Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

True dat.

I wondered why the screens were missing from all of the faucets until somebody told me that they needed them for their bongs.

 

No cooking tonight. I had planned on going to the Gator baseball game, but they postponed it to tomorrow.

 

Pretty much. Driving down to Micanopy to get pizza at Blue Highway.

 

I had a cold roasted chicken and lots of homemade chicken broth so making a pot of chicken soup and a bowl of chicken salad. My wife and I disagree on putting pickles in chicken salad: I do and she doesn't. But I will make it her way.

 

I have given up with "there are no beans in chili", but I finally got her to use both ground beef and ground pork in Italian meatballs and now she is a convert. She uses less pork than I would, but it is a step in the right direction. Using veal is extra special, but very decadent.

 

BBQ'd some chicken legs finished with Pat's. Helped my wife make pasta salad with shrimp.

Just about ready to take a beer can chicken off to give to a friend.

 

I was going to grill some rib-eyes with a shallot/serrano pepper/cream cheese topping at the end as well as grilling asparagus. With that was going to be a radicchio and baby arugula salad with pears and blue cheese and a shallot, honey, and sherry vinegar dressing.

But my nephew didn't make his plane at JFK so dinner is postponed to tomorrow. Instead it was tacos.

My wife and MIL are driving to JAX to pick him up and I am making potatoes with cubanelle peppers and chorizo for him to eat when he gets in.

 

Tonight is weird. I am going to trivia with my youngest son, his friend, my MIL, and my nephew. I think that there will be a few more, like my son's friend's friend.

Afterwards will be a late dinner for seven with myself, my wife, my son, his friend, my MIL, my nephew, and my SIL of grouper with a macadamia nut, panko, cilantro, and butter topping along with a corn and tomato "scramble" (sauteed scallions and corn mixed with diced tomatoes marinated in olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Thinly sliced scallion greens also mixed in), and a salad. I have prepped the grouper (marinading in lime juice), prepared the topping, and made the scramble.

I wish that grouper was not so expensive.

My wife will put the finishing touches on. I have left detailed instructions.

And we made a Key Lime pie for dessert.

Because there will be three early 20's males at trivia we have made arrangements to bring a pizza. Young men cannot wait until 9:00 to eat.

 

Clean out the frig night. I have a fennel bulb and some left over squid and a lemon I need to use. Also a lot of flat leaf parsley for some reason. So I will saute the squid and then thinly slice the fennel and lemon and caramelize them. This will be mixed with linguini with Parmesan cheese to taste. Some finely chopped flat leaf parsley will add color and a hint of bitterness to play against the sweet and sour of the caramelized lemons. Gotta add a tiny bit of red pepper flakes in there as well. Probably while caramelizing the fennel and lemon.

I also have an avocado and leftover baby arugula. Sounds like a salad to me. And I have part of a red onion in the frig. I can add that to the salad.

Just making this up. I hope that it works. I think that it will.

 

Just a bit too much lemon. If I was to do this again I would cut back on the lemon and cook the lemon longer.

Otherwise it was really nice.

 

Time to bump this thread up to the top.

Last weekend I met Mrs. @gtj31 who lurks on this thread. Very pleased to meet her.

Easter dinner was a small ham that we honey glazed in the late afternoon with a roasted polbano pepper gratin and a simple salad. Monday was leftovers. Tuesday was tapas at Emiliano's after the game (and so good!).

So today after several days and many hours of yard toil rejuvenating an overgrown hedge I was too exhausted to do even more yard work, so I decided to cook starting today at 2 PM. So off to Publix to get what I needed to make carnitas, pico de gallo, and a spicy avocado/tomatillo guac. It isn't like a normal guac. It is more like a taco topping green salsa.

The carnitas has just come to a boil and now is turned to to a simmer to braise for two hours before going into a very hot oven for 20 to 30 minutes and before being shredded.

Time to make the toppings.

Maybe a cold beer first.

 

That can be made very fancy and not just crappy noodles with a lot of salt.