What's cooking?

Last night was rack of lamb, seasoned and cooked on the grill to medium rare. I picked up a green cauliflower, which was among a beautiful selection of purple, gold and white cauliflowers. I mentioned before that I am loving mashed cauliflower, with the addition of a Yukon Gold potato to beef up the texture. I steamed the green beauty, then mashed along with the potato to a creamy pale green that was interesting. The addition of lots of snipped chives from our garden, a little butter and some half and half made for a very good side with the lamb.

Gene was playing with a new headset that allows him to turn the sound up and down separately from the universal TV remote. He has a hearing issue and I will not tolerate the loud TV. He was quite thrilled with the way they were working and decided to keep them on so he could still listen to the program we were watching while he was tending to the grill on the patio. All was going great until his attention was on the headset and not on the food and the rack caught on fire. He got it out quickly and we still got our medium rare lamb but with a nice char on the outside. He does like the idea of not having to miss a minute of a program now, he will just have to get better at multi-tasking!

Tonight will be Beijing meat sauce noodles.

-Paul W.

Cold snap here so tonight is braised beef short ribs.

[Jenise]

Tonight will be Beijing meat sauce noodles.

-Paul W.

OOH, what's a Beijing meat sauce?

Tonight it is Cubano Pork Chops with a rub of lime zest, McCormick seasoning, cumin, gr. coriander. allspice, brown sugar and evoo, grilled. A mix of red potatoes, red pearl onions, fresh thyme, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper, evoo and roasted. An avocado salad with radish, and a lime vinaigrette

We had leftovers from Sunday dinner, but Sunday dinner was pretty damn good! Curried goat, saffron rice, fennel-apple slaw, Caribbean cornbread (jalapeños and coconut), apple-tomato chutney (from last summer's garden), sliced melons, Dessert: ginger cookies and Tennessee Whiskey cake and vanilla ice cream. Yummy!

Tonight will be Beijing meat sauce noodles.

-Paul W.

OOH, what's a Beijing meat sauce?

Also called tsa chaing mein or zhajiangmian. Ground pork stir-fried with soy bean paste and minced scallions, served over noodles and various condiments (I usually use blanched bean sprouts and slivered cucumber).

-Paul W.

Tonight will be Beijing meat sauce noodles.

-Paul W.

OOH, what's a Beijing meat sauce?

Also called tsa chaing mein or zhajiangmian. Ground pork stir-fried with soy bean paste and minced scallions, served over noodles and various condiments (I usually use blanched bean sprouts and slivered cucumber).

-Paul W.

That sounds great!

[Robin Garr]

A spicy Sichuan-style stir-fry of marinated tofu, thin-sliced snow peas and onions, ginger and garlic.

Today I made Senate Bean Soup. The original recipe from 1903 with mashed potatoes, navy beans, ham hock, celery, etc.

It is very good! Wonder if anyone has heard of this soup? It's been served in the US Senate cafeteria for 110 years.

[Robin Garr]

It is very good! Wonder if anyone has heard of this soup? It's been served in the US Senate cafeteria for 110 years.

Sure have! It's very similar to our family bean soup recipe. When my brother and sister and I were kids, my parents took us to The Nation's Capital to see all the historic sights, and a highlight of the trip was a visit to the Senate Cafeteria ... for bean soup, of course. We unanimously decided that Mom's was better.

Very well known soup, love it. There are many regional versions.

Tonight at our casa is fresh crab cakes with tomato corn relish and citrus aioli. Found some beautiful asparagus at Raley's yesterday, looked like first of the season batch. Will char them a little to serve as a side dish.

[Robin Garr]

Scottish bubble and squeak patties with potatoes, cabbage, carrot and onion.

[Robin Garr]

Rigatoni with lentils and garlicky tomatoes, a Northeastern Italian pasta recipe from Lidia Bastianich, with sautéed broccoli added to make it dinner in a dish.

Tonight is flank steak with an ancho chilie marinade, grilled to medium rare. Sweet onions and an assortment of mushrooms sauteed to golden brown, with a touch of balsamic vinegar. We will split a baked spud. Plus, a salad with arugula, red leaf lettuce, parsley, celery heart, asian cuke, baby red scallions from our garden, dressed with a walnut oil and cabernet red wine vinegar vinaigrette. All this while watching the Oscars!!!

Robin, your lentils with Rigatoni is beautiful. Wish I liked lentils more.

Tonight is a seafood stew, with white wine, clam juice, calamari, scallops and shrimp, in a tomato, onion, garlic, fennel, sauce. A simple green salad of various leaves, fresh herbs and lemon vinaigrette

Today I made Senate Bean Soup. The original recipe from 1903 with mashed potatoes, navy beans, ham hock, celery, etc.

It is very good! Wonder if anyone has heard of this soup? It's been served in the US Senate cafeteria for 110 years.

My wife used to make it 2-3 times each winter Frank. Sadly, she is no longer able to cook for me. We loved it first time we had it back around 1965.

Tonight will be fettucine with an oxtail ragu from the Babbo cookbook.

[Robin Garr]

Thai red curry made with snow peas, browned onions, garlic and ginger, coconut milk and a "fusion" ingredient, a dollop of red mole sauce from Louisville's Mayan Cafe. Worked out great!

[Robin Garr]

Spaghetti alla carbonara with pasta dressed in free-range eggs and Pecorino Romano, turned meatless with crispy roasted skinny asparagus in place of the traditional pancetta or bacon.

Roast pork lo mein last night. Tonight's dinner will be doro wat.

-Paul W.

Braciole !!!!!!!!! I'm using Lidias recipe, the house smells wonderful right now and I'll take a pic if I don't eat it too fast.

[Jenise]

Yesterday, I was just planning some grilled pork chops and then one of Noel Ermitano's posts kicked me in the fanny about stepping up and out with something a bit more adventurous. After all, my pantry was pretty bare (haven't restocked since returning from our trip), a situation in which lacking the luxury of options I usually do some of my most creative thinking. The result didn't disappoint: after a salad of chopped tomatoes and cocktail peppers with a feta-basil vinaigrette, we had a stack each of two thin cut pork chops braised in milk/red wine vinegar/mustard/herbs d'Provence garnished with roasted celery and candied black oil-cured olives--an aged Rhone went perfectly with that.

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Tonight? I have a 1.8 lb porterhouse to go with a 2004 Palmer. Not sure about the sides, yet.