The What's For Dinner Thread - March '11 (recipe index in OP)

[HERSEY]

Princess It is strange reading that you are having winter. We are supposed to get into the 90's today it is already 75.

I am hoping to grill something. But as in typical Chicago fashion we might get some storms, so we will see.

Is anyone planning on cooking for the 4th? What are cooking?

I have some ribs, baked beans and cheesy potatoes. Mr A won't eat potato salad. I haven't gotten to the dessert yet.

 

[TigerKat]

Becky – I hope y’all enjoyed the kale salad!

Laura – I don’t blame you for not wanting to get on the computer after being on it all day. Know that we think of you every day and just check in when you can.

Princess – It’s hard to believe it’s winter there, it’s scorching hot here!

Janice - We're grilling burgers and chicken. We'll also have potato salad, baked beans and grilled artichokes with a smoked tomato vinaigrette, AND of course Margaritas.

WFD – Pan seared tilapia with chile lime butter and grilled corn and tomato-sweet onion salad with fresh basil dressing and crumbled blue cheese.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Sunday morning over here Diners! And it's currently low '50s. It was untypically mild overnight and our daytime temperature is not expected to go higher than 57 F.

I'll definitely take a couple or 20 degrees from anyone who wants to ship it over!


We don't celebrate the 4th of July here; so it is another typical weekend for us. I'm still thinking about breakfast so I might check in later with a dinner update.

 

[Aimeedyan]

Happy Saturday! It's a lazy day in this house. I went and wandered a local antique mall and Goodwill and DH is going out with some friends.

I'm eating leftovers from last night; I'm assuming he'll eat something wherever he is.

My exciting Saturday night plans are... grocery shopping!

We aren't planning anything special for July 4. I've got work to get done so I may just stay home and do that...

 

[HERSEY]

WFD is greek chicken foil packets. I was going to grill them but is still too hot to stand by a hot grill. It is still in the 90's. I hate heating up the house but that seems like a better choice than melting on the deck

Aimee You saturday night sounds soo wild. Good thing you are going to church tomorrow.

 

[PrincessInOz]

My DH is a prince!


He's gone out to get croissants for breakfast and also came home with a quiche. Guess we're having quiche, salad and the rest of the cauliflower soup for dinner!

No cooking food porn this week...although I'll grab some shots of the soup, salad and quiche later.

 

[TigerKat]

I have to share both of these with y'all, awesome recipes!

Pan-Seared Tilapia with Chile Lime Butter Gourmet | July 2003

Ingredients
For chile lime butter
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lime zest
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon minced fresh Thai or serrano chile (preferably red), including seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt

For fish
6 (5- to 6-oz) pieces skinless tilapia fillet or farm-raised striped bass fillets with skin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
preparation
Make chile lime butter:

Stir together butter, shallot, zest, lime juice, chile, and salt in a bowl.

Prepare fish:

If using striped bass, score skin in 3 or 4 places with a thin sharp knife to prevent fish from curling (do not cut through flesh). Pat fish dry and sprinkle with salt. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until just smoking, then sauté 3 pieces of fish, turning over once with a spatula, until golden and just cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes, and transfer to a plate. Sauté remaining fish in remaining tablespoon oil in same manner.

Serve each piece of fish with a dollop of chile lime butter.




Grilled Corn and Tomato-Sweet Onion Salad with Fresh Basil Dressing and Crumbled Blue Cheese

Recipe courtesy Bobby Flay, 2007

Ingredients

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
8 ears corn, grilled in the husk, kernels removed
1 sweet onion (such as Vidalia or Walla Walla), halved and thinly sliced
1 pint Sweet 100 tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, halved
8 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
Fresh basil sprigs, for garnish

Directions

Combine the vinegar, basil, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of pepper and oil in a blender and blend until smooth. Can be made 2 hours in advance and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before using.

Combine the corn kernels, onion and tomato in a large bowl. Add the dressing and toss to coat, season with salt and pepper. Let sit at room temperature 30 minutes before serving. Top with crumbled blue cheese and garnish with basil sprigs just before serving. Salad can be made 1 day in advance and served cold or at room temperature.

