kayb

Put a dozen hardboiled quail eggs in to pickle today. Brine of 1/2 cup rice vinegar, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup water, a sizeable dash of sesame oil, and a half-tablespoon or so of sriracha. Heated and poured over eggs, which are now in the fridge and can be sampled for Easter hors d'ouevres. Other six eggs are in the fridge awaiting the purchase of sausage to make mini-Scotch eggs. Forgot that while I was errand running today.

Like several others on this thread, I can't offer professional advice, having never cooked commercially beyond the occasional bake sale.But I do love to cook for others, and frequently volunteer to do so. I find that it helps me to have a good timetable of when different tasks need to be started and finished, and also, to always have in mind an alternative plan if, say, the entree is an abject failure -- the only thing to do at that point is shrug, own it, and adjourn to the local burger joint. It is, in the end, as much about the fun and fellowship as it is the food. My one piece of advice would be not to fear failure. There are two possible outcomes to everything -- success, or learning. Congratulations to you for your determination to return to the life you love. My very best wishes, and I shall send prayers and positive thoughts in your direction.

And as the Arkansan in the house, when I hear Benton mentioned in conjunction with food, I think about Benton's bacon and ham. Incidentally, I will buy NO meat or produce at WalMart. The quality is horrible. I try not to shop there when I can avoid it...the place annoys me.

@rotuts, I was grocery shopping today and saw they had it on sale for $1.99. So I picked up a couple more jars, just for good measure. In addition to my free jar, I had coupons for 75 cents off and $1 off. Kroger knows I love me some Hellman's! And I am supplied with mayo for a while.

@rotuts, when you shop at Kroger all the time and use your loyalty card, they'll periodically send you coupons tailored to your buying habits. I got one the other day for a free jar of Hellman's! @KikiAnn, I've read somewhere that they will often offer appliances and other household goods -- sometimes seasonal -- at deep discounts. Overstocks, perhaps? A friend bought a gas grill for about $100 less than the local big-box was offering it.

@ElsieD and @Paul Bacino, I had thought that might be the answer. Overnight, huh?

A new adventure for me last night -- zucchini lasagna. Got out the mandoline and sliced two medium zucchini into about 1/4 inch slices, lengthways, and roasted those with a little olive oil, salt and pepper for 20 minutes at 400F. Drained water off the baking sheet. Used a pint of my tomato-garlic sauce plus a half-pint of plain tomato sauce to cut the garlic level (I went a bit overboard on the garlic when I canned that batch...). Layers of sauce, zucchini, grated mozzarella, grated parmigiano. Baked the whole works for another 30 minutes at 375F. It was watery, but very good; it'll go in the regular rotation. Will have to see if I can figure a way to get more water out of the zucchini next time. Served with oven sweet potato fries dusted with smoky paprika, and asparagus. Very healthy dinner.

The Aldi here is relatively new, which may be why I don't have the "dark and depressing" and odor issues some of you mention. A friend goes to Missouri, 25 miles away, to get wine at their Aldi, as grocery stores in MO can sell wine but those in AR cannot (what do you expect from a state that's still functioning under a constitution written in 1874?). She contends they have a most excellent Prosecco for $5 a bottle. I've contemplated making that run. We have a regional chain of supermarkets here, Hays, which is not my regular grocery (Kroger is) but where I'll periodically go because they have fine specials on meat. I scored Boston butts for 99 cents a pound, ditto pork steaks. Wright's bacon was 4.99 a pound; I bought 10 pounds for the freezer. I keep a close eye on their ads; as pork is the only meat I haven't yet found a local source for the farm version, I'll buy supermarket pork. Not so beef or chicken.

Thanks! Going to try this!

It was a small place in Fukushima, which specialized in beef tongue. We were asked where we wanted to eat, and just said, "a local favorite," and that's where our guides took us. I didn't object to the taste at all, but it was just very chewy -- put me in mind of poorly prepared calamari.

I haven't experienced any of the horror stories @DiggingDogFarmrecounts. But I'm pretty picky about what I buy there. I will buy butter because it's a buck a pound cheaper than Kroger. I will occasionally buy snack crackers or other snacky things. I have never bought fresh meat there, although I've heard good things about their ham (I'm a Honeybaked Ham or a Petit Jean Farms ham person, myself). Haven't bought any dairy other than butter. Like a lot of stores, they may be cheaper on one thing and higher on something else. I saw packaged cake mixes (base for some of my desserts, as I'm not much of a pastry chef) for $1.99, when I can buy them all day at Kroger for $1.29.

