Smithy

Well, this is embarrassing: I just remembered that I keep the ground cumin in the freezer. We weren't out after all, although we were out of the whole seeds. The bottle's getting pretty low, so it's good that I got ground as well as seeds. Still...how many times have I looked past that bottle, right there in the freezer door? Goes to state of mind, Your Honor.

Thanks for that update on finding excellent Indian road food, @C. sapidus. I wish we could find some around here. If I want it, I have to cook it myself. I'm not familiar enough with the cookery method to be able to throw something together without thinking, and therein lies a tale. Your post is timed perfectly! I've been trying for several days to make some sort of Indianish curry, but Life Has Been Getting In The Way. 3 days ago, it was going to be shrimp from the freezer. We got home too late to thaw them. 2 days ago I bought chicken thighs so nothing had to be thawed, then we still got home too tired and hungry to think about new (to me) cuisine. Yesterday I skinned and deboned those thighs, then chopped them into bite-sized pieces and stuck them in the freezer. Tonight, maybe, I'll get around to cooking it all. At least now I have the right spices. We seem to have entirely run out of cumin in the Princessmobile. This was a minor disaster, given that one of my "too tired to cook" dinners was our "Bedouin style" tuna noodle hot dish with creamy Egyptian feta cheese, good tuna, cooked elbow macaroni and a little chopped onion. This is all to be topped with freshly ground cumin. I couldn't find any seeds! We toughed it out anyway. 2 days ago when we were in town, we went to the grocery store specifically to get cumin, along with a few other supplies. Somehow, the cumin never got out of the shopping cart and onto the checkout line. I've no idea what happened to those packages. Today when we were in town for the 3rd day in a row, we finally got some. It's sitting on our counter now; this time, there's no getting away! With all the busy-ness I haven't had much time or interest in photos, either. Today, however, we got home in time for me to enjoy an experimental sandwich: the last of some sliced pepperoni we brought from home; provolone that must be used up; spicy kimchi; lettuce. Sourdough bread with mayonnaise. I debated adding pickles as well, but decided to let the kimchi speak for itself. It did, and was a very nice addition to that sandwich. Maybe I'll be hungry in time to cook dinner. 🙂

@StanHam, the member who posted that ad, hasn't been on since last July. You might try sending a PM (Personal Message). I've just added a "shout-out" in case that helps get his attention.

Yikes! You mean that ultra-pasteurized milk with kefir grains / culture added won't work? I haven't been paying attention to that bit, and I don't recall my friend mentioning it either. BTW I apologize for previous misspellings of the stuff. Not going back to correct it now. I think I was confusing kaffir limes with kefir.

A lot of non-culinary activity has interfered with keeping up this narrative, but I have time to share a few things. While I was in San Diego I had a great deal of exposure to my best friend's recent research into the health benefits of fermented foods. As a result I came home with some of her keffir culture and 2 jars of actively fermenting kimchi. The kimchi has made its way into tuna salad - I quite liked it, though my darling thought it much too salty. Putting it atop these triscuits made the saltiness worse. I loved it. 🙂 Since arriving back I've been breeding my own keffir. I've discovered that the super-cheap "buy us now please" bananas in the grocery store bargain bin are perfect ingredients for breakfast keffir shakes. Once again, the cordless wand blender is earning its keep. There's a wonderful grocery store near her house that features good organic produce and products. I came home with a loaf of their kalamata olive sourdough and their cranberry walnut sourdough. Both are excellent. Makes me wonder if I should try sourdough bread making again. In my spare time.... Finally, we've had some beautiful sunsets and sunrises. On this particular morning, the sun was half hidden by the southern (right hand) wall of the notch until it cleared the entire mountain range.

Was this a venison roast from a tough old buck, such as we discussed here? Or was this particular deer tender already?

