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Jun 26, 2022 02:22PM - edited Jun 26, 2022 02:24PM by divinemrsm

Interesting reading about the crazy food combos posted here! I'm usually willing to try a bite of something new. I always told ds any time he tried a taste of food and didn't like it, he was allowed to spit it out in the trash can. That way he'd be more willing to try new foods. These days seems he's always introducing dh and I to different things we never ate before.

When dh was young, his dad shoved tomatoes in his mouth to get him to eat them so of course dh hated them. After growing tomatoes in the garden for me for many years, he gradually started to like them.

I don't like tuna steak and never cared for salmon. But I like tuna salad and tuna melts.

One thing that makes a tuna melt is the bread that's used. I love something with a crusty buttery brown crunch. A restaurant called First Watch serves a roast beef and havarti cheese sandwich on the most heavenly grilled Parmesan-crusted sourdough bread. Oh my. Most excellent! Melts in your mouth. Mmm mmm!

I'm part Italian through my mother who was a great cook. I never eat out at Italian restaurants. I was recently talking to a woman who also has Italian roots who said she never eats out at them, either.

Elderberry, I am envious of your being "good with the loaves and fishes", able to toss things together to make a tasty meal.

Illimae, I took a screenshot of your creamy Brussel sprouts recipe and plan to make it some day. Speaking of recipes and hearing another mention of Laura's salsa chicken, if someone would share the recipe, I'd love to try that, too.

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Jun 27, 2022 02:12AM chisandy wrote:

I'm not a gin fan either (also not into vodka). But I do like juniper berries in my choucroute, and the couple of times I had Dutch genever liqueur (in Amsterdam and on a Viking river cruise ) I really enjoyed it.

Last night we went out with the kids for belated Father's Day and advance 51st anniv. to the Palm (much better than I'd expected). My last visit there was in 2019, shortly after the Landry Group takeover--and remodel (from a clubby old-school NY-style Italian steakhouse to, as some described it, airport sports bar). The bar, which had been against the window-wall, was enlarged to an oval with sports TV screens. The divider partition between the bar and dining room was removed, along with the trademark caricature walls and tall wooden booths--plus the expert career wait staff. So I was pleasantly surprised to find a new post-lockdown main dining room with fewer, newer local-oriented caricatures of live people. (You got a caricature either by being a celebrity who was also a loyal customer, or someone egotistical enough to trade their frequent-diner points for their picture on the wall instead of free meals & discounts).

The menu has been tweaked since then. We split a seafood tower: oysters, clams, king crab legs, jumbo shrimp, lump crabmeat, a large lobster tail and "Sicilian poke" (which had olives, capers and for some weird reason golden raisins). I also had some of Bob's "Gigi" salad (he ate the avocado, shrimp & egg). For our entree we split a porterhouse, because he likes filet mignon and I don't mind strip steak if I don't get my first choice of ribeye. Sides were hashbrowns (I demurred), creamed spinach and sauteed broccoli rabe (aka rapini). Ate too much to even contemplate looking at the dessert menu. Tonight we split the leftovers: a shrimp each, the poke in lettuce cups, the steak, and the green veggies (again, I left the spuds to Bob). Tomorrow night I'll grill the duck breast and have the rest of the leftover rapini, with maybe some tomatoes--it's his late night at the office.

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Jun 27, 2022 12:01PM - edited Jun 27, 2022 12:01PM by wallycat

Had to google Gigi salad. Yum.

Carole, is it a stainless "stone" or tile? Let us know how it works. That is a great idea.

I'm in meltdown mode...PTSD for a simple meet/greet with doc for colonoscopy...not even the procedure yet. Leaving in about an hour. I hate that my body does this. Rant.

Leftover copper river last night.

Tonight will be whatever I pull out of the freezer-pre-made meal. Should be our last hot day. Hopefully no more 79-80ish for the year; a gal can dream.

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Jun 27, 2022 02:05PM kotchaj wrote:

Hi everyone,

Tonight for dinner is a summer favorite in my house. We call it pasta zucchini basil. Here's the recipe below. We usually add more cheese than is listed, because...cheese.

Ingredients

Makes 8 servings

• 3-4 medium zucchini and or yellow summer squash, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or grated
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped
• 1 pound pasta, use your favorite cut
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• Lemon juice, for serving (optional)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup grated parmesan or manchego cheese
• Kosher salt and black pepper

Start your pasta first, cook your zucchini in the olive oil with the garlic. I add the basil in when the zucchini has softened. Mix everything together and top with the fresh tyme. Yummy.

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Jun 27, 2022 05:06PM elderberry wrote:

wallycat: you are in my neck of the woods. I thought you might be in Alaska. My friends in Seattle was saying it was getting too hot. We are only about 4 - 6 degrees cooler than you guys, normally, and I have managed to keep the house cool by letting air in late at night, then closing everything up during the days and leaving fans running. If we get another Heat Dome I won't even do that. We West Coasters as whimps when it comes to extremes.

kotchaj: someone I knew once said "You can have too much cheese" You can? Really? How much is too much? Your pasta zucchini would be good cold too. I like making cold pasta salads with tomatoes, cukes, peppers, artichokes, black olives, fresh herbs.

The Salsa Chicken sounds great. However, in an Instant Pot you have to have a least one cup of liquid. You could put the breasts on the trivet that comes with the pot and have the meat above the liquid.

CaroleHalston: I keep a pizza stone on the bottom shelf of my oven. It is there all the time. I just shift it to the middle rack when I do pizzas. I let the oven reach it optimum heat but wait another 15 or so minutes so the stone is good and hot. For Wallycat: mine is baked clay of some sort. Not metal.