kayb

@Shelby Dammit, now I want a meat loaf sandwich. And I wasn't planning on meat loaf this week. Oh, well, the best-laid plans...

I'm sorry to hear you've been having to go through this; had wondered where you were. Doubly sorry that you were nearly starved to death; institutional food is just generally SO horrible. You would think the few places who do it right could make a mint teaching their tricks to the many who don't. And I just don't think there's any excuse for serving patients cold meals that aren't supposed to be cold. Talk about insult to injury! How will you handle your shopping now? Obviously it will be a while before you can manage the hike you used to make to the store.

Leftover from Windy ham and cheese muffins, buttered and toasted in t he CSO.

I'm with @Anna N. I vote for the more or less cocktail buffet type thing, which will be much more feasible for the recuperating patient. One thing I like is to make ham and cheese rolls like one would make cinnamon rolls; grind the ham fairly fine in a food processor, grate the cheese (I've used smoked Gouda, or Cheddar, or whatever strikes your fancy), roll out the yeast dough, layer the cheese and ham, roll up, slice. You can put them in the fridge at that point, or even the freezer, depending on how far you need to travel with them, and bake them when you get there. I pour a sauce made of brown sugar, Worcestershire and Dijon mustard over the rolls just before I bake them. They make a great version of a cocktail sandwich. You could also do sliders with pork or beef tenderloin in rolls; take the cooked meat with you and bake the rolls and assemble the sliders there. Crab cake sliders are pretty fun, as well.

Didn't have the macarons at my Aldi this week (wish they had, I would have loved to try them), but I did pick up four of their spiral sliced hams on sale at $1.19 a pound -- three for the soup kitchen Christmas meal, and one for here at home. Those will get baked this coming week for Saturday. Noticed they had prime rib roasts for $6.99 a pound and started to get a couple for Christmas dinner, but passed; I can always go back, but I need to see what kind of roasts I have in the freezer. I think I have a sirloin tip roast I can SV. A plentitude of fresh cranberries remain, at half the price of Kroger. Also picked up a package of what claims to be Iberico ham, at $6.99 for a six-ounce package.

Far from a chef, but from a passable home cook's POV: 1) What is your favourite restaurant (apart from your own) Hard to make that call, but likely Murphy's Wine Bar in Atlanta. That braised pork shank... 2) What is your most important ingredient in the kitchen, and why? Got to go with the others who say salt. 3) What tool is most important in your kitchen, and why? My skillets and my knives. Don't know that I could function without either. 4) Which restaurant, anywhere, is your dream destination to dine? I have always wanted to do the Friday lunch at Galatoire's in NOLA, and have never done it. 5) What trend do you see becoming popular in restaurants in the next year? I haven't a clue. 6) What trend would you most like to see go away? Chatty waitstaff. I appreciate waiters' commentary on food WHEN I ASK FOR IT.

Paint the pumpkins red and green and carve them into sleighs. I woke up hungry, so I made myself a Dutch baby pancake with bacon and cheese, and had it with apple butter.

Still pondering on mine (treat-making is next week) but on the possible/probable list: jarred pickled quail eggs and knockwurst Cranberry pepper jelly (already made) pub cheese with horseradish A selection of sweet breads, both yeast and quick. Found a cashew date yeast bread that intrigues me Pseudo Raincoast Crisp crackers Possibly -- jarred deviled ham Toffee Pralines Martha Washington candies Assorted cookies, including meringues from the egg whites I still have frozen from last year's eggnog extravaganza Peanut butter fudge Chex mix

I should not have looked at this page as I am sitting at Children's Hospital with the grandchild, who is awaiting a procedure. As he can't eat, I haven't either. And we're about to ALL be hungry.

I was intrigued by the green tea KitKats when I visited Japan. As well as the green tea ice cream.

This. It's a sorghum molasses pitcher, in use by my family since before the Civil War. I think about my 3x great grandfather pouring sorghum on his biscuit or hoe cake from this before he got up from the table and went off to enlist in a war from which he never came home. And I think about pouring sorghum over a buttered biscuit before I hustled out to catch the school bus. And all the biscuits in between.

