What's for Dinner?

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The wife and I are going to a little restaurant down by the water for crab sandwiches and I'm bringing a bottle of Beringer private reserve chardonnay.

Mmmm, crabs....

Since it was just shy of 60*F, had to get the small smokey joe out and grill some burgers and dogs over charcoal. Spent most of the day in the garage making a batch of Irish Red Ale and finishing off a keg of Robust Porter. I'm very full right now (burp!).
 
Actually "what's for breakfast". Got bored since there was no football anymore and had my afternoon broken in half and didn't want to get any wine projects going only to have to stop them (have tomorrow off to do that) so I made up some bagels for breakfast tomorrow. Been toying with this recipe for a while (got it in 2004) and starting to get pretty good with it. Just can't seem to bring myself to boil the buggers long enough so that they don't rise so well in the oven.

Edit: base recipe I started with http://www.recipesource.com/baked-goods/bagels/00/rec0017.html

I don't use the eggs, use bread flour or hard winter wheat flour (Robin Hood) instead of all purpose flour, forgo the potato water and use 1/3 cup instant mashed taters, and don't use the cornmeal.

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Prelim for Valentines Day! Picked up a Costco USDA Choice Marinated Tri-Tip Roast. Cooked on the Webber over Pecan served with oven roasted fingerling potatoes baked with Herbs de Provence and a side of fresh grilled apseragas with Cavenders and fresh squeezed lemon. Even my toughest food critic was happy tonight!

Paired very well with.......

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I don't use the eggs, use bread flour or hard winter wheat flour (Robin Hood) instead of all purpose flour, forgo the potato water and use 1/3 cup instant mashed taters, and don't use the cornmeal.

But other than that, I follow the recipe exactly! :D

I would imagine the potato skins are to make the water alkaline. You may know this already, but a high pH allows the malliard reaction that causes the browning of the bagels to occur at a much lower temperature. (Traditionally, bagels [and pretzels!] are boiled in lye.) Although your bagels look nicely browned, you may want to add some baking soda to the water in your next batch and see if that helps!
 
Tonight was lamb chops. I often am able to score lamb shoulder chops that are practically rib chops, that is, they are just into the shoulder; they are priced like shoulder chops, but are close to rib chops.

I cooked them sous vide for about 5 hours, then seared them. Pre-sous vide, I seasoned 'em with garlic powder, thyme powder, rosemary powder, and fennel powder. (Powders are good for sous vide, better than whole herbs, and definitely better than fresh herbs.) They were pretty good, nice and tender, but I wonder if @mismost doesn't have a point!

Also, a nice salad of lettuce, arugula, and cabbage (+ dressing, etc.), and sides of brussels sprouts and braised butternut squash.
 
But other than that, I follow the recipe exactly! :D

I would imagine the potato skins are to make the water alkaline. You may know this already, but a high pH allows the malliard reaction that causes the browning of the bagels to occur at a much lower temperature. (Traditionally, bagels [and pretzels!] are boiled in lye.) Although your bagels look nicely browned, you may want to add some baking soda to the water in your next batch and see if that helps!

Actually, I never realized they boiled them in lye. I have no issues with alkalinity, my water from the spigot averages 7.8 pH and approaches 300 ppm hardness, hence I use my RO system that I bought for my fish tank water to get water I can attempt to mash grains for beer making. I don't use the water from the fish tanks for the beer as it adds some off flavors and some extra organics I don't need.
 
For my Valentine, I'm making Steak Diane, 'asparagus sushi', and redskin mashed potatoes.
 
Full recipes are also much appreciated!

Here's the steak:

http://recipes.anovaculinary.com/recipe/ribeye-steak-diane

For a non-sous vide method, I'd probably pan sear, then finish in the oven while I make the sauce.

Asparagus sushi: take 3-5 stalks of 'gus. wrap in a slice of provolone, then wrap that with prosciutto. Grill over indirect heat until prosciutto browns and cheese melts (or oven roast). You can garnish with parmesan, S&P, or whatever, but I find that with the flavor of the provolone, prosciutto and a little charcoal grilling, you don't need anything.

For the 'taters, I have no recipe. I wing it. Boil potatoes, then mash, adding milk (or cream), butter, salt, pepper, and whatever other seasoning you feel like.
 
I asked my wife if she wanted me to cook or go to a restaurant. She chose me cooking. I'm preparing Cornish hens and twice baked potatoes both on the Green Egg. Steamed broccoli/cauliflower/carrots and a Caesar salad. Dessert consists of chocolate covered strawberries and strawberry shortcake.(both store bought)
 
OK. Here's dinner. No action pics, but some prep and some plating. Was delicious. I can't believe it took me 47 years to discover this.

First pic, 'sushi' ready for cooking - I normally do this on the grill, but wasn't going to fire up just for some 'gus. 450 degree oven for about 7 minutes as I finalized the sauce.

Second pic: Mrs. Boatboy's V-day gift to me. Had one - fantastic.

Third pic: My plate - almost ready

Fourth pic: Some more sauce added, and a cross section of the 'sushi'

Fifth pic: inside of the steak.

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Neither the wife nor I are feeling well.... just a little under the weather, so we didn't make any plans for St. Valentine's Day. (Not that we pay much heed to it anyway.) However, shopping for dinner on the way home, I decided we should have a special meal. My local mom&pop grocery store provided snow crab clusters, and a filet mignon. The snow crabs were already cooked, so I just heated them up in water at 140F (using my sous vide rig). I seared the filet, seasoned with thyme, garlic, fennel, and paprika, and let it rest to reach temperature. I also made roasted artichoke halves, and risotto with shrimp stock. Perhaps the best part was that I made a big bowl of butter with 5 cloves of garlic, for dipping the crab and/or the 'chokes. The snow crabs were wonderful.

Mouthfuls of crab were washed down with a Cline Viognier, whilst the beef was sped to my gullet with an Australian GSM blend (Stump Jump, not really recommended too highly).
 
Sounds really good, Paul. Hope you two are feeling better soon.

Thanks, Jim!

Mouthfuls of crab were washed down with a Cline Viognier, whilst the beef was sped to my gullet with an Australian GSM blend (Stump Jump, not really recommended too highly).

Oh, and I served all of this on the "good china"!! :)
 
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