snowangel

I made the Creamy Macaroni and Cheese from the NY Times article that appeared early in January once again. I will admit that the first go-round was not successful -- I had doubled the recipe (which may not have been the problem) and because of kid stuff, had to leave it set for a long time post cooking. But, I made it again last night, per the recipe, and using their times (my oven is accurage). It was wonderful. It is the preference of my family, according to them last night. They are not bechamel mac and cheese fans, nor are they fans of the evaporated milk/egg method. Cheesy goodness:

I just found a pair of jeans in the freezer.

Rochelle, the ribs look great. I love ribs, but have not purchased them at Costo, since my local supermarket has them on sale occasionally for $.99/lb. You're right, I would grill or smoke the ribs; I've even done them outside at 10 below. For a rub, you might want to take a look at Klink's Dry Rub -- it's very good, and includes sumac. I wasn't familiar at all with sumac until I saw this recipe, and found it at a local Middleeastern market. I've really taken it, and find it a wonderful addition to hummus, bean salads, etc. I think the cheesecake bites look beautiful!

Good going, Marsha! Since the blog, I have only slipped once, and seem to be back on track. One of the things I discovered in the first few days was unbelievable forgetfulness and clumsiness. You should have seen my hands! I've found cooking to be therapeutic. I can't say I'm eating any more, but I've made two kinds of stock, onion confit, and am about to embark on marmalade (orange habanero; BTW anybody know at what point I add the peppers???). How's food for you, Marsha? I'm still waiting for the taste revelation, and found stuff like carrots and celery to be worthless for cravings.

I'm confiting onions for the first time in my trusty Rival Crock pot. I used the basic recipe in RecipeGullet, and a full five-pound bag of onions that I'd forgotten I have in the basement. On at about 2:00 yesterday, turned down to low at 10:00 pm, and it's back up to high now. But, what was strange was when I stirred them this morning, the stuff on top was quite dark, and the stuff underneath a straw color. But, I just looked at it again (and gave it another quick stir) and it is now uniformly darker, but not dark enough. This stuff smells wonderful!

Over here is a pretty definitive topic on hot sauce.

Tammy, no advice on quantity or anything, but upthread (post 55), Linda talks about the baked method of Sara Moulton's. There's a link to the recipe in RecipeGullet in Linda's post, too.

Marlene is correct about what I think of as smoked pork stock (actually, this last batch also had a smoked turkey carcass!), but before I smoked my own meat, I made the stock with smoke hocks. No veg, no nothing. Just smoked hocks and water. (I'm not a big fan of carrots and onions in stock; I think they can add too much of a sweet note.)

The take and bake pizzas from the back of the store are not the same at all. For one thing they are square, and they are awful. The FOH pizza is pretty good for what you get here in Minnesota at a "chain" but the BOH stuff is completely different. My kids like the FOH pizza, and it is a HUGE slice. I almost always shop at Costco in the late morning, and have never had to wait behind more than two people in line. The samples really vary. Most of the heat and eat stuff is not my cup of tea, but I love it when they have samples of the deli salads, chips, seafood, meat items, etc. Just today, they were giving samples of bagels with cream cheese -- 1/4 of a bagel per sample! I'm lucky because Costco is only about 1/2 mile further than my local supermarket. Gas was $1.96 there today!

Yep, it's Chipotle Tabasco, a most worthy product. These beans also freeze very well. Use dried beans, not presoaked, and up the water a bit, and keep checking. The smoked pork stock really does add something. The only problem I have with these is that every time I go to a bring a dish meal, everyone always wants me to make these, and I like to cook other things as well. So I usually show up with two different dishes!

These are a great start. I usually add some smoked pork stock, and make sure that the bacon is as great as possible -- I get some fab bacon ends from a local butcher/smoke house. I do not soak my beans overnight first, BTW. I use a 7 quart oval LC and double the recipe.

Rochelle, mashed potatoes sound like a good idea. You could wrap some add-ins to the column (roasted garlic, horseradish, etc). Do you freeze your leftover waffles? I do, and it sure makes for an easy breakfast. Into the toaster they go. (I'm a rip and dip woman, too.)

Welcome aboard, Marsha! A couple of notes as I reflect on the last couple of weeks. First and foremost, if you slip, you slip and pick yourself up. One thing I've noticed is that my alcohol consumption is down. I think that for so many of us, the two go hand-in-hand. My cravings for sharp tastes, particular spicy, is still very strong. Crunchy is still high on the list. But what's been really interesting is that I thought I would want to substitute food for that oral need. Not the case at all. I'm having a lot of trouble, during the day when I'm home, figuring out just what it is that I want to eat. I'm amazed at how many half-eaten lunches I've thrown away. Meantime, Marsha, smoke like a fiend today. Smoke yourself almost sick!

Lori, I know that it can be hard to justify purchasing cookbooks. But, this one is worthy. Forget the Yankee Pot roast, but remember all of the odd combinations that are divine. I, too, thought that Rendang would be too spicy for a couple of the kids, but they love it. So, return it to the library, and if no one has it on hold, ask if you can renew it. And, while you're at it, watch one of these on eBay. And, so what did happen to that frittata? They chill well and make great lunches in kid's lunch boxes...

What Marlene said. Not blogging and not smoking is easier than blogging and not smoking. It's hard to be public when so vulnerable. But, keep those PM's coming. Smell is definitely on the rise, and I'm awaiting Maggie's taste revelation. They say it is 1 day at a time. More like 10 minutes at a time around here.

Do sweet souffles and mousses count?

