snowangel

Dinner tonight was wonderful From Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet the silky pumpkin/coconut soup, stir-fried chinese broccoli and jungle curry. I was very dubious about the soup when I made it after I got home from the store, but an extra glug of fish sauce and a bit more cilanto helped. I do think they are right on this one when they say flavors develop as it sits for a while. The jungle curry could have been a hell of a lot hotter for all of us (except Peter). I upped the peppers from 8 to 10, and I'd go another 4-6 next time. I ended up slicing some birds and putting them in a dish on the table. However, it is an outstanding curry. Oh, and the recipe calls for sliced pork. I read that recipe two or three times, and just figured (show's how carefully I read the recipe; reminded to self to always put reading glasses on first) they'd want us to chop it up. But, I did have ground pork. And, when I think about all of the jungle-style curries I had in Thailand with long beans, they always featured ground pork. I was happy. There was a ton leftover, but Heidi would not eat it and since Peter is sick, he wasn't very hungry. I should add that I often make a dish very similar to this using My WebpageMaesri Prrik King Curry Paste One of the reasons I use this is the time factor. Making your own curry paste takes a long time. It took me about 45 minutes. Opening a can is really simple. And, I've learned to agument with some lime leaves, etc. I should add that my Asian market has that krachai stuff -- frozen. It is great if you can find it. I think it can be a difficult to find ingredient. The broccoli dish is one of my all time favorites. I could probably eat this dish almost every night of the week. My kitchen disaster of the day came with that fermented bean stuff. It comes in a bottle. There always seems to be a plug of dried stuff at the top of the bottle, which needs to be removed so you can shake it up. I'd advice removing the plug with a chopstick or something, not by just shaking it upside down and missing the sink! I made 2 pounds of broccoli worth, and there is none left. Upthread someone asked about particular brands. The two I'm really married to are Maesri for curry paste and Tiparos because when I was growing up in Thailand, that's what everyone I knew bought!

I don't often make my own curry paste. And, today, I remember why. Although it is a superior product, it does take a lot of time. A lot of time. It's a great upper body workout, and Peter got into the action, too. And, yes, I use a mortar and pestle. The other really cool gadget I have is this smasher (which was a gift from a dear friend) It smashes garlic, and sure made mincing and pounding that lemongrass, galangal, etc. a lot easier! It can also work as a grinder thing in a bowl. Best of all, it is stainless steel, so if you use it to wash your hands, it gets rid of nasty odors. So, the soup is made, and my mise is all in place. I love custard cups. I use the custard cups I got from my grandmother's house when she died. Some are smaller, some are larger, but they sure make it easy to keep track of things. Oh! Better go and pick some lime leaves!

Whew. I'm ready for a short break! After breakfast, it was off to church, and then I taught Sunday school. Then, to the local Asian market. It is about 10 minutes from my house, and is quite large. It is in a short newer strip mall, and the mall also houses a real estate agency that caters to Hmong, Thai and Vietnamese, and a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant, which is pretty good. One of the nice things about the restaurant is that they also sell whole roast ducks. The first thing you see when you enter the market is Contrary to the big sign above, this is not the fresh produce area. The bottom of the refrigerator case is almost all noodles of all varieties. Above that is dried fish, packaged refrigeratred bean sprouts, etc. The table in front contains baked goods. Breads, moon cakes, all sorts of stuff. Immediately to the right of it is a long, floor to ceiling fridge case stocked with vegetables of all kinds. For some reason, I did't take a picture of it. Behind the noodle case is an area that L's off that must be 30 x 30 piled high with bags of rice. They also have a meat counter Two very old, very little ladies cut up the sides of meat. Many people were going up to the counter and asking for things which weren't in the counter. Seafood and fish Turnover here is great so things are very fresh. Red snapper was $3.99/lb (they are whole, but they will clean them for you). Salmon heads. Shrimp (21-25 count) were $4.99/lb. They also had catfish, tilapia and a couple of other kinds. They also have an "aquarium" style water thing that usually has crabs and stuff like that, but they were already sold out by 1:00 pm today. I can't believe how many different brands of bamboo shoots there are The two middle shelves contain nothing but bamboo shoots. The top shelf nothing but different kinds of canned mushrooms. The bottom has dried stuff in bags. Talk about ramen noodles! The top of every shelf unit looks like this -- tons of ramen noodles. They also have two of these long freezer cases filled with frozen seafood, dumplings, dumpling skins, etc. I didn't take a picture of the long aisle of "treats," nor the aisle of coconut milk, nor the one with curry paste, nor the several aisles of jarred and packaged condiments. And, they have a small deli They always have banh mi (white paper, on top), different packaged gelatiny desserts, pickled greens, larb, some more baked goods, deep and crispy fried whole fish (pomfret?), and usually have the Vietnamese spring rolls but they were sold out today. My rewards This place does one of my favorite bahn mi's in the Cities. $2.00. Nice crispy (but not chewy), soft interior, loaded, right amount of tang, and when she sees me coming, she makes one up fresh and adds a bit more of the marinated carrots and cucumbers and a couple of extra slices of jalapeno. Time to get back to pounding my curry paste!

