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@Anchobrie The choices here are Alaskan Salmon or this Steelhead Trout from Baja. This was 1st time we saw/bought the Steelhead; look forward to buying it again!

I love steelhead trout. In fact I favour it vs atlantic salmon for using in raw preparations

More Steelhead Trout, more white bean salad. I went a tad heavier on the spice rub; I was worried it was too mild for my usual rub when I grilled it a few nights ago, but decided it could handle it.

@Shelby Is that a tobacco barn in the background?

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So I was thinking the other day that eGullet is really the friendliest place in the internet. I’ve rarely seen a cross word exchanged here. Glad you decided to see what it would take to get folks fired up. So, I choose not to put my knives in the dishwasher. My in-laws, who really can’t cook, have knives that have been run through for years. I think the heat drying is highly destructive to most knife handles - they’re shave mostly split apart and are of the layered, bolstered type common to mid quality knives favored in the 90’s (henkles wustof) But, as you state in your opening they are your knives, I hope they serve you well and that you continue to do as you choose with them. I will say this though: Good Lord, Man. Your test knife is the one your Sweetie gave you?!

Thank you Smithy! It'll be reallllly nice to have this all behind us. I'm going to be taking it really easy over the next few days. Because I can lol. Here's a link to Dale's --it's soy sauce based. A customer....or maybe a mill guy...turned us onto it a million years ago. Good stuff. Yeah...deviled eggs are a pain especially if you have to make a lot of them! Filling this time was Hellman's mayo, mustard and a good healthy dose of dry Ranch dressing mix.

Grrr, my reply disappeared.

BLT

@Shelby, I'm so pleased to see any sort of an update here, and I'm amazed at your energy in decorating the house! It's good to see you recovering, at least somewhat. Thanks for the update. Would you please explain (no doubt again) what "Dale's" is that you used to marinate the doves? Also, I love devilled eggs too but am generally too lazy to make them. What do you use for the filling?

I second what @FrogPrincesse says! (Except maybe about the serving size; see the final paragraph.) I cooked the beef birria last night and shared it with a friend. This one's a keeper, something I'll buy whenever I get the chance. It had a bit of spice but wasn't too hot; the tomato and beef played well together. As a reminder, here's the package: Here it is, heating in the pot and showing those generous chunks of beef: I tried to heat both corn and flour tortillas, with severaly limited success. (Really, I should have used the microwave. i tried to do it on the stovetop, and burned at least half of the flour tortillas.) My friend used a tortilla as a food pusher, but tacos were right out of the question. That's all right. I'd also cooked rice and we both enjoyed the birria poured over that. Photo taken before garnishing with sour cream and chopped green onions. We also had the last of my pork and red sauce tamales, and the first of the chicken and green chile tamales. (Those packages can be seen here.) We both thought that the chicken and green chile tamales were good but didn't measure up to the other two dishes. Between the pork tamale and beef birria it was a toss-up: each of us preferred one over the other, but we liked them both. I still have more birria and rice, even after feeding two people, so I'm inclined to think that it's a valid 2-serving package. On the other hand, it was served over rice, with those tamales, and a salad that doesn't appear in these photos! So I'm not in a good position to gauge serving size. I do know that of my original TJ's haul from August I have 3 winners so far, for me to stock up when the chance arises: this beef birria, the pork and red sauce tamales, and the chiles rellenos that lured me in at the outset.

Yes, it's part of a recall. The issue is the pasta that's used here, and other manufacturers' products with the same pasta are also affected.

We worked on cutting up a ton of firewood both Friday and Saturday. I'm STILL sore from lifting and stacking. Anyway, Saturday I started early in the day and got a chipped beef cheese ball made for snacks. Then I stuffed the doves with jalapeños and onions, bacon wrapped them and marinated them in Dale's. Our guest is a deviled egg fanatic Creamed brussels sprouts And grilled doves So, that's a little tidbit from last week. Again, I hope to be much more on top of my game for next time

