Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

Cooking dinner for a bunch of folks on Friday. It is a mix of carnivores and vegetarians. Still thinking about the menu.

 

Menu is now set for Friday. Starting off with sauteed kale and mushrooms served over polenta. Polenta is pretty much Italian for grits. Next will be grouper with a macadamia/panko crust and a choice of salads. One will be a baby arugula/spinach mix with pear and radicchio. The dressing will be based on sherry vinegar, shallot, and honey with some blue cheese. I have some tupelo honey saved up for things like this. IIRC I bought it from a roadside seller near Wewahitchka. It is the best honey I have gotten since the time about 25 years ago a student from that area brought me some in an unlabeled jar. The other salad option will be plainer and probably with bibb lettuce. I haven't decided exactly what that one will be.

I am also making scalloped potatoes with fennel.

Tonight I am making soup out of a nearly complete head of celery. Don't you just hate it when you need just one or two celery stalks and you don't have any on hand? When that happens I have an excuse to make celery soup in the next few days. Also steaming some broccoli and pan frying some boneless and skinless chicken breasts with a lemon/Parmesan/breadcrumb coating.

 

Still thinking about the wine pairings.

 

Now you have me thinking. I have grilled beer can chickens and I have smoked chickens, but I have never done both at the same time.

 

Best baseball movie ever.

 

Do you make your own?

I do occasionally, but it is a lot of work on the front end (cooking) and the back end (cleanup).

A trip to Sonny's is a lot less work, but I do like mine just a little better.

Amen.

 

Gotcha.

 

I do something very similar except that I start with dried beans and soak them overnight and then use a crock pot for 10 hours.

Many ways to get to the same place.

 

Do you start the crock pot before going to bed on New Year's Eve or do you force yourself out of bed early enough to get it done?

 

I have been cooking since 1:30 and it is almost 5 and I still have lots to do.

The grouper is prepped and ready.

The scalloped potatoes with fennel are just about ready to get out of the oven. They are better if the sit a while so it is all good.

The kale and mushrooms are done and waiting for the polenta (yellow grits for us Southren cooks) to be cooked.

Still have to make the salads, but that is easy and quick.

Now enjoying a real martini (Boodles gin, a splash of vermouth, and olives).