Omelettes for breakfast. The pictures are embarrassinly bad. But, the omelettes were very good.

Hash browns, fried chicken (mixed with another oil), fried eggs. Popcorn is also really good if you use bacon grease...

Susan, Is this a crusett.. I just bought something at the outlet store for 49 bucks... Its been great so far.. ← Yep, Le Crueset. Although the lighting is not right, the color is granite, which since it was discontinued was about that same price at the outlet. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 quarts. The baked beans. Two pounds of dried beans just about filled this baby up. I was going to do one pound. But, dry, one pound looked so puny. So, I added another pound. I should state that the first pound was navy beans. The second pound some bigger white beans in an unmarked plastic bag from the coop. So, I dumped them into the stock pot and covered them with water to soak overnight. I don't usually soak beans overnight, but as I was waiting for my brisket to finish last night, activity kept me awake. When I woke this morning I realized I had forgotten how big dried beans get! And, figured I'd have a ton of leftover beans. Wrong. These were so good that there is very little leftover. I certainly could have scraped it into some tupperware container, but I'm to tired to take care of the LC tonight. Call me lazy.

I'm thinking that those Dutch Babies would be mighty good with some really fabulous local apples (tart) that have been carmelized. Thanks, Kathy, for putting the recipe where we can find it!

This is sounding like me yesterday. Nothing went right. I forgot to mention that Peter fell off his bike, ripped the knee of his favorite pants and bled all over the carpet. And, given the storms and flooding of the past two weeks, it almost put me over the edge. Such is life of two blogging moms with a total of six kids and two husbands! Edited to add: with the way things have been going for the two of us, I can't wait to see what we produce on Monday's Pasta night!

What a busy and beautiful day. My house was spotless. It is still almost spotless. The guests (except for my cousin, who isn't really a guest anymore) are all gone, the dishwasher is running, the counters are cleaned off, and the house looks magnificent. We had a wonderful time. The birthday boy got a new Springstein CD, a bottle of bourbon, and best of all, a trolling motor. But, the best of all for him, was the brisket. The point revealed a perfect smoke ring. Please note that I finally figured out how to take close-ups of food with my camera! (A Canon Powershot G1 -- the cat's meow when I purchased it for an obscene amount a few years ago.) The point was, IMHO, the best part of all, but then again, all of that fat absorbs the smoke and provides a succulence that is, well, never mind. For sides, we had Waldorf Salad, cole slaw, and baked beans (this recipe from RecipeGullet). These baked beans were the best ever. Since I didn't want them to be too spicy (demuring to Heidi and my in-laws), I used a mess of chipotle salsa (made by Salsa Lisa) and a more restrained amount of chipotle Tabasco. These are the beans I will make time and time and time again from now on. I did the beans in my LC in a low oven, as directed, and about 2 hours before I knew we'd want to eat, added the foil wrapped brisket to the oven. Waldorf salad proved to a perfect foil to the rich brisket. It was a match made in heaven. I used Haralson apples. They are a tart, fairly juicy apple. This is an interesting apple, and the cooking choice of many Minnesotans. There are several apple orchards around that also offer baked goods, and for most of these orchards, Haralsons are not offered for sale -- they use them themselves for baked goods. THe Waldorf was standard -- apples, celery, walnuts and apples with Hellman's. I wish I'd made my own mayo, but I didn't. Dessert was two pans of apple squares Susan used Haralsons for these, too. They have a bottom and top crust, a thin smear of whipped egg whites, and a powdered sugar/cream/almond extract glaze. Minnesotan's will recognize the 5 quart pail of Kemp's vanilla, pretty standard fair for a party. We had a grand time. Part of the what makes birthdays special is our table. It has a built in lazy susan, and I think I included the story of this table in my first blog. I can't begin to count the number of celebrations which have occurred for our family around this table (not to mention regular meals eaten, homework assignments done, grocery lists written, cups of coffee or wine drank). Sometimes a table can tell a thousand stories. I have some brisket left, and some baked beans left over. This time of year, when there isn't a lot of space in the indoor fridge for leftovers or things you want to cool quickly, we put them in the outdoor fridge

