Tonight:

Happy hour at home:
Michel Richard's recipe "faux gras with parsley gelee"
Roasted artichoke hearts with lemon
2006 Avondale Rose´

Dinner:
Charcoal grilled, spice rubbed tri-tip
Roasted corn off the cob
Creamed spinach

2005 Onix Priorat

Peach-sweet cherry crisp with vanilla ice cream

More of the giant bottle of Akita sake, steamed rice, and two recipes from the cookbook "Japanese Homestyle Cooking," by Tokiko Suzuki.

Cucumber and Wakame with Sanbai-zu (mixture of dashi stock, vinegar, soy sauce, and vinegar):

Click to view attachment

Nibitashi (simmered dish) of Lettuce with Young Sardines:

Click to view attachment

Last night:
Shrimp cooked with cilantro, chilies, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, palm sugar, and lime juice. I usually make this with Thai basil, but that's impossible to come by on the Eastern shore.
steamed jasmine rice
heirloom tomato salad
fruit crisp with sour & sweet cherries, peaches, and blueberries topped with brown sugar, butter, flour, and oatmeal.

Domaine Weinbach Gewurztraminer Altenbourg, Cuvée Laurence, 2002. Waitman got this at Schneider's. It was perfect with the shrimp.

Tonight:
Cubanos (grilled marinated pork loin, ham, swiss cheese, pickles, mayo, on cuban bread bought at the farmer's market yesterday)
cole slaw
maybe a little tequila

Not bad for a crummy beach house kitchen. We're blaming any and all screwups on the electric stove.

Zucchini pappardelle with garlic, basil, tomato, wild boar prosciutto, and an aged pecorino called Prima Donna; with Avondale rose of cabernet sauvignon.

I've been picking the zucchini really small (3 inches or so long), but still, the crop almost overwhelmed me this weekend. So I used the mandoline to slice them almost paper thin and very wide - like pappardelle - and cooked them gently in olive oil and garlic until just pliable, then mixed in the other things. Small amounts of everything, except the cheese - obscene amounts of that.

This one's a keeper.

Herbed cucumber salad, made with cukes and herbs from the garden
Corn on the cob, picked from the stalk, in the pot moments later, and barely cooked
Fruit salad, made with the last of the raspberries from the garden, the last of the cherries picked last weekend from the farm, and the blueberries we picked today at the farm

I love summer.

I was under the impression that Prima Donna is an aged gouda, a cows milk cheese from Holland, which is intended to be a Parmesan-type cheese. I could be mistaken, however.

We had an out of town visitor for dinner tonight. (Veggie-teen is currently in Ecuador.)

Amuses:
"Faux gras" chicken liver mousse with cucumber-parsley gelee
Roasted artichoke hearts
Marinated roasted red peppers
Olives
2006 Muga Rose´

First:
Roasted golden beet salad with mesclun and home made lavender chevre

Main:
Charcoal grilled lamb loin chops. marinated in EVOO, garlic and fresh thyme
Roasted fennel
French lentils with roasted garlic and basil

2001 Edmunds St. John Syrah Bessetti Vineyard

Cheese:
Nancy's Hudson Valley Camembert
P'tit Basque
Blue de Basque (sheep milk)
Rolf Beeler Tomme
Homemade membrillo, fresh figs, Medjool dates

Dessert:
Black raspberry and apricot tart with vanilla whipped cream

Orange pekoe tea

You're right. I confused what I actually bought with what I meant to buy.

We had dinner with legant and a non-DR.com friend on Friday. When the four of us get together, we pick a theme in advance of dinner and everyone prepares a course. The original theme for Friday's dinner was softshell crabs but after calling around for softshells and learning that they were either to $$ or frozen, the theme changed to crabcakes.

Starters were a tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad (Eric) and a soup made from legant's CSA items (tomatillos, onions, garlic, peppers, cream).


