TK dinner ~ June 2014

Another dinner done. Whew!
We recently took a little trip to the Oregon coast and camped for a few days so I thought it would be fun to serve a few standard "camping fare" items at the next TK. 
Silly? Probably. 
Fun! Yes.

There was an oyster farm about ten minutes from our campsite, so of course, we had oysters. Two nights actually.

(i have ugly toes)

Tk dinner started with fresh oysters from Sunh Fish Market.

We had some raw, and then some with a sweet and spicy sauce. 

Add lemon and fresh parsley. 

Delicious.

Next up were the arancini with an lemon, asiago and pepper dip.

I then let everyone rest for a minute and we served a grilled pluot salad. The pluots were all over the farmers market this past weekend so I figured I should take advantage of them while I could - they are usually gone pretty quickly.

Here are the grilled pluots.

Here is the salad.

Thank you to elizabeth d. photography for this fantastic shot!

Entree this evening were mussels done with white wine and garlic (the usual) and served with slices of a spiced walnut bread.

There was also this lemon cinnamon butter to go with the bread.

Finally it was time for dessert.

We had been camping so of course s'mores had to make an appearance!

The s'mores above are homemade marshmallows rolled in graham cracker dust then drizzled with an orange, chocolate ganache.

Holy Hell.

I also made jello.

Or, you could call it a fresh peach and raspberry gelee.

I called it jello.

And that was IT. Whew!

By the way, I did do TK dinners in April and May.

April was all Korean food. May was a spin on some classic Cuban dishes. As soon as I locate the photos I will share those dinners.

Until next month...see you all soon!

dinner @Tate's / august 2013

What do you mean school starts in exactly two weeks??? For some reason this realization just hit me and sent me into a slight panic. Needless to say, I am not ready. Not ready to no longer have my little sidekick with me most every minute of every day. Her and her little antics and constant dialogue and dancing and singing around the house are already missed. I'm a somewhat sad mom right now. Yes...I know...all of you are rolling your eyes at me...why am I here? the reason you're here? oh yes...my dinner post...(sniff...sniff...)

The Summer of Seafood has run it's course. For now anyway. Who knows what will show on the menu for September. In addition to testing recipes for all sorts of seafood I've also been dealing with all the produce that has been given to me. An unbelievably fantastic array of pears, peaches, apples, plums, grapefruit, onions, peppers, tomatoes, on and on this has gone. It has been AWESOME. I have canned and pickled. Made jams, jellies and chutneys. Cooked all of it every which way I think my family will eat it. And for this months dinner I wanted to try and incorporate some of the items that have been swallowing up my kitchen and my fridge. Therefore, we started Sunday dinner with a simple Caprese salad.

(I know - that whole list of produce I just mentioned and I threw some tomatoes and cheese on a plate???!!! What kind of kitchen is this? HA)

Next up was a Brie wheel baked in puff pastry with my homemade spiced peach jam - served with wheat crackers (I was trying to add some nutritional value to this appetizer...think it worked?)

This is one of the worst photos ever but you get the idea.

I let this settle with the guests for a bit and just kept the wine flowing (Best Hostess Ever!) Then served this salad of grapefruit, garlic and ginger marinated shrimp on a bed of arugula, radishes and more heirloom tomatoes with toasted panko crumbs. Additional marinade was quickly boiled and served as dressing - Delicious!

This was followed by an entree of mussels cooked with beer, bacon, tomatoes and thyme. Served with a little homemade wheat pasta and pretzel bread toasts.

I also had a bunch of corn and cherry tomatoes from my market visit so I did a quick succotash sort of dish with fresh basil.

Now I REALLY needed to let everyone sit and rest for a minute (and of course kept the wine flowing) I think everyone was pretty full at this point but I had already made dessert soooooo.....buck up little campers.....here's some homemade plum and brandy ice cream with a drizzle of hot fudge sauce and toasted almonds

Followed immediately by these apple handpies served with the same hot fudge sauce on the side - just in case anyone wanted to put themselves completely over the edge.

WHEW! So what should we have for September dinner@Tate's Kitchen? Thoughts? Suggestions? I promise to not let my tears from missing my daughter get into the food.

:-)