What's for Dinner #70 - The "Kickoff to the Summertime BBQ" Edition - June 2021

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 .

17 Likes

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.

4 Likes

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. :wink:

11 Likes

Mrs. P still uses her looseleaf book of recipes too :slightly_smiling_face: 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.

5 Likes

Yes for sure. The floral arrangements and gardening are impeccably beautiful. Surely a green thumb.

Have a lovely Sunday …

1 Like

In case anyone wants to jump on the food memories bandwagon, I started a thread with many of mine here:

4 Likes

9 Likes

The garden or the cuisine ? Or both ?

That salmon looks amazing, @Barca!

1 Like

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.

3 Likes

How did I miss martini day? :sob:

2 Likes

Tonight it’ll be scapes, baby scapes, but scape nonetheless.

12 Likes

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.

2 Likes

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!

4 Likes

:astonished::astonished::astonished::astonished::astonished::astonished::astonished::astonished::astonished::astonished: Wait. Eight QUARTS?

1 Like

Went with a simple “don’t heat up the kitchen” meal tonight: a single b/s chicken breast cut in half lengthwise, seasoned with s/p, topped with a whisked mix of apricot preserves, stone-ground mustard, white wine and a bit of horseradish for some “bite”, and baked in the toaster oven at 350° for about 40 minutes, turning it to convection for the last 15 minutes.

Sides were Basmati rice with fresh snipped chives added at the end, and sauteed sugar snap peas, red bell pepper, onion and last season’s corn off the cob seasoned with Penzeys Mural of Flavor and some s/p.

Wine.

12 Likes

A couple of dinners from the past week: beef filet with mushroom sauce, and Swiss Chard (but not charred) :upside_down_face:, scallops, vegetable pilaf, and spinach sautéed with shallots.

image

14 Likes

We are in the middle of a heat wave, so didn’t want to heat the house up with the stove. I decided to roast some sweet potato and cauliflower with taco seasoning in the air fryer. I will going away for the long weekend, so I’m trying to clean out the fridge. That meant using spinach instead of lettuce on my tacos, also had the tiniest bit of cucumber left so put that on the tacos, too. It actually added a good flavour and crunch, and helped cut through the spicy salsa. Had no limes for the Coronas in the fridge, so had a glass of local Chardonnay instead. Super oaky, super delicious.

14 Likes

Dinner at home tonight.

Started with idea to approximate a pasta I ate recently but then went off the rails and just made something up - lots of caramelized scallions, garlic, and then sliced Brussels sprouts, with some red pepper flakes. Oh, and browned butter to start. Cappellini went in, then finished with pecorino. Quite nice for no plan.

19 Likes

I really like your off the rails made-up dinner!

2 Likes