kayb

Demands of the schedule mean my game cuisine, never expected to be elaborate in any case, now inclines toward minimalistic. I get home from a weekend out of town not long before kickoff, and will leave for a business trip early the next morning. I am thinking cheese and charcuterie that's already in the fridge, pickles and olives, a bottle of wine, and perhaps an ice cream sundae from the ice cream place down the street about halftime. I will likely be asleep before the game is over. Really don't have much of a dog in the fight, other than hoping New England will lose.

I was craving Mexican, so dinner was Enchiladas de los Arcos from my favorite local Mexican place. The enchiladas were beef, with a cheese sauce on top. I gravitate between them and the basic Enchiladas Rancheras. Hit the spot.

The biggest single improvement I ever made in my mashed potatoes, according to my family, was when I went to using Yukon Golds almost exclusively. I had always gone with redskins for mashed potatoes. I peel, cut, cook (in salted water), drain; then either mash with a potato masher or into the stand mixer. I add butter (lots), cream (less), and if I'm in a garlicky mood, garlic.

Must order seeds. Like, immediately.

@HungryChris -- inquiring minds want to know -- what kind of dressing on the wedge?

Was going to ask the same thing as @FrogPrincesse asked, above. Google failed me. I have learned something new today. It is a successful day.

@ElsieD -- Your freezer looks like mine! Albeit the one in question is the left side of a side-by-side fridge-freezer. The bottom-freezer styles were not readily available when I bought this one 10 years ago, so I didn't get one. I also have a 7 cu foot chest freezer which holds, mostly, my beef and whatever chickens and pork I pick up on the side, and the freezer in the extra fridge, which holds a lot of what I froze last summer (peas and corn) plus stock and some frozen dinners in foil trays. The pork chops were cooked, but not eaten; salted, peppered and seared, then simmered for 20 minutes in cider. Neither Child A, home from a biz trip, nor I were hungry. They are in the fridge (at least not the freezer!) awaiting cooking/warming with sweet potato fries and frozen red cabbage tomorrow night.

I grabbed, albeit not randomly (I knew they were there, and having found one, searched for the other) a couple of pork loin chops. I suspect some sort of potato will join them tonight.

Dinner tonight, with a second glass of old vine zin. Clockwise from 12 o'clock -- half a Bosc pear that should have ripened a couple of days; homemade sweet lime pickles, hard salami, capicola, castelvetrano olives, Rougette, a very creamy, very tasty Brie-ish cheese I tried for the first time, a Rogue River blue, a Stilton with mango (marvelous!) and a hard Spanish cheese that reminded me of a young Manchego. More pickles. The brown stuff is quince paste. I'm full, and the dog got a piece of cheese and one of capicola. Contemplating a third glass of wine for dessert, but...nah. Last night was a carryout from the barbecue joint a few blocks away. Guess I'll cook tomorrow.

Where is it they call them a "grinder"? I know I've read that...somewhere...

Agreed that soups and stews, particularly those with tomatoes (to me, at least) taste better the the next day. Science geeks (which would not be ME, who has yet to look at the opening assignment for the EdX course, and likely won't), is there any reason behind this?

@HungryChris -- I am putting hearts of palm on my grocery list. I love the things, and never think to get them. One of my favorite salads is them with early summer peas and asparagus, with a red wine viniagrette and lots of grated Parmigiano. And a sauteed mushroom or two or a dozen. ETA -- dinner tonight, so far, is an old vine zin, to be joined eventually (read: when I get up) by some cheese, charcuterie and olives.

Welcome. Come on in, have a seat, and tell us what you're cooking!

I did the first cycle on low temp, because I was a little nervous about it; went with the normal saute the second and third. Two trips through the cycle might do it. Or just adjust the time (not sure how long you can make it go). There's a post going around Facebook linking to an article on "how to use all those buttons" on the IP. Some good info there. I'll bookmark the next one I run across and share it.

I was perusing the cheese counter at Kroger today and lo and behold, there was Humboldt Fog marked down! So I grabbed it, dashed back over to produce and got Bosc pears. Tomorrow night's dinner will be but an appetizer to an entree of pears with honey and Humboldt.

I did three packages of Wright's bacon last night. One of them is set to be cut up and fried as bacon bits. Some of those bacon bits will go into these, if not this week, then next week.

I didn't know for years there WAS any cast ironware other than Lodge, but I guess that comes from growing up in Tennessee. I was intrigued to see, looking at their website, that they also sell carbon steel; I had been contemplating a Darto, but now I think I'll go with a Lodge. For a Tennessean, no trip to Chattanooga is complete without a stop by the Lodge foundry in South Pittsburg. I've bought a fair number of skillets and casseroles there! ETA, I'm curious how anyone who knows would say Lodge stacks up against some of the higher-end cast iron products.

I ate a moderate amount of hot cereal growing up, and still occasionally indulge. As a child, it was Cream of Wheat or oatmeal or my personal favorite, buttered white rice with brown sugar. Oddly, for a Southerner, we never had grits at home, though we would at a restaurant. I remember MaltOMeal, but we rarely, if ever, had it. I still have oatmeal, although now it's usually steel-cut oats, or rice for breakfast occasionally. And I dearly love champorado, Filipino chocolate rice. In fact, I should make some of that soon.

@HungryChris -- The planets have realigned and the universe is once more sailing in its assigned path.

Amen. I loathe a green bell pepper, and am not fond of green hot peppers (jalapenos, serranos, anaheims, etc., though Hatch are all right in small quantities). For any Cajun dishes, I sub sweet yellow banana peppers. Not fond of celery, either, so I often sub green tomatoes, if in season, for that, or just leave it out. Have also used carrots.

I can tell you the Kroger store brand does not work worth a flip. My dishes were awful. I ran a bunch of clean-out stuff through the DW and got some Cascade. Works much better. Agreed on the JetDry. The remaining Kroger store brand is reserved for boiling in pots that have stuck-on or burnt-on food. And the drip pans for my stove.

@blue_dolphin -- I like the way you work!

@Anna N -- I've made meatballs similar to this. I don't have Porthos' issue with using ketchup, but I would have hesitated at that much mustard -- that's a LOT of mustard. Wouldn't have used THAT much ketchup, and would have used milk or cream with the breadcrumbs. What was your major quarrel with it? Flavor, or texture, or both?

I did my chicken stock with a single carcass for 90 minutes, then ran it through three saute cycles (30 minutes each) with no lid to reduce it by half.

Oddly, when I made a quickbread recently that I thought was too sweet for its savory add-ins, the sweetness seemed subdued in successive days as well. Wonder if there is something that causes the sweetness to be more intense when the bread is fresh? There didn't seem to be a significant change after it abated the first time, but that change WAS significant.