kayb

Anova is currently running a $30 off online discount for Mother's Day.

Planting is finished here at KB Farms, all 208 square feet of it. Tomato plants are thriving. Got the yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers planted yesterday. Planted pole beans this evening, to get ahead of the rain that's supposed to come through tonight or early tomorrow. Will sic Lucy the Watchpug on the first bunny to show its face. Here's an amusing take on bunnies and other such varmints pillaging one's garden. It was my inaugural performance at Tales from the South, a storytelling show that's a regular on the local public radio station. One of my favorite things to do. "click"

I am intrigued by the mountain yam slices. Do they taste similar to regular yams? I've never seen them; are they grown in the US? @liamsaunt and @robirdstx, I could easily make dinner off either of your antipasti. Lovely. Edge goes narrowly to the one with the salted ricotta, because I love that stuff. Finished off my bunch of local asparagus tonight, with shrimp scampi for which I did not reduce the sauce enough before I added the shrimp back. One of my major failings in the kitchen; I do it often. You'd think I'd learn. Also had my first Arkansas strawberries of the year, procured on the way back home from Little Rock when I stopped and picked up the shrimp from a little Cajun market that brings it in fresh three times a week. While I was there, I dropped by the local diner and had their specialty, a strawberry shortcake with local berries. Old-fashioned shortcake wafers, topped off with whipped topping in a can in a nod to the place's history as a dairy bar, and the whole thing served over a base of soft-serve vanilla ice cream. Arguably the best strawberry dessert in the state.

Check the Kitchenaid refurbished site (I just googled Kitchenaid refurbished; didn't find the link from the regular KA site. Got my KA Pro 600 with paddle, dough hook and whisk there about 5 years ago for, best I recall, around $179. Perfect mixer for what I do.

Those look pretty similar to what is sold down here as "country style ribs." Generally fairly cheap, and great in any sort of slow cook.

Sounds marvelous! Saving this recipe. I have cod filets in the freezer (no fresh, here in midAmerica). Will pass on the squid, as I have never learned to like it.

I envy you your cheese and charcuterie source every time you post it. I am intrigued by the notion of bo ssam. I believe that will be the treatment for the next pork butt that comes through. Tonight's asparagus was butter-braised, with hollandaise because the youngest child was here. Doggoned good blender hollandaise, if I did make it myself.

First local asparagus of the year for me. With my favorite accompaniment, two poached egg yolks. Didn't have anything with it; why do you want a side with perfection?

Bumping this thread up (I guess it would be the April of Asparagus, actually) because I bought my first local asparagus today. A local farmer sells it at the Farmers' Market, but our local market doesn't open until May. He also sells at the market in Memphis, which has been going since the beginning of April. He and his wife also operate a farm-to-fork restaurant near their farm, about halfway between me and Memphis. I had lunch there the other day and asked if I could buy asparagus there. He said sure, and to tell him how much I wanted and when I wanted to pick it up. I told him two pounds, and I'd get it Saturday. I went down there today, and I had THREE AND A HALF pounds. I suspect it was cut this morning. I will eat asparagus all week, and not complain a bit. This purple asparagus cooks up a darker green, and has no bitter taste at all. I'm in spring heaven.

I believe cardboard would be good with that view.

That's essentially the way you make champorado.

I think my favorite eggplant treatment is to cube it, toss it in a mixture of honey and miso, and roast it.

Eat the grains? Interesting. By themselves, or with/in something?

A few years ago, I got on a kick of champorado, Filipino chocolate rice porridge; not a pudding, I suppose, since it does not have eggs. This thread brings it to mind. Have to hunt up the recipe.

I had a houseful of grandchildren last weekend, so I ran by Aldi to pick up snack stuff for them. Besides goldfish and dried fruit, I picked up a few other bargains. Fresh pineapples were 99 cents each, so I got two; bananas, organic, for $1.19; milk, almond milk and cream, all cheaper than Kroger. Best selection of produce I've seen there in all my trips.

I got on a kick of making kefir a few years ago, but stopped for some reason...probably because I was traveling and not able to feed it regularly. I do like it, though, particularly when blended with fresh or frozen fruit. I think it tastes a great deal like yogurt.

Fried rice and ahi tuna poke with pineapple. No photos.

Mine's the old one. I get past the coming-to-temp- issue by using hot tap water to start with. Generally no more than 15 minutes to raise it to cooking temps I use for most things.

Was going to ask about the thickness, and I see ElsieD beat me to it. Jail slaw is a vinegar/sugar-based slaw seasoned with turmeric, dry mustard and white pepper. I love it, it keeps in the fridge forever, and it's great in place of lettuce on a BLT or with barbecue or other meat that tends toward greasy. If you want the recipe, PM me and I'll be happy to send it. So named because I learned to make it when I was a reporter covering criminal court cases, and we'd frequently eat lunch at the jail due to a lack of other options, and time constraints. And I'm sure the bean issue was the molasses. I'd never thought about it either. I'll know better next time. I'm fine with the tang of 8-hour yogurt, but the time factor is occasionally an issue for me. Think I'll try the four-hour tomorrow. I drain mine anyway, so if it'll not be any thinner than 8-hour -- and I couldn't stand a spoon up in mine, I don't think -- so I shouldn't lose as much volume to whey. I generally wind up with about a quart of yogurt from a half-gallon of milk after I drain for two or three hours. I use the same culture Shelby does.

