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We had friends over for dinner tonight so, again inspired by Zora, we enjoyed:

- two different kinds of grilled kabobs. one was lamb marinated two days in Greek yogurt, lemon, etc. the other beef marinated like time but with red vinegar, soy, worcestire, olive oil. Different fresh herbs in each. Both good but the lamb was better.

- saffron basmati rice with carmelized onion and chicken broth

- a room temp salad made by combining chopped roasted eggplant with onions marinated in red vinegar, fresh chopped mint, basil and parsley, fresh lemon juice, some sliced tomatoes and a couple of other ingredients.

Made some BreadFurst baguette toast points for dipping in the eggplant salad and we had Marc F's amazingly rich brownies and great lemon bars for dessert with tea and coffee. Wine was a great Pinot from one of my favorite small Willamette Valley vintners.

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once again, my take on Provení§al-style fish stew - felt like I'd developed the recipe enough that I could risk serving it to guests.  Noteworthy this time because my brother actually ate some of the mussels.  Served with BreadFurst baguette, Monte Enebro, La Tur, a fantastically aged and funky  finocchiona, and fried spicy chickpeas from BreadFurst.  And white wine.

Angel food cake with Meyer lemon sauce for dessert.

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^and how does Ina Garten roast broccoli?

Like this.   I omit the garlic, but the lemon and cheese are fantastic.

Salad of green leaf lettuce, cucumber, and red bell pepper; miso-ginger vinaigrette

Whole wheat no-knead bread
Fromage fort
Bucatini all'Amatriciana with turkey meatballs

I saw this recipe on David Liebovitz' blog and have been waiting for an appropriate number of bits of cheese to make it.  Was it as good as I think?

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- two different kinds of grilled kabobs. one was lamb marinated two days in Greek yogurt, lemon, etc. the other beef marinated like time but with red vinegar, soy, worcestire, olive oil. Different fresh herbs in each. Both good but the lamb was better.

Two days seems like it might be too long to do a vinegar-based marinade for the beef. What was the texture like?

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Like this.   I omit the garlic, but the lemon and cheese are fantastic.

I saw this recipe on David Liebovitz' blog and have been waiting for an appropriate number of bits of cheese to make it.  Was it as good as I think?

I use a Jacques Pepin recipe, but I assume Lebovitz's is probably very similar.  I've made this a bunch of times, but yesterday was the first time I've made it recently.  It's usually awesome. This time I had a very hard time getting the cheese to blend.  It was very frustrating.

 It's the first time I've used this newish food processor to make it, and it might be that this one isn't as strong as the last one.  One of the harder pieces of cheese simply wouldn't cooperate and kept throwing the blade off the central spike, even though I had cut all of the cheeses into smaller pieces before blending.  I generally use a mix of cheeses, but maybe this particular bit was just too hard to use in the mixture.  It might have been a remnant of gruyere or emmenthal, but it was no longer labeled.  In contrast, though, a chunk of very hard TJ's aged gouda blended up just fine.

Given that prior to this time I had a 100% success rate and have always found it very quick and easy to pull together, I would encourage you to try it out.

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Two days seems like it might be too long to do a vinegar-based marinade for the beef. What was the texture like?

Agreed! And, lesson learned. It was a bit tougher than I expected given the quality and time/temp used. Guessing that could be because too much time in the acidic marinade might have broken down the fat and made the finished product less rich/moist?

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Salad of green leaf lettuce, cucumber, avocado, and red bell pepper; miso-ginger vinaigrette

No-knead whole wheat bread
Fromage fort
Roasted pork shoulder 
Polenta
Steamed green beans with toasted walnuts and sesame oil
 
The pork was based on a peril al horno recipe I found from Tyler Florence, but I didn't marinate it very long, so it was a kind of bastardized version.  It came out well, though.  The pork I used came from South Mountain Creamery.  Their pork products are consistently good.
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Agreed! And, lesson learned. It was a bit tougher than I expected given the quality and time/temp used. Guessing that could be because too much time in the acidic marinade might have broken down the fat and made the finished product less rich/moist?

