what's for dinner at your place

[Nightclub Dwight]

I'm jealous of Tfarny's Vietnamese food.  I've heard that so much of the food there is delicious.

Last night I did OK though.  My lady wanted mussels, so we bought a nice 2 pound bag for about $5 (the cheapest shellfish you can get I think).  I sliced up about a dozen shallots and sauteed them in butter and olive oil.  I added 1 clove of garlic sliced wafer thin (just to keep it interesting I used a variety of garlic named "music" that we got from one of our favorite organic farmers.)  When the shallots softened I added a little bit of white wine, a handful of fresh thyme from the garden and a healthy pinch of saffron.  I let that simmer for a few minutes, then added the mussels and turned the flame to high.  I let them steam for about 5 minutes with the lid on, threw in a handful of minced fresh parsley, removed the mussels to a bowl and carefully poured the liquid on top, leaving the last bit of liquid behind in case there was any grit released.

I served it with a fresh salad and sliced crusty bread for dipping in the liquid.  Total cost of dinner was less than $10 and we ate like royalty.

 

[bagman67]

Cioppino.

 

[ptirman]

Cioppino.

A wonderful San Francisco dish. Good on you - I had quinoa pilaf tonight. very simple with grilled Lamb. Notice how I stated the grain first. It was better even though the lamb had a parsley, mint, rosemary fresh herb rub.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

Cioppino.

A wonderful San Francisco dish. Good on you - I had quinoa pilaf tonight. very simple with grilled Lamb. Notice how I stated the grain first. It was better even though the lamb had a parsley, mint, rosemary fresh herb rub.

This is great!  I love cioppino, quinoa and grilled lamb.... 

Quinoa is wonderful--it tastes great and is very good for you.  But its hard to imagine anything better than really good grilled lamb.  Did you use plenty of garlic?

 

[ptirman]

Always. My wife is Korean American. We have have loads of garlic at the homestead! I like to use a sprinkle of kosher salt on the lamb, then pat on the herb blend then grill. Man it is so good especially with a quinoa pilaf (i use less water than is called for like rice, makes it fluffy) with toasted sunflower seeds and toasted pumpkin seeds. Yuumo.

 

[erogenousjones17]

I just got back from a road trip throughout the eastern part of the province. Great local seafood, cheese, beer and produce throughout, capped off by the most unexpectedly cheap and delicious roadside meal I've ever had: $3 tacos from a quirky little stand in the middle of the Lac Saint-Jean region of Québec. It makes no sense for there to be an authentic Mexican restaurant there.  :laughing7:

 

[SkuttleFunk]

petit filet mignon marinated in Dale's sauce for 15 min (once the meat is at room temperature), then seared on each side and immediately taken off the grill

served with grilled asparagus, a slice of roasted garlic clove sour dough hand bread, and a mixed greens salad with bleu cheese crumbles and red wine vinegar sesame ginger drizzle

Snoqualmie's Lavender ice cream for dessert


nice!

 

[Justinginn]

Chicken pizza tonight in the oven. Still nailing down how to make it cook right but it was goood. Total price: something around $50 (for the oven, not the pizza). I figure we'll make up for that in gas in a couple weeks.  :hello2:

 

[pabloman]

Bean and chicharron burrito. I'm in line waiting for it now! :headbang1:

 

[erogenousjones17]

The local-food extravaganza continued last night with curry pork-and-lamb sausages (prepared at a butcher shop outside the city using local meat) with a side of wild rice and corn salad made with corn straight from the grower (and bought from a little roadside stand--does that exist anywhere else? here it's corn and strawberries on the side of the road all summer long). All served, of course, with a local beer: La Voie maltée's La Criminelle. 

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

Eggs. Scrambled. 

 

[Cagey]

...and bought from a little roadside stand--does that exist anywhere else?

Yeah, they're pretty popular here. And at this time of year, the tomatoes are coming in, so that's happiness. It's about the only time of year you can get good tomatoes. The rest of the time it's those miserable hothouse things that barely resemble tomatoes, so I just go without.

