Smithy

I'll preface this by saying I'm biased against Lodi, with its hot climate and flat terrain. The Credence Clearwater Revival refrain "Oh Lord, stuck in Lodi again" keeps ringing around my head, no doubt in part because I put up with those summers when I was growing up. Keep in mind that bias when I say I am always pleasantly surprised when I find a nice Lodi wine whereas I expect to find good wines only a short distance west. If you are willing to drive to the Amador area, then I'd suggest the Sonoma Valley region, which is closer. I've had delightful visits and wine tours around Santa Rosa and Healdsburg and down into the Alexander Valley. The Hotel La Rose is situated in the historic downtown area of Santa Rosa. It's been about 10 years since I last visited there, and of course things may have changed, but when I last stayed at that hotel there were good places to eat within walking distance and even more good places to eat -- and wineries to visit -- with the help of a car. The historic downtown region has a very different feel from the actual, current downtown Santa Rosa...history, rather than strip malls. If you're interested in botany, take the time to visit the Luther Burbank House and Gardens. I don't think you'll get anything to eat there, but you'll see a number of cultivars of our current food...not to mention lovely flowers. In the Sonoma Valley, I recommend Sunce and Seghesio Wineries for good treatments of zinfandels, but there are dozens more good wineries in the Dry Creek Valley and along the Alexander River, where zinfandels flourish. The Sonoma Valley wineries hadn't decided on super-expensive tastings when I last visited, even though the Napa Valley wineries, in the adjacent valley, were already placing a premium on tastings. Of course, if you have wonderful (or bad) surprises, we'd love to hear about them!

Doggonit, I already have too many unexplored (or barely explored) cookbooks. That said, the prose and ideas of the introduction were well worth $1.99 on their own. Thanks, Toliver. (...I think. I may have to upgrade my storage before long.)

Some advice, please! I caved in to temptation and bought more corn. A dozen ears. We're having some tonight, on the cob. We're having a (more photogenic, I hope) revamp of the previous corn dish tomorrow night. I blanched these ears tonight, for preservation purposes. Top photo: the blanched cobs, chilling. Bottom photo: same cobs, draining. Here's my question: I want to freeze the kernels off these cobs for later use. Is it better to freeze the cobs, then scrape off the kernels? (Can that even be done by a mere human?) Or am I better off scraping the kernels off the cobs, spreading them on a baking sheet and freezing them? (It really is lovely corn. I'm not even a big fan of corn on the cob -- I think I've said so before -- but this corn on the cob was good. It was sweet -- some of you true corn lovers might think it too much so -- and fairly tender. For tonight's dinner I boiled an ear for each of us, probably not long enough. We thought the flavor fine but the texture a tad tougher than it would have been if I'd microwaved them as we usually do.) Back to the question: The blanched corn is now drained and sitting on a plate. Freeze it to de-kernel later, or refrigerate it to de-kernel tomorrow and freeze afterward?

Once it's pasteurized, it'll stay pasteurized until the seal is broken, won't it? Am I missing something?

Yes, I have been keeping a log of times, temps, seasonings and results. I do plan on a rapid chill and refrigeration; that's why I have the window where it has to either be stopped or continue cooking. Of course, I may come home to find that the Joule quit when I took my cell phone away from it, but I don't think it will do that. If it does, the meat will have been pasteurized already so the interrupted cook won't be an issue if I understand the food safety issue correctly; I just won't know the total time at 130F.

OK, next question: 24 hours isn't an option for me tomorrow because of my work schedule. My choices would be up to 19 hours or after 31 hours. I'm leaning toward the 31 hour mark. Might that be too much? Am I better off pulling it in the morning after 19 hours?

Yes, please post it again if you find it. I found a couple of references in this topic, although not yours: Kerry Beal planned to do hers at 55C for 24 hours, after salting and letting it sit overnight. I don't think she reported back, but she had intended it for sandwich meat, which is my purpose as well. Topham cooked it at 131F for 15 hours a couple of years ago, and said it might could have used more time but it wasn't tough. Rats! I forgot rotuts' trick of treating it with RB40 for 3 - 6 days first. OTOH I wouldn't have been able to do this project at all with that lead time.

