What are you making for dinner tonite?

Please inspire me, o loyal LTH readers.

Pork (tenderloin) tacos with cilantro and onion......mmmm. Fresh tomatos on the side.

IDK what we're doing tonight, but last night's turned out pretty well:

Sparky's chopped vegetable pasta salad

Grilled marinated chicken thighs - I marinated in Goya Mojo Criollo (thank you, JeffB! Love this stuff!) and direct-heat grilled to crispy wonderfulness - Marketplace on Oakton has started carrying all-natural chicken parts for $2.49/lb, and they were good.

Grilled peaches/apricots and cinnamon ice cream.

Well, tonight I am going to the food tasting for my wedding (exciting!), so I'm not cooking anything. But the last meal I did cook (Sunday) I grilled pork chops rubbed with a mixture of two cloves of minced garlic, a bunch of finely chopped fresh rosemary (maybe a tablespoon or so), a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Sides were an on-the-grill modification of these potatoes and a good "use up all of the random veggies in the fridge" salad.

mesclun greens, dried cherries from Trader Joes, bleu cheese, red onion, mint, and a vinagrette riff on goi ga dressing.

Shanghai noodles with lamb curry. I thought I had lamb chunks in my freezer. Turns out it is ground lamb. I am bravely determined to move forward anyway!

Here are a few of the taste notes of this dish to inspire you:
dry sherry
soy sauce
molasses
coconut milk
curry powder
chili garlic sauce
fresh ginger
garlic
green onions
jalepeno chiles
lamb meat
napa cabbage
red pepper
green pepper
fresh cilantro
"chow mein" udon noodles (I am using angel hair pasta)

This is one of those one-dish meals that you just devour from large bowls with chopsticks. I think some dark beer would go well here! Let me know if you want the whole recipe. --Joy

-Mahi sauteed in peanut oil with a little butter. served with lemon wedges & some oyster sauce for dipping
-White Rice
-Steamed broccoli & corn on the cob from the farmers market
-beer
-tequila

Recipes more than welcome.

Joy -- yours sounds too labor intensive for me tonite, but another time . . .

Leftover fried chicken.

The only bummer is it requires 24 hours' advance notice.

I'm doing my own kabobs. Steak chunks, fresh pinapple, and anything else I can find in my garden

porterhouse steak, grilled sweet corn and zucchini then one of two homemade berry pies for dessert

Okay, here's a fairly healthy fairly easy throw-together dinner, tastes fresh as summer.

1. Slice chicken breasts into strips. Marinate in mix of olive oil, lemon and garlic.

2. Make tzatziki with Greek yogurt.

3. Grill or bake chicken strips. Eat on pita with slices of cucumber, tomato, olives, whatever, and liberal dollops of tzatziki.

You could read this now and eat it by 6:30 easily.

fresh fettucine with very slow roasted cherry tomatoes, garlic and thyme. Topped with a dollop of fresh goat cheese.

mhill95149 wrote:porterhouse steak, grilled sweet corn and zucchini then one of two homemade berry pies for dessert

nice, I wish I was having some nice prime Porterhouses from my butcher tonight.. alas just some mahi in the attempt to get some fish in my typical red meat diet.

Mike G wrote:Okay, here's a fairly healthy fairly easy throw-together dinner, tastes fresh as summer.

1. Slice chicken breasts into strips. Marinate in mix of olive oil, lemon and garlic.

2. Make tzatziki with Greek yogurt.

3. Grill or bake chicken strips. Eat on pita with slices of cucumber, tomato, olives, whatever, and liberal dollops of tzatziki.

You could read this now and eat it by 6:30 easily.

I make that all the time but I broil the chicken strips; I like the little char it gives them plus I feel like it contains the heat better in the kitchen.

Home alone tonight so I'm having cold beet borsht that I made yesterday with farmers market beets with sour cream. Some pickled herring and multigrain bread. For dessert blueberry tart that I made earlier. An old fashioned summertime meal that my mother used to serve in the 40's and 50's and that my husband wouldn't eat. (Neither would my son-in-law who is also home alone and told him to come.)
Paulette

I make that all the time but I broil the chicken strips

That's a good thought. I usually do it on the grill, actually, then do a side dish that also goes on the grill (like that middle-east favorite corn on the cob). One of my family's favorite summer meals, everything tastes so fresh.

paulette wrote:Home alone tonight so I'm having cold beet borsht that I made yesterday with farmers market beets with sour cream.

Paulette,

Sounds delicious, would you please share your recipe for cold beet borsht.

Thanks,
Gary

Ah, picky eaters are tough. There is one meal that my picky eater son loves...chicken strips, dunked in ranch dressing, rolled in bread crumbs and lightly pan fried.

Leftovers tonight -- last night i roasted thick pork chops with fingerlings from Nichols that had been doused with pieces of garlic, fresh rosemary, oregano and thyme, salt, pepper and olive oil.

I'll steam/pan fry some haricots verts with garlic as well to complete my garlicopia....

