lemniscate

Munavalgekook is excellent way to use up egg whites.

Another use existing pantry/freezer items only dinner. Penne pasta, frozen pack of Costco sweet Italian sausages and a package of Knorr Parma Rosa seasoning. I have never used a powdered pasta sauce before. Turned out just fine, it's much pinker than the package shows. I used the broth from the simmered sausages as the liquid for the sauce powder to add additional base flavor. It didn't look exciting but tasted good and there's leftovers too.

Costco sells out all the time. You can no longer get the 5 doz pack, just the 18 ct. And there is sometimes a purchase limit of 2. Costco was out of eggs today. I went to TJ's and got standard large doz eggs $2.99. I bought 2. I love eggs. It seems the backyard chicken fad has faded out around here, hard to find those type of egg sources anymore.

I've been bitten by the bouillon collector bug also. I have Knorr in different cultural flavors, Herb-Ox sodium free, St. Ours clam and lobster bouillon, Haco mushroom bouillon, Goya Hispanic bouillon flavors. Today I found a Nestle product that blew my mind. Barszcz (Polish Borscht) bouillon powder (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), I did not buy through Amazon though, my local Asian market has Eastern European products now and this was something I picked up as an impulse ($2.59) buy because I was intrigued. Yeah, it's probably a sodium and msg bomb, but I find it delicious with a splash of cream. I just make it in a coffee cup with a splash of cream/milk. I never considered there would be borscht bouillon. It passed the taste test of the rest of the household with major thumbs up, which is saying something for just a cup of broth.

It's citrus season. I found really good tangerines and tangelos at one of the few remaining citrus groves in the Valley. I bought big bags and will be sharing them out with other households. There were also navels, oro blanco grapefruit and some sort of red grapefruit. The pecan crop looks healthy too, the in-shell nuts are sweet and meaty, but a bit of work to shell. My lemons are getting close for harvest also. I think the vast majority of my crop will be donated this year to whatever food bank will accept them.

Farther down on the Chef Rubber page where the RimLicks are featured is a product called Cocktail Bondage. So, yes, I think they have considered implications and know what they are doing. Sex sells cocktails and vice versa, in certain venues. These products have Spring Break/Girls Night Out drinks written all over it. But I imagine cocktails using these mixtures will be EXTREMELY pricey.

One of my memorable travel meals was a bowl of Chile Colorado and a small pile cinnamon bunuelos in Taos on a cold, cold, windy day. SW version of chili and cinnamon bun.

Several spoonfuls of Ikura, right out of the container, no rice. Coffee as beverage.

I know what's wrong, my dough is too wet. My kitchen scale broke a while back and I just keep forgetting to order another one. I finally remembered yesterday and I got a digital one, and a jeweler's scale for under $15 total. We also had uncharacteristically humid weather and I have my oven outside on the patio.

I needed to feed my neglected starter, so I fed it and it woke up nicely. I needed to make room in the jar and refeed it again. The removed starter became a batch of thin pancakes/crepes (my pan technique is terrible, so the shapes were all over the place). I love crepes with powdered sugar and a squeeze of lemon. The sourdough tang just adds a nice background flavor too. I have a batch of sourdough potato bread dough slow rising in the fridge. I hope it turns out, make bake it late today or tomorrow. My breads have been very disappointing lately.

Very non-traditional, Bison burgers, fries, chips-n-dips, salad. I am making pineapple upside down cupcakes. Winged it with a boxed Duncan Hines yellow cake mix. Sounds like a summer menu, right? Compared to the rest of the lower 48, we are summery. Heck, we're practically Australian Christmas weather. I know the weather and flu bugs have been decimating family plans, but I do hope the best Christmas Holiday possible for you and yours.

Green chile stew with cubed {previously SV'd and frozen) pork loin, some jarred ABQ green chile sauce, frozen diced NM hot green chile, cans of crushed and cubed tomatoes, a couple of tblsp Pollo con Tomate bouillon, a little crushed cumin and coriander in the IP for a few minutes. The jarred sauce and frozen chiles were roadtrip acquisitions from a fall vacation. The only thing I was missing was tortillas.