 

[Rogue26]

Things are crazy here, but I wanted to pop in and say hi. Don't want you guys to think I forgot about you! We are having some amazing weather and its really adding to the crowds (that's okay, tourism pays the bills!)

Aimee- I'm looking foward to trying the chicken recipe you posted, I'm always trying to duplicate the chicken sandwiches they have at the Morocco counter service.

Becky- We really like kale chips, tear into smallish pieces, a little olive oil, season with salt, pepper, whatever you like. bake at 350 about 20 min.

Janice- I'm working the 4th so we don't have any special dinner plans. I think I have some ribs in the freezer.

Gotta get back to the movie, the three of us watch one every saturday night- watching harry potter getting ready for the last one! Miss you guys.

 

[Glynis]

Hi, everyone! We're back from my dad's. Actually, we've been back for a few days, but things have gone to heck in a handbasket here. We came home to record high temperatures, and found that our air conditioner is not working AT ALL! It is scorching in our house! The repairman can't get here until Wednesday afternoon, so I'm doing everything I can to stay OUT of my house. Thus, I haven't been online a lot.

Dinners have been anything that wouldn't heat up the house! Nothing spectacular, just a lot of cold cereal, and tuna salad.

Going back now to catch up.

 

[Nancyg56]

Hi Everyone! Finally had time to catch up here. Thaks for all of the nice OT words. I feel okay but am being very careful with my arm.

I have Nola and Rylee tonight. A group of Welby and Brian's friends have a gynormous party on the lake every year for the 4th so they are there. The girls were like little whirlwinds, Buddy is asleep in front of the race and I am drooping. I think the chase halfway around the block to stop the ice cream man finished me off Honestly, he was cruising down the street and when I finally caught up with him after taking a short cut through a neighbors yard he was talking on the phone! The girls were tickled though, especially after Pa tossed their sundae cups for the ones they chose

We are celebrating the 4th with a little cookout tomorrow. Erica is in FL but the rest of us will have grilled sirloin, salad corn on the cob, maybe pork chops or chicken for Marisa, fruit salad and some kind of steamed green veggie of cauliflower.

Marisa and I are following out diet so we cannot have the usual fare but I do plan to make some sort of dessert either tomorrow or Monday.



Dinner tonight was grilled pork chops, steamed broccoli, corn and a salad.

 

[TigerKat]

Good morning!

Robin – I’m so glad you popped in, we missed you! Enjoy that nice weather my friend, it’s too hot here to enjoy anything outdoors.

Glynis – Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear you’re a/c is out. I don’t handle the heat very well at all, sending hugs.

Nan – Enjoy your cookout and good luck to you & Marisa on the diet.

WFD – Shrimp etouffee, brown rice and a salad.

 

[HERSEY]

Glynis I am not sure I could live without my AC. I hope yours is an easy and cheap fix.

WFD is beer can chicken corn and a fruit salad.

Nancy Not sure if I mentioned I some how hurt my arm last year. I wish I knew what I did so I don't do it again. Man that was painful. Any how with some painful exercise and advil it is almost 100%. It is hell growing old my parts are getting old and rusty before I am old enough to come up with some wild stories to go along with with pain.

Kathy That fish sounds really tasty.

 

[Aimeedyan]

Hi, everyone! We're back from my dad's. Actually, we've been back for a few days, but things have gone to heck in a handbasket here. We came home to record high temperatures, and found that our air conditioner is not working AT ALL! It is scorching in our house! The repairman can't get here until Wednesday afternoon, so I'm doing everything I can to stay OUT of my house. Thus, I haven't been online a lot.

Dinners have been anything that wouldn't heat up the house! Nothing spectacular, just a lot of cold cereal, and tuna salad.

Going back now to catch up.

Augh, I'm sorry. We were in your shoes just a couple of weeks ago and if we didn't have the upstairs space (with seperate unit) we would have checked into a hotel. Dreadful without AC! Glad you had a good trip.


Kat, those sound delicious!