130F, and for now I'm planning 30 hours. I know someone did this cut and posted about it, but I haven't found the post(s) in question yet for guidance. It may need longer. Do you know?

Your description of the gravy and the turkey meatloaf reminds me of the Nutri-matic Machine in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy": after a careful bioanalysis of the person asking for a drink, it inevitably delivered something that was "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea".

I feel rather foolish! I'm running a dual sous vide cook: eye of round beef roast in one pot, and chicken breasts in another. (Those breasts are being cooked at 140F per @Shelby's recommmendation, to see whether I prefer it to the 145F I used last time.) Dual cooks require both of my sous vide circulators, so I put the Joule to work on the roast and the Anova to work on the chicken. It's been noted many times before that the Joule is quieter than the Anova (with the downside that the Joule requires the cell phone app to control). I was quite put out by the persistent, loud rattle of the Anova. That is, I was put out until I tightened the screw that holds it in its collar. Problem solved. Why has it taken me so long to try that?

One of my weaknesses as a shopper is overenthusiasm. I buy a lot of whatever looks good -- especially seasonal produce -- and then scramble (or fail) to use it before it goes off. So it was that yesterday I had an overabundance of corn to use up, as well as tomatoes, Japanese eggplant, and lettuce. Here's what I used, and how it turned out: 4 ears of corn: kernels cut off, and "milk" scraped into a bowl with the kernels 5 small Japanese eggplants, sliced into 1/2" coins and steamed 4 sausages (2 Polish, 2 jalapeno jack cheese bratwursts) sliced into 1/2" coins 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, deveined and chopped 1/2 poblano pepper, seeded, deveined and chopped ~1/4c chicken jello 1 c cherry tomatoes on the way out, and the surviving 3/4 of a beefsteak tomato, chopped a bit of water as a sauce booster Steamed the eggplant coins as noted above, to soften them and prevent them from requiring too much oil. Filmed a wok with oil (I used pecan, because I happen to have it, but any cooking oil would have done) and heated it, then sauteed the sausage coins until they were partially cooked. Added the eggplant, and stirred all until browning began. Added the peppers until soft. Added the tomatoes, cooked until the cherry tomatoes began to pop. Added the corn. Added the chicken jello, and stirred until it melted. By that time it appeared that the beefsteak tomato juice and corn milk needed more assistance, so added a touch of water to develop more sauce. Here is the finished melange: About half went into a bowl with about half the lettuce, with the idea of making a wilted-lettuce salad. It looks a bit like a dog's dinner, but we both liked it. As usual, he wanted it slightly sweetened and added white wine worcestershire sauce; I wanted it slightly tarter and added a touch of red wine vinegar to brighten it. It was a good way to use those ingredients, including the corn. I think sweet corn is a wonderfully versatile filler for other dishes. Today we finished the leftovers. It looks better before stirring! Now I have to go buy more corn.

Every time I see that "SW" my professional training kicks in to read it as "Solid Waste".

I looked at one of these in the local Goodwill store and passed it by, being of strong sales resistance at the time. If you show some great results, I might be tempted to go see if it's still there. Enable me, please!

I have a LOT of lovage in my flower bed. I should try making a soup with it!

I moved from California to northern Minnesota for 6 months, which turned into many years. My parents, who were San Joaquin Valley farmers, would occasionally send me "care packages" that were probably intended to entice me back 'home'. One very memorable birthday present came when my mother insisted that a flat of Truly Ripe Local Strawberries be shipped to me. My father was scandalized at the expense. My mother wanted to share the bounty. The strawberries suffered in transit, of course. The packing peanuts (yes, those styrofoam thingies) had gotten up close and personal to the fresh fruit so that the package included strawberry-stained styrofoam; the coolant had lost its cool; and juices were soaking through the cardboard by the time the package found its way to my office. Still, there were some excellent strawberries in the mix: fine examples of real strawberries, better than what you get in the store...in fact, the Platonic ideal of strawberriness. I never had the heart to tell my mother how much the cargo had been damaged. The good-hearted whimsy of the gift, combined with the successful few in the package after it arrived, made it a world-class present for me. Bless her.

