Tonight's Dinner: April 30, 2012

Our good friends Rob and Linda gave Nick a giant piece of prime rib from Kinders' butcher.  I, of course, got to share some of the goods and so did Emmy.  Nick gave me half and Emmy got the bone after he gnawed on it for a while to get all the salt and pepper off.  It is so peppery and delicious.  We took so many pictures that we qualified this as food porn.

This baby only need some salt and pepper.

This is a man's dinner... or an woman's if you have my appetite

So nice and rare

I sure hope that Emmy doesn't get sick from this, but she's sure enjoying it.
She's been playing frisbee like crazy so I think her weight is going down drastically.
Look at how sprawled her front paws are to get good leverage.  

Nick's Birthday BBQ

Like I said, we live up the whole birthday thing.  You only get so many in a lifetime!  After our guests arrived and we started having fun, there were minimal pictures take but this is what we served:

• Regular cheese platter
• Spinach and artichoke dip with chips
• Skewered grilled bacon
• Spicy grilled chicken
• Hotlinks
• Chicken Apple Sausage
• Grilled corn on the cop
• Caesar Salad with homemade dressing and croutons
• Beer, beer, and more beer

As a treat our friends Frank and Jenelle brought over home-cured bacon that Jenelle's chef brother had made.  It was so juicy and delicious.

The thick cut bacon is the homemade stuff

Grilled bacon is so completely awesome.  I don't like bacon that much, but
when it's grilled it is really good.

Jenelle eating a hotdog bun stuffed with
salad and a piece of bacon.

Rob made his own corn skewer.

Incanto

We love food.  And what do we do to celebrate, well, everything?  We eat.  We usually try to do a lot for our birthdays especially because it's something for us to look forward to in our hum drum lives.  This year we went to sushi with his parents and I took him to Chris Cosentino's restaurant, Incanto, in the city.  It was amazing.  We'll definitely be going back.  Definitely.  It was low key, rather casual, and so delicious.  Who knew offal was so good?  I went in feeling a little apprehensive, but let's face it.  I'm Chinese.  Guts don't really gross me out that much.

We actually only ordered starters that were the specials of the night and desserts with a couple of flights of wine.  We started with a calf-liver pate pie and crostinis, then had lamb tripe with porchini mushrooms, and finished with lamb livers over pureed peas.   It was even more awesome that Chris was in his restaurant plating food and walking around the bar.  I kept telling Nick to ask him to take a picture with him, but Nick refused.  We're now thinking about getting his cookbook and going back to have him sign it.  I will surely be doing this before we go see Alton Brown and Carla Hall in a couple weeks in Monterey.

We told a few of our friends about the restaurant and how they have "Leg of Beast" or "Whole Pig" on the menu if you pre-order.  We are soooo doing that.  Whole pig?  Yes, please.

On with the pictures!

Tour of Italy wine flight

Calf-liver pate pie

Pate!

Lamb tripe and porchini mushrooms

Lamb liver over pea puree and pickled carrot
shavings.

Nick's pine nut cake with lemon sorbet

My cheese dessert with olive oil soaked pears over a toasted slice of bread.

Tonight's Dinner: April 29 2012

It was a night of leftovers after an afternoon of sun bathing, reading and playing with Emmy.  We had a big bbq for Nick's birthday on Saturday, which I'll post about shortly.  I just wanted to post my leftover dinner that I had last night.

I added spinach and artichoke dip to my chicken apple sausage.  Not a bad
combination.  That is regular pasta and my Caesar Salad dressing.  

Tonight's Dinner: April 26, 2012

For Nick's 28th birthday we went to our favorite sushi place in Concord.  The owners told the Fongs that they will be shutting down due to the raise in rent and because the main sushi maker being 70-years-old and ready to retire.  We were bummed for them, but happy that they will still be around until June for us to inhale as much good, Japanese-made sushi. It was delicious as always and we had a ton of uni.  Nick's sister Melissa converted me to an uni lover.  They are slowly honing my expensive taste buds.  I can't eat as much as she can, but I thoroughly enjoy it.

Grilled Hamachi kama

A double order of California Rolls for me since I'm not very keen on raw fish.

Oysters!

Giant plate of sushi and uni rolls

Look at the lemon cups of uni!  (The yellow stuff)

I was still hungry so the Fongs were gracious enough to get me a Rainbow
Roll

Mrs. Suwa got Nick a cheesecake!

Nick and Mrs. Suwa

Tonight's Dinner: April 24, 2012

Tonight Christopher came over so that we could take our pictures to get our keycards for the pools and gym at our apartment complex.  Turns out that I needed to give the paperwork to the main office first before we could take our pictures.  So we went back and grilled up some chicken thighs that I deboned and also made Caesar Salad.  It was AWESOME.  Since we're a family of big eaters, I also made some pasta, but no one ate it.

Nick is becoming a grill master!

