lovebenton0

My dad used to eat peanut butter/jelly/lettuce/cheese/mayo sandwiches. But then he had essentially no sense of taste or smell, so the texture was right for him. I must confess to (Atkins folks close your ears and avert your eyes!) spaghetti and sauce on garlic bread. And raisin/green apple/cream cheese on rye.

I occasionally add a cut onion and a few cloves of garlic to the water pan which gently permeates the meat with the smoke. For woods -- you have choices. As you experiment you will find the woods you like to use with certain cuts. One of our most favorite woods to use is pecan. We usually smoke with about half charcoal and half wood for something large like a brisket or shoulder. I have even soaked pecans in the shell, that weren't worth shelling to eat, in water overnight and added to the fire for smoking. You do need about a quart of those when smoking for several hours or more.

Thanks Anna, for a great blog. Between everything else that was going on you put out some lovely meals for us to enjoy vicariously. Looking forward to trying the Danish meatballs soon, appreciate the recipe complete with ritual. I bake bread regularly but have never done pita! You've encouraged me to try that. Yours was beautiful "magic." Thanks. Hope all is well with little Jess. And her heart (and yours) get back to the right place! Ooops! Edited to correct typos, have fumble fingers today.

Thanks, Chef Richard. I appreciate the salmon suggestion especially as I have not tried that, also the potato crusted scallops are now on my list to try. Cooking is indeed always fun for me!

We have a smoker very similar to that one. We use it all the time with wonderful results. I would also agree -- especially given your location -- that to finish off in the oven is a viable plan. We have that a few times when the weather became uncooperative. You still get the smokiness and the great crust after several hours then the slow oven allows the tenderness to complete. And grapefruit is great for brisket, either canned juice or rubbed down with cut fresh fruit all the juicy pulp covering the meat. A couple of other great choices for smoking in that size are pork butt and lamb shoulder or leg. You'll find it very useful, and it will love you for rescuing it from the garage.

Judith, Thanks for the question. You are correct,we, as chefs and restauranteurs, have access to products most people dont have. These products are very expensive and limited. But still there are alot of main stream products out there that are great and getting better in alot of ways then they used to be. At the Pear, I try my hardest not to repeat any dishes. We do repeat with ingredients as they are the main stay of our cuisine. For example, we always have Elysian Fields Lamb, Snake River Farms Kobe Beef, Four Storu Hills Squab, Veal and Poulard, Ingrids Lobsters and Scallops when available, and so on. These are items I like to use over and over. But again, the entire dish will not be the same, hopefully, twice. Does that answer your question? Maybe not. What else can I say about that to you? ← Thank you. Wonderful! I would love to be closer -- for me that would be much closer -- to Newport to enjoy your more unusual approach to the daily menu. Maybe two weeks with every night trying something you have created daily, coming from your kitchen. Your answer begs another question. Although the dish will not be the same, perhaps you might allow what method(s) for cooking the lamb, and scallops, (two of my favorites) for instance, do you prefer?

Thank you for spending the week with us, Chef Richard. Although I'm sure your in-house resources are more varied than many of us have the privilege to cook with at home, daily creativity based on fresh pantry items is the foundation of many good cooks -- whether for the nightly meal or an impromptu special event. We also often have those dishes that are great standbys, favorites of family and guests, that we can count on our pantry to supply. Given that you create new menu items daily from the available in-house resources, what are some of your favorites that you repeat on a semi-regular basis?

Diving Pepper Stab! Grabbing Toast Ouch! Over Kat Hop! Bleeding Digit Lick!

