kayb

Made @Anna N's shrimp fritters last night, with broccoli and jail slaw. Had to add a bit of tarragon, as I love the taste of tarragon with shrimp and corn, as in the saute' of the two that @Kim Shook shared a few years ago. That was white sweet corn I'd frozen last year, as I forgot to get any when I was out and about. Good, but it felt like it lacked something. I think I might try them with some ginger and sesame oil, and serve them with lime wedges, maybe. I chilled in freezer 20 minutes and then in fridge, fried in 1/4" oil and they held together just fine. First fritter I ever made that didn't have an egg or a bread crumb anywhere about it.

@Shelby, I think you've posted that recipe before, but would you mind either reposting it or PM'ing it to me?

Dear Sweet Baby Jesus. I'd be miserable afterward (my digestive tract gets hinky at high sugar loading), but I'd eat one in a heartbeat.

I cooked a chuck roast like this the other day (though not the two-day version) and shredded it pretty finely, then served it in roast beef sandwiches with mayo and cheese. Pretty doggoned good!

@huiray, those shrimp look delectable.

A take on fish and chips, with peas: breaded cod filet (frozen, breaded, from Schwans; I was underwhelmed and won't order again); new potatoes, halved, tossed in olive oil, salted, CSO for 40 minutes, followed by steam-baked cod for 10. Cole slaw (not my usual jail slaw, though I used the rest of the head of cabbage for a batch of that) and English pea salad, which should have had chopped bacon except I forgot to cook any.

Bacon-wrapped grilled scallops with a brandied cherry sauce on the side; green salad with tomatoes; cheese course with some of Kerry's chocolate for dessert!

Bread-ventures this week with the new CSO: Anadama Bread Foccacia: Baguettes: Yes, my baguette shaping technique needs help. This is first attempt ever. I made a poolish, per Peter Reinhart, and divided it between the foccacia and the baguettes.

First IP cheesecake. I covered the pan with a folded paper towel, per the IP directions, and covered that with foil. Paper towel stuck to the top of the cheesecake and pulled it off, possibly because I overfilled the pan. Didn't harm the taste. I'll do this again. Baby cheesecake pan vs my big cheesecake pan. Unless it's a big dinner with lots of sweets-eaters, the big one is just too big for here at home. Have a feeling I'll be using this little sweetheart a good deal.

I guess I am thinking more toward the unique blend of spicing and smoking that constitutes Memphis-style barbecue, as opposed to, say, pernil or char siu or something else!

Foccacia: Baguettes. Yes, I need help on my baguette shaping technique. I made a poolish, per Reinhart, and split it between these two recipes. The foccacia is just excellent. Haven't cut into the baguettes yet. The early bumps in the relationship road with the CSO are all forgiven. I'm in love!

I'd saute the country style ribs with onions in the Instant Pot, and then braise them on the slow cook function in some hard cider. Slaw in a honey mustard viniagrette with cabbage, kohlrabi and carrots. Warm potato salad with sugar snap peas and green beans, with a yogurt-lemon-dill dressing. Fresh fruit with creme anglaise for dessert.

Fried okra. Fried catfish. White beans with ham. Barbecued pork shoulder. Barbecued ribs. I don't know that any of those are exclusively American, but then, most of us here aren't native Americans, anyway. If you want native American food, tomatoes, frybread, squash are some I can think of.

About half a peck of peas, ready for the freezer. The brown ones are crowders, the others are purple hulls. Corn in the process of being cut off before being blanched and frozen. Next week, I go out in search of cucumbers to make some pickles.

I'm convinced no one can top that one. Truly impressive. @mrdecoy1970, can I just come browse your library?

