Since I had my big meal at lunch I had some salami and a salad for dinner.
Salmon with a dill cream sauce, and Blatsaria/ Batsaria, a type of spinach pie with a batter made of flour and/or cornmeal, from Epirus.
It’s cold, chili weather. Only changes I made from the recipe were pinto beans, sharp cheddar and added avocado. Very good, and two cartons for the freezer. There was a Manhattan.
Leftovers also . Ditto… I was given a large plate to go . Great friends, great food.
Sunshine is feeling a little better today. She is still in pain, but not as much as yesterday. I asked her what she felt like eating and she wanted a warm thick stew. So I threw together a big pot of Hoover Stew or we can call it “Recovery Stew”. She ate a bit more tonight and we have plenty for leftovers.
I had to bring a “small” antipasti to Thanksgiving, which meant there were a ton of snacks left at my house. So dinner tonight was a flat bread pizza (stonefire), drizzled with olive oil and fresh garlic, with fresh mozzarella, grilled artichokes, roasted red peppers, and diced hot soppresetta. Arugula after cooking.
Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Pineapple-Lentil Salad - dinner was prepared on the grill with the pork tenderloin coated with a rub made from chipotle powder, cumin, sugar and salt. Pineapple and poblano chili were just simply grilled with some olive oil and mixed lentils, cilantro, olive oil, some of the rub and some lime juice and topped with some pepitas
We had to evacuate our hotel room by 11am yesterday, grabbed breakfast at a bagel place, did some shopping, then went back to our friends’ place to kill time until my band practice. Football, laptops, fireplace (it’s COLD in Central PA!), trying to tire out the adorable kitten, lots of Indian food leftovers, some of which we had for lunch. Rehearsal went reasonably well, with a drummer who could’ve and should’ve been better prepared .
Left for Harrisburg late afternoon where we were crashing on our way home, and where we’d made a rez at a much-touted steak restaurant. I had one of The Best Steaks Of My Life at an Italian restaurant in Harrisburg (of all places), and we had a real hankering for red meat.
A dry martini with Haymans for me to start off, a Stella for my PIC, then we split a bottle of Lombardian rosé. We shared a ½ dozen oysters for starters (good Beau Soleil, very good Malpeques, very salty Wellfleet),
a surprisingly good Caesar
& a decent wedge salad, with perfectly cooked SBEs that were cold for some reason
For our main, we’d ordered the 21 days dry-aged strip steak RARE with chimichurri-king crab butter, and haricot verts with onion straw and garlic butter. The beans arrived first,
the steak a little later. All steaks come with some sort of ‘treatment,’ which should’ve been a bad indication from the get-go. All a good steak needs is heat, s&p.
It was medium, so we sent it back. The next slab came back quickly — as it should, and was perfectly rare….
BUT it had a lot of gristle,
especially for an alleged dry-aged cut of beef. Most importantly, a place whose main allure is steak should at the very least have the basics down, like temps.
At least they comped us the martini & the beer.
Off to Philly shortly, where tonight’s dinner is TBD & likely to surpass last night’s disappointing experience.
You can maybe expect a little bit, but wow, THAT’S a lot of gristle!
Hope tonight’s dinner is better. Bound to be.
Amandarama - Does the turketta approach keep the meat really juicy? And do use only the turkey breast?
Yes! It cures in the fridge with its salt, garlic, and herb rub for between 6-48 hours depending on how big it is (at 2lbs, I kept it to about 5-6 hours). It’s all breast meat.
I agree, so beautiful! I could dive right into the photo! Those cherry peppers add just the right touch of color and taste.
Disco fries with turkey and mushroom gravy, cheddar cheese, and mozzarella pearls. Pinot Noir for me and DIPA for him.
Is that a Boston riff on poutine?
I believe disco fries are a New Jersey diner staple. In the New England area, it’s cheese fries or gravy fries (or “poutine”, but often lacking fresh, squeaky cheese curds).
This was an interesting read:
Seared and baked bone-in pork chop with roasted carrots, broccoli and onions, chicken gravy.
I had to make that incision in the chop as it was curling up and making it difficult to sear properly.
Used up most of the chicken and gravy, and all of the veg (green beans, roasted carrots and radishes, and mashed potatoes) in a very boring pot pie. I added extra cooked carrots, and some peas and corn kernels (from the summer ears I bought and stripped) to round it out.
Back to Water .
And no picture, because…boring.
After last night’s annoyingly mediocre meal & colossal waste o’ money, it was time for a home-cooked meal. It also gets fuh-reezing cold now once the sun is gone, and I’m fully in hibernation mode
I’d been contemplating what I could make for us on the drive down, and thought it would be nice to take a break from meat.
I’m always up for salmon, and between lohikeitto and a fiery Thai red curry, the latter won out — mostly bc I already had essential ingredients in the house & only needed to pick up Thai eggplant, salmon, and Thai basil.
I sautéed TPSOG, chopped ginger, a sliced shallot & a few Thai bird peppers in peanut oil, added the Maesri red curry paste, a few cups of BTB chicken, lime leaves, and 1 can of coconut milk. Let that simmer with the quartered eggplant, added a few sliced oyster shrooms, the peas & salmon, a splash of fish sauce, the juice of half a lime, and topped it all with cilantro & Thai basil for serving. It came out pretty damn fantastic, if I dare say so — my PIC pronounced it ‘restaurant quality’… although after last night’s experience I’m not sure that’s always a compliment
He contributed jasmine rice from the rice cooker. Nice to be back in ‘our’ pad after two nights of uneven sleep in hotels, and we have one happy cat who took not one, but TWO celebratory dumps to welcome us home
His fabulous margaritas for dessert