Two slices of mushroom pizza from the Vace on Connecticut Avenue. The women who work the counter there can be mean and they don't always heat the slices up all the way, but they're still my favorite place for pizza.

Amy

Some takeout "mai fun" from Kam San and a bottle of jasmine green tea from Maxium. Yum.

On one hand, you've got to work with what you've got.
On the other, there's probably a law about using jarred roasted peppers and sun-dried tomatoes to make a pasta at the very apex of tomato season...

Made with my very favourite dried pasta: the seven-colored 'Creste de Gallo', good olive oil, and plenty of Solitude Farm's garlic. I guess it has that going, even if I have a lot of other bad seasonality-karma to work off this weekend!

Grilled tuna steak.
Sauteed peppers with a splash of balsamic.
Tomato salad (from my back porch! ) with just a splash of olive oil and lime
2003 Chateau de la Grand Cassagne Costieres de Nimes -- best 2003 Rhone that I've had so far for under $10.

Anyone have (good) experiences cooking or grilling chuck eye steak? Giant has a sale on them, USDA Choice, for $1.99 a pound this week. Wondering if I should take a chance.

Here is some info from the cook's thesaurus.
chuck eye steak = chuck fillet steak = chuck filet steak = beauty steak = chuck tender steak = fish steak Notes: This steak isn't bad, considering it's a chuck steak. In fact, it's tender enough to grill or broil, provided that you marinate it overnight first. Substitutes: top blade steak OR eye of round steak OR top sirloin OR round tip steak

Eye of round should be banned.

unless it's in pho

Even then, it should be free. Or they should pay you to eat it.

Early dinner today. So I marinated the chuck eye steak in lime juice, garlic and jalapeno slices, and cumin. Grilled 4 minutes on the Foreman, and put the meat on some romaine with pears, pecans, and an onion vinaigrette.

Click to view attachment

Certainly not the best steak, but pretty damn satisfying for $1.99/pound.

An attempt to recreate a dish at Lebanese Taverna called Salmon Meshwi - Salmon with sweet sauteed onions, pine nuts and cliantro with Lebanese rice pilaf - it was good on its own but not too much like the one at the restaurant. And tomatoes drizzled with a pomegranite and lemon dressing.

I made some fresh sweet corn soup garnished with a brunoise of roasted beets. This went along with a spinach salad and flat iron steak.

Sorry no pictures.

I have some corn left that I was considering making into soup--would you share the recipe?

great dinner last night w/ some friends

NINE cheeses incl Rochetta, La Tur, Pecorino Chianti, St Augur, Fromage D'Affinois, Manchego, Bayley Hazen Blue, a goats milk brie, and a nice x-sharp English cheddar

Tomato, basil and mozzarella salad (tomato and basil from our garden)

Homemade Crabcakes

Teriyaki Salmon w/ grilled eggplant (again from our garden) and zucchini

Triple yum! Wish I had taken some pics

Some shrimp and grits.

Dinner on Tuesday night? Chili Shrimp over jasmine rice with a salad on the side. The recipe is from my favorite Chinese cookbook, "Chinese: The essence of Asian Cooking", by Linda Doeser(?)

The only setback was the use of a couple of Fresno Chiles for the "fresh red chili" it called for - I probably should have used some of my dryed Thai chiles because the heat just wasn't there. It required some garlic-chili sauce to make up the deficiet.

Not the most colorful of dishes, but with a glass of pinot grigio an excellent repast all the same.

tonight we are having pasta with thawed tomato sauce. in the summer, i invariably buy too many tomatoes at the farmers market. basically, collect as many as will fit snugly in a pyrex dish, cored and peeled, bottoms up, salted and peppered, with plenty of good olive oil. they can sit on a bed of basil, or add garlic and herbs, whatever sounds good. then roast in a 350-degree oven for an hour and a half or so, until they are carmelized. i first saw a recipe like this in alice waters, but there are many variations. she calls for the olive oil to come half way up the tomatoes, which is too high for me. also this tomato compote can get a bit soupy for a sauce, but i whisk it up if that happens. serve with some parmesan. you can also serve the sauce on rice, and there are many other ways of going to town with it. this is the best tasting way of cooking tomatoes i know.

