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Stephanie Brim

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Everything posted by Stephanie Brim

  1. Bullhead, crappie, bluegill, perch, and walleye. All fresh water and local. Why? Because this is Iowa. Getting quality saltwater fish here is iffy. My dad fished to supplement our food stores all year round. We had a fish fry once a week growing up, generally served with fried cheese balls and french fries. It was our junk meal. It was appreciated that my dad went out and actually caught our food. And, though the fillets from that fish were, most times, on the small side, it was always really good. I still don't know what he puts in his fish breading, but it's great the next day, cold, soft breading aside.' And, yes, I eat bullhead. You just have to eat around all those tiny bones.
  2. Oh yes. Original for me, milk on the side.
  3. I will hear no bashing of funnel cakes. They were 'too expensive' when I was a kid and I barely ever got to have one. I LOVE those things. In fact, most fried dough is up there on my list of guilty pleasures. Much like the Minnesota fair, the Iowa State Fair tends to have a pretty wide selection of fried food. Of course, it also has to be on a stick. If fried stick on a stick would sell, they'd do it My favorite, though, is the BBQ pork booth. Fresh and amazing. Now, if only they'd do a whole pig...
  4. Oh, I agree about the apples. But, yes, the broccoli is bad. I buy frozen all year round because of it. It sucks. I love fresh broccoli. Next year we'll be growing a lot of the things that we can't get here reliably (including fennel, leeks, arugula, fresh shell peas), and broccoli is on the list of things. The green beans are the real offender, though. We tried some a few days ago with roast chicken. They were almost inedible. My daughter, being the lover of green beans she is, ate them anyway, as did I. I don't plan on buying them again, however. One thing that surprises me constantly is that the Missouri peaches that we get always seem to be very, very tasty. Almost always bruised somewhat thanks to the produce people not taking enough care, but I can't fault the flavor. Oh, and one other thing that is always impressive: the honeycrisp apples. Almost always have great flavor. They just also have a huge price tag. I get about three per year of my favorite apple because $1.50 per medium apple is a little...steep. Oh, and about strawberries: I find that the only store brand worth eating is Driscolls, which we get in the higher-end grocery store in town from mid-May through September. Usually. They're generally reasonably priced as well, but I guess that weather has been a factor this year. The price is almost $4 per pound.
  5. Right now, pretty much my entire kitchen. I'm working on that tomorrow.
  6. For fresh stuff like cheese and milk, I've been known to completely ignore dates and go by smell/taste. I can generally tell if something's off. Cheese gets the mold cut off (as long as it isn't covering the whole of the cheese; then it gets tossed). Meat tends to go by the expiration date here as I'm very cautious about that as a rule with a toddler in the house. Canned goods? As long as they're not dented and were stored in a cool area of the house, I'm okay with up to a year past date. As to boxed stuff like mac & cheese or crackers: I follow the dates. I've gotten burned before when the packet of cheese sauce in the Velveeta package tasted funny.
  7. Stephanie Brim

    Dinner! 2010

    Slow roasted tomatoes are so good. I need to do that now that local tomatoes are available and tasty.
  8. Stephanie Brim

    Dinner! 2010

    What was supposed to be dinner today: is now going to be dinner tomorrow. Topping with reduced sauce from cooking (this was Crock-Pot and then finished in the oven) and serving on warm flour tortillas with normal taco fixings for around here: tomatoes, lettuce, onions, cheese, and sour cream. Or, well, some of it is. There's something like four pounds of meat in that bowl. It's one I normally use for bread. I think my butt may have been a bit too big. I think this is my first post to the actual dinner thread. Hi. I got a new camera and I'm really liking it so far.
  9. Dredging up an old topic, but I just wanted to say that I bought a new one today. Figured I'd share why. So I decide that I want to make a non-traditional take on carnitas with my bone-in pork shoulder tonight for dinner. Okay. Good. Rub the thing down with the spices. Wait for half hour. Go to put it in the enameled dutch oven. Whoops, too small. Have the hubby dig out the slow cooker. Whoops, too small. I couldn't get another dutch oven that was worth my time before I really needed to do something with the pork, so I went to the local K-Mart (in our small town, it still exists) and picked up a programmable 7 quart Kenmore. For $45. I think I came out on top there. So my pork is happily cooking away, and I'm pretty happy with my new larger pot. Turns out that the 4.5 quart Hamilton-Beach one that I got as a Christmas gift a while back just isn't big enough for some things I want to do. Whole pork butts are one of those things. Of course, this also means that I must find a 7 quart dutch oven for the times when I want to do this type of thing in the oven. The slow cooker, though, was much cooler for this 90+ degree day.
