Whats for dinner tonight?

[Cicatrix]

Post your better than average meal deals here for the rest of us to salivate over.

Tonight I'm doing:

Peach and jalapeno stuffed pork loin
Roasted fennel coleslaw
Sauteed grape tomatoes
Blueberry peach cobbler w/vanilla bean ice cream

Looking forward to the pork loin the most. Nothing better than a long roast of it on the grill.

[Mikey]

Sounds good. One of these days I'm gonna try some of that fennel. I hear it's tasty.

Unfortunately I have a job. Sort of hard to roast anything on weekdays when you get home at 6:00 p.m.

I'm thinking of grilling some boneless skinless chicken breasts seasoned with Scott's Lemon Pepper Seasoning. I'll use mesquite chunks to give the chicken a nice smoked flavor.

I've got some nice yellow and green zucchini from the farmer's market. I'll either saute it or cut it up into a salad.

Finally, I'll prolly serve some basmati rice on the side.

[Cicatrix]

Fennel definitely kicks ass. Great in slaw or in a stuffing. I once did an apple/fennel stuffing for a stuffed pork crown roast and it was amazing.

The pork loin roast was good but not great. However, the peach/blueberry cobbler was fucking fantastic. I didnt mention that it had a spiced pecan streusel topping. I just may eat it all before the wife gets home.

[Mikey]

What are you, Mr. Mom or something? You cook and wait until the wife gets home?

Must be nice. I used to be able to do shit like that when I worked out of my home office. Self-employment does have its benefits. Unfortunately it has its drawbacks too.

Things I get that I didn't have before in exchange for commuting 35 minutes each way:

Medical coverage for me and the family covered 100% (i.e. deductible paid for and no co-pays)
20% to 25% of salary kicked in to 401K each year as profit sharing

I can do this for a few years.

BTW, I ended up sitr-frying the chicken and zucchini with some onions and red bell pepper, served over the basmati rice. About 35 minutes from start to finish and it came out pretty damn good.

(If I ate peach cobbler or any dessert more than about twice a month I'd weigh a lot more than my already too high total - but it does sound good)

[Dinsdale]

I had a carnitas burrito from Muchas Gracias.


MMMMMMM.... Muchas Gracias. They're rep has grown, and they're popping up like wildfires all over Oregon and Washington. This is a good thing.

Speaking of, with all the wonderful, glorious food-tube outfits in NoCal, you'd think the ones that migrate would be worth a shit... they aren't.


Taco Del Mar being the worst offender... how the hell do you fuck up a Mission Burrito and make it taste bad?


The #1 complaint I hear against Muchas is "they out too much meat in the burritos."


The horrah.

No matter how good and cheap they are, I just don't see Muchas breaking into the california market. But they're going to do some serious damage in the northern states in the coming years.

So, that's what I had for dinner. Didn't do quite as well as you guys, obviously, but it cost me $3.50 (Muchas' big sales pitch is everything is way underpriced, but oh so good), and took about 5 minutes, so at least I saved a shred of BODE over the tasty ass sounding shit you guys had.

[Mikey]

There's not much that beats a well constructed burrito for a good fast and cheap meal.

The best one going around here is the carne asada burrito from Rosa's, which is a one-off storefront cayshe-only Mexi joint in "downtown" Fallbrook. I pick up dinner for four to go every Monday night from Rosa's.

[Dinsdale]

There's not much that beats a well constructed burrito for a good fast and cheap meal.

Agreed -- whether take-out or homemade. Easy to prepare a huge batch of filling, then cherry-pick it out of the fridge when you're hungry.

The best one going around here is the carne asada burrito from Rosa's, which is a one-off storefront cayshe-only Mexi joint in "downtown" Fallbrook.

Ma and Pa joints will always trump chains... although Muchas Gracias is franchised, and is still small enough to not have undergone the corporate fuckup... yet. And if you get all crazy and pull $7 out of your pocket, you're taking a bunch home.

I pick up dinner for four to go every Monday night from Rosa's.

And you probably get out of there for under $20-25, I'm guessing. And it's probably excellent.


What's not to like about that?

[Mikey]

And you probably get out of there for under $20-25, I'm guessing. And it's probably excellent.

What's not to like about that?

That's about right. Except the kids usually each want an order of rolled tacos with guac and cheese on top of the burritos and the wife always orders a combo that goes for $7.95. So we're talking pretty close to $30.00.

Plus, I always toke the waitress (who also happens to own the place) $5.00 even though it's a "to go" order. That way I always get treated well. There's usually a free order of marinated carrots and jalapenos and a large bag of chips added in for good measure. Plus extra salsa. The green salsa that they make there is to fuckin' die for. I've always got a few extra of those little plasitic cups left over after our Monday night dinner. That stuff is great on eggs in the morning.

