kayb

@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.

In the trailer-trash vein, pretzel sticks dipped in melted white chocolate chips and rolled in crushed candy canes are pretty good.

No pictures because the pork took forever to cook, but I took a pork tenderloin, seasoned it with hoisin and soy sauce and ginger, then peeled and cored a couple of pineapples and surrounded the pork, on a rack in a roasting pan, with the fruit, which also got a nice shot of soy sauce. Roasted at 400 degrees for-freakin'-ever to get to temperature, I guess because the pineapple was insulating the pork. Wonderfully tender and good. Served it with coconut rice and a cucumber salad in a dressing of rice vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and honey. There was a bit of pork and pineapple left, which is destined to show up in fried rice next week.

I have a side-by-side fridge/freezer, as well as a second refrigerator in the storage room with an upper freezer, and a 7-cubic-foot chest freezer. The storage room fridge-freezer holds lots of square plastic tubs of stock (chicken and beef), as well as corn and peas frozen from last summer. The chest freezer holds my quarter-steer, along with some odds and ends of pork and a few whole chickens. The inside freezer held, until shortly before Christmas, lots of stuff that was old enough to draw Social Security, until I cleaned it out. It was glorious for about a week and half, and I've crammed it back full in all its little cracks and crevices now. I want a big honkin' upright freezer. I find it's easy to organize in those plastic tubs from WalMart that have all the holes in all sides, and the solid bottom. I do like what someone mentioned above, the magazine storage rack for storing zip-locs of stock or other liquids. Got to try that. Must have that freezer by next summer. Planning a larger garden.

I, on the other hand, love it. Will happily use brown rice any time I can get away with it when white is called for. And as one who grew up eating rice with brown sugar and butter as a hot breakfast cereal, can I just say that brown rice is MUCH better in that application than white. In my book.

But you LOVE me. I thought of you, actually, when I saw the butchering book. I bought the vegetarian book and the James Beard book, and may well go back and get the curry book.

There is only one potential breakfast for a snow day when one's daughter is home from work: Pigs in blankets! The reason for Pillsbury crescent rolls in a tube to exist.

Aaaannnndddd: The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison, $1.99 ebook. The New James Beard, $1.99 ebook. Curry, A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, Lizzie Collingham, $1.99 ebook. Viniagrettes and Other Dressings, Michelle Anna Jordan, $2.99 ebook. The Complete Book of Butchering, Smoking, Curing and Sausage-Making, Philip Hasheider, $2.99 ebook. A sampling from the email Amazon so helpfully sent me today. You're welcome. ( @IowaDee, I'm looking at you....)

Re: raw oysters vs Rockefeller or other preps. If they ain't broke, why fix 'em?

@Jacksoup, looks like it's going to be a gorgeous kitchen! And I particularly like how you've matched the kitchen to the cat. @gfweb, I NEVER want to see behind my stove, nor in the small crack between the stove and the cabinet. I shudder to think. Please keep pics coming!

Adding rye to the list; had been thinking of that and forgot to list it. Will add maraschino liqueur and Cointreau, as well as Campari, I have both Peychaud's and Angostura bitters. Already planning to upgrade the brandy to cognac, as mentioned by you and @JoNorvelleWalker. Gonna be a pricy trip to the liquor store!

It's not as juniper-heavy, and has a decided citrus-y aftertaste. Very light. Back in the dark ages, I used to escape down to Pass Christian, when it was a funky little fishing village. There was a harborfront bar that served a hellacious Mississippi Punch. Thanks for the link. I'll have to try my hand at making one. Will look into the Pierre Ferrand as well.

Almost ashamed to post my poor efforts amid all these gorgeous confections -- but they DID taste good. Peanut butter fudge. Coconut macaroons. Both made and left at my daughter's house for late birthday/Christmas goodies, as they are her two favorites.