I have eggs; I have gochujang. How does one cure an egg yolk, please? @huiray, I have only ever eaten beef tongue in Japan. The taste was fine, but it was tremendously chewy. How is the texture of that shown in your photo?

Again,wonderful blog. I'm all amazed at the huge range of food choices, and your daily routine serves as a fine example of how much work it takes to succeed in one's small business, particularly if that business is food related. I often have friends for whom I cook ask me why I don't open a restaurant; my answer, consistently, is "I don't want to work that hard." My utmost admiration to you for making a success of your business through, obviously, a LOT of hard work!

What kind of rice did you use? I used my IP to make Boston Baked beans Sunday for family dinner that wound up not happening because Child C and hubby had car issues. So Child A and I had burgers, potato salad and beans, while the grandchild, who turns up his nose at any meat produce other than fish sticks and chicken nuggets, had a grilled cheese with oven fries. Beans, from a friend's recipe cited on the HIP pressure cooking website, were quite watery; a combination of saute and slow cook with the lid off for about 30 minutes took care of that, and concentrated the flavors in a nice thick sauce. Used RB Alubia blanco beans. I'll do it again.

I believe I could live at that market. What a gorgeous array! And roasted quail, too? Be still, my heart.

I always look forward to the first weekend breakfast following St. Patrick's Day: Corned beef hash! Today, with poached farm eggs and homemade biscuits with homemade pear preserves. I may not eat for a week.

Bookmarked and saved!

Greatly looking forward to this coming week!

A sort of improv pasta primavera, with sugar snap peas, roasted cherry tomatoes, shelled spring peas, and asparagus in an egg/cream/grated Parm sauce, with a foccacine whose recipe I got from someone on here ( @ElsieD, was it you?). Very good. I had intended to add a part of a bag of frozen popcorn shrimp, but forgot them and didn't miss them until I was halfway through dinner.

What beautiful meals! What are the leaves with the spaghetti with clams (love that composition!), and what is the green sauce with the corned beef? Looks like pesto; I'd never thought of pesto with corned beef.

I would go with Scotch eggs, and I'd also try some pickled eggs with them. Being so small, they should pickle quickly. And just boiling, peeling and halving, they ought to be great in salads or as garnishes. I do a spring pea salad for Easter every year, and have used hardboiled quail eggs, halved, as a garnish for it. Looks pretty, tastes great. K.

Interesting choice of a planting date, given the way it moves around the calendar. Daddy was a major proponent of doing things "by the signs," i.e., the phases of the moon and different astrological signs, as detailed in the Farmers Almanac, which ranked right up there with the Bible in our house. Since Easter is a moon-driven date, I guess it makes sense. He also used "the signs" to determine when to go fishing, when to graft fruit trees, when to make kraut, and assorted other things. Oh, and when to kill hogs. The hams and bacon would not cure properly if the signs were wrong. I'd say there's nothing to that, but he always cured good ham and bacon and made good kraut, and I don't remember the garden ever getting frozen out.

Daddy used to always contend one should plant on Good Friday, so that's what I'm hoping to do.

One of the nice things about living in a small city in the South, surrounded by farms -- I've just connected with a lady who will bring to my door a dozen farm-fresh eggs every week, and extra when I ask (like next week, as we will be deviling eggs!) -- for the stunningly low price of $2.50 a dozen. I felt almost guilty paying for them this morning. $2.50 -- delivered! -- almost beyond belief. For farm-fresh eggs, I'll take my chances with bird flu.

I'm calling success, which is pretty sweet, after several years of failures. All I can point to that's different is my use of Prague powder, as opposed to Morton Tenderquick, and something I bought one one year that purported to be "pink salt," and while it was pink and salty, certainly was NOT curing salt. Brined five days, per Ruhlman, a 24-hour soak in several changes of water, and SV 24 hours at 140. Tender, but still some chew; could have gone longer without hurting it. Not too salty. Good flavor. All I noticed was a couple of places in the very thickest part of the point to which the brine didn't penetrate -- no red coloration. I might go 7 days next time. Used the liquid remaining in the SV bag to cook the potatoes and carrots. Cut thick slabs of cabbage, brushed with olive oil, and salted and peppered generously, popped those in the oven as well. It was a quite excellent dinner. Although I'm a Scot, I'm happy to celebrate with my Celtic brothers and sisters across the Irish Sea.