What's Cooking (Take Two!)

Tonight it is piles of summer ingredients on a dinner plate with a summer honey vinaigrette.
Piles will consist of: romaine and butter lettuce, red and gold bell pepper strips, cucumber strips, avocado wedges, grilled corn removed from the cob, mango slices, green onions, fresh cilantro, and left over ahi tuna which was marinated in a pineapple/soy mixture. Vinaigrette consists of garlic, lemon, honey, evoo, pink sea salt and pepper.

A cooked chicken breast gives me an idea for a riff on chicken cordon bleu: make ham+cheese rollups filled with the chicken (diced, mixed with pignoli, yogurt, and tarragon), and wrap in filo. Basic plan works but need to pep up the ingredients list a bit, either a stronger cheese or swap the yogurt for basil pesto or sundried tomato pesto.

[Jenise]

Drew, you and Karen are eating summer the way one should: cold, raw and well-seasoned.

Joy, your garden must be a wondrous as Karen's. Sounds delightful.

Jeff, great idea. I'd vote for stronger cheese. Perhaps something like raclette, which melts beautifully.


Today's 'cooking' is already done. It's annual Terrine Day, and my entry is Spanish in theme and vegetarian. Pictures soon!!!

Have you ever seen baby cabbages? The past two weeks a grower at the Farmer's Market has brought in bunches of green and red babies. They are a little bigger than a jumbo egg. So, tonight I am sautéing three of them (halved) in butter to get a little golden then finishing in a bit of home made chicken stock. Word has it that they are delicious, very sweet.

Gene is grilling a rib-eye steak which we will share, and I think I will make a plate of all colors of tomatoes, with sweet basil and the rest of the honey vinaigrette leftover from yesterday. If we are hungry enough we will also share a simple baked potato with black truffle butter.

We've had a French boy staying with us for a couple of days while they were finding a more permanent host family for him (he's here on a three week program). He wanted some typical American food, so I made meat loaf with mashed potatoes and sauteed broccolini. Of course, late this afternoon they came and picked him up to take him to his host family, so he missed the meat loaf. It was good, though. I threw in a fairly generous helping of reconstituted dried porcinis, which worked out very nicely.

We've had a French boy staying with us for a couple of days while they were finding a more permanent host family for him (he's here on a three week program). He wanted some typical American food, so I made meat loaf with mashed potatoes and sauteed broccolini. Of course, late this afternoon they came and picked him up to take him to his host family, so he missed the meat loaf. It was good, though. I threw in a fairly generous helping of reconstituted dried porcinis, which worked out very nicely.

That is a fun thing to do.....hosting a child from another country and something I always wanted to do. We never really took the opprotunity to do so however. Our brood was so busy with compitition skating, basketball, swimming and tennis that I worried about not giving our guest the best possible view of No CA living. Now that I look back on it, they would have loved our week-ends on Lake Shasta. We missed out on a great opprotunity.

A simple but delicious meal of grilled "Dijon" marinated loin lamb chops, sliced garden fresh tomatoes and baked potatoes lathered in artery clogging butter and fresh cut chives. The 1997 Araujo Napa Cab was reported to be excellent.

Tonight it is grilled chicken legs and thighs with a homemade BBQ sauce, and a penne pasta salad, with Carolina Gold and Champion tomatoes, basil, thyme, parsley, garlic, fresh lemon juice and zest, all from our garden. Lemon juice and zest are frozen in the freezer from last year. I'm tossing in some fresh mozzarella at the last minute.

We've had a French boy staying with us for a couple of days while they were finding a more permanent host family for him (he's here on a three week program). He wanted some typical American food, so I made meat loaf with mashed potatoes and sauteed broccolini. Of course, late this afternoon they came and picked him up to take him to his host family, so he missed the meat loaf. It was good, though. I threw in a fairly generous helping of reconstituted dried porcinis, which worked out very nicely.

That is a fun thing to do.....hosting a child from another country and something I always wanted to do. We never really took the opprotunity to do so however. Our brood was so busy with compitition skating, basketball, swimming and tennis that I worried about not giving our guest the best possible view of No CA living. Now that I look back on it, they would have loved our week-ends on Lake Shasta. We missed out on a great opprotunity.

We've had French girls stay with us on this same program for each of the last three years. It's worked out very well. They've been great fun to have here and my daughter had a good time showing them around. We didn't do anything too extravagent with any of them. We took them on day trips to places like San Francisco or Santa Cruz, but mostly they just wanted to see what life in America is all about. Accordingly, we absorbed them into our normal schedule for much of their time here. Unfortunately, my daughter starts school too early this year for us to host for the whole three week period.

Last night's dinner was chicken and andouille jambalaya. I also started the three-day marinating process for lamb souvlaki to be grilled on Thursday.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, what's the marinade for a lamb souvlaki? I've never had it but by street vendors and it's been a long long time.


Today I'm going spicy/Carribbean: Jerk chicken, rice and peas, butternut squash with chile-coconut-lemongrass sauce, pineapple-jicama salsa, and cabbage salad with toasted almonds and sesame dressing.

