August 30 – September 12, 2021

Monday 8/30):            Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms and Shrimp

Friday 9/4:                   Grilled Whole Branzino with Salmoriglio Sauce, Roasted Potatoes, Salad

September 6 – September 12, 2021

Platycodon grandiflorus or balloon flower, courtesy of master gardener Diane. You’ve seen the ribs before.

Monday:                      BBQ Ribs with Beans and Cole Slaw – App of Guacamole

Alas, no picture of the whole burger – but here are the brioche buns with a crust of melted gruyere. You’ll want to this.

Thursday:                   Crispy Comté Cheeseburgers, Cole Slaw, Roasted Potatoes

Friday:                         Seared Scallops with Sweet Corn, Cream and Bacon

Sunday:                       Grilled Chicken Thighs with Blackberry Barbecue Sauce

I have put off publishing a post on the blog since September 1^st, not because we haven’t been cooking or eating, but precisely because we have been doing both in such high style that it’s difficult to narrow down all the good stuff that we want to share with you.

So, putting off that decision for what is now the third week, we’re going to share lots of great stuff and let you decide what grabs your fancy.*

*What that means folks, is that one or more of you will have to make a comment on the blog and tell us which meal you’d most like to hear about.  The basic idea of the blog always is to solicit comments and recipes (communication) from friends and family.  The alternative – no comments – is like playing bridge or chess with yourself, or speaking to a brick wall, or sharing a favorite book with your dog.  There are, no doubt, justifications for each of those activities, but none that are completely sane.  And, since we’re not wrapped all that tightly to begin with and don’t wish to risk further unraveling, please help us out by telling us which of the above (all of which are described below) you’d like to hear more about.

Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms and Shrimp:   Now I know that breakfast for dinner is usually a concession to either not having the energy to cook or not having the imagination to build a menu.  But these scrambled eggs with mushrooms and shrimp concede nothing to the other meals on the list. It does take some skill to get the eggs and shrimp cooked correctly, but there is a solid reason to do that – the combination of flavors here is spectacular.  If you cook the mushrooms until they get a bit of crust, you’ll have three different textures to enhance the flavor combination.

On the other hand, grilled branzino with salmoriglio sauce is not only tasty but dramatic.  I know (Rosie) that some people don’t like their fish to stare at them – but the eyes of a just-done branzino tell you when to take it off the grill (they go from staring to pure white) and the whole fish makes for an exciting presentation.  We are, being cradle Catholics, somewhat prejudiced since, given our background of fishsticks, macaroni and cheese and tuna-noodle casserole for Friday dinner, the branzino is like escaping from the mess hall in a county jail.

For the first time this summer we got back to bbq ribs, a meal good enough to go to jail to eat.  This is an oldie but, if you missed our last recipe for it, you might want this one.

For a savory take on a more elegant meal, you probably can’t do better than the scallops with sweet corn and bacon.  This would be impossible to stop eating, except that the proper-sized scallops now cost an arm and a leg, imposing a sort of fiscal limit to your diet.

And finally, Michael Symon’s chicken thighs with blackberry barbecue sauce is a unique, craveable and shirt-staining meal that everyone should have.  The Mediterranean watermelon salad that went with it helps to deal with the richness of the chicken and brings an extra citrus tang to the whole affair.

So there you have it – let us know what you’d like us to send you a recipe for, and we’ll include it in our next post.

Post-Script:   The week before any of the dinners above, Beez and I spent a few days at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, courtesy of a board retreat that required Beez’s attendance.  We had a fine round of golf and a wonderful dinner and a spectacular nightcap at the sweetest little bar in Western Pennsylvania – walk into the cigar shop, notice the narrow doorway at the back of the right-hand wall, behind the counter, go through there and have a cocktail.  If you have a chance to get to this wonderful resort or to play either of their two impeccable courses, don’t miss it.  [Note:  for non-golfers they offer hiking, biking, fishing, rifle sports, skiing in the winter and, for all I know, curling.]

The watermelon salad we served with the chicken thighs