Dinner 2018

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 minute ago, gfweb said:

 

Great photo! looks delicious

 

Was, thanks!

 

[HungryChris]

I had a few cocktail shrimp that would not fit on the dish I had for apps on Thanksgiving, so Deb had a little shrimp cocktail "slider", much to her delight, before dinner last night. Dinner was turkey soup and a few leftover rosemary and garlic biscuits that I wrapped in damp paper towels and foil, and heated in the oven. All in all, it was a valiant effort, that played out well.

HC

   

Edited November 24, 2018 by HungryChris (log)

[Anna N]

 

Osaka-style okonomiyaki. Based loosely on this.

[liuzhou]

Tonight. An hour ago.

 

 

Chicken with garlic, chilli, ginger, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce and 雪菜 (xuě cài) which literally means 'snow vegetable' but is salty ferment leaf mustard.

 

Mushrooms with coriander leaf/cilantro

 

 

Rice.

 

[suzilightning]

On ‎11‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 6:07 AM, Anna N said:

 

Taco rice. A little background.

 

 

NICE.  I think Bourdain talked about this when he did a show on Okinawa several years ago.

 

Last night a simple chef's salad with roasted chicken breast.

Edited November 24, 2018 by suzilightning (log)

[TicTac]

15 hours ago, gfweb said:

Appetizers/tapas for dinner. Served intermittently while the house is christmassed-up.

 

Gravlax on rye

 

 

 

Looks great.

 

If I may offer an alternative than cream cheese...(as it is rich, just like the salmon; it is nice to have a counter balance).

 

My aunt taught me a recipe for a dill/caper/balsamic sauce which goes fantastic with Gravlax.

 

Essentially; - lots of dill, russian honey mustard, decent balsamic, S&P, handful of chopped capers and some lime.

[Kim Shook]

At Jessica’s request, we hosted Thanksgiving this year.  Table for 10:

 

Jess and I made most of the food, but everyone brought something.  Jessica made the starters - Liptauer cheese and pumpernickel cocktail bread:

 

And Brown Sugar Rosemary Cashews:

 

Dinner – relish tray and crudité and dips:

Olives – Castelvetrano, kalamata, green

Pickles – my MIL, Jo’s pickled green tomatoes, baby kosher dills

 

Williamsburg Peanut Soup (Jess):

This was good, but we both agreed, it needs some work.  The recipe was supposed to be the same one served at the Kings Arms Tavern, but that’s got to be a lie.  The predominant flavor was peanut butter.  The recipe calls for regular peanut butter – so it was too sweet.  We are thinking no sugar added PB and maybe some acid and shallots.  I found a WAPO article that calls for no PB at all, only peanuts. 

 

My turkey breast:

Made the day before, sliced and stored with some chicken stock and reheated today in a slow cooker with stock.  Moist and tender. 

 

My sour cream potatoes with Cheddar:

Made last week and frozen.  Just thawed and reheated in the slow cooker. 

 

Jessica’s sweet potato gnocchi w/ browned butter sage sauce:

 

My MIL, Judy’s broccoli casserole:

 

Jessica’s roasted mushrooms:

The hit of the night (so I heard – I didn’t eat them).

 

Jessica’s challah dressing with dried fruit:

 

Jessica’s corn pudding:

 

My SIL’s fruit salad:

 

My cranberry and orange sauce:

 

My gravy:

 

My MIL, Jo’s rolls:

 

My niece’s pecan and pumpkin pies:

 

My MIL, Jo made an apple pie, but I missed getting a picture of that. 

[robirdstx]

 

Grilled Chicken Wing Segments, Aloo Gobi Matar Curry and Garlic Sautéed Spinach

[Okanagancook]

Looks like garlic with spinach...nothing wrong with that!😃

[Anna N]

 

 It doesn’t photograph well and to be honest it didn’t eat very well either. I definitely wouldn’t make it again.  What is it? It is clam donburi.  I own the book but here is a website showing a photograph of the relevant page.  Perhaps made with fresh clam meat...

[Thanks for the Crepes]

A bunch of my family met at Torero's Mexican Restaurant in Cary for dinner. I suggested it to my sister and eldest niece when we went out to lunch one time, and apparently they are as taken with it as I am. Yah!

