Shelby

Beautiful! Is that the traditional apple in it's mouth? I love brined pork. I bet that would up your flavor for next time.

Thanks, I will check this out! Where do you purchase nut flour? The grocery store in the big city has a selection of Bob's Red Mill products and I THINK I saw some there, but can you get it cheaper elsewhere?

As Basquecook says, they do that all over Mexico, too. At the taco trucks and food stands. Really an efficient way to serve everybody food on a clean "plate" when you don't have washing facilities. Hell, I should start doing this at home. Would save loads of time

Interesting!!!! I love seeing how they get the eggs on sticks. And, I'm glad to learn about the plastic covering over the bowls. I would have never known that and probably done a huge blunder by dumping the food off the plastic into the bowl!

Hi ya'll Pho Salad. Going to be eating lots of these. Venison chili Rueben and tots Taco salad. Sorry about my hand. Apparently I was starving and needed to reach for my fork immediately. More of my birthday Foie

Anyone tried the spinach shirataki? http://www.miraclenoodle.com/p-72-spinach-angel-hair.aspx

People at work requested cinnamon rolls. I made a big batch. Gave most to work. Froze one pan for us.

The shirataki noodles are the plain ones, not the tofu kind. Are the tofu kind better? I chose these because I thought the tofu ones had calories. Need to research that more. I actually did get one of those thingys that spiral cut zucchini over the summer. It was great when we had squash coming out of our ears. I used a half and half combo of veggie noodles and real pasta. It was pretty good, actually. I will have to get some from the store next time.

BUMP I'm on a mission to lose weight. I turn 40 October 10, 2014 and I want to be where I used to be weight-wise. I'm starting now because I want to have plenty of time to reach my goal. I figure if I put this in writing, I have to stick to my plan lol. In high school I weighed 95-100 lbs. I don't know if I can get that low again, but I'll be happy at 115-120. When I reach my goal, I'm treating myself. Maybe a trip somewhere. I haven't been anywhere for years. Maybe Vegas.....Anyway..... I'm making a lifestyle change (eating-wise). It seems like I'm always either losing weight or gaining weight because once I lose it, I go back to my old, carb-laden ways. Yes, folks, I am addicted to carbs. Or I was, I should say. When I was younger, I ate pasta morning, noon and night. I always thought that was ok. After all, there are no fat grams listed on the pasta package right? HA. Now, I'm wiser and know those sneaky carbs turn right to fat. I began on October 15, 2013. I weighed myself a few days ago and have lost 10 pounds in 21 days. Thank GOD because I have been trying so hard and would have been really depressed if the scale didn't show results. I have decided not to weigh very often, though, because it might discourage me. Instead I'm going by how my clothes are fitting and how I feel. My plan is as follows: No carbs or very very few carbs during the day. For our evening meal, I am trying to avoid carbs, but if we have sandwiches, I will have 1/2 a sandwich...or have the filling inside a lettuce wrap etc. I am eating a TON of salad. Salad, salad salad. Salad before eating the main meal at dinner. I will not, however, give up my wine. Yes, I know. I don't need to be told how carby it is. I can't give up everything or I will become a bitch lol. Disclaimer: I post pictures in the Dinner Thread. You will see carbs in these pictures. The carbs you see may or may not have been eaten by me. Most likely it will be my husbands plate, but I will be eating SOME carbs at night. Exercise. LOTS of it. A minimum of 45 mins a day on elliptical machine. More often than not I'm doing about an hour and a half. NO SKIPPING exercise. I am keeping track of food intake and exercise on an app on my iPhone called MyFitnessPal. It's free and it's damn handy. I put in everything I am eating throughout the day and all exercise (calories burned). I am trying to stay at 1200 calories and day. Obviously, the longer I exercise, the more I can eat or drink lol. My fridge is stuffed with veggies....cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts etc. I need to look up the trick about using cauliflower as rice. Hmmm....might need to buy a ricer for that huh. A few last thoughts: Sweet stuff. I've never been much of a dessert fiend. Give me a plate of spaghetti and meatballs any day over dessert. Well, except for my Grammy's cherry pie, but you get what I mean. Anyway, now that the GREAT DIET has started. I. WANT. DESSERT. Sigh. The only thing I've found is sugar free jello (yuck yuck yuck, but when one is desperate, one sacrifices) and sugar free hot chocolate. Shirataki Miracle Noodles. Had my first taste just now for lunch. Made a little broth using dashi, sriracha, soy and nori. Put the noodles in. Not bad. Not bad at all. Best thing? I input my meal into my app. Only 5 calories from the nori. Minimal from the rest. I think these are best in Asian type dishes, but maybe I could put spaghetti sauce on them and try. Noodles were a bit....chewy?? Maybe I didn't cook them long enough. So, there ya go. That's my plan. Let's see if I can do it.

