Good visit with Mom. And I have noticed that while there are fewer cars on the highways on a Sunday morning, there are more leisurely Sunday drivers. Hey you! GET OUTTA THE FAST LANE!!!
Dinner was simple: BJs 5-cheese tortellini in a homemade garlic cream sauce, pan-sauteed chicken breast, and sauteed spinach. It was pretty yum. And yes, there was wine.
Quickie after a busy day - Caesar with breaded shrimp. Borsao garnacha while I watch a wine doc. 
Snacks at home and out for dinner.
Started with dhokla - steamed rice cakes - at home.
Then to a new turkish place in the neighborhood for more snacks - zucchini fritters with kataifi, muhammara, and lahmacun. Just fantastic - I am so glad this place is so close!
Yum! Do you have a recipe you could share?
I have one of these molds, but have never used it for pelmeni 
(Long story short… bought it for mom as a hack for something, she rejected it, so now it’s mine 
)
Grilled maple-chipotle pork chops, our hand-picked apples from Battleview Orchards in Freehold, NJ with bourbon and brown sugar, and garlic-horseradish mashed potatoes. A lot of flavor here!
I went off this recipe which is adapted from Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking. Kachka in Portland is my favorite Russian restaurant (I haven’t been to many Russian restaurants).
Made a few changes. Ground chicken thigh instead of the other meats, and instead of grating the onion I pulverized it in a food processor since the grating disk didn’t seem to make it fine enough. Next time I will only use a pound of meat rather than a pound and a half. I ran out of dough and had to make another batch to use up the filling, of which I used 3/4 of.
The pelmeni maker worked quite well, the hard part was rolling out the dough thin enough which was a bit of a workout. I used a Ziploc freezer bag with a hole cut in the corner to pipe in the filling. A bit time consuming but now I have like 200+ of these little pelmeni in the freezer.
Our friend in Staten Island invited us over for an awesome belated birthday dinner for Mrs. P and another friend. Among the outstanding dishes he made were boneless short ribs with baked tomato cobbler, and a tomatillo, scallion, and parsley salsa; grilled quail with seared foie gras and grilled fresh dates; cream of cauliflower soup with sweated leeks, and a seared scallop topped with trout roe; butternut squash ravioli with mussels and dried bread crumbs; Swiss rosti with pastrami smoked salmon and a 90 minute egg; Since Mrs. P doesn’t like salmon he kindly made one with smoked shrimp for her. lentils fra diavolo; baked cinnamon apple with avocado sorbet; various cheeses including rogue river blue cheese, gouda with lavender, and brie with truffle, along with various toppings including candied smoked bacon, honeycomb, red pepper jelly, honey roasted nuts, and fresh strawberry. We also had some awesome wines including a 1998 Jordan cabernet and a 2001 Chateau Musar.
Thanks for the recipe and explanation, fabulous!
What. A. Feast!
Oh my goodness, I need one of those molds!
I use that for the sangria I make (recommended by the late owner at Dali Restaurant).
Jordan wines are good to begin with - I hope the 1998 cab was stellar (as I suspect it was)! An amazing birthday dinner - is your friend a chef?
Wow! There are no words to describe that spread!
Here’s to your “Marital Bliss”… Thanking Halibut! (LOL)
Yes, the 1998 Jordan was stellar and still going strong after 21 years.
Our friend is not a Chef. He is an excellent cook who likes to entertain. We are very fortunate to be the recipients of his excellent cooking.
EP…don’t give out his address…there might be people going through his rubbish for leftovers!!!
What a meal!!! (My birthday is soon…get the picture?)
could never get good picture of halibut as I wrap them in parchment paper and. then 2 layer of foil after smearing them with pesto and grilling them until the foil is black. They come out excellent but picture does not look good. It is one of our favorites
