I make Dinner at JC’s

The rain started just about midnight on Monday night;  A moderate rain on the trailer roof always sounds tranquil; Cool and rainy made for a nice night for sleeping and the dogs let us sleep in until 8am this morning even if the neighbours didn’t. They started packing out about 5am with the first big fifth wheel creaking and groaning past us in the dark. The dogs can hear the rain as well and they are smart enough to try and wait for the rain to stop before they ask for their morning walk! Even when I woke up they were a little dubious about going out but in the end nature prevails and we had a nice walk in the cool rain. ( And no I’m not anticipating much empathy from my Northern readers — I know it was -10C in Round Lake Centre this morning a full 22 degrees cooler than Naples. I enjoyed the cool walk in the rain.) By the time we were done breakfast at least half the park had emptied leaving behind large deep puddles where big rigs and been the night before.

Tuesday’s plan was to grocery shop and then for me to cook dinner at John and Nancy’s in the evening. They cooked dinner on Sunday night and now it was my turn. We might have had dinner in the trailer but with still no fridge and 3 dogs company for dinner was out of the question. All night I ran potential menu ideas through my head and then turned them over again. Creativity can drive you mad if you let it. I wanted something I could shop for easily, good fresh ingredients, probably incorporating seafood that would impress JC and Lorraine ( they can be a tough crowd); Nancy, is less fussy than the other two and eats anything but Scallops. I had done some research on potential butcher shops and produce markets. Oakes Seed to Table is in the downtown part of Naples and looked to have everything I’d need. We could kill some time at a couple of Thrift shops on the way there and make good use of a really rainy day.

The thrift shops here are legion; one in every second strip mall and a few dedicated large malls scattered around the town — more per capita in Florida I think than anywhere in the world. Lorraine found a nice “vintage” fossil purse for $17 and I found a couple of nice golf shirts and 3 books by authors I love — Doris Kearnes Goodwin, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and appropriately for the area Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and a lot of interesting stuff to rummage through. Lorraine and I love other people’s old odd junk

Breakfast of biscuits, jam and coffee and a tangerine wore off pretty quickly and I was shaking a little with hunger by 1pm so I picked the first random pub we came across to have lunch in — Dylan’s Brew Pub on Airport Road. From the outside it was clear it could be either a real dive or a diamond in the rough. Turned out to be both. The place was dark and dingy and full of an assortment of seedy looking characters from bikers to businessmen. I was about to have Cuban black beans and rice when I spotted the Italian Sausage Sub Special and Lorraine had the Chicken Caesar Wrap. The sub was piled high with peppers and onions and covered with melted mozzarella. The first bite was juicy bursting with fennel, pork, garlic and a hint of hot pepper but not greasy; truly delicious and just what I needed to restore me for the afternoons labours. Had I gone shopping without lunch I would have bought the entire grocery store.

