Sunday poll: What's for dinner?

[Jenise]

Vietnamese dinner here for a small sunset party: spicy Sriricha chicken wings, lemon grass rice, roasted long beans, pickled lobak (sweet chinese radish) and some kind of larb (salad).

Cooking for wife, mother-in-law and possibly my sister.

Fresh garden tomatoes with a baguette, prosciutto, fresh mozzerella and a little basil with a NZ SV Blanc.

Eggplant parmegiano with pasta pomodoro and a player from the cellar yet to be announced.

A California smoked blue cheese with an Australian botrytis semillion from Elderton.

We've nursed the garden through a couple frosty nights, but its about over here in Salt Lake.

Tuna casserole -- we are doing the last of the plantings of bulbs and day lilies, it's a little chilly, and baking the casserole will warm up the kitchen.

This is one of Janet's favorite personal recipes, and she is teaching me how to make it. As you can tell, it was a kid favorite when David and Kathrine were growing up. It will be a nostalgic evening. :-)

Two cans Healthy Choice cream of mushroom soup.
Celery chopped fine.
Red pepper chopped fine.
Onion chopped fine.
Pack of frozen peas.
Two cans tuna, water pack.
8 ounces noodles.
Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Prepare noodles leaving quite ala dente.
2. Sautee onions and red pepper.
3. Mix all ingredients except the noodles in the cazuella.
4. Fold in the noodles.
5. Bake for 40 minutes at 350F.

Good warm or cold; better on the next day.

Not sure of the wine, yet -- probably a Veneur Cote du Rhone.

Farinata with eggs and cheese toppings. Green beans with herbs and olive oil.

Mushroom pie here, made with funnel chanterelles that I picked earlier today. I'll post the recipe here if I get the time (Hm, that does not sound quite likely... Well, maybe one of those days...)
Cheers, Anders

One of those use-your-imagination polenta dishes, sausage (not italian), carrot, celery, onion, a little garlic, s & p, parmesan, olive oil, green salad. Served with a Norton/CS blend.

For breakfast today, I made some Cafe Pasquale's whole-wheat pancakes, sliced smoked sausage, and biscuits and gravy, washed down with Lapsang Souchong tea.

But for dinner tonight I had no idea until I rummaged thru the freezer, where I'm nibbling away at contents each day so there's some space bigger than a toothpick.

I found a hunk of pork, so I think I'll make a green chile stew and homemade flour tortillas (a good dish for the now cold nights). And I think I'll stuff a leftover bell pepper for on the side. And beer. Edie will have to find something to drink besides wine tonight.

We finally had a frost last night that nipped the tomatoes and chiles. So I brought in the nearly ripened ones: Old German, Costaluto, and Amish Paste tomatoes; and a few almost-ripe cayenne peppers (they sure are pretty) and a couple of mulatto peppers that didn't ripen. If I can get off my duff this week, I'll plant some garlics.

Since there will be a ball game on, we're keeping things simple.

Tri tip and avocado sandwiches, skillet potatoes, and we just got a load of tomatoes in, so we're going to make a salad with that and some blue cheese I picked up today.

Yours sounds very exotic and wonderful Jenise.

We had a chilly rainy day here today in Pinehurst -- didn't even finish the full 18 holes -- so went to Fresh Market and purchased the most colossal fryer I've ever laid eyes on, and proceeded simmer it toward chicken soup while we watched a rented movie. Our friends are staying with us, and he is gluten intolerant, so instead of noodles, added a cup of four different rices (wild, brown, red and white). After a few minutes it didn't look like enough rice, so added another 1/2 cup. Next time I looked, it was more of a rice stew! Added carrots, celery and the pulled chicken and I must say it's divine. Will make a nice cozy dinner.

Left over Thai pork, shredded and cooked in a Thai sauce, served over Jasmine Rice, topped with peanuts, green onions, and cilantro. I am doing a fusion dinner tonight, layering the rice, pork, Thai coleslaw in a flour tortilla bowl.

Beef covered with red chile and cooked all day in the slow cooker. Will be served shredded wrapped in flour tortillas, with grated extra sharp cheddar. And more red chile. Rice and beans on the side. And guac 'cause avocados were on sale this weekend.

