lemniscate

The seasoning was finished with hoarded freezer pork fat that was rendered into chicharrons. All this was an early morning patio endeavor, so I cracked a beer and stirred and sampled the chicharrons as the seasoning continued.

Just in time for Halloween/All Saints/Samhain/Dia de la Muertos comes this wok cauldron. $20. It was cleaned and smoothed, so now seasoning starts. Thing's a beast, 7" deep and about 24" wide. I had been looking for a discada, but this is just as good. Playing with fire on the tao burner. Before and During pics.

I need to make some Mettbrötchen, I love raw meat dishes (in moderation). Do you know what pork cut they use to grind that?

Tortilla chips and a bean dip. Chips are Kirkland brand. Bean dip is Isadora Mayocoba refried beans in a pouch with some salsa stirred in. I've never seen or tried Mayocoba (peruano) beans before. The refrito is lighter in color and very light creamy smooth texture. A little bland right out of the pouch. Made in Mexico. I saw them on sale and grabbed some to try. I think $1.89 for a 15oz pouch.

I think I have that pattern of barware in a couple cordials I inherited. Mermaids look so at home there.

LOL, I'm sure she has not. But, since she had asked me about it, I've investigated online recipes. Doesn't sound like anything special until I looked at the ingredients of the Serendipity frrrozen mix(tm) and it says a blend of 14(!?!) gourmet cocoas. yeesh.

Is there a passable Creami version of the Serendipity Frrrozen Hot Chocolate. Asking for a friend.....no, really. We were talking about kitchen appliances and she wasn't aware of the Creami and asked if it could replicate that dessert. She apparently always made a pilgrimage to Serendipity on her yearly NYC trips. I'm not familiar with that dessert or the Creami so I couldn't speculate.

They still exist! (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

My second go at junket was a fail. I warmed 2 cups whole (non ultra pasteurized) supermarket milk, made sure to keep milk 90-98F, added 10 drops rennet. The flavoring I tried was a package of Swiss Miss hot chocolate. It did not set. Left it the whole day at room temp and its still liquid. Theory is that something in the Swiss Miss counteracted the rennet, maybe.

To remember a forgotten thread about forgotten ingredients. I was shown some old family photos taken in a classic Dinner Club steakhouse somewhere in Detroit, maybe late 60's early 70's. On the steak plates were garnishes of the large sprig of parsley, and a lettuce leaf topped by a spiced apple ring. I haven't seen or heard of spiced apple rings in many dogs' ages. Whatever became of spiced apple rings? Also was a slab of plain vanilla ice cream topped with super cute little plastic animals.

Some of the bits of cheese were smoked cheddar or something like it.

You'd think I'd have an exact answer to that, but that's not how the cheese sauce was created. No weights. In the fog of the morning, I believe I had about 1.25 to 1.3 cups of hot water (just enough to cover the blades in the Wildside blender jar). The cheese chunks were probably 1.5 cups by volume. About 1/3 tsp of sodium citrate. That gave it a pourable sauce consistency. I changed my mind and added 1/8-ish tsp of xantham to give a more dippable texture. I have been tasked (challenged) to clean out the fridge and freezer and pantry of my eclectic collections of minor odds and ends. This was the first repurpose of about 4 bags of "stuff". That's why the measurements are on the fly.

I had a collection of parm rinds languishing, also had cheese ends that I tossed in the freezer for when an idea might hit. Well, it hit. I made Melty Cheese Sauce in the Blendtec. Advantage: 1 container/appliance, just add hot water, cheese pieces and sodium citrate and turn on. Noisy, but done in about 2 minutes. I have a smoked parm sauce for over eggs today.

Ah não!!

Not scientific, but I did 8 drops out of the rennet squeeze bottle. I think maybe it wanted 10, but the junket did become smooth and spoonable at room temp, though very soft. It's now in the fridge to cool completely. Hoping it will thicken much more when cold. I used the rennet bottle from cheesemaking.com. It says 1/2 tsp sets 2 gallons of milk in 45 min on label, that's why I guessed at what *might* be scalable for 2 cups.