We had company over the weekend (Saturday night to Sunday night). For the first time in a while I cooked both breakfast and dinner in the same day. Both were superb. Can't believe I had the energy to make biscuits, hash browns and all the fixins in the morning, then turn around and smoke a prime rib (angus, bone-in -- SLAMMIN') on the grill, with fresh hericot verts sautéed with garden fresh herbs patty pan squash and mushrooms, plus a corn pudding. Haven't done this in a while. Once in a while I'm reminded, I'm a pretty damned good cook!!

This afternoon I smoked a 4 lb fresh chicken in the electric water smoker with apple chips for three hours and fifteen minutes. It took care of a nearby yellow jacket nest too (they moved down the deck and are now right over the basil planter; and hopefully they will keep the Japanese beetles away - if not the new nest will be history too). Getting back to dinner we also had freshly baked biscuits, and garden salad from the garden. Washed it down with Magic Hat Elder Betty summer ale.

Tonight it is Mexican Rice loaded up with chile peppers, sour cream and cheese. I use the non-fat sour cream and 2% jack cheese, both excellent ingredients that I always have on hand. Also, a trip tip with a spicy rub, surrounded by loads of onions, wrapped tight in foil and slow cooked in the oven. An unusual application for a tri-tip but the results are excellent with melt in your mouth meat, with wonderful flavor. I like it better than the grilled method. This along with a stir-fry of broccoli, red and gold bell peppers, celery, red onions and gold and red tomatoes tossed in at the end. I'm making enough to feed us tomorrow night too.

Paul, what's the marinade for a lamb souvlaki?
.

Marinade

8 tbsp Oliveoil
2 garlic cloves (finely diced)
1 lemon (the juice)
1 tsp black Pepper (freshly ground)
1 tbsp oregano (dried)
1 pinch cinnamon (freshly ground)
1 pinch cumin (freshly ground)

mixed together and basted onto the skewers 3 hours prior to grilling.

Jenise, the souvlaki recipe I'm using is here: http://greekfood.about.com/od/appetizerssalads/r/souvlakia.htm. I'm making a couple of changes: I'm using a few cloves of garlic in the first marinade addition instead of the onions, and I will be using a Cotes du Rhone instead of Port in the second addition. It will be ready for grilling on Wednesday night.

-Paul W.

Tonight it is chilled zucchini soup with shrimp marinated in Lemon and Cumin, served with a dollop of cilantro cream. A mix of sour cream, fresh cilantro and garlic. Some sort of quesidilla will be nice with this....will get creative later.

Dinner last night was the souvlaki that's been marinating the past few days. It came out delicious and tender. I served it with tzatsiki, a lettuce-and-olive salad, and kesari pullao (a saffron, cardamom, and black cumin rice pilaf).

-Paul W.

First time I have made a cold zucchini soup. It was a puree of zucchini, a sauté of onions,home made chicken stock, garlic and a bit of cilantro, with marinated shrimp and a cilantro cream (which I forgot). It was silky, elegant and tasty. The quesdillas were, flour torts, sharp cheddar, Manchengo cheese, Pimentón pepper, jalapeño, cooked to very crispy....very nice.

Yesterday I smoked two St Louis racks in our electric water smoker with hickory chips for four hours. I must have done something wrong. Couldn't get them out of the smoker in one piece; and after cutting them into individual riblets and putting them into our Tangy BBQ, practically all the meat fell off the bones. Darn! Enjoyed them with homemade biscuits, and sliced tomatoes.

Yesterday I smoked two St Louis racks in our electric water smoker with hickory chips for four hours. I must have done something wrong. Couldn't get them out of the smoker in one piece; and after cutting them into individual riblets and putting them into our Tangy BBQ, practically all the meat fell off the bones. Darn! Enjoyed them with homemade biscuits, and sliced tomatoes.

Carl,
Been there, done that. That's why I cringe whenever I hear people talking about ribs falling off the bone. If ribs are FOTB, I agree that it means you messed up.

Tonight it is fish tacos made with Pacific Red Snapper, breaded and quickly fried for a nice crispy outside. A slaw made with Napa Cabbage and Red Cabbage, red and yellow tomatoes, and cilantro. Dressed with chiipotle in adobo, rice vinegar, mayo, honey and fresh lime juice. Tortillas are a green chile made with a blend of wheat and corn and are small. Avocado served on the side to garnish the tacos.

[Jenise]

Karen, love the look and description of that cold zucchini soup.

Today's a cloudy, rainy 62 F, a perfect day for a long braise but I'll be away in a meeting all afternoon and can't tend to anything, so the backup plan is a garlicky grilled lambchops with I'm not sure what yet. Maybe I'll go to the store for some cauliflower--roasted and tossed with an herb d'Provence laced bechamel sauce is a favorite side dish for lamb here at Chez J. The wine will be Bordeaux.

Ah, enjoy your rainy day...I can only wish!