I am grilling honey-ginger pork tenderloin and some corn/cheese polenta cakes that I found on Pinterest. No veggies, just starch and meat

I thought I had another two weeks before my back to back trips and I realized, today, that we leave next Sunday Now I'm totally wishing tomorrow wasn't a holiday. I've got things to do!!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

So, I paid $15 for an adult ticket and $10 for a child ticket to see the Lego exhibition. A separate activity for the kids involved "Pick and Play"...where they were to spend 45 minutes building their own Lego. This ticket was $10 and was strictly limited to what seems to be about 25 kids per session. For today, there were about 6 sessions and they were all sold out. I don't know if you would consider the Australian pricing expensive; but for what I normally pay for kids activities here, it wasn't that bad.

This is the Pick and Play room....

....and make a tower as tall as you can in 10 minutes.

DS and his partner made the one in the front; which turned out to be the second highest (the one behind was taller).


There were 3 separate 'picks' for the next activity...make a car; make a space rocket or free build. DS decided to make a car.

Which turned out to be a good move......

....because there were races to follow.

DS was happy.

I think that at 10 turning 11, DS is probably just starting to outgrow this activity.


The exhibition was surprisingly good. I guess I hadn't given much thought to the use of Lego as an art media...and yes, this is despite having gone to Legoland a number of times and also seeing the displays outside Lego shops in the US.

Whilst we got the standard (but brilliant) Lego models...

...we also got wall art that was just superb! These were made with single Lego blocks.

These were my favourites...

We spent 1.5 hours in total in the building and enjoyed every minute of it. To my mind, it was $45 well spent for the first school holiday morning activity. Hope this gives you a taste of the exhibition!

 

[Glynis]

Princess - that exhibition looks so cool!!! I agree that it was money well spent! I can't wait until my 11 year old boy wakes up so I can show him.

Happy 4th of July, everyone!!! We are still without A/C, and the temp is supposed to reach 103 today. Ugh! We are leaving in a little while to spend the day elsewhere! I think Alan and I are taking the kids to breakfast somewhere, then Alan has to go to work. The kids and I are spending the rest of the day at my sister's house. We are tie dying shirts for our Disneyland trip, and then having a barbecue. We'll come home after all the fireworks have gone off.

Have a wonderful day everyone! Stay cool!!!

 

[EJ4Disney]

Happy 4th of July everyone!!!

We have had a quite but oh so fun weekend. Yesterday we had Ethan's "kid/friend" birthday party at the pool. It was supposed to be on Saturday, but it rained all day - in fact we never left the house all day. After the party we did a quick 9 holes of golf and ended the night at some friends lake home to watch an amazing fireworks show.

Today we are going to Elizabeth & Jay's for the evening. I so hope all of my American friends are having a nice day. Thanks to all our service men and women who give of their time and lives so we can be free. THANKS!!

WFDT ~ Grilled sirloins, pasta salad, potato salad, baked beans, deviled eggs, homemade ice cream and brownies.

Make it a firecracker kind of day my dear friends.

 

[bigmerle1966]

Princess- that is really cool!

Happy 4th everyone! Off to get ready to go to my cousins for the day.

 

[HERSEY]

Look at what I just found

Kahlua Chicken

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup Kahlua
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp ginger
1 tbsp cornstarch

Whisk together the Kahlua through cornstarch and put in a medium size sauce pan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and whisk until consistency thickens – should only take a minute or two.

Use sauce to baste the chicken on the grill.

 

[Aimeedyan]

So, I paid $15 for an adult ticket and $10 for a child ticket to see the Lego exhibition. A separate activity for the kids involved "Pick and Play"...where they were to spend 45 minutes building their own Lego. This ticket was $10 and was strictly limited to what seems to be about 25 kids per session. For today, there were about 6 sessions and they were all sold out. I don't know if you would consider the Australian pricing expensive; but for what I normally pay for kids activities here, it wasn't that bad.

What a cool exhibit - and a cutie patootie DS!! Thanks for showing pics, that looks like so much fun!


Glynis, stay cool!!

Everyone's weekends sound so fun. I was going to stay and work all day, and it really would be the most responsible thing to do, but my mom called last night and wanted to shop some today.

Dinner is up in the air.

 

[TigerKat]

Princess – Thanks for posting the pics, it looks like so much fun!

Glynis – Stay cool my friend.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy 4th of July!