Hi! Back in the saddle again. Suppers last week were haphazard while I was working on the kitchen renovation, and this week because . . . I don’t know, it was hot. The best recipes in today’s post are a little vague. Sorry!
Oh, I do have one neat dish to tell you about from last week, from our July 4th party: Shrimp skewers.
I defrosted a bunch of raw shrimp and pulled the shells off, then skewered them with cherry tomatoes, and set the skewers to marinate in a ton of lime juice, some olive oil, lots of red pepper flakes and coarsely-chopped cilantro, and salt. Then Damien grilled them over the coals. So good. Exactly what I was hoping for.
I wanted some nice charred corn on the cob to go with it, but the corn has been terrible this year. Just puny and terrible. Is this true all over the country?
SATURDAY
Steak! Mussels!
Steak and mussels were both super cheap, so I bought them both, planning a special Sunday meal. I did the grocery shopping on Saturday, just to test the waters and see if everyone was still being maskless idiots in the stores on Saturdays. O MY BRETHREN, THEY WERE. Then I got the bonus of discovering that, if you want to go to confession that’s not in a small, sealed-up confessional box where six people have just been in before you without masks, you have to make a special appointment to accommodate your very special request. Bah.
I got home pretty hot and upset. I was planning hot dogs for supper, but Damien reminded me that mussels really need to be cooked asap, so that is what the man did, but not before he insisted I climb into the pool with a can of beer.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Superman_presentation.jpg
For the steaks, he liberally seasoned them with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder, and cooked them rare over the coals. Magnifico. I wish I had bought some crusty bread to sop up all the wonderful juices, but it was such a good meal. This pic does not do it justice, either in quality or quantity. I ate so much.
He made the mussels in a pot on the stove. His recipe: “Heat up a little red pepper flakes and olive oil, then cook up a diced onion in it, throw in some salt, and when the onion is soft, add white wine (actually we had vermouth) and a stick of butter and lemon juice, then throw in the mussels and another stick of butter and a little more wine and lemon juice, and simmer until the mussels open up.”
I seriously ate like a pound of steak and four hundred mussels, and then I drank the juice right out of the bowl.
SUNDAY
Hot dogs, chips
Sunday was . . . what. It was so hot and I found humanity so disappointing. I decided a lemon blueberry tart would make things better. But it was so hot! So I tried to put together a no-oven tart. It, too, was a little disappointing, in part because I used an unbaked graham cracker shell, which is just not very delicious. But the lemon part was good, and working in my nice new lemon-colored kitchen was very good indeed.
I used this recipe for microwaved lemon curd. It was time consuming because I was making so much of it, but a normal amount would be a quick and easy project. Will definitely make again. It is very creamy and tart. It firmed up nicely after a few hours in the fridge, and turned out just as well as a curd that you stirred for eleven hours over a hot stove. I love lemon curd so much.
As I took this picture, I remember thinking, “We’re so fancy now! I don’t even have to carefully crop out the horrific parts of my kitchen, because all of it is nice!” Then as I uploaded it today, I noticed there is a flosser on the floor. OH WELL. Nice curd, though, eh?
I used this recipe for the blueberry topping, also microwaved, but I didn’t have quite enough corn starch, so it was quite soupy, and I ended up ladling it over the tart, rather than dishing up wedges of a two-layered beauty, as I envisioned.
Someday, SOMEDAY, I will make this lovely Rothoko-esque blueberry lemon curd tart. But not when it’s hot!
MONDAY
Pulled pork, cole slaw, biscuits
The pulled pork, in keeping with life in general, was lackluster. I threw a hunk of pork in the slow cooker with some Coke, salt, garlic cloves, and some random dried peppers I found in my spice rack. I ended up adding bottled sauce after shredding it.
My idea was to make giant biscuits that could be used to make little pork sandwiches, but I think this recipe I’ve been using does better with smaller biscuits. It’s still a good recipe, very fluffy inside with a very thin, buttery shell. But the big biscuits didn’t get very lofty.
Still a tasty summer meal.
