August 2014 -- what's for dinner

Chilin' with my boys...burgers, beer, and aged rum last night

Beef Brisket, Potato Salad and Grilled Veggies.

Bone-in skin-on chicken breasts on Big Green Egg tonight

Experimented with just a few mesquite chunks. Turned out pretty well, but will avoid mesquite for poultry in the future - a little too much even though very little mesquite smoke was imparted.

wound up eating the chicken with a cab to balance out the smoke flavor

spaghetti and meatballs

batch of san marzano tomatoes just ripened

grilled some lamb chops.
Washed down with a 2010 Evodia Altovinum, 100% garnacha. Spain.
I didn't buy this, I am sure. Probably someone brought it to the house; I am not good at keeping track.
I thought it was decent but not fabulous. Shocked to see it retails for $9 or so. It's probably an 86-88 pt. wine.

Chicken fajitas on the grill, rice, re-fried black eyed peas.

Hainan chicken rice.

Mole chicken n rice

Surf & turf: Kalbi-marinated short ribs and scampi-marinated 16/20 white shrimp, over charcoal. Going to have to make this again, soon.

Fettuccine with creamy chicken and spinach sauce, steamed broccoli and salad

Trio of baby-back rib recipes - 2 slow cooked on Big Green Egg, and 1 slow-cooked in oven (190 at 10 hours as per a forumite's rec).

All were great. Tdub version (even though over-cooked because my BGE went rogue on temperature) took first place

Oven-version gets the award for easiest to consistently replicate time after time. Finishing off at high heat on BGE lends some nice subtle smokey flavor

Paired with 2011 Stefania Syrah . . . perfect pairing in my, my wife's and neighbor's perspective

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:
Mole chicken n rice

Doña Maria?

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:
Mole chicken n rice

Last night - back to Bourbon Steak for Miami Spice menu

Lobster and Corn Chowder
Tapioca crusted yellowtail on forbidden rice
Coconut, apricot and chocolate sorbet

They gave us 3 types of fries and a bottle of 2012 Bodega Ranch Viogner from Santa Lucia Highlands.

Really nice dinner.

homemade mac and cheese with the kids on the patio - basic cheddar and Monterey jack variety

quote:

Originally posted by redknife:

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:
Mole chicken n rice

home made

quote:

Originally posted by Parcival:
homemade mac and cheese with the kids

Good for you. Just say no to Kraft Mac and powdered cheez substitute....

PH

quote:

Originally posted by PurpleHaze:

quote:

Originally posted by Parcival:
homemade mac and cheese with the kids

Good for you. Just say no to Kraft Mac and powdered cheez substitute....

PH

Trying to show my wife that making this from scratch takes only 15 minutes (which was true) . . . even less if you start with pre-shredded cheese. Only minimally more than the frozen stuff and virtually identical to boxed stuff.

She liked it . . . but I don't think she cared to take a lesson away from last night's cooking show!

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:

quote:

Originally posted by redknife:

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:
Mole chicken n rice

home made

shouldn't there at least be a hyphen? home-made

Merriam-Webster actually indicates this is a single word, though hyphenation is acceptable. for thta . . . you're doing the grill work tomorrow!

quote:

Originally posted by Parcival:

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:

quote:

Originally posted by redknife:

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:
Mole chicken n rice

home made

shouldn't there at least be a hyphen? home-made

Merriam-Webster actually indicates this is a single word, though hyphenation is acceptable. for thta . . . you're doing the grill work tomorrow!

It certainly woulda tasted better than the brick of food they tried to pawn off as fish tonight

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:

quote:

Originally posted by Parcival:

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:

quote:

Originally posted by redknife:

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:
Mole chicken n rice

home made

shouldn't there at least be a hyphen? home-made

Merriam-Webster actually indicates this is a single word, though hyphenation is acceptable. for thta . . . you're doing the grill work tomorrow!

It certainly woulda tasted better than the brick of food they tried to pawn off as fish tonight

Where did you eat tn?

Paella mixta with shrimp, scallops, chorizo and chicken. One of my favourite dishes.

Grilled porterhouse, baked taters, grilled vegetables and a 2006 Match Butterdragon Cabernet

Taking multiple pages out of marcellas tome:

Chicken diavolo, in the Roman style
Potato and green bean pie, in the Genoa style
Sauteed dandelions w. Garlic & anchovies
Campania IGT

Taleggio

Grapes, nuts, dark chocolate & ice cold grappa

Cotes d'Agneau sharply seared then slowly finishwed with garlic & Thyme, crisp outside, rose inside,
along with small-medium size Potatoes pre-cooked (unpeeled) in the steam-oven (40mins) & finished in the pan (peeled and cut into 2 pieces per potatoe, seared 1-2 minutes before adding the cotes d'agneau), crisp outside, with fleur de sel, peper, and persil added before serving.
A 10 minute (potatoes pre-cooked) dish from heaven. I'dd add a summer salad when receiving guests, hardcore without salad when cooking for myself

White House Subs
Atlantic City NJ

parcival makes some great ribs and grilled veggies

his crouton salad and bean dip were top notch too

and a big thanks to EB for bringing some oysters!

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:
parcival makes some great ribs and grilled veggies

his crouton salad and bean dip were top notch too

and a big thanks to EB for bringing some oysters!

After a great cookout on Saturday with Gman and EB56, my next two nights were Chipotle dinners. Not complaining though

BGE margherita pizzas w. peroni's.

quote:

Originally posted by vinoevelo:
BGE margherita pizzas w. peroni's.

Vinoevolo . . . what temp do you cook those pizza's at . . . and do you use the placesetter + a pizza stone/steel?

Platesetter feet up w. Grill, then a pizza stone on the grill. 650F-ish. Ive found it easier to put the pizza on a sheet of parchment for moving it on/off the stone. Cooks real fast. A friend swears by his steel, but at 20+lb's he also dropped it once while cooking and broke his platesetter.

lobster gumbo tonight

quote:

Originally posted by vinoevelo:
Platesetter feet up w. Grill, then a pizza stone on the grill. 650F-ish. Ive found it easier to put the pizza on a sheet of parchment for moving it on/off the stone. Cooks real fast. A friend swears by his steel, but at 20+lb's he also dropped it once while cooking and broke his platesetter.

the parchment paper is the best trick i've seen!

Sack o Subs
Margate NJ

going to be jambalaya tonight

Fettuccine Bolognese and garlic creamed spinach

Topolobampo last night with client. Great clients. Food was pretty good, but not quite up to par with their typical cuisine

Worst though was that Topolobampo has adopted a multi-course small-plates approach to their meals . . . perhaps trying to stay relevant in an increasing environment of experimental, molecular gastronomy joints in Chicago that feature 8+ course menus. This was a huge upset . . . 5 very small courses took 3 hours. It was the most painful, laborious restaurant experience I have ever had here. The first course did not come out for 80 minutes! At 45 minutes, I asked our server if she could see what was going on with our food and she coyly remarked that "Oh we wanted to give you some time to relax and enjoy your drinks." Long story short, with this type of menu format, I think I'll stick to Frontera Grill in the future and take Topolobampo out of the running

Stuffed Tomato Shrimp Salad.

Fresh tomato, basil and Parmesan rind soup with grilled cheese (10 year old cheddar, fontina and little left over la sauvagine) sandwiches.