The main course was crabcakes (cjsadler) with a red pepper slaw (cjsadler) and corn pudding (txaggie).


Desserts were a lemon blueberry tart (legant) and ice cream sandwiches - brown sugar cookies and vanilla swiss almond Haagen-Dazs (txaggie).




Saturday's dinner was made from Friday's leftovers.

Crab cakes with fresh corn polenta and tarragon oil


And to drink...

Hickory Smoked Baby Back Ribs w/ Balsamic Fig BBQ Sauce
Corn Muffins w/ Maple Butter
10 Year Eagle Rare Bourbon

Several "firsts" for me last night.

1) First time smoking anything. I used my 22" Weber Kettle... briquettes on one side, topped with some hickory chips soaked in beer, cider vinegar, and water. Holding them back were two loaf pans filled with water, apple cider, and balsamic vinegar. I put the food to be smoked on the other side directly under the vents. Into the vents I stuck a candy thermometer. The whole apparatus required almost NO interference from me - I added maybe ten briquettes during the entire four and a half hours, and it maintained a perfect 250-275. I used about three cups of wood chips.
2) First time making a BBQ sauce. I took some fresh figs, halved, and grilled them directly over the hickory chips, then simmered them for four hours until they melted in a mixture of balsamic and cider vinegar, ketchup, dijon mustard, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, bourbon, maple syrup, and a ton of other crazy crap. After four hours, it was thick and sweet and delicious.
3) First time making ribs. I wanted to use spare ribs, but Wegman's wasn't getting them in until Tuesday, so I went with the baby backs. Put on my homemade rub, then stuck it in the fridge for a few hours. Then onto the smoker for four hours. In the last 20 minutes or so, I brushed on the BBQ sauce.
4) First time making corn muffins. They didn't puff up like I'd expected, but they were sweet and moist, and the maple butter was AWESOME. Even my wife, who doesn't usually like cornbread/muffins, had seconds.

The ribs came out PERFECTLY, with a rich hickory flavor. The meat was falling off the bone and the smoke line looked like someone had taken a pink highlighter and traced a ring around my ribs. The sauce was sweet and tangy and HORRIBLY sticky. The muffins were the perfect accompaniment.

My Weber is amazing. I'm DEFINITELY doing this again.

Little known cocktail recipe:

Bloody Kentucky Colonel
1 part bourbon
3 parts ketchup
1/2 dill pickle
Tbsp pickle juice (optional)

In a rocks glass, muddle your pickle until pulpy and bruised. Combine bourbon and ketchup in cocktail shaker with plenty of ice and pour over abused pickle. Garnish with maraschino cherry.

Julia Child has an excellent zucchini recipe in The Way to Cook, which is easy enough to just spitball and a good way to use up all that extra squash you've got hanging around:

Slice some onion and drop it in a saute pan with one part white wine and one part chicken stock. Simmer over medium heat. Meanwhile, grate some zukes and toss them in a colander with a bit of salt. Let it drain for about 10 minutes, then wrap it in a towel and squeeze out all the excess juice. When the onion mixture has cooked down some, stir in the zucchini, some black pepper, and a dash more salt. Turn heat to high and stir together until all juices are gone. You can, at this point, stir in a bit of butter or cream, but I think this makes such an excellent, fresh summer side dish as is, I never bother. I [heart] Julia.

Saturday we had a dinner party based around making sure we drank a particular bottle of 1992 Ridge Montebello before we move house next week. Tasty stuff.

miniature Philly cheesesteaks (wiz wit) as an appetizer
steak au poivre with brandy cream sauce (recipe from CI's The New Best Recipe)
corn w/butter and cream
pasta salad brought by guests
zucchini carpaccio salad w/arugula and romano (recipe from Smitten Kitchen)
brownies, strawberries, vanilla ice cream

Then last night we had:

chicken breasts with fennel and lavender salt
polenta
cream sauce with garlic scapes, edamame, green peas, and mint

So good.

