Last week was move in day for the beach club but today was the actual opening! After six years of waiting, playing politics, going on lists and greasing a few palms (c’mon it’s Jersey! You’ve watched tv it really does work that way!!) I finally got our “own” beach cabana! (all to ourselves)
So after pimping it out in a location you can hear the waves from your seat, as the Tom Petty played at 9am I started the day with an iced coffee and bagel.
You are only allowed “small appliances “ so tonight’s meal is my first attempt at using a “George Forman” grill. I par cooked the burgers to medium on my grill at home last night, plated and refrigerated. Now heated the GF to a toasty 425 it warmed / cooked the burgers to a perfect medium. Same for the wife’s and daughters chicken burgers!
Next was cooking from raw and worked wonderfully! Looking forward to getting creative and I’m 100% doing steak and lobster on Monday for the family!!
Happy & Healthy Memorial Day weekend to everyone!!!
Dinner was Cajun shrimp with bacon and corn over cheddar cheese cauli/corn grits.
Muffaletta salad salad.
The roses for remembrance are Queen Elizabeth. I saved them from the rain. Yes rain, I think there is an unwritten law that the Oregon coast must have rain on every holiday.
I cooked up my first batch of Lion’s Mane Mushroom tonight. I have a friend who has started an organic mushroom business. He gifted me a one pound Lion’s Mane Mushroom yesterday. It was gloriously impressive. No, that’s not cauliflower!
I wanted to go with a simple preparation so we could fully take in the flavor. They were sautéed in olive oil with crisped garlic, salt, and crushed red pepper. The mushrooms were delicious, having a meaty seafood-like quality to them (comparable to lobster or scallops).
I’m off tomorrow so drinks were plentiful. I have been working six day weeks for a month and a half and this is a five day week FINALLY. I may treat myself and do nothing tomorrow.
Anyway, used up the last of my Chartreuse with a Bobby Burns or two. Outside and in.
Tonight’s dinner was spaghetti and meatball with asparagus and radishes. The meatball is from the Italian grocery store and the rest is from the fridge/pantry.
Your experience with Lion’s Mane shrooms was better than mine. I was excited to try a new to me shroom & picked up a few at the local farmers market. I just sautéed in butter, too, to let their inherent flavor shine, but there wasn’t much of any
Fabulous looking Lion’s Mane you had! I bought one or two in a supermarket but since then had a chance to buy direct from a local grower. Lion’s Mane is so much better when enjoyed soon after harvesting, as you did.
Same. I 've tried them several times (a couple of the Union Square Greenmarket vendors sell them), and they taste like cotton. The only mushrooms I’ve been less impressed with are puffballs, which taste like air.
Thanks for the sad update. My uncle passed away about 10 years ago and it was really his thing so we haven’t been there in years. I remember him fondly when I see your steak tips.
Puffballs are some of my favorite. Perfect little butter sponges with a delicate cinnamon flavor, to me.
I really love hedgehog and chanterelle mushrooms, though. Lion’s mane are pretty good, too - not a big fan of a similar variety called bear head tooth, though. Chewy and pretty flavorless.
+1 on that. The Lion’s Mane mushrooms I bought at the supermarket had an enjoyable dense texture but were meh in flavor. The same with one that escaped me in the fridge and accidentally dried—rescued that in a saucy braise.
Lion’s Mane we’ve enjoyed the day of harvest was the best we have sampled so far. My hunch from this is that texture holds up and the umami taste fades.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hedgehog mushroom for sale. I wonder if they grow on the east coast? (The internet says “throughout NA,” but maybe not this particular part of it.)
Delightful dinner out at a neighborhood izakaya I just happened to pass by yesterday on a wine run.
Marinated & baked eggplant, surf clam on spinach & scallions, marinated mackerel, scallop & grapefruit carpaccio, pork gyoza. Sake & beer on the side. Everything was wonderful, but the open kitchen made for some smelly clothes coming home. I will return for sure, but sit outside next time.
