What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Wow, Jeff, what a beautiful presentation.

A simple Thai red curry for tonight.

-Paul W.

Thank you, Paul. I was wondering what to make myself tonight. I just picked up some shrimp, so I'll make some kind of Thai red curry stir-fry with shrimp. And I have a pot of Thai holy basil.

Grrr. I made the stir-fry and it was good, but when I was cleaning up, I discovered my shiitakes and cloud ears that I was rehydrating. I hate it when that happens.

[Jenise]

Bummer, Larry!

Today it's meatless Monday at Chez J. Not sure yet what we're having but it most likely involves spaghetti squash since i got a fresh one (still green!) from a local farm.

Pork chops today. Maybe I'll use the leftover mushrooms.

[Jenise]

Don't know what I'm cooking tonight, but will be cooking it by a campfire about 100 miles from here.

Say, my spaghetti squash dinner last night? OFS!!!! Baked it the usual way, halved, then forked each into strings (when fresh and green, though, spaghetti squash aren't very stringy) and tossed them with parmesan. Puts the halves back into the oven to dry out a bit while I cooked fresh green beans, slivered into 3/4" lengths which were then combined with canned garbanzo beans and a scoop of pesto sauce. The combo was then scooped into the squash halves and each was topped with a little gaggle of pan roasted cherry tomatoes. Really fantastic.

Jenise: Don't know what I'm cooking tonight, but will be cooking it by a campfire about 100 miles from here.

Make sure your campfire is totally out when you leave.

Neighbor gave us a bag full of zucchini and a wide variety of tomatoes, both ripe and green. I think fried green tomatoes will be on the menu tonight, and I may make some zucchini bread.

Baked some nice zucchini bread containing raisins, cranberries, goji berries, and orange peel from zucchinis neighbor gave me.

[Jenise]

Tuesday night's campfire dinner went out the window when my left foot swelled up, for no known reason, like a balloon. Painful to walk on. And the plan had been to shop locally in the county we were going to camp in so I hadn't planned to pack food. So I got a pair of sriracha-marinated duck breasts out of the freezer to thaw for later. Zero plan associated with that, it was just something to work with later. Then unexpectedly around 3 p.m. the swelling went down, I told Bob "let's go!". Time was of the essence as we wouldn't get to our campsite until 5:30 and the sun sets around 6:30. He grabbed the cat and the litter box, and I threw the duck into a bag with some asparagus, fresh shitakes and a container of cured cucumbers, grabbed a bottle of pinot from the cellar on the way out, and off we went. One of the things I love about camping is the minimalist challenge of creating great food with my tiny camp stove. We're out there in some forest, yet we're dining. So dinner was seared duck breast, grilled asparagus, and shitakes finished with garlic in a bit of the duck fat.

Brought home a rib eye from my favorite place to buy beef for a steak-and-salad kind of dinner. The steak prep was what I call cowboy steak--a dredge of finely ground coffee, sugar and kosher salt. The sugar caramelizes the coffee into a fantastic crust, and the flavors enhance the match for a good cabernet. The salad was baby kale, crushed garbanzo beans and avocado with just oil and vinegar.

Today will just be seafood. Our neighbor gave us a bag of crab last night--cooked and ready.

[Jenise]

Tonight: salad with smoked trout, celery and apples; lasagna.

Fried plantains and cast-iron baked chicken thighs.

My teeth aren't strong enough to chew cast iron these days.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

In the proofing drawer right now: a loaf of deliberately lightly sweet bread, 1/3 whole wheat flour, into which I added poppy seeds for an additional pretty texture, which I'll take to a wine tasting later today. The host will be grilling flank steaks, and I'm taking a side dish of green beans tossed in pesto and snowed with parmesan.

My teeth aren't strong enough to chew cast iron these days.

-Paul W.

Anemic? I suggest Geritol or other iron supplements.

Shrimp zucchini boats.

[Jenise]

Cooking for another camping trip. Made tubs of cured cucumbers, three-bean salad (owing to a largesse of fresh, very sweet green beans), and will take along food for grilling. Plan to score some tamales at a very famous little Mexican market near Yakima.

Next up for me will be Beijing meat sauce noodles and Shanghai red-cooked chicken.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Last night's dinner was just downright silly. Got home from the camping trip and I wanted simple, easy comfort food, so we shared a green salad and a plate of tater tots. Call me a kid, but I still love them!

Edie had a couple of pierogies and some rabbit food; I had a pork chop and rabbit food.

Steak and potatoes here, too. And a salad - heirloom tomatoes and kalamata olives for me, toasted walnuts and corked carrots for Pumpkin.

Fideua. My first. Alas, a fail because I burned the pasta during the toasting stage. I should have chucked it but I didn't. I'm pleased with the recipe otherwise so I will try again. (And, as I will buy fideus, instead of making-do with whole-wheat spaghettini, there will be no toasting step to screw up.)

[Jenise]

Here on the left coast, usually spelled the Mexican way, fideos. Same size/shape noodle I remember so fondly from the Lipton soup of my childhood which I'd make double strength (half the water; or all the water called for in one envelope but with two envelopes of soup material) and then stretch even further with a handful of fideos to make this super salty noodle sludge. Adored it.

So last night we had a salad of bitter greens which included a type of radicchio many of you may have never seen. We have a mad genius farmer in this town who loves radicchio and grows all kinds of heirloom versions which show up from time to time at the local food co-op. This particular one is a pale lime green with a few pink flecks, about 9 inches tall. Grows more like a tall lettuce with fan-shaped leaves vs. the tight ball of the traditional red radicchio, and it's a bit sweeter (less bitter). The color and flavor is sensational in salads with darker greens.

Tonight: here's GREAT news. If all goes well for them today, around 7:00 tonight my brother and his partner John arrive here in two cars loaded with their least dispensible earthly possessions and three dogs. Their Oakland home, which they left yesterday morning, is now for sale and they are permanently relocating to Washington state. I have rented the home of a Canadian friend in my neighborhood who's unable to return which they'll live in for a few months while Chris undergoes radiation for a very aggressive form of prostate cancer and John begins house hunting. So at 7 p.m. tonight: martinis on the ready, and some kind of dinner.
Jeff, your description of a fideus sounds like the perfect one-plate meal. I can deck out the mis en place and finish it a la minute when the guys unwind enough to be ready for some food. BINGO.

What kind of gin, Jenise?

[Jenise]

Blue Coat, made in Philadelphia.