I recently visited my best friend and her husband for a few days. One night for dinner they served marinated and grilled chicken tenders, kimchi, rice and broccoli to be placed atop kim and eaten out of hand like a taco. (For those who are unfamiliar with "kim" as I was: kim seems to be the Korean version of nori: seaweed, cut up and mixed with oil, then dried until crisp.) We each got to choose our chopsticks from the assortment they have: beautiful metal, which I was warned were the most slippery and difficult to use; plainer metal that were less tapered and looked more like cylinders; restaurant plastic, and wood. I think I chose the wood. The spread, as you see, quickly succumbed to standard forks for dishing onto our kim or plates. That's the kim in the background, in the plastic container. After a slice or two of kim I placed the rest of my portions atop the rice and ate it that way. But I served my portion with chopsticks!

My oh my, that's a busy picture!

Now it's Quaker Oats Granola Bars (and related products) being recalled due to salmonella risk. Click here for more information.

The blogger's hype is entertaining to read. This isn't something I'm likely to make but it looks delicious. Thanks for posting about it!

Congratulations! I don't have a Control Freak, so I can't advise you on settings. I can, however, answer your question about simmer temperature: no, it isn't 100C. I learned, from reading and my own experimentation, that a low simmer is as cool as 85C. It also depends on your altitude, just as boiling point does. You can read the discussion in full, here.

Heidi hosted and oversaw the eG Foodblogs for years when she was a host. She also took a turn at the wheel. In case you've never read it, or would like to reread it, here it is.

I'm still reeling. It's so very difficult to believe, and terribly unjust, given her family circumstances. She was my window into the L.A. food scene, and we had similar reminiscences about food trends. RIP, Heidi.

Not at all a weird question, and as it happens I'll be able to test it by early next week, maybe as soon as Sunday. I'll report back. My particular electric opener seems to need 2 revolutions, maybe 3, to get the lid off. I let it do its thing and decide when it's finished. (If I'm looking for entertainment I just watch it go; otherwise, I work on other kitchen tasks while it's working.) The Oxo manual safety opener I had took many more turns around the can, and -- as somebody else pointed out earlier -- was difficult to attach and then, later, release.

It was. Its principal seasonings seemed to be salt and various pepper flavors. The base meat was also probably something like pork loin, with none of the internal organs. I'm guessing at this point, but I know I won't buy it again from that source.

I didn't like my Oxo safety can opener. At all. Couldn't make it work properly, and it was more trouble than it was worth. This summer I "splurged" on a battery-powered safety can opener on Amazon, and love it. I have no idea how long it will last, but it's a hoot to watch and works on both 14-oz and 28-oz cans. (I haven't tried any other sizes.) I wrote about it here. That particular model is no longer available -- that is, when I try to look at the product page I get a 404 error -- but this looks much the same: Talowaric Electric Can opener New 2023, One Touch Automatically open the can for Any Size Smooth Edge and Safe Best Gift for Chef Senior and Mom (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). If you look on that page you'll see a lot of similar designs.

Thanks so much for bringing us along, @Shelby! I'm always inspired and impressed by your spreads, and I love the context you provide by telling about the hunt (or non-hunt).

And please show them to us! I love lobster. My DH is 'meh' about them, so I rarely indulge. Some very dear friends who were married on New Year's Eve used to celebrate their anniversary with a lobster dinner. He's gone now, but I still associate lobster dinners with them. Hmm, maybe I'll get lobster tails for our New Year's feast!

