What's for dinner?

[Menolly]

Yum!
Awesome looking home made what I think of as Jamiacan beef patties, SG.
The only difference I would have done would be to add a little curry powder to the meat and veg, and then crimp the seal with a fork.

Today I bought some Argentinian wild trout filets for $2.99/lb. at Ward's. I'm going to coat them in Sam's Club pesto, then steam them. I'll also make some ziti and coat that with pesto as well. An experiment here. I hope it turns out well.

[lorin]

Those patties look great!

I love pesto. Made my own last week but I am too cheap to buy pine nuts so I used walnuts. Different but still good. I like the idea of pesto on fish but trout makes me nuts. Love the taste but the bones aggravate me.

[Menolly]

Neither Beorn nor Hyperception noticed any bones. On the other hand, I came across seven tiny ones.

However, the experiment worked well. I added some frozen peas to the ziti at 5he last minute of boiling, drained, then tossed that with pesto as well.

For service I ground some mixed peppercorns over the pasta and peas, sprinkled some grated romano over that, then topped the pasta with the steamed fish.

I was concerned Beorn would turn his nose up at it, as he hasn't liked pesto he's had elsewhere. But he actually took seconds.

So yeah, I call it a success.

[Shuram Gudatetris]

Menolly,

thanks for posting the pictures. I tried over and over again, but either the img tag or my url wasn't working, so I ended up just doing links.

Your dinner sound YUM! too! Except I am not sure what pesto is??? I like pasta and fish together, though! I am glad for you that everyone liked it!

I think curry would have been EXCELLENT in my dinner. YUM!

[Menolly]

Menolly,

thanks for posting the pictures. I tried over and over again, but either the img tag or my url wasn't working, so I ended up just doing links.

No problem, SG.
You need to have an ending like .jpg, .gif, I think .png works, maybe...
You were using the links to the Facebook page the pictures were posted on. I right clicked on each of the pictures, and scrolled to "copy image location." The location ended in .jpg for each photo. That is what I used for the url inside the [img] tags.

Your dinner sound YUM! too! Except I am not sure what pesto is??? I like pasta and fish together, though! I am glad for you that everyone liked it!

Thanks!
Pesto is a very simple Italian sauce, usually made of fresh basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil, parmiggiano reggiano, salt and pepper, and pignolli/pine nuts all ground together in a food processor or mashed with a mortar and pestle until really fine. It is generally used at room temperature and is added to foods of all temperatures.

I have seen pesto made with walnuts in place of the pignolli, as lorin described above. I've seen pecorino romono used instead of parmiggiano reggiano. I've even seen pesto made from olive oil soaked sun-dried tomatoes or fresh endive instead of basil. But they are all room temperature herbal/vegetable pastes added to other dishes. And all really good.

I think curry would have been EXCELLENT in my dinner. YUM!

Consider it as an option for next time.

[sgt.null]

julie made for me .

6 ounces of turkey patty. cooked in a pan to a nice crisp char.
with onions in the pan.
1 and 1.2 half cup turnip greens with onions.

2 glasses of sugar free peach tea.

[Savor Dam]

After running a garage sale for two days (with Dam-sel minding the sale while I took Dam-et off to a new Airsoft site up in the Cascade forestlands, then picked him up again...a multi-hour trip each time), I had no energy for making a production-number dinner. Took one Costco salmon burger patty apiece and gave them three minutes a side in the cast-iron skillet with a little spice, then served them with thin buns, sliced tomato, sliced shallot, baby spinach leaves and dijon mustard. Yes, that simple...and really good!

[aliantha]

Well, I got kind of bad report at the doctor's last week, so I'm biting the bullet and going back to cooking and freezing the leftovers for lunches. Since I'm off this week -- and now that I've finished all the not-particularly-healthy stuff I bought for Magickmaker this summer -- I have time to make something new and tasty every night for dinner. So I spent quality time the other day paging through my Weight Watchers recipe printouts. (Hint: if you get on their e-mail list, they have a link at the bottom of the weekly e-mail to at least one recipe. If you click through to that one -- even if you're not interested in it -- there's a link at the bottom of the recipe's webpage to four or five other recipes. And the recipes are different every week. I've collected a cookbook's worth of Weight Watchers recipes over the past few years, just by printing out the ones that look good to me.)