Kris, for the bento boxes, did you make the onigiri and the minced chicken loaf?

For breakfast we had waffles and bacon I love my stovetop waffle maker. The big can on the stove is my bacon grease can. Please ignore the rest of the mess on the counter! This is probably Peter and Heidi's favorite breakfast The kids really like their waffles topped with yogurt. I mixed some plain yogurt with some raspberries from the freezer. They get really juicy when they are thawed, so it colors the yogurt a light pinking purple. Peter also likes syrup on this mess (no accounting for taste) and loves dipping his bacon into syrup. Time to get those counters cleaned up, floor mopped and vacuuming done. Guests in just over 5 hours!

No, Arne, the temp was about 180, and dropped over the course of time. I should not have cut them in half. That was my biggest mistake, I think. As to the Weber Kettle. Yes, I have to add extra charcoal. If you look carefully at one of the photos above, you'll see that I have the hinged grate. On each side, a few inches can be lifted up so it's easy to add wood and charcoal. I used hickory. Edited to add: if you go back up and look at that picture, be sure and take note of my high tech thermometer!

I was up so late with my brisket and those zucchini that I slept far later this morning that I had intended. I scrambled and got coffee ready and got the baked beans in the oven. Cooking breakfast right now!

Yes, smoked zuchini. I tried. Chalk it up to "another lesson learned." Daddy-A talked about smoked tomatoes, so I figured, why not give it a try. Kris, upload some photos! I want to see you bento boxes when I wake tomorrow. I''m handing it over to you as I need to sleep.

The point came off about 1/2 hour ago. Finally. Interesting that this made it through the stall much faster than the flat. Perhaps an experienced smoker can chime in here. Anyway, about the time I took the point off, I realized that I had some small yellow zucchini in the fridge. So, I figured, smoke them? Well, I cut them in half lengthwise, for more surface area and stuck them on the grill. Well, in the meantime, I did the mom thing. Meaning multi-tasking. Heidi cried, I gave her a glass of water. Peter needed to be covered up. The dryer buzzed. Backpacks needed to be hung up. It's the stuff that parents do as they walk through the house. Ate another apple. I think it was only about half an hour, but could have been a bit longer before I thought to check. This is what I recovered The rest of them shriveled up enough that they fell through the grates. And, the white stuff on the next to the one at the top is not shine from the camera, nor is it mould. It looks like burned wood! I won't be smoking zucchini any time soon. But, I will brush my teeth and go to bed, now. Weekend breakfasts tend to be big at the Fahning household. Add to that a party, and the necessary last minute clean up and shopping that always accompanies a get together, tomorrow will be a busy day. Sweet dreams, all.

After 12 hours, the flat is done. I regularly smoke butts, but don't smoke briskets as often, and have never done one when the ourdoor temps hover in the upper 30's/lower 40's. The flat was twelve hours at about 220. I think I have a while longer on the point, so I'll be up for a while. Interesting that the stall on the brisket seems to go on for much longer than with butts. Smoking brisket can make one tipsy.

Brisket is still stalled, so I had an apple, a piece of cold pizza, and another apple. I think I'm going to be up for quite a while tending the meat.

I love my trusty Weber Kettle. I thought about getting a new one, but this one is sill very servicable! We had to drill holes through the top handle and bolt it to the lid, but it was a $.50 fix! The mat is plastic or rubber or something; we got it at a hardware store. It is meant to lay under grills. Works well. My choice is butt, too, but Paul requested brisket, and the gathering is for his birthday! And, I couldn't find a small enough bone-in butt to fit on the grill at the same time as the brisket. The flat should come off in a short while. The point is stalled.

