What's For Dinner #60 - The Hot August Nights Edition - August 2020

i ALWAYS need to visit France! I’ve been 7-8 times (actually lived in Marseille for a couple months in 2005, the other times were all Paris and 2 visits to Lyon) - not nearly enough. :heart_eyes:

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omg that second pic! drooling…

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We had gnocchi too; ricotta gnocchi that I pulled from the freezer with a quick tomato Italian sausage sauce. Slice of toasted olive bread. All out of lettuce/salad fixings. Wine for the side.

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We had Mozambican tonight: shrimp turnovers and rice and cheese croquettes with salad. So delicious!

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We had an excellent outdoor dinner at our beloved Cafe Panache in Ramsey, NJ. It has been over 5 months since we last dined indoors there. We really missed it. They are celebrating their 35th anniversary and recently reopened after being closed for 4 months. They put up a big white tent in the parking lot and had brought out their fancy indoor tables with white table cloths and chairs. They were all spaced 6 feet apart and the servers wore masks throughout the dinner. We enjoyed old time favorites like filet mignon bordelaise; panko crusted halibut with sticky rice in a wasabi sake; filet mignon ravioli, and NJ sweet corn agnolotti with popcorn. We had some excellent coconut cake and passionfruit sorbet for dessert. It all went great with an excellent cabernet blend.












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And… the finish. Pork shoulder “porchetta” with pan gravy, sautéed spinach (a la rao’s), garden tomato salad, and crusty bread (not in pic).

The fat got a bit charred, but it was crisp and succulent.

There’s barely a quarter left, so I think it was a hit.

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Oh that looks awesome! I love the idea of gnocchi, but so many places make them too dense and or heavy, if that makes any sense. I’ll still do ricotta gnocchi because it’s almost like cheating. Yours looks amazing!

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Pan seared grouper and carrots and shishito peppers from the steam convection oven

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Depends of a couple of factors such as the type of potato, flour-potato ratio.

Too much flour and too much kneading will result in a heavy and gummy dough.

Austrian and German version uses the the same dough but the shape of the dumplings is different. I always add some potato starch to the dough (holds the shape better) and work fast. Make your own and never want to buy the mass-produced kind again.

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Dinner yesterday was a project. As usual for me, no pictures.

I make Mexican shredded chicken in a slow cooker. I used that as a starting point for chicken chili. On Wednesday our meal plan for Friday was still “something with chicken.” When I got up at 2a Friday morning to ahem pee the chili idea came to me so I headed to the kitchen and sliced up an onion and dropped it in the slow cooker with a knob of butter. When I got up at 4a to start my work day the house already smelled darn good. At around 10a in went a can of Ro-Tel diced tomatoes with peppers, two chicken breasts, a can of black beans, pepper, cayenne, cumin, and mustard. That all got stirred a couple of time during the day. At 6p I fished out the chicken and shredded it before adding it back in with cilantro. I made rice and a salad and that was dinner.

I highly recommend the slow cooker approach to caramelized onions. Eight to ten hours on low is easy and you really don’t have to touch them at all. After dinner tonight I’m likely to start some more.

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H went to Costco yesterday afternoon, thus we had rotisserie chicken from there, leftover salad, and mashed potatoes with gravy; our weather was cool and rainy, so this simple meal really hit the spot.

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Ok I will make it 2 for 2 days in a row. We have drunken clams and braised short rib on a pillow of fresh ricotta and a bed of toasted gnocchi. Home made Cabernet wine (my neighbors private label) reduction ragu on top! Nothing like a braised short rib.

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Looks really good! Is that a little sausage in with the clams @NotJrvedivici? Love the serving bowl too.

Simple but very late dinner tonight, because I forgot this oven-baked recipe takes 3 hours.

Country style pork ribs seasoned with s/p, dried thyme and ground sumac, covered with foil in a baking dish and cooked at 300° for 2 hours. Uncovered, slathered with TJs Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce, and cooked for another hour at 275°, flipping one and adding more slather.

Side was an orzo pasta salad with chopped cucumber, some of my homegrown tomatoes, chives, basil, cotija cheese, and a vinaigrette of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, s/p, celery seed, and dried parsley.

Wine.

And a pic of the boyz getting cozy on the back of the couch, …or not, based on their dual side eyes.

P.S. still amazed I got 4 country-style ribs for $1.66 total at Hannaford today. $.89/lb. BARGAIN for 4 meals. Should have bought both packages. But I have no more room in my freezers.

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Love your boys @LindaWhit, your meal looks good too!

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Chorizo in with the clams for a little spice!

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Absolutely fabulous

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We had an excellent dinner outdoors under a tent at Fin Raw Bar and Kitchen in the quaint little town of Summit, NJ. They closed off the whole street and filled it with tables for a few restaurants to share. We enjoyed Shanghai shrimp in a curry ginger sauce; 7 spice tuna with soba noodles; an excellent spicy tempura battered tuna sushi roll; fried calamari; and an awesome chocolate retro cake for dessert. It all went great with an excellent California red blend.











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Not envious @paryzer, downright jealous! Please give the sweet pooch a pat for me.

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Thanks @Lambchop! I will. I figured I would add a gratuitous pet picture since it seemed like bring your pet to dinner day today :slightly_smiling_face:

Little by little we are dipping our feet into the outdoor dining waters. We really missed dining out. It’s just nice to dine out again, even if it is outdoors with all the servers wearing masks. Everyone is so nice and grateful to be working again.

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