Okanagancook

At last, the burritos are finished. All 120 of them plus 15 extra flour tortillas! Whew Wasn't so bad because I got to use my new rolling pin the the inlay wood patterns. Some burritos have been distributed to those in need of a hot cheesy fix and the others are in the freezer ready for winter lunches.

Goodness, those eggplants look amazing Shelby. I have a plethora of cherry tomatoes too. I remember a recipe from Cooks Illustrated where one halves the tomatoes and salts them well. Leave for at least half an hour then spin them in a salad spinner. Strain the juice and if you have a lot, reduce in a sauce pan. Cool then use it to make the dressing in the usual fashion for the tomatoes, adding fresh basil and maybe some chopped shallot. Makes for a less watery salad

I too don't do well with sweet foods especially in the morning and that includes sweet fruits. Ha, just had a burrito for breakfast. I guess it is mainly tradition that dictates most peoples' choice for their meal. Would be interesting to hear from people who grew up eating like liuzhou and how that influenced what they do today.

Ok, I thought burritos were mainly bean based. We don't have many good Mexican restaurants here...just Taco Time/Bell if you can call that Mexican. Anyways, this time I mixed the cheese into the meat filling for ease of stuffing rather than sprinkling some on each burrito as I wrapped them. Much quicker and I think it tastes better all mixed in. It was difficult to judge how much cheese to put in though. Mind you, one can never have too much cheese

Like these. Had one for breakfast. Dough is from D. Kennedy ( 1 lb white flour; 2 oz. pork lard; 2 t salt and 1 cup warm water) and the filling is that chopped pork with some onion, cheddar cheese, cilantro, coriander, cumin, Mexican oregano, ancho chill powder, salt, pepper, three habanero chilies and some more chill sauce because it was not hot enough and could still do with some more heat.

Thanks. Need to investigate what's available here. Good luck with the asparagus.

Well, that's very disappointing! I have to opposite problem. I have bugs in my leaves but the roots are good. They seem to be bigger this year for some reason.

I have never made tamales.....just can't get around all the lard in them. Plus we can't get dried corn husks here. But thank you for the thought. It'll be more tortillas or may be freeze some for Tostados and corn tortillas. cheers

Yup, may have been a couple bigger than four inches...the ones on the top for sure. Must take my ruler out to the zucchini patch tomorrow

As a followup to the pig roast. Spent the whole day in the kitchen making tortillas out of the leftover meat. So far I have 72 made with enough filling for probably 48 more. Sheesh. They make good lunches and will probably last until the 2016 pig roast. Ok, stopping now. Cracking open a cold one.

Actually those were mostly about four inches in length.

haresfur: The raised bed looks like it is fabricated out of metal. Is it aluminum? that is brilliant. We made our initial raised beds out of regular two by eights that I painted twice but after 8 years they started to rot. Now we are using some kinda treated wood that is ok for growing veggies. Not sure what it is called as my DH did the purchasing. We have a large bed that needs replacing so this metal may be the way to go. How are they attached at the corners if you don't mind explaining. Asparagus is difficult to get going. We planted four seedlings last year and only one made it. We have a stand of wild asparagus that does well if one ignores it :-) cheers,

thanks, we had it fabricated and have done about 20 pig roasts and 3 lambs.

Today's haul. Dug up most of our potatoes. Those big tomatoes are Cherokee Purples. First time I have grown them. Saw a whole show on them with It's a Chef's Life. They are very juicy and for us they are not getting blossom end rot like some of the varieties I have been growing in the past, early girl comes to mind

Dinner the next night after the pig was 18 egg yolk pasta from Flour + Water along with a sauce made with freshly picked tomatoes and homemade Italian sausage and that zuc salad posted on another thread. My nephew, Eric, wanted to learn how to make the pasta and he did a fine job without too much intervention. The amount of pasta and sauce was enormous and we all thought there is no way on earth we are eating all that. Wrong, Eric managed to almost finish it off.

68 lb pig on the fire (charcoal and apple wooed) at 1 pm; the picking of the loin area started at 3 pm and the hams/shoulders were at 140F by 5:30 pm. Took it off the spit and put it on to my granite countertop and carved it up to go with the sides. No pulled pork, just slices. After 36 people ate all they could I had 8 lbs of meat left some of which was pinkish while other parts were over done. With the latter I will make some carnitas and the pink slices we'll have in sandwiches over the next two days. Now the bones, etc. have simmered for two day and it smells very piggie in here. Ready for straining today.

Dinner on Saturday was this girl and the sides including a big old pot of baked beans which is not on the table yet. Our tenth annual pig roast.

Foolishly I planted five zucchini plants thinking I would harvest them when they were nice and small so therefore I would NEED five plants. Wrong. I get six+ little gems a day at the moment. This was zucchini and arugula salad was delicious: 1 garlic clove 3 oil cured anchovies1 oz lemon juice1.5 oz Fonterutoli extra virgin olive oil*salt and freshly ground pepper to taste 8 oz green zucchini (whole)8 oz yellow zucchini (or yellow crookneck squash) (whole)2.5 oz arugula Serves 4 as a starter salad Crush the garlic in a mortar and pestle. Add the anchovies and crush them too. Add the lemon juice and combine with the garlic and anchovies and then add the olive oil, stirring it all together to emulsify the dressing.

Ok EVERYONE absolutely out of the park meals on the last couple of pages. My finger would be raw hitting the 'like' button. So, just once a great big blown away I wanna come your house for dinner like.

Yesterday I made Paul Prudhomme's lamb jambalaya. I put some of the spice mix on the lamb shoulder cubes that I had browned well then threw it in the pool at 131f for 8 hours. I then added it to the mix just before cooking the rice. This is a great way to make stew type dishes because the meat was nice and juicy but tender. I may even put the meat in after the rice has been in there for 10 minutes next time. Sorry no pics.

It is in Under Pressure.

The tip of the tongue seemed lean which is what I put on the crackers and probably why I wrote 'lean' in my post, but you are correct, as I sliced the rest there was quite a bit of fat on the underside of the tongue. Looked up the nutritional analysis: 1 oz has 6 grams of fat compared to an ounce of corned beef which has 5 grams of fat and then there is top sirloin trimmed of fat at 3 grams of fat per ounce. 3 grams of fat per ounce would be considered 'lean' I believe. At any rate, it was delicious. We don't see tongue in main stream supermarkets around here. Our local butcher has them along with lamb neck . This one I got from our Vale Farm that we like so much....grass fed organic beef.

Yes, it is hot here in the Okanagan but we have not had luck growing okra. Except, the first year we tried it the plants were four feet high and we got okras quite well but since then the plants get about a foot high and one or two okras are harvested per plant. We have tried in different beds but to no avail. So, we have given up and now that the Superstore is here, they have it quite regularly. All the ideas for cooking okra above sound good. Thank you for posting. I tend not to fry it because we are watching our waistlines! Curried okra is also nice. Usually the recipe calls for it to be fried with onions and spices.

Bacon brushed with maple syrup, zucchini pancakes, baked tomatoes from the garden and microwave scrambled eggs

Tom Keller's corned beef tongue! 28 days in the corn brine. 24 hours in the pool at 158F. Skinned. Sliced. On crackers! Yum, yum. Got 600 grams of lean meat off one tongue. A definite do-over.