After the exhausting blog, I swore I wasn't going to cook tonight, and more, that I wouldn't take a picture of what I cooked. But, that package of chicken thighs in the freezer just about leapt out and grabbed me, so out they came, and out came All About Braising. I had a winner in the Soy Braised Chix with Orange and Star Anise. I had everything on hand, and it is a quick braise. This is a real winner! The kids pronounced it their second favorite chicken dish (after fried chicken ). I did not have the energy to get out the rice maker and make rice, but I would make that effort next time, as the juices just scream for something other than a tongue to sop them up. Some notes on this recipe: I did bone in, skin on. What I did with all but one of the thighs was to brown seriously with skin on, turn over, remove skin, and flip back over to brown the top of the thigh. Cooked thigh meat browns much easier than raw chicken. The one thigh that I did not remove the skin on -- the skin separated during the cooking and turned flabby (ick). In my picture, I had removed the meat from the bones. Cut up the orange peel intro 1/4" strips because they are really yummy eaten with the chicken. I did not have a problem with too little sauce, rather I think I had a bit much. Don't add the green onion tops until you put the dish on a platter or in a bowl so they stay nice and green and crisp. The temp is right on for this one. I started it at my typical 225-250, and upped it after 15 minutes to the suggested 325.

That's the other thing I forgot to tell you! (Blame it on nicotine deprivation) But, when it starts to go, it will go fast. Beware. When it is going is not the time for a kid to skin a knee (trust me, been there, done that). I should go on record here as to saying that her timing is off on this one, and it needs longer.

Lori, this is one of the ugliest dishes ever when it gets started, isn't it? Fear not. It will quit looking like some sort of odd science experiment!

Come to think of it, I never did post after my last two Rendangs. One was pork, one was beef. BTW, the pork was equally outstanding. When I did the pork one, I had country ribs, and cut the meat into smaller cubes than the recipe calls for. It worked like a charm. The last time, I used chuck steaks, and cut the beef into smaller cubes just like I did with the pork. It was not nearly as successful. The meat, although very well marbled, dried out a lot more than it did when I used the smaller pork cubes. Now that I think of it, well marbled beef doesnt' have those same "streaks" that pork does, and I really think you need the bigger cubes if you're doing this dish with beef.

I think Marlene and I will be keeping AIM pretty active! It will be interesting to see how things go without this virtual support network, but I've got plenty of support around the house.

That's actually been one of my favourite things about this. My car has never been so clean (no ashes anywhere) or smelled so nice. I'm looking out the window at the smoker, realizing we never cleaned it last night. It was too late and too dark to even think about it. I'm also realizing I forgot to line the water pan with foil, so it's going to be a mess to clean up. Where does one dump a pan full of grease and water anyway? ← In the trash. Use a wadded up newspaper as a spatula. The kettle uses disposable foil pans, which makes clean up really easy!

This has been a most interesting 12 days. I spent most of my time here (Paul and I built this desk) in my sunroom or here I must clarify by saying that my kitchen is tiny, but it is not yellow. I need to figure out the white balance on my new camera (but most of the literature is in Spanish). Well, the floor is, but the rest is grayish white. But, back to the business at hand. This blog, on my part, started as a lark, because I was serious about quitting. The lark ended when the blog began. It has been an oddly emotional week, and I have felt oddly pubescent -- moody and off kilter. It has been hard to fall, pick myself up, fall again, and make some confessions that seem truely sick -- all to a vast audience. But, pick myself up I do, and I do that very well (the falling and the picking up). My PM folder is brimming with e-mails which I haven't had the energy to respond to, but will spend a day or two doing nothing, and then respond. These PM's, as well as the on-line support has been invaluable. I've wondered over the past few days whether this quitting endeavor would have been better accomplished quietly, by myself or in view of thousands. The verdict is still out on this, but I have felt vulnerable. I have cooked, I have cleaned, I have done the laundry, and taken a boatload of photos. And, spent countless hours in AIM talking to Marlene as we are working out this new way of life. And, we will talk tomorrow and work our way through our cravings. We've gotten each other through many a rough moment! As the Olympics start, and I hear that familiar music (but still miss Jim McKay), I'd like to award gold medals to Paul, Diana, Heidi and Peter. The stalwarts, who have endured far more photos during 12 family dinners than anyone should endure, but they are buoyed by what the mommy is doing. Families take a pounding during blogs. Just ask mine. The coffe maker is set for tomorrow, and the burr grinder is full of beans, Peter has changed the linens on my bed, fresh from the dryer. Reward for a hard 12 days!

What was it with our pork today? Were the gods against us? I've never had pork that took this long to get done, and it appears, Dave, that you had the same experience. Yes, some oven time won't hurt any of our butts (or blades).

I did not have the energy, nor the time, tonight to pull all of the pork. This was interesting. I got a shoulder blade, not a butt, and they perform differently. I think I may have been a bit premature in pulling the thing off, So, I pulled some, wrapped the thing up tightly in heavy duty Reynolds foil and it is sitting on the deck. Tomorrow morning, I will put it in a 225 degree oven, take care of household business and pull it later, and get ready to make some smoked stock and parcel the pulled pork into appropriately-sized ziplocks. This is a way of taking care of the pork when you don't want to deal with all of it at the time (and it works well, trust me, I've done it). But, back to that big ass shoulder blade. It is more well marbeled, and seems to need more time on the smoker for all of the stuff (the tendons, collegen, whatever) to meld together. So, I will give it oven time tomorrow and melt all of those lovely bits into silken smoothness, pullable by an easy tug.