Garden Mishap

John gave me 3 cayenne peppers from his garden while I was making chili.  Apparently, he didn't mean for all 3 to go in the chili, he meant for 2 of them to go in the cornbread we were making and just discussing.

Dinner 9/17

This week's Friday dinner was postponed for a roommate dinner last night.  John cooked amazing chicken tacos, and they definitely made up for last week's dinner debacle

This week:
Chef: Wyetta
Secret ingredient: Broccoli
Meal: A twist on Ina Garten's Parmesan Roasted Broccoli, Crusted Salmon with Wine-Mustard Sauce (from yummly.com but with lots of changes) with brown rice and an ice cream fruit medley for dessert.

Parmesan Roasted Broccoli: 

Ingredients

• 4 to 5 pounds broccoli (2 bunches)
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced (some)
• Good olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon) 
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted Almonds
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 
• 2 tablespoons julienned fresh basil leaves (about 12 leaves)   Parsley (we have a basil plant tree at John's but the ND game was on and I went to the grocery store at half time, so obviously I couldn't take the extra 7ish minutes to swing by his place and pick it up.) 
• 
  
• DirectionsPreheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
  Cut the broccoli, put it, the garlic and some olive oil in a ziplock and shake it. Shake it like a polaroid picture.  Place it on a pan in a single layer. Add salt and pepper and roast for 20ish minutes.  Toss with more olive oil, lemon zest and juice, nut, cheese and parsley. 

Crusted Salmon:

Ingredients

3/4 cup vegetable crackers crumbled (I have chips, this could be awful)

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 cup milk
2 salmon filets
olive oil
butter
white wine
1tbsp dijon mustard

regular mustard

dried mustard

salt and pepper 

Directions
Bread the salmon with the chips, parmesan using the milk as the adhesive part.

Make some white wine sauce with the mustards and wine. (pinot grigio, dijon mustard, white pepper, salt, lemon juice, lots of sugar... more sugar, flour, honey)

9/9 Dinner Review

This week's dinner will be ranked on the following categories:

• Wine
• Hilarity
• Presentation
• Flavor
• Edibility
• What we did with the leftovers

Wine - 4 out of 5 stars

Pretty much the wine was awesome. It was a Pinot Noir, and I liked it so much we took a picture of the label so we could remember it.

Hilarity: A+

The preparation started as any normal Friday night dinner.  Finally getting to see what we were having, a glass of wine, and starting the first course.  As I was inside doing who knows what, I get the first call. "Wyetta, you HAVE to come see this. Now."  As I meander out to the grill, John is standing there, holding a work glove, but it has a strange orange glow.  The glove was on fire!!  I take it into the house to run under the sink while John kept grilling.  We keep going along, I'm prepping more inside, when John calls me out again. And I see this.

Yep, a genuine grill fire. Of course neither of us have any idea how to put it out - but google and a box of baking soda came to our rescue.  Definitely the most entertaining prep so far. 

Presentation: N= Needs time, help and practice to improve 
It almost was a good effort.  The egg rolls and sauce looked pretty nice, and we tried to cover up the burn marks on the lamb, but then the sesame seeds went out of control. And then... I saw a picture of what the noodles were supposed to look like.  There is no telling what we actually did wrong, but it was definitely something (and I don't mean the fire).

Flavor: 63%
The inside of the turkey eggrolls with some of the red dipping sauce had a nice flavor.  In fact, I'd even put these on the "let's give the inside mix another try" list.

The lamb also had some great flavor, when you got around the "crust." I also ate the broccoli, bok choy and rice noodles.  But we didn't save the left overs.

Edibility: Grill: 1, Us: 0
 The eggrolls were really hard to eat and made a mess.  I tried to eat them with my fork, that also failed. I was able to pick around the crust of the lamb to get some good meat, but I think we might have a lost a bit to the grill.

What we did with the leftovers: 8/10
I gave this an 8/10, because we at least made the wise decision of not keeping them.  We tried to give them to Blue. And eventually he at the broccoli we gave him, but he did spit it out and really reconsider first.

Overall, the best part of dinner was spending an awesome Friday night putting out fires and not killing bats.

Dinner for 09/09/2011

Chef: John

Seared Lamb Chops with Rice Noodles, Broccoli, and Chinese Spiced Broth:

Combine:
1 pint chicken stock
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 chilis
1 clove garlic
1 tsp crushed fresh ginger
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp nutmeg/cinnamon mix
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp 5 spice powder

Add this mixture to a pot or wok

Steam broccoli above the mixture until softened (10 minutes)

Add softened rice noodles to mixture after 5 minutes of cooking

In a food process combine:
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Pinch cayenne pepper
Coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Rub paste on lamb chops

Turn grill to high and heat a non-stick grill pan until smoking

Cook lambchops for 3-5 minutes per side

Put lambchops over rice noodles and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds

For spring rolls:
1 Turkey Burger
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp ginger
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups coleslaw mix

Cook turkey burger, chopping to get ground turkey, with salt, ginger, olive oil, and sesame oil
Drain slightly and sautee the coleslaw mix
Moisten rice paper
Fill with coleslaw/turkey mix

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes


For spring roll dipping sauce:

Combine:
3 tablespoons (3 splashes) rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup dark tamari soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil, a drizzle

Combine all ingredients

Friday Night Dinners

This blog is to cronicle our Friday Night Dinners. Pictures, Recipes, and reactions.