kayb

Too tired to cook last night, so I had a couple of potato skins, with cheese, bacon and chives. Best easy, quick dinner out there. Well, except possibly for tamales and chili, and my daughter had absconded with the last of the tamales. Must make a tamale run. Today's main course will be a tomato-street corn pie. I may heat up a frozen crab cake to have with it.

I must get out today and take some pictures in my garden. I have a horde of green tomatoes, and many squash blooms. Need to take up all the lettuce, dig all the carrots and radishes, and plant the pole beans and okra behind them. Also need to replant the melons, which the caterpillars ate.

Today was my team's turn to cook and serve at the soup kitchen. We did the big meat loaf I'd posted here before...and it wasn't big enough! Had to warm up beef stew to finish out the day. Someone had donated a BUNCH of very-nearly-overripe canteloupes, which went well, as well as a lot of salad greens. The patrons LOVED having salad! One of our volunteers brought a ginormous peach cobbler, which was gobbled right up. Thinking we may do baked chicken and dressing for the next time out. That was a hit before. Chicken thighs, industrial-sized pans of dressing, green beans, sweet potatoes.

Local market had blackberries today. I shall have blackberry cobbler tomorrow. I did not take my pug, Lucy, with me, as she had surgery on Thursday, and I thought she might not be up to wrangling the crowds. Many of the vendors asked after her; my chicken and beef purveyors sent her a package of chicken soup bones as a get-well present! And the vendor from whom I always buy my tiny new potatoes had a special basket of them saved back for me; all marble sized. He knows how I love the tiny ones, roasted whole underneath whatever kind of meat I'm cooking. I love my market vendors. They are just the nicest people in the world. The little Amish girls who always look forward to playing with Lucy sent her a cookie to "help her get well."

Oh....my. What a marvelous anniversary dinner!

Oh, my. Haven't thought about palacsintas in ages. I used to absolutely lust for the ham palacsintas at Paulette's, a long-time favorite restaurant that still operates in Memphis -- they also had a shrimp and aspargus crepe that I loved, as well as coquille St. Jacques over some spaetzle-like dumplings, and I used to rotate among those three choices. Now I'm thinking it's time for a revisit of Paulette's, albeit the menu no longer has some of my old favorites. But here's the palacsinta recipe. "Clickety"

I don't believe that's possible.

I love a good, ripe pear more than just about any fruit. One of my favorites is just raw, sliced, with blue cheese. Or sliced, with blue cheese and a drizzle of honey, broiled. Or poached in merlot. Or pear preserves with scrambled eggs (good fresh farm eggs, bacon and a biscuit on the side). Or most any other way I've ever had them.

Wow! What a marvelous event! Thanks so much for taking us along!

I make mine directly in the liner pot. Seems the easiest way, to me.

I ordered a Boston butt and a slab of ribs from a fundraiser being held for some friends who lost their home to the recent flooding in Arkansas. Pickup day was Friday, so it seemed natural enough to have barbecue for Memorial Day weekend dinner today. Though I can take no credit for the barbecue -- just the sides -- it was a fine Sunday dinner. I made the eggs and potato salad yesterday, and got the beans ready to bake this morning. Had jail slaw in the fridge, as I most always do. Put the butt and ribs in the oven, wrapped in several layers of heavy-duty foil, for a long, slow warm-up at 250F while I was at church. Pulled out my pickled asparagus, per @HungryChris's recipe, and he's right -- I'm seriously thanking you for that one, Chris! Have mercy. It was all marvelous. Sent my child and her husband home with a gallon zip-loc full of meat, and put another one, as full or moreso, in the fridge to be repackaged in one-pound portions and frozen tomorrow. The butt, cooked was a tad over six pounds. There are only three acceptable desserts for Memorial Day in the South. One is ice cold watermelon. One is homemade ice cream. The third is this: Albeit I couldn't find room for it until about 5 p.m. After my nap. I may not eat for a week.

I have never had success proofing with the steam function in the CSO. But I bake in it all the time. My pair of 8 1/2 x 3 1/2 loaf pans fit perfectly in it; I usually have to check midway through and shield the tops with foil to keep them from getting too dark. Truth be told, I probably use my CSO more than any other appliance in my kitchen, though the Instant Pot runs a close second.

@Thanks for the Crepes, if you liked scallion pancakes, you'd probably like okonomiyaki, the Japanese pancake with cabbage, scallions, garlic, ginger, and I love to put chopped up shrimp in mine. I find one of those 4 oz packages of frozen popcorn shrimp from the grocery is about the perfect size for a recipe. I make sriracha mayo (regular Hellman's, with a dollop of sriracha and a little soy sauce) to go with mine and use some sweet chili garlic sauce as well. Recipe here.

I've always been intrigued by Gibson's white barbecue sauce, but after hearing about how legendarily good Dreamland ribs were, and trying them and finding them somewhere below mediocre, I just don't trust Alabama barbecue.

Welcome to the party! What'd you bring to eat???

One of my favorite food groups. I make them every couple of weeks or so.

Well...yeah!

They're really good cooked in that fashion with a honey-miso glaze, too.

Pass.

I had the best dinner last night I've had in ages...met some friends at Uncle John's, one of the three retail establishments (with the liquor store and the convenience store) in the thriving Delta metropolis of Crawfordsville, AR, population maybe 200. It's been there 30 years, which is about how long I've been eating there. Homemade ravioli, meat and cheese filling. "Spaghetti gravy," a deep, dark red meat sauce, not heavily spiced, a little tang from some red pepper, the most tomatoey thing I've ever put in my mouth. Garlic toast, plain old Texas Toast style bread brushed with butter, garlic, olive oil and grilled on the flat top; salad with iceberg lettuce and some tomato, and a simple, tangy, oil and vinegar dressing. Good, solid, Italian peasant food. Food that greets you from the plate with what feels like a warm hug after a long, harried day, and says, "Hey, sweetie. Sit down and take a break." Glass of Scotto Family old vine Lodi zinfandel. And bread pudding. Wonderfully, ethereally light bread pudding, no nasty raisins, a bare hint of cinnamon and nutmeg, soaked in a bourbon sauce that is so good I could drink it. Approximate 4,500 calories per bite, and I Did Not Care. I woke up at 4 a.m. thinking about that dinner, how much I enjoyed it, and how good it was. THAT is a good dinner that can make you do that.

Toast alone will make you throw out everything else in your kitchen to make room for your new CSO.

I was craving mangoes the other day, so I bought a box of about a dozen or so at Sam's. Good, sweet mangoes. Then I had to do something with all of them after I satisfied the mango craving with them in yogurt for two breakfasts in a row. I made mango kulfi -- semi-successful, but the recipe called for almond milk, and I think regular would've been better -- and three half-pints plus a little dab of mango chutney. My first try at mango chutney. Anxious to sample it. It's pretty, though.

Not for many generations back. But my light reading of late has been British murder mysteries, so I guess that's where it worked in.

Which begs the question for me, as I plan to take up seasoning my carbon steel pans tomorrow. How long do I need to leave the pans on high heat/in a hot oven -- and how high/hot? -- after they begin smoking? I'd just as soon not have to disable the smoke detector, but if I need to I will.

Mark West Pinot seems to work well in settings like this. And I recently picked up a Bota Box dry rose that was respectable. Might not carry the tuna, though.