[Dinsdale]

toke the waitress

???


I'm usually pretty hip to Left Coast slang, but you got me there.

Traditionally, "toking the waitress" to ensure service would mean something entirely different... and make me hang out until closing time.

[Dinsdale]

toke the waitress

If I'm trying to get the waitress wasted while she's serving that fine NoCal invention known as the Mission Burrito/San Francisco Food Tube, I'll surely use another fine NoCal invention --

http://www.proto-pipes.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


I guess that calls for a Cooking Forum mod ruling... it is an herb, right, and therefore fair game?

[Mikey]

I always thought it meant the same as "tip" too.

I guess it's mainly a gambling term, though, as in toke the dealer.

And no, I don't fire up with the waitress. We're not that close.

[Mikey]

toke the waitress

If I'm trying to get the waitress wasted while she's serving that fine NoCal invention known as the Mission Burrito/San Francisco Food Tube, I'll surely use another fine NoCal invention --

http://www.proto-pipes.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


I guess that calls for a Cooking Forum mod ruling... it is an herb, right, and therefore fair game?

We allow anything that relates to eating, drinking or smoking here.

Any other of life's basic pleasures, whatever they may be, will also be considered for admission.

[Dinsdale]

Well, I figured I was staying on topic, since drinking and smoking are more than likely what's for dinner.

Any other of life's basic pleasures, whatever they may be, will also be considered for admission.

We'll see how that works out. If it goes particularly well, or particularly poorly, it could end up a poem in Cul De Smack.

[Screw_Michigan]

I had a chili-cheese half-smoke, chips, and fountain coke from this place today:



That blew my dinner budget for today, so I'll make leftover tacos with fresh jalapenos (fuck you, FDA) tonight before watching the O's and heading out to party.

[Goober McTuber]

20% to 25% of salary kicked in to 401K each year as profit sharing

My understanding is that the max 401K election is at $15,500 for 2008. I believe this would mean your max income to be $62,000. Just checking to see if I can run personal income smack in here. :wink:

[Mikey]

They found some way around that limit. Prolly because it's defined as profit sharing and dumped in as a lump sum about halfway through the next year.

Also, I'm old enough for the "backup" exemption or whatever it's called.

[indyfrisco]

20% to 25% of salary kicked in to 401K each year as profit sharing

My understanding is that the max 401K election is at $15,500 for 2008. I believe this would mean your max income to be $62,000. Just checking to see if I can run personal income smack in here. :wink:

I worked at a company in Texas who normally dumped between 10-15% into your 401k for profit sharing. The 15k limit is only for non-taxable employee contributions. Your employer can put whatever they want in it.

My current employer puts anywhere from 5-10% for profit sharing. Same thing here. I can still max out and they can put in whatever they want.

[Cicatrix]

Back to foody things

Tonight is chicken cordon bleu, minted mushroom risotto and grilled yams.

[ppanther]

Mexican red rice with chicken thighs
Romaine and red leaf salad with peaches, plums, toasted almonds, goat cheese, and cilantro-lime vinaigrette

[Mikey]

Hey pp. How's family life?

(and what's Mexican red rice?)

[ppanther]

Family life is outstanding!! I noticed one thing about me that's changed since I became a mom... I like scary things a whole lot less than I used to. The first thing I did when that earthquake happened was scoop up my baby and hang on tight from the relative comfort of a doorway. My nerves are only just now settling down and ya know it's not even the biggest quake I've ever felt! I didn't let go of the kid for like an hour. He got pretty annoyed with me. He's now sleeping nowhere near anything that could possibly fall on him, since lots of stuff here fell off shelves.

sigh.

Mexican red rice... let me go get the cookbook, that's not the actual name. It's red, it's rice, it's Mexican. It's not really difficult enough to need a cookbook to make, but it's where I read how to do it first. Hangon.

...

Actually I was totally right, the name in the book is Classic Mexican Red Rice (Arroz Rojo). It's REALLLLYYYYY simple. I use the 'chicken-added variation' so basically what I do is brown the chicken thighs (6 to 8, whatever fits) in a large pot. Remove the chicken, then add more oil if needed and saute 1 1/2 c medium-grain white rice. Then I add 1 c salsa, 1 c chicken broth, and salt, and add the chicken back in. Let it boil, cover the pot, stick in a 350 oven for 20 minutes... Remove, let stand 5 minutes, fluff with fork et voila... Mexican Red Rice.

