I was absent minded enought to dump most of the bordelaise into the sink, but not so absentminded that I stuck the silpat onto an oven shelf without a baking sheet underneath.

I think traditionally dauphinoise only has cheese on the top and not layered through, but yeah, that's pretty much what this was. My favorite restaurant growing up served something similar, and everyone's favorite part was always the crust, so I endeavored to make a version that was almost ALL crust by layering it thinly and loosely and not letting it fill up around the sides of the pan. It was crunchy and cheesy and creamy and cholesteroly...

Well, I'm off to enjoy whatever my non-foodie friends are burning up for the Fourth! Ciao!

PS - Mona, I'm consistently amazed at the quality of your food photography. How do you hold off on eating stuff that looks so good long enough to snap a decent shot???

Curried chicken salad sandwiches
Baked beans
Qunoa cheesecake with cherries

Charcoal-grilled D'Artagnan pork hot dogs
Grilled corn on the cob
Coleslaw with coconut milk dressing
Baked beans (from a can)
Blueberry crisp with Haagen Dasz vanilla

Cerveza Pacifico

I like the way you think, Dan. I never thought to make this type of potatoes on a baking sheet. I generally use casserole dishes. Thanks about the photos. I had to keep my paws off of the cheesecake to be able to deliver it intact to the picnic.

Greek inspired lamb burger
Open faced broiled tomato, basil, & provolone sandwiches
Blueberries and whipped cream with pineapple sage
Raspberry mini pie from New Morning Farm

Blueberry-mint-lemonade gin fizz

Calzones with salami and mozzarella and tomato sauce

A room-temperature repast:

grilled chicken with homemade vidalia/rosemary confit
zucchini and two kinds of cherry tomatoes (golden and red), baked with olive oil, bread crumbs, and thyme
pasta with pesto
green salad with edible flowers
bread and a little runny cheese

an utterly forgettable domestic pinot noir

Jonathan's birthday by request:

Breakfast:
Spiced brioche French toast, with Bonaparte brioches and farmers' market eggs and milk
Trader Joe's grade b maple syrup
Ripe peaches
Nueske's applewood smoked bacon
Peet's cappuccino

Sunday dinner:
Slow-smoked spare ribs
Homemade spicy bbq sauce
Three bean salad
Creamed spinach
Red cabbage slaw
Sour cherry tart with Haagen-Dasz vanilla ice cream

2007 Domaine de Mirail Rosé

I picked up a couple of pork and cheese pupusas at Tortilla Cafe, along with accompanying servings of curtido (Salvadorean cole slaw). To go with these, I made some chicken tacos on corn tortillas, black beans, and white rice. Nice meal.

Finger sandwiches with cucumber, radishes, and smoked salmon
Marinated black-eyed pea salad

Fritatta with Cibola's buffalo merguez, spinach and some leftover gruyere.
Gold and green zucchini with onions seasoned with cumin and curry.
Dessert was all local: white peach, raspberries, honey and homemade ricotta

Click to view attachment

Sauteed beef, zucchini, red/yellow peppers, and eryngii (king oyster) mushrooms simmered in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, and tobanjan (spicy miso paste)
Steamed brown rice

Birthday dinner:
hanger steaks from Ray's the Classics
sauce of demi-glace, mushrooms, thyme, and butter
pommes frites
green salad
chocolate fudge bundt cake


'00 Hartenberg Estate Cab Sauv

Charcoal-grilled Big Eye tuna burgers with grilled Vidalia onion, avocado and wasabi-ginger-lime aioli
New potato salad

2007 Markowitsch rosé

Gasp! No pie? Happy Birthday!!!

Thanks, but today is Emma's birthday, not mine. She wanted cake.

My birthday is Saturday. We will be at the All Good Festival in West By God Virginia, and God only knows what I'll be having for dinner that night.

Aren't they all?

This week has shown me that low-fat cooking can also be yummy...

Monday: broiled salmon with herb mustard glaze (with Dijon and whole-grain mustards, white wine, fresh rosemary and thyme, and some other goodies), served with steamed broccoli. Moist and delicious, it was a tasty new way to spruce up my old standby fish. Thanks, Giada!

