What are we cooking this weekend?

This is apparently a long weekend for most folks in the States, and the traditional "end of summer" festivities.

Got any food plans?

Me? I have to work on Monday. It's the day our new sabbatical begins and I will be hosting 35 people from 16 countries for dinner.

[Robin Garr]

This is apparently a long weekend for most folks in the States, and the traditional "end of summer" festivities.

Got any food plans?

Me? I have to work on Monday. It's the day our new sabbatical begins and I will be hosting 35 people from 16 countries for dinner.

It's not going to be much of a home-cooking weekend for me, I'm afraid. We (wearing our LouisvilleHotBytes.com hats) are corporate sponsors of <b>WorldFest</b> in downtown Louisville Friday and Saturday (you can see our logo on the right-hand column at the link ), and I'll be dining from ethnic-food vendors at the event, mostly. Then the Louisville Bats will be home to the hated Indianapolis Indians at Slugger Field in the season-ending games Sunday night and Monday afternoon, so it will be ballpark food and cheap beer for me. Plus I've got to hit a couple of lunches for restaurant reviews, so it doesn't look like I'll get back into my kitchen until next week.

Maybe it will have cooled down enough here to make cooking more enjoyable by then, although I'm not countin' on it ...

Hey--I was thinking of Slugger field...what foods were good there this year? Anything new and interesting?

b (I found myself watching field of dreams, and a food scene made me think of the forum, of course...well, it wasn't a food scene..Costner asks the James Earl JOnes character : What do you want? and Jones goes off on a rant about wanting to be left alone...And Costner says, "No, I meant what do you WANT? You know. To eat." ANd THEN I found myself wondering about your ballpark food...Train of thought over now...

Just so the weekend won't be a flankless task I shall be marinating some flank steak and standing around the BBQ making Tim Taylor grunting noises, followed by a carve-up and a couple of popping corks - from something red and rustic, I think.

And I have to say that I am most grateful that I will NOT be hosting 35 people!!!

Maybe the odd friend with a bottle (and some of them are decidedly odd....), but I'd have trouble with that many guests. Although I have long harboured a desire to dig a big hole and roast a large beast in the garden, and then I'd need something the size of your horde to eat it.

My ulterior motive is to enlist help at digging in the name of good eats and then to later turn the BBQ pit into a drainage sump for my fish pond, but don't tell my potential work crew that.....

[Robin Garr]

Hey--I was thinking of Slugger field...what foods were good there this year? Anything new and interesting?

b (I found myself watching field of dreams, and a food scene made me think of the forum, of course...well, it wasn't a food scene..Costner asks the James Earl JOnes character : What do you want? and Jones goes off on a rant about wanting to be left alone...And Costner says, "No, I meant what do you WANT? You know. To eat." ANd THEN I found myself wondering about your ballpark food...Train of thought over now...

Alas, Barb, it's cr@p, mostly. The vendor, Centerplate, is a least-common-denominator firm that's more about making a profit for club management than making the fans happy, and the fare is largely bland hot dogs, dried-out burgers, stale nachos and beer and soft drinks dispensed with minimal fizz from poorly maintained distribution systems.

There are a few bright spots. A vendor out on the left-field concourse smokes pork chops and turkey legs and roasts corn. A couple of the grill stations do decent Italian sausages and bratwursts and Nathan's hot dogs (as opposed to the no-namo brand sold elsewhere). One station makes fish sandwiches (from frozen block-o-fish, but at least fried and served hot to your order, not left steaming in foil in a heater box.) And one place offers chilled fruit, although who wants fruit at a ball game?

Basically, it's bleak, but if you pick and choose, you can survive, given that bad food and beer always taste better at the ball park.

I know it's a sappy movie, by the way, but I love <i>Field of Dreams</i> and have probably watched it 10 times.

