What's for Dinner #71 - the Vacation Time! Edition - July 2021

Yeah, and kinda fun for not a lot of work

Gotta be careful to get them in and out quick, though, or they dry out.

I’m still getting used to the new toaster oven, though.

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they look great!

NYC! yay you!

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“I fed the freezer” Salisbury steak, which meant I made a veg with lots of chopping to go with.

I added a bit of TJ’s Calabrian chilis, and composted the stems. :neutral_face:

I just noticed the original recipe was Turkish! Maybe I’ll post it on the Greek cuisine thread!

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Looks damn tasty @shrinkrap & pretty Greek/Turkish looking too.

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Had our neighbor over for dinner and drinks in the garden tonight. I went with my balsamic marinated chicken, grilled, with asparagus. A pre-made pasta from the local Italian market served as the carb.

For appetizer: Just about the easiest thing ever: took leftover risotto from the other night, rolled it into balls, and coated with breadcrumbs. I then stuck them in the freezer for an hour before spraying them with cooking spray and air-frying for about 15 minutes.

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We enjoyed another fabulous dinner at Il Nido in Marlboro, NJ. We enjoyed the chef’s take on veal Milanese with a slightly pounded veal chop with the bone, (as opposed to one battered and flattened into oblivion), and lightly fried, (so you had a crispy top with a nice veal chop below). It came with some fresh greens and some awesome thinly sliced potatoes. We also enjoyed a tuna steak, as well as a blue fin tuna tartare with watermelon, jalapenos, in a ginger vinaigrette, as well as rigatoni alla Norma, and our usually excellent charcuterie board. It all went great with an excellent Amarone and Barolo.


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I love this @shrinkrap & wasn’t aware of the website. Think I’ve posted about it before, but Sis in law spent a week on Ikaria a couple/few years ago, which is one of the blue zones on the planet, where longevity seems to predominate. She loved it, I want to go too, sometime. (I’m sure a lot of Mediterranean islands may fall into this category, at least if the people eat the traditional diet, anyway.) I bought an Ikaria cookbook (of course), and hope to feature some of the foods in Greek COTC. BTW, love all types of Horta, if not apparent from my WFD pics.

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I just borrowed Diane Kochilas’s book of the same name - looking forward to reading it!

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YES! Same one - a good book, though with some hard to impossible items to source, and others that don’t appeal. Love her works though, and many recipes to work from @Saregama. Please let me know if you try any, and I’ll do the same.

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She’s selling some of them on her website - maybe that’s part of the gig.

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Hello friends! It’s been a long while since I posted. We had some travels and then just life got busy. Here is wfd tonight. Viet marinated pork tenderloin that was cubed and grilled over a hot fire, with some coconut rice and a “crap it’s not green anymore” papaya salad. Tasty. Going to try again with actual green papaya. Trader Joe’s tricked me because their papayas were green all over and hard. And being in a small town, I’ve never seen it at our small Asian grocery.

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What a great idea. I’m in.

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Just so you know, most solid surface materials are more forgiving than wood. Easy peasy. The key is pilot holes. 1/16" hole, then the pilot drill for the hole saw, then the hole saw. If you have stone or faux stone then the right tools and a little experience make a big difference. Not trying to talk you into anything.

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Smitten Kitchen recipe but you could totally wing it. I followed her recipe but increased the tzatziki part by 50%. Tasty!!

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Thanks for the recipe! We always have chard…

Your photo looks better than Saveur’s.

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These are Silestone. Thoughts? What I read said that a water saw is key and maybe best left the pros.

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You pretty much just described my climate. Except the winter might be a touch cold for you. It’s typically in the 40s. We have a week or so of snow most years. That’s it. Regular summer temps in the 70s. Although we did have the bizarre heat dome this year where we were hitting the high 90s and low 100s. We missed it, and had a funny conversation with a museum docent in Honolulu about how glad she was it wasn’t as hot there (it was hot there) as it was in Seattle! What a concept.

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As I understand it those are stone dust cast in epoxy or some other adhesive medium. It’s very hard. Cutting through it requires a drill/saw for hard surfaces and cooling, either water or oil. My own basic approach is “buy the tool and DIY” but for Silestone I’d be tempted to get a bonded pro so if they mess up you get a new counter. That’s worth the money in my opinion.

I’ve done a lot of work with Corian and other solid surfaces but the stone stuff requires skill and experience. It’s like dry wall work except fixing your mistakes is not possible.

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DH taught our son this, along with always use the correct tool for the job. And/but I taught him to buy the best quality he could afford to avoid having to “buy twice”. He took this to heart re tool quality, much to his dad’s raised eyebrows.

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