What's Cooking Sat Oct 8?

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I decided on a steak and some B sprouts, too. The steak is thawing. I won't be eating for a while...
 
Bella99 said:
Snow?!? I'm in Canada and it's not even snowing here yet ! :ohmy:

I changed my mind again, i'll make some spiral pasta with a pink sauce :) That's my technical description for it LOL

Yes...snow! I live east of Colorado Springs, and this is our first of the year. Not too uncommon around here. The mountains got snow in Sept this year. We may have summer again in a few days. That is just the way it is around here. If you don't like the weather, wait an hour and it will be different. :) The snow we got this a.m. melted this p.m. now you can see pikes peak and it is covered in snow. It will stay up there a little longer.
 
I'm defrosting a couple of rib eye steaks for the grill. I 'll do some roasted reds along side. Not sure what I'll do fr a veggie. Maybe toss some zucchini on the grill.


Last minute change of plans. Take-out Chinese was the meal of the day.
 
Ham, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn on the cob. Mmmmm........ ham smells really good right now, but probably not eating for another hour or so.:(
 
Mona's asparagus rolls, made with multigrain tortillas and cherry-grape jam. The lefse is still hibernating. Then pastrami pepper pizza with shallots on tortlla crust. Much rejoicing!
 
Well it looked alot better than it tasted.....unfortunately the corn was uber mature, I couldn't even finish mine, and we were disappointed in the ham, it was one we had gotten in Canada, it's called a Toupee ham and I have never seen them in the States. They have always been good when we have had them in the past....but this one....not so much. :-(. Potatoes and gravy were good tho ;-)

image-4096041657.jpg
 
Somebunny said:
Well it looked alot better than it tasted.....unfortunately the corn was uber mature, I couldn't even finish mine, and we were disappointed in the ham, it was one we had gotten in Canada, it's called a Toupee ham and I have never seen them in the States. They have always been good when we have had them in the past....but this one....not so much. :-(. Potatoes and gravy were good tho ;-)

Shoot. So sorry your meal wasn't what you anticipated, Somebunny. It looks good, though! ( I know, little consolation after hours of work.). Glad the sides were good!
 
where'd ya get the ghost chilis, mofet? i'd love to try some out.

we went apple and pumpkin picking today. a hot, indian summer kind of day out in hope, nj.

we promised ourselves not to pick too many apples as we do every year, and on the way out i looked down and realized we picked 2 big bags full once again. :neutral:

it was difficult to stop after picking our usual faves as we saw and sampled several varieties that are new to us: northern spy, crispin, and pippin.

$36 bucks worth of apples later, we headed to the preserves table and bought a jar each of pear, peach, blueberry, and wild blueberry preserves, and a few large fall mums in pots.

the pumpkin crop is terrible this year as we'd heard about. the hurricane and all of the rain since has really rotted much of the crop. we still managed to find 3 good ones for jack o lanterns.

then it was off to dinner in randolph, nj, at the black river inn. we'd eaten there a few weeks ago and it was very good. unfortunately that wasn't repeated. it wasn't off the charts terrible, but they made mistakes that should have been corrected.

i started with a boring salad of just lettuce and a single slice each of cucumber and tomato, then we all shared an appy of steamed asian potstickers. 5 small dumplings for $9. no, not stuffed with foie gras. just pork. :(

dw had the butternut squash soup that was very good, and a big, grilled chicken salad. again, mostly a weird, cheap mix of iceberg and a little mesculun, topped with grilled chicken breasts.

my boy had the pulled pork sanwich with sweet potato chips (not bad, but you'd have to try hard to screw up pulled pork).

i had the "open fire" grilled pork chops in a balsamic glaze, and sides of mashed and sauteed veggies. the reason i highlighted the "s" in chops is that when my plate came, there was only one chop. it's a pet peeve of mine when ordering pork chops in a restaurant. if it says chops on the menu, there should be at least 2. "s" means plural.

ok, well, that wasn't the worst part. the chop - small but fairly thick - was on the tough and fatty side, and there were no grill marks. open fire grilled? i think not. pan seared and baked was more like it.
and when i tried to cut into the center, a weird piece of charred looking skin kind of pulled off the chop. it was a piece of wax paper that was baked right onto the chop under the glaze!

when i told the waiter, he looked closely at it, went into the kitchen came out with the chef; they both looked at it from a few feet away, then turned and walked away. the waiter eventually returned and quietly muttered, "oh yeah, sorry about that".

out of hunger i ended up eating the rest of the chop. at least the mashed and veggies were good.

finally, dw ordered a cappucino and the bill came. nothing was comp'd, and in fact they added a liquor charge to the total and we'd only had soda and iced tea. i asked the waiter about it, and he explained that he'd forgotten to charge us for one of our sodas, so that's how he added it.

we won't be going back there soon. :mad:
 
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Sorry you had such a crummy experience for your evening meal Bucky :-(. Shame on that restaurant, the waiter and especially the chef, who after making an appearance at your table should have at least offered a sincere apology!
 
thanks bunny.

it was cathartic to post about it, and the waiter only got a 10% tip since it wasn't totally his fault, but he could have made things right.
actually, he could have earned a big tip f he comp'd my meal, or brought us a free surprise dessert or something. how about a free iced tea, for pete's sake.

it's not rocket science how to run good customer service. a small $15 max loss today, and they'd have had certain repaat business several times a year worth an average $80+ gross each time. possibly more since we're looking to move to that area.


this can't simply be blamed on inexperienced staff since the chef and manager saw what happened.

man, i've watched too many episodes of kitchen nightmares .
 
