testing some chickpea "fries"

Wallace Farms grass fed sirloin steak, baked potato, something green.

Menu for out of town guests:
Cocktails:
Lemon Basil Martinis (totally awesome)

Appetizers:
Chicken liver pate with nutmeg, cinnamon, clove and port wine
Crab cakes with aioli, whole seed mustard, egg (no bread)
Raw tuna/herb sampling with micro greens, ginger/lime vinaigrette
Smoked salmon with horseradish cream (from Charlie Trotter Cooks at Home)

Soup:
Chilled Asparagus with Kalamata olives, goat cheese and chives

Pasta:
Puttanesca (house special)

Main:
Tarragon Chicken with Sherry Cream Sauce

Dessert:
Bread Pudding
Homemade Rosemary Ginger Ice Cream

Lots of wine, followed by dancing - sort of

Grilled farm raised Trout from Costco

went really well with a 2004 Alesia, Sonoma Coast Pinot from Rhys Vineyards

A very untraditional, but tasty, risotto with black beans, corn, cilantro, and Pepper Jack cheese. Cooking liquid is an easy blend of V-8 juice, water, and Spice House chili powder.


DSCN1107 by MsLynnB, on Flickr

LynnB, I would absolutely rip into a bowl of that.

Smoke-grilled whole butterflied chicken - it's marinating now, in a brine contains hard cider, Canadian whiskey, hot bean paste, & a slug of Ketchipotle, among other good things.

Off to City Provisions shortly, to pick up its new traditional accompaniment: their fingerling potato salad with jicama.

Having the Pork Sugo I made for Small Household exchange, recipe at http://www.7x7.com/recipes/secret-recip ... go-delfina

Mine looks more like the top picture on this one: http://singleguychef.blogspot.com/2011/ ... ecipe.html -- probably too much sauce for the amount of noodles, though.

I had an expiring Groupon for Paulina Meat Market, so I picked up a few treats. Dinner last night was a pan-seared ribeye (the grill hasn't been prepped yet for use), sauteed mushrooms and onions and zucchini spears sprinkled with Penzey's Northwoods seasoning and sauteed in the same pan the steak was seared in. We had Frog's Leap 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon with the meal. Life is good.

sundevilpeg wrote:Smoke-grilled whole butterflied chicken - it's marinating now, in a brine contains hard cider, Canadian whiskey, hot bean paste, & a slug of Ketchipotle, among other good things.

Off to City Provisions shortly, to pick up its new traditional accompaniment: their fingerling potato salad with jicama.

Yeah buddy! Boy thats a nice mix on the brine, how did it all go down?

Cbot:

It was just delicious! I'm sold on using a strongly-flavored and booze-enhanced brine. The chicken doesn't burn, and retains its moisture beautifully. I chunked up the meat, and ate it on a toasted pretzel roll, dressed with a bit of Ketchipotle and homemade cuke-jalapeno fresh pickles, and accompanied by the aforementioned City Provisions tater salad. Perfect combo. Simple, but complex flavors at the same time.

Switched gears tonight: a pan shroom/Zier's Italian sassich pizza. Perfect for this unexpectedly chilly night, just as much so as last night's dinner for perfect for our brief faux-summer.

ETA: Sauteed some finely chopped ramps along with the sassich, and seasoned the mix with fennel pollen. Awful damn good pizza!

Nice Sounds super charged good!
Did up some lamb on the pit last night. Cooked it over some lump charcoal turned out really good. Also had sides of humos and pitas. Did up about 2 pounds of cut up lamb and ate it up like a mad dog.

Tonight's dinner, appropriate for this cold, drizzly evening: pork loin, braised all day long in a blend of two homemade salsas, red jalapenos, ale, chopped tomatoes, and a splash of OJ. Shredded, and rolled in flour tortillas, with simmered black beans, salsa cruda, chopped romaine, and an avocado/tomato relish, made with a lime vinaigrette. Solid! Sure smells good in here.

I made 'Thai-style' crab cakes earlier this week. A little curry sauce (made with prik khing paste) complemented these nicely.

