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

gcaggiano · August 31, 2020, 12:40am

This was modeled after my favorite dish at the now defunct restaurant Trattoria Rustica, which was in Matawan, NJ. Rigatoni tossed in a creamy tomato sauce with chicken, mushrooms, asparagus, and a roasted red pepper garnish (makes all the difference actually). It was called Dolcezza. I used to go there all the time and even worked there for a short time in high school. A very under-the-radar Italian restaurant in our area.

Shop Rite was out of cream so I had to settle for light cream. While the flavor is the same, it lacked the velvety texture the original had. Still, I would definitely make it again. A good summer pasta dish.

There was crusty Italian bread. There was wine.

paryzer · August 31, 2020, 1:07am

We had an outstanding dinner outdoors, on a gorgeous day, at Bistro D’Azur. We enjoyed perfectly cooked duck, tuna, and lobster crepe, as well as a refreshing seafood salad, and crispy Spanish chips. It all went great with an excellent 2011 Chateauneuf Du Pape. I am also including a rare picture of the fabulous Covid ready Mrs. P in full diva mode

gcaggiano · August 31, 2020, 1:09am

Mrs. P stylish as ever!

paryzer · August 31, 2020, 1:42am

@gcaggiano Some woman walking down the street actually stopped dead in her tracks and complemented Mrs. P on how gorgeous she was dressed Not bad for almost 62 (in October)

pilgrim · August 31, 2020, 1:54am

And I see the gold/turquoise bracelet you gave her recently. Nice!

Lambchop · August 31, 2020, 2:07am

Cheeseburgers and Greek salad alfresco tonight. H’s plate pictured, because prettier - I don’t eat raw tomatoes. Got a stealth sting by a wasp, ouch!

Btw Eli, thanks for the pics & yes Mrs P looking fine! Funny how masks have become fashion accessories.

Lambchop · August 31, 2020, 2:15am

Forgot to post this, think it was Friday night. Spaghetti with turkey meatballs. Always delicious.

ChristinaM · August 31, 2020, 2:20am

You nailed it!

mariacarmen · August 31, 2020, 3:39am

Chef John of Food Wishes recipe video we saw Fri. night became dinner tonight: Garlic Rice Roast Chicken. TPST of minced garlic & herbs get mixed into cold rice, add melted butter, put in fridge until cohesive, then stuff under the skin of the breast of a whole chicken. Extra rice goes into the cavity.

The flavor of the rice was fantastic! Only problem was, you don’t get enough rice, as the recipe only uses 1-1/2 cups cooked. Skin got nice and crispy, white meat was juicy. But the rice was the star, especially the stuff scooped out of the cavity. Garlicky broccoli rabe finished with vermouth on the side.

BF surprised me with an addition to our fries brunch: Oysters! (He’s not sure what kind, the fishmonger picked them out for him. All super creamy, though.)

Barca · August 31, 2020, 4:12am

Same to you.

Saregama · August 31, 2020, 4:14am

Rollercoaster of a day over here.

My visiting friend was mia yesterday and didn’t respond to an invitation to come over for a meal today… until early this morning, while I was sound asleep. I woke up late, saw the message, and scrambled.

Luckily we had frozen pizzas in stock. I added a yellow tomato and mozzarella salad and a baby kale salad with avocado to round out the meal. Made lemonade “concentrate” - lemon shrub, fresh lemon juice, simple syrup - to be used for the kids as well as cocktails. And tuna poke using ahi that a local fisherman delivered on Friday (along with yellowtail and swordfish).

Shortly before they were due to arrive and I was dealing with pizzas in the oven, I heard a funny sound that sounded like the puppy coughing up hairballs. Half a second later I ran out of the kitchen to find my sil bent over choking… I started to administer the heimlich, got her to spit up a bunch of pills, but she was still choking. I yelled for the kids to get my sib and went a bit stronger and higher… he finished the job with a bit more strength, and got a huge round pill out that wasn’t supposed to be swallowed… phew. Choking adult was hysterical and needed to be calmed. Kids crying. Everything settled down after twenty minutes with deep breathing to get heart rates down, hugs and stroking, and general quiet after the almost-disaster. Thought crossed my mind that perhaps this is why I have been here this long, to be there at that moment, and respond.