Japanese curry rice and a green salad. Japanese curry is more like a curry powder-roux based stew than Indian curry; also, less spicy and sweeter.
More sake from the seemingly bottomless bottle of Akita sake.

What, if anything, would you do differently? Would you cut down on the amount of sugar? Did the combination of brown sugar and maple syrup render it "HORRIBLY sticky"?

Stopped in at the new Lotte in Germantown (they had live geoducks!) and picked up some ingredients for an Asian meal.

Edamame ravioli (won ton wrappers) with soy butter


Salmon with black rice cake and passion fruit sauce (those Goya bags of fruit puree are a recent 'discovery' of mine. $2 for 2 cups of fruit puree. Great for desserts).

Key lime souffle cakes

No fair! Y'all can't post about dinner and not provide more information! Details folks! Details!


What did you use to mix/bind the edamame? I'm guessing it was a puree of sorts.


How did you prepare the polenta? Was it moist or dry (e.g., fried or baked)? Was the cream sauce for the chicken or polenta?

The edamame filling was just pureed cooked edamame (1/2 pound) with about 1/4 pound of ricotta. Add s+p, soy, rice wine vinegar and some chili sauce (or whatever else you want). The soy-butter sauce is a Mark Bittman thing. He pronounces this a 'transcendent' (or something) fusion of East and West that he got from Jean-George Vonderichten. I think it's just ok, though. It's definitely a quick sauce. Use equal parts soy and butter... simmer the soy with a bit of grated ginger (or not) and then whisk in the butter on low heat (sorta like a soy buerre blanc).

Fairly simple, rather traditional Japanese dinner:

Salt grilled ayu (sweetfish; it's a local river fish)
Steamed white rice
Miso soup with wakame (seaweed) and tofu
Cucumber pickles from the next door neighbor
The last of the giant bottle of Akita sake (finally!)

Last night. More of a Fall than a summer meal, but that's what the ingredients I had seemed to be calling for.

Pan-seared Eco-Friendly pork loin chops with Marsala pan reduction sauce
Sautee'd chanterelle and maitake mushrooms
Smashed new potatoes
Red cabbage braised with red wine, honey and caraway seed
Oven roasted white onions with thyme

2002 Vinum Cabernet Franc

Leftover black raspberry-apricot tart

The polenta was firm. I had sliced individual servings, separated them with waxed paper, and popped them into the freezer a couple months ago to make prep easy. Thawed a half-hour or so, laid them on a sheet pan under the broiler, drizzled with olive oil. They got some of that tasty brown crispiness on the outside without the massive oil-spitting problem I've had while trying to fry the stuff.

I plated the cream sauce between the chicken and polenta, but it was for both. I have this great new cookbook called The Improvisational Cook and the author is really big on two things: the what if, and finding the right flavor combinations. The "what if" here was -- what if I take a creamy pasta sauce and put it on polenta instead of pasta; and I had lavender salt... lavender makes me think of fennel, so I'll crush it with some fennel seed and rub that into the chicken... need a sauce... I have peas and bacon, which makes me think carbonara, so a cream sauce... peas also go well with mint and I have some fresh mint... so you just sort of build a recipe from things that have an affinity for each other. A smashing success so far.

Prosciutto di San Daniele and Galia melon

Egg-roll wrapper ravioli filled with homemade ricotta
Veal meatballs
Sautee'd crimini mushrooms
Pesto cream sauce

2006 Markowitsch Rosé (Austria)

Edy's Sugar-free Fruit Popsicles

all'Amatriciana strata*
Creamy polenta
Toll House cookies

Belmondo Pinot Grigio, 2006

(*CSA eggplant, garlic and oregano)

Homemade pizza with sauteed red and yellow peppers, goat cheese, fresh thyme and BACON. Green salad. Citadelle and tonic for me, milk for the kiddos.

