All Activity

Been there!!!! Hopefully none of it got in your eyes!!!

Lunch was an adventure. I was using the blender to make a red curry paste. When I removed the lid to check progress, I accidentally bumped the "on" switch. Kitchen instantly looked like a chainsaw murder scene. So after lots of words I won't repeat here, extensive clean-up (thanks, Mrs. C!), and a shower, I remade the paste. Ingredients included Holland chiles, garlic, galangal, red curry paste, tamarind, and palm sugar Red curry shrimp with peas, carrots, cilantro, and Thai basil

I spent a few days in Alamagordo, New Mexico, which is near White Sands National Park; Alamagordo also has a space museum and some pretty nice scenery. White Sands is good for a fairly quick driving tour, or for extended hikes. I saw folks doing both. The sand is unusual because it's gypsum, very fine, very round grains, and good for sliding down like you're sliding down a snowbank! The Visitor Center rents out sledding disks, but I borrowed one from the KOA where I was staying and enjoyed a few rounds of sliding as well as hiking, and watching other folks slide. The Visitor Center has good informative displays, as well. I'd intended to picnic there, but had forgotten the food! It was just as well. By the time I left, around 1 pm, the wind had come up and rain had started. I drove through the rain, a few miles past the other end of town, and arrived at the Heart of the Desert Pistachios and Wine place I'd noticed on the way to Alamagordo the day before. I'd also noticed a place called Pistachioland that looked interesting, but Heart of the Desert was closer to town so I stopped there. My interior photos aren't as good as I'd thought. Somehow, I missed the wine tasting room, the display of pistachios and candies, and the bags and bags of variously treated pistachios. You could taste almost anything there, and folks were enjoying the wine tasting when I arrived. I didn't try it; I concentrated instead on the infused olive oils and the nuts. The stuff isn't actually produced there; the gift shop is a cooperative of sorts. Still, you can sample and taste and enjoy. The oils and vinegars aren't cheap! I tried a Green Chile olive oil that nearly blew my head off. When I exclaimed, "OOFda!" the woman helping me laughed. She'd lived in Minnesota for a few years and her Norwegian mother-in-law had used that expression a lot. I tried a few other infused oils, but settled for some small bottles of straight varietals: If I have any sense, I'll use them as finishing oils but be sure to use them before they go rancid! The herb blends didn't impress me. These are samplers to be opened and sniffed. Maybe they were old? Their aromas seemed blunted. There are other doodads to be had: funny soaps, serving dishes and non-food gifts like sunglasses, and bags of pistachios with various flavor treatments. I bought a small bag of roasted pistachios and a smaller bag of chile-treated pistachios for an extra heat kick, and some biscotti that I'll try to save until my sister visits: Then I headed home to unpack my goodies, finally eat something, and admire the rainbow near sunset.

Lunch at nearby eatery in Ajijic Centro. One special was Hamburguesa de Pato. Never had (or seen) a duck burger before. Ground duck patty with bacon, goat cheese and caramelized balsamic onions. It was great. But to get the duck flavor, we had to break off a piece of the burger.

Love the mug 😊

Cashew celery with kale and teriyaki tofu from Tenderheart by Hetty Lui McKinnon

Well, we're "home" for now. I've brought out another special coffee mug, one I had made for myself earlier this summer, in celebration. I arrived a couple of evenings ago and will have several catch-up stories to tell. The mountains in this photo have nearly disappeared due to dust and a wind storm, but I can't be sorry about that considering the weather elsewhere. It was gusting up to 60 mph most of the night, back at my real home, and schools and roads are closed due to blizzard conditions. Meanwhile, it's dumping snow and rain farther north and west of here. I did some social activities yesterday and am content to stay here today, writing, organizing, walking, playing music, and cooking...something...I'm not sure yet what's for dinner. Brunch today was a classic case of "snatching the bacon from the fire". A few nights ago I went on a roasting and mixing extravaganza -- I'll tell more about that later -- and made what has to be the most disappointing batch of tabbouli I've ever made. The herbs were getting old and needed to be used. I had to pick through them. Apparently I didn't soak the bulgur enough, because it was crunchy the following morning. I left the tabbouli out of the refrigerator for several days, and eventually the bulgur softened enough to be manageable, but I still wasn't crazy about the flavor of the whole. Enter the "toastie" idea. Why not take a slice of jalapeno popper bread (I'll tell you about that later), griddle it, then top it with tabbouli and cheese? Why not, you ask? Well...how exactly did I think that cheese would melt? So I put a second slice of bread on it, flipped the lot, and ended up with a jalapeno-popper-sourdough grilled cheese sandwich with tabbouli. Pretty darned good, actually. I'll be more careful next time I make tabbouli, but I'll be able to use this stuff up.

That may be so, but you don't cook with a concept. You cook with the finished product. I've never cooked with a salted stock nor do I want to. I want to be able to control the salt of whatever I make with that stock.

That's Chris Young's recipe also, you know. He was head research chef on the Modernist Cuisine team. Just as At Home is a simplified version of the original MC volumes, Young's YouTube channel is a further simplification for the low-attention-span cooking hack crowd. I'm sure he'd agree with you on salt and stocks, especially if you're making stock for reduction and saucemaking. He's just demonstrating a concept here.

