Dinner At Maxine's.

Mr. Hawthorne and I left Saturday morning for a brief road trip. He dropped me off in Danville for a visit with Mama Hawthorne and he continued to Bassett for his family's annual reunion.

As usual, I stayed at my dear friend Maxine's house. This is Maxine's lovely, relaxing, peaceful, serene backyard.

I'm cooking dinner Saturday night for Maxine, starting with stuffed peppers. It's always a challenge cooking in someone else's kitchen, whether it be finding the right utensils or ingredients. I have found that my idea of "staples" is not someone else's. Not to worry though. Rosie can do this.

Stuffing ingredients include: cooked black beans (drained halfway through cooking and fresh water added) chopped tomatoes

sliced green onions and minced jalapenoes

black olives

"Mexican" rice (I'd found the rice earlier at Yoder's Market in Yanceyville where we always stop.) lime zest

Pepper Jack cheese This dish would certainly be fine by itself, but I brought along some peppers from my garden and will be stuffing them.

Slice off the tops of the peppers, scrape out the seeds and ribs, and stuff to overflowing.

Top with "pre-shredded" cheese, a la Sandra Lee. I poured water halfway up the peppers and baked at 350 for about 30-40 minutes until the cheese was nicely browned. Next up, I'm making a Mexican-inspired soup to pair with the stuffed peppers.

I had brought along a quart of my chicken consomme. Yes. Rosie travels prepared. She used to be a girl scout, you know.

I sliced some pork chops into thin strips and salted, peppered, and cumined them.

Maxine had this rather odd squash which I'd never seen before. Sort of a cross between a zucchini and a yellow crookneck squash. If anyone knows the name of this squash, please let me know. I should've saved the seeds. I found this zucchini which looks similar.

I peeled and diced the squash.

While my block of consomme was melting, I sauteed the pork strips in olive oil.

I deglazed the pan and added the juices and the squash to my broth.

Pork strips draining on a paper towel.

Ingredients for my soup: chopped tomato sliced scallion sliced green pepper pork strips

I added the tomato and peppers to the soup.

Here I have half an avocado, the sliced scallion, chopped parsley from Maxine's garden (Dang it! I forgot to bring my cilantro.), and sliced lime.

Pork went into the broth.

Add the scallion, parsley, and avocado just to heat through.

Add the lime slices. Chopped red onion would be nice too, so just imagine there's some red onion in there.

Dinner is ready.

This was a very satisfying meal with happy, friendly flavors. I'll be making more of the same for Mama Hawthorne for Sunday lunch. I thought you'd like to see more pictures of Maxine's backyard.

It's so peaceful out here.

Birds and squirrels frequent the garden.

Babbling water fountain.

White coneflower. Oh, I went through the back garden gate and stole a bunch of columbine seed pods. Hope Maxine doesn't mind.

Here's Maxine's garden angel. And here's Maxine:

Dinner At Maxine's.

Mr. Hawthorne and I headed out Saturday morning to visit our respective Mommies for Mother's Day-

he to Bassett, Va., and I to Danville, Va.

First, a slight hold-up at Alligator River Bridge. Oh, and here's an interesting little snippet about one captain's experience at this drawbridge. The thing I like about the Lindsay Warren Bridge crossing the Alligator River is watching the compass on my truck. When I'm heading due west, the compass goes to E and SE. When I'm heading due east, the compass goes to W and NW. And to all points in-between.

It's weird. I like to believe the mother ship is at the bottom of the river, messing with everybody's compasses.

Anyways, back to the bridge. We were stopped at the red light

on the bridge for several minutes, even though the swingbridge was closed.

So I don't know what was going on with that.

Maybe they were changing shifts or something,

another job that would bore me to tears.

Thankfully there were no sailboats coming through

since it's been my experience that they usually

open the bridge while the boat is still about 1/2 - 1 mile away

and you're stuck on a bridge for 20-30 minutes.

I do NOT like bridges

and I especially don't like being stuck on one.