Cheddar Corn Chowder
Sliced flank steak with feta, greens, tomatoes and an olive and red vinegar dressing, on crusty bread
Vermicelli pasta salad with zested lemon and juice, fresh basil, evoo, heirloom tomatoes and kosher salt
White peaches with Blue Ridge Dairy yogurt and local honey

Adding to the chorus: I summer.

Crab cakes
Remoulade with homemade mayo
Arugula salad
Creamed fresh corn

2005 Pazo de Señorans Albariño

Apricot almond tart

Summer Finger Food:

Baked squash blossoms, stuffed with home-made Boursin*
Edamame
Cherries

Belmondo Pinot Grigio, 2006

Toll House cookies

(*CSA basil, parsley, garlic)

Charcoal grilled beef burgers on brioche buns
Cherokee purple tomato slices
Grilled sweet onion
Grilled corn off the cob with fresh lime vinaigrette and cilantro
Crispy pan-fried spiced new potato halves

Magic Hat Fat Angel

Pan seared talapia with peach chutney, oven roasted cauliflower, cheddar corn chowder and herb salad.

Why do I think half the time you're make this stuff up? [Maybe because I still enjoy Fig Newtons and PopTarts and Grape Kool-Aid?]

Dinner on Friday night was fajitas with peppers and onions and an avocado-tomatillo sauce (the recipe is from the September 2007 issue of Saveur).


Margaritas to drink.

No flim-flam or flummery happening here, my dear. Trader Joe's Foggy Bottom store sells MHFA for a very good price. Neither one of us much likes super hoppy, bitter beer. MHFA is just the sort of malty, caramel tinged beer that Jonathan prefers.

Last night:
Charcoal-grilled swordfish
Butter lettuce and mache salad with green goddess dressing
Cherokee purple tomato
Green beans vinaigrette
Marinated favas
Cold corn kernels with lime vinaigrette and cilantro (leftovers that had been served warm the other night)
Roasted red beets

2005 Oxford Landing Viognier

Sliced peaches with vanilla ice cream

The swordfish, purchased yesterday at BlackSalt, was super-fresh. I managed to cook it so that it was just a point, perfectly tender and juicy. This was the best piece of fish that's passed my lips this year. All-in-all, a delectable summer meal.

A rather fusion-y dinner:

Negronis
Udon soup with cabbage, bean sprouts, and pan-seared pork bits, broth enriched with the sake-deglazed fond from the pork-searing pan
Today's farm-picked blueberries over Cointreau whipped cream -- heaven!

First
Fried squash blossoms stuffed with homemade ricotta and reggiano
Creamy marinara*

Main
Charcoal roasted, herb-brined Eco-Friendly chicken
Marinated roasted red peppers
Green beans
Roasted cippolini onions marinated in EVO and balsamic vinegar

2006 Turkey Flat Rosé

*A basic marinara was pureed and mixed with some bechamel made with the whey from the ricotta-making. I've often felt that straight tomato sauces served with fried squash blossoms were too rustic and assertive for their delicate flavor. This sauce worked really well, savory enough to provide a flavor boost to the milky, crunchy blossoms and simultaneously creamy so that it didn't overwhelm.

Last night:

Red beans and rice (the beans were cooked with bone-in smoked pork that I bought at Dupont market from Eco-Friendly)
Collard greens with more smoked pork
Skillet corn bread

NV Dover Canyon Renegade Red

Blueberry-wild blackberry* crisp with vanilla ice cream

*I had about 1/2 cup of wild blackberries that I foraged in Battery Kemble. Not enough to do anything with by themselves, but they gave the blueberries an extra dimension of flavor. And a bunch more seeds.

Had onions and red/green peppers on hand so I made some chicken cacciatore which allowed me to use part of a big batch of basil marinara I made yesterday. After the peppers stop repeating on me, we'll pick a pup to come along with us into Old Town A. for a walk and some ice cream.

Why wait? Have the ice creamery mix some Pepcid into your scoop.

