What's cooking?

[Robin Garr]

Spaghetti with a quick marinara turned barely meatful by the addition of two meatballs doggie-bagged home from a local Italian eatery. Fresh steamed broccoli on the side.

Had a couple of friends over for supper prior to going out to see a play. That necessitated something on the light side, so I did a Moroccan chicken-with-olives thing over couscous with golden raisins. Served it with a Thai cucumber-mint salad on the side. Dessert was mixed berries with lemon cream.

Yesterday, my son, Andy came home for his first leave from the Navy. I was planning a cookout for today, but the weather did not cooperate (50 degrees, rain, wind), so it will be indoors. BBQ chicken, Italian sausage and hot dogs will still be cooked on the grill. I've also made deviled eggs, potato salad, cole slaw and beans & greens soup, plus an assortment of munchoids.

[Robin Garr]

Re-created a 2006 invention, a savory blueberry-juniper berry sauce for some Dreamcatcher Farm pastured pork tenderloin medallions. Whole-wheat dinner rolls from the farmers' market, a little salad, and a low-end but perfectly acceptable Vini Pinot Noir from Bulgaria.

Pork baby back ribs, a fifty year old recipe from my mom....mom's coleslaw and a rice dish with chicken broth, shallots, lemon zest and parsley done in the Zojirushi rice cooker.

[Jenise]

Had a couple of friends over for supper prior to going out to see a play. That necessitated something on the light side, so I did a Moroccan chicken-with-olives thing over couscous with golden raisins. Served it with a Thai cucumber-mint salad on the side. Dessert was mixed berries with lemon cream.

Perfectly en pointe. I love it when hosts take surrounding circumstances into account when planning their meals. Lighter, no beans....


I'm in a cooking mood today and smoked porkiness was talking to me. So on the stove, for when company comes next week, is an 8 quart pot of ham hocks and pork butt with tomatoes, mild New Mexico chiles, garlic, wine and tons of fennel for a pasta sauce.

In the fridge, for tonight's dinner, are two pork tenderloins are lazing away in a hotel pan into which I made an thick, oily rub of mild New Mexico chiles, garlic paste, Cholula Chipotle sauce and smoked Spanish paprika. I'll cut those into medallions and grill them with thick zuccini slices lightly marinated with cumin. To start, what I call Guacamole salad, a crisp pile of lettuce in a creamy dressing thickened with pureed avocado and seasoned with lime juice, garlic and oregano.

[Robin Garr]

Mary made a meatless marinara sauce for spaghetti, kicking it up with the addition of grated carrot and a little smoked paprika to the usual tomatoes, onions, green peppers and garlic.

[quote="Jenise"]This all sounds delicious. Since you dislike mayonnaise, do you make a creamy salad dressing with sour cream and vinegar, then add the pureed avocado, etc.?

Mayonnaise only sends me around the bend on sandwiches or near anything slightly wet such that it turns runny and looks like milk, or anything warm or anything made commercially or by strangers or that's been sitting awhile. Which rules out virtually all situations except a few and when I have complete control. The guacamole salad dressing is one of the very few situations in which I tolerate (and actually like) mayonnaise.

To start, what I call Guacamole salad, a crisp pile of lettuce in a creamy dressing thickened with pureed avocado and seasoned with lime juice, garlic and oregano.

Gonna have to try that!

[Jenise]

To start, what I call Guacamole salad, a crisp pile of lettuce in a creamy dressing thickened with pureed avocado and seasoned with lime juice, garlic and oregano.

Gonna have to try that!

It's major yum. Last night I used all napa cabbage in place of the iceberg I typically favor with this salad--anytime I can sneak a cruciferous item into our foods, I am doing so. It's my latest health nazi trick.

[Robin Garr]

It's major yum. Last night I used all napa cabbage in place of the iceberg I typically favor with this salad--anytime I can sneak a cruciferous item into our foods, I am doing so. It's my latest health nazi trick.

Mary has been something kind of similar lately: What she calls a faux Green Goddess salad dressing brought up to date, fresh arugula buzzed with low-fat cottage cheese, garlic, S&P to make a lowfat "creamy" dressing with lots of great flavor. It also goes particularly well with avocado chunks to bulk up a salad in a relatively healthy way.

