We enjoyed another excellent dinner at James on Main in Hackettstown, NJ including char siu pork tenderloin and diver scallop with stir fried vegetables; halibut; mushroom panzanella salad; prosciutto San Danielle with charred sweet corn, cantelope, asparagus; duck leg confit; chocolate budino for dessert. It all went great with a couple of excellent Malbecs.
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We cooked a big lunch with friends: Meera Sodha’s daily dal, rice pilaf, worker’s curry, cucumber raita, and a mild coconut tofu makhani. Dinner was fending.
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Experimented with an everything bagel seasoning encrusted NY Strip. It was actually amazing and I would definitely make this again and recommend others to try it. Managed to nail a medium-rare interior. All around best steak I’ve made in a while. Side baked potato and broccolini. BF doesn’t do steak and had a salad.
There was also a piece of foccacia from Trader Joe’s with caramelized onion and cheese. Unnecessary but delicious.
To drink: Bacardi Gold, Fever Tree Refreshingly Light Ginger Beer, lime wedge.
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Reminds me of the line from Aunt Voula in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”: “What do you mean he don’t eat no meat? :::long pause::: Ohhh, that’s OK. I make lamb.”
Sorry. Sunday morning brain with little cawfee goes in all sorts of ways. 
P.S. your steak looks amazing!
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Your steak looks 
I love everything seasoning, but have yet to put it on steak.
Have you tried the reverse sear method à la Serious Eats? It’s perfect for thicker steaks.
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Voting is underway right for Cookbook of the Month, Cuisine of the Quarter, and Dish of the Quarter — come join in and cook along!
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That’s a lot of cooking - looks delicious! (Inspired me to soak some chickpeas for channa, which I rarely crave…)
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Steak looks 
— from someone who’s been craving it for two weeks!
I’ve looked at that TJs focaccia and almost bought it a few times — this is the endorsement I needed.
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Has this ever happened to you? I don’t think you’re in any danger of any bartender ever serving a flavored martini when a classic is ordered. (Now what classic means, that’s a debate for the Drinks thread haha.)
But if I ordered a chocolate or espresso or french martini, I wouldn’t be greeted with shock or ridicule either — they’re all well recognized drinks.
On the other hand, when I ordered a bourbon Old Fashioned and was served bourbon with orange juice (and a neon cherry), I was less disappointed and more flabbergasted 
— and I still haven’t figured that one out.
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No, but I live in fear! Seriously, the modifiers all indicate that a martini - no modifier - has a definition. I think of the modified drinks not as a subset of the category martini, but as a different drink altogether.
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Both my girlfriend and my neighbor (who is recuperating) requested (beef) meatloaf for dinner. I added a little extra garlic powder and parsley to compensate for not adding salt. I also purchased way too many potatoes (when they were on sale), so we’ve been having baked potatoes quite often as the starch… and peas was the vegetable. All in all a good meal and everyone was happy.
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Thank you. And no I have not. I do want to try but I eat steak so rarely now that when I do, I’m hesitant to try new methods for fear of ruining it.
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I understand, especially if you’re happy with your MO. I only do it with big-ass London broils, and it comes about as close to sous-vide results as possible, and the meat is super-tender.
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Sausage and Broccoli Pizza WWFD.
Oven was pre-heated to 450° for about an hour after moving the stone to the top rack.
Sauce was Dave’s Gourmet Organic Roasted Garlic and Basil sauce, which I strained to remove the excess liquid and then added dried basil and Aleppo pepper. It’s a chunky tomato sauce, and I left it that way.
Broccoli florets were roasted.
Sausage was broken up and sautéed.
Dough was stretched out on lightly oiled parchment paper.
Sauce was added, then sausage, broccoli and caramelized onions defrosted from the freezer. Topped with a bit of grated mozzarella and Parm-Reg and into the oven on the hot stone.
10 minutes later, dinner.
Wine.
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I worked in a restaurant once where Old Fashioned translated into muddled neon cherry and orange slice. '70s thing?
Tonight we made larb moo and pad krapow gai, served with jasmine rice. Very good and quick!
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I have had this Collard Greens Ramen on my mind and, with fall deciding to land on us with both feet this weekend, it seemed like the perfect time to try it out.
I ended up making some deviations from the recipe as I went along:
- because my grocery delivery swapped out my requested smoked ham hock for a “boneless ham nugget”, I made a beef bone broth early in the day to compensate for the lack of a ham bone to enrich the cooking liquid
- left off the bacon and soft boiled egg in the recipe and swapped in some marinated bamboo shoots
- dialed the ham back by about half and added a generous amount of roasted shiitakes
- used dried ramen (J-Basket brand) in place of the instant ramen noodles called for
The result was fantastic! Lots of leftovers for dinner tomorrow too.
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Chili! This batch involved just a bit of tomato paste and lots of dried chiles (ancho and guajillo, plus some paprika and kashmiri powder), ground beef and an assortment of fresh peppers from the garden. Hit the spot.
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Sounds delicious!
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Thank you! We loved it 
