Clam Chowder and Grouper

Had an excellent clam chowder the other night. First time making this, and glad I did because it was great and pretty easy. Used this recipe from Epicurious and added a can of corn and left out the Sherry. For the grouper, I cooked it after a dish I had at Il Migliore in Miami which I was fortunate enough to enjoy a few months back. I salted the grouper well, then pan fried it in some great olive oil. When it was about done, in another pan I sauteed some chopped garlic, grape tomatoes, and basil. That's all there is to it, and it only takes about 5 minutes for a simple but awesome grouper entree. Sometimes it's not about fancy sauces or marinating something in some overpowering marinade for 4 days, but just some great ingredients, proper seasoning and a good frying pan. And good wine of course.

Smoked salmon

Back from a recent trip to Colorado where I smoked some salmon, I still had a taste for it with more dill butter of course. This one was topped with dill, olive oil, and lemons before smoking. It smoked for about an hour and a half, which is the max. Next time I'd do a little less to make it more of a medium. The potatoes were cooked in the smoker for a while as well with olive oil and rosemary. My summer favorite is brochette which only works with great tomatoes and good olive oil. I had good olive oil so I made due with the crap tomatoes from the Harris Teeter.

Johnson's

Probably the beat cheeseburger in NC. Johnson's in Siler City does it right with the Velveta and greasy burgers.

Westmalle

The Dubbel has landed in Columbia SC.

Gervais and Vine

Had this salad for dinner at Gervais and Vine in Columbia, SC. It is mixed greens with balsamic strawberries, candied almonds and Gorgonzola. It was good, but not worth celebrating with a bunch of food adjectives. I would recommend using fresher strawberries that were only marinated in balsamic for a few hours, and probably need to add some arugula and some citrus, that's just my opinion though. It would be better though, just saying.

Mushroom Pizza

If you look around and do a little research, good food exists in airports too. I had this mushroom pizza in the Denver airport at Chef Jimmy's . The pizza was topped with basil and a sherry cream sauce. It was good enough to make eating at Sbarro a crime against humanity, and only cost $9.

Grand Finale

After a week of camping, fishing and tons of cooking there was time for one final fire cooked meal. For the last dinner, we had fried red potatoes over the fire with sauteed onion and plenty of garlic salt. The trout (rainbow, brook, and brown) were coated in cornmeal, and fried over the fire with extreme care by my Mean Aunt Kathy. The Kokanee salmon were smoked for about an hour, then topped with a homemade dill butter. It's hard to beat fish caught only hours before dinner, cooking on an open fire, smoking meat, and a great family dinner.

Kabob night

Build your own kabob night sponsored by my uncle Bill and aunt Kathleen. The beef was marinated in orange juice concentrate and teriyaki sauce. Veggies were done in Italian dressing, and everyone made their own kabob for grilling. I'll definitely be testing out the orange juice marinade on several other things soon.

Christmas dinner in July

Almost forgot I had Christmas dinner in July a few days back. It was roasted turkey breasts, squash casserole with corn, mashed potatoes and some stuffing. If you haven't had squash casserole with corn, definitely worth a try. I've commented previously on gravy, and there is no reason not to have it. If you can make it with the meat drippings you better, and if not, make it with something else it's essential.

Hideaway meat sandwich

I ate one of these, sorta checking to see if my eyes and intuition were still working. I don't really like mayonnaise and I really don't like Miracle Whip, and Spam's not really up there on my list. Nonetheless, I took one down after skipping breakfast, and working up an apatite dominating some fish earlier in the morning. I think the last time I had one of these was when I was in seventh grade, and I worked putting up hay on my grandparents ranch for the summer. My grandma would make these and serve them to all the workers putting up hay in the summer. So if you don't mind Miracle Whip or spam, which no one else in my family seemed to have a problem with judging by how few of these were left, here's a good hot sandwich.