One of Dan’s oldest (but still younger than him!) and dearest friends bought him the cookbook “French Classics Made Easy,” in honor of his birthday and our of-a-lifetime trip to Paris. (Thanks Carrie!) She’s the kind of friend who never forgets a birthday and always makes you feel like the funniest person in the room (even though she actually is the most funny person in the room at any given time.) This chicken dish — “poulet au vinaigre de xérí¨s” — is the first recipe we’ve tried from the book, but it certainly won’t be the last. Not only was it easy to make with simple ingredients — chicken thighs, butter, olive oil, onion, sherry vinegar, shallots, garlic, white wine, tomato paste, parsley and salt & pepper — but it genuinely tasted like a classic French dish, with rich, complex and buttery flavors. This dish evokes the same qualities as a good, lasting friendship — satisfying and familiar, yet memorable and significant — all with minimal effort.
Zucchini Slaw
Summer is here and vegetables such as zucchini and squash are in season. Summer is also a time when we try to cook more meals and side dishes that require little, if any, use of the oven, stove or grill. It’s hot here in the summer, is what I’m saying. So the less slaving over hot cooking methods, the better. Coleslaw is a good cold side dish and we’ve tried several different varieties (including celery and hot & sour), so we were intrigued by this recipe, which uses zucchini and squash instead of cabbage. Other ingredients include carrots, green onions, red bell pepper and parsley, as well as white vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes for the dressing. Although we adapted the dressing recipe a bit to make it more suitable to our tastes (less sweet), we liked how easy it was to make, and that it’s an interesting take on traditional slaw and unusual use of zucchini and squash (raw instead of cooked.) Most refreshing of all, it’s a lightly tangy and spicy side dish that requires zero heat to prepare.
Weekly Menu (July 14)
Saturday
- Spicy BBQ Chicken Thighs, Zucchini Slaw, Grilled Fruit Salad
Sunday
- Teriyaki Lamb Shoulder Chops, Spicy Okra
Monday
- Japanese Pork & Ramen Soup (slow-cooker), Egg Rolls
Tuesday
- Sous Vide Duck Confit, Spring Mix Salad w/ Poached Eggs
Wednesday
- Take-Out
Thursday
- Fresh Pasta w/ Red Sauce, Caprese Salad
Friday
- Dinner Out
Friday Favorites
Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:
Not much cuter than a toddler holding hands on a walk. Except maybe when said toddler voluntarily reaches up to hold his Aunt Kelly’s hand during said walk. That’s so cute it’s stupid. We enjoyed a wonderful visit with the most adorable red-headed nephew on the planet and his parents in Brooklyn last weekend. Highlights (just to name a few) included an amazing dinner at Perilla in Manhattan (spicy duck meatballs are a must), a fun and fascinating trip to Governor’s Island, a leisurely delicious brunch at Prime Meats, spending time with Dan’s brother and his lovely wife, and watching our nephew have entire babbling conversations to no one on his toy cell phone (among other extremely endearing things he does.) We don’t live nearly close enough to our extended families, so it is always worth the trip to go see them, and always sad when it’s time to part ways. So hugs, backwards toddler waves and *muah* air kisses to all our family members — we miss you guys!
Another highlight from our trip that deserves separate mention is the chicken sandwich at Van Horn Sandwich Shop. If you ever find yourself in or near the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn and you like fried chicken the slightest bit, you must try one of these sandwiches. Stunningly simple — just a giant piece of perfectly fried chicken topped with a few shreds of coleslaw and placed between a toasty but soft sesame bun, with (very) spicy sauce and housemade pickle on the side — it may be the best chicken sandwich we’ve ever had. Dan’s brother worried that he had over-hyped it, but once we tried it, we were more than sold. I want another one right now.
Back at home, we commemorated our trip to Brooklyn with a pizza from our local Grimaldi’s. The most famous Grimaldi’s is located under the Brooklyn Bridge and is a popular tourist attraction, in addition to serving outstanding pizza (supposedly the secrets are coal-fired brick ovens and something special about New York water.) Lucky for us (and you if you live in certain areas of Arizona, Florida, Nevada, South Carolina and Texas), there are sister restaurants around the country that also use the signature brick ovens, have custom water systems and attempt to stay as true to the original as possible. If you like New York-style thin crust pizza, Grimaldi’s is among the best. And their meatball pizza is among our favorites — crispy thin crust topped with red sauce, mozzarella and wafer-thin slices of meatball.
Sometimes something so simple as decreeing Thursday to be Taco Night is enough to brighten up the whole week. We used this recipe and were quite pleased with the results — well-seasoned beefy flavor with a hint of tomato and just the right amount of spice. As good as they taste, these tacos are surprisingly easy to make and well worth the (minimal) extra effort to elevate them beyond the store-bought packet of taco seasoning to the level of Thursday Taco Night.