 

[erogenousjones17]

Tomatoes are the bomb. But I agree that those slushy winter tomatoes barely qualify as such. Man, this gives me such a hankering for a good tomato sandwich: some nice crusty bread, thick-sliced tomatoes, good aged cheddar, a few basil leaves, salt, pepper and a smidge of mayo. Heaven on a bun.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

I'm a corn snob.  I only eat corn for a few weeks of the year (exactly right now) and only if I can get it fresh from the farmer.  Even corn that is a day old is a major step down from corn that is fresh from the fields.  My favorite corn is Silver Queen, which is an all white variety that takes a long time to ripen.  It comes in at the end of August, and when it does come, its pretty much all I eat till its gone.

Incidentally, I try to avoid corn in my diet all other times of the year because its in darn near everything as either an ingredient or as a feed (in the case of meats.)

I will begrudgingly eat tomatoes in the winter, but I don't enjoy them.  The tomatoes available right now are like a gift from heaven.

 

[hannaugh]

Got home grown tomatoes here.  Real tasty with a little ranch dressing. 

 

[bagman67]

Got home grown tomatoes here.  Real tasty with a little ranch dressing. 

Haven't grown tomatoes this year - I'm in a very time-intensive new job, and Mrs. Bagman is knocked up (due in September) and is not up to the physical labor of maintaining a garden. But in the past we've had some excellent fruit, and my daughter is a serious tomato hound.  Loves'em with a splash of balsamic vinegar, salt, and fresh ground pepper.  The pleasure my womenfolk get from the fresh tomatoes makes me wish I liked 'em, too - but alas, I just haven't been able to develop a taste for the damn things.  Now, bring me a nice marinara, or a puttanesca, and we can talk...

Bagman

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

Got home grown tomatoes here.  Real tasty with a little ranch dressing. 

Haven't grown tomatoes this year - I'm in a very time-intensive new job, and Mrs. Bagman is knocked up (due in September) and is not up to the physical labor of maintaining a garden. But in the past we've had some excellent fruit, and my daughter is a serious tomato hound.  Loves'em with a splash of balsamic vinegar, salt, and fresh ground pepper.  The pleasure my womenfolk get from the fresh tomatoes makes me wish I liked 'em, too - but alas, I just haven't been able to develop a taste for the damn things.  Now, bring me a nice marinara, or a puttanesca, and we can talk...

Bagman

Chuck a big fat slice of tomato on the grill until it gets all mushy and has some nice char marks on it then lop a nice runny poached egg ontop of it and throw all that on an English muffin. Makes for an excellent brekky.

 

[kboman]

Today: pasta with some fried zucchini+garlic+fresh thyme (forgot to buy parsley - as my hunger goes up, my brain functions go down) and just-warmed-in-the-pan mussels. Red wine. Yummy.

Oh - congratulations Bagman!

 

[Cagey]

[my daughter] Loves'em with a splash of balsamic vinegar, salt, and fresh ground pepper.  The pleasure my womenfolk get from the fresh tomatoes makes me wish I liked 'em, too - but alas, I just haven't been able to develop a taste for the damn things.

We absolutely hated tomatoes as kids, but got them force-fed to us by my hateful mother, backed up by my sadistic father. Those, and pickled beets. Beets? What fresh hell is this? God! What parenting class did they miss? You don't feed little kids beets, fer crissakes! Well-used cat litter would be more palatable!

But, we lived. We found out if we held our breath, we could get down most of what mum served without having to taste it.

Now, I love them both, although I still don't go out of my way for beets.

You're probably already aware, but there's a world of difference between garden-grown tomatoes and the pitiful crap the grocery store sells. If all I could get was the grocery store stuff, I'd never eat a tomato again. They are bad. I don't know who buys those things, but they must be heavy smokers with dentures so they have no taste buds or tactile feel left in their mouths.

 

[hannaugh]

I just went to The Olive Pit Mediterranean Grill for lunch and had pastitsio for the first time.  SOOOO GOOD!  A fat layer of ziti pasta, a layer of spiced stewed beef with cinnamon and tomatoes, a layer of bechamel sauce, and topped with a Greek cheese that I forget the name of and some fresh parsley.  It was amazing.  And of course I couldn't pass on a side of dolmades with avgolemono, one of my favorite Greek foods.  What a great lunch!