  10. Well, I went to the local coop for the tomatoes. The zucchini was a farmer's market find. Anyway, I do have complaints. I live in a small town. You'd think that, with farms all around (and some of them growing things other than field corn and soy beans) the local stores would be able to source a lot more local vegetables and fruits come late summer. Not the case. Not at all. Most of it is brought in from other states, spending a couple days on a truck, and then comes to us less than fresh. I go 40+ miles to the 'local coop' to get my good stuff and thank them profusely by paying quite a bit more than I'd pay anywhere else for things I should be able to get cheaper and fresher. Sometimes, anyway. But I have two kids. Seriously, those $6 tomatoes, to be eaten tonight with Manwiches and mac, will probably be the best ones I eat this year. I can't really afford to be buying them again. The worst offenders for me: broccoli, any form of squash, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, snow peas, and fresh herbs. None of these 'fresh' items are really that fresh when they hit here. You should see the green beans. They're scary. Thin, stringy, and a very strange shade of green. Not exactly appetizing. I went into the store once recently to buy broccoli and it was limp. Really. It just makes me want to cry. I love vegetables. I could be a vegetarian if I could somehow rid myself of the love of pork I've grown up with (hello, Iowa). What the stores are selling, especially in the winter, are not vegetables. They're selling something with the same shape, and maybe even the same look, but the texture and the flavor are almost always off.
  11. I love wheat bread for almost every other sandwich but this one. I think it has to do with childhood memories of the sandwich. My grandmother never kept wheat bread. The only other sandwich I can't stand on wheat is egg salad. That's made with eggs, mayo, salt, and pepper, by the by. No celery or onion or, stranger still, pickles. Those go ON the sandwich once the egg salad is made in my house.
  12. I...uh...wouldn't know. I think Iowa has finally hit its stride as to farmer's market produce and I don't really have to worry about it anymore. Yeah, the local heirlooms are $6 per pound, but it serves me right for not planting a garden this year. Tonight for dinner: heirlooms and pasta with zucchini and garlic cream sauce.
  13. Peanut butter and dill pickles on the whitest, cheapest bread you can find. Seriously. This was a treat that my grandmother used to make for me when I was a kid. I still eat it occasionally when I get one of those cravings. It's the sweetness of the peanut butter and the salty tartness of the pickles that goes really well together.
  14. I have a couple pieces of that stuff, but not a whole set. Mine are really mismatched. I use a small 1 quart saucier that a lot of people complained about tipping over (my stove doesn't seem to have that problem) to melt chocolate. It's, generally, the only use for that pan. The 2 quart saute pan that I bought doesn't get much use now because I tend to cook more food than for just one meal for two people. It is very good for tossing two servings of pasta in sauce, and I do use it a lot of the time to cook small amounts of sauce in. I've had a really good experience with both pans, though. I don't have any complaints. Then again, I bought them coming from a kitchen that had no good pans...so that's something to consider. I still like them, though, even after the Calphalon I've bought since.
