Burgers on the Grill

This is the quintessential American meal - burgers and fries with accoutrements.

Grilled Lean Beef Burgers with Cheese
(Leon's Burger has Cheese Chunks)
The Third Smaller Burger is For Benni, of Course

Shallow Fried Potatoes

Lettuce, Tomato, Red Onion

Red Cabbage Slaw*

Cukes With a Pre-mix Salad Dressing

The Table is Set

And Plated Up

*Red cabbage slaw: 1/2 head of red cabbage shredded; soak in a bowl just big enough to contain the cabbage with 1/2 cup of vinegar and enough water to cover and a little salt and 2 teaspoons of sugar.  After 20 - 30 minutes, drain off the vinegar-water.  Add 1 cup chopped carrots, a half cup of raisins and/or dried cranberries, a half of chopped onion, 2 teaspoons of horseradish, 1/4 to 1/3 cup of mayonnaise and refrigerate overnight if you plan ahead.  Otherwise serve today.

Linguini con Gamberi e Pancetta in Bianco- End of the World Party

Had a couple of friends over for the end of the world.  Eddie likes my linguini with clam sauce and the local market was having a special on littlenecks.  Unfortunately they ran out early and wouldn't be getting any more in until tomorrow.  As there was to be no tomorrow, this would not do.

But I was not to be discouraged.  Went over to the frozen food isle and picked up a bag of raw EZ Peel shrimp.  It was a good thing too, because it turned out that Janice doesn't like clams and Leon is not too crazy about them either.  But all of us like shrimp.

This is easy and has garlic, so you know it will be delicious.  Linguini with shrimp and pancetta in white wine sauce.

Ingredients include: one pound of linguini, about one pound or more of shrimp, about six or so slices of pancetta (Italian, not-smoked, bacon) three or four cloves of garlic diced, extra virgin olive oil, about a cup of dry white wine, black pepper, lemon, chopped parsley, a small bunch of scallions and butter, the regular salted variety will do.

Get a pot of salted water boiling. 

Peel the shrimp.

Chop the pancetta and saute it with the garlic in a skillet with enough olive oil to cover the bottom of  the pan.  Add some black pepper.

Put the linguini in to boil and time it according to the "al dente" instructions on  the box, about 8-9 minutes. 

Add the shrimp to the skillet and saute for a few minutes until the color turns from translucent to opaque. Add the wine, the parsley, the juice of half a lemon and let simmer for a few minutes to blend the flavors.  Add some chopped scallions to finish.

Drain the pasta and transfer to a serving bowl.  Add about three tablespoons of butter and toss to coat the pasta.  Add the Shrimp, pancetta and garlic white sauce and toss again.  

Serve with steamed broccoli and grated parmigiano or romano.  Dinner's ready.

Linguini with shrimp and pancetta in white wine

This was so good it became the main course instead of a prima or side dish - the grilled chicken and grilled sausages were hardly touched.  We did save room for dessert and coffee, however.

And we are still here, on the earth, along with everyone else.  With more good food to look forward to.

Been Eating Re-runs

I haven't posted anything in a while because either I haven't made anything interesting/new or I just plain forgot to take photos and keep track of what I'm doing.  Have been eating chicken: roasted, stir-fried and pot-pied; roast pork, baked eggplant parmigiano, mac and cheese; (all of which I've done here before) and lots of left-overs.

Tonight I thought I was making "bubble and squeak" when I put the left-overs from the roast into the cast iron skillet, but I was apparently off by the absence of cabbage and the addition of some non-traditional veggies and there was too little potato, and it didn't brown.  So what we ended up with was left-over roast, potato and zucchini.  Oh, well, live and learn and eat.