kayb

M'mmm. I made slaw today. Got a little corned beef left. That may be on my agenda later in the week. Today, pork loin that went for a SV bath earlier in the week, with baked beans, potato salad and slaw. Simple, but good. Loin was cooked SV for about 8 hours at 145, then chilled. Sliced about an inch thick, glazed with some barbecue sauce, and broiled in the CSO.

Sweet potato latkes, if you can figure out how to make them without the egg, are a great source of fiber. I have homemade granola, homemade yogurt, and fresh fruit most mornings. Fruit/veggie smoothies with protein powder are healthy, tasty, low-cal and quick. Hash with leftover beef. Bran muffins. I'd hate to know I had to do without pork, but I could do it. Don't know that I could do without eggs.

A lovely day yesterday, so surf 'n turf on the grill -- steak, garlic-butter shrimp, asparagus. With roasted cauliflower and fresh ricotta (my adaptation of the NYT recipe). Small filets, SV 125F for an hour, chilled, then onto a hot grill. Got 'em just about perfect. Getting the most out of the grill, in the left rear is a chunk of pork loin that had been brined and was being grilled/smoked for Canadian bacon. Haven't cut into it yet.

And on the Saturday after St.Patrick's Day, one must have corned beef hash. I think it's a law. I saw nice eye of round roasts at Aldi yesterday. I'm thinking I may have to corn something else. There's maybe one meal worth of corned beef left out of that bottom round. It also made a quite excellent sandwich this morning, with some horseradish cheddar.

Shrimp, filet, cauliflower, asparagus. Not to be sneezed at. All on the grill. It was a gorgeous day today. Last week, it was snowing. Back left is a piece of pork loin brined and then smoked/grilled for Canadian bacon. Unlike the last time I forgot the brined pork curing in the fridge for a few hours, which became a few days, at which point it was a hockey puck and I chunked it. We will try Canadian bacon tomorrow, maybe. Tonight, it was filet, garlic butter shrimp, asparagus, and roasted cauliflower with ricotta. Good dinner. Wish I'd been hungrier.

My 5 % Ruhlman brine, for 10 days (vs. the 5 days he recommends) left me with a small grey spot in the middle of one end of the bottom round I brined. Not certain if that was due to to the failure of the brine to penetrate or to the fact there was a vein of fat running through it. In any event, it was quite excellent. Ran by Aldi today. They had eye of round roast at a semi-reasonable price. I very nearly bought another one to corn, as we have pretty well decimated the bottom round I corned the first time. Perhaps @rotuts had the right idea when it comes to corned beef -- nothing succeeds like excess.

Have Driscoll strawberries in the fridge as we speak. They're better than no strawberries at all, albeit not a whole lot. Given the early spring, we might get some decently early strawberries; in any event, with the late Easter, we will have local asparagus and strawberries for Easter dinner. May have ham and deviled eggs, but who will notice?

Pronouncing this year's edition of corned beef a success. Bottom round roast, brined in a 5 percent brine for 10 days, cooked SV 145F for 42 hours (it was going to be 36, but I forgot it), then chilled for a couple of days. Tonight, put potatoes and carrots in the IP, set a steamer basket on top, put the roast on one side and some cabbage wedges on the other, dumped the jus over the whole thing, steamed 18 minutes, qr. Veggies were a little soft, but still good. Corned beef was just excellent.

That looks lovely. I often see these (zucchini, in the US) at the farmers' market. This round variety is known here as "eight-ball," for its resemblance to a billiard ball. I like the idea of the buckwheat stuffing; I will try this when the season begins!

Well, I have pulled my bottom round out of the SV after 42 hours at 145. I was not going to leave it that long, but I forgot and went on to bed last night. It's in the fridge, waiting for Friday; I have to leave early tomorrow for a two-day stint with a client, will be back in time to boil some potatoes, carrots and cabbage in the jus from the bag.

Obviously my invitation to dinner was lost in the mail. That looks absolutely scrumptious. I dearly love German food, and I'm about the only one in my house that does.