I grew up using self-rising cornmeal mix (which I believe is about a 1:1 corn meal/flour ratio, plus baking powder), so that's what I still lean toward. Fat is generally bacon fat, if I have that around; if not, corn oil or vegetable or canola oil, whatever I have, and I have from time to time used olive oil. I never measure anything in cornbread; dump some cornmeal mix in a bowl, add an egg, the fat (which I have never added hot), and enough milk or buttermilk, whatever I have on hand (I have used half and half in a pinch) until it's thin enough. I can eyeball the right amounts for my 8-inch skillet, which makes plenty for two with enough left over for small recipe of chicken and dressing. Definitely yes on the hot skillet. Add-ins: All the aforementioned, with the exception that I don't like jalapenos, but have used chipotle; for corn I usually use frozen corn, make the batter thicker, and fry it in patties/fritters for an arepa-type side, great with chili or posole. Love grated cheddar in it, or cotija. Another add-in I like is chopped broccoli. I also used to make, when the kids were little, a "tamale pie," which had ground beef cooked with "Mexican"-ish seasonings, a healthy layer of cheese, and cornbread batter with corn poured over the top. The only instance in which I make a sweetened cornbread is rosemary cornbread that's more cakey (higher ratio of flour to meal) and designed to go with brunch-type dishes. A sweet taste ought not go with rosemary, but it does, somehow. Recipe here. Oh, and cracklings. I've never had it with anything but pork cracklings, but I see no reason it shouldn't work with duck or chicken. There is NOTHING like a big pan of crackling cornbread with "new sorghum," i.e., sorghum molasses during the first couple of weeks after it's made, before it ages. With country style bacon or country ham, and stewed tomatoes. Feed me that and just go ahead and kill me now.

Y'all, don't laugh at my sad little tomato garden. My father, whose gardens were always immaculate, would be horrified. But this garden spot was a Bermuda lawn of some 60 years' tenure, this time last week. It needed to be turned with a turning plow, then disked, then tilled. It got tilled. I pulled out the biggest of the clumps of Bermuda and chunked them over against the fence. As I am newly back in the gardening business after many years, my collection of garden tools is minimal; a hand fork/mattock and a hand spade, both of which I've used for planting herbs in pots, and a cheap hoe I bought Sunday at Lowe's. So the planting of the tomatoes was accomplished by me sitting on the wet ground (we had had a light rain this morning and are supposed to have more tonight) breaking up clods and working in compost with a hand fork, and carefully planting and hilling up around each tomato plant by hand. I have 2 each of 2 different hybrids; about 8 Bradley heirlooms; a yellow cherry tomato, a red grape tomato, and eight Romas in this bed and the one next to it. A friend who no longer gardens offered to let me pillage her shed for hand tools I needed. Be assured I'll be doing so. Growing up with them, I didn't think about how hard it is to garden without them. Next to come: cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini and pole beans. The pole beans need to wait until it's a bit warmer. I ran out of time and energy to plant the squash and cucumbers.

Can't testify to the Vac-Star, but I purely LOVE my Anova. Not a bit of problem in a year of use.

@Shelby, I love using the whey from yogurt in my next bread. As I don't make bread but every couple of weeks or so, and the timing does not always coincide with yogurt-making, I generally freeze the whey in a plastic carton.

I've been reading this thread with fascination, amazed that people will actually try to pull off things like that. I hate to think I'm that gullible, because usually I am not, but I tend to take a restaurant or grocer at their word unless it's obviously not so. A few experiences, both pro and con, I've had: Any number of restaurants advertising "crab-stuffed" anything, or any sort of crab in a sauce preparation, using imitation crabmeat instead. A vendor at the farmers' market who got tossed out on his ear after his "locally grown" peaches were found to have been brought in from the Rio Grande valley, which isn't very local, by about 800 or so miles. A purveyor of "farm-raised" pork, beef and lamb who apparently was selling more than he grew, and supplementing it with purchased meat. He's actually doing fed time on a related offense. On the other side of the equation, a restaurant in a town where I once lived advertised wagyu beef. I went to dinner there one night, and was cautioned by the waiter that they wagyu steak wasn't wagyu, as the chef/owner had looked at the shipment and rejected it, going with Kobe that night instead. And on the butter/margarine issue -- I used to belong to an organization that sold Maine lobsters, either live, cooked on-site, or the frozen tails. For the cooked on-site, we included corn, potatoes and melted butter. One year, whoever bought the groceries for the event bought margarine instead. I came unglued when some of the cooks suggested to me it didn't make any difference, and went to the store myself and got butter. Margarine is nasty stuff. I'll use it when I'm eating at my favorite local greasy spoon meat-and-three, because they don't offer butter, but that's about it.

Sigh. I want one SO badly. But I cannot squeeze another appliance into my budget this month...or my kitchen in this lifetime!