Jeesh, I'm a klutz. See above post.

It's okay, Jerry. They don't make it easy on this website. It was a great dinner, by the way!

Sally

Bizzo, I now have a craving for a grilled hot dog. Even your corn looks good. The way the weather is, local corn won't be out here until the end of August if we are lucky.

Jsutt, Great photos.

Ruthanna, yum, pefectly cooked steak.

Last night's dinner:

Served with Twice baked potatoes, corn pancakes and steamed green beans.

Welcome Jerry!!! Love your photos! You'll fit right in with the best photographers.

Ann, love your before and after shots. That steak can't be yours though....it's not red.

Jasdip, the steaks are red inside. All three of them. Matt loves his steaks rare to medium rare the same as his dad and I.
~Ann

Jerry, welcome to the cooking forum! Everything looks delicious, yum.

Ann T, those first steaks look almost perfect to me. (grin) OK, go ahead and cook them just a little. It's so much easier when everyone wants them the same way. My girls and I eat them very rare but Dave and Kevin haven't adjusted to our "raw meat" ways yet and they both want them medium, at least. We'll beat 'em into submission yet...

It hit 104F here today. We spent the day in the pool and then went to Arby's. No pictures. Amanda and the kids were here by 9 am, Madison arrived at 7:15 am so she was waiting for them. We made Makayla's strawberry rhubarb pie and while it baked Bud and I pulled the garlic, sorted out six of the best heads, trimmed and cleaned it and got it ready for his fair entry.

I baked a pizza for lunch while the pie was in the oven, but we only got out of the pool long enough to check the oven and then get back outside, my kitchen was about 120F I think!

Another 100+ degree day tomorrow, then "down" in the 80s and 90s. Ugh.

Annie

Thanks all for the welcome. I've decided I can't come to this forum when I'm hungry, there are just too many fantastic and delicious ideas to handle on an empty stomach. The meal suggestions are wonderful and the photography is inspiring.

Welcome Jsutt and ditto what you just said. Way out of my league that's why I just graze only on the WFD threads.

Annie, You really are the best Grandma. Over 100ðF and you put the oven on to bake a pizza. And you hate pizza.

We are finally getting some summer weather. It got up into the low 80's today. Looks like we will have warm weather for at least the next few days.

Our dinner tonight was chicken in a sun-dried tomato and basil cream sauce.

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Spam in the middle of a thread?! That's going too far. Can it be deleted somehow?

Annie, I rarely bake in the summer due to the heat. We have air conditioning, but it's so expensive I hate to turn on the oven since it makes the ac crank so much harder. Although, looking at the price of store bought bread makes me want to pull out the yeast and flour again. I've been buying cereal and granola instead of making it myself for the same reason. I guess whether I pay for more ac or pay more at the store, it's going to cost me one way or the other. I've actually thought about baking the granola in the car.

As I keep harping on, please be very careful in the heat. staying in the pool is a good way to do that.

We had our Friday night junkfood night last night - grilled hot dogs, sauerkraut, and all the toppings, with chips on the side. No pics - it wasn't at all fancy, but the occasional junk food fare can be tasty.

Sally

Ann T, I'm not as good as you think. The oven was already on for the pie that Makayla is taking for her fair entry so I figured sticking a pan of pizza in the same oven couldn't make the kitchen any hotter. I saw on the local news that some guy in Grand Rapids actually baked a pizza in the back window of his parked car at work, it took 2 1/2 hours, but his co-workers ate it and said it wasn't bad, LOL.

Besides, I didn't eat the pizza, I had Cream Nut peanut butter and homemade strawberry jam on some honey wheat bread that I took out of the freezer!

Right now it's "only" 82F and it's supposed to "cool down" into the high 80s and 90s next week. As it did in Minnesota, we've had several instances of roads buckling from the heat, it's been crazy hot.

Annie

Annie.....the answer to the phillistines that want their beef brown all the way through is candle lit dinners..
I have convertes several people that way....when they can't see how red it is....they say things like....delicious steak...so tender....what kind of steak. I say just sirloin!!
After a couple of times like that I put the chandeliere on dim....then a little higher until the person (always a he) see that he is eating medium rare meat.

Jerry I want to have a cookout at your house!! Great sounding menu. Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting!

I have definately been thinking about how to turn my car into an oven and make something practical. So far I am just cooking my sneakers that I left in there! And I burned some buns but they weren't the bread kind! :)

Tonight's dinner, a pretzel roll burger. It's been so hot that all I've been making are salads.
It finally cooled off today. Just in time to pick black raspberries.

Nancy

Linda, my answer is to serve something else. If I know my guests do not like medium rare beef, I cook something else for dinner. Chicken, Pork, fish, etc.. lots of other choices.