Check. Berry Tums followed by berry berry extraordinary sherbert from Ben and Jerry's.

whole sea bass roasted with ginger, scallions, and soy
steamed rice with sesame oil and nori furikake
sungold tomatoes, orange pepper slices, broccoli
plums for dessert

Grilled flank steak with rosemary garlic fingerling potatoes and succotash.

Last night:

Broiled salmon
Boozy Japanese Potatoes (potatoes cooked with sake and soy sauce) from Eric Gower's "The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen"
Salad of bean sprouts, cucumber, wakame, green onion, and sanbai-zu (dashi, soy sauce, sugar, and rice vinegar)

Tonight:

Kirin Ichiban beer
Pork burgers with Hokkaido cheese (which has the taste and texture of Velveeta, much to my chagrin)
Broiler fries with Old Bay
Cucumber and tomato salad

All produce courtesy of friends and neighbors with gardens. I love Japan.

Penne with tomatoes, zucchini, basil (all homegrown), ricotta (homemade), and Sorrento lemon olive oil.
Blueberry (homegrown), peach, and plum crisp with Ceylon cinnamon-maple ice cream (homemade).

Earlier this week:

Duck sausage (thanks Dan!) on lentils and oven-roasted sweet potatoes
Rocket sauteed with currants, toasted pine nuts and garlic
Store-bought bread and butter
Sliced nectarines with whipped cream

Since then: leftover lentils with whatever (leftover tandoori chicken, brocolli, etc.) If you have not tasted lentils cooked with duck fat you ought to look for an opportunity, and soon!

You GO, girl!

Last night:
Power failure at dinner time, so we ended up taking the food to a friend's house to share, and eat in comfort.

Vegetarian enchiladas filled with sweet corn, summer squash, mild chile, onion and queso fresco
Roasted tomatillo salsa
Frijoles refritos

Magic Hat Fat Angel

Dessert--Sliced peaches and Pio Nono con Manjar Blanco (a roulade cake made partly with coconut flour, filled with a rich dulce de leche that Veggie-teen brought home from Ecuador--this was modified from a Milliken and Feniger recipe)

Pegu: gin, Cointreau, lime juice, and bitters

Shrimp spring rolls with soy/ginger/vinegar/sugar dipping sauce
Steamed brown rice
"Spicy" pickles from the neighbor

Roasted eggplant gazpacho with brunoise of cucumber and corn
Eco-Friendly pork chops with pan reduction sauce
Tomato-mushroom risotto

2002 Edmunds St. John The Shadow Syrah

Broiled blueberries with vanilla ice cream

Savory pistachio-crusted goat cheese cake with fig-balsamic sauce (idea stolen from Mandoline in Philly)


Chicken piccata with spaghetti w/parmesian

2006 A Mano Fiano-Greco

This & that:

pork larb (pork from Cibola)
squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta and parm, basil, fresh tomato sauce
mini heirloom tomato salad
sauteed mixed mushrooms with fresh thyme and a smear of goat cheese on grilled bread
some rose or another

ice cream cones for dessert

Lou Malnati's deep dish pepperoni pizza (care package from younger son).
Salad of shaved fennel, oranges and greens
Il Poggio 1999 Chianti Classico Riserva
Lemon sorbet

Tomato and Peach Gazpacho. A recipe from Epicurious I saved from last year and just got around to making. I think it's too sweet, since I used a white peach, but the tarragon made a really interesting back note to this. I'm going to remember that, because I grow my own tarragon.

Crab cakes. I buy the ones at the Penn Quarter farmers' market. Yes, they are expensive; but, they seem to have better and fresher crab meat than I can buy AND I don't have to go through and pick the damn meat. I used the sauce from America's Test Kitchen, using chipotle peppers and cilantro. Eh. This is just WRONG. On that note, I saw something at WF the other day that bills itself as "Better Than Tartar Sauce." Does anybody have any experience with this stuff?