What's for Dinner?

[sour_grapes]

Wifey has been out of town, and I have had a huge project at work. Ergo, not a lot of good cooking, although I did make a nice "bachelor steak" yesterday, viz., eye of chuck, fried in a HOT pan. I only ate half of it the other night, making the other half available tonight...

I finally got done this large, onerous project at work today. I cut loose with some surf 'n' turf, after a fashion. I picked up some "Patagonian red shrimp" (or Argentinian shrimp) for small money; these are large, flavorful, and delectable. I downed a considerable amount of ho-made Viognier, then used some of it to make a beurre blanc sauce (shallots, white wine vinegar, ho-made Viognier, fresh thyme, reduce all of that, then "mount" a lot of butter), topped with fresh parsley. Meanwhile, I sauteed some garlic and lacinato kale, then braised this in some ho-made chicken stock. I also boiled some orzo pasta. I par-boiled the shrimp in the orzo water for one minute, then finished cooking it in the delicious, sebaceous, acidic beurre blanc sauce. Lastly, I flash-fried the already cooked chuck eye steak.

This was all heavenly. The flavors melded and peaked and crashed together. Lovely.

 

[ceeaton]

A 'like for the food, @ceeaton , but not the broken bones.

Unfortunately kids break bones. After three separate trips on three separate days (inital consult, x-ray, the specialist visit), she bought a visit next Monday to a hand specialist (and eventually surgery by the end of the week). She'll have to get a micro screw to hold the bone in place since it's at a joint. So much for being out of debt, it was nice while it lasted!

 

[Mismost]

Unfortunately kids break bones. After three separate trips on three separate days (inital consult, x-ray, the specialist visit), she bought a visit next Monday to a hand specialist (and eventually surgery by the end of the week). She'll have to get a micro screw to hold the bone in place since it's at a joint. So much for being out of debt, it was nice while it lasted!

Oh man! I'm sorry. But, being out of debt means you have no bills to interfere with retiring this new one. Trying to point out the positive. Hang on, keep working, keep stashing cash, and hopefully it'll all come together some day.

Wife and I were talking about the time our daughter broker her arm, actually I broke her arm. The bills, then the starter motor went out on my truck, had to fix that so I borrowed 25 bucks from Dad for parts....fixed it....got to work...got a pay check...at the end of that month we had 7 bucks left over and we were so frigging happy!! There is a great day coming for you! Daughter finished college, got a job, got married....I was buying some stuff at the lumber yard and wrote a check....came home and ask the wife why is there so money in the checking account? She said I just haven't had time to move it around and it just keeps adding up! Keep plugging away, you're trying to do it right and you'll get there and love it when you do.

 

[tjgaul]

Last weekend the cook (I happen to be married to) made a baked goat cheese dip with garlic and red pepper flakes. Paired up with some herb toasted tomatoes. The heat from the pepper helped to tame some of the barnyardiness (totally made up word) of the goat cheese. We'll be making this recipe again soon. It went well with Riesling-Traminer and also with a 2007 Tempranillo.

 

[ceeaton]

Friday night, pizza night. DIdn't make crusts yesterday, so used some thin Brooklyn crusts for two of the pizzas, made a quickie dough that only aged a few hours, but used some of my sourdough started (I think I started 13 days ago, getting nice and strong) that I would have normally discarded before I fed the culture. Dough has a nice soft pretzel like texture and a very good flavor. Not sharp at all, very rounded and yummy.Topped my personal pizza with red onion, red pepper, mozzarella cheese and some diced leftover eye round roast (from Tuesday's dinner). After the picture, topped with some "shaker peppers". Boy, that hit the spot and made me thirsty for a beer, of course. Happy Friday!

 

[sour_grapes]

The flavors in tonight's meal were, aaahhh, eclectic. (That is a polite way of saying I did not match the flavors of my dishes up worth a damn!)

I made collard greens (sauteed in EVOO, braised in ho-made beef stock, seasoned with spicy Calabrian peppers); a gratin of zucchini (slices sauteed in butter, then baked with garlic and sauteed onions in cream, topped with pecorino); risotto (shallots, sherry, and ho-made smoky pork stock, seasoned with smoked paprika, and lots of parmesan cheese); and grass-fed NY Strip steak (dry-brined, seared in hot butter, topped with compound butter with fresh tarragon). Everything was, if I don't say so, scrumptious, but not exactly a good meal plan (flavor-wise). I told my DW that you had to eat a piece of the steak first, then the zucchini, then the risotto, and only after that could you have the spicy collard greens! Somehow, we managed to choke all this down, aided by a 4-year-old, highly tweaked, WE Selection Amarone.

 

[JohnT]

My Brother's Chicken Paprikash served over home made knuckli. It was even better than the ones I ate in Hungary!

 

[Kraffty]

This must be "Chicken-Parm-Making-Talk" dot com I've tuned into... and my latest venture - breaded, seared, quickie homemade sauce AND experimenting to save a couple o' hundred calories zucchini noodles. Kinda sorta has the texture but just not a good enough substitute to sacrifice a few more cals. Still, as ibglowin said "Friday night for us short-timers" so no dinner or counting calories tonight, straight to cocktail hour in T-minus???
Mike

 

[sour_grapes]

I enjoyed tonight's dinner, even if it was not my best work. We had green beans and onions (braised a long time with tomatoes and ho-made beef broth, seasoned with marjoram and fresh thyme); roasted potato wedges (just EVOO and Montreal steak seasoning); that fennel and onion dish I keep mentioning (fennel, onion, ho-made pork broth); and poached cod in a style called "Bercy." I had never heard of it before, but apparently it is a classic French preparation. You poach the filet on top of shallots in fish broth (ho-made lobster stock in my case); then remove the filet while you reduce the broth to a syrup, then mount with butter (and I added fresh tarragon). You spoon this rich goodness over the filet just before serving. This was all washed down with a ho-made Viognier. Yum!