How in the world do you stand to bake when it's that hot inside? My bread-baking drops back to, if not nothing, very little during the summer. Although, of late, I haven't been eating much bread, so it hasn't been very much anyway. Love those shrimp. I still have some from last fall I brought home from Florida. I put them in a container and cover with water and freeze; they last wonderfully!

No photos because it wasn't at all photogenic, but a ramekin of leftover mashed potatoes served as a bed for two eggs, which were then topped with bacon bits, some grated cheese, and a tablespoon or two of heavy cream, then baked at 350 for 12 minutes in the CSO. Good stuff.

Dredge in seasoned flour. Dip in egg/milk wash. Dredge in panko breadcrumbs. Fry over medium-high/high heat just until golden brown. Serve with a lemon-garlic aioli or mayo flavored healthily with Worcestershire and hot sauce. Also quite excellent, if they're boneless, on a good bun with lettuce and tomato. Where I came from, they referred to those as "breakfast pork chops."

If I'm eating plain rice as a side, or a base for something, I'm good with brown. If I'm cooking a flavored rice (coconut, tamarind, saffron, etc.), I like white. I like brown in sweet applications, as well. Makes great calas (rice fritters). In fact, I have yet to find the rice I don't like.

Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, steamed-from-frozen peas and carrots, drained, buttered, and sprinkled with fines herbes. The meat loaf is my old stand-by recipe, but with a difference. It's about a half-inch thick. It's made from just a single pound of ground beef, with the usual add-ins (panade, etc.). I tried out my new baking pan I'd gotten for the CSO: When I first got it out, I thought, "Oh, this is too big for this little bit of meat loaf," and then I thought, "wait a minute!" I like a thin meat loaf because I like the larger ratio of outside-to-inside. Why not flatten it out even more (in the 11.5 x 11.5 inch pan), and it ought to be just about the right thickness for a meat loaf sandwich? I steam-baked it for 20 minutes at 325, drained off the grease and liquid, then gave it another 10 on 475 to crisp up the top and bottom. It was good, and even better, I have two sandwich-sized slabs and one half-sandwich sized one stashed in the fridge for lunches this week! The leftover mashed potatoes are in a ramekin, destined for breakfast tomorrow; I'm thinking they'll make a marvelous base for eggs en cocotte. Sometimes I'm so sustainable I scare myself.

The mouse is back! I do love the mouse. Meals look good, too.

This morning's granola and yogurt included strawberries. Think I'll make some shortcakes this afternoon.

But then you'd have to pack in dog food. Is it practical for you, on your route, to get one of those wire rolling carts? Pulling or pushing that would, for me, be eminently preferable to a pack. Heck, I'd contemplate a child's Little Tikes wagon.

Oh...my. That looks, and sounds, just stunning. How long did you cure? And how do you prepare cucumber tartare? The dill tempura just takes this one over the top. I want it.

Thanks in large part to this thread, I was craving fresh fruit when I went to Sam's today. I still have a little fresh pineapple left, along with an uncut Sugar Baby watermelon, but I picked up a two-pound carton of strawberries and a quart of blueberries. Both had labels saying they were "products of the U.S., so I'm guessing Florida, the Rio Grande valley, or southern California. The strawberries (giant things!) are quartered and macerating in sugar and balsamic vinegar in the fridge; the blueberries, at least some of them, are destined for blueberry muffins one morning soon. Grandson just requested watermelon, so I suppose I will have to cut it shortly; it won't last long when cut, I guarantee. Oh, and there's creme fraiche-to-be sitting out on the counter for the strawberries tomorrow. I passed on blackberries the size of my thumb from the knuckle out; what do they fertilize those things with? In other news, it's snowing like the dickens here, and the yard is completely covered. I was in shirtsleeves yesterday.

@Smithy, yes, "God love you" is interchangeable with "bless your heart." It was my grandmother's preferred usage, and I guess I picked it up along the way.

Thanks! Those ripe ones look like little eggplants.

God love you. Nothing more miserable than having no escape from the heat. It's going to snow here tomorrow, the weatherpeople say.

Following anxiously as well. I made mole -- once. It was good, not just excellent, but good, but I failed to wear gloves to handle the chiles and my hands burned for HOURS.... Where in E. TN are you? I have friends in the Johnson City area who are battening down the hatches for the weekend.