What's for Dinner?

I am away from home, staying in my sister's house and taking care of my mom while my sister is away. Tonight, I finally had a chance to make a decent dinner. I had one of my brothers over for dinner, so that is the first decent meal that poor sod has had in a while.

It isn't easy cooking in someone else's kitchen! I made lamb shoulder chops, seasoned and flash-seared. Came out too salty Also, the smashed 'taters tostone-style that I have written about so many times. A little sauce of mushrooms and Vidalias to top things off. And finally, I made broccoli rabe (or rapini, if you prefer). I sauteed/braised, and added 6 cloves of garlic, and it still was not enough! But it came out just fine, really. Washed down with Bogle Old Vine Zin.

For Craig and the others who keep raving about the Giant, I went there to check out the goods. I did find a ~$7 ribeye, but NO LAMB! So it was off to the Acme (for the non-cognescenti, that is pronounced "Ack-a-me" in Philly parlance), where they had beautiful lamb for reasonable prices. And in to the State Store to be gouged. (Not really -- they had the Bogle on sale for $10.99, and it drinks every penny of that!)

sour_grapes said:

For Craig and the others who keep raving about the Giant, I went there to check out the goods. I did find a ~$7 ribeye, but NO LAMB! So it was off to the Acme (for the non-cognescenti, that is pronounced "Ack-a-me"), where they had beautiful lamb for reasonable prices. And in to the State Store to be gouged. (Not really -- they had the Bogle on sale for $10.99, and it drinks every penny of that!)

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Humm, our Giant always has lamb, but not always reasonably priced. Around these parts the Acme was pronounced "Hack-me". Very few of them to be found, if any exist at all. I'll have to do an internet search, where everything is true and good.

Edit: My closest Acme is 80 miles away from me in Downingtown, close to where my Dad's sister used to live.

Interesting: there seems to be a bit of an anti-correlation (although there is at least two of each close to where I am, viz., in the Northeast).

I am still at my sister's house, and have been eating through all of her leftovers and throwing away the perishables that I don't want to eat and that will be no good by the time she gets back. Soooo, I made my way deeper into the fridge today, and found a beautiful, vacuum-packed ribeye steak from Aldi. It said "Use or freeze by May 16." It still looked perfect. (Thank you, carbon monoxide and/or other chemical preservatives!) I know my sister well enough to know that she would NOT be eating this when she returned, so I had at it!

So, dinner was: Another potato, cooked tostone-style once again. Roasted Brussels sprouts in olive oil seasoned with onion powder, sage, and Parmesan. For the steak, I dry-brined it, washed off the salt, then seasoned with paprika, cumin, onion powder, pepper, and garlic powder. I also simmered 4 garlic cloves in the potato water (which really mellows them), the smashed that with salt, thyme, and olive oil to made a kind of "Italian compound butter" for the steak.

It was all very, very good (as Peter Lorre would say). [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgnBhqJJFo8"] Peter Lorre and Vincent Price[/ame]

I washed this down with more Bogle Old Vine Zin. My sis has a 54* wine refrigerator, which I now covet.

Well, I try to eat halfway healthy during the work week but I am off tomorrow and these leftovers of leftovers were calling to me so I added another layer...... of baby portobello shrooms cooked in the au jus.

If I flatline tonight at least I am going to Heaven with a smile on my face!

ibglowin said:

these leftovers of leftovers were calling to me

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Is that the chipotle-braised short ribs? If so, can you email me some?

sour_grapes said:

Is that the chipotle-braised short ribs? If so, can you email me some?

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Yep. I bought too many Ribs to fit originally and had enough left over that I cooked a second batch up in the crock pot a few days later. Must kill the ribs B4 they kill me!

Got my home made potato salad done, pasta/veggie salad done, two beef briskets dry rubbed and in the fridge, and 5 (yes FIVE) full racks old baby back ribs dry rubbed and in the fridge! Saturday 15 of us feast!

Pork butt on the smoker at 6:02am! Doing a couple chickens as well later. Along side will be potato salad and a mango, black bean, avocado, quinoa salad.

Boatboy24 said:

Pork butt on the smoker at 6:02am! Doing a couple chickens as well later. Along side will be potato salad and a mango, black bean, avocado, quinoa salad.

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Hope you've got a rain poncho for that smoker, incoming from northwest of you. I was toying with getting the smoker out since it was looking pretty nice this morning until I took a gander at the radar. Looks like a wine racking type of day, maybe some beef stew in the dutch oven.

These will come off at noon today after a 15 hour smoke. Part of the grad party this afternoon.

About two and a half hours in.

Rodnboro said:

These will come off at noon today after a 15 hour smoke. Part of the grad party this afternoon.View attachment 36524

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Beautiful color!

Thawed a pork loin (in a brine, not a tenderloin) and seared on a hot grill. Perched atop a bed of carrots and red onion, covered with some turkey bacon cooked in real bacon fat to hold in some moisture. Seasoned with salt, pepper and some dried rosemary (my garden rosemary perished this winter, they usually only come back for four or five years for me, time to start some more). Threw in some red taters (more will be done later on the stovetop) for good measure. Started at 350*F with the lid off for 10 minutes to get things warmed up, reduced to 200*F and added the lid. Will check internal temperature around 4 PM and see where it stands and will likely up the heat to help it finish by 6 pm or so.

The meteorite has landed. And its delicious. Just took it off, double wrapped it in HD foil, then a towel and have it resting in a cooler. Company arrives in 30, and we'll eat in 90.

Cannot wait to dig into this. Just need to add the avocado and the dressing prior to serving.

Overshot this one by a mile. Was 165*F at 4 pm. Left it in the oven after turning it off, at 5:45 pm it was at 170*F. Anyone for flaky pork? Cuts with a butter knife. Now have to scurry to make a GF gravy, though there are some nice juices in the bottom covering the carrots, which are absolutely delicious.

Another learning experience with my new dutch oven, it's edible, lesson learned.

Edit: Hey, @Boatboy24 , we were promised some tater salad too, I don't see any in your images...and that one piece of pineapple is out of place, may ruin the dish...

ceeaton said:

.and that one piece of pineapple is out of place, may ruin the dish...

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Hmmm, and here I thought it was an out-of-place piece of mango that was going to ruin his whole dinner.....

Anyone for flaky pork? Cuts with a butter knife.

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Umm, sure! Pass me some!

Last evening in Philly for a while. I was indecisive on what to make. I again went to the Ack-a-me AND the Giant, and decided on scallops at the last minute ($8.99/lb). So, the menu was seared scallops in lots of butter, with a pan sauce with white wine, garlic, and thyme. Also, braised kale with garlic and lemon juice, and some plain ol' white rice. The scallops were just okay, a little stringy. I honestly do not know if it was the starting ingredients (kinda small farmed Japanese scallops) or the chef.

I also went to two different State stores. One was the "fancy" store that had all kinds of different wines. Sadly, at that time, I did not know I was going to have seafood, so I loaded up on rich, heavy, red wines. Later, I pulled the trigger on the scallops, and the State Store near the Ack-a-me is a stripped-down, poor excuse for a spirits shoppe. They had a scant selection of almost entirely low-end stuff. The best I could do for a Chard for the scallops was Turning Leaf. It ain't good, but then again it ain't bad either, and it served the purpose for $7.99.

The photo was taken with a webcam, so the quality suffers:

Want to see something funny? The file name led me to a picture I took at my house and uploaded about a year ago, which looks suspiciously like tonight's menu (but executed better)!