  15. Often. If I like something, I tend to make it a lot. I'm trying to truly perfect my brownie recipe every time I make it, but I know that it's good as is. My favorite thing is to riff on old recipes. I make a creamy chicken pasta dish that gets its flavor from garlic and a mix of romano and parmigiano cheeses, but sometimes I don't have chicken. I've modified it and used bacon (lots of tomatoes and peas cooked into the sauce with that one), shrimp (garlic and tomato in the sauce and a very small amount of parmigiano over the top to finish), and a mix of peas, bell peppers, carrots, and broccoli (as a side with, say, a particularly Italian-flavored pork or beef dish or, because I sometimes don't eat meat, a main dish for lunch). If it tastes good and it passes inspection with the rest of my family, I make it again. If it tastes good and doesn't pass inspection, I note that *I* liked it and make changes to try and bow a bit to their slightly different tastes. When I'm alone, I cook the version that I prefer. Case in point, I love morel mushrooms and my husband hates all mushrooms. One of my favorite ways to eat morels is to toss them with pasta and nothing with butter, salt, and pepper. To me, it's an amazing meal. To my husband...not so much. Knowing I'd never get him to like it, I filed that one under "personal revelations". If it isn't a food he's particularly averse to, I can generally get him to eat it, though. I also make a classic casserole of a white sauce flavored with garlic, salt, pepper, and an overabundance of swiss cheese into which a mix of chicken breast and broccoli is stirred. The whole thing is then put into a dish, topped with buttered and parmigiano'd bread crumbs, and baked until the casserole is cooked through and the bread crumbs are golden. He hates broccoli, but he'll eat it happily if it's covered in cheese sauce. What a kid. I'm one of those who can't rely on always having a cookbook around so I tend to create things on the fly. I've memorized pretty well what ratios of flours and sugars works well for what cake, how far you can go with cocoa before it becomes impossible for it to just be substituted for flour, hydration ratios for my favorite breads, and other such small things that help when you're trying to create something. I do, however, tend to season and spice on the fly, tasting with a spoon until it's right. When I decided to start actually documenting, I had to get spoons out and write down how much I put in when, which was a little hard to get used to.
  16. I do it for both reasons. Sometimes I'm bored and I want to exercise my brain, and other times I have this desire to perfect something that goes beyond all reason. Right now, it's pie crust. I haven't met one I truly liked yet. I know that I don't like shortening taste in a crust, and for most fruit pies I don't like sugar in a crust either. The one I made today for an apple-cherry galette-style pie is getting close, but I think too much liquid was added and, in the end, it was tough. Back to the drawing board after we finish this pie.
  17. I'm curious about how my methods compare to others. Sometimes I throw stuff together. Sometimes I thoroughly conceptualize before I even get started. When I'm organized, most of the time it goes something like this: Concept phase: in which I write down what I want to accomplish with the recipe, if it has layers I actually draw a diagram and mark each layer as to what it will be in the finished piece, I make notes as to how it should taste, the texture I'm wanting to shoot for, the plating I may want to do, etc. Creation phase: in which I actually start making it. I tend to go through at least three ways of doing something before I get to the point that I like it, and then a couple more before I actually call it done. It takes more or less time depending on how well I know the ingredients I'm using and how simple the dessert (or, really, anything) is. Testing phase: in which people are my guinea pigs. This is my family's favorite part. After each time I make a dish, we all test it. I also have a few people who *aren't* as afraid of saying whether something is crap or not taste it. I take suggestions, make notes, and try again until I get it right. Creation and testing repeats until recipe is final. Final phase: in which the recipe is done and I can actually make it well. The recipe goes in my personal recipe file. I do this for fun and have for quite some time now. I really like trying new things (or, at least, those new to me) and it actually allows me to stay sane as a stay at home mom. Now that my husband and friends are pushing for me to sell *something* at market next year, I'm working on things that could go and sit on a table for a few hours: breads, pastries, cookies, bars, and cupcakes. So how do you do it?
  18. That's the one I've been trying to convince my husband that we need for next year. Both kids old enough to eat ice cream and such. Hm. May think about it more, then.
  19. I find myself in need of a new ice cream maker myself. Mine has an interesting problem. I have one of those cheap gel-bowl Rivals that you can get at WallyWorld for $20. It actually makes surprisingly good sorbet. I used it for the first time in a few years last night to make a lemon berry sorbet (that needs a little water added due to to the flavor and sugar content being a little strong) and it worked like a champ except for one tiny problem: I had to stand there and hold the lid on because it wouldn't fasten down due to a bump on the bottom of the machine from the cooling gel expanding in that spot. Or, well, I think that's the reason. One can't really know. At the moment, I have it sitting in my deep freeze upside down to see if that helps. If it does, there will be some salted caramel deliciousness going on here tomorrow. If it doesn't...well, I'm going to need a new machine. I've decided on the ICE-20 with an extra bowl or two. This is for a couple of reasons. The ICE-30 is $30 more than the ICE-20. It makes half a quart more than the ICE-20 does. I could buy an extra bowl for the ICE-20 with the money I'd be saving, and I'd get, again, 1.5 quarts more capacity. Good for dinner parties where either want more than one flavor or even more of the one I'm using. The second? My only real requirement for an ice cream machine is that it produces a reasonably textured product in a reasonable amount of time. This machine seems to do that, and quite well at that. Bells and whistles are nice, but ultimately unnecessary. Saying this, I did look at the Kitchenaid attachment since it's David Lebovitz approved, but the extra cost just doesn't do it for me. Yeah, the stand alone machine means something else to store, but, again, I could purchase an extra bowl for the other one with the money I'm saving not buying the Kitchenaid. All in all, I'm pretty happy with what I've decided. Just thought I'd share and thank those who shared as well in this thread. It's very informative.
