Smithy

This may not be terribly different from my earlier Panini-Pressed sandwiches, but I continue to enjoy my $8 purchase. There are a fair number of appliances that I've bought over the years that, if/when they die, I won't bother to replace. This I'll replace, if/when it fails me. There's an adage, attributed to Dorothy Parker, that eternity = two people and a ham. Imagine the case for a single person! Nonetheless, my favorite local high-end grocery store commissions wonderful double-smoked hams as a holiday special, and I indulged during last year's holiday season. And cut it up, and vacuum-sealed the chunks. The strategy seems to be working well. Earlier this week I started jonesing for some of that ham. Ham with potatoes. Mac'n'cheese'n'ham. Grilled ham sandwiches. I pulled out a smallish chunk and roasted it with baby potatoes and a package of Lipton's Recipe Secrets (basically, their onion soup mix). Today was my chance at a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, using my beloved panini press. Sourdough bread, pepper jack cheese, mayo and mustard on the interior. @rotuts has mentioned before that putting mayonnaise on the outside of the bread, instead of butter, made for a nice coating. I decided to try it. To be fair, I'd used too much mayo inside and needed to do something with the extra. I did mayonnaise on one surface and butter on the other. After the whole shebang was grilled I put in chopped baby greens (arugula and spring greens). See the difference in doneness on the two sides? The bottom part had the mayonnaise on the outside. It's possible that the color difference is due to more heating on the bottom plate, but I think the composition of the mayonnaise was a factor also. All told, I preferred the buttered surface. It seemed a bit more flavorful. But the entire sandwich was good, and more than plenty for dinner.

I think you're going to fit right in here! I remember staying up until 2, 3 or even 4 in the morning during an eG seminar on braising! Then I'd go to work after a few hours' sleep! (But I was much younger then. 😆)

This story from the Washington Post made me smile. The article should be unlocked; if not, I'll give a synopsis or at least post the relevant photo. https://wapo.st/461RBnQ

I think it has some tenderizing effect, but based on my husband's perceptions the "tenderizing" may have more to do with the strategic cutting (and not overcooking!) of meat chunks. It is delicious, though.

Whoops! Yes, I had intended to include this link. Thank you for pointing out the lapse.

I hope you aren't talking about the ground beef you just purchased? What a shame, if so! My mother learned about this recipe for venison marinade, which also works well on beef, pork and chicken. If you need careful seasoning, this may be of interest to you.

Some years back I had a grass-fed beef burger at some upscale country club and it was wonderful. It's hard now to remember whether it was strictly due to the flavor of the meat, or there was something special about the bun and condiments as well. I haven't had as much luck myself with grass-fed beef burgers, but that was because my husband always wanted more fat in his, and strongly preferred hot Italian sausage and chopped onions mixed in with it. Someday I'll finish my stock of those burger patties we made, and then I'll be in a position to try the grass-fed beef burger again. I would have asked for some stew meat rather than having all the trimmings ground into burger. Other than that I'm not sure what else I'd suggest from your list. Echoing an earlier question: did you get the tail? What about a cheek?

Oh boy, @liuzhou - I really don't know whether to laugh or cry over that last post.

I agree that the incident itself isn't funny, but this bit breaks me up!

Please clarify your question. Do you mean, say, two families splitting a cow but asking for different cuts? And do note that BaxterBaker did this on his own, at least this time around. @rotuts, he states in his "introduction" post that he's in Tennessee. But you raise a good question about whether directly-sold, grass-fed cows are graded the way wholesale, standard-commercially-sold cows are. @BaxterBaker, I echo rotuts' request for shots of the meat as you pull it out for cooking. I applaud your paying attention to the treatment and feeding of the animals.

Thank you for this detailed description. I'm sure it will generate a lot of good ideas and discussion. I'll start with an idea for the fat: your dog may wish some of it, but I'll also point out that beef fat, rendered to get the tallow, can make an excellent frying medium. It depends on your cooking style, of course. I have no idea how much rendered tallow you would get out of 12.44 pounds of fat; maybe somebody else will know.

@Shel_B, have you gotten a new grater yet? If so, which did you choose and how do you like it?

The description sounds delicious. However, this photo makes it look like half a torte, with icing along the cut edge as well. I must be looking at it wrong. Help me understand the photo, please.

@liamsaunt, you visit beautiful places, and eat at wonderful-looking restaurants (some better than others, according to your reports). Still, I see those fishing boats come in and imagine myself itching to buy some catch(es) and cook at "home". I've only had the chance to do that once or twice. I'd be really torn between the fine variety of restaurants -- and the attendant benefits of having someone else clean up the mess -- and picking my own stuff to cook. Do you ever find yourself tempted to pick and cook a catch? Or is that too easy to do when you're at home anyway?

It appears to me that this one by WELTOHMH (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is one such clone. Do you agree? I note that it's marked down right now, from $39.99 to $28.99.

Guilty! Sorry. Sometimes it seems appropriate to me although I don't know how frequently I use that word rather than "vegetables".

Actually, that's a very good question. It isn't like "any other supermarket" but, having said that, I'll start the floundering about what makes it different. It's kind of a specialty grocery store, with their own product lines and not many from outside companies. Friends who have ready access find sometimes that they have to go to the main chain stores for certain household items...cleaning agents, for example. I think they focus on organically grown produce and humanely raised (and killed) animals. Their product labels typically don't require a chemistry dictionary. In my experience, they also must have excellent employee relations because I've never run across a grumpy or harrassed employee. As I've noted before, I don't often get to one so my experience is limited. And yes, Safeway is still a US supermarket chain. 😉 Okay, TJ's enthusiasts -- what have I missed? Let's help Ddanno understand Trader Joe's. Edited to add: their About Us writeup gives some explanation of why/how they're different from most US grocery store chains.