Tonight was my night to actually cook! Fresh corn cut off the cob sauteed with button mushrooms and yellow onion, tiger shrimp and a white wine butter sauce.

YUM!

First real meal cooked in the new house. Marinated beef short ribs in korean rib seasoning and cooked in cast iron skillet, eaten with jasmine rice and some panchan picked up at the Grand Mart.

Still in disbelief that I have an electric range and was able to actually cook a meal on it since previous attempts in my youth were spectacular failures.

After watching 1 1/2 hours of the news out of NOLA, it was my turn to provide dinner. Safeway had crab meat on sale this week, so I made crabcakes, fresh corn, and a tomato and cucumber salad. We had some Folonari Soave to drink. Life is unfair, sometimes.

Girl talk over some grub at Chinatown Express last night. On the table:

Snow pea shoots in garlic (eh, they were "ok-lah" - could've been fresher)

Chow lai mein with beef (good!)

House special chicken (fried chicken on the bone, chopped and doused with a garlic, soy & cilantro sauce - YUMMY!)

If you want the house special chicken, point to it on the wall. It's on the red poster board.

Dinner for 3 hungry girls - 11 bucks per person. With leftovers...that I left at home today. @#$!

Heirloom tomato salad with parsley and basil.

I hate it when dinner sounds much better than it tastes

At a rare make at home dinner, chopped fresh tomatoes out of te garden on pasta with olive oil, basil and garlic with a bottle of Costanti Rosso di Montalcino 2001 out of the cellar.

At Matuba in Bethesda last night: large sushi, miso soup and a few pieces of chicken teriyaki. Gotta love Matuba!

Sauteed chicken breast with a skillet corn cake, peaches, basil and a balsamic cream sauce (thanks to Barbara for this idea).

We love this recipe - I still use the original, clipped from the Post food section, from back when they had recipes worth clipping. I serve it with brown rice.

my plum cake was all that was left when I finally made it home for dinner tonight. And a few pizza crusts. Thanks kids. Click to view attachment

An improvised dessert worked well, using leftovers from last two Sundays at Dupont Market. Bread pudding with peaches and mascarpone, using half a loaf of brioche, three peaches, three eggs and a cup and a 1/4 of milk, some sweet butter, turbinado sugar, vanilla and cinnamon, and half a container of mascarpone. Baked in a waterbath in a 300 degree oven for fifty minutes and left in the oven with the door closed for about a half hour after that. Served warm with whipped cream. Let's put it this way-- "It might have been better with vanilla ice cream" was the only criticism.

Sauteed pork chops with home-canned peach chutney (not as spicy as I would have liked - more habaneros next time).

Big salad with tomatoes from the market.

Bread that Emma baked with some help from Dad.

Ginger ice cream with blueberry compote (AKA my failed batch of jam from earlier this summer) and sliced peaches.

From my new Mario cookbook --
Turkey breast cutlets alla bolognese (breaded and panfried topped with parmesan shavings, a slice of prosciutto and some grated pecorino and finished in a hot oven)
Roasted onion halves with a balsamic glaze

And a caprese salad with slightly underripe plum tomatoes picked up at TP farmers' market.

After too many rich meals, an attempt at a quasi-healthy food experiment. Reasonably successful.

Crush up some saltines and wet them with milk. Throw in ground turkey. Hit it with pesto, extra olive oil, dried basil, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, black pepper, one egg. Make a face and thrust your hands into the mess to blend it. Scoop and squish lightly to form very loosely packed meatballs.

Brown 'em up on all sides in olive oil while you boil mini-penne in another pot. (Note: do not attempt to turn the meatballs with tongs.)