 

It was me, Sis, two of her daughters, one of them's boyfriend, my eldest nephew who's in the Navy, his wife and infant daughter, so we had a table for eight. Beloved nephew tried to pick up my husband from the nursing home, but husband was too sick to go. He hasn't been able to hold anything on his stomach since yesterday and has a hard time getting into his wheelchair, much less getting into a vehicle and schlepping into the next town to a restaurant. So that was a No Go and quite disappointing, but I have to give my nephew cudos for such a good heart to go to the effort it takes to get a half -paralyzed large man to a restaurant for a family gathering.

 

We were all glad to see the little new addition to the family again, and she was remarkably good during our restaurant visit. Her mom had to breastfeed her at the table at one point when the child got hungry, but it was handled very discretely and caused no problems at all. 

 

I always recommend the Carne Asada at this restaurant because they use real skirt steak and season and cook it very well. One niece ordered the Carne Asada platter, as did I. It comes with ranchero (charro) beans or frioles refritos and Mexican rice, lettuce, pico de gallo and guacamole. Oh, and also a grilled spring onion and jalapeno pepper. She got corn tortillas, while I opted for the flour ones. They come in individual covered tortilla warmers and stay steamy hot throughout your meal. This was awesome as usual and we both left with a takeout box with enough for lunch tomorrow.

 

My nephew ordered the Carne Asada burrito and pronounced it delicious when I asked. Sis got chix fajitas and really enjoyed them. Eldest niece ordered chix fajita salad and both relished their meals and left with boxes of lunch. Nephew's wife (niece-in-law??) ordered the pork carnita platter and said she enjoyed it, but seems to have developed a habit of inhaling food while trying to tend to the tiny human. The niece's BF ordered some sort of burrito and said he liked it, but I couldn't understand what kind of burrito it was due to us being at opposite ends of the table and the noise level in this always busy restaurant.

 

Such good family fun and such good food again!

 

They have been bombarding us with TV commercials about Uncle Julio's which seems to be an outlet of a chain that recently opened in Durham. I love reading menus, so I went there fresh from tonight's experience at Torero's to peruse their menu and read some reviews. They also serve real skirt steak, but that is where the good stuff stops on Uncle Julio's. Like most overpriced restaurants, UJ does not publish pricing info even when you narrow down the locale you would like to visit. Fortunately, you can often find recent images of current menus on Yelp for deceptive marketing places like that. Everything UJ offers seems to be twice the price and half the size we were offered at Torero's tonight. There is also a Torero's in Durham, so that's where you need to head if you're looking for Tex-Mex and some real Mexican in Durham.

 

I just love Torero's and have been enjoying their hospitality and good food for over twenty years. It's so nice my family now likes it too. BTW, my frozen margarita was only $4.99, tasted good and had a distinct kick to it. They also managed respectable service for a large group and did not try to rush us out to turn the table on a busy night at all. No I do not work, there and never have.   I just love this small, family-owned restaurant chain.

 

Sis got pics, not of the food, but of the three generations of our family at the gathering before the resto filled up. Took a long time, like herding cats, but she's happy with the pics.

 

[HungryChris]

We had some pork tenderloin, pounded out thin and stir fried with white wine, oyster sauce, roasted garlic and a few veggies on jasmine rice last night.

We followed that up with Crème De Menthe parfaits. Deb topped hers with a bit of chocolate sauce, but I went with a splash or two of Crème De Menthe.

HC

 

Edited November 25, 2018 by HungryChris (log)

[Duvel]

Fregola sarda with fresh clams, plenty of garlic and - oddly - wakame for the non-dieting part of the family (so ... all but me).

 

 

Cabbage taco with oven-roasted chicken thigh & the works.

 

 

Followed by cabbage lahmacun, that were meant for tomorrow ...

 

 

Both were actually quite tolerable - the pasta however was great ...

 

[TicTac]

2 hours ago, Duvel said:

Fregola sarda with fresh clams, plenty of garlic and - oddly - wakame for the non-dieting part of the family (so ... all but me).

 

 

Cabbage taco with oven-roasted chicken thigh & the works.

 

 

Followed by cabbage lahmacun, that were meant for tomorrow ...

