kayb

Am amazed they had Little Smokies as long ago as the Renaissance. Who knew? <<<an unabashed aficionado of Little Smokies in barbecue sauce/raspberry preserves, in the crock pot, at parties>>>

@liamsaunt, I could cheerfully eat that meal every night for a month. (I am not sure what I did in the quoting process, but it glued yours and @shain's posts together so I cannot comment in between them.) @shain, that looks absolutely delightful. Also much more work than I am likely to do. That dinner looks pretty fine as well, and as I enjoy raw potatoes (I routinely munch three or four cubes while dicing them for something) I would not hesitate at underdone ones. Sunday dinner today: A piece of pork butt, sprinkled down with a garlic-honey rub I bought at Sam's and then refrigerated overnight, then braised for five hours at 300F in hard cider. Quite good. Accompanied by baked beans (RG alubia blanco, cooked done and then slow-cooked with tomato sauce, molasses, brown sugar, mustard. I have a son-in-law who's averse to onions, not the flavor, just the texture, so I cooked the beans with a quartered onion in the pot and then pulled it out), fried okra, and a blast from the past for the kids, cheesy potatoes. It's a potato gratin of sorts, made by dicing and boiling potatoes, then making a cheese sauce, adding the potatoes in, and baking with a parmesan-bread crumb topping. Strawberry shortcake, not shown because I haven't eaten it yet, for dessert.

Will be on the road. As we can't leave until 1 p.m., and have an 8-hour drive to our destination, I'm packing a picnic to take along. I'm wondering how well a grilled, room-temp Cubano will travel. Thinking that may be my choice.

Usually, I'll limit myself to Broadbent's country ham and biscuits (but not beaten biscuits, which are a helluva lot of work). I will occasionally make myself a hot brown. I'm not a big bourbon drinker, and I loathe mint juleps. This year, I'll be on the road, so who knows?

Early dinner tonight: Shrimp boil. Shrimp had been frozen for a while in a plastic tub of water, so I put them out yesterday morning to thaw for last night. Didn't want them last night, so they went back in the fridge. Happened on good, fresh corn at a produce market (Florida, no doubt, but still good!), along with new potatoes. Boiled it up tonight in a one-pot progressive fashion -- potatoes for 15 minutes, corn added for five, shrimp added and cooked just until the water boiled again. It might be noted that a ketchup:horseradish ratio of 2:1 is just a TAD too horseradish-y. Not much...but a little.

@sartoric, another excellent way to cook okra is panfried. Cut the okra in about half-inch slices and let it sit in a bowl for 20 minutes or so to let it ooze a bit. Then shake it in a bag with cornmeal, salt and pepper and just a bit of flour. Fry in about 1/4 inch of medium hot oil; you can crowd your pan, but leave it in a single layer. When it starts to brown, turn it with a spatula and let it fry just a few minutes more; you want from golden to darker brown. Let it drain on a paper towel for a bit, and eat while it's hot. It's a Southern USA classic. And I am cooking some for my family tomorrow!

The Memphis Zoo raises money every year selling composted manure from its assorted critters. Marketed, of course, under the name of...wait for it..."ZooDoo."

I have of late discovered a nice, cheap dry rose, which I can assure you is oft enjoyed there. As is a good cold bottle of Yuengling. It's Ms. Pug. Lucy, in fact. My very favorite damndawg.

Got outside to scope out the garden in between rains; progress is being made! Cucumbers. Watermelon on the hoof! Green peas. Tomatoes. And my new morning coffee drinking, afternoon wine drinking spot, complete with 30 bucks' worth of plastic furniture from WalMart and an overly chubby puglet who is allergic to straw and itching tremendously.

A cook after my own heart!

I cannot see shad without thinking of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, who with a significant portion of his father's army, was captured at Five Forks in 1865 during the retreat from Richmond after stopping for a shad bake, as shad were running on the Nottoway River. (Gratuitous history trivia.) I've never had shad. What's it similar to?

Tough call, but it would have to be either vegetable beef soup, made from leftovers from pot roast, or white bean and Italian sausage soup.Other favorites are seafood chowder, Asian noodle soups, and tomato soup. I love soup and make it a LOT.

Hello, Ruby, and welcome! What I love about this group is its breadth, from fairly adequate home cooks to supremely talented chefs. There is, absolutely, a ton to learn, and don't be a bit shy about jumping in with questions or to share what you're cooking!

Doesn't get a lot more basic, or country, than my dinner last night: brown beans and a baked sweet potato. I had leftover ham, but couldn't be troubled to get it out of the fridge. I had a half-pound of Rancho Gordo mayacoba beans, which are my favorite for a no-frills cooked bean. I cooked these on the bean setting, no soaking, with a bay leaf and some onion and garlic in the IP, and then salted them and left them on low for a couple of hours. The sweet potatoes got an hour at 400F, steam bake, in the CSO and were perfect. Or at least they were with the addition of a copious amount of butter.

Lucky girlfriend.

I made yogurt yesterday. I used 2 quarts hot tap water, 2 cups milk powder (Nestle Nido Fortificada, which is full-fat), and what yogurt I had left from last time, about a third of a cup. Whisked the milk powder into the water, then whisked in the starter yogurt, popped the top on, punched the button and walked away. Came back eight hours later, dumped it in the strainer, stuck the strainer in the fridge, and went to bed. This morning: Marvelous, thick, creamy yogurt. About a quart plus a serving (about half a cup). That's the longest I've ever strained it.