Tonight's Dinner: April 23, 2012

This weekend while planning my menu I had in mind all of my leftovers.  One of the many things left over from my dinner with friends (which I did forget to take pictures of because I was having so much fun) was a giant round of brie.  Bonnie was gracious enough to come over and finish off some wine, cheese and salami, I still found myself with a lot of brie.  Thankfully for Allrecipes.com they had an awesome Fettuccini with Basil and Brie dish.  The only thing I changed was to add 5 extra cloves of garlic and a tsp of red pepper flakes.  Oh, and I added some broccoli because Nick loves it.  Once the pasta was done cooking, we added the brie mixture and mixed it over the residual heat of the burner.  The reviews were right.  This recipe is awesome and I didn't waste any of my precious brie.  Another plus is that Nick loves fettuccini alfredo, but it upsets his stomach.  Brie does this less than a normal cream sauce so hopefully this will be our everyday fettuccini.

Brie Mix 

D.Z. Akins with Nick

For months Nick had been talking about D.Z. Akins by San Diego State where he went to school.  So on Sunday before went to the USS Midway we went to have a delicious breakfast at the Jewish Delicatessen.  The restaurant brought back good memories for him and lots of pickles for me.  That's right, they put a bucket of dill pickles on each table.  He's been talking about how his Dad loves the pickles there and knew that I would love them also.  They were so good, but the breakfasts were even better.  Next time we go to San Diego, we're definitely going back and I've already been telling everyone I know about this place.

I got a pickle, I got a pickle, I got a pickle hey hey hey hey!

Sausage-mushroom omelet and a bagel with cream cheese (mine)

Roast beef dip (Nick's)

Hash House A Go Go

On the second day of our vacation Nick and I went to Hash House A Go Go with a bunch of friends.  The wait was going to be an hour long and it was raining outside so to try to stay dry we went inside for drinks.  Talk about vacation.  We were tipsy by noon.  That was until our giant lunches the size of large pizza platters came.  The diameters of the plates were literally as long my fingertips to elbow.  The only downer was that we couldn't bring our left overs since our hotel rooms didn't have fridges.  Total bummer and so much wasted food.  The size of the portions was enough for two to three meals and we had to leave them!

Staying dry with morning cocktails with friends.

My Breakfast (Before)

I did the most damage to my plate (After)

Nick's Breakfast (before)

After

Tonight's Dinner: April 19, 2012

Tonight I was all about making burgers.  I'm having friends over right after work tomorrow so I wanted to prep the full meal plus do our dinner for tonight.  For tomorrow I'm making my turkey-zucchini burgers that I came up with for a friend who's son was at the age where he didn't want to anything green.  It turned out to be a success that time around.  This time, however, they came out a little loose, so I'm worried that they'll fall apart on the grill.  We'll see tomorrow!

Anyway, after I finished making dinner for tomorrow, I started on our dinner for tonight.  I made spicy pork burgers with sauteed bell peppers, shallots, and mushrooms.  I originally wanted to grill these, but since Nick was working late I didn't really want to mess with potentially burning burgers and veggies so I did it in a nice, safe pan.

The spicy pork patty is on the left and veggies on top of the garlic bread
on the right. 

This is what we had after I made Nick's plate.  You'd think I was cooking for
four people!

It's almost half the height of the remote!

Spicy Pork burgers

 

1 lb ground pork

1 jalapeno, finely minced with seeds

¼ cup habanero cheese, finely chopped

1 egg

2 tbsp ground black pepper

1 tsp kosher salt

 

Directions:

 

Mix all ingredients together.  Separate into four equal parts and make hamburger patties.  Grill or pan fry over medium heat for 10 minutes or until juices run clear. 

 

Serve with desired toppings.  I used sautéed mushrooms, shallots, and red bell pepper. 

Tonight's Dinner: April 18, 2012

To all my readers, you should be proud!  I've blogged our dinners for a little over a month.  Tonight Nick grilled up some boneless pork chops that I picked up from Costco. I also wanted to use up the rest of the butter lettuce so we made more wedge salads with hard boiled eggs, mushroom and tomatoes.   I also made a small portion of the bag of green beans I had gotten.  I plan to have my normal garlic green beans when I have some coworker-friends over for dinner/wine night on Friday.  I just couldn't help myself.  I love garlic green beans.  I have to say, this dinner was a success.

Too Spicy Herb Rub

Too Spicy Herb Rub 

2 tbsp ground cayenne pepper

1 tbsp ground Jamaican all spice

2 tbsp ground ginger

2 tbsp ground mustard

1 tbsp dried parsley

2 tbsp ground red pepper flakes

1 tbsp fresh ground pepper

2 tsp kosher salt

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 

Directions: 

Add all dry ingredients to a bowl.  Stir in worcestershire sauce until it is a thick, paste-like texture.  Spread over desired meat.