Dinner on the patio

This summer my goal was to try making something new for dinner once a week. I took a chapter from the Dreadful Chef's cookbook (Thank you Miss Brenda).

I failed at the once a week part, but we have tried many new dinner recipes this summer.

The pineapple jalapeño salsa was a HUGE hit.

The salmon cream cheese dip was only ok.  (Too salmony. Not dippy enough. The ratio of salmon to cheese was off. I'll try it again though.)

The frozen hot chocolate was delicious. (The first try, not frozen enough.  Second try, we licked the glasses clean and were sad there wasn't more.)

The hushpuppies didn't happen.  (I forgot about the batter in the fridge. I ended up making them into very dry muffins to use with chili in the fall.)

The sweet spicy meatballs were delicious.  (I sweetened the Sriracha.)

The creamy buffalo chicken pasta was good.  (We had to warm out of the pot, but cold would have been good, too. cold requires even more advanced planning. )

There was something else I tried that Walt Kowalski and I ate but weren't thrilled with it.

Then there was the *almost* cooking disaster last week. It was HOT outside (and inside), so I didn't want to turn on the oven, but I wanted a nice dinner for later in the week. I put a beautiful roast in a heavy pot, covered it with red sauce and put it on the grill to cook. Then we turned on the air conditioning, watched the rainstorm move in, and sat inside in the cool.  Ahhhhhhh

And I forgot about the roast on the grill.

4 hours later, I went to the laundry room/garage and could smell something wonderful cooking.  "Mmmmmm, smells like someone in the neighborhood is cooking sauce. OH MY GOODNESS IT'S ME!"

Crap crap crap crap crap.

I opened the lid of the pot to find a 1/2 inch of charcoaled red sauce on the bottom of the pot and the roast "stuck" to the sauce. 

I peeled the roast out of the burned pot, trimmed off a few really burned pieces and, surprisingly, it had a wonderful smoky flavor.  I added another jar of sauce and let it "soak" in the sauce for a day and it was delicious as pulled beef on sandwiches.

It took me two days to scrub the pot clean.  Walt Kowalski said "Are you still scrubbing that pot?"  (Baking soda and boiling water)

Last night's dinner experiment was Salmon Burgers.  To quote Walt Kowalski 'What's so bad about regular burgers?" Nothing, but we need to broaden our dinner horizons. And a few Omegas are good for you.

1 can of salmon, 1 egg, parsley, pepper, lime juice, and bread crumbs.  Stir stir stir. 

There was probably enough for 3 burgers.  I made 2 HUGE burgers cause I didn't want any leftovers.  (working on no leftovers is another goal.)

After they grilled, the kicker was a spicy mango salsa to go on top of the burgers. Add a side of grilled potatoes. Yummy

This is not my photo, but is a good depiction of our burgers.

The other thing I've learned is to try new foods when I know Walt Kowalski is especially hungry.  After patching the driveway, working on the front hill, and mowing the grass he was starving and ate everything.

He said it was very good and he wouldn't mind having them again.  Just a little smaller in size.