I was able to make most of it in the morning before things got too busy and hot. I put the dry ingredients for the biscuits together early on, then right before supper I added the wet and baked them.
TUESDAY
Taco Tuesday. More importantly, puppy Tuesday!
Presenting Santino, called Sonny.
He is an eight-week-old boxer and he’s pretty great. Settling right in.
There will be more pictures. BELIEVE IT.
WEDNESDAY
Grilled ham and cheese on sourdough, carrots and dip
Actually Dora made supper while I brought someone to the walk-in (well, hobble-in) clinic with a puppy-related sprained ankle. Not broken, whew! I made my own sandwich when we got home and I put pickles right in with it, because no one can stop me.
THURSDAY
Borthday! The borthday child requested calzoni, and brownie sundaes with bananas.
I forgot to take calzone pictures. Here is my basic filling recipe.
Jump to RecipeYou can definitely fiddle with the proportions. This time I had barely any parmesan, but tons of mozzarella. I had four balls of pizza dough, enough to make sixteen calzoni, assuming no one absconds with one of the lumps of dough, which someone did. Or perhaps I sat in it and it’s still stuck to my ass and I haven’t noticed yet. Here is a calzonus of ages past:
We’re gonna work up some kind of safely distanced party soon, but we did get to the town pond after dinner, and no one was there but us chickens.
And now we have five teenagers in the house again. Good thing we like teenagers!
She asked for pirate boots for her big present, which made me feel like we are doing something right.
FRIDAY
Giant pancake with blueberries; scrambled eggs
Plenty of leftover blueberries!
And now I need to get hopping on the kitchen sink backsplash and a little extra shelving, and, dun dun dunnnn, the ceiling. Well, I will not be hopping on the ceiling, but you know what I mean. I ordered a bunch of polystyrene panels and I am just going to slap them up there in the most amateurish way I can get away with. Maybe I will use a staple gun. Maybe I will use bubble gum. My main goal is to make only one trip to Home Depot, and that’s it. I know in my heart that there’s no such thing as only one trip to Home Depot, but I’m gonna try.
Calzones
This is the basic recipe for cheese calzones. You can add whatever you'd like, just like with pizza. Warm up some marinara sauce and serve it on the side for dipping.
Ingredients
- 3 balls pizza dough
- 32 oz ricotta
- 3-4 cups shredded mozzarella
- 1 cup parmesan
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp salt
- 1-2 egg yolks for brushing on top
- any extra fillings you like: pepperoni, olives, sausage, basil, etc.
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400.
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Mix together filling ingredients.
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Cut each ball of dough into fourths. Roll each piece into a circle about the size of a dinner plate.
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Put a 1/2 cup or so of filling into the middle of each circle of dough circle. (You can add other things in at this point - pepperoni, olives, etc. - if you haven't already added them to the filling) Fold the dough circle in half and pinch the edges together tightly to make a wedge-shaped calzone.
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Press lightly on the calzone to squeeze the cheese down to the ends.
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Mix the egg yolks up with a little water and brush the egg wash over the top of the calzones.
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Grease and flour a large pan (or use corn meal or bread crumbs instead of flour). Lay the calzones on the pan, leaving some room for them to expand a bit.
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Bake about 18 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. Serve with hot marinara sauce for dipping.
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Beautiful pictures. I wish you posted one of the beer drinking in the pool. Your pond looks lovely. Steak and mussels look divine. My 16 y.o. says I say “divine” too much. Our beach is also lovely but the weather has become a bit chilly.
We too are in puppy bliss. My standard poodle gave birth to nine f1b goldendoodles three weeks ago. They were preemies, five days early. I almost lost it. My husband built a birthing box with fancy bumpers and a hinged door, but she decided to give birth in our bathroom on my husband’s favorite white linen shirt while I was at World Market. I only had sweet, childish memories of my Poodle giving birth when I was a kid, and not ready for the 12 hours of labor, upset dog dragging a mewing puppy by the umbilical cord, the stillbirth or the the electric green and black amniotic fluid. So gnarly. At least humans don’t have to eat the afterbirth. So gross. She vomited three of those placentas up. I wrapped it in a bath towel, and my husband accidentally threw it in to my Mom’s washer, because my washer was broken at the time. Oops. I haven’t come clean about that with my Mom.