Well it looked alot better than it tasted.....unfortunately the corn was uber mature, I couldn't even finish mine, and we were disappointed in the ham, it was one we had gotten in Canada, it's called a Toupee ham and I have never seen them in the States. They have always been good when we have had them in the past....but this one....not so much. :-(. Potatoes and gravy were good tho ;-)

We don't like toupee ham here Bunny. Its one of those overprocessed items. You were lucky to find a good one in the past. Sorry dinner was icky.

thanks bunny.

it was cathartic to post about it, and the waiter only got a 10% tip since it wasn't totally his fault, but he could have made things right.
actually, he could have earned a big tip f he comp'd my meal, or brought us a free surprise dessert or something. how about a free iced tea, for pete's sake.

it's not rocket science how to run good customer service. a small $15 max loss today, and they'd have had certain repaat business several times a year worth an average $80+ gross each time. possibly more since we're looking to move to that area.


this can't simply be blamed on inexperienced staff since the chef and manager saw what happened.

man, i've watched too many episodes of kitchen nightmares .

Customer service is sorely lacking in some places. Its not about the cost, its about making things right. If they'd brought you a stellar meal to replace the crap one I bet you'd have been fine with paying the bill. Just my two cents. Shame on that restaurant!
 
This morning I picked up a rack of spareribs trimmed to St Louis. I'll be cooking it in the new Cobb grill.
Plus some grilled Asian style chicken wings, grilled vegis, and steamed rice for this evening. We've also got a couple of bottles of cheap wine from Trader Joe's.
Dinner plan changed due to overtime on my landscaping project. I ended up grilling a whole package of Costco pork chops on the Weber at the last minute instead. Simply seasoned with S&P, they came out great.
My wife was also happy because I didn't end up cooking the same boring meal week after week.....lol....
 
Why didn't you toss them on the Cobb, Roadfix? Not enough room?
 
Why didn't you toss them on the Cobb, Roadfix? Not enough room?
Correct, not enough room. The chops my wife picked up from Costco sat unfrozen in the fridge for almost a week so she wanted the whole package cooked, 10 pork chops in all. I figured I can whip them out quickly on the Weber, and it did.
 
Tacos. I used a VERY small amount of ground ghost chili pepper (Bhut Jolokia Pepper Powder - Worlds Hottest Chile Powder) along with my normal AP spice blend to season the meat before adding the envelope of Old El Paso. Man that stuff is GOOD and HOT! YUMMY!!

where'd ya get the ghost chilis, mofet? i'd love to try some out.

we went apple and pumpkin picking today. a hot, indian summer kind of day out in hope, nj.

we promised ourselves not to pick too many apples as we do every year, and on the way out i looked down and realized we picked 2 big bags full once again. :neutral:

it was difficult to stop after picking our usual faves as we saw and sampled several varieties that are new to us: northern spy, crispin, and pippin.

$36 bucks worth of apples later, we headed to the preserves table and bought a jar each of pear, peach, blueberry, and wild blueberry preserves, and a few large fall mums in pots.

the pumpkin crop is terrible this year as we'd heard about. the hurricane and all of the rain since has really rotted much of the crop. we still managed to find 3 good ones for jack o lanterns.

then it was off to dinner in randolph, nj, at the black river inn. we'd eaten there a few weeks ago and it was very good. unfortunately that wasn't repeated. it wasn't off the charts terrible, but they made mistakes that should have been corrected.

i started with a boring salad of just lettuce and a single slice each of cucumber and tomato, then we all shared an appy of steamed asian potstickers. 5 small dumplings for $9. no, not stuffed with foie gras. just pork. :(

dw had the butternut squash soup that was very good, and a big, grilled chicken salad. again, mostly a weird, cheap mix of iceberg and a little mesculun, topped with grilled chicken breasts.

my boy had the pulled pork sanwich with sweet potato chips (not bad, but you'd have to try hard to screw up pulled pork).

i had the "open fire" grilled pork chops in a balsamic glaze, and sides of mashed and sauteed veggies. the reason i highlighted the "s" in chops is that when my plate came, there was only one chop. it's a pet peeve of mine when ordering pork chops in a restaurant. if it says chops on the menu, there should be at least 2. "s" means plural.

ok, well, that wasn't the worst part. the chop - small but fairly thick - was on the tough and fatty side, and there were no grill marks. open fire grilled? i think not. pan seared and baked was more like it.
and when i tried to cut into the center, a weird piece of charred looking skin kind of pulled off the chop. it was a piece of wax paper that was baked right onto the chop under the glaze!

when i told the waiter, he looked closely at it, went into the kitchen came out with the chef; they both looked at it from a few feet away, then turned and walked away. the waiter eventually returned and quietly muttered, "oh yeah, sorry about that".

out of hunger i ended up eating the rest of the chop. at least the mashed and veggies were good.

finally, dw ordered a cappucino and the bill came. nothing was comp'd, and in fact they added a liquor charge to the total and we'd only had soda and iced tea. i asked the waiter about it, and he explained that he'd forgotten to charge us for one of our sodas, so that's how he added it.

we won't be going back there soon. :mad:
Click the link in my post Bucky AKA ground ghost chili pepper >>>>>(Bhut Jolokia Pepper Powder - Worlds Hottest Chile Powder)

Man if that was me I would have sent everything back!!
 
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thanks mofet. sorry i didn't check out the link the first time. i'd thought it was just about the pepper.

as far as the dinner goes, it was just a bunch of little mistakes. i think my wife was surprised that i wasn't more upset about it. i wanted to see if the adage about a squeaky wheel was true, so i was pretty laid back when i complained. besides, my wife and son had decent meals.

apparently, you need to be a p.i.t.a. to get what you want.
 
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