Anyway, the grand cooking effort started last night.

Thursday: Chinese Pineapple Chicken with Black Bean Sauce, over brown rice; Kozy Shack sugar-free tapioca pudding and gingersnaps for dessert

Tonight: Gingered Pork, Pineapple and Pepper Skewers under the broiler, with whole-wheat couscous; Sauteed Strawberries with Cinnamon and Lime for dessert

On deck for the rest of the weekend:
*Tropical Chicken with Grilled Sweet Potatoes (the chicken marinade is made up of lime juice, minced fresh ginger, apricot preserves and soy sauce)
*Greek Shrimp with Orzo
*Roast Pork (keeping the green peppers but leaving out the potatoes) and Barley with Mushrooms and Onions

I've made the roast pork recipe before and it's really good. Looking forward to having it again....

The two recipes I've made so far are keepers -- altho I severely increased the amount of garlic and ginger in the marinade tonight. I find that Weight Watchers recipes tend to be a bit on the bland side, or they'll leave out a spice or two. I think I've complained about that here before, tho....

I got the recipe for the strawberries out of the newspaper. You halve or quarter (depends on the size) 2 cups or so of strawberries; melt a tablespoon of butter in a skillet with 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp lime juice, and 1/4 tsp cinnamon over medium heat and cook it 'til it's bubbly; then toss in the strawberries and stir for a couple of minutes so that the glaze covers the berries. The lime juice gives it a nice tang.

[Savor Dam]

I bought a 1.5 lb london broil today and am marinating it with chili powder, lime juice and garlic. Tomorrow, it gets grilled. Some will find it too rare, others too well-done. As Ricky sang, "You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself..."

Those strawberries sound fantastic, ali. I have been looking for a something to top a pavlava (sort of like an Australian meringue, but crisper and not quite as sweet.) Wanted something a little more special than just sliced and macerated strawbs...and this looks like just the thing!

[aliantha]

Glad I could help, SD.

[sgt.null]

pork chop - grilled on grill. (6 0z)

green beans - 1/2 cup

green salad - 1 cup (lettuce, fat free cheese, tomato, wee little carrots)

1 cup unsweetened tea

[Cameraman Jenn]

We had three people come from other stores to help out our freight issues today so our store manager bought pizza.... dominos.... but it was free so it sufficed.

[aliantha]

Update: The orzo-and-shrimp recipe definitely needs help. I think they called it "Greek" only because of the orzo and the sprinkling of feta on top. The rest involved garlic, green pepper, onion, two cans of diced tomatoes, some dried oregano and some fresh basil -- which all strike me as more Italian than Greek, but what do I know. In any case, I'll need to doctor this one next time. Maybe cut back on the tomatoes, or drain them and add Greek yogurt, or replace the fresh basil with fresh dill. Or all of it. Or just not make it again....

[Menolly]

Beorn's grandfather came in to town, so although his birthday was this past Tuesday, we did his birthday dinner tonight, courtesy of Poppie.

We went to Mark's Prime Steakhouse again. Since we can rarely afford it, when Poppie comes it is where Beorn wants to go.

The table shared an appetizer of steak tartare, which was served with toast points and individual cups of diced red onion, chopped egg, and capers, along with a horseradish vinegrette. Beorn wouldn't touch it, but us three adults enjoyed.

Beorn then had a French Onion Soup, while Hyperception had a baby spinach salad with chopped egg, red onion, apple smoked bacon and pecans with a warm cranberry dressing and I had the Original Bleu, which was a generous mix of romaine, spring greens, red pepper, tomatoes, Granny Smith apples, red onions, toasted almonds and dried cranberries, and then served with their unique Big Bleu dressing. The dressing really makes that salad.

