What's cooking?

[Robin Garr]

Slaw made with farmers' market cabbage. Kentucky Dreamcatcher Farm pork chop, and a little dish of spaghetti with butter and sage. The spaghetti and butter weren't local.

I want an invite the next time Karen prepares the whole roasted chicken dish or Christina does the Greek meal with lamb and Tzatziki. I'm drooling.

[Jenise]

Crab season opened here on Wednesday, and Wednesday night I co-hosted the First Annual BS Crab Derby here at our home. "BS" because those are the last initials of us and the other couple who helped organize this. And also because the contest categories were: Largest Dungeness, largest rock crab, most barnacles, ugliest, sexiest and best Elvis impersonator. After the judging, we cooked and ate the contestants. A lot of beer and wine were consumed.

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Yesterday we caught a few more for our dinner.

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And did you sing "Love You Tender" to the Elvis impersonator crabs?

[Jenise]

And did you sing "Love You Tender" to the Elvis impersonator crabs?

Naah--they'd have jumped right back in the drink.

[Robin Garr]

San Marzano tomatoes are very difficult to grow at home. An old Italian heirloom variety, they lack the resistance to leaf wilt, blossom-end rot and a host of other plant diseases. But while they last, they truly give us that old-fashioned flavor that our great-grandparents took for granted. I've got about three cups of red nectar working now, for dinner and leftovers to come.

I was to make chicken parmesan, but Wifey went shopping and came back with a new waffle iron she's dying to try out. Breakfast for dinner tonight I guess.

[Robin Garr]

San Marzano tomatoes are very difficult to grow at home. An old Italian heirloom variety, they lack the resistance to leaf wilt, blossom-end rot and a host of other plant diseases. But while they last, they truly give us that old-fashioned flavor that our great-grandparents took for granted. I've got about three cups of red nectar working now, for dinner and leftovers to come.

Over spaghetti with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, served with Maupertuis "LG08" La Guillaume Vin de Table de France, one wacky Gamay from the Auverne, from Dressner through Chambers Street Wines.

Tonight's dinner was Sichuan Dry-fried Beef Slivers (Gon Bian Nie Rou Si).

A pound of tender beefsteak is cut into shoestring julienne strips, the finer the better. These are marinated with three tablespoons of soy sauce and one tablespoon of rice wine (for half an hour or more). Julienne five stalks of celery and one carrot, both cut before the julienne into 2-3 inch pieces (a mandoline is just the ticket for the julienne process). Also julienne about a one-inch square piece of fresh ginger root.

Heat about 1/2 cup neutral oil (I prefer peanut oil) in a wok over high heat. Add the marinated beef mixture and stir-fry for 6-10 minutes. At first the moisture and marinade will come out of the beef. You want to stir-fry until the moisture is almost all boiled off/absorbed, and the beef is dark brown and getting chewy/crispy. Remove everything from the wok into a colander set over a bowl to catch the drippings.

Take about 3-4 tablespoons of the fat collected below the colander holding the beef. Heat it in the wok over high heat. Add the julienned ginger root and several tablespoons (depending on how hot you want the dish to be--I like it hot; I use 4-5 generous tablespoons) of Sichuan hot bean paste (toban djan). Stir-fry until fragrant (about 20 seconds). Add the julienned vegetables and stir-fry vigorously for one minute. Add the drained beef and stir-fry for another minute or two.

Optionally, garnish with a sprinkle of sesame oil, and/or a sprinkle of ground, dry-roasted Sichuan peppercorns.

Serve with plenty of rice.

NOTE: If you can't find toban djan, use a very generous handful of dried hot red chiles (or several tablespoons of hot red chile flakes) instead. Take care not to burn the chiles. If you're using whole hot chiles, your diners will want to push them to the side (or you can remove them)--unless they're really adventurous fire-eaters.

-Paul W.

Three kinds of heirloom tomatoes (Brandywine, German Striped, and, one of my favorites, Green Zebra) and half a bufala mozzerella. Splash on a few drops of EVOO, add a scant dash of fresh cracked black pepper and truffle salt, and a few basil leaves. Forever summer.

[Robin Garr]

Spaghetti alla puttanesca again. I've got to get rid of half a jar of anchovies.

Unless I can come up for some other great idea that uses fresh tomato sauce and anchovies ... hey! FLDG post!

Although we finally had some rain and things have cooled off a bit it is still pretty hot/humid. So, we are keeping it simple this evening:
Grilled T-Bone (locally raised) with grilled onions and sweet banana peppers fresh from the garden. A couple of fresh 'maters sliced and a bottle of 1995 Phelps Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.

Last night, we had a mishmash of summer dishes. My daughter had just finished a week at "Junior Chef Camp" and wanted to make a fresh corn salad. We had that with a Lebanese grated cucumber salad, prosciutto with a beautiful melon Isabella found at the Farmer's Market, and mussels steamed in a 5-spice broth. It was all very tasty.