We blew right through New Mexico on our way west this year; consequently I didn't manage to get chiles rellenos in Columbus or Palomas. I've been wanting them. I remembered earlier discussions in this topic about chile relleno casseroles, and how they took some of the effort out of the dish. I found this recipe by Elizabeth Poett on The Splendid Table's web site, and decided to try it. (The recipe is taken from Poett's book, The Ranch Table (eG-friendly Amazon.com link).) Well, it's still a labor of love. I had purchased poblanos for the purpose. I needed to roast and peel them, and because I'll be gone most of this week I decided I'd better do the same with the jalapenos and red bell peppers I'd bought for some other purpose. I blistered them all under the broiler, loaded them into a bowl and covered it so they could steam themselves. Overnight. This morning I set to work on them. This collage shows the before, intermediate and after pictures. I managed to get one or two poblanos peeled and seeded enough that they might have made decent chiles rellenos in their own right, but I think I now understand instructions I've read elsewhere to remove the stem and core before roasting. (Note to self: wear gloves when handling jalapenos, even after they're roasted. My hands are still burning, hours later! It occurred to me that the recipe as written didn't involve meat. I thought of my darling. I remembered that there was a package of chorizo in the freezer. I pulled it out. Why I bought chorizo in Duluth I don't know. Why I bought it in October 2022 is a further mystery. I don't know whether it made the round trip with us last season, but here it was, and out it came. I didn't think of it soon enough and had a fine time getting it cooked slowly enough to thaw and break into chunks for the casserole. While it was thawing and heating, I grated cheese using the Lunar Lander. Here's a chance to show off a toy I bought last summer on Amazon, one of those Lightning Deals. For $15 I figured it was worth a try: an electric, side-cutting can opener. I wish I could show you a video of this thing in action. You put it atop the can with the cutting wheel along one side, and push a button. It clamps itself to the can, then around it goes -- several passes around the can -- until the lid is loose. When the lid's loose, the opener stops and releases the can. It works on 28 oz. cans as well as 14 oz. cans like this one. For those interested: the specific unit I bought is no longer available, but this one (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) looks much the same. We're really glad to have this. The side-cutting Oxo hand-cranked unit I bought in Texas a couple of years ago has long since been donated to some other hapless person. I took liberties with Poett's recipe: she uses poblanos only, no meat, and seasonings in the eggs that I decided were unnecessary because of the chorizo. But I followed her basic outline: put a thin layer of tomatoes into the bottom of a baking dish; scatter a quarter of the peppers atop the tomatoes; scatter a quarter of the meat atop that; scatter a quarter of the cheese atop that. Repeat the layers until everything is used except some of the cheese. Pour a mixture of beaten eggs and cream over the whole thing; give the custard time to settle through everything; top with reserved cheese. Give it a few minutes to sit before baking, to make sure everything is settled. I gave it a couple of hours while I washed dishes and admired the gaps in the refrigerator shelves. Look at that empty space! 😄 When it's time to bake, bake it at 350F for 45 minutes or until the eggs are cooked and puffed, and the top is golden brown. After pulling it from the oven, give it at least 15 minutes for the mixture to set. This casserole was still runny, but I think it's due to the extra liquid from the peppers, possibly also from the chorizo, and possibly because my egg/ dairy ratio was off. It was good! Is good! (There are a lot of leftovers.) We both agreed that salsa and sour cream helped: salsa to sweeten it slightly, and sour cream to tame the heat. This chorizo had red pepper, black pepper and white pepper, according to the ingredient label. It also had a lot of salt, and I'm glad I didn't add any. (I swear I can taste a bit of freezer burn also, but my darling couldn't -- and the salsa and sour cream helped cover that up too.) I'll do something like this again, but I won't do it with Duluth chorizo! The stuff is much better down here.

You're so ambitious! ALL we had for dinner yesterday was green beans cooked to death with bacon...and they were leftovers from a previous dinner! 😅

This may or may not be of help to the original question, but I've found a few links here relevant to Bobotie From the Dinner topic (no specific recipe) and here is @JohnT's post on the topic:

It was fairly predictable, I suppose: the final two slices of pork roast didn't make it to dinner. Sandwiches just seemed to call our names today. Especially since there were juices begging to be soaked up with the bread.

I've wondered, along those same lines, about making a sweet pie filling in the appropriate shape, then loading it into a pie crust for baking. I've wondered, but not gotten farther along than actually making and freezing peach pie filing. In 2022!

That is a delightful expression, and I plan to steal it! Glad the cheesecake zhuzhing worked. Too bad about the browned-butter cookies and the bread, but I'm very curious about almond cookies that punch well above their weight. Got a recipe, or a link to one?

Ooh, ooh! @Kim Shook's suggestion of breakfast pockets reminded me of this recipe for crawfish hand pies, from Acadiana Table. I bet you could do a good riff on that. I plan to start experimenting with hand pies as soon as I get back from a trip later this week and can lay my hands on puff pastry. You, my dear, could make some of your bierocks, or use some of your good pastry methods (or whomp crescent rolls) to make something like that. Edited to add: Kim's suggested breakfast pockets sound darned good, too. I'm glad she added a link for those!