Lovely meals, everyone.
More pasta here. The other one of us scoffed at my simple pasta with crushed tomatoes with Pecorino and Merkén chillis in oil. Wanted 1/3 of mine after all. Ppffff…
Mussels with the same tomatoes but then briefly cooked
I liked mine more.
It’s been a very long short week. Ending with much sadness. I do hope that we can figure out how to get past the hatred of others. We are all human.
Tonight’s dinner is summer comfort food - steak tips, baked tater, and a “use it up before it needs to be tossed” sauteed Swiss Chard with pancetta and red bell pepper. Steak tips were marinated in the butcher shop’s “Caribbean Marinade”, to which I added some olive oil, Aleppo pepper, and dried thyme and grilled on a grill pan and finished in the oven.
There was definitely wine, before and during dinner. And perhaps a snifter of Cuarenta y Tres for “dessert”. Some cheesy movie on the big-butt TV to try and get my mind off of real life for a brief moment.
Invite a fly in 
A stop at the store for some “essentials” 
I added a squeeze of fresh lemon to the hard root beer, I rarely drink soda and it was sweet yet perfect over ice with the lemon.
(Why does it cut off the photo??? Click on the image to see the whole thing)
I really just can’t get enough savory watermelon salads right now- and it’s sticky hot here so that makes it extra appealing. Tonight included cilantro, chopped olives, arugala, cucumber, sliced almonds, edamame, and a dribble of my “good” olive oil.
This was certainly a long short week! Yeeesh.
Grilled lamb chops with roasted potatoes and sautéed dates
Prepping for my son’s graduation party tomorrow. Big ole pot of gravy simmering with grandma’s meatballs and sausage inside, chicken for francaise browning in front. More to follow tomorrow.
Love that you have a big ol pot of gravy going in mid July, we could be cousins. An event is not an event without gravy . Congrats on the graduate!
Did I mention I’d be in Jersey tomorrow
Will you be incorporating the garlic into this
meal? Yes… congratulations
Pizza from the last of the tomato braised pork chops and some greens from thr garden. Wish the chilis were producing though.
Yes! Exactly this is the reason I discovered the “creamy” elephant garlic, it’s used in the gravy itself and my meatballs.
Long story short I started using elephant garlic out of frustration from pealing multiple cloves of garlic everytime I made meatballs and gravy. So I started using elephant garlic for the simplicity of peeling, however the elephant garlic didn’t fit well into a normal garlic press. Even when I cut it to fit into the press, the consistency was too stringy, so I decided to try throwing it into a small food processor. Next thing you know, beautiful creamy garlic that melts into the onions and evoo in the bottom of the pot. I use a 50/50 mix of creamy elephant and jarred chopped garlic in oil.
Works for me!
Regardless of the time of year when the family gets together for a dinner, grandma’s gravy and meatballs will be served!
(my grandmother use to live with us when I was a child, every Sunday was spent by her side making the meatballs and gravy and often homemade pastas. I pride myself in being the standard bearer for our families recipe)
Not sure about the jarred stuff , maybe with the milder elephant garlic though…
Will you really be in Jersey tomorrow? If so where? Obviously I’m a bit tied up or I would offer to buy you a drink, or decent slice of pizza somewhere. Safe travels!
One never knows…
I / we are often in NJ and will most definitely reach
out … in the future. I know very little about the restaurant scene
since leaving Fort Lee a very long time ago.
Thank you and get some rest!
Now we’re cooking with oil … site is acting a
little crazy tonight…
Brontosaurus sized 2.88 lb. bone in prime rib eye from Costco . I will grill it over oak wood and splash with salt . Green beans braised in tomato along with potato salad on the side . Bottle of red to drink . I will be eating on that steak for days .
WFD: ~ Cauliflower, Cashew, Pea, and Coconut Curry. Served over Basmati Rice.
~ COTC from the farm up the pike.
~ Yogurt with farm fresh blueberries, and honey for afters.
To the rather long list of curry ingredients I am adding my new found super-food, Green Nori Sprinkle by Green Spring, tiny pieces of crushed nori seaweed. Nori contains loads of necessary vitamins and minerals with multiple nutritional benefits. For the last two meals I’ve sprinkled in into last night’s Giambotta and on this morning’s HB egg toasts. There seems to be a subtle salty background flavor that simply adds to the favorable tastes of the food. It’s sold in the UK, and by Amazon in the US.
Over-the-kitchen-sink dinner: my simple, gorgeous happiness.
My hypothetical final meal.
Outstanding price-quality ratio. Subtle peachiness and a long dry finish.
Well, it doesn’t satisfies veggies, because of the fish sauce. It would be suitable only for pescetarians.
Spent the day with Mom and Sis, shopping . They both found something they needed at Kohl’s, and I was the only one with a Kohl’s charge card, so I got 20% off…the purchases became birthday presents for both of them, since they’re both having them next week.
It’s been cool and rainy most of the day (temps didn’t get higher than 65°, which is our normal low temp for this time of year!), so something more fall-like seemed in order - Garlic Roasted Chicken and Potatoes. I used a Frankenchicken breast split in half lengthwise. Would be better with skin-on to get all mapley-crispy, but the BISO is what I had defrosted.
Steamed green beans and wine alongside, and a few thundahboomahs have been rumbling for the last half hour. Rain just started again.
Finale of the first half of Season 2 of Outlander on the big-butt TV tonight.