Oh basquecook, I shouldn't have read this without having some sort of breakfast. I'm drooling over all of these dishes. I would love to try the shredded tofu some day. Looks right up my alley. Keep the pictures coming, I can't wait to see more!

Oh dear. I'm definitely a diagonal sandwich cutter.

I could wax poetic on my love of pasta for hours. I break pasta if it's too long for my pot. But, I prefer non-broken for easier fork twirlage.

I have some I'd love to get rid of, but I am so damn lazy that I don't want to go the Ebay route. I'd love to donate them somewhere, but where? Does the DAV take cookbooks? Public library?

I am always on the look-out for good cookbooks for my mom for Christmas. So, I ordered both of the cookbooks you reference. I couldn't help myself this morning and perused both of them (I know, they are gifts...but...don't tell on me and she'll never know ) Anyway, LOVE Pickles, Pigs and Whiskey. I started jotting down recipes and when I got to the fourth one or so that I liked, I decided I better just order another one for myself. The cola-brined chicken caught my eye too. Can't wait to try it. I just started the Collards & Carbonara. So far, I am not liking it near as much as the other.

I can't believe it! We just went on the loveliest food adventure with Dave and Linda and Rupert, and now he's gone --too soon I might add. I, too, have tears in my eyes Pierogi. Linda, big hugs from me to you and Rupert.

We're going to need a picture of your creation, Shel_B!

Instead of cutting around the stem to make the opening, I like to cut a hole in the bottom. That way it's easier to put your light source in. Also, I think it makes getting all the seeds out a bit easier. Then you can season the seeds and roast 'em. YUM!

I was kind of surprised about who got kicked off.....thought it would have been Travis for his crappy red sauce shrimp concept.

Another ramen burger link: http://peegaw.tumblr.com/post/61187393966/making-ramen-burger I still haven't tried to make this. But, someday I will. Oh yes, I will.

Thanks Patrick! Aren't RG beans just the best? I used the Borlotti beans. I know RG says to use them in minestrone, but I love them so much that I use them in everything. I had some left from a batch of chili I made over the weekend, so off they went into the taco salad. Looking forward to your bean extravaganza

TERRIBLE photo, but REALLY good dinner. My husband wanted taco salad. I used venison burger for the meat....Rancho Gordo beans...a few remaining tomatoes from the garden and baked flour tortillas.

Shelby! I'm shocked!! When I wrote about SV Beef Wellington in my foodblog nearly three years ago you said, and I quote: What you been doing with your life, girl?!? My fear came back immediately after your blog ended lol. I have never bought the necessary tools.

Do you eat in restaurants? If so, then most likely you've had SV (or variant) and were not aware of the fact. For example: How Sous Vide Went From Haute Cuisine To Casual Dining I live in the sticks. The last time time I ate in a restaurant the name of it was "The Hoof and Horn" if that tells you anything. So, no. I don't eat out. Can't travel. Thus, dinner each night is at Chez Shelby lol.

I'm currently living in Texas, and we recently had an amusing incident with what we call a "Yankee feller" that just moved here. He had been to enough parties here that he had become accustomed to seeing our second most-popular dip (the first being salsa): chile con queso. Or just "queso" for short. So it's his turn to provide some snacks for the office party. Not only was he not familiar with our queso before he got here, he knew nothing of our pimento cheese, either. At the party, we gather around the hot dip that looks like queso. We each grab a chip and dig in. But it was the oddest, strangest queso dip that any of us had had. I wish I could adequately explain to you how comical it was to see all of these quizzical, puzzled expressions. Yes...it was cheese...and it seemed to have some red peppers...but...but...it was just not right. It took several minutes before we figured out that this Yankee feller had gone to the grocery store, bought a tub of pimento cheese, and heated that up, and served it as queso. The feller that brought it said he thought it was just fine. The rest of us thought it was just weird. Suffice it to say that none of us ever made it again. Including the Yankee feller. It never would have occurred to me to melt that.....are you sure he's not on to the next big thang???

I bet there are quite a few people like me who have never had anything sous vide to eat in their life. Thus, I guess we don't know what we're missing.