What's For Dinner #82 - June 2022 - the Scary Campfire Stories and Sticky S'Mores Month

School’s either done for some (in the South in the U.S.) or will be done sometime in the middle of June for the rest of the country. (I know summer holidays vary greatly in the U.K. and Europe.)

So now what? It’s time for archery, musical theater, band (“This one time, at band camp…”), swimming, boating or kayaking lessons, ropes courses, tug-of-war, and making potholders and other crafts at day camps or a week or two at sleepaway camp!

(I’m pretty much doubting the whole “making potholders” thing still happens at kids’ camp, but those of us “of an age” remember.)

Regardless, scary campfire stories and S’mores should still be a staple at camp. Then again, you could skip camp and just light up the home fire pit and still enjoy the scary campfire stories and S’mores!

Don’t forget what’s on the grill and enjoying the start of Summer’s bounty. What’s cooking?

11 Likes

Made corn tortilla tacos last night with leftover steak, chopped onion, Little Gem lettuce leaf, and salsa. Can’t believe I forgot to add cheese to the tacos. Had planned to make a Mexican Street Corn Salad from frozen corn kernels and discovered I had none, so used a frozen corn-on-the-cob cooked in the Instant Pot and made a “my version” of the sauce with what I had on hand. Used a bit of mayo, lime salt, jalapeño salt, and orange pepper. It was very tasty on the corn. For the corn cob, put a layer of fresh basil in a very small pan, added the cob, then top with another layer of fresh basil, and cooked in IP PIP style. (Know basil not truly Mexican, but did not have any fresh Mexican oregano.) On the side, had 1/2 avocado straight out of the peel. It was all good.

15 Likes

@gcaggianoGreg Caggiano, I responded to your query about cooking a steak in the air fryer on the May What’s for Dinner thread. What's for Dinner - #81 - the Planting Month - May 2022 - #755 by linguafood

2 Likes

We actually fired up the pit for the first time this year and had s’mores last weekend, while my sister and her family were visiting. Great way to kick off summer! I’m sugared out for a while, though - planning a simple grilled steak and salad tonight.

7 Likes

To the sauce for the corn, added some Mexican crema (table cream), too.

2 Likes

Yeah, s’mores are a one-time-a-year treat. Cloyingly sweet. But great way to enjoy time with your family.

Came home from a long day spent on trains and at a funeral. Was exhausted and craving hot soup. @bcc had rec’d another Viet place just up the road from us, so we decided to check it out. Split very good shrimp summer rolls with a tasty peanut sauce, I ordered the special phô (good broth), my darling a pretty uninteresting chicken stir-fry with lemongrass… very reminiscent of food served in Cantonese restos in Germany.

I went a lil apeshit wit da hawt sawces, so I wasn’t able to finish all of the broth :hot_face: It’s so nice when your tongue is no longer on fire :smiley:

Nice to be back home. Hope to sleep in mañana :slight_smile:



21 Likes

So, all in all, were you pleased with the place or not?

I went to summer camps for years, but didn’t discover S’mores till I read about them in a cookbook by Steve Raichlen.

1 Like

I was. The summer rolls were really quite lovely, and the phô was the best I’ve had in a long time.

5 Likes

Rough day at work, so munchies in front of the tv were in order - pepper jack, briefly, salami, banana peppers, olives, crackers. Chardonnay for me and IPA for him.

22 Likes

No photo. It’s cold and rainy here and I was in the mood for soup. I came up with a recipe for beef vegetable soup a number of years ago after running across some beef shanks. I’d never cooked with them before. So I seasoned them, browned them in a large Le Crust pot - set aside. Then sweat chopped onions, carrots and celery. Add a lot of beef broth and a can of chopped tomatoes. Drained butter beans, cut fresh green beans, fresh thyme sprigs, coarsely chopped cabbage and the beef shanks. It simmers all afternoon. Fish the beef shanks out, pull the connective tissue off, coarsely shred the meat and get the marrow out of the bones and stir it back in the soup.

We bought ourselves several Shun Japanese knives for Christmas. I used an 8" chef’s knife on the cabbage. Like cutting butter. I sliced off a good chunk of the corner of my left index finger along with part of the nail. Wrapped it in several paper towels. Put the cabbage in the pot, put the lid on and left it at a simmer while we drove to our nearby urgent care center. It bled all over my pants on the way there. We had extra napkins in our glove box. Not much to be done other than bandage it up with surgifoam and a birdcage dressing to stop the bleeding…have to wait and see in about 48 hours what comes next. It’s throbbing.

Too bad I picked the month of May to swear off alcohol!

10 Likes

Ow! Hope your finger heals quickly, Can’t you get a special medical dispensation to apply alcohol internally?! :grinning:

9 Likes

I did something like that once. Don’t remember which finger it was, but I was washing a brand new Japanese knife when my wife came into the ktichen to say something. Well, I could bandage it well enough for the night, but had to see the doctor the next day. I told him that my wife had distracted me. He told me, one doesn’t let oneself get distracted. Especially not by women. Sounds better in Swiss German,

5 Likes

BTDT. Did mine on Thanksgiving 2011…the first holiday meal in my new townhouse. :cry:

I’m going to recommend you get a finger splint and nonstick bandages so you can change every day after applying Neosporin (that stuff is a miracle worker for healing!) My first night was very painful without the splint every time it hit the sheets or anything else. Amd I learned to type at work with the bigass splint for the next 3-4 weeks. It just clacked loudly against tge keyboard. LOL

Hope the throbbing simmers down soon!

5 Likes

Wait…it’s June! Drink up! :wink:

7 Likes

I’m pretty committed to stop drinking. Alcohol is not my friend…

6 Likes

So sorry to hear about your accident. That must have been a major ouch.
I did something similar with my new Wusthof knife a few years ago.

My theory is that new knives from famous makers are like ancient or medieval swords - they demand a [human or user] blood sacrifice. You have made yours, now you and the knife will be good companions.

Heal soon!

8 Likes

All these injuries are hard to hear about. I have a nasty sharp paring knife that my mom bought me from a restaurant supply store and it was thirsty. For my blood. Luckily the knife accepted my blood tribute quit awhile ago but the knife almost got my thumb when CDC (constant dining companion) walked into the kitchen and started talking to me a coupla nights ago. He was all like I just wanted to talk to you and I was like Dude!!!

3 Likes

Stir-fried beef with mushrooms and kale. A rando recipe I picked up off the internet when looking for a way to use up a surplus of kale. Served over steamed rice. It was “meh”. ‘Nuff said.

Kale and scallions from the garden.

18 Likes