This is a Rick Bayless recipe. I loves me some Rick Bayless food.

[Mikey]

Sounds really good and pretty easy.

Plus only one major dish to clean. Sounds like a perfect dish to use the extra large 5 qt Calphalon anodized saute I got about a year ago and have only used once or twice.

[Cicatrix]

extra large 5 qt Calphalon anodized saute

:swoon:

Tonight is fragrant orange 5 spice raost chicken, grilled asparagus and jalapeno cheddar cornbread.



Pp.....I didnt know you was a mommy. Congrats. I'm a daddy myself with another one due in Dec. Man up and post a pic of the little tyke! This is the clone formally known as Jokey btw.

[Mikey]

Jokey?

Aren't you the famous caster of nickels?


BTW...I'm a daddy too. Only one is 16 and the other is getting ready to leave (tomorrow) for Cambridge for a between freshman and sophomore year study abroad thingy.

No more due...hopefully.

[Cicatrix]

Yeah thats me. Havent chucked any nickels lately. Have to be a responsible non-swearing in the vehicle type guy now.

This kid will be the last. I like my sleep way to much to go through it a third time.

[Cicatrix]

Tonight was a big pile of mussels in white wine, butter and garlic sauce.

Tomorrow will be a good one. Father and his wife coming over:
Rack of lamb with roasted shallot vinaigrette
Crunchy beet and pear salad with feta
Creamy pea risotto

[Mikey]

Last night's winning combo:

Fresh KingChinook salmon fillets, seasoned with sea salt, ground pepper, fresh minced garlic and EVOO. Grilled over a mesquite wood fire. I grilled them just until the center was not quite cooked. They came out with a texture like buttah, and picked up just enough of the mesquite smoke to be awesome.

Shiitake mushrooms, sauteed in a reduction of garlic, EVOO, butter and a 2006 Santa Barbara chardonnay. The rest of the wine was consumed by drinking with the meal.

Salad made of baby greens with heirloom tomatoes (pineapple and green zebra), and slices of white peach. Balsamic and EVOO on the side.

Crusty french country style bread to sop it up.

Dessert was chocolate biscottis.

Post-dessert was a 102 degree spa and a plunge into the pool.

A good way to end the day spent painting the family room, breakfast nook and dining room.

[Dinsdale]

Fresh KingChinook salmon

Mods, he's trolling.

Fresh, eh?

The salmon fishing in SoCal must have improved quite a bit this year.


BTW- King and Chinook are interchangable. King is rarely used around here, it's mainly an Alaska thing. Sometimes referred to as "blackmouth," but most people use that to refer to a specific, unique strain of Chinook in Puget Sound that don't do the whole cross-ocean thing, and stay closer to home.


"Hogs" or "Hawgs" works, too.


All the same fish.

[Goober McTuber]

We do get fresh Chinook around these parts.

[Mikey]

What took you so long, Dins?

[Dinsdale]

We do get fresh Chinook around these parts.

Great Lakes Chinook are pretty funny.

They're primarily of Clackamas River Spring Chinook stock (since you knew they weren't native). Yeah, that Clackamas -- the one that runs through the Portland Area. Oregon Fish & Wildlife set up the Great Lakes Pacific Salmon programs, in case you didn't know-btw.


But those little midget things you call "chinook" are always good for a laugh.

[Goober McTuber]

The Lake Michigan Chinook record is around 45 lbs. I’m sure that qualifies as bait in the U&L. But your 83 lb state record is almost 100 years old. For what it’s worth (probably very little) the record Lake Michigan Coho is bigger than the Oregon record. BTW, I don’t eat Great Lakes salmon.

[Dinsdale]

But your 83 lb state record is almost 100 years old.

Funny thing about that...


When I was much younger, listening to the super-old-timers, there's a reason for that --

That the June Hogs on the Columbia were routinely that large, and no one gave a shit about official weigh-ins.


BTW-there was one caught in the last couple of years that was just shy of the record. On the Rogue, IIRC.

Very, very few of the June Hogs left. Those that remain don't seem to get caught. Every now and then if it's warm into fall, I'll see a carcass once every blue moon.


A few years back, I saw a guy bring one in to the shop, and he put it on the scale -- 65#...


Gutted.

That thing was a beast.


But also goes to show that the vast majority of the big ones don't get hauled to a certified scale.


The world record chinook-btw-was caught on the Kenai in Alaska...

By a U&Ler (Beaverton area guy). Using the legendary Clackamas River Backbounce Technique... which oddly enough, rumor has it has caught on in AK quite nicely.


Maybe we'll teach you people about maribou jigs someday. Hotshots, Wigglewarts, all of that stuff.