It all looks lovely, but I don't understand "fondue" in this context. It may be the hour. Explain, please?

We began with a pickup-mounted camper. It had a small stove and refrigerator, a table that could become an extra bed, and a bed over the cab. Our husky at the time weighed 70 pounds, and took up most of the aisle. It was a beginning.

"STOP THE CAR!" I love that. A woman after my own heart! Any idea what variety of peach that is?

I think it counts. There's no mileage requirement for upscale / comfortable glamping...I can imagine the van feeling a bit crowded at the end of a long trip, though. Do you remember what you used to cook and/or eat during those trips?

In all the time I've lived in this area, I've never really noticed Louise's Place. It's an unassuming little place in what passes for downtown Two Harbors, close to the waterfront. A couple of weeks ago I had occasion to be in town for breakfast. I noticed the sign. I tried the door, which opened on an interior stairway. I went up the stairs and peered in. It's small, and clearly one of the places the locals hang out for breakfast. For reasons I can't explain, I was shy about taking more pictures, so there's none of the counter or menu. This is about half the dining area. The artwork and crafts are all for sale. Their special of the day was a sausage patty on a freshly-made biscuit, with cheese. This particular combination should sound familiar to anyone who visits places like Burger King or McDonald's. Those joints can only dream of making something as good as this. I don't usually eat large breakfasts, but if I'm in town again at the right time, I'll go back to Louise's to try them again. I asked whether they were new, since I'd never noticed them before. Nope...they've been around since 1992!

Galette made of puff pastry (Pepperidge Farms) with a topping of grilled, marinated artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, scallions, garlic, onions, cheeses, herbs and Dry Coppa. The recipe was loosely based on this recipe for Herbed Artichoke Gallete from Fine Cooking #160, Aug/Sept 2019. I say "loosely" because I took liberties with the ingredients, being determined to use up some cheeses that would expire soon with or without our help, and because we did not have leeks but had scallions and onions. I also thought there would be a household revolt if I didn't include some meat, so the Coppa went into the mix. Upper row, left to right: happenings in the skillet; the lot settled on the puff pastry before baking. Lower row, left to right: the cooked product; the cut galette, just before serving. I could see the mental groan from The Other Half when he thought this would be some Fancy-Dan vegetarian dinner. He was somewhat assured when he learned there was cured meat in the mix. He was downright fascinated when he bit into the puff pastry. I have played with this stuff only once before, and it didn't really register on him. Tonight the discussion was largely about how the layers are accomplished. We began with pie dough vs. metallurgy: he wondered about layers of pie dough splayed atop one another and then rolled, and I tried to explain that it was much more like folding and rolling layers: Damascus Steel. At last we settled into a geologic discussion: I thought it more along the lines of mica or vermiculite; he thought it more like schist. We both liked it. I'll be doing it again. Yes, we really do talk this way at home.

That is beautiful. Did you make that bread? If so, would you please point to the recipe you used, or describe the method?

Thank you both for a lovely trip, as always. I'm sorry to see it end!

I've been looking at the altitude setting. This pot will automatically add time for altitude adjustments. I don't know more about the algorithm and am unlikely to explore it much, unless we take this on the road to a higher elevation than where we live now.

Here's the first unintended consequence / unexpected result. I left the IP's alone to do their thing, and came back an hour after the Ultra had beeped loudly to announce that its program had ended. (The sound can be turned off or on.) Surprise! The "Keep Warm" function was warmer than my setpoint! The manual (yes, I did open it today ) says the "Keep Warm" function runs from 145 - 172F. If I had been intent on having something cook at 150F, I'd have been disappointed to see what happened afterward. The "Keep Warm" function can be turned off or on, but it appears that the temperature set point can't be changed. Incidentally, I've been reporting everything in degrees F, but the unit also works in degrees C. The altitude setting works in feet or meters.