Tuesday: One of my summer faves, Asian chicken thighs (marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, garlic, ginger, etc.) with minted cucumber salad (marinated with sesame oil, honey, seasoned rice vinegar, shallots, and serrano peppers). Alternates between spicy and cool--yum.

Last night: An Emeril recipe. Grilled pork loins (rubbed with olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, garlic, and chile powder) with grilled pineapple salsa (which had jalapenos, red onions, red bell peppers, cilantro, olive oil, and salt and pepper). I made a similar pineapple salsa with halibut recently, but grilling the fresh pineapple--as opposed to using canned--made an ENORMOUS difference in flavor. Duh, I know.

Tonight apparently was pork night

Iceberg salad with cucumber, tomato, yellow bell pepper, nicoise olives, and red wine vinaigrette
Pork rib chops wrapped in bacon, pan seared and then baked; caramelized red onions
Spaghetti with tomato mushroom sauce and salami

Cold poached Royal Red shrimp
Cold soba noodles with dashi-soy-shrimp stock dipping sauce
Sugar snaps with crimini and maitake mushrooms in green curry-ginger sauce
Sliced cucumbers with rice vinegar and soy

Fresh peaches

2007 Apremont Vin de Savoie

Homemade salsa and chips

Roasted sungold cherry tomatoes and buratta
Broiled lamb loin chops with chimichurri sauce
Couscous with patty pan squash and zucchini

Belgium waffles topped with broiled blueberry-lemon thyme-yogurt sauce

Fizzy lemonade

Dinner last night was something I haven't made in years. It's fun, spicy and a bit indulgent; Italian Peppers.
At the Kingstowne market yesterday, Mt. Olympus Berry Farm had an amazing array of peppers. I think Zora would be in heaven! I bought a bunch of ripe, firm banana peppers because just seeing them made me think of this dish.
What you do is remove the tops of the peppers and take the core and as many seeds out as you want. Then, stuff with seasoned ground meat (salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic salt) that has been treated with about a 1/3 cup milk and worked until it's really soft. Overstuff each pepper and place in a lasagna dish. With the leftover meat, make little meatballs and throw them in too. Pour over a jar of marinara, cover with foil, and bake at 375 for about an hour. Remove the foil and HEAP LARGE QUANTITIES of shredded mozzarella on top and broil until it's melted, bubbly and browned.

Turkey burgers* topped with fresh mozzarella, served on onion rolls spread with tapenade
Eastern Shore corn on the cob, buttered, with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
White rice, black beans, and tomatoes with cholula


Excellent meal. The turkey requires some aggressive spicing, and this did it.


*Half breast meat and half thigh; chopped scallions; chopped cilantro, harissa, horseradish, sriracha sauce, garlic powder, salt and pepper

Bbq'd chicken wings with homemade chipotle bbq sauce
Bbq beans
Big ol' mixed green salad with avocado, Sungold tomatoes, cuke and pepitas, roasted almond oil and balsamic vinaigrette
Queen Anne cherries

Magic Hat #9

Sweet Italian sausage
Eggplant & zucchini gratin
Green salad

Raspberry sorbet w black & red raspberries

* * *
I based the gratin on a recipe from Deborah Madison, using three fat little white eggplants and a couple of globe zucchini which I sliced into rounds and baked first, slathered w olive oil.

First, though, I let chopped, salted young, sweet globe onions stew in olive oil for more than an hour, covered, before lifting the lid and slowly caramelizing them. Threw in a huge clove of fresh garlic (chopped) and waited till the odor wafted upward. Then squeezed plum tomatoes (canned) over the pot and made a sauce.

Built the casserole in layers w torn basil leaves and left it in fridge overnight for flavors to get their beauty rest. Baked at 350 for 45 minutes covered, then strew surface w fresh bread crumbs coated in olive oil. Grated Parm over that. Back in 375 oven for about half an hour. Man!

