So what's for dinner?

When I first met my husband, he would turn his nose up at various Middle Eastern cuisines, making some excuse or the other about not liking lamb/eggplant/chickpeas/heylookwhatsthatoverthere?

Tonight, he actually suggested we try this little Lebanese local place and he really enjoyed his fatoosh salad with grilled chicken. And he now wants us to try to make it at home. PROGRESS!

(Me, I had a nice grilled lamb sandwich w/lemon tahini sauce)

I'm about to pull a smoked beef tongue off the smoker, along with some smoked country ribs and cabbage. It's been a long time since I had smoked cabbage and I'm hoping I gave it enough time.

ETA: Wow! I will do this again. I've never had tongue this good before. It's better than any other method I've tried.

I think many people are averse to cuisines/ingredients they are not familiar with. If it was served to them without them knowing what it was, they might like it. I don't know that I've ever had tongue, but I would try it. But then I've also eaten bear, javelina, goat, squirrel, rabbit, frog legs, and a few other things that my mid-western ancestors would have run from.

Tonight we had oven roasted chicken, diced up in home made onion gravy, and served over farfalle.

MM

jennontheisland said:

pickled turnip

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I love that stuff - I should put more effort into figuring out if any of the grocery stores around here sell it...

Found this GREAT Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, LA. Phoenix Inn. Just went over there and got enough food to last us for three days. No one wants to go to the supermarket lately. In the end, it's not much more expensive than cooking at home.

Pork tenderloin was BOGO, so we had pork tenderloin rubbed with sage and pepper and a maple pan sauce, grilled asparagus, and kale salad with lemon vinaigrette. And cookies (shame on me).

Vietnamese crepe stuffed w/shrimp, chicken, pork, bean sprouts, mushrooms and grilled onions.

Tuna Macaroni Salad

Homemade pizza. Okay, wait, not as bad as it sounds. I buy the dough and make a kind of pizza I grew up with that you don't see very often. I roll and stretch the dough over an oiled baking tray, stick it into a hot over (450), let it bake for about five minutes, then pour chunky tomato sauce (I use San Marzano whole, cut in half or quarters) that's only cooked for about twenty minutes--even raw, it works. Then I only sprinkle mozzarella (use pollyo whole milk) and bake till done--crisp but chewy is what I'm going for.

Then, when the pizza is out of the oven I cut into squares and serve with a mound or raw mozzarella. This ends up to be good pizza, trust me.

Grilled mangoes, leftover chicken thighs...and a steak taco 'cause I was still hungry.

And the in-laws wanted to go to this fancy local place and order a bunch of small plates.

Two different "Navajo Fry Breads" (as they were listed as), one with BBQ'ed chicken, the other pulled pork shoulder. I wasn't impressed by either. And the bread itself was flavorless.

Fennel-dusted Calamari. Well fried, good aiolis for pairing purposes.

Margharita Pizzette. Not bad, but pretty average.

Crispy Jamaican Chicken Wings. These were billed as having charred pineapple and jalapeno jam on top of jerk seasoning. Light on all three and heavy on grease.

Goat Cheese Arancini w/Puttanesca. These were nice.

Beef Carpaccio. Probably my favorite of all the dishes.

Also, I had a very potent cocktail of gin, Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, creme de violette and lemon juice.

Roast chicken with nearly all the trimmings. I forgot the broccoli.

Leftovers (I baked a chicken yesterday infused with rosemary, thyme, garlic, parsley, butter, olive oil).

Crudite and Charcuterie: deli meats, cheeses, home quick pickles (farmers market dill and cukes/carrots in vinegar with garlic in the fridge for a week), devilled eggs (with dill vinegar in the yolks), bakery seedy bread.

I actually made a giant meatball stuffed with spaghetti. It was insane.

Lauram6123 said:

I actually made a giant meatball stuffed with spaghetti. It was insane.

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That sounds so intriguing and probably really tasty, cuz after all what's not to like? Spaghetti? Meatballs? But I'm having trouble visualizing it. What did you do? Wrap cooked spaghetti in ground meat and cook it in sauce?

MAS said:

That sounds so intriguing and probably really tasty, cuz after all what's not to like? Spaghetti? Meatballs? But I'm having trouble visualizing it. What did you do? Wrap cooked spaghetti in ground meat and cook it in sauce?

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It was actually really good and quite impressive looking. I prepared the spaghetti, put it in a bowl and chilled it. Then I lined a larger, oven-safe bowl with foil and added the 3/4 of the raw meatball mixture. I made a serious dent / divot in said mixture for the spaghetti. I sauced the spaghetti, put it in the bowl on top of the meat and topped the whole mess with the rest of the meatball mixture, making a round dome. Then i baked it all for an hour and a half. I removed the foil around the meatball and put it back in the oven to brown it. I took it out, added sauce, parmesan cheese, and topped it with chopped parsley. We cut it like a cake and my kids loved it. (One of them had seen something like this on YouTube and begged me to give it a try.)

Lauram6123 said:

It was actually really good and quite impressive looking. I prepared the spaghetti, put it in a bowl and chilled it. Then I lined a larger, oven-safe bowl with foil and added the 3/4 of the raw meatball mixture. I made a serious dent / divot in said mixture for the spaghetti. I sauced the spaghetti, put it in the bowl on top of the meat and topped the whole mess with the rest of the meatball mixture, making a round dome. Then i baked it all for an hour and a half. I removed the foil around the meatball and put it back in the oven to brown it. I took it out, added sauce, parmesan cheese, and topped it with chopped parsley. We cut it like a cake and my kids loved it. (One of them had seen something like this on YouTube and begged me to give it a try.)

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Holy crap!

Omelette with salad. The wife hardly ever cooks, but today she did.

TedTheewen said:

ETA: Wow! I will do this again. I've never had tongue this good before. It's better than any other method I've tried.

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Did you brine it first? If so, in what for how long? My mom used to make beef tongue into something reminiscent of pastrami, but better. She unfortunately was part of that generation that took their best recipes to the grave. I used to have to go down the basement and flip the tongue in the brine and weight it down with pottery for the 6-12 days of brining but she wouldn't tell me the brine. that was also at a time when you could buy salt peter and sulfur at the pharmacies.

I was at the grocery store and had never seen Turmeric root before (neither had the clerk but that's a longer story), so I got some and want to plant it. Any do's or don'ts?

Food Truck festival in my town tonight with tons of really great trucks -- was so looking forward to it! But it's rainy & chilly, not at all nice for walking around and eating on the grass. So I'm afraid it's no food truck bbq, doughnuts, pierogies, poutine, or other treats for me tonight. Indoor hot dog and strawberry-rhubarb compote (if I'm a very good girl) is as close to festive as I can get at home.

Youngest daughter showed up unexpectedly last night. She moved to Kansas City almost a year ago so we don't see each other that often. I didn't have much on hand. We are having brats w/sauerkraut, chips, and gin & tonic, out on the deck. She wants to see the stars. They don't have them in Kansas City. Stars, that is. I imagine they have plenty of brats and gin. --s6