What's cooking?

Tonight it is grilled spatchcock chicken marinated in Tequila Lime, Orange, garlic and chile powder, with refried Anasazi beans. Warm home made tortillas and a green salad will round out the meal. Maybe some grilled asparagus too.

[Jenise]

Drew, those skewers look great. Should definitely be a contender!

No idea what we're having tonight. I just got some chicken breasts out to thaw with absolutely no plan on how to finish them.

No idea what we're having tonight. I just got some chicken breasts out to thaw with absolutely no plan on how to finish them.

Oh heck Jenise, throw some marinade on them, and go get take out, then sit out on your porch overlooking the bay. Cook those breasts up tomorrow for a salad at lunch time.

[Jenise]

No idea what we're having tonight. I just got some chicken breasts out to thaw with absolutely no plan on how to finish them.

Oh heck Jenise, throw some marinade on them, and go get take out, then sit out on your porch overlooking the bay. Cook those breasts up tomorrow for a salad at lunch time.

If only we had some good Chinese take-out around here! Alas, there's nothing, just a Little Caesar that's already closed for the season. Also, I'm on nursemaid duty. Tammy Faye came home today and requires pretty constant attention.

Tonight I had a taste for Chinese - mine!

Spicy Szechuan Eggplant.jpg

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Spicy Szechuan Eggplant with Sticky Rice. Yum!

Turkish Chicken and Okra stew. Served over rice, with brussels sprouts browned with bacon.

If only we had some good Chinese take-out around here! Alas, there's nothing, just a Little Caesar that's already closed for the season. Also, I'm on nursemaid duty. Tammy Faye came home today and requires pretty constant attention.

I must have missed a post about your sick kitty...do I understand that she had an amputation? Sorry to hear that. Will she be OK?

[Jenise]

Karen, she had a VAS, which stands for Vaccine-Associated Sarcoma on her right flank that popped up while we were in the process of trying to figure out why she was losing weight even though her appetite had become ferocious, which turned out to be a separate disease, lymphoma of the intestines. Low-grade at present, and manageable, at least for the one to two years of life she has left because of the sarcoma. The amputation and reconstruction of her right rear leg and hip AND follow up radiation to come will only delay but not prevent recurrence, but she'll have a great quality of life during that time. Believe me, I got a lot of extra opinions to make sure this was true--hardest decision I've ever had to make for a pet.

And to think this happened to me who has always preached that an indoor animal is more likely to have issues from a vaccine than they are to encounter the disease the vaccine is trying to prevent. I've always gone ahead with the basic kitten stuff, but nothing after that. Tammy most likely got this as a result of the rabies vacc she was required to have for the health certificate that enabled her to be flown up when we moved here nine years ago.

[Robin Garr]

Cooking for four last night, with my sister and brother in for a visit. Dinner: spaghetti with Italian-American "gravy." Comfort food!

It's still grillin' weather here so I roasted up a couple dinners' worth: porterhouse steak (1.5" thick, 30+ day dry age, Angus), swordfish steak (held it up on end so the skin can get some char), and shrimp-chorizo kebabs.

[Jenise]

I'm doing swordfish too tonight; will grill and serve on lentils. A crab cake on a chiffonade of romaine will be the salad starter.

Dinner tonight is well seasoned rack of lamb on the grill...along with fresh corn slathered with an herby compound butter and a tomato bread salad with kalamata olives, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and a variety of cherry tomatos, sweet basil, fresh marjarom, and a garlic, red wine vinaigrette with fresh garlic. I made croutons from a fresly baked garlic baguette. I like my croutons crispy on the outside and softer on the inside.

We had smoked chicken over apple wood, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, and corn on the cob; washed down with Glenora Finger Lakes, Riesling. Yum, yum!!!!

Tammy most likely got this as a result of the rabies vacc she was required to have for the health certificate that enabled her to be flown up when we moved here nine years ago.

Tragic Jenise.....I know you love your kitties, and kudos to you for taking such good care of them. I have an elderly kitty, 18 years old. I am not giving her any more shots...just heart worm every month, good food and love. She is happy, but loosing her sight, and hearing. We go to great lengths to keep her moving every day.

Last night, we went to a friend's place for grilled chicken in a Malaysian ginger peanut sauce (which was excellent). We contributed dessert, which consisted of chocolate truffle brownies with creme anglais and homemade black pepper ice cream. Tonight, it was spaghetti with crab, corn, peas, oregano, and cream topped with baked cherry tomatoes. To go with, we had slices of heirloom tomatoes topped with buffalo mozzarella, fig compote, and bacon bits.

