14 hours ago, btbyrd said:Toothy.
The "toothy" comment gave me a giggle since I always think this pasta shape looks like a pile of dentures. 🤣
@gfweb– Your scallop dish is fantastic looking. I think I can manage everything else, but can you describe/explain the confit potatoes?
@Shelby – beautiful meals! I made that broccoli salad, too. Any amount I make gets eaten in a couple of days. I think it’s the most popular thing I make!
Sorry in advance for such a long post, but we had our first in over a year house guests over the fourth and between getting ready, hosting, and recovering I haven’t had a chance to post in ages. Our guests arrived on the 1st, so we went out to dinner the night before to keep things clean! Local family owned café has a good club and that’s what Mr. Kim tends to order:
I took a chance on the soft shells (it is more of a meat and 3’s kind of place):
I was glad I did. They were sweet and tender and the coating was very light. Served with corn and spoonbread.
Picked up our guests at the airport late on the first and took them to our favorite late-night burger place. Started with the pickles:
and their fabulous onion rings:
We had an assortment of burgers – Belle Ringer:
Herbed Goat Cheese, Pickled Red Onion, Spring Greens, Tomato Jam, Herb Aioli
Lafayette:
Brie Cheese, Cabernet Onions, Baby Arugula, Tomato, Apricot Mustard
Le Benny:
Runny Egg, Canadian Bacon, Baby Arugula, Tomato, Béarnaise
De Leon:
Pepper Jack Cheese, Avocado, Pickled Jalapeños, Sliced Red Onion, Tomato, Arbol Salsa, Duke’s Mayo
Dinner on the 2nd was very much a Shook family collaborative effort. Mr. Kim and/or Jessica came up with the ideas to do pulled pork nachos. We had some of Mr. Kim’s recent smoked butt in the freezer. Fried flour tortilla chips:
(We much prefer crunchy flour tortilla chips to corn with pork).
Mornay sauce and Mr. Kim’s pulled pork:
Pico, crudité, and black beans with salsa and taco seasoning:
Cotija, pickled jalapenos, slaw, Jessica’s pickled shallots, tomatoes:
Jessica’s street corn:
I love this stuff. It’s a great side dish – hot, cold, or room temperature. It also makes a nice dip with tortilla chips.
Plate:
An assortment of paletas for dessert:
On the 3rd, we had dinner out. A mostly delicious, but a bit uneven meal. Starters were fried oysters and a carrot-ginger soup:
The oysters were of absolutely fantastic quality and cooked beautifully, but they obviously stayed in the window too long. The coating, which was the perfect thickness and flavor, was falling off the not quite hot oysters. The husband friend said the soup was excellent.
This was Jessica’s grilled sirloin with peppercorn whisky cream sauce, roasted red potatoes and grilled asparagus:
Everything tasted good, but the steak was incredibly tough. Jessica asked for a different knife, but it didn’t help. The waitress, who was obviously run off her feet, never checked back about it, so Jessica did her best. She said later that she really should have sent it back.
Mr. Kim had the grilled mahi-mahi with red curry paste, pineapple salsa, Carolina gold rice, and grilled asparagus:
The wife friend had the shrimp and grits with smoked Gouda, applewood smoked bacon, tomato bruschetta, and scallions:
I had the fish and chips:
This was another problem. For one thing, this isn’t the size or shape of potatoes when I see the word “chips”. These skinny things are French fries. The cod was good, but this was another dish that sat in the window too long. The batter was a bit limp.
I was glad that our guests got good meals, but wished that Jessica had, too!
Fourth of July dinner featured @mgaretz's Blasphemous ribs. He was kind enough to answer Mr. Kim’s questions ahead of time and made things so much easier for Mr. Kim’s cook. Coming off the smoker with just a little sauce:
We decided to use Montgomery Inn sauce from the Montgomery Inn in Cincinnati:
We all loved these ribs. They were delicious and really easy to deal with. I think Mike considers this his “go to” now. Thank you so much, mgaretz’s!
Broccoli salad:
Jessica’s devilled eggs:
Macaroni & cheese bake:
Kettle chips and warmed BBQ sauce:
This is the first thing they bring you at the Montgomery Inn when you sit down. Of course, their chips are housemade, but this was good, too.
There was also watermelon and leftover street corn and slaw from the pulled pork nachos.
Corn muffins:
The 5th was the last full day our guests were here. I made Beef Chow Fun:
and frozen potstickers:
This time, I added some extra vegetables (snow peas, water chestnuts, carrots, and onions) to the Chow Fun and it was very good.
Took them to the airport on the afternoon of the 6th and came home. It has been so long since we entertained that we were exhausted! But they are truly our best couple buddies (one of those rare situations where all the combinations work – all four of us love each of the other three) and we loved having them. They’ll be back in October. Dinner was extremely simple that night:
My 62nd birthday was the 9th. Mr. Kim’s mom had us over on the 8th to celebrate. We started with a lovely spinach salad with fruit and pecans and a fantastic dressing – slightly sweet with poppy seeds:
My MIL and Mr. Kim had borsht:
I had requested Chicken Kiev for dinner:
She also served butter beans, au gratin potatoes, and tomatoes:
Dessert was chocolate cake with 7-Minute frosting (my request):
My birthday dinner was supposed to be at a long-time favorite place. But when we stopped at the bakery to pick up cake for later, Jessica had a bad fall and we ended up in the ER for the evening. Poor girl has horrible bruising on one knee and at least a sprained ankle – one injury per leg and she’s just miserable. Mr. Kim stopped on the way home and picked up McDonald’s, so it was double cheeseburgers and fries for everyone!
Last night I just reworked the leftover vegetables and rice noodles from the Beef Chow Fun I made when our friends were here and added some shrimp I had in the freezer. Fed both Mr. Kim and me and there were STILL leftovers:
