My new go-to meal

Tonight's Menu

• grilled chicken drumsticks & thighs
  
• rosemary-onion focaccia
• leftover zucchini with bacon & onions
  
• green salad "bar"
  

This is becoming my new go-to meal this summer. Tonight's dinner was basically a repeat of our dinner from June 4 of this year, except that we had the leftover zucchini from Saturday, and tonight's salad bar featured purchased mixed lettuce, sliced carrots from the CSA, sliced cucumbers from the CSA, sliced banana peppers from the CSA, and mixed cherry tomatoes from my dad's garden. Yum!

Make your own damn lunch!

I was so busy this morning that I sort of forgot to eat lunch until about 1:30 or so, at which point I was STARVING. Unfortunately I was feeling totally uninspired by the contents of my fridge and pantry. The only thing that looked like it MIGHT have possibilities was a can of butter beans. I know, right? So here's what I did.

First I peeled three cloves of garlic and stuck them in the food processor, whizzing away with the chopper blade until they were nicely minced. Then I dumped in the can of rinsed, drained butter beans, along with a bunch of fresh herbs (parsley, basil, oregano and a bit of mint from my herb garden), some salt and pepper, the juice of half a lemon, a good glug of EVOO (I dunno, couple of tablespoons, maybe?) and pulsed it a few times just to mix everything together. I wasn't going for a smooth puree, but you could certainly do it that way if you don't want it chunky.

Voila! Bean dip! I scooped it into a bowl, drizzled on just a wee bit more EVOO for good measure, and shoveled great gobs of it into my mouth via some torn-up hunks of whole-grain tortilla. (Pita, ciabatta or focaccia would work great, too!) It was delicious! The leftovers are in the fridge awaiting a midnight snack attack.

The only drawback? Whoa -- MAJOR garlic breath. But I don't care.

(Incidentally, if you're just tuning in today, I've posted several backdated entries below this one. Sorry it took so long to get them up, but if you read them, you'll see why I've sort of had my hands full. Poor little-big boy child!)

Barbecue!

Tonight's Menu

• barbecued pork on buns
• marinated cucumber salad
• sliced tomatoes
  

Finally, the boy was feeling good enough to eat "normal" food tonight! So I went whole hog (hee! see what I did there?) and made some barbecued pork sandwiches for dinner.

I have to admit, this pork was sort of an experiment. What I did was take a shoulder roast, rub it with salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika, and stick it on a rack in a roasting pan. Then I added some water to the bottom of the pan and dropped in two large-ish whole sprigs of rosemary. The idea was to get the rosemary to barely scent/flavor the meat. I covered the pan tightly with heavy-duty foil and stuck it in the oven at 200 degrees F for about 5 hours.

When I pulled it out of the oven I stuck an instant-read thermometer in the roast just to be sure it was fully cooked, which it was, so then I removed it from the pan and set up the grill for indirect heat (two burners on medium, one burner unlit). I put the roast on the unlit burner and started basting it with a Carolina-style barbecue sauce (I buy this already made; it's a mustard-based sauce that goes great with pork).

After maybe 15 minutes total, flipping it from one side to another halfway through, the sauce had kind of baked on to the meat. There still wasn't any browning, though, so I flipped the roast over to one of the lit burners for just a couple of minutes per side to get some nice grill mark action going. Much better, aesthetically speaking! After resting it for a few minutes, I shredded it and served it on buns with thinly sliced sweet onions and more barbecue sauce on the side. Delicious! And not as much trouble as it sounds, honest.

This cucumber salad is one of my favorite things. DH and I first discovered it at a Hungarian restaurant near here and we absolutely fell in love with the way this refreshing, cool salad contrasted with the rather rich main dishes (I admit it, I'm a chicken paprikas addict). A couple of years ago I was poking around in an antique store when I found a little pamphlet of Hungarian recipes. Lo and behold, there was our favorite cucumber salad!

Here's how you make it: take two good-sized cucumbers, wash and peel them, then cut cross-wise into thin slices. Put them in a bowl and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of salt, then set aside for one hour. After an hour, start squeezing the cucumber slices in your hand, discarding the liquid. Put the squeezed cucumbers into a non-reactive bowl, then mix together the following:

3 Tbs white vinegar
3 Tbs water
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 tsp minced garlic (I grated it with my microplane)

Pour the vinegar mixture over the cucumbers, toss to coat, then sprinkle another 1/4 tsp or so of paprika over top. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour. We like to serve it the way they do in the restaurant, with a tiny dollop of sour cream on top.

So yummy, and the crunchy, vinegary cucumbers were a nice foil to the rich barbecued pork!

Oh and P.S.: the cucumbers and tomatoes were from the CSA, natch.

More soft-ish things

Tonight's Menu

• grilled ham steak
  
• cornbread
  
• sauteed zucchini with bacon and onion
  

This was Day Two of Get Some Real Food Into The Boy After His Tooth Extractions. Hmm, I should come up with an acronym for that, maybe. It's a little long as-is. Anyway, tonight I made food that was slightly LESS soft than last night, but still easy on the gums. And still easy, period!

The ham was just a packaged cross-cut ham steak, slapped on the grill over high heat for maybe 4-5 minutes per side (you'll want to adjust that based on the thickness of your steak). Yummy, easy and super fast!

I've given you the cornbread recipe before. It's easy, too. Honest!

And I KNOW I am making zucchini with bacon and onions practically every single night, but tonight it was different because the zucchini was cut into a different shape. Yep. (Picture me nodding earnestly at you here.) Usually I slice it into coins and/or half-moons, but tonight some of it was shredded (leftover from a couple of days ago when I made these cupcakes, which were FABULOUS) and some was cut into batons. TOTALLY DIFFERENT.

Why are you looking at me like that?

Soft things

Tonight's Menu

• sauteed tilapia fillets
  
• buttered egg noodles
  
• steamed broccoli
  

The boy child had four primary molars pulled Wednesday in anticipation of braces, and he's been eating nothing but pudding, applesauce, Jello and the occasional bowl of overcooked pasta ever since, poor kid! I wanted to cook a dinner he could actually EAT that contained a bit of protein and veggie. This worked out great and he was happy to get some real food in his tummy. Who knew a 12 year old could get tired of pudding and ice cream?!

This was also a super easy dinner to make. I just seasoned some tilapia fillets with salt and pepper and sauteed them in a skillet with EVOO -- done! The egg noodles were from a package, just boiled until done and then drained and tossed with some butter. Broccoli was steamed in the microwave. I cooked everything a little longer than usual to yield a softer texture for the boy, but nothing was mushy. Hooray for easy, nutritious, AND soft on the gums!

My favorite summer salad

Tonight's Menu

• grilled sweet Italian sausages
  
• corn on the cob
• potato-tomato-artichoke salad
  

The sausages were grilled the same way as always, working around my sausage-grilling handicap: simmered in water for about 15 minutes, then crisped up on the grill over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes per side or until nicely browned. Delicious!

I love grilled corn on the cob but NO ONE ELSE in this family will eat it. I know! So I cook it in the microwave. I remove the leaves and silk, give it a rinse, wrap each ear toffee-style in some wax paper with the edges twisted shut, then nuke them on high power for 10 minutes (for four ears). They come out just fine and all, but BORING.

It's finally time for my favorite summer salad! I've told you about this one before, but here it is again: just take some red-skinned potatoes, cut them into bite-sized chunks, simmer them in water until tender, then let them cool. Once they've cooled, whomp them into a bowl with some fresh mozzarella (you can buy the teeny balls, or get the larger ones and cut them up), some halved cherry tomatoes or larger tomatoes cut in wedges/chunks, and a chiffonade of fresh basil (that just means rolling up the leaves and slicing them into thin ribbons). Then take a small jar of marinated artichokes, drain and reserve the marinade, and mix the artichokes in with the potatoes and whatnot. Drizzle on enough of the reserved marinade to moisten everything up nicely, season with salt and freshly ground pepper, toss to coat, and chill it for about an hour.

This is SO GOOD! This time around, the potatoes and some of the tomatoes were from the CSA box, the other tomatoes were from my dad's garden, and the basil was from my own herb garden. And if I haven't yet tempted you to make this salad, here's a photo of tonight's version to tempt you further!

Yeah, you know you want it.

More cooking from the CSA box: slow-roasted veggies? Oven-poached veggies? Veggie confit?

Yeah, I am not sure what to call this one, y'all. Here's what I did; maybe YOU can figure it out!

I wanted to slow-roast some of the CSA tomatoes in a bunch of olive oil based on this recipe by my lovely pal Kim. So I cut a bunch of tomatoes into wedges and tossed them in a baking pan along with some unpeeled garlic cloves, and then I thought, "Hey! I bet those little ichiban eggplants from the CSA would work a treat in here, too!" So I tossed those in as well (some of them were whole because they were just finger-sized, and others were cut into chunks).

I could have left it there but you all know me; I can never leave well enough alone. So I chopped up a medium-sized zucchini and popped that in the pan as well. Then I tore in some fresh basil (from the CSA), drizzled over quite a lot of extra-virgin olive oil (REALLY a lot -- I didn't cover the veggies entirely or anything but I definitely covered the bottom of the pan), shook on a few glugs of balsamic vinegar, sprinkled the lot with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper and popped it into the oven, uncovered, at 300 degrees F. The total cooking time was about 90 minutes, and I gave it a stir every half-hour or so.

Oh DUDES. This is one of the most delicious things I've ever made, I'm not kidding. After it came out of the oven I took a spoon and squished the garlic cloves so the smooshy garlic goodness squooshed out of the paper (which I threw away). I let it cool a bit and then spooned some into a bowl, scooping up great gobs of it with thick slices of peasant bread (from that bread book I can't stop talking about). HEAVEN, people. Absolute heaven.

This is going to be my lunch every single day until I've eaten it all. And possibly my breakfast, as well. It's THAT good.

But I still don't know what to call it!

Father's Day dinner

Tonight's Menu

• seafood-sausage gumbo
  
• rice
  

Yes! It was gumbo for Father's Day over here. I made it pretty much the same way as last time, including chickening out on the roux before it was really dark enough. Oh well. It was still very tasty, and the onions, garlic, okra (fresh this time -- add it with the other veggies at the beginning) and green peppers were from the CSA. And the bay leaves were from my little bay tree! Can't get much more local than your own back patio, eh?

The rice was just plain white long-grain, cooked on my microwave's "smart" setting. You put it in the bowl and pour the gumbo over top. Yum!

A peek inside the CSA box

Now that our CSA shares are featuring oodles of veggies and not so many greens, I'm starting to go a little nuts, but in a GOOD way. Opening the box every week (well, every two weeks in our case) is like opening a big surprise package, and I find myself oohing and aahing over each item and fantasizing about what I'll make with it!

Yes, it's true. I'm a food nerd.

Here's a little peek inside this week's box, and the fantasy recipes I've been concocting:

Early Girl Tomatoes - oodles of 'em! We usually just eat these sliced on sandwiches or wedged in salads, but I have a secret desire to roast them a la my fabulous foodie pal, Kim. Maybe I'll set a few aside for salads/sandwiches and roast the rest!

Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes - I KNOW what I'm doing with these -- they are going in a big bowl with the red cherry, red pear, yellow pear, chocolate cherry and snow white cherry tomatoes that I've picked this week from my garden and my dad's. Then I'll shred in some basil (see below), maybe sprinkle on some very thinly sliced red onions (ditto) and dress them very simply with some good EVOO and balsamic vinegar. Voila, tomato salad!

Onions - several little bulbs of white, red and yellow onions. We've been loving the red ones on focaccia lately and they're great in salads and sandwiches as well. The yellow and white ones I'll use in everything. I go through a LOT of onions when I cook, y'all!

Sweet Basil - we got big hunks of this in our box and I am SO EXCITED, because my own basil is doing horribly this year. We'll eat this in EVERYTHING -- salads, casseroles, in sandwiches in place of lettuce, you name it!

Zucchini - two HUGE ones and two medium-sized ones. I'm using some to make these chocolate cupcakes (can't WAIT to try them!) and will probably grill the rest or fry them up in a skillet with bacon and onions.

Pattypan Squash - OMG, we got two of these and they are as big as pumpkins! I really like the pattypan squash casserole I made last night, but I'm wondering how these would be if I peeled them, chunked them up, then stuck them in the oven with some orange juice & zest, honey and cinnamon? I know that works with acorn and butternut squash, but what about pattypan? I don't know. It sounds good, but it could be gross.

Okra - quite a few pods of this! I love okra just breaded and fried, but I'll bet money DH wants me to make gumbo with it. And I just might! He's been really hungry for it lately and I haven't made it in forever. Ooo -- possible Father's Day dinner idea? Here's hoping he doesn't read this beforehand and ruin the surprise!

Cucumbers - two skinny ones and two big fat ones. The skinny ones will go into our almost-nightly salads, but I'm going to make a marinated cucumber salad with the big fat ones. It's a dish DH and I love from a local Hungarian/Romanian restaurant and I finally found a recipe for it in an old Hungarian cooking pamphlet at the antique store. I'll share the recipe when I make it!

Peppers - both sweet banana peppers, which I love sliced in salads, and green bell peppers, which I'll throw into side dishes or grill with fajitas.

Red Potatoes - we use a lot of these! I can make my chuffed potatoes with them, or my favorite summer salad (which also features tomatoes and basil), or potato-onion packets on the grill. Yum!

Ichiban Eggplant - we received several of these teensy, adorable eggplants and this is where I started getting a little weird. I want to roast some garlic and mix it, along with some shredded basil, into some ricotta cheese (obviously it would be seasoned with salt and pepper and whatnot as well). Then I want to grill the eggplant the way I do zucchini and wrap the grilled strips around spoonfuls of the ricotta mixture. And then just pork them down like chips. Is that nuts? Would it work? I'm going to have to try it!

We also got some lovely zinnias, but I have no plans to eat them. Hee!

Celebration!

Tonight's Menu

• grilled garlicky flank steak
  
• rosemary-onion focaccia
  
• squash and sausage casserole
• steamed broccoli
  

DH arrived home tonight from several days out of town attending to family business, so I went to a bit more trouble than usual for dinner. We are so glad to have him home!

This flank steak is one of our favorites. It's the one I talked about all last summer -- so flavorful WITHOUT a marinade! All you do is mash up a few garlic cloves, some kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, the juice of one lemon and some EVOO. I use my mortar and pestle but you do whatever, as long as the garlic gets mashed up and the whole thing becomes a sort of slurry. Then make diamond cuts on your flank steak (cutting diagonally across the grain) on both sides and rub the slurry into all the cuts and crevices. Then pop it on the grill for 4-5 minutes per side over a fairly high heat. Let it rest for 5 minutes or so, then cut into thin slices across the grain. This is SO yummy and it only takes minutes! As long as the steak isn't frozen, you don't even have to plan ahead with this one!

I made the focaccia the same way as last time, but I used the European Peasant Bread dough that was in the fridge (instead of the "master" recipe dough that I used last time). I know I owe you all a full review of this new bread book and it's coming, I promise! I just want to try a few more base recipes first (we've only done two so far). Everyone LOVES this focaccia, and it's such a nice change from plain old bread (or potatoes, or pasta).

The casserole was kind of an experiment, but I think it turned out really tasty! We had some pattypan squash from the CSA box that I really wanted to use up. So what I did was take about a third of a one-pound chub of bulk breakfast sausage (I used Pederson's because it's local and yummy, but feel free to use whatever you like) and brown it off in a skillet with some chopped onions (red ones, from the CSA). I set that mixture aside while I pulsed a couple of slices of bread, some fresh parsley, sage and thyme, and some kosher salt and freshly ground pepper in the food processor until it turned into fragrant, fluffy crumbs. Then I cut two really big pattypan squash into chunks and tossed them in a 9" x 13" pan with the sausage mixture and the bread crumbs. I drizzled on some EVOO, stirred it through, then stuck it all in the oven at 450 degrees F, uncovered, for I think about 30 minutes (I wasn't really keeping track -- just keep an eye on it and stick a fork into the squash now and then to see if it's tender). It came out really yummy, moist and flavorful. Great way to use up some squash!

The broccoli was just steamed in the microwave. So easy!

I'm totally eating the rest of that squash casserole for lunch tomorrow.

More bread!

Tonight's Menu

• grilled boneless pork chops
  
• European-style peasant bread
  
• grilled zucchini
  

Easy dinner tonight, y'all.

The chops were just sprinkled on both sides with Jane's Krazy Salt and garlic pepper, then grilled for about 4-5 minutes per side. Easy!

The bread was another recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (that's NOT an affiliate link, by the way -- just trying to make it easy to find stuff). This one has a mix of flours -- rye, whole wheat and unbleached all-purpose -- for a slightly more rustic taste and appearance, and I actually prefer it to the master recipe (which only has unbleached all-purpose flour). Will probably try focaccia with it sometime soon, since my family has turned out to be a bunch of focaccia freaks -- who knew?!

Grilling is my new favorite way to cook zucchini. It's a good thing I love it so much, because our CSA shares have been overflowing with zukes! All I do is cut the ends off a large-ish zucchini (you could do it with a small one, too, but the ones we're getting lately aren't small!) and then slice it LENGTHWISE, end to end. I do the slices anywhere from 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick. Brush them on both sides with EVOO (last night I smashed up a garlic clove in the oil for a little added flavor), sprinkle with salt and pepper, and grill them for just a minute or two per side. They're SUPER fast to make -- if you're grilling meat, just slice up the zucchini while the meat is grilling and then slap the zukes on the grill right after you take the meat off. That gives the meat a chance to rest while you're grilling the zucchini, and everything's ready to eat at the same time.

The leftover grilled zucchini, assuming you have any, is even good cold in salads or sandwiches. Or stick it in some lasagna or on a pizza! Mix it into some pasta, rice or quinoa! You could make a meal off these things, I swear! And you vegetarians say I NEVER HAVE ANYTHING FOR YOU. Go grill some zucchini, fer cryin' out loud!

Grilled chicken

Tonight's Menu

• grilled chicken drumsticks & thighs
  
• rosemary-onion focaccia
• summer squash with bacon & onion
  
• green salad "bar"
  

This is how I make my grilled chicken. I'm not saying this is how YOU should do it, but this is what works for me with my grill setup. All I do is take some bone-in, skin-on thighs and drumsticks, give them a rinse, dry them with paper towels and then sprinkle them with Jane's Krazy Salt and garlic pepper. Then I set up my three-burner gas grill for slightly indirect grilling, turning two burners up to medium-high and leaving the other one off. I put the chicken skin-side-down over the two lit burners for about five minutes or until the skins have picked up some color (sometimes the color they pick up is BLACK, but that's okay). Then I turn them over and move them to the unlit burner, leaving them to cook for about 30 minutes or until done. I have to babysit them quite a bit because I'm still getting used to this new grill, but so far I've managed not to dry them out or undercook them with this method. Feel free to use an instant-read meat thermometer to make sure they're done (around 170 degrees F or so).

I am so excited about this focaccia, because it came from a recent cookbook purchase, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. I can't reproduce the recipe here because of copyright issues, but they also have a blog that, if you scroll down far enough, lists the master recipe (for boule bread). That's the dough I used, for those who have the book. I just whomped off a canteloupe-sized hunk of dough as instructed, stretched it into a focaccia shape on a silpat-covered baking sheet, layered on some red onions (from the CSA) sliced paper-thin along with some snipped fresh rosemary (from my herb garden), kosher salt, freshly ground pepper and a drizzle of EVOO. Then I baked it at 425 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until it turned golden. (In the book, you bake most of the breads over a broiler pan into which you pour some hot tap water, so the bread steams. I TOTALLY forgot that step until the bread had been in the oven for a full 20 minutes. It still came out great, just took a little longer to cook!)

Everyone LOVED this focaccia! So far we give this particular bread cookbook a HUGE thumbs up. I made a loaf of plain boule from it the other day and that was awesome, too. I plan to post a full review of this book pretty soon, so check back for that!

ANYWAY, again with the squash, bacon and onions, I KNOW! I can't help it. I love it like that. This time I made it with crookneck bi-color summer squash from the CSA, a red onion that was NOT from the CSA but from a local farmstand (and did not include the green tops, more's the pity) and some random applewood-smoked bacon I had in the freezer. And I didn't bother with any herbs, just salt and pepper. YUM!

Tonight's salad bar was just there for the people who don't like squash (read: everyone but me) and included purchased mixed lettuce, sliced cukes from the CSA, and chopped baby carrots. BORING. But whatever.

Pilaf for everyone!

Tonight's Menu

• spicy grilled pork tenderloin
  
• quinoa pilaf
  
• green salad "bar"
  

Remember when I made grilled tenderloin the other night? Well, I actually made two and froze one, so that's what we had tonight (reheated very gently in the microwave).

The quinoa pilaf was an attempt to use up some CSA goodies. First I cooked the quinoa the same way I always do (one cup quinoa to two cups water, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes).

Then I diced up a small zucchini and a small red onion (including the green tops), and minced a couple of cloves of garlic -- all from the CSA. I sauteed this lot in a fairly generous amount of EVOO until everything was tender, tossing in some kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and snipped herbs (parsley and basil from my garden) at the very end. Then I just dumped about half the cooked quinoa in with the veggie mixture (the girl likes her quinoa plain, so I set some aside for her) and voila! Pilaf!

The boy child decided to try some of the pilaf because it smelled so good. He cautiously took a bite and said, "Hey, this is pretty good!" Then he took another bite. "Actually, this is REALLY good!" He basically inhaled two generous helpings. What can I say? The boy does me proud!

(Those of you familiar with how this whole Make Your Own Damn Dinner thing got started may recall that my kids are never required to eat what I cook, but they ARE required to eat a protein and a veggie or fruit at dinner. Since quinoa is a complete protein all on its own and the pilaf had all those yummy veggies in it, the boy was THRILLED to learn that his requirements were fulfilled in that single dish!)

The salad bar tonight was just purchased mixed lettuce, chopped baby carrots, sliced banana peppers (from the CSA), sliced cucumbers (ditto), and a few little pear tomatoes from my garden.

Ribs on the grill

Tonight's Menu

• sweet & spicy grilled pork spareribs
  
• grilled potato-onion packets
  
• coleslaw
  

I've never figured out how to make ribs 100% on the grill without drying them out or undercooking them. So while these ribs were FINISHED on the grill, they were STARTED in the oven.

What I did was mix up some brown sugar, chili powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, sea salt and my secret ingredient -- garam masala. This is a blend of black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, coriander and other spices that's used frequently in Indian food, and it gives a nice, sweet-spicy kick to dry rubs and marinades. I rubbed this spice mixture on both sides of a rack of pork spareribs, then put them in a rack in a roasting pan. After adding a bit of water to the bottom of the pan, I covered it tightly with foil and stuck it in the oven at 300 degrees F for about 1.5 to 2 hours.

Then I mixed up a wet sauce -- ketchup, honey, cayenne, sea salt and more garam masala, along with the juice and grated zest of half an orange. I put the meat on the grill over LOW heat for about 10 minutes per side, basting liberally with this mixture. The ribs came out sticky, tender and delicious! And fortunately, they didn't dry out on the grill. I think they would have over a higher heat, though.

The potato packet was my usual -- red potatoes sliced thin, along with a thinly sliced sweet yellow onion, then alternating layers on a sheet of heavy foil with some kosher salt, freshly ground pepper and blobs of butter. Fold it all into a packet, folding the ends in, and place it on the upper rack of your grill (if you have one, otherwise put it over an unlit burner or a pan of water) for about 30 minutes. They come out SO sweet and yummy! This time the potato (one GIANT one) was from our CSA share.

The coleslaw was made with savoy cabbage this time around, just for something different. I still made the dressing from mayo, vinegar and sugar with a bit of celery seed.

It is almost too hot to grill here already, y'all! I can't stand to sit out there and babysit the meat anymore. The back of our house, where the grill is, faces north and gets NO shade in the evenings this time of year. Oh no! What am I going to do?! It's to hot to use the oven much, either. I forsee a lot of salads in our future!

Eating locally some more!

Tonight's Menu

• grilled spicy pork tenderloin
  
• skillet squash with bacon & onions
  
• green salad bar
  

Our CSA share this week was HUGE, y'all! I could barely lift the box! My garden is just sucking so bad this year, which makes me doubly glad we decided to sign up for the CSA.

First the pork tenderloin, which did NOT come from the CSA. I made this recipe, which we all love (except the kids are refusing to eat it all of a sudden -- WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM?!).

The squash dish was 100% local! And I LOVE this dish, y'all. My dad always grew squash and zucchini in his garden and the smell of it frying up with bacon and onions takes me right back to my childhood.

What I did was cut up a couple of thick slices of bacon (this was local, and my new favorite, bacon -- Pederson's Apple Smoked, from Hamilton, TX -- you could use whatever, even turkey or soy bacon, though you might have to add some olive oil with those) and brown it in a skillet until it was not QUITE crisp. Then I added a small chopped red onion (from the CSA), a small thinly sliced zucchini (ditto), and a yellow crookneck squash (tritto) that had the neck sliced thinly and the body sliced into thin half-moons. I stirred that all around in the skillet, covering it for a few minutes at a time to let the veggies steam through. After several minutes when the veggies were nice and tender, I stirred in some sliced onion tops (from the CSA red onion above -- I'm talking about the green bits here), salt, freshly ground pepper, and assorted minced herbs from my herb garden (flat-leaf parsley, "pesto" basil, thyme, dill and fennel tops).

Oh, it was soooo good. This is seriously one of my favorite things in the world to eat. Even DH tried some and pronounced it "not bad", which is high praise from him where veggies (especially squash) are concerned.

Tonight's salad bar was supermarket mixed lettuce, chopped supermarket baby carrots (we got some carrots in our CSA share but I couldn't be bothered to peel and chop them tonight), sliced cucumber from the CSA, sliced sweet banana peppers from the CSA, and some little pear and cherry tomatoes from my veggie garden. Yum!

Hot damn, I love summer!

Speaking of summer, tomorrow is the Badger children's last day of school! I hope to have much more time/energy to post our dinners over the summer. Also, Operation Make Your Own Damn Dinner is officially two years old! Wow! I hope to bring y0u a few updates on the original "mission" and what the kids are eating these days, as well.

Stay tuned!

Dinner with the folks

Tonight's Menu

• grilled chicken thighs & drumsticks
  
• grilled potato-onion packets
  
• grilled zucchini
• green salad bar
  

Yes, you read that right. Every single element of tonight's dinner was grilled, except the salad. My parents came over for dinner and I was in full-on cookout mode. The 90-degree temperatures helped with that a bit, I think.

Grilling chicken is SO much easier on my new grill than it was on my old one. The old one only had two burners and didn't do indirect heat well AT ALL. But the new one has THREE burners and works a treat for stuff like this!

Sooo, here is how dinner came together:

First I cut some small red potatoes into quarter-inch slices, then did the same with a small sweet yellow onion. I alternated layers of potato and onion on a big sheet of heavy-duty foil, adding little dabs of butter along with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, then folded the whole thing into a big foil packet.

I lit TWO of the grill burners, leaving the third burner unlit, and put the foil packet on the bread shelf of the grill over the unlit side. I left it there while the other stuff was cooking and it came out perfect -- nice tender potatoes and sweet, soft onions. Yum!

While the grill was heating up (with the foil packet of potatoes and onions already on it), I rinsed the chicken thighs and drumsticks, dried them on paper towels, then sprinkled them with Jane's Krazy Salt and garlic pepper. I stuck them skin-side down on the lit burners of the grill over medium-high heat for maybe 4-5 minutes just to crisp up the skins, then flipped them to skin-side up and moved them over to the unlit burner. Then I turned the other two burners to low and let the chicken cook, undisturbed, for about 30 minutes (I was making a LOT of chicken).

About 10 minutes before the chicken was done, I sliced a couple of zucchinis (from the CSA share) lengthwise, brushed them with EVOO, sprinkled with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, then cranked one of the lit grill burners up to medium-high and grilled them for just a couple of minutes per side (same way I made them the other night). Yum!

Tonight's salad bar was just mixed lettuces (from the grocery store, because my garden lettuces suck right now), sliced cucumber (ditto), sliced baby carrots (tritto), quartered tomatoes (er, quitto?), and rings of green bell and yellow banana peppers, both from the CSA share.

A perfect summer dinner, and actually pretty easy once the small amount of prep was done.

Shrimps on sticks! Again!

Tonight's Menu

• grilled marinated shrimp
  
• multi-grain tortilla chips
  
• sliced beefsteak tomatoes
  

Yes! More grilling! Yay!

I think I have confessed in the past my inability to grill a decent steak. I can do it fine indoors, on my IKEA grill pan, but steaks + me + outdoor grills do not mix. Sadly, I have the same handicap when it comes to grilling shrimp. I DO it, but I have never done it WELL. The shrimp always end up dried out and kind of flavorless.

Until tonight.

I finally bought a clue and googled for recipes and settled on this one. I only made a couple of changes: I cut the hot pepper sauce in half (because I live with spice wimps) and substituted ketchup for the tomato paste. Also, I used sea salt and forgot to reduce the amount -- sea salt is a bit "saltier" than table salt, so you don't need as much. So, it was just a TAD too salty for my taste. But other than that, it was STUPENDOUS. Even the kids loved it, and the girl has demanded that I never use another recipe but this one when grilling shrimp. Okay by me!

The chips were our favorite Tostitos Multi-Grain Tortilla Chips. These taste SO much better than regular tortilla chips, even the blue corn ones! (They aren't paying me to say that, by the way -- we just really love these chips.)

The tomato was from the CSA, as was the garlic for the shrimp marinade (and the parsley was from my own herb garden, woo!).

This was a totally lazy dinner -- no effort involved at all, beyond mixing up the marinade and threading the shrimps on skewers. SO easy!

Slow-cooked comfort food

Tonight's Menu

• beef short ribs in the slow-cooker
  
• mashed potatoes
  
• sauteed cabbage
  

We had some wicked thunder and hail storms roll through here last night, leaving us with mostly overcast skies and slightly cooler temperatures today. As luck would have it, I had bought some beef short ribs this week and decided to fire up the ol' crockpot for some comfort food!

We love our usual short rib recipe (found here) so much that I couldn't bring myself to deviate from it. Except I sort of did anyway. I didn't bother to dredge the ribs in seasoned flour before browning -- I just sprinkled both sides with salt and pepper and browned 'em off naked. And I was out of chili sauce, so I substituted ketchup. I also laid the sliced onions on top of the ribs and poured the rest of the mixed-together sauce ingredients on top, instead of adding the onions to the sauce. But other than that, it was the same as usual, and every bit as delicious!

The mashed potatoes were frozen Ore-Ida, doctored up with some butter, salt and pepper. Shut up.

For the cabbage, all I did was take half a head of plain old green cabbage, core it, chop it into chunks, then saute in a mixture of EVOO and butter until it was tender. I let it get a bit of caramelization for extra flavor. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dump into a serving bowl. Easy!

Tomorrow it's back to grilling. Oh yes, best beloveds.

More grilling! I know!

Tonight's Menu

• grilled garlicky pork tenderloin
  
• grilled zucchini
  
• leftover coleslaw
• leftover fruit salad
  

I know. I KNOW. We had pork two nights in a row, and it wasn't even leftovers. I don't usually do that, but ... well, there is a long, involved story behind why this happened. It basically boiled down to the fact that it rained/stormed off and on all day, so I had to plan something that could be cooked in the oven if need be, and ALL of the beef in our freezer was the "grill or slow-cook ONLY" variety. And it was a busy day, so slow-cooking in the oven was out. I don't know what to tell you, dudes. WE HAD PORK TWICE, OKAY?

Anyhoo.

What I did was take my huge mortar and pestle, smash up some garlic cloves (about four) with some kosher salt, add some olive oil, freshly ground pepper, and the juice of one lemon, then smear that all over the tenderloin and stick it in a plastic zipper bag in the fridge for about 4 hours. I grilled it over medium-high heat for a total of about 25 minutes, turning it maybe four times (to get all the sides). Then I let it rest for about five minutes before slicing diagonally into medallions. It was delicious and perfectly cooked.

The zucchini was from this week's CSA share. I'm the only one who likes it, so I only did ONE zucchini, but you could do as much as you want. All I did with that was cut the stem end off the zucchini, slice it lengthwise (the long way) into maybe quarter-inch slices, brush both sides with EVOO, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then I grilled them for a total of about 5-6 minutes, turning halfway through. They were tender and delicious, and I am perfectly happy with being the only one who will eat them because MORE FOR ME.

Breaking in the new grill!

Tonight's Menu

• grilled boneless pork chops w/mango salsa
  
• whole-grain tortilla chips
  
• coleslaw
• fruit salad
  

Oh, dudes. I keep meaning to post, I SWEAR I do, but lately by the time I've dealt with all the end-of-school frenzy, the homework, the making/eating/cleaning up of dinner, and the NIGHTLY COCKTAIL, HELLO, I am just too darn pooped.

HOWEVER. We have been eating some swell stuff lately, including lots of CSA goodies, and for Mother's Day DH and the kids gifted me with a new gas grill! So I will try REALLY HARD to start posting more from now on. Swearsies!

Anyhoo, tonight I broke in the new grill with some boneless pork chops. I just sprinkled them on both sides with Jane's Krazy Salt and garlic pepper, then whomped them on the grill for about 4-5 minutes per side. The new grill leaves MUCH sexier grill marks on meat than the old one, and it has about twice the surface area. LOVE! The chops were excellent.

I have previously discussed mango salsa, coleslaw and fruit salad.

Oh, and the girl child TOTALLY eats coleslaw now! I KNOW! It only took TWO YEARS of having to Make (Her) Own Damn Dinner for her to start eating the food I cook. I thought it would never happen. Look for an update on the original purpose of this blog soon, along with tips for using up all that CSA produce!