When the meatballs are brown, soak the excess oil out of the pot with a paper towel, pour in red sauce of your choice to heat through. Serve over mini-penne to a grateful household.

(Okay, it wasn't that healthy, but it was delicious.)

Jael

My "house special" thirty-minute meal--usually minus the pesto/herbs! What I discovered after doing this often enough, is that it is almost as good, and is much quicker, to skip the browning step and just poach the meatballs in the sauce. This works well for pasta and also to make Indian kofta curry, by poaching the meatballs in Patak's curry sauce, or one of Trader Joe's curry sauces, and then serve over basmati rice. I usually have cracker meal or matzo meal on hand, so the step of crushing saltines can also be skipped.

My clean up was big crunch watercress salad with the best olive oil I could find and a splash of balsamic...then I got hungry and drank some riesling for dessert.
Happy Monday!

I'm following the reasonably successful trend for the evening......I had a bunch of produce and herbs to use up so they all got tossed in together.

I sauteed some squash and chopped heirloom tomatoes until the tomatoes broke down and became saucy. I added some red wine vinegar, oregano, basil and parsley and let the whole thing simmer until I got rid of some of the liquid. I then poured the whole thing over some tubetti.

Turned out better than I thought and I have lunch tomorrow

Meatballs made with soft bread crumbs, milk, allspice, garlic, s&p, stuffed into warm pitas.

Yogurt with chopped mint, minced garlic, s&p for drizzling on meatballs.

Salad of halved cherry tomatoes, chopped cucumber, chopped sweet onion, fresh mint & oregano, olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Ginger ice cream with fresh peaches for dessert.

Spaghetti with bacon and onion in a red sauce.
2003 Ch Mas Neuf -- Costieres de Nimes.

At Maria's Bakery & Cafe last night (heaven help me, I will start a new thread on this place...one day soon):

HK style milk tea (extra milk on the side)
Jam and sweetened condensed milk on toast (comfort food...)
Chinese broc w/ oyster sauce (fresh veg and oyster sauce, perfect!)
Portguese Chicken baked with rice (HEAVEN!)

I was tempted by the mooncakes there but am patiently waiting on some special ones my friend is bringing over from NYC. It's the imperial kind or some thing like that...

No time to post earlier since my father and nephew were in town, but on the occasion of their visit, we had a week of "real" dinners...

Tuesday: Warm Spinach/Artichoke Dip & Chips upon our return from the airport. Chili con Carne, Coleslaw, and Cornbread (hmm, an alliteration theme?) with Boston Cream Pie (my father's favorite) for dessert.

Wednesday: Potstickers, Lemon Chicken, Braised Garlic Eggplant, Marinated Celery, Marinated Cucumbers, and Coconut Rice. Leftover Boston Cream Pie (which was even better the second night).

Thursday: A delicious-as-always dinner at Corduroy.

Friday: Mortadella Mousse with Pan de Mie toasts to start. Then my nephew's favorite Squash Ravioli with Sage/Butter and Tomato (mdt: butter-based! ) Sauces. Followed by my father's favorite Pork Scaloppine with Balsamic/Basil Sauce, Parmesan Asparagus, and Rosemary/Proscuitto Roasted Potatoes. Finished with "Kit Kat" Bars (in the style of Chef Power a la Chef Richard) for dessert.

Saturday: The last of the Boston Cream Pie (we'd done the Dim Sum Tasting Brunch at Cafe Atlantico and were all still stuffed).

Sunday: Margaritas, Guacamole and Salsa with Chips, Pork Tacos, Tomatoes with Cilantro/Mint/Lime Dressing, Refried Beans, and Mexican-Style Rice. I had planned on a Lemon Meringue Pie for dessert, but a deficit of eggs resulted in the last-minute substitution of Lemon Bars.