Oakes, on Davis street, near downtown, is a lot like Pusateri’s in Toronto but with a much better seafood section. Good produce, amazing Seafood, a great bakery and deli section and I was a little overwhelmed. Getting my brain to settle was tough. I’d dropped Lorraine and the truck in the parking lot next door so she could shop at another thrift shop while I did the groceries. I was stuck — chef’s block like writer’s block usually involves getting to selecting the path through a mental swamp and excluding all the other good ideas you’ve got.  I picked out a few things in hopes of deeper inspiration and circled past the meat and the fish and the produce about 10 times. It needed to be easy to cook, not too much mess, self-contained and something I wanted to eat. The rain meant that BBQ was out and JC has an electric stove — I hate electric stoves and I’m not used to them anymore so I had to factor that in. I bought a coffee and circled again; the fish looked amazing and they had lots of fish that I can’t get in Ottawa or Toronto. It had to be fish. Unless it was meat, they had great looking steaks. I was lost when Lorraine showed up.
“Just pick something”, she blurted out with some anxiety, “ I want to go”. The crowded store was causing her to panic.
Now I was panicking. “The fish looks good I said but they’ve got so much good stuff, I can’t decide” Lorraine saw the Tuna — sushi grade.
“Look at the Tuna. We must eat that. Buy that and let’s go.”
And with that the menu fell into place in my mind — more or less. Tuna Poke would be a given — we’d have that with Oakes own Florida Heritage Tortilla Chips and I’d use their house made Pico de Gallo and Guacamole to season it. I tasked Lorraine with finding a few specific items while the rest fell into place in my mind.
A quick detour away from my initial plan was needed when I mentioned it to Lorraine. “What about Baked Grouper with Spiced Peaches?” I asked. She looked disgusted so I had to re-think and quickly. Grouper and Shrimp Provençal met a much better response and I was locked.
Tuna Poke with Guacamole and Salsa with a nice bottle of Prosecco
Baked Red Grouper Provençal ( Sauced with Tomatoes, Fresh Basil, Onion, Garlic, Capers, Olive Oil, White Wine and Butter)
Texmati Rice Pilaf ( one of the great rice variety’s — worth the premium price) Toasted in Olive Oil and then mixed with Onion and Garlic, herbs and good chicken stock.
Spring Greens, Strawberry, Pecan and Vidalia Onion Salad ( One of my “signature dishes”)
Green Beans steamed and sautéed in butter
Dessert would be Oake’s in-house Pineapple Upside Down Cake — a childhood favourite comfort food for me.
Two bottles of good Sauvignon Blanc filled out the cart and it was time to rush home, walk the dogs and turn around and head north to John and Nancy’s.

The Tuna Poke was a big hit. Lorraine had said “That’s too much, no way we will eat all of that and still have room for dinner!”* She was very wrong. Oake’s guacamole is classic and well seasoned with just enough chunks of perfectly ripe avocado, I mixed that with some of their salsa, and Texas Pete hot sauce, and just over a pound of the finest bright red fresh Tuna diced fine. A few quick nudges to the seasoning and plated on a platter with salad greens and a ring of chips and a dollop of Guacamole as a garnish.  The nice thin crisp home made tortilla chips with just a slight hint of chilli peppers provided the perfect spoon. One of the best dishes I’ve ever made.

The Poke went down while I cooked the rest of the supper. It’s an open galley kitchen so I could participate in the chit-chat in the living room from there. My reference to Nancy in the Blog earlier this week as “John’s Friend” caught me some good natured grief as I expected it might... They gently let me know that I could call Nancy his “partner”. Shit, relationships especially among my parents generation has become so complicated... I previously had called Nancy John’s “significant other” at a dinner a couple of years ago and in the ensuing discussion of what to call her ( She lives with John 4 months of the year in Naples and then is his neighbour when they live in Georgetown but are largely inseparable in either place). At the time “friend” was the contextual appropriate response —  Nancy suggested that must have been just after spending 4 months with him in Naples... So we’ll go with Partner now, although by the end of the evening, John being John, was back to friend only status... By any name we’ll just say she’s a sweet person and we’re all terribly glad she and John found each other and not worry too much about it.

The grouper was fresh. The jumbo shrimp sweet from the gulf. The sauce was balanced nicely with lots of fresh Basil. I would have preferred to cook it just a few seconds less — I was in the minority however. The pilaf and beans provided a great base and the Salad provided the nice acidity and sweetness to balance the richness of the fish. A good Sauvignon Blanc ( Oyster Bay — NZ because, well NZ deserves the business this week). We’ll never know if the Grouper Baked with Peaches would be a better dish... ( at least until Lorraine develops a taste for sweet and savoury again).

And that was dinner. There was not a lot left over and everyone seemed to have a good time. And the kitchen wasn’t even too terribly hard for John and Nancy to clean up. By the standards of my cooking in fact it was immaculate — usually when I blow through a whirlwind multi course dinner the ceiling needs mopping.

The Pineapple Upside down cake — delicious too although I can’t take any credit for that one — was light and fluffy in the crumb but very buttery with sweet pineapple and caramel on top. I wanted a coffee and a second piece but demurred — I’d had enough and coffee would keep me from sleeping.

*Postscript from Lorraine — I HOPED there would be too much poke so we could eat leftovers on our way home!!  Ken will be making this again for me and I will not be sharing.