Ooooof. Where to begin? As some of you know we had a major hail storm the beginning of September. Time has flown so fast it still feels like it just happened last week. We're slowly getting things fixed up and back to normal. Roof people can't even start until possibly next spring they are so backed up. Luckily I haven't found any leaks. Anyway, all of the sudden it was time for our hunter friend to be here 😮 **panic** lol. He arrived last Wednesday and left on Sunday--it was so hectic that I couldn't post anything in real time. Hoping that the December visit is muuuuuch calmer. So. Here's a bit of what we got up to: I managed to throw a quick chalkboard drawing together (thank you internet for the inspiration) and got some fall/Halloween decorations put up. Ronnie's granddaughter was selling mums for a school fundraiser so I bought some for the porch--our pumpkin patch got demolished so I didn't have any pumpkins (insert major crying face). I was shocked when Ronnie and our friend arrived from the airport and unloaded a ton of pumpkins that they bought for me! Now, if the cattle come to visit me this winter I'll have at least a little snack for them to enjoy. I really dropped the ball taking pictures a times- so I'll have to piece in here and there. The first night, since they had grabbed lunch not too long before, I put out just a few snacks. @HungryChris's marinated mushrooms were again a hit. I've been ordering from Nuts.com and loving some of their offerings--these spicy pickle pretzels are addictive. That night I IP'd ribs that Ronnie had smoked along with stuffed jalapeños and baked beans. Next morning they got up early to go dove hunting and work on the deer stands etc. Scout got to go and had a blast. A dove cleaning pictorial--as usual they saved all of the livers, gizzards and hearts, too. On the way home they stopped off in a mostly Amish community and bought some homegrown tomatoes--it pains me to type that lol. But we had none, again, due to the hail. They're better than store bought....but not near like ours. Another snack board Ronnie really wanted me to do pressure cooked chicken gizzards. That's a LOT of frying when there are three of us. But, I started at like 3 in the afternoon and got done around 4:30. I included the guts from the doves. Pressure cooked for 40 mins along with salad and gravy for dipping Next morning more doves were gotten. This time, I asked them to pluck them so I could freeze them and we'd have them roasted in the oven over the winter. I wrapped them in saran and then vac packed them

@ElsieDKAF used those measurements by volume. I used those too until last month when I visited more recent sites to get some different recipes. They say to use equal parts by weight and those measures by volume are fairly equal by weight. ( I don't imagine a pioneer woman in a sod hut on the prairie used a scale to get weight exactly down to the gram) I like the consistency of that mix better. The flour depends on your taste. AlaMoi used buckwheat. That sounds good. I tend to use all purpose flour because it is neutral compared to others and you can use other flours in your recipe with it if you want something different. I did use instant or rapid rise yeast but now I am trying to develop my skills to handle making more varied recipes using just the starter. In the future, if I need to make bread for an occasion and i absolutely need it done it a couple of hours, I will use the recipe with instant yeast added. I use the starter for the taste and the yeast for dependability. Come to think of it, the two new recipes I tried, used starter and used baking soda and baking powder for the levening. Isn't that more or less the same thing?

@Norm Matthews I was about to mix flour and water together to make starter as per KAF but I like the looks of your method for making starter. 2 questions - what king of flour do you use and why 1.5 cups of flour to 1 cup water vs. 1 cup flour to 1 cup water? And i take it that you use instant yeast?

Breakfast is served. Schwartz's Montreal Smoked Meat on homemade sourdough rye.

some of the best sourdough starter I've used . . . 7 day 'creation time' using buckwheat flour. especially good twang/taste to the bread.

Today's bake. Out of the oven at 5:30 AM. Two sourdough rye loaves. Started the dough early yesterday morning using one of the mini bigas. Dough went into the fridge for a 12 hour cold fermentation. Taken out last night at 8:30 and left on the counter until 3:00 AM this morning.

Me neither.

I'm trying to imagine the flavor combo of chocolate and durian... and am having problems doing so. I'd think that the durian would either overpower the chocolate and teh combo would be a little weird.. but then again, when it comes to chocolate, I'm a purist - I'm not a huge fan of chocolate and fruit together.

My rawit chilli plant is finally ripening the chillies. For the longest time, it was putting the flowers out and the flowers would turn into chillies (after I hand pollinate them) but the chillies would be staying green, seemingly forever. Also, the plant kept trying to get taller and taller. So this past weekend, I figured what the hell and trimmed all of the branches that were getting too tall, and I added extra light. My keriting chillies only need one light and ripen just fine, but I thought that maybe the rawit needed more - especially because the internode length of some of the branches was so large - that usually means there's not enough light. And yay!!! The chillies are finally ripening well! Going to harvest the first one soon...

Italian night... Negroni to start. Amatriciana Estiva, with possibly the last of the summer farmer's market cherry tomatoes. Ensalada mista alongside. https://www.ettoregermano.com/vino-barbera-dalba-superiore-della-madre?lang=en

This...I only use "good knives" and they are immediately wiped with a wet rag after any task and ready for the next task. If there's no next task, the can readily be put back onto their storage space...if I've cut anything that would involve washing them down, that's what happens anyway. In other words, there's never a dirty knife lying on a cutting board...(as Taylor would say) like...ever.

For no particular reason (do I really need one?) a butterfly among the asters in the beautiful early-autumn sunlight. Taken in the gardens at my mom's nursing home.