Although I am working this weekend and Monday I have a skirt steak marinating for the grill, am on my way to the new market in town to pick up some Prince Edward Island mussels for steaming in a marinara, have some Italian sausage which will be cooked with the swiss chard that is overtaking my garden, will process some of the fresh tomatoes for gazpacho - thanks Robin for the idea. At least these are the things uppermost on my mind to eat in the next 4 days. When I'm on call I can't plan for any company so meals will be low key.
Enjoy the Labor Day !

I guess there are two questions in this thread -- cooking and ball park food.

No cooking this weekend -- we are off to see Willie Nelson in Atlantic City and trying two fine restaurants, then Babbo in NYC and a really interesting restaurant in Piermont New York.

Janet's birthday celebrations feature great dining -- and I may make something special for Tuesday night.

As to baseball food, we eat at the Club House in Yankee Stadium, and they have a really excellent buffet dinner at a reasonable price. Always fresh, and tastings in advance are strongly encouraged.

This is apparently a long weekend for most folks in the States

Last time I looked, our neighbor's to the North celebrated the same holiday.

Thanks for that, Carl. I know when Canada Day is and Thanksgiving up North, but since I always work on Labo(u)r Day, it tends to slip my radar.

My son is hosting a picnic (first chance to meet his girl friend's parents), so I'm bringing Chef Carey's BBQ Ribs and my Grandpa LeMay's Baked Beans, along with some home made wine, of course.

Hmmm, I'm going to have to ask Cynthia about that extra "u" thing that Liz does...

Anyway, for baseball, we'll probably go to Duff Field and see the 'Topes play Shelbyville. Then it's just going to be corn, chiles, and tomatoes all weekend.

I'll be celebrating at dinner at a local winery Friday, and on Saturday I will produce Stuarts' accidental pizza.

On Sunday, I rest...on Monday I refinish the deck, which means I'll smoke a turkey--no fuss.

Company's coming on Sunday in their RV, passing through town. I am making grilled salmon with New World Pesto (posted here a while back) roasted veggies which includes purple potatoes, onion, garlic, red bell, orange bell, red spuds and yellow spuds, finished off with balsamic. Marinated cold asparagus, and an arugula, baby romaine, yellow pear and red cherry toms with a hazelnut vinaigrette. Can you just see all these colors?
Serving on square black dinner and salad plates.
Anyone have a wine suggestion for me?

What with flooring and Saturday's college football, I doubt we will be cooking much of anything that can't be nuked or slapped on bread. We do have a watermelon to cut at some point.

whatever I cook will have tomatoes in it - I'm up to my eyeballs in 'em.

No cooking this weekend. Spending it in San Francisco. I think we will eat well.

Got any food plans?

Puuuuhhhh, my daughter is running off and doing young people stuff with my son. Zari is working on Saturday and then going with Zhila, Habib, Hamid, and Sima to Tahoe for Sunday and Saturday.

I will probably end up doing a goodly number of TJ's tamales and helping my friend Jeff fix his e-mail signature.

whatever I cook will have tomatoes in it - I'm up to my eyeballs in 'em.

John, just this morning my husband brought in a huge basket of tomatoes. I took one of my large sheet trays, covered it with foil and then filled it with fresh tomatoes cut into quarters (leave skin on), then throw on the cherry tomatoes, whole. Cut the top off of one whole garlic head, add to the sheet. Sprinkle with evoo, sea salt and freshly gr. pepper.

Roast in the oven at 375 ° until tomatoes are beginning to brown. Take the garlic out when cloves feel soft, and let cool. Turn off oven, let tomatoes stay in oven about 30 minutes to soak up the remaining juices. When the sheet has cooled a little, put into your food processor, squeeze out the garlic cloves and add to toms. Whiz away. Freeze in one cup containers. I like those Glad containers with the blue lids.
This is the best roasted tomato sauce ever. use all sorts of toms, red, yellow, pears, heirlooms.
We use it on our home made pizza, pastas, soups, stews, etc.