Oh Nancy, that burger looks amazing. That bun. WOW!! I need to make your pretzel rolls.

Last night was pasta.

with grilled sausage.

And tonight was grilled prime rib.

All the vegetables (except the corn) were also done on the grill. Corn was steamed.

Ann, your grilled sausage and pasta is calling me.

I think that I have finally fixed a problem with my computer. IE has been freezing up when I have a couple of tabs open. It started last winter and I was just hoping it would hang in there until Windows8 was ready, then I would get a new desktop.

I finally got smart and downloaded a new browser. OMG what a difference. No more freezing and all is so much easier. I may just upgrade to Win8 and forget about a new computer for awhile.
It's so much easier to post pictures now....

Dinner tonight, marinated flank steak with fried rice. We had a simple tossed salad also.

Nancy

Nancy, your meals look fantastic. I thought it was Ann posting the last one, because the steak was so rare! LOL
Is that really rice? It looks like broken noodles. I think it was Ruthanna, where I asked if her dinner was served on broken noodles. They look similar. (I must be wanting noodles!) :-)

Ann, your grilled veggies, pasta and sausage look amazing.

I had a large boneless, skinless chicken breast that I dipped in melted butter, garlic, dijon and worcestershire, then in bread crumbs and parmesan.

It baked alongside carrots, onions and potatoes. We halved the chickie.

Those roasted veggies look soooooo good!

I'm still not used to coming to this thread, so I wasn't thinking about photos last night. But, we had pasta with 5 cheeses (gruyere, cheddar, Monterey Jack, parmesan, and blue) , garlic and olive oil, and a sautee of yellow squash, onions, and spinach. It was quick and easy and tasty, if not exactly diet food.

Sally

Nancy, Glad you fixed your computer problems. Perfectly cooked flank steak.

Jasdip, I like the sound of that chicken breast. And roasted onions and potatoes are a favourite. Great carmelization on the onions.

Sally, five cheese pasta sounds delicious.

It finally warmed up here this past week. Not as hot as it has been in the east, but we actually made it into the 80's.

I roasted a small turkey on the grill early in the morning. I still wanted to be able to make gravy, so it was cooked in a pan over indirect heat.

Dinner was hot turkey sandwiches with homemade fries. Known as diner food at our house.

We had a salad for lunch yesterday - Hearts of Palm, Roasted Red Peppers and Avocado.

And last night's dinner, at Moe's request, was grilled hot dogs.

Nice salad Ann!!

Another simple dinner last night, fried chicken with a simple homemade BBQ sauce and zucchini fritters. The zucchini was the first from my friend David's garden.

Tonight it will be BLT's and tuna pasta salad....I just finished making the salad :)

Nancy

Jasdip, as Sally was saying, those veggies look really good.

Bizzo, great combination for the 4th.

Nancy, nice meals, simple and elegant.

Ann_t, perfect roasted turkey.

Jsutt, Yes, welcome. Fancy grilled veggies on nice skewers.

Westsider, thank you very much for your kind comments.

Ruthanna, you really have a wonderful way of salad making. Beautiful plate.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I was in the supermarket to pick up some pork shoulder. It�s on sale for $0.99 a lb. I got 20 lbs. London Boil was buy one get one free, so I got 3 lbs + 3 lbs. Pineapple was $0.99 each, I bought two. As I was walking past an isle, I noticed that Rice A Roni was also buy one get one free, and on the box it said "16% more, limited time". I have never understood the concept of mixing rice with pasta. To me it�s like mixing wine with beer. Well, what the heck, "San Francisco Treat", I got the Fried Rice.

Dcarch

Sous Vide Pork Shoulder Pulled Pork on Rice A Roni Fried Rice and Golden Beets.

Sous Vide London Boil on Grilled Pineapple.

Dc - your meal looks delicious and the presentation looks incredible as usual. What is the green ingredient sprinkled over the beets? And do I see hosta flowers as a garnish?

I had a memorable meal of Rice a Roni when I was a flight attendant living in my first apartment in Dallas. My roomie had a cupboard full. I came home from a four day trip and had my first taste of the chicken flavored San Francisco treat. I have not eaten any since my airline days.

It's nice to see a "fast food" product can be incorporated into your wonderful presentation. It is not the first time RaR has been pictured here. This boxed food product looks great incorporated into the other items on the plate. How was the fried rice version BTW?

Teresa

Oh my gosh DCarch! I would love any one of those meals.
Your presentation has laser-sharp precision, with the square of Rice-A-Roni and the perfect strips of un-named green powder.

