kayb

I've been doing some reading on sorghum since I made my maiden run at cooking it and adding it to my carrot/sweet potato soup t'other day. I think I'm going to try my hand at a sorghum salad that has cucumbers, Kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and a lemon viniagrette -- a vaguely Greek salad. If my oregano has not succumbed to the frost, I might put some fresh oregano in as well, along with some parsley. If it's good, I'll include it in the Christmas buffet as it'll be a good option for the gluten-free (celiac) daughter. I'm pretty entranced with this grain, not least because I've loved sorghum syrup all my life, but only ever saw the grain used in "sweet feed" for horses or cows. As I'm under a doctor's orders to boost my protein intake, and sorghum offers 18 grams in a one-cup serving, I'm thinking if I could make a salad that included sorghum and say, grilled chicken and other stuff, it'd knock a big hole in the day's protein requirement. The stuff is tasty, and has a nice chew about it. Next up: buckwheat groats, which I've had in the pantry for a while but not tried.

From reading the website description, it doesn't appear they're a lot different from steel-cut. As mentioned above, possibly finer. I wonder if one could give steel-cut a whiz or two in the blender and achieve the same effect?

I have discovered yet another reason I love my CSO. I was toasting pecans while doing three or four other things, and I set it to convection back for four minutes, tossed the pecans when it dinged, and set it for four more. Had it not been for them being in the CSO, I would have likely burned them, as I do not have an oven timer that functions.

Leftover potato salad.

Infant. I think of that, and of the party/cover band from the DFW area. Fine dance band for us "old folks."

@Anna N -- what kind of dressing is that? Mayo and....?

Now that would be a handy creature, but for the fact I'd need a spot to put the cart. Space in my kitchen, too, is at a premium, so my IP lives in a cabinet except when in use.

I don't see a doggoned thing wrong with that. Though I might have toasted the bread and foregone heating the cheese.

Here in the Mississippi River Delta, goat was always a prevalent meat in the African-American community. I have been to many a goat barbecue; a whole goat, roasted over coals for several hours, periodically mopped with a vinegar-based barbecue sauce. It's wonderful. Takes well to barbecuing, but it wants a slow, slow cook. There's also a Jamaican restaurant in Memphis that does goat curry periodically. That's some of the best stuff I ever ate. It's in a fairly mild (odd, for Jamaican cuisine, I guess) curry that appears to be either yogurt- or coconut-based, since it's creamy. I detected no coconut taste, though. @Nicolai, I want to tag along on one of your eating-out excursions. In what city are you finding these wonderful dining options, or is it various places? @FauxPas, how did you like the slow cooker mode for the beans? I got rid of my slow cooker when I got my IP, but I find I never use the slow-cook mode and things I might once have slow-cooked I just do in pressure cooker mode now. I've heard the slow cook mode is less than desirable because it heats only from the bottom.

Here you go.

I made a batch of spiced wafers this week. Some of them are going into Christmas gifts. Many are going into my mouth. They are So Freaking Good with coffee. Thank you, whoever brought up that topic and led me to the recipe!

I have her Bread Bible in dead-tree edition. It's marvelous.

Made a Christmas lunch yesterday for some friends who included a vegan. The soup was a carrot and sweet potato soup with cumin, fennel and coriander. I cooked it in the instant pot, pureed it with the immersion blender, and stirred in some cooked sorghum. It was excellent. I'll be making it again. Recipe here. As I find it easy to overdose on fennel, I cut that to a teaspoon. And I used both ground cumin and ground fennel, as I couldn't lay my hands on seeds. Dessert was cranberry pecan sweet rolls, made with egg replacer and vegan butter. As there is only one egg and two tablespoons of butter in the dough, the subs didn't appear to harm it.

Most dangerous food -- fresh corn on the cob, just-removed from the pot and slathered in butter. Pizza cheese cannot hold a candle to the burns this can inflict on the roof of your mouth. It helps if you, like I am, are a fool for the taste of fresh, buttered corn on the cob.

Some days, you get hit with an urge. This morning, I'm craving meatballs, not in a marinara sauce, but plain old cocktail meatballs I can put in a sweet/sour sauce. Ground beef is thawing, and that will be the name of dinner tonight, probably with fried rice and maybe some sauteed sugar snaps.

Meat loaf, mashed potatoes and purple hulled peas at my favorite diner. Wednesday is meat loaf day.

Other "better the next day" foods: cooked pinto, navy, Great Northern, etc., beans. Most soups. Most anything in a tomato sauce. Marinated veggies, as long as they're hard veggies. Pot roast. That said, there are things that are absolutely atrocious the next day. Any noodle dish in a cream sauce doesn't seem to fare well. In fact, most anything in a cream sauce doesn't fare well. I don't care for fresh summer veggies reheated in their original state; but leftover summer sqash sauteed with onions can be most excellently repurposed into squash casserole. I'd use that leftover steak in steak--and-eggs for breakfast, or barely heated as part of a stir-fry or fried rice. Or in a beef pot pie.

I have never yet seen a kitchen cabinet install that went either (a) smoothly, or (b) on time. Good luck! (The floor is beautiful, but that window wall is still my favorite.)

Baking is easy. Making chocolates intimidates me! (As does some of the gorgeous cake-decorating that goes on around here.) Welcome to the group. You'll find lots of expertise, in both professionals and highly skilled amateurs.

I glanced at eBay thinking I might find a decent price on one. $1,739 at Amazon was the best I saw. Not for me, not this year.

I generally fly Southwest, and don't have nearly the occasion to fly as I once did. But I became quite a connoisseur of peanuts and pretzels! I also discovered that (a) Starbucks has the best yogurt/fruit/granola parfait in most airports; (b) Paschal's in the departure area and in C Concourse in Atlanta is the best airport restaurant extant, followed by O'Brycki's at BWI and Pappadeux at Houston Bush. Nuts on Clark at Midway is the best snack shop.

I read this "calamari" at first, and thought it was the oddest looking such I'd ever seen....

I'd love to have a Control Freak. I just can't justify asking for it (or gifting it to myself). Yet.

Some days you're the windshield; last night, I was the bug. I've always loved Chicken Eden Isle, a regional favorite that pairs chicken breasts with bacon and dried beef in a sauce of cream of chicken soup, sour cream and cream cheese. I decided I'd riff on that and make chicken noodle casserole. Rather than use cream of chicken soup, I poached a couple of chicken breasts and made a white sauce, using the broth. Added cream cheese and sour cream, shredded up the chicken, cut the dried beef and bacon into small bits, and stirred that all in. Added a package of frozen green peas for good measure. Cooked egg noodles. Combined everything. It was tremendously bland. I'd used onion powder and garlic powder when I poached the chicken. Added black pepper and a bit of nutmeg to the sauce. It made a ton, which I did not keep. Sigh.

Sorry. It's a little paper tray that they serve their chili cheese dog/coney in. Large enough to accommodate a six-inch bun, weiner and accoutrements. Same thing, different size, as the paper trays lots of places use for sandwiches, fries, etc.