Kevin's Watch

Ok, keep a coffee grinder just for spices and grind your own white pepper, it'll change your life. Luckily I have a little store on my corner that had white pepper imported from Thailand for 69 cents a bottle so I bought all 12. I also have two stores in walking distance who sell bulk spices so I can buy a larger bag of say whole cumin or fenugreek that'll last forever then roast and grind as needed. These stores are the ma & pop Arabic or Indian goods stores where spices are so cheap. The shee-shee whole foods markets also have bulk spices but they're ridiculously expensive.

Now for tonights dinner with SRD:
Roast game hen with crimini mushroom gravy
Roasted asparagus
Garlic mashed potatoes
Warm bread with baked brie, whole roast garlic bulbs and olive tapinade

I've been doing such for a while. I mostly grind cinnamon, as I put a little bit into everything to keep my blood sugars somewhat level and I feel the oils of fresh ground cinnamon is even more beneficial than buying ground cinnamon. But, I pan roast and grind whole seeds of other spices as well, and grind raw white rice as needed to clean out my grinder.

What else?

BBQ menu:
Cameraman Jenn's world famous burgers
...world famous for the crimini mushrooms, red onion, and bleu cheese she mixes up in the not too lean meat.
Bloodguard Bob's not famous yet cuz he's new at it Sausages in three flavors: chicken mango w/oyster sauce, chicken mango curry and chicken w/roasted garlic, basil and sundried tomatoes.
tato salad
CMJ's peach blueberry pie
BGB's strawberry summer cake
and the usual BBQ stuff.

I can vouch for the burgers and the chicken roasted garlic, basil tomato sausages being outstanding. I had the pie (I'm a sucker for blueberries) and that was also tasty.

julie had pork chops.

for me she made baked flounder with spiced noodles.

Tonight's menu:

Grilled wild sockeye salmon with honey mustard garlic glaze
Aidell's chicken apple sausages on the grill
BGB made three varieties of potato salad so I will let him post about those.
I made Menolly's individual caprese salads on mexican flag toothpicks with a balsamic reduction
Hidden Valley Ranch mix with sour cream and mayo for veggie dippings.
BGB's devilled eggs.

Yummers!

Sounds goood!

I just had had some bow tie pasta with mushrooms, basil and olive oil. To go along with it I had some Door County Raspberry sparkling wine. In a bit I'll have a BGB favorite. A glass of Cockburn's Fine Tawny Port.

Jenn!!

Did I have the ratio right off the top of my head?

Yes you did, Menolly. The caprese was a huge success!

Here are the beautiful, perfectly shingled, individual caprese' salad snacks paired up with matching Mexican flags. Ole'!

Got a corn beef hash omelet at IHOP. It came with a short stack of pancakes. I asked them to put some blueberry compote on the pancakes, as well as some whipped cream. Good stuff!

My grandfather got his old stand-by—the “big steak omelet.” I’ve enjoyed those before, too. We both shared a bowl of grits.

bloodguard bob wrote:Here are the beautiful, perfectly shingled, individual caprese' salad snacks paired up with matching Mexican flags. Ole'!

I truly did good with that one, uh?

Last night, Hyperception and I stayed at this older resort in the Georgia Smokies, called The Dillard House. It's about 10 miles south of the Georgia/North Carolina border. They have so many things available to do there, including riding stables, all for an additional charge of course, which we couldn't swing.

However, the reason we stayed there this time on our trip to bring Beorn home from camp is because we had eaten dinner in their restaurant before, as it is a top rated restaurant in Southern Living magazine, when we went up to Beorn's camp in previous years. It's good old fashioned southern cooking served family style (all you can eat on huge platters that is passed around the table).

Last night's menu was what they called a "traditional" Sunday dinner. Roasted chicken and buttermilk fried chicken, country smoked ham slices, green beans, lima beans, squash casserole, corn pudding, sliced fried okra in bread dressing, cormbread dressing, cole salw, whole baby sugar beets, oh man I can't remember what all. There had to be 20 different plates of items on the table. We had a taste of everything, and definitely did not request refills.

Dessert was their home made peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Let me be very clear on this. I despise peaches, in any form. I don't even like peach scented candles. However, they claim, as we were in Georgia, that the peaches come from their own trees. So, like a good little girl I sucked it up and gave the cobbler a try...



I just may change my mind about peaches if I can have something similar to that all the time...

Decisions, decisions...

Today we're having an early dinner, planned for around 3:00 or 4:00 pm, as Hyperception and I need to hit the road between 5:00 and 6:00 pm for the two and a half hour drive home from FIL's.

As I said in the breakfast thread, I'll be making my Sheboygan style double brats, similar to what I served at E'Fest, only served two on a kaiser roll instead of in individual buns.

FIL has both Heineken and Warsteiner available to simmer the brats in. I much prefer simmering in the Warsteiner. But he only has two bottles of that left, both of which I would need. He has a six pack of the Heineken...

...thinking I'll use the Warsteiner anyway as Hyperception doesn't need to drink any beer before we hit the road...

Pork chops with a slice of prosciutto (saltimboca-ish) and applesauce
Sauteed carrots and brussel sprouts
Buttered acorn squash
Harris ruby port

Ate at Gondolier Pizza. They make my favorite spaghetti variation: lots of it, meat sauce, cheese on top, and Italian sausage.

I'm a total sucker for spaghetti! I lurve lurve lurve it.

*nodding*

Spaghetti was the first thing I learned to cook at age 10, if cooking it my Mom's way could even be called cooking, even before I learned how to make scrambled eggs (the first thing I taught Beorn to cook). But, it has long been my favorite meal, and still resides within my top ten favorite, especially as I have my own version pretty much perfected for my taste. It is easily on the weekly menu rotation here, and thankfully my guys enjoy it just as much as I do.

Broiled rib-eye steaks
Savory yams
Sautéd carrots and broccoli

Let's see...

1:35 pm in SF now...

I could maybe be there in eight hours if I leave right now and have no problems hijacking a plane...

...what I wouldn't do for that meal...

Actually, last night we had filafel from Ali Baba's. BGB and I had to do laundry and while waiting for the dryers at the laundramat I realized I was starving so I got a to go plate with hummus and tabouleh and tahini salad. We ate in the laundramat. Tonight it's steaks.