My daughter had just finished a week at "Junior Chef Camp" and wanted to make a fresh corn salad.

Gee, I wish a camp like that had existed when I was a kid!!

Crab season opened here on Wednesday, and Wednesday night I co-hosted the First Annual BS Crab Derby here at our home. "BS" because those are the last initials of us and the other couple who helped organize this. And also because the contest categories were: Largest Dungeness, largest rock crab, most barnacles, ugliest, sexiest and best Elvis impersonator. After the judging, we cooked and ate the contestants. A lot of beer and wine were consumed.

Jenise, I really wanna live in your neighborhood!

My daughter had just finished a week at "Junior Chef Camp" and wanted to make a fresh corn salad.

Gee, I wish a camp like that had existed when I was a kid!!

It was a great camp for her. I'll write more on it when I get a chance.

Tonight is a comfort food night. Two of our best friends, Pat and Karen, came home from a 2-week vacation to find Karen's beloved cat desperately sick and unable to breathe. They took her in and there was nothing to be done. They're coming over with their kids tonight, so we're making pastitsio. We'll have it with caprese and a cake my wife is making for dessert. Some of the pastitsio will probably also go across the street to our elderly neighbor who came home on Friday to find her beloved cat dead.

Rough week for cats around here.

Mike,

Sorry to hear about the cats. I hope the comfort food helps.

I set 3 pounds of chicken wings in their Cantonese marinade tonight. Normally I'd deep-fry them, but I'm trying to lose weight just now, so instead I'll grill them outdoors. I plan to boil the marinade vigorously and then use it as a baste during the grilling process.

The marinade is soy sauce, rice wine, fresh ginger slices, crushed garlic, five-spice powder, sesame oil, and scallions cut into thirds.

It makes delicious fried chicken wings. I have every expectation that it will be equally good when grilled.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Three kinds of heirloom tomatoes (Brandywine, German Striped, and, one of my favorites, Green Zebra) and half a bufala mozzerella. Splash on a few drops of EVOO, add a scant dash of fresh cracked black pepper and truffle salt, and a few basil leaves. Forever summer.

That was our dinner last night with a slightly different cast of tomatoes but they were fresh, sweet and local.

Tonight is wild caught Ahi Tuna, marinated in a bit of toasted sesame oil, fresh ginger, lime juice, then Gene will sear it perfectly on his grill. A room temperature salad made with farro perlato, radish, marinated cucumber and red onion, very small whole cherry tomatoes of various colors, chives from our garden, dressed with a buttermilk, thyme dressing. I finally got my first Chinese long green beans today out of the garden, they are so long that a few will feed us as a side dish tonight. If we have worked up an appetite and skipped lunch, I will make a plate of beautiful gold and red tomatoes, sprinkled with Thai Basil, and coarse salt, to go along with our meal. Or maybe that will be lunch!
I just found out I can grow Pineapple Guava in Redding. The nursery emailed me and told me what sizes they had. I'm thrilled to find this out as I've been wanting to try this fruit forever.

[Robin Garr]

Lunch at the Neelys' Interstate BBQ at Memphis airport. Dinner at Lac Viet, our favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Orlando's Little Vietnam. Goi cuon, Banh Xéo, green papaya salad with shrimp and squid, and roast pork Hanoi style.

[Jenise]

We didn't eat until 9:00 tonight. Spent the day (and evening, thank you Susan B!!!) hanging pictures and trying to make my house look lived in at last. So dinner was grandma food, the kind that takes me straight back to childhood: pork chops seasoned with onion salt, dredged in flour and pan-fried, tiny yellow crook neck squash sauteed until limp, sliced fresh sweet garden tomatoes. One plate, no salad starter, no nothing. Too exhausted.

Tonight we made saffron and turmeric pasta from the new Ottolenghi cookbook "Plenty", and served it with mint, parsley, toasted almonds and a spiced butter sauce. Seriously carbed up right now!

We didn't eat until 9:00 tonight. Spent the day (and evening, thank you Susan B!!!) hanging pictures and trying to make my house look lived in at last. So dinner was grandma food, the kind that takes me straight back to childhood: pork chops seasoned with onion salt, dredged in flour and pan-fried, tiny yellow crook neck squash sauteed until limp, sliced fresh sweet garden tomatoes. One plate, no salad starter, no nothing. Too exhausted.

Nothing wrong with that dinner. Grandma food? Not my grandma. She cooked straight out of her garden everyday. One thing that was always on the menu, were what I called Pi Beans. Pi must have been Portuguese for grandfather and I called them that because he ate them twice a day, everyday. Grandma always had a pot of beans soaking and another pot cooking. They were sort of pink, had onion, garlic. I never ate them, because I was so sick of seeing them everyday.