We were behind this truck of fish carcasses, so naturally, I had to document it.

Mr. Hawthorne dropped me off at Mama Hawthorne's.

I gave her some flowers from my garden,

and Evilshenanigans blogger, Kelly's wonderful brownies, and we had a nice visit. Then I went over to Maxine's where I stay when in town and prepared our dinner. It's always a challenge working in someone else's kitchen. Even though I know my way around Maxine's kitchen, there are still obstacles. And every occasion where I need to get a present for Maxine, I always buy her something I need in her kitchen. I'm crappy that way. But, Dammit, Maxine, I'm getting you a decent sharpener for the knife I bought you for me last Christmas. (Hell, I thought I bought you the sharpener, too.) Scraping a good knife across a cement curb or bricks

to sharpen it is NOT acceptable, Maxine. Another problem I have in other people's kitchens, besides their equipment or lack thereof, is the ingredients. What, apparently, I consider staples, others don't. So, Saturday night, I was feeling a bit of the Iron Chef angst, as I looked into Maxine's rather bare refrigerator/freezer (She cooks for only herself.) and tried to come up with side dishes to accompany the $8.50/pound ocean scallops I brought, which is a pretty good deal for scallops.

Uh oh.

Do I hear groans ?

Bitch is fixing scallops AGAIN?????

Yup, she is. Once more, I'll reiterate the difference

between wet and dry scallops. Never, ever, ever, ever buy "wet" scallops. If you live inland, always ask your fishmonger for "dry" scallops. If he doesn't know what you're talking about, turn around and walk away. Immediately. "Wet" scallops have been treated with a chemical to plump them up weight-wise, help them maintain their moisture, and keep a longer shelf life. You can spot them immediately by just looking. Wet scallops will be in a milky type liquid. And you'll be paying for extra water weight. The solution with which they have been treated is STPP, or sodium tripolyphosphate, a preservative. You will never be able to properly sear or brown these scallops, no matter how hot your pan is. Plus, they'll taste like crap. The STPP can also give the scallops a rubbery flavor and mask the delicate, sweet flavor of the mollusk. "Dry" scallops are natural scallops, harvested directly from the ocean. Dry scallops will caramelize naturally during cooking and present an attractive golden brown color. Enough about the scallop lesson. Let's see what's in Maxine's fridge.

Well, by golly, she had an avocado. And she had grape tomatoes (which I prefer to cherry tomatoes). She had parsley in her garden, which I chopped and added, along with some onion

and some lemon zest. I really wanted some fresh lime juice, but Maxine only had lime concentrate. I added about 2 teaspoons of the concentrate and ended up with a very nice, light, avocado salad.

. Next, I was looking for another side dish. I found corn in Maxine's freezer.

And some bacon in her fridge. That's a start. I scissored some bacon and browned that, then added in some chopped onions.

Then I poured in some of the frozen corn.

Normally, at home, I would add in some heavy cream. Maxine, ever watching her cholesterol count, had no cream. The closest thing she had was soy milk and I wasn't going there.

However, she did have sour cream,

so I added that to the corn/bacon mixture, and it was really good.

Now, on to the scallops.

I rinsed and dried my DRY scallops and seasoned them with freshly ground pepper, lemon zest, and hot Hungarian Paprika which a real Hungarian had personally prepared for Maxine.

The scallops went into a hot iron skillet to which I'd added butter and oil.

About three minutes on each side.

Fresh parsley on top.

In the meantime, Maxine had prepared a ginger/lemon grass rice. At the end of cooking time, she grated lemon zest over top.

Our dinner: seared scallops, ginger/lemon rice, bacon/corn/sour cream mixture, avocado/tomato salad.

I don't have to tell you how it tasted.

It was all good.

Maxine always sets a lovely table. The next morning:

Here's the sun filtering through the trees in Maxine's backyard garden.

Maxine's backyard is very inviting. "Come sit with me. Come sit IN me. Please. Please. Please?"

Overhead canopy of trees.