I am trying my hand at a junket dessert (rennet milk pudding). Not the packaged type, but warm milk and liquid rennet. I guesstimated the rennet amount for a 2 cup portion. I flavored the milk with vanilla sugar and LorAnn super-strength flavorings, just 1 drop each of coconut and marshmallow. It's slowly setting up as it cools. The taste I snuck so far is a coconut cotton-candy.

I'll give those a try. Maybe on a roll like like a po' boy.

My parents are old-school KO sardine eaters, but it has to be the two-layer version, evoo. My dad insisted the best sardines can't be had anymore because they were packed in sild oil, which has gone out of fashion for various reasons. He hates the soybean oil versions. I think he liked the Brunswick brand back in the day. I have tried many times to appreciate sardines, KO, Costco and European versions ie Matiz, Bela (my last version was Santo Amaro (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). Good but I don't crave them. And I love anchovies, so I am good with strong fishy flavors. The best sardine experience I have is the #9 Sardine Bahn Mi at Lee's Sandwiches. So Freaking Good. I crave this. I understand the sardines in the sandwich are something like Ligo sardines. I think they break up the sardine and remove any backbone before putting in the sandwich, because I've never bitten into anything but the fish. I gotta get over to the Asian MegaMart and grab a can to see if I can do anything with it.

Costco has an online listing for Ortiz Premium Canned Seafood Tin that crosses the sardine/tuna territory. Not sure how much of a deal this may be, but it's a nice assortment (though no anchovies ) by the looks of it. Features: 2 Jars Of White Tuna In Olive Oil (13.4 oz each) 3 Oval Tins Of White Tuna In Olive Oil (3.95 oz each) 3 Rectangular Tins Of Sardines In Olive Oil (4.9 oz each) 1 Tin Of Piquillo Peppers Stuffed With White Tuna (10.5 oz each) 1 Jar Opener

The description sounds more like underworked. Bob's Red Mill explanations. A few signs of under-kneaded dough is a dough that is: Floppy and loose Tears easily Has a "shaggy" look For a simple way to tell if your dough has been over-kneaded, check for these signs of over-kneaded dough. Dense and stiff Hard to flatten out Hard to knead by hand Resist being reshaped Tears easily when stretched

I would buy that in a hot minute in USD. Aldi is new to my area, but it looks like this item is not stocked in the US. Shame.

Costco had panko breaded frozen shrimp as a "Hot Buy". I impulsed bought. I put them in my newly acquired Chefman for about 10 min. Maybe that was a *bit too long, but they were satisfyingly crispy. Nice size shrimp. I dipped in a sweet and sour sauce. Anyone do frozen clam strips/bellies in air fryer yet? That's my favorite all time breaded seafood dish, so hard to find anymore as bar food. If so, what supermarket brands are good? I have noticed that the air fryer can be a convenience food enabler (ie egg rolls, fries, breaded shrimp). I have never been a frozen food/meal buyer per se, always wanted to do from scratch. Now I have those things in the freezer, for better or for worse.

Nothing but chopping up and putting in dehydrator. When dry, I then spin in a spice grinder to a powder and its done.

I've been dehydrating celery and making a celery powder. I've added it to potato salad, cole slaw, dips, broth/gravy, etc as a background flavor. All the celery flavor with none of the its added moisture that can make some dishes soggy. I prefer celery leaves over the stalk for eating outright. I can't get leaves on the normal supermarket celery around here, they are trimmed naked. I have found that Chinese celery has tons of leaves and a stronger flavor which makes me happy for my celery fix.

Question on these. I had a pack of those 8-9 years ago I bought to use on my tao burner. The first time I used it over properly ashed down and glowing charcoal (no open flame), the bloody things melted. I was cooking boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Needless to say, the meat was ruined. I then realized that in the description on my grill mats said "up to 500F" gas/charcoal/electric. I would imagine on most outdoor grills 500F isn't hard to achieve regularly. Anybody else ever see grill mats fail?