Today I Made:

[PictureSarah]

Last night for dinner I made shrimp scampi with white wine, butter, lemon juice and basil, with quinoa pilaf and salad.

[Tigerrrrr]

These:

Spoiler:

Husband's birthday today.

[dubsola]

Yum, and yum.

[Nath]

Top blade steak, pan fried potatoes (with bits of onion and bell pepper), giant pile of broccoli. Lots of fond from the meat; I made a quick pan sauce. First proper meal I've cooked in several days. Top blade might replace flat iron as my go-to cheap steak. (They are pretty much the same piece of cow, but they charge you less because there's a bit of connective tissue in the middle.)

[Obby]

Thai short rib tacos! Inspired by a local food favorite of mine. The avocado was not as ripe as I thought it was, so that sucked, but otherwise a very good experiment.

[roband]

Advice please? Swiftly would be good, if I can be so demanding

I am about to oven cook two pork chops in a marinade of BBQ seasoning and hot sauce. When the inevitable fat escapes and mixes with the marinade - how best can I turn this into a sauce? Flour?

[Nath]

If you want to thicken it with flour, the best way is probably to make a roux. Melt butter, add flour, stir into a paste, and cook out the raw taste without letting it get too brown. Then add your liquid (preferably chilled) in small additions, stirring our the lumps. Season to taste. You can finish by stirring in an additional chunk of cold butter, after you take it off the heat.

If your liquid is already mostly fat, then you could probably just use it instead of butter in the roux, and add some water or stock to get to the right consistency.

[roband]

Surprisingly little fat came out, so I had them dry. Still very tasty though!

Thanks for the advice

[coyotebush]

Found zucchini at yesterday's farmer's market, and incorporated them into a pasta sauce tonight.

[deskjethp]

5 pieces of wheat bread + 4 slices of American cheese + microwave = hot cheese sandwich. Normally this is okay, but this was too much.

I went out to the grocery store at 23:00 to get the stuff for this project right after I finished at work. Actually, this is the second time I've done this. The first time I did it I got the ingredients off someone's doorstep that were going to be otherwise discarded. That was a 6 bread 5 cheese sandwich.

The first time it was a bad idea and I couldn't get past the crust. I didn't learn. This time, since I actually spent money on it (oops), I did finish it, though it wasn't good past the crust. If there had been a higher bread:cheese ratio it would have been better.

[broken_escalator]

Made some garam masala from scratch and cooked chicken, green chilies, tomatoes, and bell peppers. I don't think I ground up the powder enough, next time I will remember to not grind so many peppercorns at the same time. It is fun to use a mortar and pestle though!

Now I just need to figure out other dishes to use turmeric in.

[marcel]

right now, I am making:
Pangasius with chard and tomatoes in a ginger-garlic marinade with spelt bulghur. Really curious how this will work out.

[meridian]

I made a-po-kale-ypse stirfry. Otherwise known as a hot potato and kale salad with mushroom gravy(dressing).

[dubsola]

right now, I am making:
Pangasius with chard and tomatoes in a ginger-garlic marinade with spelt bulghur. Really curious how this will work out.

I'd never heard of this fish, but now that I know, I'd imagine it was pretty tasty. Was it?

[icanus]

The latest iteration of my ongoing bread-recipe-experiment is now in the oven. This week's version has lots of red leicester cheese, chopped onion and sun-dried tomatoes in the dough (last week's had shredded bacon too, but I've had a request from a coworker for a veggie version). I started a couple of months ago with a basic plain white bread recipe, and have been adding stuff every week with the eventual aim of getting a whole meal in one loaf.

[Thesh]

Today I made a ginger beer float. The ginger beer I bought wasn't that great, they flavor it with fruit juice meaning instead of a spicy, dry ginger flavor, it had a funky sweet flavor. The only lemon sorbet they had in the grocery store was the store brand, which had this syrup residue on top. Ginger beer floats have potential, but they need better ingredients. Also, because I didn't wait for the ginger beer to get fully chilled, the sorbet melted fairly quickly.

[Nath]

Last night I made spicy salmon cakes with broccoli and potatoes. Dessert was a simple home-made protein bar topped with a bit of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

[PAstrychef]

Whilst camping over the weekend I made shrimp and grits with loads of cheese. I opened up the cooler to discover that I had packed without bringing any butter. I am ashamed.

[dubsola]

Ribeye.

I am pretty proud of my skills with a steak, having had a few good comments (like "Oh my god, this is the best steak I've ever had"). But even tonight, where I treated my ribeye pretty cavalierly, it is so good. I think good quality steak is pretty hard to mess up.

I was cavalier because I took it out of the fridge, and instead of letting it rest and come to room temperature naturally, I was hasty and put it in the oven and turned it on, with the intention of hastening the resting. I left it in there longer than I should have, some juice came out and it was warm, however, a super hot pan and a few minutes of frying, and it is tasty as hell. I bought it from Smithfield market, Europe's largest wholesale meat market, and yes. Perfection.

Whilst camping over the weekend I made shrimp and grits with loads of cheese. I opened up the cooler to discover that I had packed without bringing any butter. I am ashamed.

I expect grits go extremely well with butter? I know shrimp does

[PAstrychef]

I was cavalier because I took it out of the fridge, and instead of letting it rest and come to room temperature naturally, I was hasty and put it in the oven and turned it on, with the intention of hastening the resting. I left it in there longer than I should have, some juice came out and it was warm, however, a super hot pan and a few minutes of frying, and it is tasty as hell.

this is known as the Reverse Sear method, and is a real thing! It makes it much easier to cook steaks to the temp you like, then give them a tasty crust at the last minute.

