kayb

Shredded or diced very fine for sandwich/lettuce cup filling. Roasted/grilled whole and cut into strips crosswise, or bite-sized cubes, for going over greens. For a sandwich filling, I like mayo, halved green or red grapes (or both), toasted, slivered almonds, chopped sweet pickles and curry powder. Chopped hardboiled eggs if I rememberd to cook 'em. And never, ever, any raw onion or celery.

Open face meat loaf sandwich, with lots of mayo, and brie. Sorry, @rotuts, not TJ's brie, as we don't have such an establishment. Forgot to take a pic because I was starving, but it was good.

I also use the ball jars. But I do have a pound bag of beans in the freezer. I order my coffee, and usually get it in five one-pound bags at a time to save on shipping (they use flat rate boxes, so shipping five costs the same as shipping one). What does freezing do to the taste/quality? I might add that, while I have definite likes and dislikes in the realm of coffee, and will generally do without rather than drink bad coffee, I probably am not nearly as particular as many of the "coffeeheads" on here.

Chicken pot pie, with a spinach salad.

Last night for soup supper at church, I made a bastardized version of Tom Yum soup. First, I cooked a pound of stew beef, cut into smaller sized pieces than the 1 x 2 in the package, in the IP; 30 minutes HP, regular release. Meanwhile, I soaked a handful of dried shiitakes. Sliced the hydrated shiitakes, added them and their water to the IP, along with some more water and lots of Tom Yum paste, and switched that over to slow cook while I went out and ran some errands. Came home, switched it over to saute', let it come to a boil and added Pad Thai wide rice noodles. It was a hit. If I had it to do over again, I'd cook the noodles separately and put them in a separate dish to add to the soup, as I'm afraid the leftovers will be much too glutinous from dissolving noodles to be very good. But we shall see. And there wasn't a great deal left.

I took my bacon completely OUT of the grocery package in which I SV'd it; perhaps that makes the difference. I transferred it to a gallon zip-loc, where it could lie relatively flat. As someone upthread mentioned, it's a little fragile and tends to tear. I find it's easier to pull two slices at at a time away from the "mass" of bacon, and then separate those slices. @Porthos -- I think the thickness is important to (a) be able to separate it, and (b) be able to sear it without overcooking it. I'll be curious to hear how finishing it off in the oven may go. Would seem to me it might be difficult to preserve the soft interior of the bacon and get a crisp on the outside.

It's going to be gorgeous. Love that fridge.

Is it just me, or does that egg seem to have an abnormally large white-to-yolk ratio? Maybe it's the way it's cut... In any event, hope it did the trick and you're feeling better.

I do 1.75:1 water-to-rice ratio, salt the water, use the "rice" setting, and then generally leave it on "keep warm" for 15-20 minutes or so. I suspect that allows it to steam and take up the additional water. I use whatever generic variety of rice, mostly likely Riceland-produced but the store brand, is the cheapest, and, like you, use it when the taste doesn't matter much. FWIW, I use about the same method for brown rice, only I extend the "keep warm" time to a minimum of 30 minutes. I've left it as long as an hour, but if I do that purposely, I might go up to 1:1 on the water-rice ratio. I learned early on that when I didn't do the wait time with brown rice, it would be soupy and still crunchy.

I get the mottled look and ignore it; it's common on all my stainless stuff. BKF would fix it if I were concerned. When I have issues with anything stuck on the liner, I fill with water, add a hefty squirt of dishwasher detergent, and put it through a saute' cycle, uncovered. Rinses right out.

Yum! Soup supper at church tonight. Think I will make pho, or at least the Southern American version of pho.

Well, SOMEONE certainly gave the guy a shiner. The very first time I ever had duck confit, it was from a meal my dining companion had ordered at a restaurant in Atlanta. It was so marvelous I probably ate half his dinner; I just couldn't stop. In fairness, he probably ate half my pork loin chop. If people are good with sharing, and the restaurant doesn't object, I love it as a way to experience more of the menu. Occasionally, as was the case recently when I was out for a good dinner with friends, I come across a dish I wish I'd ordered all to myself, but I'll know to do that next time.

@HungryChris -- hard to beat! How far are you from Boston? Will be up that way and probably going up to Gloucester in the spring. Would love to come on up and meet you for lunch or dinner. Can't be that far' y'all's states are pretty small...

I've had good luck using some gladware-style containers I got at WalMart. Back when I used to go to WalMart. Havent been in two months, working on seeing how far I can stretch it....

One of the most serendipitous "that ought to be good" lunches I've had in a while; mayo, roasted and frozen cherry tomatoes, a couple of slices of bacon and some brie layered on potato-flax seed bread and broiled. One piece made a quite substantial and tasty lunch! The center piece of brie sort of slid into the gap when I cut the toastie in half. Could have probably done with two pieces.

Welcome from another Arkansan (Jonesboro, here). Never done any freeze-drying, but interested in trying it for herbs, etc. Would you share a bit about your equipment and set-up?

An "old school" night tonight, because I was in the mood: Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, steamed peas with butter. I like to do my meat loaf in a pie plate, thin, so there's a bigger ratio of crust to inside. And I was thinking about how good that would taste with some melted Brie in meat loaf sandwiches later on this week. Last night, it was carbonnades a la flamande. Usually a fail-safe for me, this one lacked something, and I'm not sure what. Could be because the liquor store has stopped carrying my go-to Green Flash Double Stout, and I went with a Belgian stout instead. I serve mine with grits instead of noodles, because I like it that way. Saturday night, it was choucroute garnie. Good, but I forgot to take pictures.

And it at least appears you can order online without a membership. I don't know that the full range of goods are available via the website, though.

Follow-up on igourmet.com: For anyone who's signed up for Ebates, there's 5 percent cash back on all orders of sale merchandise. Some duck confit leg quarters, some sausages, a pate and several different cheeses are on their way to me. Damn you, enablers.

With you on the baseball field. Pitchers and catchers report in 36 days, btw. I do love my legumes, of all colors, though. Leave me a few limas, wouldja?

Dinner via the IP tonight (no photos, because, well, I'm lazy). Choucroute garnie. Three pints of sauerkraut, the homemade variety, that have been languishing in my fridge for a while. Bratwurst, kielbasa, ham. Caraway and juniper berries. A bottle of cheap Riesling. Rye bread. Hard to beat.

Dammit. I guess I am going to have to buy one of these things.

I have, apparently, lost my ability to make biscuits. These TASTE good, but dammit, they won't rise for anything. And I used to make FINE biscuits; won a contest back in the dark ages when I was in 4H club in junior high school. It was a good breakfast, regardless; jamon iberico from Aldi (last package in the store, and unfortunately, I missed the pork belly), farm eggs, scrambled with a bit of cream, biscuits and pear preserves. Lots of good Brazilian coffee. If I could just make a biscuit again.

@HungryChris, that may be the first meal of yours that has not caused me to think seriously about setting out for Connecticut...

I love pretty much anything you can do with a potato. All that Irish background, I guess.