Pots de creme and vanilla custard for dessert.

No wine 'cause everyone is on call.

Lasagna made with beef & pork ragu and bachamel.

And a Cedarville '01 Cabernet.



Mike

Punjabi Fenugreek Chicken (a curry featuring fresh fenugreek leaves, onions, ginger, garlic, chiles, coriander, papric, turmeric, and gram masala in yogurt), accompanied by Kesari Pullao (ghee-roasted saffron, cinnamon, bay leaves, cardamom, and black cumin added to basmati rice), and a green salad.

-Paul W.

[Robin Garr]

Vietnamese dinner here for a small sunset party: spicy Sriricha chicken wings, lemon grass rice, roasted long beans, pickled lobak (sweet chinese radish) and some kind of larb (salad).

Sunday? That was last night ... Traditional Tuscan fare at Ettore Silvestri's Casa Mia, a lovely little farmhouse restaurant a few kilometers south of Siena. Walking-around apps of prosciutto sliced right off the haunch by the host, Pecorino Romano right off the wheel, and panelli (Siena's term for bite-size bread balls dotted with bits of black olives and capers, fried in olive oil). Then a pair of crostini, one topped with ragù, one with spinach and cheese, and a third item, taleggio or similar stinky cow's milk cheese rolled in a tender pasta envelope. Followed by fresh wild mushroom soup, porcini and several other in-season varieties, coarsely chopped in a light mushroom and onion puree. For the primi, pappardelle al sugo di cacciagione (game ragu). The specific game is not specified, but it turns out to be the usual wild hare. I get a whiff of anchovy in the flavor, too, rustic and delicious. The pappardelle is made with white corn meal (maize) rather than semoline flour. Then a plate of grilled pork Senese (Siena-style), both sliced tenderloin and juicy, fatty chunks of roasted skin, with a small turnip or parsnip flan and bitter lettuce. And just a bite - piccolo - of rare Florentine steak, because the host wants to show it off. Finally, for dessert, I didn't get the Italian names, but rich yellow cake molded around vanilla ice cream, topped with a thin dark berry sauce; and a thin wedge of rich, eggy pastry.

And lots of Tuscan wines to go along. I'll do my best to assemble all my wine and food notes on te flight home if I don't sleep all the way and if my little ThinkPad will open on the tray table in coach.

Signing on from a hotspot at Milan airport, headed home ...

sunday,

leftover clams from bretagne lobster.

made a 1-pot meal

basmati-rice, spring-ognion (is it spring? ), tomatos, garlic, chilli, and the lobster.

oliveoil in the pot, sir garlic, add all the rest, add water, salt and cover it tight. put it inot the oven (like riz-pilaw) and after 30 minutes it is done.

a salad on the side is never wrong



saturday evening i was out at marc´s place (andrea, david o. switzerland , rainer, and some new friends, 10 people all togheter)

i made:

sired goose-liver with apples and in mustard-cooked-apricots and prune-chutney made form david with prunes out of his own garden.

a tokio-style-bowl-sushi with real wasabi, maufactur-sojasauce 5y, and real japanese koshi-hikari-rice, wild salmon (wow, the best i ever had!) and tuna.

lobster-soup (bisque) with blue-breton-lobster, fresh cream from the mountain, fresh raw-milk-butter, vegetales in julienne, 1/2 tail sired in butter, and sea salt, homemade broth.

real-grown-gorgonzola ice-cream with caramelized (peeled) walnuts (david´s own) and half-dried apricots.

roe-deer-escalope (from the land arround my home) with a fonseca 2003 VP sauce, home made curd-"spaezle" and braise red cabage.

vanilla icecream with mexican (autochthonous-wild-type)


wines (if someone is interested ):

2 bt. j.j. prüm 1988 auslese ( 1x wehlener + 1x graacher )
dry white riesling vollenweider "schimbock" 2005
dominus 1984
castillio ygay 1964
H. bonneau R.d.Celestin 1995
vieux chateaux certan 1998
ferreira barca vehla 1991
soldera res. 1993
dunn H.M. 2002
aime stentz 1995 "pinot blanc"
tom eddy v.s.r. 1994
zambujeiro special selection 2002
nepumuck stejert traminer-bouvier BA 1975
graham´s 2000