What's cooking?

Apropos (kind of) Covert's post on the campus and town of Princeton, my cousin and her husband reside there. He has been a professor at Rutgers. Also a former sorority sister lives there with her husband who was with Merrill Lynch. They are involved in a number of arts and historic preservation non-profits in the community. I'm sure it's a lovely town. But I've had a "beef" with Princeton University since my own college days at the University of Nebraska. One sorority sister had a boyfriend from high school who was attending Princeton (they eventually married and I attended their wedding in Omaha.) She flew out to visit him and he arranged to pick her up at the airport. He drove back to campus and got caught with the car (apparently freshmen weren't allowed to have cars on campus in those days--don't know if that is still the rule.) He was expelled from Princeton for that violation! He was something of a leader on campus and they chose to make an example of him! He enrolled at Columbia University where he studied Chinese language--Princeton's loss was Columbia's gain.

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.

Robin, are those the same Neely's that have the cooking show...don't recall if it is Food Network or Cooking Channel.

[Robin Garr]

Lunch at the Neelys' Interstate BBQ at Memphis airport. ...

Robin, are those the same Neely's that have the cooking show...don't recall if it is Food Network or Cooking Channel.

If I've got this straight, they're related but different. Jim Neely founded Interstate Barbecue in Memphis, and the airport outlets bear the Interstate name. Gina and Pat Neely are the Food Network personalities, and I think Jim is their uncle. I'll run this by my expert Memphis expert ASAP and let you know if I'm wrong.

[Jenise]

Tonight, I'm serving a locavore buffet for my friends from Los Angeles (Ines is here!):

fresh local oysters on the halfshell with strawberry habanero mignonette
Blueberry-bourbon marinated bison kebabs (blueberries from my garden, bison from Brown's farm)
Hot chili oil crabspread (yesterday's catch) on wonton crostinis
raw zuccini rounds we picked yesterday at Merwyn's farm with local tuna (caught by my friend Les and canned by his mother) and olive tapenade
blanched locally grown and organic romano beans from the local Co-Op with pesto made from basil I grew
Salmon trio: Washington salmon straight off the smoker, one red (sockeye), one silver (coho), one king from Barlean's
local gouda, belgian endive and Walla Walla onion tarte tatins
roasted Lynden hazelnuts with herb salt
blanched baby carrots from Bingwall's farm with lemon juice and truffle oil

I'll be pouring old Leonetti, Woodward Canyon and Quilceda Creek cabernets. Others will contribute as well, the theme is "New Faves, Old Loves".

That is pretty darn locavore. Bravo. And more importantly, sounds delicious.

I assume you can also use local butter. How about olive oil? Do olive trees grow that far north?

[Jenise]

That is pretty darn locavore. Bravo. And more importantly, sounds delicious.

I assume you can also use local butter. How about olive oil? Do olive trees grow that far north?

Yes re the butter. Unfortunately, some things are neccessary that aren't grown locally. No olive trees here, no truffles either.

[Robin Garr]

Not as spectacular a locavore dinner as Jenise's, but everything except the pasta in tonight's dinner came out of our garden, which not only feels healthy but also carries with it the joy of beating the system. Free food! (Not counting Mary's work hours ... )

It was a simple dinner from the garden to welcome us home from a short trip to visit my mother and sister on Florida's Space Coast: Fresh San Marzano sauce over spaghetti, and cucumber and tomato salad. Wine: Santa Vicenza 2009 "Ventoso" Morellino di Scansano.

Grill tonight: asparagus for me, mixed veg for HWMBO, shrimp skewers and corn on the cob for all.

Oh my Jenise ! What a wonderful spread. You are the Joan Dye Gussow of the Pacific Northwest.
Those three are exactly the wineries we visited in '94 and spent a wonderful afternoon with the Golitzins when the tasting room was the porch of their home.

[Robin Garr]

Spaghetti with butter and a bunch of snipped fresh sage, a simple and delicious dish we first encountered in Alba.

