kayb

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.

I try to clean as I go -- start out with an empty dishwasher, and rinse and load as used, wash out pots and pans and leave to drain. I have too small a kitchen to do otherwise.

Has anyone tried Sun Basket, whose schtick is their claim to organic, non-GMO foodstuffs, with options for paleo, gluten free, and two or three others? I had some dealings with the company on a business basis, and was just curious . They appear to get pretty good reviews.

Not in the professional kitchen world, but I often buy Delta tamales in bulk when I'm visiting Helena, AR, or Clarksdale, MS, two places where I can get some of my favorites. I freeze them in batches of three in plastic bags, and microwave them from frozen to the warm point. Then I cover them with chili (to be authentic, it should be the cheap grocery store canned variety), microwave until hot, add grated cheese and a stack of Saltines, and go to it. I think I have three left. Must make a Helena run soon. Only because it's closer than Clarksdale.

You're gonna have to cut it up to eat it, anyway, is the way I look at it.

There is a (free) service I subscribe to called BookBub. When I signed up, I indicated what kind of books interested me; I chose cookbooks and mystery/thriller. I get a daily email notifying me of a sample of what Amazon has on sale, usually 2.99 or less, in those categories. I'm sure it's not all of them (I have eGullet for that, after all!), but it's a good sampling. A good 75 percent of my Kindle reading comes from that.

O'Brycki's?

Gas station food makes me shudder. Except for corn nuggets. Corn nuggets rock.

I see no reason why you should. Looks like a perfectly shameless activity to me.

Dinner from Deep Run Roots. I'd been eyeing the Blue-Q chicken since I first read it, so I decided this weekend would make a good time to try it. I pulled a five-pound bird out of the freezer, cut him into quarters rather than spatchcock him, and made up the sauce on Saturday. Perhaps I reduced it a bit much; when it cooled, it gelled. But I scooped some out into a cereal bowl and nuked it for a minute, and it worked a treat. I have lots of sauce left; the recipe made almost a quart, and I used about a third of it on the chicken. I think it will be quite excellent on pork chops or pork tenderloin. Everyone agreed it was very good chicken. Would have likely been better had I put it on the grill. Sticking to the book, I decided on the green bean and corn succotash for a side. Went mostly by the recipe, but for subbing the small purple onions from the market for the called-for leeks. At the last minute, I decided to chop up some of hte onion tops to throw in at the end with the basil. This was...OK. I normally love basil in anything, but it seemed a bit off-putting, here. I think I'll try it again, but with tarragon, which seems to offer a more complementary flavor. Overall, though, I give it a good solid B+ as it was. I rounded out dinner with a squash casserole, made from the leftover sauteed squash and onions of Saturday. Very simple -- squash and onions, eggs, half and half, grated cheddar, seasoned breadcrumbs. Doesn't get a lot easier. You can also make it a little thicker and fry it up as fritters.. And sliced tomatoes, and a raspberry ricotta tart.

Pulled a five-pound chicken out of the freezer last night. Blueberry barbecued (actually roasted in the oven) chicken from Deep Run Roots today. Details later on dinner thread.

I'd been craving mangoes, so I bought a boxful of them at Sam's the other day. Breakfast was fresh yogurt with a mango cut up in it. Hit the spot.

I did not really NEED a bread knife; I have a perfectly serviceable Kuhn Rikon. But...it was just $12... Bunch of damn enablers.

Agreed. And I could never be a vegetarian; I love meat too much. (I could never be Jewish nor Islamic, because I love pork too much, but that's a whole 'nother story.) It's just that, for some meals, meat is superfluous, taste-wise. (I'm cooking roast chicken tomorrow, though!)

Well, while we're being vegeterian -- I am a lot moreso in the spring and summer, when fresh veggies abound. And I figured I'd best put some of that farmers' market bounty to use. Steamed sugar snaps tossed in butter, sauteed yellow squash with onion, roasted new potatoes, tomatoes with fresh ricotta (wish I'd just stuck with salt and pepper). Minimal seasoning on everything, to let the taste of spring shine through. I am replete, with the potential for a second helping of everything before bedtime. Planned, btw, with leftovers in mind. The potatoes will get diced up, meet a hot skillet, and be served with bacon and eggs later this week. The squash and onions will reappear in a squash casserole. The sugar snaps may become part of a quiche or frittata, or a salad, or just get warmed up.

After loading up last weekend, and not cooking all week, I started to not even go to the farmers market today. But I knew the Amish farmers would have ripe tomatoes if I got there early enough, so the dog and I braved the rain and took out. Hello, my name is kayb, and I think I may have a problem. But it all looked so GOOD! Cling peaches, new potatoes, cinnamon rolls (that big plateful for 5 bucks!), a loaf of sourdough because I wanted bread and didn't feel like making any, lovely purple onions which may get just brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and pepper, and roasted; green beans, sugar snaps, the aforementioned tomatoes, broccoli, raspberries, strawberries. This after I'd bought mango, blueberries and watermelon at Sam's. And then I stopped by Kroger to get milk, and bought a pineapple because they were on sale for 99 cents. I believe I see a fruit salad on the menu for Sunday dinner. Although the raspberries are slated for raspberry-ricotta tart. I've made ricotta this morning, and am presently making yogurt, and granola is on the agenda for later today. Dinner? Veggies. Squash (from the market last week) and onions, sugar snaps, new potatoes. Who needs meat?

After I posted that, I remembered some discussion of a Pepin book on sale recently; wasn't certain if it was that one. Sorry for the repeat. I checked, and mine's been delivered, though.

I may have found my new favorite local breakfast place. After a doctor's appointment with 4 1/2-year-old grandson, he and I were both hungry, and decided to try a relatively new spot, "Eggsellent" Cafe. Point the first in favor: They serve breakfast through the lunch hour. I was sold. Grandson had a child's plate with grilled cheese and fries -- I would hate to see an adult sized version of same, because this was a full-sized sandwich and a lot of fries. I got the one-egg special, with hash browns, bacon, and a pancake. Have mercy! First, the pancake was, in fact, TWO small-dinner-plate sized pancakes; thick, fluffy pancakes. GOOD pancakes. The hash browns were plain old shredded hash browns, no add-ins, which is the way I prefer them, cooked gloriously golden and crispy, and there was a ton of them, too. The over easy egg was cooked just right; it went on top of the hash browns, where the yolk dampened only a small part, unfortunately, of the potatoes. The bacon was thick-sliced country bacon, And there were four or five big pieces of it, cooked about 1/2 second short of as crispy as I would have liked. It was one of the few times I've ever left bacon on a plate, but it was so...much....food. Three small quibbles: 1. The coffee wasn't fresh. In all fairness, this was past 1 p.m., and the demand for coffee had probably been declining by that time. 2. They use coffee creamer, not the real deal. 3. They use "whipped spread," rather than butter. On the plus side, lunch for two, with lots of food left over, was under $15. It ain't Brennan's, but I ain't in New Orleans, either.