Only regret is that I forgot the Pugliese bread in the freezer. I'm thinking leftovers would make a great sandwich w fresh mozzarella and a generous sprinkle of red chili flakes.

Tonight will be baked Barilla whole grain penne pasta (it's growing on me ) with seasoned ground turkey, homemade ricotta, shredded mozzarella and marinara. Topped with Parmesan cheese.
Homemade raspberry ricotta gelato.

Overall, I think we're getting a lot of flavor, while trying to cut back on the fat, and using whole grain pasta. The gelato had the least amount of yolks and heavy cream that I could find. My only quibble about it is that it was grainy. I used a vanilla bean with seed scraped, then strained the custard through a chinois, but those little seeds came through. Next time I wont split the bean and see how the texture is.

Toasted Atwater sourdough, brushed with pesto and topped with sungolds & red cherry tomatoes, garlic, A L'Olivier olive oil (this is currently my favorite oil), Maldon salt. Basically a tomato salad on a slice of bread.
A few Niçoise olives.
Milk.

Homemade chicken and broccoli wontons
Tostitos tortilla chips with homemade guacamole w/o onions (I know I'm losing out on flavor, but onions and I are *not* friends)

I cooked up a batch of wheatberries on the weekend to have on hand for weeknight salads, and I was googling recipes looking for interesting things to do with them. I got home twenty minutes early and in fits of creativity, I decided I was going to do several different dishes, each involving wheatberries. So dinner tonight was Iron Chef Wheatberry Challenge:

1. a tomato/basil salad with cooked wheatberries toasted in butter with garlic and topped with a dob of fresh mozzerella.
2. wheatberries with curried wilted chard--sauteed with mustard seeds, cumin, coriander & paprika
3. with chipotle buffalo sausages, sauteed bell pepper, and feta (this one was a hit)
4. wheatberry chapatis with tillamook cheddar
5. dessert, based on cuccia, which I hasten to add I've never actually eaten--very much an "inspired by" dish which completely departed from most of the original ingredients and used what I had to hand; wheatberries cooked with cinnamon & ginger, served atop some greek yoghurt with honey, finely diced candied citrus, and a quick grating of nutmeg.

#1 was meh; I was hoping the wheatberries would get even toastier in flavor, but they didn't really. #2 was good and had great smoky flavors, #3 was excellent, #4 was surprisingly tasty, and the dessert was pretty good, too--I think it would also make a very nice breakfast dish.

Veal saltimboca with white wine demi glace
Polenta cakes with a toasted pignoli and mascarpone gremolata

My presentation sucks, I know, but this tasted AMAZING. This was the first time I used my veal stock, and let me tell you, what they say is true: it's just like in junior high when you go up to the girl who's beautiful and popular yet kind, ask her to slow dance, and she says yes.



My mascarpone gremolata looks like bleached dog doo. Next time I'm doing a quenelle instead of piping it.

Chirashi-zushi: sushi rice mixed with some vegetables, topped with julienned thin omelette, shrimp, snow peas, and kaiware (daikon sprouts).

Homemade focaccia topped with fresh pesto, proscuitto, market purchased tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella.

Last night I made a crockpot pork loin coated with harissa and also the lobster mac and cheese recipe from the most recent episode of The Next Food Network Star.

The pork loin was a small end piece and dried out a bit too much. It made for nice pulled pork, though, mixed with some premade bbq sauce. My husband loved it mixed in with the macaroni and cheese.

For the most part, I followed the mac and cheese recipe, though I didn't start with fresh lobster. I bought one tail and half a dozen or so claws pre-cooked. The only part of it that didn't quite work right was the panko topping. I think it's because I cut back on the amount of cheese I put on top. (It called for 4 cups of cheddar, in addition to what was already in the sauce.) Overall, it came out pretty well. It made a lot, though, and with the lobster in it, we're going to need to eat it fairly quickly. I should have scaled it back to half a recipe.

Panko-crusted, pan sauteed skate*
Buttered new potato nubbins
Haricots verts

Sliced peaches with vanilla ice cream and liqueuer de peche

2007 Domaine de Mirail rosé

*from A&H Seafood in Bethesda, arrived this a.m. from Boston, $5.99 a pound! Wow, impeccably fresh and absolutely delicious!