Potato salad. Because it was a cocoon at home, not deal with people kind of day, and on that kind of day I want comfort food. And warm, fresh potato salad, chunks of potato almost still hot enough to scorch the tongue, is the most comfortable of comfort foods.

With a nod to @Thanks for the Crepes, who is familiar with the place, I had dinner at Pancho's Mexican Food in West Memphis, AR, yesterday. Pancho's is easily the oldest restaurant in West Memphis, which is NOT an old city, having been built on what was a swamp before the construction of the levee in the 1930s. But Pancho's came along a bare couple of decades later, at a time when Mexican restaurants in mid-America were not plentiful. At one time it had four sit-down restaurants and a chain of fast-food versions throughout the greater Memphis area; I think it's down to the one sit-down outpost, the original in West Memphis, and one fast-food outlet, as well as a thriving supermarket business in its cheese dip, "hot dip" and salad dressing. Pancho's food bears little resemblance to authentic Mexican food, but somehow, it hits a taste longing I just need to satisfy every so often. I had the Shrimp Vera Cruz, smallish shrimp in a cheese sauce over Mexican rice, in a tortilla "bowl," a taco, a beef enchilada and a small salad, which is nothing but iceberg lettuce and diced tomato. And lots of cheese dip, which was heavier on the cumin than usual, and hot dip, which was hotter than usual. At one time, Pancho's food was all cooked in a central commissary in Memphis and then trucked out to all the outlets, where final prep took place. I would suspect, given the supermarket production of their dips and dressing, that still takes place. I may actually cook today. I haven't done so all week.

@Thanks for the Crepes -- happily. 4 1/2 c all-purpose flour, divided (the recipe calls for either White Lily or Gold Medal, but I use whatever I've bought) 1 packet (about 2 1/2 tsp) yeast 1 tsp salt 1/3 cup sugar 2 tbsp butter, room temperature 1 egg, lightly beaten Put 2 1/2 cups flour, yeast, salt, butter and sugar in a bowl (I put yeast to one side and salt to the other after adding flour, but I'm not certain that's critical), and add 1 1/4 cup hot tap water; mix with a spoon or mixer until incorporated. Add egg and stir/mix until incorporated. Add a cup of reserved flour, and then remaining flour in smaller increments until you have a soft dough. It will be sticky. Dump onto floured board and knead for just 2-3 minutes, then place in an oiled bowl and let rise until doubled. Once dough has risen, pinch off the size you want for rolls and shape them. You can bake either in muffin tins, in a cake pan so they'll rise and butt up against each other, or on a cookie sheet so they'll bake like buns (and I often use them for slider buns, or make them bigger and use for regular burger buns). Let rise again for an hour or so, and bake at 350 until light golden brown. This makes about 18. I make the full recipe for Sunday dinner with the kids, as my son-in-law, a large young man, can eat about six of them, and I send him home with a "doggy bag." But you might consider, given you're cooking just for yourself, one of these options: Make half the dough into rolls/buns, and roll the other half to about 1/2 inch thick and make either cinnamon rolls (brush with melted butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, roll up and slice) or ham and cheese rolls (brush with melted butter, cover with minced ham and grated swiss cheese, roll up, slice, and when you're ready to bake, pour a mixture of melted butter, Worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard, brown sugar and poppy seeds over it) and bake. You can freeze either one of these in the pan, and then just thaw and allow to rise before baking. You can also shape the rolls and stick them in the freezer on a cookie sheet; when they're frozen, move them to a plastic bag and thaw out however many you want at a time. I've frozen the baked rolls -with some success, and I've also par-baked them for 10 minutes and then frozen, and finished baking from frozen when I was ready for them. I've made this as a loaf bread, too. It's great for toast, but it's not sturdy enough for a sandwich. But if you want to knead it a lot longer -- I go 10 minutes in the stand mixer -- it toughens up enough to make a decent sandwich bread. For those who've never read the story of these rolls on my blog (here), these are the rolls that always accompanied the Marion United Methodist Church annual Thanksgiving dinner. I've tweaked it a bit over the years.

I had Rice Chex. And wine.

I am picking up a new (used) freezer Sunday afternoon; a 21-foot upright. Planning to sell the little one. When I transfer everything over, I'll inventory. It may be shameful. Must go to dollar store and buy lots of plastic tubs for organizing things in. May I make the request that anything we grow ourselves and then put in the freezer is not subject to penalty points?

Garden Phase 1 is completed. Bush limas, Sugar Baby watermelon, canteloupe, yellow squash, zucchini, and eggplant planted today. Straw spread throughout garden to keep weeds down. Phase 2 will happen in a month or so, when the lettuce, radishes, carrots, etc. are finished and I'l go behind them with pole beans and okra. Going to pick up a larger freezer on Sunday afternoon.

@Anna N -- These are very similar to my dinner rolls (mine are all water, no milk, and only one egg). I agree; they are very nearly foolproof, and among the best rolls I've ever eaten.

Be still, my heart. Damn, but that looks good.

First bread I've baked in forever. KAF potato bread. Recipe here. Because I felt like basic white bread.