[Jenise]

She is happy, but losing her sight, and hearing. We go to great lengths to keep her moving every day.

18's a great good life for a cat. Lucky you (and her) to make it all the way.

[Jenise]

Oh man. Our local tasting group is meeting here tonight as a favor to us because we can't leave Tammy Faye. Subject is Spanish wines. I volunteered to make a paella to feed the group. Everybody brings some food to share but more along the lines of cheese and bread. Well, I've just learned that the new executive chef at the Semiahmoo Resort, who was the chef at the schmanciest hotel in Salt Lake City and who has worked at Spago, among other places, is going to join us.

PRESSURE!

I've already committed to making a chicken and shrimp paella and broadcast that information to the group, so I'll stick with that. To add wow factor, will serve that with a salsa fresca of finely diced cucumber, onion and chorizo in a sherry vinaigrette. Have never done that before, but in my head it sounds great and I just made it up so nobody else has done that before either. It will at least be original. I'll also make the peach gazpacho recipe I posted last week which I'll serve in tiny jam jars with chive spears, and a 'salad' of belgian endive* leaves filled with goat cheese, fresh orange segments, and a chopped castelvetrano olive relish.

Wow, Jenise, all your Spanish ideas sound great!

Oh, envy! Post pictures, if you get a chance and think about it.

[Jenise]

Wow, Jenise, all your Spanish ideas sound great!

Frank and Jo Ann--the pressure just got worse by two. That is, I've just learned that I have another star chef guest, a Woodinville chef who moved up to open a restaurant called Cassoulet here just two weeks ago. In a town with very very very few white table cloth joints, this is big. HOLY SHIT! I might drink all the wine before they get here!

But, I am having a good day in the kitchen, and Frank I owe you for part of that. That is, while trying to figure out how to stage my paella and be a good hostess to my guests while chained to the stove and needing to get everyone seated and going since this group always does late starts (like 7:30) and we still have to have a wine tasting, I remembered the best paella thing I ever made, and that was about 12 years ago, when I made a deconstructed version. Made an onion flavored short grain rice, molded them into hockey puck shapes early in the day and baked them off later for service, topping each with a seared scallop. A grapefruit sauce was puddled underneath and some mussels stir fried with a pimento-almond-garlic romesceau sauce was the garnish. It was spectacular. Anyway, thinking back to that and the soupy rice we made two weeks ago, the perfect solution occurred to me. I made the rice already with kala jeera seeds, saffron, onion and black sesame. Separately, I seared off chicken thighs on one side until the skin turned crispy (each thigh was deboned and cut in two) and those are now simmering in a really fantastic broth of chicken stock, saffron, onions, chorizo slices and green olives. I'll add the shrimp until just cooked thru later, then spoon all of that onto the rice, stopping well short of soupy. I'll separately brown some of the rice to have some crispy bits like what happens in the bottom of the pan. I'm predicting that I'm going to end up liking it better than any paella I've ever made, because I do favor foods with distinct pockets of flavor vs. one muddled mass. And no matter what these guys think of it, it will at least be unlike anybody else's.

[Robin Garr]

Using up a garden eggplant bounty in spicy Indian-style eggplant curry, quick and simple, fine with steaming rice and Bell's Oberon wheat ale. 

PRESSURE!

I've already committed to making a chicken and shrimp paella and broadcast that information to the group, so I'll stick with that. To add wow factor, will serve that with a salsa fresca of finely diced cucumber, onion and chorizo in a sherry vinaigrette. Have never done that before, but in my head it sounds great and I just made it up so nobody else has done that before either. It will at least be original. I'll also make the peach gazpacho recipe I posted last week which I'll serve in tiny jam jars with chive spears, and a 'salad' of belgian endive* leaves filled with goat cheese, fresh orange segments, and a chopped castelvetrano olive relish.

Here is some interesting facts about this chef you may like to read.

http://www.cassouletcafe.com/What_makes_us_tick.html

[Jenise]

Karen, actually I'd already read that a few days ago--just made me all the more nervous!!!!

[Robin Garr]

I had a late afternoon workshop, so Mary took over the kitchen and made an outstanding autumn equinox dinner of roasted seasonal veggies: pumpkin, yams, red- and white-skinned potatoes, sweet onions, crispy kale and fresh herbs.