[Robin Garr]

Planning Uighur-style cumin lamb with chiles from China's Xinjiang region for dinner. Sounds exotic, but it's really just bite-size cubes of Kentucky Dreamcatcher Farm lamb stir-fried with onion, garlic, ginger, chiles and more cumin seed than really seems reasonable.

[Jenise]

We're heading out on a 40 foot sailboat for what you could call a potluck at sea. A couple other boats will join us. I decided to take spring rolls because that was the first thing that popped into my head that was both portable and semi-vegetarian, both of which is neccessary for the occasion as neither of our hosts eat red meat. Reflexively, I'd planned to go get shrimp but the day got away from me and so I said to myself, "Self, you're good at this. Think NONconventional." A trip to the freezer turned up some of our home-smoked salmon. I also had green leaf lettuce, a cucumber, and carrots. In the pantry, glass noodles, sambal olek and dried unsweetened coconut. So the glass noodle became a noodle-coconut salad, highly seasoned with chives, sesame oil, sambal olek, brown sugar and soy sauce. It's lightly sweet and terrific with the salmon, which means I can go minimal on the sauce which, since we're on a boat won't be a dipping sauce per se, but a drizzle I pass over the plastic container full of spring roll halves, the inner cut pointed up in each case. A lot less potential for making a mess, and it thwarts the double-dippers, too.

I threw chicken breasts in the crockpot this morning, with onions, garlic, Hatch Chili Peppers, Poblano peppers, 1/2 a jalapeño, smoked paprika, Mexican Oregano, and a can of diced tomatoes in a rich puree. They will be shredded, then put into fried corn tortillas. I made a pico de gallo which includes an avocado, chunked. A simple salad of very dark burgundy Oak leaf lettuce, fresh cilantro, arugula, a bitter green from my garden (I never can remember the name) and radish. The salad and the pico de gallo will go into the taco over the chicken mixture. It is smelling mighty good in my kitchen!

...anytime I can sneak a cruciferous item into our foods, I am doing so.

Torturer!

Last night we had chicken enchiladas made with poached chicken breast, multi-grain tortillas, Spanish goat cheese, homemade enchilada sauce, guacamole, et al. Excellante'

Chicken jambalaya tonight.

[Jenise]

...anytime I can sneak a cruciferous item into our foods, I am doing so.

Torturer!

Tonight, in the interest of freeing up freezer space as well as using fresh produce bought days ago and not used until now, we'll be having a mixed grill of lamb rack, asparagus, and spring (Walla Walla) onions. We don't get ramps here, but these young bulbous Walla Wallas have come to be a 'local' treat we look forward to every spring.

Artichokes from the Farmer's Market, wild caught salmon on the grill, a baked potato, rubbed with duck fat and sea salt. Gene likes his with the works, I like mine with a sprinkle of Worchestershire Sauce, black pepper and salt.

Gene likes his with the works, I like mine with a sprinkle of Worchestershire Sauce, black pepper and salt.

Worcestershire on baked potato! I've never tried such a thing. I almost always reach for s+p and some kind of dairy fat (sour cream, butter, grated parm).

How interesting!

Gene likes his with the works, I like mine with a sprinkle of Worcestershire Sauce, black pepper and salt.

Worcestershire on baked potato! I've never tried such a thing. I almost always reach for s+p and some kind of dairy fat (sour cream, butter, grated parm).

How interesting!

We were at a steakhouse last year and I ordered Worcestershire to go with my plain baked potato. The waitress told me I was the second person that night to ask for it. I was shocked because I thought it was my invention. I love the taste of the potato, so rarely do I cover it up. Just a few sprinkles does it. I've never heard of Parmesan on a baked spud.

I've been marinating a cross rib roast for two days. After removal from the marinade, it will get a bit of fresh rosemary and French thyme rub, then oven roasting until medium rare. I picked up some nice looking baby red potatoes at the Farmer's Market today. I've caramelized sweet onions to add to the smashed steamed spuds, with garden chives, baby green onions and a little sour cream. Garden fresh carrots will roast along side the roast in the resulting juices.

Tonight we'll be splitting a good size rib eye, a half brule, and a nice salad. To be washed down by an aged out Cab.

[Robin Garr]

I'm thinking about what would happen if I took the basic ingredients for beef stew, but reassembled them into something lighter and more summery. Seasonal, but still good with a Sonoma Cabernet?