Poached apricots and slivered almonds over vanilla ice cream here, after a salad w black raspberries.

Peach at lunchtime.

Blueberries and red raspberries in my bowl of cereal this morning.

Summer summer summer. Summer summer summer.

Baked chicken breasts
Leftover lobster macaroni and cheese
Spoonbread with fresh corn

cardamom-lime coolers (cardamom and lime infused simple syrup; lime juice; club soda; a shot of gin for me)
b'steeya
beet greens sauteed in olive oil and garlic
homemade black pepper ice cream with fresh local peaches

Oven roasted buffalo strip steaks
Heirloom tomato pickles
Mashed potatoes a la Gillian Clark

Grilled marinated short ribs (boiled red wine, soy sauce, fish sauce, onion, garlic, chives, thyme, pepper)
Grilled polenta (note to self: do a much better job oiling the grill next time, or develop a taste for polenta-crusted charcoal mush)
"Italian style" chimichurri
Mascarpone quenelle

Leftovers last night:

pulled pork with bbq sauce
lobster macaroni and cheese
corn spoon bread

Tuna salad soumen: tuna mixed with grated ginger and mayonnaise, set on top of very thin wheat noodles and garnished with sliced cucumber. Served cold with a dipping sauce. Not bad for a recipe off the back of the dipping sauce bottle.

Fresh whole trout, stuffed with thyme, wrapped in bacon, and grilled. Served with a squeeze of lemon. Might be the best fish I've had this year.
A whole early girl tomato, sliced and sprinkled with salt
Corn on the cob. This would have been much better had I not microwaved it.
Onion foccaccia from the Quail Creek folks at Penn Quarter.
Cherries and plums from Toigo orchards.

After a few days off from cooking, I guess I was a little rusty--this dinner (seared scallops with lemon orzo) should have been a breeze, but it didn't go as planned.

The orzo was cooked risotto-style in chicken broth and white wine (and some lemon juice, dried thyme, and sauteed chopped red onions), and I guess it turned out alright. It called for fresh chives, though, which I think would have added some nice flavor--but the ones I thought I had were actually past their prime, so I didn't end up being able to use them.

The scallops were just supposed to be seasoned with salt and pepper and then seared for a few minutes on each side. Well, doofus that I am, I forgot to drizzle my stainless steel skillet with olive oil, so the first batch (at least I remembered to cook scallops in batches) completely stuck to the pan and were destroyed. I threw the second batch in my non-stick skillet, and they were fine, but they didn't get that nice browning effect AND I got distracted and overseasoned with the pepper. Grrrrrr.

Par for the course this week, unfortunately--hopefully I'll be back on my game soon!

curried chicken salad with mayo, golden raisins, olive spread, shallots, and chives
served on a bed of baby romaine
topped with chopped cashews

I won't mention the spoonbread and lobster mac and cheese .

Cobb Salad, with blue cheese for me and feta for my husband

Pork and cucumber salad with wasabi dressing from this recipe. I used green onions and sliced ginger in place of the myouga.
Steamed rice

I spent all day canning and had no desire to cook, so:

Hummous and pita chips
Huge green salad with fresh herbs, cucumber, and beautifully ripe tomatoes from Tree & Leaf.
A variety of protein options for the salads: smoked tuna, cold poached salmon, hard boiled eggs, grated cheese
Apricot, plum, blueberry, & sour cherry crisp

Pimm's cup for me, milk for the kids

grilled whole trout stuffed with thyme
zucchini & cherry tomato gratin
sweet corn

a little cheese

sour cherry/blackberry/blueberry shortcakes

Cibola buffalo sliders on Bonaparte rolls
field tomatoes
bi-color corn from PA

Is this bad?
Click to view attachment

Cobb Salad
Breaded fried squash blossoms, stuffed with ricotta, heavy cream, chives, and dried herbs

I used panko for the breading and was pleased with the results.