But the dish Gumbo is all a part of the evolving language of food and words. (There must be a special gumbo recipe for every person who has ever made it.) I make mine with okra, to me that is the best gumbo. We love it that way -- but it also has file' sprinkled at the table 'cause that's the way I learned it from a Cajun friend's grandmama 30 years ago and I've been happy with it every time. So for me file' is not a sub, it is expected. But I've certainly eaten it many different ways by many a fine cook. Otherwise -- I love to grow Okra -- what a rewarding veg! Pick it small and tender and pickle it hot with garlic and red peppers. I have a friend that waits for me to give her a jar every fall. Slice it thin, coat in garlicky cornmeal and quick fry very hot for a side. Or saute slices hot and fast with garlic and onion for gumbo, or to stew with tomatoes. I must confess that when I pick it baby tender I eat a handful right then on my way back to the kitchen. And if I have a question about borderline "enough fibre to make a rope" okra I just bite off the tips and if it's good to nip it's good to cook. (I promise I trim that before cooking. )

Thanks, Dave. I just poured boiling hot soapy water into the sink and scrubbed every knife I own! Just in case. Now the knife block is in the freezer -- thanks, fifi! This is central TX here.

About 1972 Southern Living published a series of compilation cookbooks, recipes by Southern homemakers from every state of the region. Breads, Desserts, Canning and Preserving, Meats, Vegetables . . . . and more I'm sure. The instructions are fairly specific in these but the ingredients list is not always for the novice, especially in the Canning and Preserving Cookbook: "greenbeans, salt," or "peaches, sugar, spice bag." Then what does one do exactly with "grape catsup"? Nevertheless there is a lot of good solid food prep info in those books, recipes by your neighbor, and some interesting comments -- " . . . imagine the pleasure you'll feel when your husband announces that his wife bakes her own bread!"

Sounds wonderful! How ripe should the plantains be? I'm not used to cooking with them, and have seen some recipes that suggest ripe and others suggest unripe. Oh my. ← There's a stage in which the plantain is turning yellow that is medium ripe-- they aren't really "ripe" until they are deep yellow with more black. That medium ripe stage -- when they look more like regular barely/almost ripe bananas in color and are still nicely firm -- is perfect.

I am at my daughter's house at the moment but let me see if I can give you the recipe and the ritual. 1/2 lb ground beef 1/2 lb ground pork 1 medium onion 2 teaspoons coarse salt 2 eggs 3 T flour 3 T breadcrumbs 1/2 t freshly ground pepper 35% cream -lots (at least 1/2 cup) The ritual. Chop the onion very finely. Combine the meats, the onion and the salt and knead together with your hands until very well mixed. Rest -both you and the mixture for about an hour - the meat should go in the fridge but you don't have to. After an hour add the eggs, flour, bread crumbs, pepper and at least 1/2 cup of cream. Beat this mixture for a long time until it is light in colour and quite sloppy. You might need to add more cream or if you are scared of cream then some good beef broth can be used for part of the liquid. Rest as before for at least an hour. Take a small scoop of the mixture and saute it in butter and oil so you can check the seasoning - often it will need more salt and pepper. Then, when you think you have it seasoned right for your taste, cook the rest as below. Wet your hands and scoop up about 1/3 cup of the mixture - it should be sloppy and just able to hold its shape. Shape it into "eggs". Heat some butter and a bit of oil in a large saute pan until the butter just barely starts to color. Add the "eggs" without crowding the pan and saute, turning as they brown until done. They should be cooked right through so cut into one and make sure. Serve hot or let cool completely and then slice and serve on open-face sandwiches. The texture is less like a meatball and much more like a pate. Tomorrow I will post photos of the finished dish. ← Thanks, Anna. I missed a couple days of life and your blog this week around dental emergency. Meatballs look luscious. And the red cabbage. I've got to do these soon.

I make stock with the ham hocks first also, start early -- then cook the onions, carrots and little garlic in butter, stir in the peas. Add to the stock with lemon thyme, bay leaves and 1/2 cup beer, remove hocks for stripping and return to soup near finish with black pepper. Large croutes and long cuts of garlic chive on top. Never tried serving with a poached egg on top, but OMG that sounds good.

hot Thai chili fish sauce basil lemon thyme ginger that makes the garlic a root vegetable

It was 95 here today. Again. Now we get the summer sizzle. Slow pecan-smoked pork for fajitas with all the usual suspects (and homemade salsa, of course), and mashed and refried beans with our jalapenoes and tomatoes chunked in. Can't wait for those chicken soup, split pea soup, and pot roast days.