My son-in-law and I have been discussing the construction of some moveable coldframes, heavy clear plastic stretched on 1 x 2 frames, to put over my herb bed and to start some early stuff in the garden next spring. Priority shortly after Christmas, though, is to get someone over here to till up, add a bunch of compost/manure and strew straw over the two garden spots to let me rest for next spring.

Been looking at a fermentation cookbook, and it mentions using whey as a "starter" for fermenting fruit. Haven't tried it yet.

I ordered mine from igourmet.com. Confit, too.

Not much any better than pork with sauerkraut. I do love it.

Sure is a pretty thing, though. Made my maiden voyage at cassoulet last night. It will not be my last. Lord, but that was wonderful. Meats included salt pork, one duck confit leg quarter, Toulouse sausages, and chicken thighs. I contemplated a smoked hamhock, and decided against it. Didn't miss it. Beans were a pound bag of Rancho Gordo Marcella cannelini beans. Yes, they are as good as they are claimed to be. Possibly better. I cooked them up with carrot, celery, onion, garlic, sage, thyme, bay leaves and cloves after browning the salt pork, sausages and chicken. At that point on Friday, I decided it was too late to proceed for that night's dinner, so I shifted gears and prepped the cassoulet to the point of going in the oven, and refrigerated it. That meant pulling out most of the vegetation, and adding in the meats. It braised away in the oven for about six hours at 300 on Saturday. Along the way, some marvelous alchemy transformed the beans into a collection of marvelously creamy bean-shaped chunks of plant protein. I have never, ever tasted a better bean. Ever. I keep hitting some weird filter button to put photos in sepia, and I can't figure out how to get them out. Oops. But this was the finished version. And here was the plate. I had some frozen red cabbage I thawed and heated, and I made some home fries because they just sounded like they'd be good. Didn't need them. Didn't need the bread. Cassoulet was to die for. Recipe here. If I recall, it is Kenji Lopez-Alt's recipe from Serious Eats. Today, the kids came over, so pot roast became the Sunday midday dinner go-to, because it's relatively easy to fix. Accompanied by corn pudding and field peas. And finished off with peach pie and ice cream. Froze the peaches from a local orchard last summer. We pretty much decimated it. This was before the son-in-law went back for a second dessert. Still full.

Looks like a lovely venue and a lovely meal.

So glad you got the Pickapeppa! I need to get some next time I'm at the store. I'm out.

I REALLY like that china.

Anova circulators for $99. Didn't notice whether that was wifi, bluetooth, or what.

Well...there are utilitarian things I have no particular sentimental attachment to but use every (or nearly every) day: My Keurig, my CSO, my Instant Pot, my Anova. There are just some really nice pieces of kitchenware/equipment I've come to love in the years I've had them -- my Misono gyuto and utility knife, my Kitchenaid stand mixer. There are some sentimental, family pieces: my grandmother's cast iron corn stick and madeleine pans, the faceted glass "cranberry salad bowl" (because it was the bowl the cranberry salad went in every year), the sorghum molasses pitcher that's been in near-constant use by my family since before the Civil War. And some cheap stuff I'd hate to do without unless I could replace them with the exact same thing -- my heavy bamboo spoons and spatulas, my silicone lids, my Circulon loaf pans.

I have a mixture of different things, and no set preference, although I do like steel mixing bowls. I have two big glass bowls which are generally only used for making/proofing bread. I have a collection of metal, ceramic and glass baking dishes, along with a ferw cast iron baking pans; the pie dishes are glass, several ceramic casseroles, a couple of metal roasting pans, loaf pans, specialty shaped baking pans, etc. I recently retired a set of plastic mixing bowls because one of them sprang a leak, so I just chunked the set. I like my steel bowls.

A friend visiting for the weekend, so I pulled out some stops for a Saturday breakfast: latkes, both with sour cream and caviar and with apple butter; sausage (my apologies to my Orthodox friends!); scrambled eggs. Plenty of good coffee. Followed by a nap. My apologies for singularly unattractive plating and photography. I was HUNGRY.

@shain -- This looks wonderful, and I've saved the recipe. One question -- I'm not familiar with using parsley root. In the event I can't find it, is there anything I can substitute? Thanks!

Oh, my. I've saved that one. It's cold here, and while I have this weekend's meals all planned (cassoulet in the oven as I speak!) a pot of this will be QUITE excellent next week. Thanks!