What's for Dinner #46 - the June Is Busting Out All Over Edition - June 2019

June started out quite nicely in my neck of the woods. Hope it did for you all as well.

Summer has arrived.
Or close enough.
Produce is starting to produce.
For those of us who anticipate the producing, that is.

What’s cooking? Using the newly available-to-you fresh stuff?

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As for me, it was good day with Mom and various shopping errands. AND I found more Ballymaloe Steak Sauce at a small store that carries Irish products near my Mom’s. BONUS!

Dinner was TJs pork belly, pan-seared until I got the skin as crispy as I could, then finished in the oven.

Made a glaze of blood orange marmalade, ponzu sauce, balsamic vinegar, minced garlic and Sriracha sauce and spooned it over top as it finished in the oven.

Israeli Couscous and broccoli alongside, as well as some wine.

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It’s the weekend which means dining out. We had another fabulous dinner at Cafe Panache in Ramsey, NJ. We started off with some excellent appetizers of very flavorful garlic shrimp, lobster and mussel bisque, and sweet corn agnolotti with butter and parmesan. For entrees Mrs. P had mahi mahi topped with eggplant puree and crispy ginger, over a pesto sauce and sugar snap peas. I had a Niman Ranch pork chop topped with poached shallots, in a red wine sauce, over polenta with fresh rosemary. For dessert we had pineapple and papaya sorbet. It all went great with a 2017 Ridge Paso Robles red zinfandel.











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Great photos!

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We attended a party and brought big platter of shrimp cocktail. I used wasabi in place of some of the horseradish and it worked perfectly. Lemon wedges for serving.

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Thanks @ChristinaM!

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And, from the May thread, happy 2! Such a cute age, so much development and change going on, you’ll have fun keeping up, I hope, on the good days.

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You say you already served up this feast? I’m late? :disappointed:

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Smoked jerked pork butt…only it’s 11 PM and it’s not quite ready Tet.

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Main meal of the day will be lunch. It’s mother in law’s birthday and there’s eight to feed. So, everything as ultra easy as possible (and herself is doing all the cooking - I’m relegated to table setting.

There’s bought supermarket nibbles to have with drinks. And then what she’s calling Mediterranean fish stew. - tomato based sauce in which she’s poaching, cod, prawns and mussels. Supermarket garlic bread to accompany (yes, I said ultra easy) and green beans. Followed by mixed berry pavlova - herself has made the pav and, apparently, has as yet unspecified plans for the 5 leftover egg yolks.

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Carbonara!

Happy birthday to your MIL. Her birthday lunch sounds very good!

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Thanks. I’ll pass on the tip. I love carbonara but we never cook it at home. It may be dinner.

Fish stew was good. MiL was in a good mood but is now ready to go home and have a siesta.

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Happy Days with the Naked Chef has a good carbonara recipe. I think you have the book.

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D-i-l is out of town so son brought 3 kids over for dinner. After a busy day out, I relied on a never-fail, cracking open a jar of Rao’s marinara to go over butterflies. One granddaughter wanted hers with butter and cheese, second wanted hers with butter and garlic salt, grandson wanted cheese only, no butter. I should be happy; these toppings are a lot cheaper than Rao’s.

At least they all ate the pork roast and broccoli with cheese sauce dunk.

They keep you young, or at least on your toes.

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That’s a successful kid meal in my book!

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My d-i-l has been a bear-cat since day one. The children are exposed every day to a multitude of vegetables and fruits, lean meats/poultry, only complex carbs and almost no refined sugar, Snacks are raw vegetables, fruit and cheese. They will eat a balanced plate, especially when they know that here they will have ice cream after turning in an empty plate. It is both joyous and tender that they are absolutely thrilled with a single smallish scoop of ice cream (with a hearty squirt of caramel sauce!)

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The WEBER escaped its confinement this afternoon! Beautiful day. Fresh fuel. Why not?

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I had my son and his girlfriend over for lunch today. I’m in an airbnb so shopping and cooking is a challenge. Managed to serve some chicken gyoza, followed by Vietnamese grilled chicken, quick mapo tofu, pesto potato salad. It was OK but not my best.

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Sunday Morning was quiet.

Sunday Afternoon was frustrating when Gmail decided to go all wonky and I couldn’t get a code sent to my work email to be able to access Salesforce from my home computer to try and get a leg up on my May billing of our clients.

After much gnashing of teeth (and a shit ton of swearing), I got the first batch of billing done…and then heavy duty rain moved in so I had to rush around closing affected windows. And then it moved out over a period of about a half hour.

Earlier today, I had made a savory herb butter with some Bittersweet Farms herb blend with some garlic powder and extra dried parsley and tucked it under the skin of a Frankenchicken boobie with a smidgen on top with some Camargue Sea Salt.

Roasted for a half hour at 425°, then finished at 375° until it was just a smidge above 165° internal temp.

Sauteed carrots and sugar snap peas in butter and olive oil and seasoned with Penzeys Fox Point Seasoning.

Wine.

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We had an excellent dinner out at Fin Raw Bar and Kitchen in Montclair.
We shared several appetizers of crispy edamame potstickers with scallion aioli and a citrus ponzu dipping sauce; Yellowfin ahi tuna tartar with avocado, scallions, in a citrus ponzu sauce; crispy calamari with shishito peppers, and chunky tomato relish. For entrees Mrs. P had the Lobster and shrimp Shanghai in a ginger curry sauce, with sautéed spinach and shoestring potatoes. I had a beautifully charred 24 ounce wood grilled 28 day aged Cowboy steak au poivre with crispy herbed fries. The steak went great with a 2014 Baer Ursa, a Columbia Valley red blend consisting of merlot, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, and malbec.






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