 

[ceeaton]

I enjoyed tonight's dinner, even if it was not my best work. We had green beans and onions (braised a long time with tomatoes and ho-made beef broth, seasoned with marjoram and fresh thyme); roasted potato wedges (just EVOO and Montreal steak seasoning); that fennel and onion dish I keep mentioning (fennel, onion, ho-made pork broth); and poached cod in a style called "Bercy." I had never heard of it before, but apparently it is a classic French preparation. You poach the filet on top of shallots in fish broth (ho-made lobster stock in my case); then remove the filet while you reduce the broth to a syrup, then mount with butter (and I added fresh tarragon). You spoon this rich goodness over the filet just before serving. This was all washed down with a ho-made Viognier. Yum!


View attachment 51076 View attachment 51077

Looks pretty darn good to me. Just wondering about the blue bowl, did you run out of dishes and had to use the dog's dish? (Yuk yuk yuk)

 

[ceeaton]

Been a long week. My daughter was home today because of the anesthesia she had for her scheduled surgery yesterday. All turned out well, no incision ended up being necessary in her finger, little chance of joining the Arthur Rightess clan. So MIL came down to watch her, then they went up to her place once my son got home from a scheduled half day at school, with wifey meeting them there. So I was on my own for dinner.

Shrimp scampi served on bucatini pasta, swiss chard with mushrooms. Yum, sometimes I wish they'd visit my MIL more often!

Cooked and served with an almost three year old Chardonel I made from local grapes.

 

[Boatboy24]

Been a long week. My daughter was home today because of the anesthesia she had for her scheduled surgery yesterday. All turned out well, no incision ended up being necessary in her finger, little chance of joining the Arthur Rightess clan. So MIL came down to watch her, then they went up to her place once my son got home from a scheduled half day at school, with wifey meeting them there. So I was on my own for dinner.

Shrimp scampi served on bucatini pasta, swiss chard with mushrooms. Yum, sometimes I wish they'd visit my MIL more often!

Cooked and served with an almost three year old Chardonel I made from local grapes.

What, no pizza!!??

 

[ceeaton]

What, no pizza!!??

I'm making sour dough for pizza tomorrow, no one home to enjoy my efforts but little 'ol me. It's supposed to be rather cool tomorrow, so the ceramic oven will work to our benefit. I try not to switch over to heat until November 1st (makes the family get used to it being in the 60's inside the house during the winter months verses the mid 70's during the summer months).

 

[sour_grapes]

Looks pretty darn good to me. Just wondering about the blue bowl, did you run out of dishes and had to use the dog's dish? (Yuk yuk yuk)

Yuk yuk indeed! That is actually a favorite, artisanal serving bowl. Next time, I will have to get a shot that is less "overhead."

 

[sour_grapes]

A nice effort this evening. I had fun cooking up: mustard greens (blanched, then sauteed with garlic and EVOO); green beans (parboiled, then sauteed with butter and parmesan cheese); fresh, whole-wheat pasta smothered in a ho-made alfredo sauce (milk, flour, butter, lots of cheese, garlic, sauteed mushrooms, and lots of fresh tarragon); and finally, loin lamb chops (plain, sauteed in butter, topped with a sauce of fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, sauteed garlic, and tons of EVOO). Squeeze of lemon to brighten it up.

This was all washed down by an Eclipse Lodi Zin, just under 2 years old, but already drinking like a commercial wine. Just when I get discouraged with my winemaking, something like that comes along to keep me going!

 

[ceeaton]

Okay, I lied. Top round portions on sale for $3.99/lb. A little thin, but I was up to the task of under cooking them to get some medium rare. Traditional marinate for one (red wine (Valpolicella), garlic, horseradish, Worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper, onion flakes, mustard, oregano, olive oil and some other ingredients I'm forgetting about), Texas style for the other (salt and course ground pepper, thank you Aaron Franklin). Twice baked taters (half and half, parmesean cheese, european butter, salt/pepper) and some Italian green beans from the garden. Cooked on charcoal with a little hickory being burnt during the cook. Turned out fantastic (much better than pizza).

Edit: Wifey is hammering the Chardonel (I just heard the vacuvin again), dinner must have been good!







My next project. Best pepper plant in the yard (actually, it's on the driveway). Pepperoncini baby.

 

[JohnT]

Had a lesson in Austria on how to make proper apple strudel...



Started by making the dough from scratch
. Stretched it so thin that you could see through it. Then added filling, rolled it, baked it, and served it with some ice cream. Amazed at how good it was. It reminded me of my grandma's.

 

[Boatboy24]

It ain’t much to look at, but made some great chili yesterday. Found a nice ~1.4lb chuck eye roast at the store. Cubed it up and tossed in some S&P and flour. Cooked a few slices of bacon, then seared the beef in the fat. Removed the beef and sautéed some onion, along with cumin, chipotle powder, oregano, garlic powder, and smoked paprika. When that was done, deglazed the pot with half a bottle of WS Super Tuscan and reduced. Added back the beef, along with some Rotel and diced tomato and simmered for a few hours. Served it up with some jalapeño cheddar corn bread muffins.

 

[GreginND]

I had a hankering for some masoor dal. This one was made with potatoes and lots of ripe spicy Serrano’s from the garden.

 

[GreginND]

Italy meets the Caribbean. Italian style “sausage” and peppers with boiled plantains.