What an overly acidic marinade can do if meat is left in it too long is break down the meat fibers too much, and turn the meat mushy. A short marinade flavors the outer layer of meat, but doesn't penetrate very deeply. A four to five day yogurt marinade, on the other hand, both flavors and tenderizes the meat without rendering it mushy. My guess is that the cut of meat you bought started out not being tender enough for kebab grilling. Perhaps it would have worked better to grill it in one piece and slice it thinly.
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Leftover lamb chops and yogurt sauce

Savoy cabbage rolls
 
The cabbage rolls were stuffed with a mixture of farro, tomatoes, and chopped pork shoulder, baked in tomato sauce, and topped with Parmesan.  It was a good use of ingredients I had on hand.  I had lots of savoy cabbage left over from the last batch of slaw I made.  Since it turned out I had enough bits of cabbage in the produce bin, I never got to the whole head I had thought I'd need.  I've used 10 leaves now and still have a lot of cabbage left :blink: .
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charcoal grilled, hickory smoked, herb brined eco friendly pork rib chops

charcoal grilled miso-marinated baby bok choy

pommes de terre mont rouge: puree of potato, celery root and carrot--yellow carrots in this case-- with roasted garlic, dijon mustard, and parmesan cheese (and butter, whole milk, creme fraiche, and an egg yolk). An old Dionne Lucas recipe that I used to make in the 1970's. Something about the half of a large celery root and the bag of yellow and orange carrots in the drawer made me think of it. It's a complicated process, because the veg need to be cooked separately, since they have different cooking times--ok, I did cook the celery root and carrots together--but separate from the potatoes. All need to be riced, then blended into a puree with the other ingredients, then piled into a casserole and baked until a bit brown and crusty on top. But, damn, it is delicious!

bosc pear

2009 Gloria Ferrer pinot noir

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last night:

after a junk food guilty pleasures lunch of Popeye's spicy fried chicken, a more abstemious dinner was in order. (I thought it was delicious and liked it so much better than lunch. J, Mr. "Isn't there any meat in this?" was willing to eat it, though less than wholeheartedly enthusiastic.)

shakshouka: with olive oil, onion, garlic, roasted red bell pepper and poblano chile, roasted eggplant, canned tomato, cumin, saffron, sumac, pomegranate molasses, simmered for 40 minutes and then eggs were poached in the sauce.

toasted multi-seed bread rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil and salt

fat tire

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Tonight will be the last of some salad we've been eating the past few days; the last of the cheddar biscuits (heated) and butter; a potato chive soup made with cream cheese; and an Elie Krieger recipe for baked salmon and kale with tomato sauce.

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last night:

albondigas de conejo* en salsa verde

masa corncakes with poblano chile

monterey jack cheese

refried beans (homemade)

DB Vienna lager

*made with eco-friendly ground rabbit found in my freezer along with the masa corncakes, which were left over from the fall DR picnic. I sprinkled the corncakes with cheese, placed a meatball on each corncake, ladled on the green sauce, topped with more cheese and popped the plate in the oven until the cheese melted. Garnished with chopped cilantro and scallion. Served with beans topped with more melted cheese, at the request of J, who had just read Tim Carman's ode to Tex-Mex food, and requested "lots of gooey cheese."

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Broccoli, tofu, and water chestnuts in a Thai green curry, served over jasmine rice.  Water chestnuts because Mr. lperry asked, "how come you never use water chestnuts?"  Also, it reminds me of being a kid and helping Mom cook "Chinese" food.  I felt so exotic with cans of water chestnuts and bamboo shoots. :) 

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Oven roasted root (mostly) vegetables - celeriac, parsnip, kohlrabi, golden beets, fennel, carrots.  While they were roasting, I made a sauce from (homemade, frozen) tomato sauce and oven-dried tomatoes, a little onion and garlic, jalapenos, cumin, coriander, turmeric, dill, Marash pepper, dried lemon.  Combined everything, then served on steamed basmati rice, topped with crushed cashews and then sumac, and served with thick (homemade) yogurt that was seasoned with dill and really good olive oil.

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Last night's Valentine's Dinner:

Oyster stew

Seared rosemary - lemon pepper beef carpaccio with arugula, pecorino romano, and aioli

Cacio e pepe

Frangiapane tart with cognac poached pears

The tart took a good long time to make but came out really well.  At various points, I thought it was going to be a disaster, but it ended up both looking and tasting good.  I used pear cognac supplemented with regular cognac for the poaching liquid and pear cognac in the frangipane.  Of the dinner courses, the beef was really the standout.

