Sharon Skelton

Thanks Chris. I think I'll smoke some of them and use some in the venison sausage. Since the venison has be frozen and thawed I thinking it should be smoked. I've got the chips in the freezer - cherry, merlot, they were soaked in apple cider as I recall - have to remember to thaw them out. We're towing a 5 x 9 trailer behind us. It will have clothes, my extra cookbooks that wouldn't fit in the coach itself, some A/V projects, and the smoker, slicer, and as much of my kitchen as I can cram in there. Not sure how - but we're wondering how to build a curing chamber - perhaps in one of the "basement" compartments. Living in a motorhome will NOT stop our passion - and being on a visit in CA means we can get good bellies and pork parts to smoke.

It's just a Chef's Choice electric slicer - I think I got it at Cooking or Chefs.com We do cut the bacon in half so that it will fit on the slicer. It works great, and the slices fit in the pan better. That bacon is so good that I just cannot imagine eating anything else. Our big problem was getting really good pork bellies here in ND. On one trip to CA we took our cure with us, bought a huge beautiful belly, cut it into 2 pieces that would fit in ziplock bags, rubbed it in the cure and bagged it. We brought it all the way home packed in ice in a cooler. Worked perfectly. Living in an RV will mean that we are refrigeration challenged - but we will figure this out!

Last winter I ordered a bunch of pork jowls with the plan to make Guanciale. Well the jowls arrived frozen solid and were cut into small chunks. Then it was too freakin' cold, and immediately too warm to hang anywhere. Soooo they've been in the freezer ever since. Now we are getting ready to move into our motorhome and I have to empty a 25 cf freezer and get it down to where it will fit in a 4 cf. freezer that we can take with us. I'm making venison sausage from Charcuterie with most of the venison I have. I'm going to corn 1 piece and cook and slice it. Now I'm wondering if I can use the basic bacon cure on the pork jowl chunks and smoke them - perhaps using some thyme in the cure????? I amazed our friends here in North Dakota with our home cured and double smoked bacon. They thought, for sure, that I was taking credit bacon we purchased because it was sliced so perfectly. I sure love our slicer!

I did spaghetti squash with last week with truffle butter and simply tossed the truffle butter and squash strands to coat - there was flavor - but the next day when I reheated the spaghetti squash with the truffle butter it was very pronounced - and my DH raved. He wanted to know if we could have that frequently - very frequently!

YPants I have this one and love it. I couldn't justify spending over a hundred bucks on one - but this one does a nice job. and we have a lot of fun with it. Daikon radish is amazing!

Sharon my mouth is watering at the thought of chocolate chili pots creme for dessert, that sounds right up my alley. I may have to look into finding a recipe for that...do you have a favorite? If not, I'll see what google brings. Here's what I've decided on, For appetizers, fresh guacamole and chips, and a selection of cheeses and crackers salad, mixed greens with toasted walnuts, goat cheese and dried berries with a balsamic dressing braised short ribs in red wine and dijon mustard sauce....from epicurious. Have it going now, here's the recipe Will serve with creamy mashed potatoes and crusty bread. I was torn between that or this months Bon Appetit cover recipe that has rave reviews at Epicurious, Texas Beef Brisket Chili. It has no beans and has butternut squash, which I thought has a unique seasonal flavor. So, I bought all the ingredients for that too as a backup...will make tomorrow and either use or freeze. Here's therecipe For dessert, I was thinking of making a family favorite. It's basically a flourless chocolate cake, rich and decadent, made with equal amounts of chocolate and butter and super easy. This recipe is from Orangette's blog. I am intrigued though by the idea of chili chocolate pots de creme so am not 100% yet on dessert. Thanks everyone for all of your great suggestions. Pam ← Chocolate Chili Pots de Creme This is so stupid simple - I really need to make this again! 1 1/4 c. heavy cream 2/3 c. milk (scant) 1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne (I like chipotle better) 2 to 6 dried red chiles (I used all 6 a combination of ancho, pasilla, and california red) 12 oz bittersweet or semisweet (or a combination) 2 eggs Combine cream, milk and dried chilies (seed and stem) in a heavy saucepan. Heat until just barely boiling and let steep 15 minutes. Strain, add cayenne, and reheat. Place chocolate in chunks in a food processor, pour the hot milk mixture over, let stand 30 seconds. Process for 1 minute, add eggs, and process for another 45 seconds. Pour into 1/4 c. ramekins and let stand 6 hours or overnight. Now - this is all well and good - impressive, wonderful dessert but I frequently throw in the remainder of the pint of cream and put it all in an icecream machine and freeze. Yummy too. Depends on the season.

Oh how we miss this gin! It's been a good 3 years since we've seen it - we keep trying different ones (Damrack the last) to find something similar. Alas; nothing. I'd certainly buy some - if it were to appear on a shelf somewhere.

As our first storm of the season approaches I'm thinking braised short ribs & polenta with a crisp salad & crusty bread. Beef, pork, or chicken slow simmered in a red chili sauce, lots of fresh corn tortillas, a quick saute of black beans, hominy, diced jalapeno & red onion with lots of fresh lime juice and cilantro. A slaw with cabbage, peppers, onions, carrots, & a vinegar based dressing with lots of oregano (make the day before). Of course sour cream (or crema), shredded cheese, salsa, and lime wedges to garnish. Perhaps a chocolate chili pots de creme for dessert????

We love brown rice! Brown basmati is fantastic - much richer flavor than white. We're also doing a high fiber diet and we're enjoying it immensely. I cook my brown rice just like I do any other (other than for risotto) - I lightly "toast" it in some butter or the appropriate oil, add 1 cup of water for each 1/2 cup of rice, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover and let cook until the water is absorbed. Take off the heat, cover with a crumpled paper towel & lid and let sit for 5 minutes. It's always fluffy, nutty and wonderful. Almost as fun to eat as barley! I've got a rice cooker that was a gift from a friend. I've only used it a few time - hate it!

That's only happened a few times for me. Most recently it was a beautiful lamb ragu - first time I'd ever made it. I followed all the directions, even though I was skeptical of the milk in the sauce. By the time the ragu was done I wanted nothing to do with it. We grilled steaks and and I saved the ragu for the next night. I guess the smell and the thought of the milk in it curdled my stomach. The next night we had the lamb ragu with bucatini and it was amazing! We fell in love with it!