kayb

Dammit, @Toliver. One of these days I'm going to go back through my Amazon orders and this thread, and see how much you've cost me.

That would be too much like...sensible. I'm sure part of the reason is to counter the PR flack that comes with their steak being two bucks more than Joe's down the street. Once you're in and seated, you're more likely, I suppose, to suck it up and go ahead and order, if you happen to read the upcharge notice. And I suspect many people don't scrutinize their bills beyond looking at the total and calculating a tip.

I just had to copy, paste and save that. I've got bunches of frozen peaches...

Must have been a pot roast weekend. That's what we had today, too.

Where does one acquire a heavy duty shear like that?

I see a cottage industry taking shape. If I were a chocolatier, I would certainly want one.

Ask and you shall be given: This is plagiarized directly from my blog. 3 pounds bacon, diced and the fat rendered, but not crisp 1 cup caramelized onions (about three medium onions) 1 cup strong black coffee 1/4 cup garlic confit from the fridge (or garlic cloves poached gently) 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 2 tbsp red wine vinegar about 1 tsp allspice about 1 tsp Aleppo pepper 1/2 cup turbinado sugar (or brown; my hand found the turbinado first) 1/2 cup maple syrup about 1/4 cup brandy If I don’t have caramelized onions in the fridge, I start with that; roughly dice the onions, put them in a bit of olive oil in your big Dutch oven, and let them go. Go ahead and use the big Dutch oven, because you’re going to use that pot to add everything else to. I go ahead and add the brown sugar to help the onions along in caramelizing. While that’s happening, brown your bacon. I work with three pounds because Wright’s, my bacon purveyor of choice, sells a three-pound package of bacon pieces and ends. Same excellent bacon taste, just the trimmings, which is fine for these purposes. Wright’s, at $8.99 a pound, is pricy for making jam, but the ends-and-pieces, at $7.99 for three pounds, is a helluva deal. There’ll be some pieces big enough you’ll want to cut them up; try not to have anything bigger than an inch cube. I render it in batches, about a pound at a time, until it’s done but not necessarily crisp. Then when the onions get caramelized, I dump the bacon in with them. (The bacon grease replenishes my supply in the crock in the cabinet; one must, after all, keep bacon grease for one’s cornbread, and seasoning peas and beans!) I add all the other stuff at whatever point I have a second amid stirring bacon. Measures, as in most all my recipes, are approximates. If you want yours hotter, add more pepper; sweeter, add more syrup. If you don’t have Aleppo pepper, a bit of minced chipotle will do. I used about 1/4 cup more coffee because that was how much was left in my cold-brew container in the fridge, and I didn’t see the point in wasting it. And then I just let it simmer.

Why are pan-fried potatoes and onions so Good? I may or may not have gone back for seconds of those. With some red cabbage cooked last fall and frozen, and a brat poached in beer. Am thinking that if I left enough potatoes, they'd go nicely in a hash with a diced up brat. Remaining brats can go in a pot of beans. The brats come from an outstanding purveyor of smoked meats in the next town north of me. I go about once a month to stock up.

@rotuts, should you feel ambitious, I'll send you my recipe for bacon jam. I used Wright's ends and pieces to make it. There is NOTHING any better melted onto a grilled grass-fed burger, which you then top with sauteed onions and mushrooms and blue cheese. I can several jars of bacon jam every year. It's also good on a biscuit, on toast under some really good cheese (think triple-creme Brie), or in a pimiento cheese sandwich. It's habit forming.

Probably on a schedule of regional introduction. May get to us later in the year. I'll keep looking. Sounds like Fry's is arranged about like Kroger. In the front door, looking at the produce; turn right at produce, deli's just past it. Bakery just to the left of deli, then seafood to the left of that and you're at the back of the store; turn left and go alongside meat counter at back of store, followed by dairy section.