 

 

Both were actually quite tolerable - the pasta however was great ...

 

@Duvel - Noticed in some of your posts recently that you appear to take alternative routes to gluten...

 

With a recently diagnosed son who has Celiac, we have all but eliminated gluten from our house.  It pains me as Pizza has always been a big part of my love of food!

 

Would love to hear more about your alternatives, feedback and processes (least for anything recommended!)

 

Many thanks in advance!

[Shelby]

Pork belly ramen

 

[Paul Bacino]

Scallop[s   YUMMO

 

[BonVivant]

Mother of guest house's owner makes all the meals. Want to eat real Okinawan home cooking then stay at a family run guest house. Up until this point I have been to the capital Naha, farthest west of Japan Yonaguni island, Taketomi island and now Kuroshima island.

 

 

Stewed trotter is one of the most popular dishes in Okinawa.

 

Tiny portion of stir-fried bitter melon.

 

 

They even deep fry seaweed here.

 

My own dinner at home.

 

 

Buckwheat dumplings with Comté.

[liamsaunt]

A couple of recent meals.  Pasta with eggplant sauce

 

 

Zoodles with parmesean cream sauce and roasted cherry tomatoes

 

[Anna N]

 

Mushroom rice, cucumber and nashi (actually in this case Fuji apple) pickle, reheated chicken karaage and a carrot salad. 

[gfweb]

SV pork tenderloin (135F 2 hrs) with maple/butter/cracked pepper sauce, mashed potatoes and charred sprouts

[Anna N]

17 minutes ago, gfweb said:

 

SV pork tenderloin (135F 2 hrs) with maple/butter/cracked pepper sauce, mashed potatoes and charred sprouts

 

Looks good. Is the tenderloin stuffed?

[kayb]

I have come to the conclusion the best part of smoked dark-meat turkey is use of the leftovers in smoked turkey posole. Made with Rancho Gordo hominy. It'll make you change your mind about turkey, if you're not a turkey fan.

[gfweb]

8 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Looks good. Is the tenderloin stuffed?

 

Yes, arugula and a little garlic!

[Duvel]

12 hours ago, TicTac said:

- Noticed in some of your posts recently that you appear to take alternative routes to gluten..

 

It’s not that I am actively trying to avoid gluten, merely a side effect of my low carb approach to dieting and the general avoidance of flour (at the moment). I spend some time trying to find a “neutral” (e.g. not eggy, porky, “green”, coconutty ...) tasting flatbread substitute. What I use now works decently for pizzas, tacos, quesadillas etc ... It does not taste like bread, but makes a good delivery system for any toppings you have. And packs a lot of fiber plus some nutrients.

 

1 egg

50 g cream cheese (“Philadelphia”)

Pinch of salt

~350 g of preprocessed* cauliflower (original, a bit better to process) or cabbage (Duvel’s low cost shortcut)

 

Blend egg and cream, add salt, add everything to preprocessed vegetable and mix thoroughly. At this point you can add dried herbs, or spices. Let stand for 10 min. Spread thinly (5 mm) onto a baking paper. Please look at my other posts for a more visual guide. 

Slide into a preheated oven at 200 oC and bake for 25 min. Take out, flip and bake for 10 min more. At this point it will have a leathery texture when cooled down (it’s still a bit brittle when warm) and can be used for tacos. Or top with tomato sauce, whatever you like and cheese and put back into the oven. I turn the convention on and give it some 5-10 min more until it looks decent.

Please note that it needs to cool down a bit to achieve a good textural quality. The longer you bake the “naked” dough, the more integrity it has, and drier it gets (for pizza this is desirable).

 

*preprocessed vegetable: grate the cauliflower or cabbage (I use the food processor and get thin, 1 cm long shreds). Put into microwave and heat at high for about 7 min. You want that smell and taste are more or less “neutral”. Let cool down slightly, put into a clean tower and press out the formed water - which is a lot. Typical yields are: 650 g of raw cauliflower or 800 g of raw cabbage give ~350 g of preprocessed vegetable to be used in the recipe above. 

Edited November 26, 2018 by Duvel (log)

[robirdstx]

 

Gratin Dauphinois with Ham and Green Peas