There was wine poured AFTER the boyz were satiated with the can cat and some crunchies. Because lordy, if the Chubster Twins are not fed AS SOON AS I WALK IN THE DOOR, I will (1) be loudly reprimanded, and (2) they’ll expire right in front of me.
An easy and familiar dinner: a nice-sized steak tip, seasoned with olive oil, s/p, and a garlic powder/herb mixture from McCormick, to which I added more dried/reconstituted orange peel. Pan-seared and finished in the oven to 135° to a perfect medium-rare.
Sides were half a baked potato with TPSTOB&SC, and steamed asparagus.
Wine. Nothing spectacular, but a perfect Friday night comfort food meal.
Korean-inspired tacos with red cabbage slaw - boneless country-style pork ribs were cooked in a glaze made from gochujang, garlic, ginger, scallions, chicken broth and corn starch. Topped with red cabbage slaw with snow peas, scallion greens, canola oil, rice vinegar and sugar
I enjoyed an excellent triple smash burger from Bloom in Verona, NJ. It contained caramelized miso onions, pickled jalapeño and cucumbers, and cheddar cheese sauce. I also enjoyed awesome crispy pork dumplings. The smash burgers are a new offering, and are available for takeout only at the Bloom Verona location and the Bloom Chicken Hackensack location.
Made bolognese and besciamella for lasagna to be assembled tomorrow.
While the bolognese was doing its thing, I poached a chicken breast for chicken salad (to use up that allioli I made), Cantonese style.
Then I realized I forgot to buy bread when I stopped by the grocery store earlier so no chicken salad sandwich until I go back.
Pivoted to caramelized miso butter noodles using the fresh HK-style noodles I bought last week, with some white-cut chicken and blanched snow peas (not pictured).
One of my gal pals had a birthday this week, and I’d promised to make a special meal to celebrate to which I invited another couple we’re both friendly with, as they’d just returned from their fall/winter sojourn in the city.
We started off with bubbly for the bday girl, French 75s / Calvados 75s for the rest of us. Our city-dwelling friends brought a gorgeous goat cheese & asparagus galette for our appetizer,
and I made seared scallops atop fettuccine. The sauce for the fettuccine started with crushed garlic sautéed in olive oil, toasted tomato paste, a splash of sherry, lobster BTB (a bit too much, I thought it was pretty salty overall ), squeeze of lemon, fresh parsley, splash of heavy cream. Side was a big green salad with walnut vinaigrette, walnuts & flavor bomb tomatoes.
Once again I was reminded why I don’t run a kitchen or restaurant: trying to sear 20 scallops well while having to toss the pasta with the sauce & plating it all in an “appealing” way almost made me lose my GD mind
Plating, shmating – everything was snarfed up (my PIC tossed the leftover salad WUTTTT), and we hung out until well after midnight. TJ’s macarons and lemon pizzelle were an ok dessert. Neither are my cuppa.
so no chicken salad sandwich until I go back.
), squeeze of lemon, fresh parsley, splash of heavy cream. Side was a big green salad with walnut vinaigrette, walnuts & flavor bomb tomatoes.
