last night I made a Chef John recipe we both thought looked good - t-bone lamb chops in a tamarind/5 spice marinade, but they were just too tart for us, even though there was brown sugar in the marinade. we ate one huge chop, the other got cleaned off and put away for tacos later this week. At least they turned out nice and juicy - cooked entirely in the broiler, which we almost never do. I made coconut rice with shallots/ginger/garlic, which turned out really good. TJ’s coconut oil was a great sub for coconut milk. BF made a cuke salad.
And Sat. night I went to friends’ house for a dinner party - he worked on the meal for two weeks prior - made cassoulet from scratch, from his “library” of confits! The cassoulet was absolutely delicious. He also made a chervil soup which was a little bland, roasted asparagus with a really great garum sauce, and salad. for starters we munched on crudites, good cheeses, duck prosciutto, fresh fruit, and a dish of anchovies and fried rosemary with pepperoncini that knocked our socks off. Bubbles to start, Manhattans, and two bottles of red i brought. Another friend made a lamby cake - super cute, and scrumptious too.
I’ll spare y’all the pic of the after dinner drink 3 of the 8 of us braved (a snake liquor) - a horror show to look at but didn’t taste quite as bad as I thought it would. But i never need to do that again.
A day late, but we had our Easter Dinner tonight, or as I call it, “Thanksgiving: The Sequel”. An exact replica. I had to work today and BF was off, so he did it all.
Tonight’s dinner was homemade pizza with mushrooms, onions and black olives. The thin crust with less cheese was for Sunshine and the the thick crust with more cheese was mine. I tried to use the lowest cholesterol cheese I could find and this skim milk mozzarella seemed to fit the build.
Pan-Asian stew with zucchini, fresh wood-ear and enoki mushrooms, kimchi, silken tofu and scallions in a broth made from vegetable broth, gochujang, roasted sesame oil and soy sauce
I feel you, as we are on a string of 45-50 degree days, plus rain. And wind. Hurry up spring! However, I’m not at all jealous of 90. 90 is torture. Give me a good 70-75 and that is perfection.
Growing up, Catalina dressing - the slightly upmarket version of orange French - was always in our fridge and on our table. I’m not sure I knew there was any other kind of dressing besides that, “Italian,” and blue cheese.
Pizza night, postponed from the weekend, now that the oven outlet is fixed.
We had four pies tonight:
Mushroom, (beyond) italian sausage, spring onions, red onions
Mushroom, red onions, olives
Pink: Red onions and Robiola
White: truffle bechamel, Robiola, and mixed mushrooms
My favorite was the first, because that’s my standard topping selection, and it was in good balance tonight (I have been known to go overboard on toppings).
Mom surprised me by picking the white pizza as her favorite (I gave her a small slice just to try, she is not usually a a big fan or white or pesto based pizzas, though she’ll eat them for variety).
Prepared a simple and easy Asparagus side dish using a touch of Japanese approach…an aromatic and delicious end result!!
" Add washed Asparagus to garlic infused EVOO/Butter in a skillet. Cover and steamed-cook at medium low heat for 4 minutes. Add mixture of Yuzu, Mirin and Sake and cover for an additional 1 minute. Finish off with a small chunk of butter. Top with crispy garlic chips! Super tasty!! "
Yes! Part of making the garlic infused EVOO/Butter process. Used drained oil for cooking the asparagus. Spread out cooked garlic slices to cool and crisp up. Then use as toppings/condiments for cooked asparagus.