Chicken, broccoli, and citrus stir fry with brown rice. We get a biweekly citrus delivery with our CSA box in the winter. The contents vary but it’s mostly variations of oranges with the occasional grapefruit, meyer lemon and/or makrut lime. We usually just eat all the fruit out of hand but for some reason had an overflow situation going on this week. This sauce had the juice of two blood oranges and two tangerines, and there were kumquats in the stir fry.

If everyone can PM me their information Name Business name if you have one address e-mail address cell number you will be using in Montreal Renee from Chocolat-chocolat wishes to know about any food preferences/allergies for the dinner she is hosting.

Chocolot Kerry Beal alleguede curls RanaMN Melani RobertM DianaD Lisa M citowolf - Celia D Lambrecht gourmet +1 Sue PEI (possibly with Jane) GRiker Rajala Kate Jared A Kelsey Hayley Eat.Choui Audrey Brown Bernie - said he was coming

I couldn't agree more with your method. That's exactly what I do except that I want to use the meat. So I let it cook for 18 minutes, take out the meat at that point, then I return the bones and skin and finish cooking. I still get a nice flavorful broth.

@haresfur I agree w you to use less rather than more water. the iPot can be used to concentrate stock , using the quick release , then using the liquid again , several times in series. the steam that's released is the same as boiling the stock on the stove top. there are many threads on using the iPot for stock , well before this one was started.

I learned about pressure cooking stock from this book but forgot the details because this seems like a lot of faffing about. I don't do a classic stock, because I don't really see the need for all the veg. Pure chicken and nothing else is more versatile imo. I do strongly agree that you don't want to add salt, especially if you are going to concentrate it down. That doesn't happen in a pressure cooker, but I have done it afterwards if my pc stock ended up too thin. The real trick in pressure cooking stock is to minimise the amount of water used. I try to barely cover the bones, but you can get away with having a little sticking out. We used to be able to get inexpensive chicken frames, but don't really see them anymore, or they are more expensive than when grocery stores had their own butchers. A frame is basically the bones left over after they take off the legs, wings, and breasts, so minimal amounts of meat. I don't really see the need to add thigh meat (which is rather expensive here since people prize it more than most Americans seem to, present company excepted). I also find I get good stock in much less time, maybe 25 to 30 minutes. Make the stock, put it in the fridge, skim the fat off the top after it cools, heat it up again to seal in zip lock freezer bags. Freeze it flat so you end up with a fairly thin sheet of stock that you can easily break pieces off when you don't need a lot. I also make a one pot green chicken chili using a relatively small by American standards free ranch chook. The beans are cooked in the stock from cooking the chicken while it is being shredded and the two are recombined for the chili. If I were to make a roasted chicken stock, I'd take off all the meat off the bones from a Batchelor's handbag or two (no Costco near me) and just use the bones; you will get a good stock without all the salt in the meat.

it seem AB has a U-tube series : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdUXDhIBxis&t=31s Ive picked up a lot of tricks from him , over the years. Histrionics here might be over the top. Up to you to decide .

Today, I had been reading some topic about chicken stocks. I don't possess or want a pressure cooker but make my stocks the old fashioned way using chicken carcasses, feet, head etc along with aromatics and water which then simmers for many hours. I never season it. Anyway, I can buy carcasses from the local supermarket after they have removed the breasts legs etc. It struck me that I've never seen carcasses on the online shopping app, so searched using the appropriate Chinese translation of "chicken carcass". The app took me straight to KFC's main site. "I'll have double carcass and fries" Not.

The Costco rotisserie chickens weigh about 3.25 lbs raw. There's a very precise minimum weight, but it's close to 3.25-lbs. The intent is to provide 3-lbs minimum cooked weight.

Lunch on Pancake Tuesday aka Shrove Tuesday. Smoked salmon with capers and gherkins wrapped in pancakes or some would call crepes.

Has anyone weighed the Costco chicken? The usual reason supermarket roast chickens are cheap is that they're tiny. You buy raw chicken by the pound, but roast chicken by the bird. And it's often barely more than a 2lb bird.

I made a kind of longevity noodle dish. These wheat noodles are over a metre long, the broth is enhanced with wombok, baby pak choy, mushrooms and chicken slices. Topped with coriander, green onion and chilli crisp, plus toasted sesame seeds. Gong hei fat choi !

Technically, the Spring Festival runs from New Years Day until The Lantern Festival, 15 days later. Another feast will be had every day. The statutory holiday however is only the first 7 days.

Generally speaking, I don't recommend visiting China during the Chinese New Year holiday. Most of China closes down and prices rise. You'll be fighting millions of domestic travelers who know their way round better . In fact, avoid any of China's major holidays, the other two being the first weeks of both May and October. Of course, if you have friends or family here, it's different.

Fried some smoked sausage and potatoes. Had it with some of my Olive My Pickle sauerkraut. It was fantastic!!

Crispy chickpeas and lamb with greens and garlicky yogurt from Dining In by Alison Roman. Flatbread from Andy Baraghani’s The Cook You Want To Be.