  20. lemon and berry sorbet. Using 2 cups of syrup to 1.5 cups of lemon juice = a very, very rich tasting sorbet. I added a shot of homemade blueberry-strawberry syrup to the mix and it was heaven. Now...if only I didn't have to stand there and hold the lid on my ice cream maker. Guess I'll have to get that new one after all.
  21. Quoted for truth. I've been constantly lamenting, while baking and cooking up a storm, that I didn't have someone to clean up after. A stand mixer, even a cheaper one, will make cakes, cookies, and bread a lot easier to do. Half sheets are a necessity and very cheaply bought at Sam's Club. Made in the USA, too. To expand on dishers, ladles in different sizes are also quite useful. You'd be surprised how many people don't think of adding more than one size to their utensils.
  22. I find King Arthur Flour's whole wheat, both the traditional and the white, to be ground exceptionally fine. In fact, I make 100% whole wheat bread with that flour that passes the inspection of my white-bread-loving toddler. The ability to make a really good wheat bread depends on your technique just as much as the fineness of the flour you use. Or, well, at least it does in my experience. I use the particular method from Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads" slightly modified for me, personally, and how I work. All the flour goes into liquid for at least an hour before the rest of the ingredients go in. I tend to split it up to roughly half being a soaker and half being a preferment. The soaker is always slightly more wet than the preferment, and, since my whole wheat bread is a pretty wet dough to begin with, I have no trouble kneading the two together with the rest of the ingredients in the Kitchenaid. I've done it by hand as well, but it's far more convenient NOT to get that messy when I have two kids. I'm pretty sure that you could also do an overnight soaker (in which you just put flour and liquid) or a preferment (in which you put the flour, liquid, and yeast) and get similar results, but I've not tried it. Maybe I should. Need another bag of flour, though.
  23. 3 sets of dry measuring cups 3 sets of dry measuring spoons 1 1-cup liquid measure 1 4-cup liquid measure I want more, too. It all comes down to mise en place. I can have things set out in their proper portions for a recipe before I go about making it and it saves time. I tend to use them as prep bowls when making things that don't normally need measuring cups, too, but I'm hoping that changes when I order the sets of clear glass containers from Crate & Barrel.
  24. (HOST'S NOTE: Previous seasons' gardening discussions can be found here) I got my first packets of seeds for this season; the rest will be on order by the end of next week. I'm planning to start them all at the same time. So far on the list: Blue Lake 274 beans Royal Burgundy beans Super Wax beans Waltham Butternut squash Super Sweet 100 Hybrid tomato Sun Gold Hybrid tomato Yellow Pear tomato San Marzano tomato I don't like hybrids much, but the Sun Golds I had last year were so tasty and the sweet 100 is such a garden staple that I couldn't pass it up. All the tomatoes will be started at the same time. I'm looking forward to the San Marzanos. I want to know what all the fuss is about. This isn't all, obviously. There will be zucchini, yellow squash, acorn squash, sugar snap peas and sweet peas, carrots, potatoes, bell peppers, onions, lettuce, watermelon, strawberries, and blueberries. I'm still on the fence about adding lettuces, cabbage, broccoli, and your other leafy greens. They took over a friend's garden last year. I'm also undecided as to what herbs to grow this year, though basil and parsley do see a lot of use, and my rosemary, thyme, and oregano should all come back. Chives, marjoram, savory, and fennel may join the ranks this year, as well as regrowing the basil, parsley, and sage.
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