Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

Rib eyes, corn on the cob, asparagus.

I will pull a nice pinot noir from the wine cellar.

Added in edit: I forgot the leftover collard greens and that we are also cooking Brussels sprouts.

 

Tonight I was going to grill center cut pork loin chops marinated in lime juice, olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes.

Along with that was garlic mashed potatoes and steamed green beans.

It is POURING rain so the grill is still cold while the mashed potatoes are done the chops are still waiting.

Maybe I need to pan fry the chops.

 

Today I finished cleaning out the rickety shed/shack in my backyard to be demo-ed tomorrow. When I bought my house 31 years ago I thought that any decent storm would bring it down. While I had the house it survived Fran and Jean and some lesser storms. But tomorrow it meets its grim reaper. And also the asphalt driveway that will be torn out to give sewer and water access as well as to replace the drain line from our house that has to be roto-rooted every other year. Cast iron pipe with oakum and lead, of course. Oh, the joys of living in a house built in 1905.

Once it is gone construction of a 2 car garage with adjoining workshop as well as a 900 sq ft living space for my MIL starts. To celebrate I am grilling NY Strip steaks, baking a poblano potato gratin, and cooking fresh green beans in some manner I have yet to determine. I'll probably keep that one simple.

 

Cooking pasta puttanesca tonight. So simple and so tasty.

Also making jerk sauce for marinading about 5 lbs of chicken legs. I just harvested five ripe Scotch bonnet peppers to use for this purpose. The chicken will be ready for grilling on Saturday. It takes a few days for the goodness to get deep into the meat.

 

Cooking something that is often served as tapas, but it is so good that I make a bunch of it as a meal.

First I fry (kind of) cubes of Yukon Gold potatoes in a skillet with 1/2 cup of olive oil. Certainly not a deep fry. After they are cooked (browned with a bit still sticking to the skillet) I put them in a bowl and try not to eat them. And then I cook thinly sliced onion, cubanelle peppers, and "hard" chorizo (Spanish or Portuguese, not Mexican) in the left over oil with two jalapeno peppers sliced in half. When that is almost done I add white wine to deglaze the skillet and cook it down a bit before adding the potatoes back in and discard the jalapenos as they have done their job.

Salt and pepper to your taste. Serve warm or room temperature. There is never any leftovers.

 

Braising oxtail (actually beef tail) in a marzano tomato/red wine based liquid as a pasta sauce. It makes a really rich and flavorful sauce. It has been making the house smell good all afternoon.

I plan on serving it over bucatini with a side salad.

 

We are on the other side of the front: Cloudy all day and drippy off and on so the temps are not bad, but it is really humid. The dewpoint is 77 F and that is just nasty.

Making a calamari salad so we have something cool to eat for dinner. Time to start chilling a crisp white wine.

 

Tonight is trivia night and I am bringing something to share with my team: two lbs of garlic shrimp. Lots of peeling done and tomorrow is trash day. You don't want that quantity of shrimp shells in the garbage can in the hot Florida summer for very long unless you want to attract raccoons.