What are you cooking for dinner this weekend?

[Too Tall]

Potentially one of the best things I've ever dreamed up. Lots of potential as a dinner party dish.
This is inspired by a dish that a Afghani pal makes and riffing on it.

The basic deal is this:

1. One mound of excellent rice which you have precooked very gently.
2. Smoke / Grill a chicken, cool and cut into small pieces.
3. Cook cubed butternut squash or pumpkin until it is very reduced and starting to carmelize. You should season this to taste (salt, pepper, cumin???)
4. Using a heavy oven proof serving platter and assemble: Mound of rice with layers of squash and chicken, dot the top with butter and cover with a heavy lid. Bake at 300F for one hr.

I was very light with herbs and spices to see what the result will be. This dish can take HEAVY flavors added and I think can be made with a wide range from savory to fiery hot depending on your mood. The end result was a fork fight between me and Mrs. Too Tall over the crusty bits on the platter.

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[jdp211]

Chicken and cabbage salad with tahini sauce and a shitload of herbs

Untitled by jacob Perlmutter, on Flickr

[dgaddis]

Leftover beef ribs make for mean quesadillas. 'Italian 5-cheese' cheese, some bell pepper, cilantro, black beans, corn, and beef ribs. Plenty of cheese, cause, life is short.

The night before that we had some pork tenderloin. All told, that makes for 4 nights in a row with food cooked on the Egg.

[BSUdude]

D.G. they look perfect. Honestly, I'll take well rendered Beef ribs over pork all day long. Those look legit.

In my limited experience, the best way to cook beef ribs is in a dutch oven in the oven in some sort of sauce concoction of your choice. This renders the fat well and tenderizes the meat to maximize the flavor of the beef rib while eliminating chewiness. This technique is pretty forgiving as well.

[jdp211]

Untitled by jacob Perlmutter, on Flickr

[JoB]

Austrian "Buchteln", sweet yeast rolls filled with fruit or jam, in this case sour cherry. served on something sweet, in this case vanilla pudding. tastes like Christmas.
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[dgaddis]

Cornish game hens. One with Pineapple Head rub, one with Raging River (both Dizzy Pig rubs). Cooked on the Big Green Egg, indirect and raised up into the dome, 350° for about an hour. Awesome! Completed the meal with steamed broccoli and a sweet potato. Between the wife and I we ate 1.5birds, leaving enough for her to take some for lunch tomorrow. Sunday's are the best:

[rwsaunders]

My daughter had a friend passing near Pittsburgh on the way home to D.C. for the holidays and she had to deal with some weather issues on her drive home from Ohio. I told her that she might as well stay here for the night as we always have plenty of food and beverage available for the weary traverler. Shrimp curry over basmati rice accompanied by a basket of warm naan and a nice, light ale.

[Octave]

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180km + 3000m of "up" in the cold demanded some serious dinner.. and given that we'd be in the states for Christmas, L and I decided to do our own Christmas dinner here.

Started with a beautiful, fresh black truffle

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and a big sheet of homemade pasta

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which quickly became a stack of farfalle

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and the rest is history. 2/3rd of the truffle minced, sauteed in olive oil for about 90 seconds with a clove of garlic, some salt and pepper. Pasta cooked, a spoonful of starchy water added to the truffle oil and all tossed together. Remaining 1/3rd of the truffle got shaved over the top, with a few slices left to melt onto a couple of thin toasts of fresh baguette.

Served alongside Richard Blais's Carrot Osso Buco, which is stunningly simple and delicious.

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100% vegan, 100% homemade and all vegetables homegrown. Nothing better in my book.

Happy holidays to all!

[Too Tall]

Octave for the win.
I'm going to make that Veg. Osso Buco, looks outstanding.

[Octave]

Octave for the win.
I'm going to make that Veg. Osso Buco, looks outstanding.

Thanks!

It was really outstanding. We didn't have any pear onions so I split a small red onion into eighths and called it good - otherwise we didn't change a thing about the recipe. Next time I'd use even bigger carrots, but that's definitely going to become an easy staple in our kitchen.

[Tom]

Saturday night at our friend's house - Italian seven fishes and I was asked to bring an app so I'm going Nordic on them with gravlax, quick pickled beets and horseradish cream on rye crisp bread. Gravlax goes down today. Pepper/coriander/cardamom/clove/orange zest and salt.

There's gonna be some cryin' around my house Saturday. There's a giant horseradish root to be grated. That's partly for Sunday:

Avon Meat Land to get a beef roast and do it with a simple salt and pepper crust, caramel potatoes, mince pie and pecan pie. I haven't landed on the vegetables yet. I'm tempted to do something with bitter greens because the potatoes are sweet. I also default to roasted root vegetables but that's getting routine. Ideas?

[Too Tall]

You make Gravlax? Oh drool.

No pictures. It would be silly. I've been quizzing Queen about her childhood meals. Apparently, mom would make a meatloaf once a week. It was very plain and everyone got a piece along with 1/4 head of iceburg. Soooo I set out to make the best meatloaf ever made.

Sauted carrots, onion, garlic, reduced tomatoes and leftover applewood smoked bacon added to fresh ground turkey thigh meat, saltines and eggs for the filling and thyme/salt/pepper for flavor. Topped the entire thing with a ribbon of ketchup for nostalgia and baked at 325.

But wait, I cooled it off and sliced than threw it on a hot cast iron griddle with EVO and served it crisped.

Hubba hubba. Bad childhood memories-b-gone.

[guido]

Solstice supper. Shrimp with green sauce (parsley, cilantro, scallion, garlic olive oil), braised red kale with home grown garlic, Iggy's baguette.


The worst of the darkness is over. It get ligher from here. Celebrate!

[Too Tall]

Gorgeous plates of food Guy.

I'm a big fan of process. Curt G. gave me some clues for a stuffed pork loin and I'm giving it a test run tonight using turkey breast. I found a really nice organic bone in breast and separated it and extended the cuts to make it a nice size than stuffed with CPG's suggestion: tart apples and chipolte. Also, CPG tells me to do a reduction of good apple cider/butter for saucing the sliced meat.

After report probably not required. This will be good.

If it turns out great my plan is to find a large pork tenderloin and go nuts. This is for NYE.

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[guido]

That looks wonderful Josh! The cider reduction works great with a lot of different dishes...

[Too Tall]

It was good. I foisted 1/2 of it on my neighbors. No paramedics thus far. This is a go for NYE.

[guido]

Portuguese Kale soup with Linguiça, potatoes, onions, home grown garlic, home grown dried tomatoes and chicken stock.



Warming on a cold night...

[rwsaunders]

My live-in Christmas dessert elf is in high gear. If you are a homeroom teacher, school bus driver, postman, refuse truck driver, etc in my hood, you received a treat bag and some other goodies this week.

[rwsaunders]

She tried to hide these from me this afternoon while I was out raking leaves. I see a latte/rugelach snack coming in my near future