For entrees, Beorn and I each got a bone-in ribeye. Each was a Prime cut 22 oz. hunk of burning love. I had mine Pittsburgh true blue (ultra rare, still purple inside yet charred on the outside). Beorn's was medium rare. Hyperception went with the 16 oz. Prime cut NY Strip, and Poppie had the Prime cut petite filet.

The table shared side orders of truffle parmesan french fries and grilled fresh asparagus. Beorn didn't touch the asparagus, and Hyperception had very little.

Beverages consisted of water for me; coca-cola for Beorn; unsweet iced tea for Hyperception; and four Tanquerey martinis, dry and up for Poppie.

No dessert, and only Hyperception finished his steak.
I hope to get Beorn a Publix Chocolate Decadence cake tomorrow. We haven't done cake yet for his birthday...

[Shuram Gudatetris]

Philly Cheesesteak Pepper

A work in progress.

Sliced Steak, onions, and mushrooms, grilled to perfection, and then stuffed into a whole bell pepper with plenty of cheese (one's choice of cheese is one's own preference, me, I went with American and mozzerella). This should probably bake for 30 to 45 mins and then cooled. Once cooled, wrap with croissant dough and bake until golden brown.

I tried it the other night but just wrapped the raw pepper in dough. The pepper wasn't sufficiently cooked. Will try this modified recipe ASAP. Any better ideas on how to cook the pepper more thoroughly would be welcome.

[Menolly]

Almost all recipes for stuffed peppers I've seen bakes the pepper with a liquid of some sort, like tomato sauce, in a covered casserole or crockpot. But I have never seen one done en croute. Baking dry once stuffed, like you plan, should work since the steak, vegetables, and cheese will generate moisture from inside.

[Savor Dam]

If the baked peppers described above are a bit too soft to easily wrap with dough for the en croute finish, then try parboiling the cored peppers before stuffing and wrapping them the way you did raw peppers at first. That should yield a pepper that is more cooked than those stuffed and baked from a raw state, but will still be firm enough to wrap in dough without losing their integrity.

You may want to experiment with the first pan of peppers you make using this technique. Parboil one for a minute, another for two minutes, and so on -- then see which parboiling time gives you a pepper shell that is sufficiently cooked at the end of the stuff/wrap/bake process, but still easy to wrap.

[Menolly]

Things just keep getting tighter and tighter here, so tonight I'm digging in to the freezer and pantry for items we stocked up on while on sale. I have three pork steaks we purchased for $1.49/lb and some frozen green beans we had purchased in the five pound bag at Sam's. I also have fresh salad fixings.

So tonight will be pork steaks, southern-style green beans and salad.
I'll rub the pork steaks with Gulden's, lightly bread with Italian-seasoned bread crumbs, and then brown.
A little stock in the bottom of a broiler pan, the browned pork steaks on the perforated insert, cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes.

Nothing fancy, but it will see us through.

[Vader]

Pesto is a very simple Italian sauce, usually made of fresh basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil, parmiggiano reggiano, salt and pepper, and pignolli/pine nuts all ground together in a food processor or mashed with a mortar and pestle until really fine. It is generally used at room temperature and is added to foods of all temperatures.

Okay, here comes the Food police for traditional Italian dishes.

For a traditional pesto you should use small leave basil (as being used in Genua where the real pesto comes from). Since Genua is in the county of Liguria you should also use Olive oil from there (and the olive oil REALLY makes the difference).

To make it even more traditional I also suggest to use pecorino cheese (made from sheep milk) rather than parmigiano for this sauce.

A mortar is essential. Food processors make it gross. Just crush the basil leaves in a a mortar with coarse sea salt, pepper corns and chopped garlic. Add toasted pinenuts and olive oil, crush them too and Bob's your uncle.

Cook spaghetti al dente. Save a bit of the cooking water and mix it with the pesto. Toss pasta in it. Serve hot with more pecorino cheese.

[Menolly]

I much prefer pecorino romano myself, and that is what I use, but all the pestos I've had here in Florida generally use parmiggiano reggiano, so I was under the assumption that was the tradition.