Last night's starter course

Cumin crusted Halibut over Mango salsa served with
2010 Bevan Cellars Sauvignon Blanc
main course

Porcini dusted strip loin of Lamb, asparagus totally killed ;-(
and roasted fingerling potatoes
served with
2008 Scarecrow
2001 Karl Lawrence, Crane vineyard
2001 Matriarch
1987 Beringer Napa Valley

pulled pork sammies!


Though, 10 hours in the oven at 225˚ is a bit long as the fragile meat is
approaching "pork jello" stage.... Hey, live and learn....

This could easily go under the "Best Thing You've Eaten Lately" heading, too. Whiskey/hard cider brined big-ass Berkshire pork chop (.82 lbs) from Treasure Island, smoke-grilled over a mix of hickory & applewood. Served on a toasted pretzel bun, with fresh cucumber/red jalapeno/ramp pickle slices, a little Ketchapotle, and a side of City Provisions's rosemary potato salad. The chop was. . .no words, apart from 'heavenly,' and the pickles were hot, savory, and slightly sweet. GREAT summer preview dinner!

Gonna try this recipe for salt & pepper shrimp.
I'm not expecting miracles, just something edible.

Two types of satay (beef & pork), some naan-like flatbreads baked on the grill, Thai pickles, and some pomegranate & lime sorbet.

The GP wrote:I had an expiring Groupon for Paulina Meat Market, so I picked up a few treats.

Paulina did a Groupon!? How did I miss that!? Insert sadness here.

On a note more related to this topic, we're having Cincinnati Chili for dinner, using the ATK Cook's Country recipe.

For my Southern mama, I'm making shrimp & grits (the latter pronounced gree-its).

Last night once the storms cleared up.

Chicken was great. Brining really does make the chicken so juicy and tender. Will have to air out the bird longer next time to make sure the skin gets crispier.






Barbecue sauce Pasta salad, my first time making it. Was a nice twist on the basic creamy pasta salad.

Six slabs of baby backs on the WSM, with some skewers of shrimp to go on when they come off, plus Cooks' Illustrated's ultimate corn muffins, slaw (not homemade) and whatever else the rest of the partygoers bring.

Grilled chicken with Harissa
Grilled corn on the cob
Asparagus sauteed with onion and mushrooms

Pre-chopping for salads for tomorrow night's dinner,
including a harissa-spiked carrot salad

Had some fresh mozzarella to use up so we had a pasta salad (whole wheat rotini) with cucumber, grape tomatoes, dry salami, fresh basil, the mozz tossed in a italian vinaigrette. Perfect for a warm night.

My very first post! Just discovered you today! I think I'm in love!

Tonight: Giant prawns, butterflied and sauteed in butter, polenta with parmesan and cocktail sauce for dipping (which I just might drizzle over the prawns & polenta for presentation.

Welcome LIndatooo!

Your dinner sounds good. I have always wondered about the difference between Prawns and Langoustines and BIG shrimp. And what is the difference in the US vs other countries - since I have heard the same animal and different animals referred to as all of the above. I think whatever it may be that we call them, we might not be getting the same thing if we get them from two different places!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langoustine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prawn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langostino
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrimp

(so, apparently Prawns have 3 pair of claws and Shrimp have 2, among other things, and Langoustines are something entirely different we probably don't get here)

Lee

I am having soup which I made today. Beans, tomatoes, bacon, pancetta, mushrooms, onions, garlic, swiss chard, celery, carrots. Farfelle pasta and parmesan cheese to top it off. I finally finished off the vegetable stock I wrote about making in the winter.

Capetown Lamb on the grill: http://www.food.com/recipe/capetown-lam ... ica-174130

Someday I'll try it with a smoker box. Of course, first I need to acquire a smoker box.

For dessert: homemade mango daiquiri sorbet.

Last night was skirt steak tacos.
The local Mexican grocery expertly trimmed and flayed open a 2 lb inner skirt steak which was marinated overnight with mojo criollo.
Grilled it over an insanely hot lump charcoal fire with some bulb onions.
While it rested I sliced some jalapeños, shredded some lettuce, crumbled some queso fresco, sliced some limes and put some good crema into a bowl.
Sliced op the steak and assembled the tacos in some fresh tortillas - perfect Saturday night dinner. The rain stopped just in time to light the coals and have dinner ready by 5:30 (little ones are impatient even on good days).