Good morning, Kris! Sounds like you will have a soggy, muddy day! So, it turned out OK I couldn't do Thai tonight. Diana and a friend wanted to go out to dinner together to celebrate birthdays, so I took them to some local chain, and dropped them off (we will pick them up when they call). Since the chain was next door to Costco, and we needed more milk, and I needed to get buns for tomorrow's party, I stopped at Costco. I got the milk, a bag of 36 "dinner rolls" (which seem to me bigger than dinner rolls but smaller than hamburger buns). I also got this Half sausage, half combo. 18", $8.95. I ordered it when I got there and it was ready when I got done. I am normally a thin a crispy crust person, but every so often a thicker pizza is OK. This one's crust has a great chew. So, sorry nothing exotic, but I bet I'm not the only EG'er who had take-out or delivery pizza tonight! The minute I got home, I checked on my brisket It's been on almost 8 hours, and the internal temp of the flat is at about 168 degrees (F). I have a ways to go! Good thing I didn't start drinking beer when I put it on!

Brisket currently smoking over here.

My brisket has been on for almost 4 hours, and is starting to look like brisket In the meantime, I have eaten. I ate a mess of pretzels. Finished the first bag, in fact. I was still hungry, so I dove into Peter's tuna salad (even though it has relish; it was prepared). I cut one of my brandywine's in half, squeezed out some of the seeds and juice and filled the crevices in with tuna. Carried it out on the deck and ate it with elbows on the deck railing, juice running down onto the sleeves of my sweatshirt. It was darned tasty. It also filled a hole. Stay tuned for alternate dinner plans. It's going to be really fast and easy.

My brisket is on and has been smoking for almost three hours. It is not yet photo worthy, but I am getting nice wisps of smoke! Temp has been holding steady between 200-225, with one 5 minute 240 spike. I'm starting to smell like bacon...

That's a great idea! I'd better get some apples. Oh, wait, I have a mess of those chestnut crabs. I'd better get to the market tonight or tomorrow morning. Need celery and raisins. And, apples will be featured for dessert. That was another problem that appeared today. I was originally going to bake a german chocolate cake for tomorrow, using the recipe in a recent issue of CI. But, when I went to get things together, I realized that an "experiment gone awry" (Peter) has left me with no 9" cake pans. Well, I can't go out and get any today. I was questioning whether a cake that size would feed 30+ anyway. So, when my best friend called, and offered to make two pans of apple squares (her mother's recipe; she'll get Haralson's at the farmer's market tomorrow morning), I leapt at the chance. Maybe I'll just make potato salad. I have all of the stuff here for that. Any other thoughts?

Time for some advice. I'm obviously not doing dishes from HSSS tonight. Tomorrow night is out for this because of a party. Sunday night was supposed to be BBQ; I was going to marinate and grill skirt steak and serve it with pico and a cooked salsa (like my former Hispanic neighbors did). But, I have all of this great produce from the market, and that pumpkin, which I'm sure is happy in my vehicle in the parking lot of Paul's office. So: Should I do Thai on Sunday? I can get to the Asian market easily on Sunday. If so, how do I try and best preserve that glorious bunch of chinese broccoli which seems inappropriate for tomorrows meal? Next question: So, I'm having brisket tomorrow for the party. I'm also going to make baked beans. A friend is bringing cole slaw. I'm going to have salsa and chips. Another friend is bringing another "southwestern cheese" dip. Do I need more sides? If so, any suggestions?

Well, today is not going as planned. Paul called a few minutes ago, and said "if you're looking for your car, don't worry. I took it." Apparently, the electrical system in his car is not working, so I am carless today. Thus, no trip to the Asian market. And, since Peter, Diana and a friend who was here this morning polished off the rest of the bread (in the form of toast), I won't be taking tuna salad sandwiches to Peter this noon. I need to contemplate dinner tonight, and may have to put the Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet meal off until Sunday. I don't have any pork or chicken in the freezer, and the pumpkin is still in my vehicle. The best laid plans of mice and men... So, when the going gets tough, the tough get smoking. For tomorrow's party, I am going to smoke a brisket. It's been thawing in the fridge. I cut it in half (so it fits on my trusty Weber Kettle) And gave it a good rub with Klink's Dry Rub. I've had my morning battle with plastic wrap, so it is resting in the fridge. I know it should really go 24 hours after rubbing before going on the smoker, but I'm going to smoke it today! I'll start the smoking in a couple of hours.