Anyway, my friend was thankfully late (as usual). Food went out with no pics (the yellow tomato salad was so pretty!) but a nice time was had by all.

I ended up cooking dinner because the earlier hysteria resulted in a long nap for the other adults. Indian tonight - green beans, okra, paneer makhani with peas, masoor dal, lamb korma. GF chapatis for the kids, rice and frozen chapatis for the adults. I was too tired to take a pic of my plate, but did of the remains.

We cook extra for an elderly couple, usually Indian food we are eating or we think they’ll enjoy. So tonight’s vegetables (apparently the gentleman refuses to eat veggies - like my dad - but likes what we make) plus chicken dhansak I made specially for them (and froze) last week.

Hope your weekends were relaxing as well as tasty!

emglow101 · August 31, 2020, 5:31am

Tonight , recipe sabotage. Nuff said . Gross. Cheers

Auspicious · August 31, 2020, 8:26am

Nicely done. Good description. Nice ropework on the chicken. Get you out on a boat with me for a few days and we’ll make a sailor of you. grin

That’s a graphic description. Certainly glad you were there and the drama was resolved, and without any broken ribs. Well done.

Auspicious · August 31, 2020, 9:20am

It helps us that my wife and I do meal planning together. We’re past the aggressive substitutions of the early days of the pandemic. Not quite as bad as G.U.M. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8LtQhIQ2AE) but close. My wife knows what it was like but she didn’t SEE it herself. That does contribute to our respective levels of anxiety.

Really quite good curbside pick-up mechanisms with better and better online ordering has helped tremendously. My wife and I add things to our shopping cart as they occur to us (still paper in the kitchen for those mid-meal-prep epiphanies). We go through the cart together before pulling the trigger on a pick-up window. This mostly avoids bringing home the wrong thing. Mostly. I still run inside for produce and the odd item that isn’t online. (*) Our discussions are often around how much to buy. I tend toward the economy packs (e.g. an eight-pack of black beans) and my wife is thinking just two weeks out.

(*) My wife likes low fat half-n-half creamer. Our grocery has that, but only fat-free and full-fat are available for online ordering so I check for it inside on my produce runs.

She isn’t crazy about pantry items stored outside our pantries. We have the space. It’s just not the right space. Our kitchen fridge bothers me a lot more than her. It’s a side-by-side which I truly, deeply, passionately hat. She can get a lot in it but I can’t find anything. If I do find something there is no guarantee it will be in the same place tomorrow.

What we’ve ended up with is a division of responsibility. I take care of the chest freezer in our basement and the kitchen freezer and my wife takes care of the kitchen fridge. That mostly works. Pantry and other dry storage (spices etc.) are still works in progress. It only took me ten years to talk her into alphabetizing spices. It took her twelve years to talk me into a cat so I don’t complain about the spices. grin

We do pretty well with consumption dates. Very little waste. Certainly we have to pay attention. I’m getting better at picking fruits like avocado that aren’t quite ripe yet so we have more time. My wife is getting better at thinking through shelf life so we eat tender greens first, then more robust ones (romaine), then cabbage.

My biggest issue is the fridge. I swear that thing is the opposite of a Tardis or tesseract. It’s a lot smaller on the inside than the outside.

CurlzNJ · August 31, 2020, 1:33pm

Stunning salad!!!

CurlzNJ · August 31, 2020, 1:35pm

SO scary! Very glad she’s okay, and yes, it’s a good thing you were there.

tomatotomato · August 31, 2020, 2:08pm

Oh, @Saregama so fortunate that you were there to respond. Your fam is blessed to have you in the house. Truly.

pilgrim · August 31, 2020, 3:30pm

Oysters and fries… might qualify as my last supper!

pilgrim · August 31, 2020, 3:37pm

Excellent recognition and response, Saregama! Unless you have been on the receiving end of a Heimlich, you have no idea of the panic when no air is coming in or going out of your lungs. I chocked on a scrap; of cracker and was able to stomp on the hall floor loud enough to bring dh down from upstairs. Had he not been home, I would have died.

LindaWhit · August 31, 2020, 3:38pm

Well, she’s DEFINITELY got me beat! (I’ll be 62 in October as well.) She’s rockin’ the bling!