The steak looks delicious, as does the artfully carved grilled pineapple.
So....what did you do with 20 lbs of pork? You obviously have a chest freezer. I picture you living in a NY apt, and have no idea of the square footage. But as we all know, miracle meals and dinner parties happen in small spaces.

Thank you Teresa.

Yes, those are hosta blossoms. Not from China, grown here in the USA locally. :-)

The green sprinkles are powdered wasabi beans.

I actually enjoy "fast food" products once in a while. I have Spam pizza a couple of times a year. Not bad a t all.

I saw this on TV sometime ago; a reporter had frozen Swanson dinner served in a very up scale restaurant, and had the chef plated the dishes beautifully. All the diners enjoyed them.

I can�t tell completely what authentic Rice A Roni Fried Rice tastes like, because I doctored it up. Instead of sauteeing it in butter, I used EVOO and a few drops of sesame oil. Instead of water, I "simmered" it in chicken stock in the pressure cooker which gave it a much better texture. I used only half of the flavor package that came with it. Came out very good.

Thanks jasdip.

The pineapple was cut with the tool you see on the cutting board, which made it very easy. I find it very wasteful to cut pineapple the normal way, especially, as you know, the best part of a pineapple is right next to the skin.

20 lbs of pork is a lot of meat, but after the skin is removed (for crackling), fat removed, and bones removed, it becomes manageable. I have marinated the portion sized pieces, and they will be frozen soon. Cooking sous vide does not require the meat to be thawed. Very convenient.

dcarch

Saturday morning I caught the tail end of an episode of "The Best Thing I Ever Made" and knew I had to try this recipe for "Pollo Ciudad with Pickled Tomato Salsa" by Pollo Ciudad with Pickled Tomato Salsa. The recipe says to serve on top of your favorite rice. For me, for this type of recipe, that's Caboodle's Resataurant-Style Mexican Rice.

I really enjoyed the meal. In particular I LOVED the salsa, and will find other uses for that. My wife seemed less enthused, but she ate the plate clean nonetheless.

Some great looking meals.

FOAS, your dinner is really appealing.

Yesterday's dinner - Roasted Pork Tenderloin

This is the most inspiring thread! I really enjoy the many great meal ideas and everyone's photography challenges me to up the game several notches. We're still playing with a new grill, so last Monday (been busy and internet was down or would have posted earlier) we tossed some potatoes, zucchini and green beans in a grill wok, grilled some marinaded some chicken breasts and served with Sally's quinoa mango salad. In anticipation of next week's trip to Portland, the evening's beverage was from a Portland microbrewery, a Widmer Brothers Dark Saison, a hoppy ale brewed with grapefruit (lightly tart, but not bitter as you might expect.)

That dinner was delicious, DH.

Dcarch, I see two tools on the serving board with the pineapple. I really like your cute bunny faced peeler.

Ann, those veggies look wonderful.

FOAS, your dish looks great. I'm not surprised your wife licked her plate clean.

Sally

Jsutt, I love grilled vegetables. Great photo.

We had Mexican todays in a row. Monday night was tacos with pork carnitas and homemade corn tortillas. Last night we had a favourite - Seven Layer Dip with Refried Black Beans, Pork, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, Salsa and black olives. Fried Flour tortillas.

Arriba!!!!

Dcarch, those golden beets are beautiful.

Ann, I like your before and after pix.

Westsider, yes, those are canned potato stix on the steak salad. They gave it some crunchiness.

Jasdip, these are the noodles I use. They're the same size as the Rice-a-Roni ones so no breaking needed and usually 3 packs for $1.

Not too much exciting cooking going on in our household other than fish and vegetables. We went fishing last week and came home with two coolers of rockfish. I froze most of them but did turn the oven to cook a few whole ones for a fish dinner for friends and a pot of broth from the remains of the ones I filleted.

Lots of fresh tomatoes right now so pork cacciatore over penne one night.

Summer lamb and rice to reheat in the microwave on a hot night.

Last night, we had slit corn soup and langostino salad sandwiches.

It is chilly here tonight. A bowl of Ruthanna's corn soup would be perfect.

I made Moe a Caprese Salad tonight.

We're not cool here (supposed to be 101 today), but my mouth is watering for Ruthanna's soup and sandwich...looks wonderful!!

Ann, can you tell me how you fry your tortillas? Do you pan fry them? Deep fry?

Ruthanna, your soup does look good!

Sally

Sally, I use enough oil so that the chips float. So I guess you would call it deep frying.

Dinner with our neighbours last night.

I grilled Beef Tenderloin Kabobs

served with rice, steamed green beans and sauteed cherry tomatoes.

Dessert - fresh local berries served with Creme Fraiche.