OK! I love Keogh's chips. I get them at Cost Plus World Market. The crinkled balsamic vinegar are the best to me. Then the sweet chili followed by the sour cream chive ones. There's an onion steak flavor, but I don't think it's amazing. Nice to see as part of your airline food.

I impulsed bought TJ's frozen soup dumplings this week. Pork/ginger and steamed chicken flavors. We came home starving for lunch from different tasks and wanted something quick(!). I put these in the 3qt IP with a silicone steamer tray (about 1 cup water in bottom) and put on saute with a lid for 10 min. Took 2 batches, but they are darn good for a frozen food. I will buy these again and the saute/steam/cover method in the IP worked very well.

I use my FP intermittently for batch cooking at the moment. LIke pasta dough and pie dough, shredding 6 lbs of carrots, or 3 heads of cabbage for coleslaw. I can't foresee a time I will not need one. Yesterday, I used it to turn 2 large slabs of halvah to powder to mix into cookie dough which was an unusual opportunity.

I just opened a can of Kimbo Roasted Eel just to see what it's all about. Interesting, crispy with a sweetish sauce. Ate some over fresh hot rice. Shared a piece with the local friendly feral (fixed) cat, she ate it after a few sniffs and licks. I love unagi, but I don't think this canned stuff will substitute my desire for a proper sushi bar eel dish. One and done.

I love the canned escarole soup, it's a "feeling under the weather" comfort food for me. Unfortunately it's not in stock online at the moment. I hope Cento will keep making it. I messed around with dehydrating many common ingredients when I was learning my Excalibur. I shredded lbs of carrots with the food processor and then dehydrated them. Turns out, I find them super useful, grab a handful for soup, add to rice during cooking, toss in coleslaw/salads, add to dips...etc. They rehydrate quickly and give the carrot sweetness. I haven't baked carrot cake with them yet, but now that I think about it.............

My favorite ribs. How will you finish them after the sous vide it done?

Someone wanted Italian wedding soup. I threw together 3 precooked sweet Italian sausages, sliced (essentially meatballs, right?), 1 can of Cento escarole soup + 1 cup of pork bone broth + 1 can water (mixed with the existing leftover 1/2 cup sausage broth), 1/4 cup dehydrated carrot shreds, 1/2 cup DeCecco Acini de pepe (mistake, should have just added 1/4 cup). Simmered on low in a covered saucier for about an hour. It was thick with the acini de pepe, but oh so tasty. A pantry friendly soup.

Leg of Lamb. Whole Foods had a sale and I bought the monster one, 10+ lbs. Rubbed with a spice mix that included Old Bay. Took about 2.5 hours to 145F-150F target. Excellent. My naan though was a executional failure, dough too loose. I used a wadded up cotton towel for a naan pillow to slap dough to the wall. If my dough was drier I think it wouldn't have been such a struggle. We ate it anyway, kind of more like a lahvosh. I'm not giving up on naan yet.

Smoked sturgeon with wasabi mixed in cream cheese accompanying a strong Belgian ale. Now I want some cheap-ish caviar.

I have been instructed locally by "the eaters" the only appropriate cracker for this cheese ball is Melba toast rounds, preferably pumpernickel or rye. They said saltines are for spray cheese. Didn't know about so many rules!

Can you believe the Velveeta topic has been silent since 2015?! I shop on AmazonFresh and sometimes they offer incredible deals on things that I can't pass up. This week was Velveeta & Philly cream cheese (buy X get X free). I don't actually use Velveeta much as I am not a mac-n-cheese eater, but I shop for a couple households and Velveeta gets used there occasionally. I ended up with the queso blanco version of Velveeta in multitude. So, how about a Velveeta cheese ball/dip. Tis the season. Cream cheese, ~ 1 cup blanco Velveeta shredded, ~1 cup dehydrated onions : rehydrated in pickle juice, ~1/3 cup garlic powder, to taste dried chives, for color celery powder, to taste and a smidge of msg. Good now but better later. If I do mold it into an official cheese ball when it cools down, I have Everything Bagel mix to roll it in. Can't wait, now I need to find a party (and some appropriate crackers).

I may do some Polvorones with lard (might experiment with bacon fat LOL).

Seems to be some nice fat on those cuts. That's not too common for us out west here. Our deer (mule and coues) are lean. I like cuts too. Sous vide really has changed up my wild game techniques.