Seafood Paella (on the grill)
We’ve previously made a couple of different kinds of paella (a version with chicken, sausage and seafood, as well as one made with leftover turkey), using the stove-top method of cooking. After a lovely dinner party at a friend’s house several weeks ago (thanks Sally!), we were inspired to try an all-seafood paella cooked on the grill instead of the stove. One of the reasons for cooking this dish on the grill is that the heat will be more evenly distributed across the entire pan and its contents. Generally, paella pans are wider than the size of the typical stove burner, so the ingredients in the center will cook a little faster than the outer edges. No big deal, since the proteins cook in the center and the outer edges are mostly rice, but authentic paella should ideally have a crispy layer of caramelized rice along the bottom and sides called “socarrat.” (We have yet to perfect the socarrat, but cooking the paella on the grill gives us a better shot at doing so. And the paella is still delicious even without that crispy layer.) Grilling the paella or using a paella pan is by no means required — in our humble opinion, the only true requirements for paella are rice and saffron — so feel free to make do with whatever other ingredients you prefer and means you have available. This version is simply our take on the recipe from this article, using the seafood we like and a few techniques borrowed from other recipes. No matter the protein (although beef might be a bit strange) or cooking method used, it doesn’t get much better than a big pan of flavorful, saffron-infused rice cooked in a rich broth along with sweet and savory protein, red peppers and other veggies that add a bit of bite.
Weekly Menu (July 7)
Saturday
- Herb-Marinated Grilled Flank Steak, Tuscan White Bean Salad, Grilled Asparagus, Bread w/ Basil Butter
Sunday
- Take-Out
Monday
- Baked Garlic Shrimp, Tabouli
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
- Taco Night
Friday
- Dinner Out
Friday Favorites
Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:
We had a much-needed rainstorm — the weirdly awesome kind where it rained hard while the sun was still shining — that resulted in temperatures cool enough to eat dinner outside (a very rare treat this time of year) and enjoy a beautiful sunset.
This summer we have had our most successful tomato crop ever. We eat tomatoes with almost every meal, including breakfast. One of our go-to favorite morning meals is a couple of hard-boiled eggs, some sliced tomatoes and a few triscuits topped with cream cheese.
There is a sports-field complex within walking distance of our house where we can watch the annual “Kaboom Town” fireworks, albeit from pretty far away. The distance dampens some of the spectacle to be sure, but avoiding the traffic and parking debacle is a worthy trade-off. As is being able to bring your own portable chairs and glasses of wine.
Our pool has not yet reached bath-water temps and is still cool enough for a refreshing dip.
Check out the video below about how to cut a hot dog into a spiral shape prior to grilling. Cutting the dogs is not quite as easy as it looks and ours didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as the ones in the video. But the technique really does make for a more delicious hot dog. Dan loves it when science and cooking come together to improve a meal.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/chow-hot-dog-spiral-cut-video_n_1643991.html
Refrigerator Pickles
Something about “refrigerator pickles” says “summer” to us. Maybe it’s the name — “refrigerator” makes one think of grabbing a cool, crisp snack out of the fridge on a hot day. Or perhaps it’s because pickles go so well with summertime foods like hot dogs and hamburgers, consumed at backyard barbeques and gatherings. Could be because cucumbers are in season this time of year (our cucumber plants WERE at least, until they succumbed to the heat.) Whatever the reason, we’ve already made several batches of refrigerator pickles this summer, and they could not be easier or more delicious. All you need are cucumbers (small, pickling cucumbers work best), garlic, peppercorns, dill, white vinegar, water, salt and sugar. And patience to wait about 4 days for the ingredients to pickle. Continue reading “Refrigerator Pickles”
Weekly Menu (June 30)
Saturday
- Grilled Branzini, Cucumber and Avocado Salad
Sunday
- Spatchcocked Grilled Game Hen w/ Tomato & Pickled Pepper Salsa, Grill Veggie
Monday
Tuesday
- Roast Pork Loin & Potatoes, Salad
Wednesday Happy 4th of July!
- Chicago-Style Hot Dogs, Sweet Potato Crisps
Thursday
- Take-Out
Friday
Friday Favorites
Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:
Dan’s mom was in town last weekend, and we took her to Remington’s Seafood Grill for dinner Saturday night. I had one of the chalkboard specials (don’t you love a place where they write the chalkboard specials with chalk on an actual chalkboard?) — soft shell crab. It was amazing — delicately crispy on the outside with sweet, delicious crab meat inside. It was the kind of dish that is so good that when you ask your dining companions if they want a bite, you secretly hope they say no.
We updated (and improved) this black bean recipe by adding a jalapeno and a little bacon, and transformed the leftovers into a dip with sour cream, garden-fresh tomato and avocado.
The movie “21 Jump Street” just came out on DVD. If you like a silly “buddy” movie with pause-replay-scene-missed-it-laughing-too-hard dialogue and physical comedy, then you’ll probably like this film. And keep an eye out for cameos by the actors from the original TV show (which, ironically, was a serious drama.)
We love a good tuna sashimi with crispy wontons dish, and this one from Malai Kitchen is one of the best we’ve tried. Unfortunately, it’s not on their regular menu so we’re not sure what all was mixed in with the tuna (onion? tomato? cucumber?), but all of the ingredients complemented each other well and did not overpower the tuna. Malai is a great restaurant with lots of good menu choices, but this off-menu, periodic special is one worth stalking.
Dan sweetly brought home a “just because” bouquet of mixed blooms recently, and these white flowers have lasted almost 2 weeks! Not sure what they are — they look like some sort of rose hybrid — but they are long-lasting and low-maintenance. All I’ve done to them is remove any wilted blooms and make sure they have water. They’ll probably last another week or so.