Thursday, February 26, 2009

Togetherness

The Single nicest thing about dinner at our house is ..... WE DO IT TOGETHER.... I don't do the shopping , I don't do laundry, I don't mow the lawn(resort living) I don't do dishes (very often) but we do prepare dinner together almost every day. Some days its only chopping an onion, some days its preparing the entire dinner on the grill and some days its preparing a salad, but we almost always do it together. Susan is an excellent cook. We prepare the meal together because we love spending the time together, we love food, and it is a phenomenal bonding experience. This time provides opportunity to share and grow and provide pleasure to each other like almost no other activity. I highly recommend increasing your joint meal preparation time. You will not regret it. I certainly don't

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Wednesday


A not so short, 7 minute film on how to make White clam sauce. Sorry it is so long. Enjoy!
The film making will get better in the future.


I live to Serve you...

Good Morning Blogosphere,
I just wanted to take a moment to be sure "all" of you understand my underlying reason for this blog. I wish to be of assistance in any way I can, sooooo if you need an idea for a special dinner, a recipe for something you have seen here or help with or a "which product should I buy" question, please feel free to get in touch with me. Susan has a challenge for me - let me know what's in your fridge and I will help you plan the meal. This is kind of difficult without seeing your stuff (and by stuff, I mean in your fridge), but I would give it a try if you are game. I DO NOT have all the answers or maybe even the correct answer, but it would be fun to work through it with you.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Tuesday

Dinner was delish tonight - simple, local and reasonably slow. When we got home from Bluffton, I put the clams and oysters in the refrigerator and poured a generous amount of balsamic vinegar over the tuna steaks. Around 5;15 I went out and started the charcoal and then came in and shucked the oysters ( the job really shucks but someone has gotta do it). It takes me a couple of minutes per oyster as I don't do them every day, but it all worked out timing wise as the coals were perfect when I was done. I threw the tuna on the grill, directly over the hot spot to start (careful here, the balsamic vinegar will burn, due to the sugar) and then off to the side to finish them up. We eat our tuna about medium. The only way to ruin tuna is to over cook it, you might as well buy the can...yuck. Susie whipped up a quick salad and pan fried some left over pasta. It was dinner. Susan ate hers on a bun, she has been craving a tuna samich for some time so it hit the spot.

A good get

So we had to go to Bluffton (off island) to get our SC drivers license's. Since we were off island we decided to stop at the Bluffton Oyster Company and pick up some fresh local seafood. A dozen oysters, a dozen steam clams and a couple of pieces of fresh yellow fin tuna. So no chicken tonight. Remember fresh and local is always better than some silly list!

Monday

Last night being Monday we had soup, no we had chili. I told you its a guideline. And besides chili is kind of like soup only meatier. I am all about that. This is a Susan dish, all I did was chop the onion and enjoy the bounty. It was really good and quite comforting. In future posts we will talk about home made chili sauce, shredded cheese and some other stuff. For right now remember it does not have to be soup on Mondays.

Today is Tuesday, on Tuesdays we eat chicken. Here are some ideas off the top of my head.
  • Cutlet w/ lemon or Parmesan
  • Kiev or Cordon Blue (I would love a guest blog here on how to make kiev butter, Scott)
  • Roasted or Fried
  • B-B-Q or Grilled
  • Mexican ( tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas ect.)
  • Buffalo Strips, Piccata, Greek ( sauteed with garlic, oregano feta and lemon)
That is a few Ideas we will see what we come up with this afternoon.

Monday, February 23, 2009

The first step

The hardest part of planing the evening meal is "planning " the meal, what to cook is often harder than how to cook it. So here is our simple tool to help with the choices.
On,
Monday - we eat Soup or Salad
Tuesday - we eat Chicken
Wed- we eat Pasta
Thursday -we eat Seafood
Friday- we eat RED MEAT(my personal favorite)
Saturday - we eat Ground beef
Sunday - we eat Pork

Here is the key to this whole thing. These are guidelines, if ya feel like Mac and cheese on Thursday gopher it. We have found this little list makes the decision easier on those "what should I make for dinner days"

Why we are here

As you may or may not know, Susan and I both have extensive experience in the restaurant business. Two years ago with the kids all in college, we decided to leave our ancestral home in upstate New York and move to warmer pastures. Charlotte, North Carolina was the first stop. It was warm and a really nice place to live, but after about 18 months we decided to head to the beach and decided on Hilton Head Island, SC.
We both work in the Property Management business and are fortunate enough to work from home. We are loving this stage of our lives and are, for the first time, finding joy in the preparation, planning and consumption of our meals. Surprisingly, in just a few short weeks we have begun to find systems and meals that are simple, slow and scrumptious; thus the purpose for this blog (and the name).

We will use this forum to share our findings and simple systems with you, in hopes that you too find the joy and community that sharing a meal was meant to be.