kayb

Throwback breakfast. Biscuits, bacon, sorghum molasses creamed with a pat or two of butter. To have been historically accurate, should have been accompanied by scrambled eggs and a dish of canned tomatoes, but I wasn't in the notion for that. And it seems I managed to turn on some goofy filter on the cell phone camera, too.

Wonder if one can make homemade Nilla wafers? I would think there has to be a recipe somewhere.... I have, in a pinch, done them with graham crackers.

I used Jackson's wafers. And yes, those are my overbeaten egg whites. I stuck them in the Kitchenaid and let it go while I was doing something else. Should have paid more attention.

Rules are handy when you're learning a (dish, cuisine, technique, etc.). Once you have it in hand, that, for me, is when it's time to branch out. I would, for instance, never have thought to create the shrimp salad that uses shrimp, corn, avocadoes and cocktail sauce, but I was looking at all those one day and, well, it made sense. As did the chicken salad with corn and bacon and grated cheese, and a yogurt/mayo dressing spiced with smoked pimenton and a little cumin. I break rules on a fairly regular basis. But I follow them on a lot of other occasions. Depends on the day and the dish.

Before my daughter the super-smeller moved in with me and limited some of the cooking I can do, I used to caramelize a five-pound bag of onions at a time. I'd slice them, pack them in the Crockpot, sprinkle a little salt, and lay a stick of butter on top, and let them cook for 18 hours on low. Perfect caramelized onions. I'd put them in one-cup portions in plastic bags and freeze them, and pull them out for whatever dish I wanted. It was wonderful to be able to make French onion soup without having to caramelize the onions, among other things. I can tell you that this procedure, if you start your onions shortly after dinner, will result in a VERY pungent house about 3 a.m. Just sayin'.

Banana pudding like my Mama used to make, with boiled custard cooked in the double boiler. I over beat the egg whites for the meringue, so it isn't very pretty, but I'm surely looking forward to the taste.

Well, I haven't dived into Modernist Bread, but I do bake bread in my CSO. If I'm doing loaves, I have two Circulon 8 1/2 x 4 pans that fit inside it perfectly. I move the shelf to the lower rack, and that gives me (99 percent of the time) enough room for oven spring. I use the bread setting. I have a doubled sheet of foil at ready, and I slip that between the tops of the loaves and the top elements when the top gets as brown as I want it -- otherwise, you will generally scorch the top of your loaves. I do rolls either in the pan that came with the CSO, or in my 10 x 10 Wilton I ordered for it. The Wilton has two-inch sides, not that that generally matters. they work for bread sticks, too. Ditto for sweet rolls, etc. I could use a six-well muffin tin, but just never have. If I'm of a notion to do a boule, I generally do it in my Lodge 10 1/2 inch round baker. About the only time I use the oven for bread any more is if I'm doing a BIG batch of rolls (1/2 sheet pan size) or one of my bigger loaf pans that won't fit. I really do like the bread setting; I find my loaves have a really nice crust and a good spring.

Crawfish etouffee over a number of different fried proteins is good. Catfish PonchartrExain, for one example. I was referring mostly to KFC's ability to take a number of things that ought to be good -- fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy -- and render them absolutely nasty. Except, as mentioned above, biscuits.

Depends on what I'm doing with them. I generally buy Yukon Golds, as they present a decent balance of mealy/creamy, and thus can be used for most purposes. I like the big ones if I'm going to peel and cube them, because it's easier to peel a big potato. (I always peel and cube my potatoes for salads, for example; I dislike potatos cooked in the skin and then peeled and cubed for salads). I eat a lot of wedged and roasted potatoes, and for those, smaller sizes are OK, as I generally don't peel them (another point for YG's; you can't eat a russet's skin, or at least I can't). And I purely love YG "potato skins," tennis-ball-sized potatoes, baked, halved, scooped out, insides brushed with bacon grease, salted, broiled, filled with cheese, bacon, scallions, then broiled again, served with sour cream. I make dinner off that at least once a week. Last time I bought a bag of those, I had problems with bad spots in the centers. Ever experience that?

Loving the breakfast buffet.

Looks to me like a helluva waste of crawfish. Not to mention not doing much for your chicken, either. Not a KFC fan. Though they make good biscuits. I'll give them that.

FYI...a poached egg inside that baked potato would be a fine thing. Just saying. Oh, dear sweet baby Jesus. Just kill me now. I WANT that.

A very fine toastie.

She's a fortunate woman. I can remember it being an annual event in Memphis, the first day Dinstuhl's (local well-known candymaker) had their first chocolate covered strawberries. Line would be out the door and all the way down the block. And I would be in it.

I like my serrated knives for two things: bread, and fresh tomatoes.

I hereby bequeath you my share of all the green bell peppers in the world. And about three-quarters of my share of the red and yellow ones. I WILL use a few of those, when pushed.

No. Tried the Salted Caramel Oreo Thins. I wanted to love them. Didn't.

I get it at the Asian market. Never without it.

I will someday try to make macarons. Maybe.

Things of beauty, those are.

I recreated a dish I had at a restaurant and enjoyed recently -- bacon barbecue mac and cheese. Made my usual mac and cheese, added a pound and a half of chopped pork barbecue that'd been mixed with some sauce and toasted in the CSO, as well as about a dozen strips of thin bacon. Put it all back in the oven and baked it. The children pronounced it fine. I thought it was OK, but it wasn't what I was in the mood for.

Welcome! Looking forward to seeing and hearing about some of your meals.

I suspect I would die if my CSO bit the dust. I damn-sho know I'd order another one ASAP. I use it just about daily. Good to know there's a three-year warranty. Mine seems to be plugging along happily.

Fresh yogurt, freshly made granola, and blueberries. Inspired by the fact blueberries were two cartons for four bucks at Kroger.

I have about 15-20. There are generally two hanging on the towel rack near the sink at any given time. They're used for wiping up spills, wiping down cutting boards or hand-washed dishes, and whatever else. I have several that are a cotton-poly blend that I dislike greatly because they are not very absorbent; those migrate to the back of the drawer and are periodically pulled out to use for dustcloths or folded up for hot pads. The remainder are all-cotton, either terry or the "flour sack" variety. I also have, in the bottom of the china cabinet, a package and a half of flour sack towels (either 12 or 18 in a package) I got at Sams because you just don't see them often and I love them. They get gradually fed into the mix as the others go away. Right now, my goal is to get rid of all the blend ones, but the damn things just won't...wear...out...