Cleaning out the herb bed and seeing who's overwintered well enough to come back, and who'll need replanting. I'm thinking I'm going to use landscape fabric and wood mulch around the plants to keep weeds down in the bed. Herb bed has mint, sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme, summer savory, tarragon, chervil, two kinds of basil, cilantro and parsley. Ordered seeds yesterday for the remainder of the garden. Going to cut back a bit on tomatoes this year -- Romas for sauce, cherries for canning and salads and munching, heirlooms for eating, Better Boys and Early Girls for canning. May go up a bit on peppers. Have ordered two kinds of cucumbers, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, leeks, lima and pole beans, sugar snap peas, okra, eggplant, cantaloupe, watermelon, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts, none of the latter three of which I've ever attempted to grow. Along with, of course, the requisite carrots, radishes and lettuce. Good Friday is, after all, only four weeks away. And that's when you're supposed to plant, so the Almanac tells you.

FWIW, I made them up to the point of adding the bread crumbs, and canned them. When I open a jar, I dump it in a saucepan and add the bread crumbs. Life made simpler.

Checked my Kroger today. No meals kits. I'll continue to check periodically. This "super Kroger" has a massive deli section with bars where one can get wings, Chinese, Mexican, salad, soup, sushi, olives, cheese, and store-made, to be baked, pizza, calzone and such, along with deli-style sandwiches, and I circled my way around all those to be sure, as well as the regular deli counter. Didn't peruse the meat counter, but I was figuring they'd be in deli. The deli has entrees you can get and take home and warm up (salmon, roast chicken, ribs, etc.) and numerous sides. I've never picked up dinner from there, but it LOOKS good.

If you will top plain (or cheesy) polenta with stewed tomatoes from Deep Run Roots, add tge eggs, a little Parmigiano and some strips of proscuitto.... Well, just try it.

M'mmm. I can see many a pot of beans coming from that smoked pig.

Thanks for taking us along with you! And the scallops look marvelous, as does the asparagus. One of my favorite treatments for asparagus!

Cheese tortellini with red sauce and meatballs. I had canned some of the roasted cherry tomato-garlic sauce; took a pint of that, buzzed it in the blender, stirred in a half-cup of leftover Ragu the daughter had been using as a dipping sauce for toasted ravioli, and made meatballs. A few days ago, and I don't think I've posted it, I had a poke bowl. And last night, the best chicken salad I've ever made in my life. Or, as my daughter termed it, "fruit salad with chicken in it." Yes, there was chicken underneath it all. Fruit included halved red and white grapes, chopped apple, mandarin orange segments, and blueberries. This was prior the addition of sliced almonds and dressing. Dressing was one I more or less made up -- a half-cup of mayo, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, a tablespoon of golden balsamic vinegar, salt and freshly ground pepper, and a teaspoon of honey.

Damn, roughing it is difficult.

Had to save that one. Sounds wonderful.

Thanks! Snapped that one up. The sweet potato is my spirit vegetable.

Many thanks!

@Ann_T, if you don't mind sharing, what recipe did you use for your sandwich bread? I'm always looking for one that checks off all the boxes for me...

When I was a kid, we had no air conditioning. House had a lot of windows, high ceilings, and white asbestos siding that reflected the heat. Still, in the kitchen, it would get HOT when Mama was canning or freezing and had all four burners on the stove. Our solution was to go to town to the ice house, and get a 50-pound block of ice in the No. 2 washtub. We'd set it in the middle of the kitchen floor, set the box fan on top of a kitchen chair, and aim it across the ice at the stove. Made things bearable!

I cannot wait. I am anxious to see if the grouper topped with crawfish etouffee at the Shrimp Basket is as good as I remember it being. Typically, by about night four, the kids are saying, "Are we having shrimp AGAIN?" and I'm saying, "There's the keys. Go to Burger King if you want to."

You will be happy to know (or actually, it may not make a doggoned bit of difference to you, but it makes ME happy) that I today booked a week at the beach on the Redneck Riviera, aka the Alabama Gulf Coast, for myself, my three daughters, their husbands, and three grandchildren, in July, so I will be off to the beach myownself. I hereby commit to blogging the culinary escapades and endeavors. There will be shrimps. Lots and lots and lots of shrimps.