kayb

My very favorite homemade crackers in the world are the homemade Raincoast Crisps, particularly when the real thing is $5.49 a (small) box. I make several of the loaves and freeze them, then slice and bake as needed/wanted. Recipe here.

Glad to have you! Jump right in!

Oh, you mean Memphis ketchup? I don't like the bottled dressings on a salad; thicker ones are OK as a dip. I have a recipe for a homemade one that's decent, though it's not my first choice. I'll doggoned near always go with a viniagrette of some sort on a salad.

Glad to have you here. No better place to learn to be a chef, I'd think, than NOLA. About my favorite food city. What kind of restaurants in Nicaragua? I know nothing of the food scene there.

I buy it from the local produce market whenever I'm up home. The maker we used to buy from all the time is no longer in business. I found an online source in the same general part of the state;; I know nothing about them, or whether they could ship new sorghum to you quickly enough it would not age too much. Of course, it's still good! You might check these folks out, maybe call and ask. http://store.muddypondsorghum.net/

Nothing, other than the fact it has to do with sorghum molasses. Just one of my mutitude of flights of digression. Oh, look! A squirrel!

Appreciate that. Unfortunately, I'll be trying to outrace the rain that comes with it this weekend. Headed to E. Tennessee for a funeral. Hopefully it'll still be cool into next week. Did you send tacos, too?

The spiced wafers. Gingersnaps. Molasses spice cookies. Whatever they are.

Going to make these soon as the new sorghum comes out of the mills. Likely next month. For those who don't live close to the source, "new sorghum" has a distinctly different taste from sorghum molasses after it ages a few weeks. Very bright and almost citrusy. It was always an occasion when one could get the first "new sorghum" of the year (they'd announce it on the news on the local radio station. Major big deal), and I knew what dinner would be that night. Country bacon, crackling cornbread, canned tomatoes and new sorghum. And there was a very specific way to eat it. One put a couple of tablespoons of butter on one's plate, poured a similar amount of sorghum over it, and mixed the two with the blade of a knife. Then one spread dollops of it on the cornbread, a bite at a time. (I always dipped my bacon in it, too. The tomatoes were a nod to having a vegetable on the table, and served to cut the richness of the other items, as well.

When ya can't wait, ya can't wait.

Please do post your father's recipe for goulash. I enjoy paprikash, and would love to branch out!

I have come to love curries, both the Indian and the Thai variety. The local Thai place does a mango curry you can get with either chicken or shrimp that is to die for. I'm fond of coconut curries on all kinds of seafood. Still pretty much a rookie at making my own, but I do enjoy trying. I insist on cooking jasmine rice with my Thai curries, basmati and naan with my Indian ones.

Get thee behind me, Satan!

@Kim Shook -- I blame you for this. Well, you and the fact I went to the grocery while hungry, someone one Should Not Do. I am, for the evening, the proud owner of a bag of Lemon Oreo Thins. I do not expect them to last the night. Thankfully the package is small.

I could get behind a pork chop sandwich. I love most anything one can do with a pork chop. Could give up beef a lot a lot quicker than I could pork!

It's only a frozen pizza from Aldi's, but I got to use my brand new peel!

Had to get that. The author is obviously Methodist.

The blueberry barbecue sauce rocks a pork steak, too. Just sayin'.

Had to spring for Milk Street and the casserole. I'm southern and Methodist. Casseroles are in my blood. (I am convinced it's part of the Methodist Discipline that one must own a 9 x 13 pan. I'm quite sure John Wesley said so.)

Yep. Fine, fine stuff.

Re: fried bologna. A slab of fried bologna, nearly charred around the edges, on two pieces of of mustard-slathered Wonder bread (or Sunbeam), with dill pickle chips and a slice of American cheese? Food of the gods. A thick slab of bologna on the grill, painted with a thin coat of barbecue sauce, ain't half bad, either.

Don't vac-pack a cat or Chum. Or Ronnie! Envious.

Welcome, Bernie. You're in the right place. Many SV'ers in here (me included) and many of them experts at it (me NOT included). Chef Steps is a good resource, too! What do you like to SV? Or cook, otherwise?

The casserole doesn't have a strong eggplant taste, but then, eggplant doesn't have a strong eggplant taste. I knew it had cracker crumbs and cheese, and made an educuated guess as to milk. It has a buttery flavor, too, and a crumb-and-cheese topping. In yesterday's iteration, I roasted five small-medium globe eggplants for 40 minutes at 400F in the CSO on steam-bake. Let them cool, halved them and scooped out the flesh; it made about 2 1/2 cups when lightly mashed up. Stirred in two beaten eggs, about four ounces of grated co-jack cheese, a quarter-cup or so of half and half, and about 2/3 of a sleeve of Ritz crackers, crushed into crumbs. Stirred that up and smoothed it out in a deep-dish pie plate. Topping was the rest of the sleeve of crushed Ritz, and about another 2 ounces of grated cheese. Baked at 350, steam bake, 30 minutes in the CSO. It was close. Real close. Could have been a little saltier; I didn't salt, as both the cheese and the crackers are fairly salty. I might use grated Velveeta next time, and I think the topping would benefit from grated Parm. There was too much topping; I needed about half as much. I might add some melted butter next time. And it would have benefitted from some black pepper. Other than that, it was pretty much spot on. Thd other eggplant treatment I really love is to take cubes of eggplant, toss them in a mixture of honey and miso, and roast them. Yumm-O!

Still lots of veggies at the Farmers' Market, so lunch was veggie-centric today. Corn (from the freezer, and I very nearly scorched it, but the browned bits ARE tasty!), green beans with ham that had been vac-packed and frozen since Easter; and eggplant casserole, along with cornbread. I am coming closer and closer to nailing the eggplant casserole recipe from one of my favorite restaurants, The Cupboard in Memphis, where I've been eating since 1977 and have yet to try an entree or a sandwich; that's 40 years of vegetable plates. A classic case of "it ain't broke, so don't fix it."