kayb

I've made a bacon jam that's a great spread on biscuits, or as a topping for burgers. If you'd like, I'll send the recipe.

Sent me to google, that one did.

Arkansas voted for medical marijuana. This state's voters never cease to amaze me.

It's election night. Dinner is wine, and snacky stuff. I have good Genoa salami, several kinds of cheese, olives, pickles. Did I say wine? Started out finishing off a bottle of pinot grigio that was in the fridge from last night. Went to a new bottle of Orin Swift Prisoner, which I commend to all y'all as an excellent, excellent red blend. (At $40-ish a bottle, it ain't cheap, but it's election night. It calls for the good stuff.) I have yet to get to the snacky stuff.

The bread recipe calls for four tablespoons of the husks. The pharmaceutical use calls for two tablespoons stirred into a glass of juice. So unless you eat half the loaf at a sitting, you ought to be OK. I think.

I can state with some authority I have learned to cook the best country-fried steak on the planet, thanks to my Anova. My quarter-steer comes with several packages of tenderized round steak, what used to be sold in the grocery as "minute steak," although this is thicker and does not appear to have been run through the jacquardizing machine as many times as the grocery store version. I took two packages, salted and peppered them, and put them in the bath at 145F about 9 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday morning, after about 10 hours in the bath, I took them out and stashed them in the fridge after an ice bath. When time came to cook Sunday dinner, I set up my breading station: a bowl of seasoned flour, one of egg/milk wash, one of breadcrumbs. After a trip through each, the steaks fried in something less than 1/4 inch of oil for about 5-6 minutes on a side, and then drained on paper towels with each layer of them loosely covered by foil and more paper towels to hold in heat. Pan drippings got an extra dose of flour to make gravy, followed by the jus from the bag, and milk. The kids said I did good. I don't care for CF steak, but tasted to sample; decent flavor, and fork-tender. Thinking of trying a similar technique with pork loin, sliced thin and pounded, SV'd and then breaded to fry up as schnitzel.

Psyllium husks? I recently found a recipe for a nut-and-seed bread that depends on psyllium husks to bind it. I now possess some. Have never worked with them before. Found them in the nutritional supplements at the health food store.

Here in the Mid-South, Kroger is ubiquitous. Lately, they've started upgrading and/or building some new, more upscale stores in some locations. They have a greatly expanded deli with, among other offerings: a sushi bar (decent sushi, not great but not bad) a Chinese take-out bar (beef and broccoli, General Tso's chicken, couple of other entrees, fried rice, noodles) a "Mexican" food bar (I use quotes because it appears to be only vaguely Mexican) a wings bar an extensive salad bar with four different soup offerings a hot counter with a couple of entrees and five or six sides, as well as fried chicken a cold case with all manner of salads, as well as grilled veggies, etc., that can either be eaten cold or warmed back up an expanded cheese section with a really good (for this part of the world) selection of cheeses, and they'll cut the size chunk you want a massive olive and antipasto bar and the sliced deli meat/cheese section will make you a sandwich to order and sell it to you by weight. There are some packaged meals like premade sandwiches and salads. There's also a fairly decent, for this part of the world, seafood section, and a decent (for a supermarket) custom meat section. There are some tables, but most people appear to be picking up stuff to take out. I've picked up lunch or dinner there more than a few times.

Leftover roast chicken, with mushrooms, in a cream sauce, served inside a hollowed out roll, with scalloped potatoes and roasted broccoli with lemon zest.

I eat alone a fair amount when I'm traveling, so I enjoy communal tables, but rarely see them. If I'm somewhere there's a line and people are being seated, I always offer to share my table with anyone who wants to eat more quickly. I did that a few weeks ago when I was on the road, and wound up having a delightful lunch and conversation with a gentleman who was a retired state trooper and who had, amazingly enough, been partnered with a man I grew up with and haven't seen since we left high school. I love how small the world is.

If you like, you can order it here. Per the website, they have a hickory smoked, but not applewood. I thought I remembered applewood, as well. The peppered is about the best going.

Have eaten at Morimoto's. Very good. I loved the dessert presentation of three scoops of sorbet on a slab of ice with three "dimples" in it to hold the sorbet. Never managed to make it to Le Bec Fin. However, the best German food I ever ate was at the Austrian Village in Huntingdon Valley.

There ARE such abodes? The horror!

I don't do magazines in general. They pile up, and I don't have time to read them. That said, while Milk Street was a good-looking piece, it didn't entice me to the tune of 20 bucks for a year's worth. I would be much more likely to subscribe to something like the old Gourmet, or Food and Wine.

People losing their minds over your food is ALWAYS a good thing. And the roses look delectable.

When I'm in Center City (unfortunately, not for a long time now), I always had to go to that cheesesteak place just off Rittenhouse Square (on South St.? I forget my Philly geography). But my favorite meal -- perhaps my best (Italian) meal ever -- remains the homemade ravioli and meatballs at Villa di Roma on Ninth. If a meatball can be sublime, these were sublime. Hell, no "if" to it. These suckers were sublime.

I would be really interested to hear your take on Petit Jean Farms' bacon, @btbyrd. Not "as artisinal" as Benton's, Broadbent's...but damn good bacon. And for basic grocery store bacon (you can get Petit Jean in the grocery store, for premium prices), it's real hard to beat Wright's.

Get thee behind me. Thankfully, I am far from the Greater LA area.

Here in the American South, we'd call those biscuits. And they look like fine ones.

Sunday dinner, for some reason, is always traditional Southern fare. And served midday. Country fried steak, homemade rolls, corn and peas from the freezer, mashed potatoes and gravy.

A slab of chicken breast, from a whole, farm-raised bird brined and then roasted in the CSO. I continue to marvel at how moist and toothsome a brined, farm-raised, CSO-roasted chicken is. With potato salad and squash.

I would suspect one reason you see fewer appliances other than microwaves in offices, etc., is that most folks have a limited lunch hour and don't have the ability to do prep work, steps, etc., prior to that time. Most places I know where people work 24-hour shifts -- say, fire departments or ambulance services -- there's always something on the stove cooking for dinner. Will be enjoying this thread as well. One of the things I love about working at home (besides my work uniform of yoga pants and a t-shirt ) is the ability to take time periodically to tend to something in the kitchen, or swap the laundry from the washer to the dryer, that sort of thing.

Thanks for the seed source recommendations. Pinetree Garden Seeds looks particularly interesting, as I need small amounts.

Oh, no! They EAT those cute little puffins? I'm horrified! But Iceland is lovely, at least via your photos. And the prevalence of langoustine soup and other preparations of those little beauties leave me salivating...

Who has leftover wine???