Plus, the above food was supplemented with Pecan Sticky Buns, Vanilla/Honey Granola w/fresh Peaches, and Yeast-Raised Donuts for breakfasts and some fantastic Cheesetique cheeses (Rochetta, Piave Vecchio, Smuggler's Blue, Manchego, and Beemster), Artichoke/Olive Tapenade, and Sicilian-style White Bean Spread served with Sourdough and Pecan Raisin Rye Bread for a couple of lunches.

(I do not plan on cooking another thing for at least a week! )

(Edited to slightly clarify that it was my nephew and father who arrived from the airport and it was not the Spinach/Artichoke dip that flew into Dulles that afternoon!)

Dinner last night was a white bean soup and squid salad. Both recipes were quick, easy, tasty, and from Cooking Light.



Dessert was inspired from the Eve dinner last Thursday. It was sliced figs with a strawberry-basil puree and almond brittle. Awesome!

Emmy snacking food --
Red Wine marinated pork kebobs
Tangy carrot yogurt dip
Sauteed eggplant with melted feta
Pan fried kalamata olives with fennel seed
Tabouli
Pita

While on the Chinatown Bus from NY's CT (never, never, never again will I take a CT bus):

Baked cha siu bao from Mei Lai Wah coffehouse on Mott

"Chung yao gook gai"- Scallion oil baked chicken from a BBQ meat joint on Elizabeth (the big one that spans one block)

Iced honey lemon tea

Yes, it was completely and utterly worth the bus ride. Gooood eats.

Fettucine Alfredo, with steamed asparagus.

Scott made the pasta with the kids yesterday afternoon. They were so excited you would have thought we had taken them to Disneyworld - Ian especially loved turning the handle and watching the fettucine come out. Both ate enormous quantities.

I am mystefied. Please explain these seemingly contradictory statements... I have on occasion considered taking that bus, or having my fifteen year-old daughter ride it to NYC to visit her aunt. Why will you never again take the bus?

Grilled brie and prosciutto sandwich. Yes, it was pretty drippy.

Beef fajitas
Leavings from a previously opened bottle of Protocolo

Ricotta-Basil-Semolina Gnocchi with the very last (I think, bags of it keep surfacing in my freezer) of the composite tomato-butter sauce from the canned tomato tasting.

a salad nicoise with heirloom tomatoes, haricot vert and small potatoes from the farmers market. the oritz tuna works well, but i mix in the oil rather than draining it off, otherwise it is too dry.

with a good dressing buried in a recipe from deborah madison: crush two garlic cloves with two anchovies and half a teaspoon of salt with a mortar and pestel, whisk in a teaspoon of dijon mustard, and then two to three tablespoons of aged red vinegar and one-third cup of olive oil.

Don't be mystified. The CT food is so good that I can endure sitting on a bus for about 10 hours. When I bit into my fresh cha siu bao from Mei Lai Wah, it was worth it.

Dinner last night:
From huge prepared foods market on 79 Elizabeth Street in NYC:
-Scallion oil chicken
-Braised beef tendon (YUMMY)
-Zoong (sticky rice "tamale" - sticky rice with peanuts, lean pork, ham and a questionable salty egg yolk [it was questionable b/c I think it was a regular chicken egg yolk instead of the more expensive duck yolk. Grr])

Dessert - Japanese style cheesecake and silvers of mooncake (white lotus with double yolk and "gum tui" [nuts and Chinese sasusage])

(I will never do the Chinatown bus again for minor reason such as the driver drove like a maniac, the passengers drove me nuts and they were running behind schedule. Also, I'm a bit type-A so having someone else drive makes me a bit bonkers. PM me if you have questions.)

After a first-time-in-a-decade trip to Olive Garden, I had leftovers of capellini with Roma tomatoes. Fairly bland. But when doctored with feta, capers, and a glug of good olive oil, it made a very tasty meal for one.

Jael

Rock shrimp and clams with cannellini beans

Man, that looks excellent!