[dubsola]

How delightful!

[Nath]

Top blade steak and crab cakes; sort of a poor man's surf 'n' turf. Just followed my usual fishcake recipe, using canned crab instead of salmon. Moderate success; I should look up a recipe next time, since the texture is different.

[PAstrychef]

Vichyssoise, or leek and potato soup, to be served chilled and lightened with cream. Also some sour cream ice cream base. These are both for dinner for tomorrow, as they need to be well chilled. The ice cream will be churned in the early afternoon, then set to harden off in the freezer for several hours.
Tomorrow it's grilled trout with chermoula and salad to round out the menu.

[Bakemaster]

That just reminds me of The Splendid Table on NPR because the host always mispronounces vichyssoise. Such an eyeroll-worthy show.

[KestrelLowing]

That just reminds me of The Splendid Table on NPR because the host always mispronounces vichyssoise. Such an eyeroll-worthy show.

I am so glad I'm not the only one to think that. The call in portions are particularly odd as it seems like people get just a little too excited about food, *nudge* if you know what I mean *nudge*

But yesterday, I made baked chicken. Silly me had never just taken pieces of chicken and baked them. It's fantastic - just season with salt and pepper, bush with a little butter and put it in the (very hot) oven. Sometimes simple is the best.

[Bakemaster]

Far be it from me to criticize anyone for getting excited about food, but yes, sometimes their oohs and aahs do sound hilariously like intimate exclamations.

[ahammel]

I've been making iced coffee according to this recipe. It's pretty awesome, especially if you're too lazy to brew the stuff in the morning.

[Shro]

Breakfast of Champions:

2 egg whites
Half an english muffin, buttered
Half avocado
2 slices canadian Bacon
3 Turkey Sausage
Dollop of sour cream
Salsa
~450 calories. 25 grams of protein.

[PAstrychef]

Fired up the smoker and ran four racks of ribs, a 14# brisket and three rabbits through it. Haven't taste the bunnies, as we didn't was to overpower them so they were only in the smoker for 2.5 hours, but the ribs and the brisket came out exceptionally well.
Also made a pan of cream cheese brownies, which would be inhale able if they weren't so rich.

[Bakemaster]

You can come to my house any time.

[PAstrychef]

Morning conversation with kids:
"want a corncake for breakfast?"
"ok"
Corncake cooked, syruped and served. Most of corncake scraped into crumbs.
"didn't like the corn cakes?"
"they had corn in them!"
to make corn cakes, make pancake batter, with 1/2 of the flour cornmeal. Add corn kernels, either frozen or scraped from the cob of leftover corn-on-the-cob. Cook in a bit of butter serve, with maple syrup or sour cream. You can add chopped scallions, grated cheese, diced cooked mushrooms, etc. Then a bit of black pepper and cumin in the batter are nice. I think I will cook the extra batter for dinner!

[natraj]

oh man that sounds wicked tasty! i have some yummy garlicky mushrooms left over i think i will make some corncakes and stick them in.

[PictureSarah]

There is a corncake recipe in my Veganomicon book that is SUPER tasty with blueberries.

[TiLt]

Today I made apple pie according to a recipe that I got off TV. Turned out better than I thought it would as well, never mind the fact that it was cooked in a quiche tin.

[Rium]

Today I made sweet potato casserole, if you can call it that – sliced sweet potato with some olive oil, covered with grated cheese. Normally I prefer Parmesan, but I had to use Emmental as a substitute this time, which was not nearly as salty.

[natraj]

to make corn cakes, make pancake batter, with 1/2 of the flour cornmeal. Add corn kernels, either frozen or scraped from the cob of leftover corn-on-the-cob. Cook in a bit of butter serve, with maple syrup or sour cream. You can add chopped scallions, grated cheese, diced cooked mushrooms, etc. Then a bit of black pepper and cumin in the batter are nice. I think I will cook the extra batter for dinner!

last night i made these for dinner, i put scallions and topped them with garlicky portobello mushrooms, it was SO GOOD yum. yumyum. i don't know why i have not made savoury pancakes before, thank you for the suggestion!

[PAstrychef]

last night i made these for dinner, i put scallions and topped them with garlicky portobello mushrooms, it was SO GOOD yum. yumyum. i don't know why i have not made savoury pancakes before, thank you for the suggestion!

To really push those boundaries, make savory ice creams. Corn is nice, with or without kernels, avocado can be fantastic, herbs work really well too. The NYTimes did a long article about this a while ago-like six or seven years, but I bet there are recipes to be googled. Running good olive oil in an ice cream machine makes a nifty garnish for chilled soups.

[PictureSarah]

Last time I went through Corning, CA (between my house and my parents' house, where lots and lots of olives are grown), I got a cup of ice cream with lemon olive oil mixed in. It was so great. This summer I am going to experiment with making coconut milk ice cream with lemon grass, ginger and keffir lime. I expect it to be a great success.

[Nath]

Mackerel cakes. Ate a few with fried eggs and broccoli. I'll make fish curry with the leftovers.

[suffer-cait]

basil oil
basil sunflower pesto on ravioli and sausage
pea salad (bacon and a few veggies and stuff)