Beautiful, Jason! I would need some of those on a daily basis. How would you compare the crispness/grease retention between the two style wrappers?

Corrected that baseball fart. I was thinkin' Arizona and the Cardinals were scoring -- again. Oh hell! Go Sox! Looks like I have to do some Boston baked beans and Boston brown bread -- to go with the crow.

Now it's the home team, Astros, but I cheered every game for Arizona a few years ago when they took the pennant from the Yankees. Fajitas here tonight and zippiest jalapeno refried beans. So now I'll have to choose either clam chowder, those St. Louis ribs, or a big pot of killer chili for the end meet. Anything but Yankee stew.

Wise choice, robyn. That's how I do it most of time when I don't need those pretty little slices. But beware that first aromatic rush when you open the lid. You know, after stuffing 48 jalapenos in a camping situation (not just for us -- we were having a party) I learned that dirt isn't the only thing that gets ground in. Call me a wuss -- Our red habaneros are so intense I just wear gloves now. The same when I prep hundreds of Tabascos at a time for sauce. Hey, if I were a full wuss I'd have a breather mask.

OMG! fifi! Tamale stuffed turkey sounds fabulous! I never stuff mine with the edible stuffing, I like it better baked on the side. Chunked baby sweet onion, baby carrots, garlic, rosemary sprig for flavor in the cavity is a typical start, then rubbed with lemon, garlic cloves, and pepper. But I switch it up whenever. Sometimes I go the mixed peppers, garlic, and sweet onion route then rubbed with lemon and oil, and insert peppers and garlic under skin/into the flesh, rubbed with a mix of cajun seasoning, and comino. But I'd be willing to stuff one with tamales! Back to topic here: As far as something different for sides -- this makes a beautiful and tasty sweet potato dish -- bake fresh cut sweet potatoes and cut plantains with pecans halves, glazing with ginger and five spice in a butter/honey baste for about 30 minutes at 375. At this point you can hold in fridge until the next day. Then pop back in oven to heat through on T-day and they will be cooked just right. Simple yet elegant, another pretty veg side that won't task your time -- steam baby green beans, purple onion, and baby carrots, toss with butter (or olive oil) and lemon thyme leaves, s&rp to taste. If you decide to go with that tempting tamale-stuffed turkey you could add roasted tatuma (or any white winter squash) slices with a topping of crisped caramelized onions and a roasted garlic cream drizzle, garnished with slices of red jalapeno.

What a surprise! The mr had not pulled all the tomato plants yet after all. When I clambered up to the veg plot today (past the wildly blooming peach tree -- that's another post!) the few remaining tomato plants were sparsely covered with several dozen baby green tomatoes. And they're so cute. Little sunny faces poking out into the bright day. I thought for sure that the last few were sitting in my kitchen window basket. Picked several baby eggplants for Thai tomorrow night, and still must go back to pluck all the big ripe Anas off the bushes, along with quite a few jalapenos. The Tabasco peppers are still pumping out more, and the canteloupe is taking this long hot-and-not season seriously. Four baby melons and many more blooms -- see how they do. It's probably going to jump back into summer now until the end of the month. What a weird season weather-wise. We hardly ever have tomatoes in October. And, yes, Linda, do think of pepper plants too for your bacony.

And the chances of this actually occurring? I've been putting garlic with tomato on pizzas, and many other foods for about 35 years. Also in vinegar solutions. I've never achieved the blue food stage. What am I doing wrong?

With any kind of vegetable soup I like a thick, rich cracker such as Ritz. And nothing beats the oyster floaties in chowder. But give me big croutons on my cream soups, especially squash, asparaqgus, or mushroom. And a torn hunk of bread to dip in heartier soups like split pea or lentil.

Anna, pics are beautiful. It's so good to see I'm not the only eG'er with a kitchen comfortably packed. Fettucini with EVOO, anchovies, garlic, red pepper, and Parmigiano was the first meal my now-husband ever cooked for me. He still does that one by request when I want a night off. And please, what is your special recipe for the Danish meatballs -- including ritual of course.