I have strawberries for dessert -- sliced up with a little vanilla ice cream to dollop them.

Eh Voila....Dinner.

Jambalaya with andouille from the Best Stop in Scott, Louisiana and some additional pork sausage from Don's Specialty Meats (Scott location).

Mike G wrote:Okay, here's a fairly healthy fairly easy throw-together dinner, tastes fresh as summer.

1. Slice chicken breasts into strips. Marinate in mix of olive oil, lemon and garlic.

2. Make tzatziki with Greek yogurt.

3. Grill or bake chicken strips. Eat on pita with slices of cucumber, tomato, olives, whatever, and liberal dollops of tzatziki.

You could read this now and eat it by 6:30 easily.

Wow, I thawed out chix breasts today with the full intention of doing this for dinner (except I grill them whole, and THEN slice) -this is a pretty standard dinner at the seebee household. But, since I thought of making it for dinner at about 8am, my mind started thinking about tzatziki, then lunchtime hunger set in..long story short -

I had Gyros for lunch , and now we're having chicken chow fun for dinner.

Gary,
I just winged it after talking to one of my neighbors. I peeled and cut the beets in fourth and covered with water. Since I'm a diabetic I used about 1/3 c of Splenda but you could use sugar instead and about 1/4 t of sour salt. I thought I hit it right but I would have adjusted the sweet and sour if needed. Cook until the beets are tender. I removed them thinly sliced them and added them back. I refrigerated overnight and enjoyed for dinner tonight.
Enjoy!
Paulette

Mike G wrote:1. Slice chicken breasts into strips. Marinate in mix of olive oil, lemon and garlic.

2. Make tzatziki with Greek yogurt.

3. Grill or bake chicken strips. Eat on pita with slices of cucumber, tomato, olives, whatever, and liberal dollops of tzatziki.

You could read this now and eat it by 6:30 easily.

Even better with grilled or baked chicken thighs. Beats me what people see in skinless, boneless chicken breasts, besides convenience. They have all the flavor of Styrofoam.

I am having a leftover pork chop for dinner. Trying to decide whether I will just eat it cold, or improvise it into something else.

This will sound strange for a warm, summer evening (thunderstorms on the horizon). I had some leftover chicken stock and rendered chicken fat from some French chickens. Best stock and schmaltz I have ever tasted. Obvious solution: chicken soup and matzoh balls.

After getting home from work at 4:20 PM, started the WSM, Split two big turkey legs lengthwise, seasoned liberally with Old Bay, pepper, paprika, poultry seasoning, put on the smoker with an empty water pan, added foil-wrapped farm stand corn with olive oil and seasoned salt. The turkey legs were done at 6. Served with noodles and various BBQ sauces, Mambo, Secret Stadium Sauce, and original Buddy's Roadhouse. All I can say is:

Even better with grilled or baked chicken thighs. Beats me what people see in skinless, boneless chicken breasts, besides convenience. They have all the flavor of Styrofoam.

Again with the anti-chicken breast stereotypes and prejudice!

What do you want, a world full of legless chickens, laying around on their plump, meaty, uneaten breasts?

There are just some things for which the blandness and texture of chicken breast is exactly right.



What I'm about to eat tonight: Logan Square farmer's market greens, bits of Granny Smith apple, fried chicken breast, buttermilk dressing. Mmm good.

LAZ wrote:Even better with grilled or baked chicken thighs. Beats me what people see in skinless, boneless chicken breasts, besides convenience. They have all the flavor of Styrofoam.

Mike G wrote:Again with the anti-chicken breast stereotypes and prejudice!

What do you want, a world full of legless chickens, laying around on their plump, meaty, uneaten breasts?

There are just some things for which the blandness and texture of chicken breast is exactly right.

What I'm about to eat tonight: Logan Square farmer's market greens, bits of Granny Smith apple, fried chicken breast, buttermilk dressing. Mmm good.

Please note that I specified "boneless, skinless chicken breasts." I'm sure you fried your chicken on the bone with its skin intact. At least then chicken breast has a modicum of flavor and retains some moistness.

True indeed.

But sometimes I like those little white cubes of styrochicken, too. They're like meat marshmallows.

Grilled chicken with a salsa comprised of some dead-ripe Michigan peaches, a habanero, a green shallot from Nichols, some cilantro, and some lovely Thai basil that I grew, with a shot of lime juice and a shot of sea salt added, to both up the flavor impact and to help the juices from the fruits and veg exude. I made the salsa yesterday, drained it this morning, and have have been marinating the chicken in half of the juices all day. I mixed the rest of the juices with some yogurt, a BIG pinch of garam masala, and two crushed garlic cloves, and am marinating more chicken for tomorrow night.

Can't decide if I want to make a bahn mi-type sandwich of the chicken, topped with the salsa, some home-grown lettuce, and some very nice-looking tomatoes from today's Lincoln Square market, or roll it up in a tortilla with just the salsa and the lettuce. I should have such problems every day!