Chicken Marengo for the wifey tonight.

BBQ'd Tri-Tip marinaded in Teriyaki sauce and finished with a Teriyaki glaze just before serving.


Yum.

[Robin Garr]

Tonight the San Marzano tomato sauce plays a supporting role with some excellent fennel-scented Italian sausage from Lotsa Pasta over mezzi rigatoni.

I have a couple of bone-in pork chops in a marinade right now. Home made applesauce thawing, and I think a stir -fry of small summer squashes, broccoli and white mushrooms will go well.This time of year, tomatoes are always on the list, and tonight will be some beautiful heirlooms, with a sprinkle of basil and a splash of evoo.

[Jenise]

I made some homemade ricotta for a dish I planned to make and serve over the weekend but never did, so tonight I'm finally getting around to trying homemade ricotta gnocchi. I've got Celia and Greg H's recipes here ready to go. The sauce will be made from from locally grown fresh tomatoes and garlic roasted in olive oil.

No time for kitchen duties for me today, so I have Dutch Crunch Sandwich rolls thawing and Louisiana Hot Links. I'm going to caramelize a pile of onions, heat the sauerkraut with celery seed, a little Summer Brew beer, and once Gene has grilled the links, they will nestle them in the sauerkraut until they have puffed up nice and fat. I'll make a well in one half of the roll to sink the hot link into, then pile on the onions and sauerkraut, and add some spicy mustard. Some sort of a cooling fruit salad, maybe with Ambrosia melon, cucumber, lime, green onions and mint. Life is good!

[Robin Garr]

I have to go out to a very quick meeting, and Mary's cooking baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese. I hope she can bring it up to a Chilean Pinot that I actually have hopes for.

My Hatch Chile project. Gene blistered the babies and I prepped them for freezing. I did a little over 10 pounds this year, both with the hot and medium peppers. Many of the peppers very long, much more so than last years batch.[

Medium and hot chiles.jpg

Blistering process.jpg

[Robin Garr]

Leftover marinated pork (lechon asada) from El Rumbon, a local Cuban street-food trailer. Mary wants me to heat it and eat it, saying that perfection cannot be improved upon. I want to do something with it. Reheat it in rice and a little broth, and hit it with some spices, at least? Hmm, maybe she's right.

I made 2 pepperoni pizzas last night. I had discovered that the small imported foods and meat market store around the corner from me sells the tipo 000 flour that Stuart recommends - excellent crust!

We are still in MA and in keeping with that it seems we are ONLY eating seafood or Italian. Yesterday we had pizza for lunch and lasagna for dinner. Tonight we are going to Len's sister's house for dinner where she'll be grilling pizzas. Hooray! We're contributing a salad of baby lettuce and arugula with cucumber, green onion, toasted almonds, red grapes and French vinaigrette.

I stopped by Harvard Meatson my way home from work today, and bought a pair of bone-in porkchops for supper. At home I put a couple of baking potatoes in the oven, then dug out the mini food processor, in which I dropped about an ounce of parmesan reggiano, a couple of handfuls of Scoops corn snacks, and a teaspoon or so of Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning, which I then processed to a coarse meal. I then dredged the dampened porkchops in the meal, turned the oven to 350, and baked the chops for 30 minutes along with the spuds.
Turned out fine!

[Jenise]

Will be cooking at home tonight for the first time in four days. I've got a flank steak that will become dinner and a pile of fresh, sweet tomatoes (from the Co-op, my garden's not ready yet) that will become a side dish of some kind. I'm thinking of a baked tomato-rice dish that Stuart was going on about several years ago and I always meant to make myself, but I haven't found his recipe and may just come up with my own. Tomatoes and beef = one of my favorite flavor combinations on the planet.

Sitting before me right this very moment is a large bowl of Pyriform Reds and Green Zebras dressed with nothing more than EVOO, truffle salt, and basil. Can I scream summer any louder?