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last night:

pan-roasted duck breast with Montmorency cherry sauce*

haricots verts with garlic and lemon

left over pommes de terre MontRouge

spiced wine-poached bosc pears with Talenti vanilla bean gelato

*In the past, I have made this sauce with preserved brandied cherries that I make for garnishing Manhattans, and also with rehydrated dried sour cherries. If I continually use the brandied cherries, there won't be enough left for cocktails. Dried cherries work ok but not great. Last week, I found frozen pitted sour cherries at Mom's Organic Market. They are fabulous! The sauce started with chopped shallots sauteed in butter, some dry marsala, homemade veal stock, brandy, sherry vinegar, Italian grape must condiment, a sprig of thyme, and the cherries. Simmered and reduced for about 15 minutes while the duck breast cooked. Finished with a bit more butter and some chopped fresh thyme and parsley. I believe it was the best version of this sauce I've made.

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Beef, barley, and mushroom stew with buttermilk biscuits

buttermilk biscuits with maple syrup for dessert, a habit I picked up from my father

Curious if you make your own biscuits and, if so, what recipe? The biscuit guys at Union Market are doing a pretty good job. Off topic for this thread but would be curious about your take if you try them.

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Friday night was bahn mi with the lemongrass pork and pickled carrots from Charles Phan's cookbook, jalapeno, cilantro, french baguette because Matt came home early enough for me to make dinner.

I made a seven layer dip for Valentine's at my brother's house Saturday night to go with tacos al pastor they were making, it was homemade guac, black beans, salsa, lf sour cream, jalapeno cheddar grated and chives and green onion on top.

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Boodles and Dolin dry martinis

gougeres from Fresh Baguette in Bethesda

herb-brined, charcoal grilled, hickory smoked chicken thighs with ZQ sauce

Carolina-style collards (cooked with onion, garlic, bacon, red pepper, brown sugar, hot sauce, and cider vinegar)

sweet potato puree with orange zest and juice

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Boodles and Dolin dry martinisgougeres from Fresh Baguette in Bethesdaherb-brined, charcoal grilled, hickory smoked chicken thighs with ZQ sauceCarolina-style collards (cooked with onion, garlic, bacon, red pepper, brown sugar, hot sauce, and cider vinegar)sweet potato puree with orange zest and juice

The Fresh Baguette gougeres are very good. Something Mark at Bread Furst doesn't do.

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Curious if you make your own biscuits and, if so, what recipe? The biscuit guys at Union Market are doing a pretty good job. Off topic for this thread but would be curious about your take if you try them.

Mais oui!  I use an old recipe of my mother's; no idea where it came from.  White flour, a bit of sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar; cut in butter; add buttermilk.  I'll post the actual recipe if you want but I think it's pretty typical.

I found the UM biscuit dry and uninteresting, but I only tried it once.  Even a poorly executed homemade biscuit is better than any you get at a restaurant, if you're hungry and can smell them baking and eat them piping hot out of the oven.  :)

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Plans had to change tonight. In need of an uber-fast dinner, threw together:

- salmon salad using some TJ's wild sockeye, finely chopped bok choy sterns, white onion and an excellent mustard

- leftover fresh, chopped veggies with the rest of a leftover vinaigrette made a few days ago

- slices of BreadFurst levain with softened KerryGold and a sprinkle of sea salt

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Red and green leaf lettuce, radishes, cucumber, avocado, and white balsamic vinaigrette

Spaghetti squash topped with smoked oyster and watercress ragout

The squash was a Molly O'Neill recipe from A Well-Seasoned Appetite.  After having bought the ingredients for it last week (except the oysters, which I had and was looking for a use for), I decided the recipe didn't seem that appealing after all.  Days went by, I still hadn't made it and thought maybe I'd abandon the idea and use the ingredients for other things.  Last night, though, the people we had dinner plans with cancelled, so I decided, "why not?" and went ahead and made the recipe.

First impression:  it looked very pretty on the plate.  There are some blanched julienned carrots that really add an extra burst of color.  The overall dish, though, tasted just okay.  Maybe it's that spaghetti squash is not one of my favorites, but as pretty as the dish was, the taste fell behind.

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