Ruthanna, those little noodles would come in handy. Thanks for showing it to me.

Anne, wow. I love Moe's Caprese salad, and those kabobs!

Tabbouleh has always intrigued me, but I don't like barley, so I made Quinoa Tabbouleh. Used cut-up tomatoes, cucumber, finely diced carrots, minced lovage and chives from my little garden and feta.

Grilled chicken to go with it, and warm pita bread. It's a keeper!

Thanks, Ann. Your food always looks so good!

Jasdip, your Quinoa Tabbouleh looks and sounds good, too. I'll have to try that. I've had a hard time finding quinoa lately, and when I have it's been very high. I did find some at a little chain store called Sprouts, that was "only" $6.99/pound. which was way cheaper than I've seen it elsewhere.

Sally

Thanks Sally.

I have an unopened, four pound bag of Quinoa in the cupboard. Purchased it a few months ago and haven't got a round to trying it. I like the idea of your Quinoa Tabbouleh Jasdip.

We had dinner with Barb and Clif again last night.

Barb made dessert. Lovely little chocolate tarts topped with tiny little raspberries picked from their garden.

Thanks Sally and Ann.
Quinoa is expensive, usually around $5/lb., even at the bulk stores. I always buy it at Costco, where I can get a 4 lb bag for $10.

Summer seems to be staying on the east side of the Rockies. Here on the west coast we are having another cool summer. Dinner was a favourite autumn/winter meal.

Short Ribs

We made an impromptu trip 2 hours north of us today. On the way back we stopped at a farm stand and bought some goodies. It cost more than I wanted to pay, but the veggies were really fresh.

The corn was $3 for 6 cobs, the girl gave me 7. I bought a basket of small red and white potatoes, a quart of green and yellow beans, 2 cloves of garlic for $1 each and some tomatoes. My exciting find was the basil!!! There was a bushel basket full of the tallest basil I've ever seen, and they had roots. A 'clump' was for sale for $2. The car smelled heavenly all the way home. :) Soon as I got in I cut off some leaves and ran outside to plant it in my little garden. If it takes, it'll be the cheapest basil I've ever had.

So to get to the dinner part. I tried a new recipe today. A sauce made with barbecue sauce, soy sauce, maple syrup, or honey, red wine vinegar, dijon, garlic and spices. Baked over chicken breasts. Roasted some potatoes and had some of the sweet corn. I micro'ed it in the husk, and it was perfect.

I'm still struggling with that bone graft in my jaw and so everything that I can't chew (like steak) looks especially delicious.

We've been eating, I had chicken and dumplings a couple of nights ago and Makayla has been spending the week with me because I've been driving her to ballet camp at the Grand Rapids Ballet. Her final class was Friday, so we're at Elery's now. She watched America's Test Kitchen and promptly announced that she would make Chicken Cordon Bleu. Fine with me.

So, Black Forest ham slices wrapped around grated swiss and stuffed into a slit chicken breast, then breaded with a mixture of bread crumbs, butter and Ritz crackers. Very god, with mashed potatoes and green beans. I cut chicken into tiny little bites and managed to chew enough to make her happy, LOL.

I forgot my camera, though.....

Annie

Salad: red lettuce, nectarines (carmelized), blueberries, blue cheese, almonds (salted and pan-fried in oil).

Dressing: cooked and pur�ed plums, whisked into standard vinaigrette.

Black sticky rice (forbidden rice) and smoked salmon.

Salad in progress (it was prettiest before being dressed), this is peaches, tomatoes, limes, lime zest, onions, and I forget.

After chicken, grated asagio, and dressing were added

SWMBO disliked the salad (vetoes limes in future) and the fish-rice (where's the tartar sauce). Oh well, can't win them all.

I have a memory from one of my trips to Germany as a child (back in the late 70's) driving past corn fields and asking, "You have corn here - why do you make such a big fuss over it when you come to visit us?!" My aunt explained that what they grew there was for agriculture feed, quite unlike what we have in the states. I have no idea what the state of corn is in Europe these days, but I can tell you that to this day when we get visitors in the summer, corn on the cob is on the menu.

Maybe it's not "authentic" to pair Jaegerschitzel with corn on the cob, but I suspect my relatives would approve. This meal was blend of the recipes on the recently-revived Jaegerschnitzel thread. DW said, "No offense, but this tasted a lot better than it looked." I guess that's a compliment?

FOAS, as far as I'm concerned, corn goes with almost anything. Your dinner looks great. Corn is on the menu here quite often right now too.

Our German friends always shudder when we have corn on the table. It may not be authentic, but your Jaegerschnitzel appears to be. Johnliu, your salads look amazing. Those onions look so dramatic.