OK. I kinda cleaned up. Kinda. My house is a rental, and was built in the late 1940s/early 1950s -- the ubiquitous three BR-1-bath GI Bill house. Before I moved, someone had added a den, a laundry room and a storage room to the rear, taking out the back wall of the kitchen and installing a peninsula cabinet with overhead cabinets looking out into the new den. Said cabinet: This is where a lot of prep gets done, and fresh produce that doesn't need to be refrigerated is stored. I was making bread this morning. Upper cabinets hold dishes, plastic ware, assorted serving pieces; they reach all the way to the ceiling. Base cabinets hold baking pans, other pots and pans, and assorted junk. Drawers are, from right, silverware, gadgets, paper and wraps, more gadgets, and two junk drawers. To the left of the cabinet is the opening to the dining room; to the right, the doors to the den and hallway, and the cabinet with the sink. Immediately opposite this is the wall with stove, fridge and small (30") countertop. As you can see, this is also where my electrical appliances live, as it's the home of the only wall outlet in the kitchen. Food processor, electric kettle, blender and Kitchenaid mixer (under its hood) stay out at all times because all but the kettle are too big and bulky/heavy to move. Kettle could move now, as I don't use it as much since we got the Keurig. Upper cabinet holds spices. Drawers have utensils and hot pads, lower cabinet has other small electrical appliances. This wall/counter is the bane of my existence. Besides the obvious sink and dishwasher (those are CLEAN) pans draining in the sink!), there are antique Ball jar canisters and a conglomeration of stuff that doesn't seem to have anywhere else to live. The wall to the left is the wall of the pantry, which is full room height but only about two feet wide. There IS an outlet on the over-sink light fixture that I can use if I want to risk electrocution. It's far from a great kitchen, but it's not too bad.

Oh...my...goodness. I have just had my first poached-egg-on-toast with toast from the CSO. I now understand why everyone waxes so rhapsodic about CSO toast. Photo on lunch thread. I have to work on timing; the egg had to sit for a minute or two while the toast was finishing. This was setting 5 on the toast scale. I will go a little darker next time.

Toasted Anadama bread with a poached egg (mostly yolk; I don't like egg whites.)

Here are most of mine: A shelf and a half of a three-shelf, 36-inch shelf here; the basket is dog accoutrements, and the bottom shelf is assorted junk. The other three-shelf bookcase. These live in the laundry room, because that's the only place for them. A few books are out on loan, and a few have migrated into the dining room to rest on the bookshelf there. There may be one or two on my nightstand, as I tend to read them lilke novels. There is one on the back of the couch I've been perusing. I need to categorize my Kindle books, but I'm guessing I have in the neighborhood of 100 cookbooks there. The real monster, though, are the two groups of computer files -- one a documents folder of cut-and-pasted or emailed-to-me files of recipes, at least broken down by category, and the bookmarks file, also broken down by topic, of individual recipes. Plus I have probably 100-150 recipes saved in my "cookbook" on the NYT Cooking site, and another 100 or so on Food 52. A lot of my cookbooks -- most of the top shelf of pic 2 -- are assorted "collection" cookbooks published by churches, organizations, etc. Lots of Jell-O and Cream of Mushroom soups in them, but I keep them because there are two or three "keepers" in each book, which I can easily find by looking for the stained and wrinkled page.

Gorgeous kitchen, @Tere. I would be delighted to be within shouting distance of any dairy where they made decent cheese; our closest cheesemaker is Kent Walker Cheese in Little Rock, a two-hour drive. But I have a meeting there next week, so will make a KW stop on the way back. @sartoric, your kitchen looks like a marvelously efficient galley model. Like Shelby, I love the floor. I want hardwood in my next kitchen. Mine is presently too messy to take a picture. If I get it cleaned up this afternoon....

Knackwurst (from the Aldi trip), sliced diagonally and fried, with a squirt of honey mustard on the side; homemade kraut, fresh from the jar in the fridge; fried potatoes with onions; Rancho Gordo vaquero beans cooked simply with onion, garlic, and a sprinkle of steak seasoning rub. With a glass of pinot grigio. Simple, homey and it hit the spot.

And as to the question I didn't address earlier, that was the browning I got from the 40 minute bake. No burning/overbrowning problem. I checked and was prepared to put foil over it, but didn't need to.

Holy hell. That'd cut into my Scotch-drinking severely.

Enabler.

@Anna N, the recipe is Peter Reinhart's. It's here. @rotuts, the pans are my standard 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 Calphalon pans that I use for most loaves. They fit just perfectly. I made up the soaker the night before, and started on the bread about noon (after I finished all my errands). All was according to the reicpe except I used perhaps 1/4 cup less flour, and as noted earlier, it took the loaves more than an hour to rise in the CSO, rather than the 20 minutes the instruction booklet suggested. The molasses is locally made sorghum molasses, not strong at all. Very good flavor. My daughter announced, when she smelled it, that she wanted cinnamon toast for dinner. I happily obliged. It makes most excellent cinnamon toast.