[Cicatrix]

Tied me up some lovely marabou jigs when I fished the left coast last fall. Pink and silver, blue and silver worked best for the late coho run. True they dont hit the jigs as hard as Hot Shots or spoons but your hook up percentage is far greater and makes it worth it.


Hmmmmm I should take a salmon out of cryo-stasis for the Q later this week.

[Dinsdale]

It's generally pink and white in roily water, blue and white in better visibility. Chinook seem to love great big blue and whites.


I'm not a flyfag, but I tie my own maribous.

But winter steelheading is where bobber & jig truly shine. Fishing For Dummies.


And since we're bestest messageboard buddies, I'll reveal one of my supersecrets -- Red/Orange or Red/Yellow in more clear water. I never see people using those colors, but I slay them in clear conditions. Sometimes I'll put a touch of "breast" on the jig, in white or black... or even green. I once used a bunch of leftover scraps of feathers to make a jig while drunk -- shaggy blobs of white, red, and green. My buddy couldn't stop laughing at the abomination when he saw it. He laughed even harder when I actually tied it up next time out. He quit laughing when I landed a nice native on the first cast with it (IIRC, sans bobber, just drifted it).


'Round these parts, we have another name for "late coho run" -- we call them "dark fish," aka "darkies," aka "inedible." But lots of you Nanooks seem to think "smoker quality" is an actual working phrase -- for which we will NEVER stop laughing at you.


No, you stupid fucks -- they aren't good smoked, either. Throw it back, you fucking barbarian, and catch its kids.


Just say no to cordwood.


With the whacky weather patterns, we've still got a few deece spring chinook kicking around. Was at Nehalem Bay last thursday (not fishing, unfortunately), and guys were already up at Nehalem (town) getting after the early fall boys. Nehalem Bay has a fairly new coho hatchery program that worked out beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Where the bay necks down at The Forks, they get silvers kegging up in numbers sometimes estimated well into the hundreds of thousands... of finmark, head-bonking candidates. Last time there, a couple of years back, we had two fish literally jump into the boat (although I generally loath fishing from a boat). Well, one got himself righted as he bounced off the gunwale, one hit the front bench seat and immediately jumped back out. I caught fish, though.


But now that I think about it... I've never bobber&jigged there. That would probably make the other anglers happy that I'm not taking up room tossing spinners. I might have to give that a try... since I NEED to get out there. That fishery will start kicking in over the next 2-3 weeks. Getting out on the upper bay, where it's flat and calm, on a warm late summer day and whacking insane numbers of coho is one hell of a way to spend a day. Most of the other runs are having decent numbers so far (despite news reports to the contrary), so it could be awesome. Thjey get some bigazz chinook up through Nehalem, too.


And there's a public dock with a staircase leading to the bar/excellent pizza joint, or the beer store. Nehalem (the towen is about the size of a postage stamp) is Heaven for anglers.


FRESH coho... yummy.

[Cicatrix]

When I say late coho run I am not talking about the last of the seasons coho. These are just the last species running in the Kitimat/Terrace area. I have seen pics of the "darkies" and they dont look anything like the chromers I've caught. Those fish generally are caught late sept/early oct while I have fished them in late july/early aug. They are damn fresh and damn tasty. I never smoke fish as I dont think smoked salmon belongs anywhere on my plate.

I know what ya mean about drunken fly tying. Made some pretty fucked up things in my days at the vise. Sometimes they work and sometimes not. Drink less and tie more.

So I take it you are bouncing that jig on the bottom and keeping it nice and in the zone with the bobber rather than dead sticking it?

[Dinsdale]

So I take it you are bouncing that jig on the bottom and keeping it nice and in the zone with the bobber rather than dead sticking it?

Nooooo.

I'm wired up different than most -- I want the lazy bastards to come up and get it.

Depends on water depth, of course, but when steelheading a small stream, I like to keep it at 4' or less.


If I want to keep it in the zone and snoutbonk, I'll often just drift it solo, and keep the jig weight and retrieval speed tuned for the occasional bottom-bump. But I'm hallergic to foul-hooking, so I try to stay cool with the bottom-dragging.


Need to use heavy-wire jig heads for chinook-btw. I've learned that one the hard way. Long line catch-and-release.

[Mikey]

Take it to the fishing forum, boys, or I may have to drop the hammer.

[Goober McTuber]

Take it to the fishing forum, boys, or I may have to drop the hammer.

Oh sure. But it’s fine when you want to talk about anchovies. Fucking Nazi mods.

[Mikey]

Sometimes I get a little drunk on all this power.

Sorry.