I'm eating some of the chicken mole right now. It's certainly easy. Pull the package out of the cardboard sleeve, poke a few holes in the plastic covering, microwave a couple of minutes. remove the plastic altogether, microwave more, and serve. Here it is (crummy photo, sorry) before I started dishing it up. @BeeZee, note that this is not a standalone dish. It's only the chicken in sauce, and it has to be served with or over something. That may matter for your purposes. In light of JAZ's comment above, I loaded it atop some salad greens and topped with chopped cabbage. I tried loading it into a taco shell, but although the taco package was unopened it was over a year old. Stale. Those taco shells are going out into the woods. Per the photo on the package cover, I then added chunks of avocado, and a squeeze of lemon. Knowing my own tastes, I also added sour cream. Eh. I'll be able to eat it, but I won't buy it again. It has more heat than I like, although the sour cream tones it down. Once I've diluted the heat I pick up some sweet notes and maybe fruity notes that I'm not crazy about. Someone may love this, but I'm not that someone. Looking at the ingredient list, I see that sugar is 4th on the list of ingredients. That accounts for the sweetness I dislike here. It reminds me of my experience, way back here in 2005, making Mole Poblano during our Mole Cook-Off. It was a messy adventure, and I'm glad I did it once, but I never repeated it. My darling and I thought it was okay, but neither of us clamored for me to repeat the experience.

I was going to rant about "cowboy" everything until i realized TropicalSenior had done so recently. Therefore, I'll shift my ire to "marry me". "Marry me chicken" was a viral recipe what, earlier this year? And the name was initially clever, and the recipe looks good. But like any virus, that darned term is creeping into other dishes as well. I don't want to read about "marry me" beans or "marry me" beef or whatever the heck else someone wants to apply the term to. Enough, already! I fear there will soon be "marry me" jelly beans.

I heard that one a few times, growing up in California. The children saying it were corrected by their parents, but of course their situation was different than your grandmother's. I didn't know it was an Ohioan take on the word.

I had forgotten that this word was already ranted about, but I'm going to rant again. I just read about a cookbook published in May this year that's apparently quite a hot seller: The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes for Everyday Luxury and Elevated Entertaining (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) I'm not in the market right now for a new cookbook, but it's always fun to look. Then I noticed that one chapter is titled "sammies". Nope. Not gonna buy it. I can ignore the all-lower-case style of chapter titles, but I refuse to consider a book that refers to sandwiches as "sammies". What's giving you a linguistic shudder these days?

Hello and welcome, @BaxterBaker! Half a cow, grass-fed and locally raised, is a big step! I hope we'll get to read a lot about your learning experiences (read: cookery) with it. In answer to your question: it depends on how much you want to post about your experience and what you''re learning, vs. the cuts you choose and how you cook them. If the focus is mostly on cooking various cuts, the Cooking forum is probably your best bet and there may already be topics you can add to. If you want to write more about your experience, decisions, and the choices you're making, then Food Traditions & Culture may be more appropriate. In any case...if you post in one place and the moderating staff thinks another area is more appropriate, we won't rap your knuckles with a ruler. 🙂 We'll just move it, an leave a pointer from the old spot to the new one. C'mon in, look around, make yourself at home! And if you have questions about how to post (photos, links, etc.) or where to post, feel free to ask a host (I'm one) or ask in the Moderation and Policy Discussion forum.

These are interesting standards, taken from the stated guidelines: I'm sure I've read on these forums that some folks prefer a bit of blistering on their pizza crusts. Maybe those aren't intended to be Neapolitan style pizzas? For instance, here is a reference to leoparding. Maybe that isn't the same thing as burnt spots...?

I blame @JAZ for yesterday's extravaganza. Her post above got me thinking about how much I like Trader Joe's and wish I had access to them. Then I realized that from Iowa, where I was reading her post, I'd be driving home right through the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. And I needed groceries. And I really love chiles rellenos but hate trying to make them. I think I knew ahead of time that it wouldn't be just the above-mentioned chile relleno package. I think I knew that. It was still a challenge to find freezer space for all that when I got home. Not shown: the predictable groceries (salad greens, bread, yogurt, etc.) I broke into one of the chiles rellenos packages for dinner last night, and it's every bit as good as she described. I don't have an air fryer but I used my Cuisinart countertop oven on convection mode at 425F for 30 or 40 minutes, flipping the chile halfway through. She's right that the sauce is thin. I'd forgotten that the chile is supposed to go atop the sauce when I took this photo. I had some of my good salsa set to go, but decided I didn't really need it. Thin sauce was good enough for me last night. The layers were good, the cheese was good. The spicy heat was just at the top end of my preferred range. The coating was crisp, and I'm glad I took a hint from her to use the convection setting. I can't decide whether to be glad I don't have to share any of this purchase or sorry I don't have anyone nearby to help with the taste-testing! My usual dinner companions include one who thinks catsup is hot, and this would be too spicy for her. So it goes. I won't need to cook for quite a while, if I don't want to.

Sorry if you explained this before and I missed it...was this an infusion of a fig leaf in the cream / crème?