Dinner Sunday 21st April 2013

[pacanis]

I always forget to try those hasselback potatoes...

 

[Somebunny]

Mmmm....the black first ham was yummy with Potatoes Dauphinoise, sautéd Brussels sprouts, salad and warm bread. Cake for dessert!

 

[GotGarlic]

That sounds like so mush fun GG!! Is that kind of thing organized in some way?

It almost sounds like you were there

It was great fun. It was organized by our neighborhood civic league and cost $20 per person; it was a fundraiser for the league, the neighborhood park maintenance fund and the city humane society. We met a lot of new neighbors and got to see the insides of some of the houses. We live in a historic district, so I love any opportunity to do that.

 

[Kayelle]

Haa haa.....I didn't realize my typo for "mush fun" as I joined you in a glass of vino GG.

Wish I could have really been there for your neighborhood tour.

 

[Snip 13]

Ended up making herbed fishcakes with steamed broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, carrots and zucchini and baked butternut and sweet potato cubes.

 

[buckytom]

another tasty looking plate, mofet. you always get such good colour on your meats without overcooking them. cast iron?

and pac, your snails and paella look great. i'm craving those snails. are they topped with butter and wilted spinach, or more of a garlic/parsley persillade? nothin better than snails cooked in their shells and their own liquor (or is it liquer?)

and lol, andy. you must have been convincing to get the pork to unroll by threatening it with a knife.

i got my sushi after another really long day. i had to work until noon, which caused dw to go off on me for spending too much time at work and with baseball, and not enough time on/in the house. so when i got home i decided to forego sleep and cleaned the downstairs rooms, did dishes, folded and put away laundry, and cleaned the bird cages, then headed back down to the field for baseball practice.
after a good practice, we went our for really good japanese.

we started with salads with garlic dressing, and my boy had miso soup; dw had a house special gyoza and wild veggie soup that was out of this world. then, my boy had a dragon roll and a rainbow roll; dw had the scallop bento (scallops teryaki, chicken tonkatsu, dumplings, steamed carrots, and rice; and i had the sushi deluxe (3 tuna, 2 eel, 2 salmon, 2 pieces of egg and oshinko big rolls, 2 masago gunkan style, 1 red snapper, 1 shrimp, a tuna roll, and a california hand roll).

wow, was it good.

we went home stuffed, played baseball on the wii until bedtime, and now i'm back at work.

i hope it's a quiet night. so far, so good.

 

[pacanis]

Thanks, Tom.
The snails came from the store all ready to pop in the oven. I couldn't tell you what the green stuff they used in the compound butter was, but the garlic flavor was strong. Just how I like it.

 

[msmofet]

Looks yummy MsM.

another tasty looking plate, mofet. you always get such good colour on your meats without overcooking them. cast iron?

Thank you Tax and Bucky.

Yes, I use a screaming hot cast iron stove top ridged grill pan for most of my meats.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

I use a screaming hot cast iron stove top ridged grill pan for most of my meats.

And what, pray tell, do you do to prevent a screaming smoke detector from blowing out your eardrum? Seems like every time I use the grill or a cast iron fry pan we have to put up with the noise for ten minutes. No way to bypass the things. And the vent in the microwave over the stove only blows the smoke around - the better to reach the detector, I'm afraid.

 

[taxlady]

And what, pray tell, do you do to prevent a screaming smoke detector from blowing out your eardrum? Seems like every time I use the grill or a cast iron fry pan we have to put up with the noise for ten minutes. No way to bypass the things. And the vent in the microwave over the stove only blows the smoke around - the better to reach the detector, I'm afraid.

I have a button on my smoke detector that tells it to ignore smoke for 10 minutes.

The previous one would tell me that I was making toast.

 

[Kylie1969]

Prime cut sirloin steak, baked potato and steamed corn on the cob. Plus a cup of coffee - fresh ground chocolate, caramel nut beans.

Looks delicious MM

 

[Kylie1969]

We went on a neighborhood porch crawl today - 6 houses serving different nibbles and drinks. I ate myself silly, DH not so much. He had last night's leftovers; I'm just having a glass of wine.

That really does sound like fun, do you do that often GG?

We dont have things like that going on in our street

 

[Cooking Goddess]

I have a button on my smoke detector that tells it to ignore smoke for 10 minutes.

The previous one would tell me that I was making toast.

Oh what I'd give for that feature! We built our house in 2000; all the smoke detectors are interconnected. NO override, no way to turn them off since they are hard-wired but battery back-up. And, just like the old strings of Christmas lights, when one goes off they ALL go off!

 

[taxlady]

Oh what I'd give for that feature! We built our house in 2000; all the smoke detectors are interconnected. NO override, no way to turn them off since they are hard-wired but battery back-up. And, just like the old strings of Christmas lights, when one goes off they ALL go off!

I've never lived anywhere with hard wired smoke detectors. I buy them in a box and put in a battery. We're supposed to replace them every 10 years. I think I like the individual ones in a box better. You can get one that doesn't detect steam for near the bathroom. The one in the living room, not far from the kitchen isn't supposed to detect most cooking fumes.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Guess if I want cool stuff like that I have to move to Canada, eh?

O Canada, our home and adopted land.... Nah, doesn't sound right. Besides, too far from our kids.

 

[taxlady]

Guess if I want cool stuff like that I have to move to Canada, eh?

O Canada, our home and adopted land.... Nah, doesn't sound right. Besides, too far from our kids.

We could probably send you some.

I don't know what you would do with your hard wired ones though.

 

[GotGarlic]

That really does sound like fun, do you do that often GG?

We dont have things like that going on in our street

This is the third time they've done this and the first time we participated. Our neighborhood civic league organized it; it's a fundraiser for the league, which maintains a couple of neighborhood parks, among other things, and for the city animal shelter.

The league organizes several events during the year. In May, they're having a bike rodeo with a chili cook-off and in December they organize a holiday home tour

I haven't been very involved with the league recently, because my job became so demanding, but now that I'm not working, I want to do more with that.

 

[taxlady]

This is the third time they've done this and the first time we participated. Our neighborhood civic league organized it; it's a fundraiser for the league, which maintains a couple of neighborhood parks, among other things, and for the city animal shelter.

The league organizes several events during the year. In May, they're having a bike rodeo with a chili cook-off and in December they organize a holiday home tour

I haven't been very involved with the league recently, because my job became so demanding, but now that I'm not working, I want to do more with that.

That sounds really cool. Do you mind explaining how it works as a fundraiser? Might be some people here who want to copy the idea.

 

[GotGarlic]

That sounds really cool. Do you mind explaining how it works as a fundraiser? Might be some people here who want to copy the idea.

The league advertised the event through their Facebook page and the newsletter they distribute, and probably flyers in the local shops. The attendance was limited to 100 people, who paid $15 for league members or $20 for non-members. So they raised at least $1,500. I'm not sure how they divvied it up. The hosts donated the food and drinks, which could not have been cheap Although one is a chef at a university, so she has access to wholesalers, so they probably saved some money that way. One of the houses was serving traditional Southern food, including fried green tomatoes. I asked the hostess where she got green tomatoes this time of year; she said Restaurant Depot, which is a wholesaler.

 

[taxlady]

Thanks GG. Does the League assign which houses one visits? Did people socialize much?