Our new fluff babies are *divine*. Adorable. They are starting to play and bark. I can’t believe the diversity of their coats. White, black, brown, spotted, phantom (masked). I am already mourning having to part with them in five weeks, but they will make such good companions. Every one of them has been held and loved constantly. Even my most hard hearted 20-somethings (I’ve had SEVEN kids with me for the last two weeks) turned to mush, and played with them for hours. I would walk out to the outside couches and every kid had a “baby” in their lap. We will begin solid food this week, and are girding our loins for the onslaught of poop. Husband made them an admirable bathroom with a ramp and pine pellets. We are crossing our fingers that they will use it. Mother dogs EAT it until you introduce solids.
Anyway, things are still really weird here. (Thank God for puppies!) We went to mass today on the soccer field of our old school and parish. Nobody sings but the cantor. No audible responses. This time we sat in our beach chairs. There is sadness in the air. There is also sadness on the beaches, and in the outdoor cafes in the midst of enjoyment. The summer crowds never arrived. I’m kind of okay with being on this time out, I think we sort of need it, but wonder when it will end. We just received word that schools won’t reopen until the rate of infection goes down. It’s very sobering. I’m looking forward to the distraction of the weather getting warm again. The ocean is clear again this year, which is always exciting.
Anyway, cheers! Congrats on the kitchen upgrade. You are a bad ass for powering through with such a project. My kitchen here is still unfinished, but looking pretty and Spanish-rustic (emphasis on the rustic). Last year my husband installed Mexican star lights. We found a big old white-washed carved mirror to reflect the yard from failing Pier One, and it really opened up the space. Now we are gearing up to install the hood and the six burner stove I bought FOUR years ago. It’s like two steps forward and one step back. Last year the fridge, the furnace, and the washer all died simultaneously. I’m also trying to convince my husband to build a big, long-house palapa on the roof with a spiral staircase, at the end of the kitchen to get up there. He thinks it’s the stupidest thing he has ever heard, but knows how much I love it up there. I almost have him convinced –to tackle next year, or the year after that or the one after that.
I saw the flosser immediately. It made me smile!
Yellow kitchen, recipes and puppy pictures? Best blog ever!
We got a quarantine kitten to help while away the time. (I like dogs but not to own.) Older cat is displeased but resigned to the kitten incursion. Kitten is trying to persuade big cat to play by jumping on her back – not a winning strategy.
Have fun with your new puppy!
I have been reading your menus to my husband because they look delicious but I don’t want to cook ever again.
Also, ain’t nobody here but us chickens 😂. Good song
That microwaved lemon curd looks like the greatest thing since sliced bread. Will try.
Congratulations on the new puppy. May I ask, what happened to your previous dog you used to write about? Is he OK, or has he passed on to the Great Dog Park in the Sky?
He bit someone, so we got rid of him. I didn’t talk about it because it was so sad, and also I didn’t want to be second guessed by a bunch of people for our decision.
Oh dear. Thanks for letting me know.
Great looking puppy and lemon curd. I think the blueberries were even more beautiful oozing all over the curd.
I love a sharp lemon curd. I also like a glaze for cake that is fresh lemon juice and Confectioners sugar.
I have not eaten shrimp or steak in a long time.
I’ve been keeping some chicken kabobs marinated in the fridge and the kids will cook them over the fire pit on cooler evenings, of which there’ve been a surprising number this summer.
Love the pretty yellow in your kitchen! So happy. I remember when we first finished our kitchen (years ago). I would sit at my brand new counter and talk on the phone, and I felt like Carol Brady. So together. So successful. What problems could I possibly have? It was a wonderful feeling. Enjoy it!
Over the years, we’ve had really good luck with spraying all the surfaces a puppy would chew with a product called bitter apple. Important to get the vacuum cleaner cord. Good luck.
thanks, that’s a good tip!