thanks for the idea Shelby! We both agreed this was the best eating we have done in a while.

[Shelby]

Nothing like a good catfish fry, TFTC!  I still have some...might have to make fish sandwiches for dinner.....

 

 

We had salad and lasagna last night.

 

 

[suzilightning]

Ah, the Neapolitan dialect strikes again!

 

 

Neapolitan ........or Nort Joisey

[suzilightning]

hat was a big duck!

 

I made some hotdog and hamburger buns (thank you again, Cyalexa).  I've been hungry for chili cheese dogs and fries ever since I saw Chris H. post about them (them being chili cheese fries--I only put cheese on mine and then dipped them in chili occasionally  ).

 

PA040782.JPG

 

If you're making those think about kummelweck rolls and make beef on weck

[Kim Shook]

I made venison meatballs last night with a some welcome help from Shelby:

They were half ground meat and half sausage meat.  I used a Food Network recipe for “Italian-American Meatballs” and they were delicious.  The sausage really stood out.  Served on top of spaghetti with a salad and cheese rolls:

 

 

 

We have tons of meatballs, so I was trying to give some away.  It is crazy how difficult it is to find someone who will eat venison.  My mother will flat out refuse to eat any hunted meat.  I tell her that I feel a lot kinder eating hunted meat than grocery store meat.  Sigh.

[rotuts]

KS :  did you roast the MB's to get that color ?

 

Time and temps ?

 

many thanks

[suzilightning]

I made venison meatballs last night with a some welcome help from Shelby:

They were half ground meat and half sausage meat.  I used a Food Network recipe for “Italian-American Meatballs” and they were delicious.  The sausage really stood out.  Served on top of spaghetti with a salad and cheese rolls:

 

 

 

We have tons of meatballs, so I was trying to give some away.  It is crazy how difficult it is to find someone who will eat venison.  My mother will flat out refuse to eat any hunted meat.  I tell her that I feel a lot kinder eating hunted meat than grocery store meat.  Sigh.

 

 

ME....ME....ME....

I'm actually out of venison and duck right now

[Shelby]

I made venison meatballs last night with a some welcome help from Shelby:

They were half ground meat and half sausage meat.  I used a Food Network recipe for “Italian-American Meatballs” and they were delicious.  The sausage really stood out.  Served on top of spaghetti with a salad and cheese rolls:

 

 

 

We have tons of meatballs, so I was trying to give some away.  It is crazy how difficult it is to find someone who will eat venison.  My mother will flat out refuse to eat any hunted meat.  I tell her that I feel a lot kinder eating hunted meat than grocery store meat.  Sigh.

GORGEOUS meatballs, Kim.  My mouth is watering.

 

I am so so used to eating venison that I swear, I don't even think to say that it's venison anymore.  We don't have hardly any company, but if we did, I would have to remind myself to tell them lol.

 

I bet if you didn't say anything, no one would know they were venison.

[huiray]

Neapolitan ........or Nort Joisey

 

Heh. Lots of gabagool was eaten in this house, I think. :-) 

Edited October 6, 2015 by huiray (log)

[mgaretz]

Chicken, wood-fire roasted.  Served with baked potato (for me) and baked sweet potato for my wife.  

 

 

[huiray]

Couple of past meals.

 

Fresh Tan Tan Ramen [sun Noodles], with char-siu [Asia Mart], fish tofu & chopped scallions.

Farmers' Market romaine lettuce stir-fried w/ a bit of oyster sauce.

 

Beef & tendon meatballs [Venus] and fish balls [Venus] in freshly-made chicken broth/stock, with julienned Tuscan kale, small broccoli florets, sliced green zucchini. Eaten w/ thin fresh rice stick noodles (bánh phở tươi) [sincere Orient Food Co.]. Dressed w/ deep-fried sliced shallots.

 

[liamsaunt]

This is my husband's favorite pasta.  Eggplant that is peeled, salted, and then squeezed to get the liquid out, sautéed in olive oil until extremely tender and almost falling apart, and then cooked into tomatoes with garlic and basil.  Ricotta salata added at the end.

 

[Shelby]

I've been wanting gumbo.  Yesterday was the day lol.  It takes me forever to make it....I'm just not fast at that particular dish for some reason.  I still have some of that wonderful andouille sausage that I ordered from down in LA.  And, I had some dove that I needed to use.  So, I spent a looooong time breasting out those little guys.

 

 

Even dove breasts have that lovely "tenderloin"--best part IMO.  Although super tiny.

 

 

Finally done.  To the right are a few hearts and livers.  YUM.

 

 

Added trinity to the roux.  It hurts when you splatter this stuff on your hand. 

 

 

All done.

 

 

Had to have some cornbread

 

 

I also fried up a few okras to sprinkle on the top.  Good stuff.

 

Edited October 7, 2015 by Shelby (log)

[kayb]

Oh, Lord, Shelby, that looks marvelous! About once every two or three years, when somebody gives me (wild) ducks, I make duck gumbo with some of that good Andouille sausage. This may be a year for it; will have to put out the call for a couple of ducks. Like you, it takes me forever to make it -- it's generally a Saturday undertaking while football is on TV. 

 

I was highly disappointed in dinner last night. I made an eggplant casserole EXACTLY -- well, almost exactly; I didn't have any celery, so I left it out -- like the recipe in the cookbook from the restaurant that makes it. It did NOT taste like theirs. And I took leftover chicken, picked it off the bone, shredded and diced it, then combined it with a cheese sauce over egg noodles cooked with peas and carrots. Just not terribly tasty.

 

An experiment coming up Friday. Juicy Lucy French Onion meatballs. Meatballs with cheese and caramelized onions in the center, baked in a sauce that's a thicker version of French onion soup. With, of course, Gruyere on top. And mashed potatoes, fried okra, good crusty bread. Tomorrow's a long workday, so it's takeout from the Thai place.

[Shelby]

I will be anxiously awaiting your report from Friday.  I'm hungry and I think your Juicy Lucy meatballs sound awesome.  What a great idea!

[huiray]

Rice congee.

 

Julienned ginger, oil, short-cut pork spare ribs, sea salt, sauté. Water, chillied shredded preserved mustard stems (榨菜) [Wujiang brand], bring to simmer, cook about ½ hour. Long grain rice, stir, simmer till done; about 1-1½ hours total time. Serve, dressed w/ chopped scallions, finely julienned ginger & deep-fried sliced shallots.

 

Plus lettuce & zucchini sticks on the side.

 

Edited October 7, 2015 by huiray (log)