What's for Dinner?

[glatt]

The one thing that has vastly improved the chicken we cook in our house is the purchase of an instant read meat thermometer.

Turns out we were always overcooking our chicken, and that's why it was so dry and chewy. Everyone is paranoid of eating raw chicken, so they overcook. We did too. But when you cook a chicken until it is just done, the meat is so much more tender.

Also, the government tables for meat temperatures will result in over cooked meat. Use the tables that America's Test Kitchen uses. 160 for chicken. The government wants you to cook to 165.

This is the one we got.

[fargon]

I always cook chicken to 180 F in the thickest part if the thigh, and I never have dry chicken. I use a remote instant read thermometer smoking or backing.

[fargon]

WE had our chicken seasoned with Penzey's Forward and kosher salt. We had it with beets roasted with the chicken, and cole slaw with vinaigrette dressing.

YUM YUM!!!

[fargon]

Just had dessert, root beer float.

[Lamplighter]

My G-son, Sam, just caught tonight's dinner... this chinook on the Deschutes

[glatt]

Delicious meals all around.

I don't often participate in these threads, but will now.

Last night we had some leftover cold pasta salad. Bowties with a sort of pesto sauce mixed with bits of radicchio and kalamata olives. A huge salad on the side, and some cut up deliciously ripe pineapple. Tall glass of milk. The pineapple and milk pairing was a little weird, but everything else worked well together.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

My G-son, Sam, just caught tonight's dinner...

How many of there are you? Get a coupla loaves and that will feed the 5,000. Glad he's doing so well.

Originally Posted by glatt

Last night we had some leftover cold pasta salad. Bowties with a sort of pesto sauce mixed with bits of radicchio and kalamata olives....

It does all sound great Glatt, but it made me smile for a slightly dufferent reason.

The younger partners I work with have generally never moved out of Aylesbury. They are on a steeper learning curve than me. I cannot claim to be a foodie but if you move around and stick around for 40+ years you pick up a lot. and I don't mean things that require antibiotics.

Last week a partner and a customer had the beginnings of a conversation headed in separate directions. The customer wanted to know if we sold kalamata olives. My cow-orker was trying to direct her to the fish counter to buy calimari. I stepped in like Wonder Woman (but without the short-shorts) and walked her down the prepacked deli aisle, where indeed we do sell kalamata olives.

I promise I wasn't smug. I'd never even eaten an olive when I was his age.

[Clodfobble]

How funny. I knew what kalamata olives were long before I knew what calamari was. Would you say most teenagers (assuming that was the age of the coworker you were talking about) in your area are familiar with calamari?

[Clodfobble]

Oh, and dinner last night was fantastic traditional Brazilian food. The tiny cafe that makes it is nowhere near us, but Mr. Clod's employer's data center is way out that way, so whenever he has to go rearrange servers or whatever, he picks up Brazilian food to bring home.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

How funny. I knew what kalamata olives were long before I knew what calamari was. Would you say most teenagers (assuming that was the age of the coworker you were talking about) in your area are familiar with calamari?

Many families can afford overseas holidays now, so children will grow up seeing items like calimari on the menu, even if they don't eat it.

Snack/ tapas food like olives probably won't be named, even when sold by the same establishments. The English abroad like their seafood, and if you fry it they like it even more. Yes, I am English, and yes I like seafood. It's just that I don't get to travel..!

Oh and the colleague is mid-twenties with two children...
But he is a bit hard of understanding in that he will simply not take advice. So maybe he has painted-on-eyes syndrome too.

[orthodoc]

Tonight was light - a spinach salad and 30 minutes on the bike trainer.

Last night, after a looong walk around every single monument in DC, we made our way (on foot, so all the subsequent calories were neutralized) to a mezze restaurant for dinner. They have a brussels sprouts dish that is to die for ... sounds crazy, I know. They separate all the little leaves by hand, flash fry them, and serve them with a spiced yogurt sauce ... wonderful. The sprouts were dry and crispy, no sense of oiliness at all. And I had a Turkish lamb dish - crispy outside, an inside you could cut with a spoon, braised with apricots and almonds. I think it was simply the best lamb I've ever tasted. The baba ghanoush and hummus were truly delicious. Their chicken with orzo and Greek cheese and spices was so good, you didn't want to eat anything else after it ... but then there were the desserts (sigh). It was fun. I'm not likely to do it again before leaving DC, but it was a lot of fun after a long walk.

[richlevy]

Off to Arthur's Steakhouse tonight for their Saturday buffet. Prime Rib carvery, pasta station, 3 hot entrees and 1 hot side, soup, cold shrimp and salad bar.

There is a %10 chance I might eat some salad instead of a second helping of prime rib.

There will be three of us, and the gift certificate will cover about one meal. $22.95 + tax. That's about 14 British pounds.

I'll see if I can get a picture.

[DanaC]

Oh that's sounds awesome, Rich!

definitely post pics.

Tonight, I had a simple repast of carrot and coriander soup (bought, but fresh from the chiller section, not tinned) with buttered crusty bread roll.

Delish. And made me feel better. There's nothing quite like soup when you're feeling ill and fragile.

[richlevy]

So we went last night and it was just like always. The tables had white tableclothes with shiny metal plates already on the table The plates are decorative placeholders. Since the restaurant is really an offshoot of the banquet business, the service and food is basically upper level banquet quality. This means that most of the sauces are made from scratch, which caused me a problem in that there was only red sauce at the pasta bar since the chef hadn't made the Alfredo yet.

There were two hot entrees and two hot sides.
Chicken Cyclone - Chicken in a cream sauce with mushrooms.
Tilapia with pineapple salsa - Tilapia with bits of chopped pineapple and maybe some peppers but there was almost no heat.
Asparagus
Red Potatoes

I went to the prime rib bar and had the chef carve and throw a prime rib into one of the pans for the pasta and mix in some onions and mushrooms. I actually asked for onions and peppers, but this worked. I asked for a thick cut and what I got would probably be billed as a queen cut. One of the pictures below is my plate which shows the prime rib and all 4 hot items.

For my second course I went up to the pasta bar and had linquini with shrimp and bay scallops with onions and green peppers. Since the Alfredo sauce wasn't ready I got some butter from the bread station and added some pepper.

I ended up with a piece of chocolate cake. Some of their desserts are from an outside bakery and some are in-house. I should have gone for the lemon meringue pie instead. I also took a cheesecake and a carrot cake shooter. The shooters are 1/3 cake slices stuffed in shot glasses. They're great if you want to sample a few different cakes and not get whole slices.

The other pick is my son's plate. He just goes to the prime rib carvery and loads up on the meat. Since they had potatoes last night he was very happy.

Mrs. Levy had a big salad, some chicken, and at least tried the Tilapia, which she does not normally eat.

I did try a 1/3 cup of the mushroom and barley soup. The soup was a bit of a disappointment since I like the flavors of heavy soups to mix a bit. I think it would have tasted better if it had simmered for an extra hour.

I followed everything up with decaf coffee with chocolate syrup and whipped cream.

So I sampled everything except the salad, cold shrimp, and bread.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Delish. And made me feel better. There's nothing quite like soup when you're feeling ill and fragile.

I agree. I like chicken based soups when I'm sick but for winter I like heavier soups like barley, lentil, split pea. Also chili, which is not technically a soup but over here is packaged like one.