What's for Dinner #59 - the Summertime Covid Blues Edition - July 2020

Thanks all for the compliments on our outing. It was a wonderful escape from reality for a few hours! As you can see, we’re fortunate to live in a beautiful area, but another cool, gray day today. But so happy, no need to rant for awhile about the weather or anything else. Life is good, hopefully everyone is able to grab onto some special moments these days. :sun_with_face:

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The temp and humidity change from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. was astonishing. What was tolerable at 10 was downright oppressive by 1 o’clock. Glad I got my hair cut today. Otherwise, “drowned rat” would have been the look of the day.

My early afternoon visit to my Happy Place (a.k.a Wegmans) provided the main for my dinner tonight: local dry sea scallops.

Pan-seared in olive oil with a Tbsp of white wine and a “bloop” of fresh lemon juice added at the end for a wee bit of “sauce”, plated on Near East Rice Pilaf with a topping of toasted breadcrumbs mixed with fresh lemon zest, reshly ground pepper and dried parsley, and steamed green beans alongside.

A vodka and lemonade started the late afternoon. A glass of wine ended it with dinner.

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The view alone is worth the price of admission. :heart:

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Tonight was leftover yellow curry and smoked chicken over leftover brown rice and squash, with delicious sauteed CSA green beans, carrots, and tomatoes glazed with ponzu sauce.

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I purchased some beautiful fresh soft shell crab from Kings Food market. Mrs. P made crispy deep fried soft shell crab using self rising flour which really gave it a nice crunch. She also made fried shrimp and fried avocado (for the first time). She also made a refreshing Jersey corn salad. We enjoyed an excellent French red wine. Mrs. P made a delicious caper, butter, fresh home grown herbs, and vermouth sauce to go with it.













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Beautiful!

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Chicken Marsala (using sweet vermouth) is now my most requested dish. I’ve posted it here several times. Served with browned butter gnocchi in cast iron tonight instead of pasta.

There were several martinis. First outside to get started.

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I truly LOVE the reflection of the clouds in the glass tabletop in this picture. A lovely photo.

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I wish I could say I was sober enough to aim for such aesthetics!

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I haven’t been in a grocery store since March and have no desire to do so. We have had wonderful stuff available from several local restaurants that have a lot of pantry items, and Whole Foods delivery. So Friday was time for a restock order and I really didn’t want to cook so I added dinner to the grocery order.

We shared charred Brussels with pickled mustard seeds and almonds, fries, and a short rib grilled cheese. Very brown meal, but it was indulgently yummy. I thought the ratio of meat to cheese off, so we pulled off most of the short rib and saved it for another meal (tacos I think).

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Serious Eats Perfect Pan-Seared Pork Chops rosemary instead of thyme, and the first non-cherry tomatoes of the season. Sauce was made with the last of last years tomato shrub, reduced to what I’ll call a gastrique, and mounted with butter ( I love that expression).

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I swear I can SMELL those herbs!

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Beef noodle soup.

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Looks fab -your’re killing me!! @Mr_Happy

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It’s all a moving target. At the moment Americans can’t get into the EU. There have been some reports of Americans who can show long term (as in months) of residence in a country with a good CV-19 track record getting in but the success/failure rate is moderate.

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Summer veggie sampler plate for dinner: garden cucumber pickles, watermelon, feta, and cucumber salad, mixed greens and herbs with chimichurri ranch, and summer squash sauteed with brown butter, shallot, Aleppo and Urfa peppers.

Light meal in anticipation of this wineberry-topped Instant-Pot cheesecake:

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Oh my…the dessert fork just found a new home.

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I know it has been a busy month when I just skip over the 321 posts. I’ve been cooking but nothing wild. We did host a very small outdoor bbq last week and I cooked everything. It was such a nice slice of regular. And I got one of my greatest cooking compliments to date. Our friend said she loved coming to our house to eat because she always knows the food will be amazing!

Tonight I had intended to do some sort of a taco. It kind of fell apart along the way and instead rolled into brown rice with seared scallops, corn salsa, guacamole and grilled zucchini. Still tasty!!

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