I'm taking my cup of coffee and sitting out here.

It's quite peaceful.

Rosie Cooks Dinner For Maxine & Co.

Last night, I cooked for Maxine and her Gentleman Friend,
Chronos Onassis, distant kin of Aristotle O., the hubby of Jackie K.


I must tell you, Rosie was beside herself.

I had a hard time in Danville trying to find suitable protein.
I wanted fish.
Specifically, Mahi-Mahi.
I went to Super WalMart.
No go.
Then I looked for the darn seafood store which I knew was somewhere real near, but the roads weren't cooperative.
I knew it was SOMEWHERE.
Just not exactly WHERE.

And after 25 plus years of not living in Danville, I must admit, Danville's made some changes.
The best, I think, being the Danville ByPass,
if you catch my drift.

At any rate, I'm looking for a seafood store I know used to be
somewhere around where I'm circling.
No can find.


So, I ended up going to Harris Teeter.
Asked the gentleman behind the counter for Mahi-Mahi.
He only had one Mahi package left.
He did have a Wahoo package.
I purchased both.
Now, I have a plan.

Since we're having fish for dinner, and fried at that,
I decided to make a Remoulade Sauce.

Here are my ingredients:

celery
onion
garlic
mayo
coarse ground mustard
capers
white vinegar
cumin
coriander
cayenne

I minced some celery with some garlic.

Chopped some red onion.

I Cuisinarted the celery, garlic, and onion,
then added in the capers.

Add in some coarse-grained, brown mustard.

Add in the mayo and the spices:
cumin, coriander, cayenne, and salt and pepper.
And there's my (NOT) Remoulade Sauce, courtesy of Mark, owner of Lucky 12 Tavern.



Next up, my Tartar Sauce.

Mayo, chopped red onion, minced dills and sweet relish.


Now, here's where I got pissed off.

After searching high and low for Mahi Mahi, I finally found a sad little package at Harris Teeter.

I get the fillet out of the package, and low and behold, when I turn it over, there's the easily concealed skin on the bottom.
Damn butchers.

So, I deftly skinned the fish.

Next up, Wahoo..

I unpackaged the fish, and, once again, turned it over to expose the left-on skin.

For crying out loud, Butcher/FishmongerNOT/HEWHOCANNOTBEBOTHERED!

THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!!!

The worst part is what the fishmongerNOT, left in the fish:
the BLOOD VEIN.

Look at this.
I've skinned it. And now, the dark, deeper colored Vee meat in the middle must be removed.
This is the Blood Vein.
It is usually unpalatable.
Depending on the type of fish, it can be - to different degrees and strengths - oily, fishy, or just plain nasty.
I always remove it.
Actually, I've never found it at seafood stores here.
They know better.

I'm making a batter for my Mahi Mahi and Wahoo.
Mr. H. and I like McCormick's Fish and Chips batter mix.
Instead of adding water (as per McCormick's) I add in beer.

After skinning, de-veining, de-tendoning (Yes, part of the wahoo looked like it had tendons on it.) and de-silverskinning (And, yes, part of the wahoo had what looked like a membrane on it.),
and overall, just getting the fish ready for presentation,
I finally rinsed off the fillets in cold water, then drained on paper towels, and salt and peppered.
Sliced into strips.
After the fish is dry, place in batter and coat thoroughly.

Very Important: Before battering anything, be sure it's dry.
That way, the batter sticks to the meat.

Heat up oil to 350-375 degrees.

Then, put in a few fish strips.

Allow to brown.

About 2-3 minutes.

Drain on paper towels.
I also fried up the left over batter for yummy chips.

Here's Maxine's table.
And the view from her side of the table.
Those two small, shallow bowls contain malt vinegar.
I dip my fried fish into that,
and it is delicious.

Here's the view from my seat.
I, of course, have the best fried pieces on the cutting board immediately to my left.
On the table, I have a broccoli salad casserole, Remoulade sauce, and Tartar sauce.
This was quite good, if I do say so myself.