lemniscate

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.

Do you grind a bunch? Or do you do some unusual cuts like neck roast or ribs?

I grew up eating that, with the duck blood. We kids called it Chocolate Soup due to its color. My maternal Grandfather always was served the fruit in his bowl. I never knew there was fruit in czarnina until adulthood because I never saw it in my bowl. Ours was served over macaroni and with a splash of vinegar. I have a memory of accompanying my Grandmother to a side of Chene-Ferry market where a woman sold live poultry and would dispatch the duck and collect the blood in a jar. That's a very old, yet vivid memory. Still ate the soup happily after the duck was done for. There was a place out of Buffalo that you could order a czarnina kit with the duck blood, not sure if that's feasible anymore. Real czarnina would be my wish for my death row last meal.

I get great results, for the way I like "bbq'd" meats. I don't like smoke being the predominate flavor in bbq meat, I don't like the sauce or mop being the predominate flavor nor do I like a 1/4" layer of rub crust being the predominate flavor. I like the taste of the grilled meat/fat/juicy with a bit of seasoning. The B.E. just does the right way for me for what may or may not be considered bbq meat. And it's a very easy cooker to setup and maintain (and store).

We've been using the Charbroil Big Easy at a remote site for meals when we are there. So far this season, two chickens rubbed with Old Bay, hung by the legs and roasted to perfection. Next up was ribs (Costco size), again rubbed with Old Bay (there's a commercial sized can there, so needs to be used up) and those were fantastic. I overfilled the oven with the ribs, 4 racks around the edge and 2 racks hung down the middle, all were done to 195-205F in about 2 hours. Juicy, tender, nice bark on the outside. We ate good. I'm going to get brave and try @Dejah's naan technique next. Probably will do more whole chickens to go with the naan attempt.

I can't eat eggs without a splash of Cholula green, I have the big bottle (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) in the pantry.

Migas. A sunny side up egg in a small pan smothered in salsa and handful of tortilla chips. Cover the pan to soften the chips for few minutes and flip over into a bowl. Normally drizzled with crema, but I had cottage cheese instead. It was ugly but so good on a chilly morning.

They're still available, called Grands! Flaky Layers. I loved those as a kid. I think of those as the original "Modernist" biscuit. I can get the readily via AmazonFresh. Also shows Walmart carries them, so they're out there still.

I *think* is supposed to cut down on excess crumbs while cutting the cake? Smoother slicing?

Vintage Stainless Steel Cragston Cake Slicer Server Ebay Etsy Angel food cake cutters have wires, so maybe this is a riff on that type of cake server?

Chefsteps did one on the cheap that looks like it works.

Several elk tenderloins. 135 F for 12 + hours. Precooking and then chilling and freezing is the plan.

Now this piques my interest. Can you post your bubble solution recipe ( url link or DM it to me?) I think it would be fun to make bubbles for Christmas parties. I have guar gum sitting here.

I did some more Kefir Oladi in the A4 Box today. I was out on the patio on a pleasant morning (rare rain is in the forecast). I had a breakfast beverage (German Pils for day 3 of the Beer Advent Calendar from Costco) to assist. The pancakes turned out very nice, I used the circles insert. You can see in the pics how the heat varies from middle to sides on the insert by the browning of the pancakes.

Distant Early Warning beginning 13Dec-24Dec for the Whole Foods 12 Days of Cheese sale 2022. I usually try to get 3-4 of these if time and location allows.