minus humidity.
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It was a little too hot and humid here in NJ, so I kept the majority of the cooking to indoors. Pork chops with a balsamic with pepper bacon jam reduction. Served with a cauliflower purée along with red cabbage made with pork roll and onions. Some fresh garlic bread and lastly garnished with a poached bear half.
Tonight I’m being a wine snob…….
Growing up in an Italian family in New Jersey once you become a man you graduate from the Carlo Rossi table wine to Ruffino Classico. The Ruffino Gold was for holidays or a gift. Lol
This has become a favorite reasonably priced wine.
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OK, I have no idea how you were able to halve a bear, but I’m impressed. 
And I’m giggling. I seriously needed a laugh tonight, so thank you.
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lol
Everything looks awesome Bob! Great wine pairings as well. It’s not easy pairing wine with poached bear 
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Corso 98, in Montclair, which previously closed last September after 21 years, has recently reopened under new ownership. We enjoyed an excellent dinner there tonight. Below is a link to details and pictures for those that might be interested.
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Sitting on the deck tonight . There’s a fire 16 miles north of me . Was watching those 767 super jets fly over . Carrying fire retardant. Thank you crew and fire fighters. Its 99 degrees out . Tomorrow is breaking heat records. Chicken piccata with salad . To hot for starch . Cheers .
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Your post got me thinking about comfort food. Wikipedia says:
Now I’m feeling waves of nostalgia. Meal planning “date” with my wife later this morning. Leafing through my personal spiral notebook of recipes - my earliest collection. Lots of nostalgia there.
First day back in the kitchen after the house painting is done. Dinner last night was kielbasa cut into disks with potatoes, sauteed apple with walnuts and a salad. Something with chicken for dinner tonight.
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That’s exactly it. I still have recipes cut from my local NJ, PA, and MA newspapers’ Wednesday and Sunday food sections, the Parade Magazine Sunday insert, Country Living and Good Housekeeping magazines, those General Mills recipe cards, and handwritten recipes from ex-boyfriends’ mothers, all taped onto 3-holed paper into two 3-ring binders with dividers for each section and a Table of Contents (because yes, I’m like that, requiring an easy way to find the page I need). That’s the way we had to save recipes in “the olden days”. LOL
Yes, some recipes have been transferred to my Mastercook software, but I don’t pull out my laptop often enough anymore, so having the “hard copy” brings me joy when I see the often-used, well-loved, and dog-eared page resting on my countertop.
I used to make similar books for friends and coworkers who were getting married after asking what their favorite food likes/dislikes were, and give it to them as a wedding shower gift. It included a page of the herbs/spices you’d use with various foods, something I personally use to this day. I’d also include those kitchen tools that I felt were absolutely necessary (like whisks, because you can never have too many, IMO). They were always well received, and I know of one coworker friend who still uses my gift to her.
Nostalgia for family recipes has always had a very strong pull on me. I remember eating the Fattigmands Bakkelser cookies that my Norwegian grandmother used to make at Christmas, and never realizing the time and patience it took to make them until I tried it myself. Once. Never again! LOL
I remember my father creating his own peanut satay sauce (ubiquitous now, not so much in the early to mid-1970s in white-bread USA) after having enjoyed it several times in an Indonesian hotel while shooting a film there (the hotel chef only gave him a general idea of what was in the sauce). While Dad’s recipe he created is not authentic at all, as the ingredients were what was readily available in northern New Jersey at the time, it is still my go-to for peanut sauce.
So while no one who comes after me would look at these two binders as special if they leafed through them at a yard sale, they are to me, because of the memories they hold.
So many memories. I might steal this reply and start a new thread on comfort food and family recipes.
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Mrs. P still uses her looseleaf book of recipes too 
She has me print out every recipe and she stores it in plastic sleeves with 3 holes that fit into the looseleaf to protect them.
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Yes for sure. The floral arrangements and gardening are impeccably beautiful. Surely a green thumb.
Have a lovely Sunday …
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In case anyone wants to jump on the food memories bandwagon, I started a thread with many of mine here:
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The garden or the cuisine ? Or both ?
Yes, it was quite sublimely exquisite. It was flame seared only on the top and was rare except for the seared top … Melt on your palate to die for … It was wild and line caught from Alaska Pacific.
Lovely Japanese venue for lunch.
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How did I miss martini day? 
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Scapes! How do you prepare yours? I use them in everything where otherwise I’d use the garlic’s cloves.
When the scapes are all gone I am sad because that means the long days of summer that I enjoy the most are gone too.
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Ditto! One of my favorite seasonal foods, and the main reason I grow garlic myself. I made eight quarts of garlic scape pesto from my crop this year. I will ration it carefully until the season rolls around again next year!
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