kayb

I'd probably run an ad on Craigslist. Also, if there's enough it's worth your while to do it, check out the cost of a classified in Southern Living. That's probably read by a high percentage of people who'd be in the market to fill out flatware sets. Replacements is an option, but as MSRadell says, they'll take a sizeable cut.

Well, it'll stand between you and starvation. I feel that way sometimes about Taco Bell. "It's not common food here in Oz..." I'm so sorry.

I stood on my head to get the brisket from my beef share out of the chest freezer today, to let it thaw for a day in the fridge before plunking it in the cure. I get one sizeable piece every year with my quarter-steer, and save it for St. Patrick's day, when I have traditionally ruined it with an unsuccessful cure/cook. This year, it's a beauty of a 7.2-pound flat. Part of it is getting cured and frozen, to become pastrami later this year. The rest -- well, it will be yet again my attempt at homemade corned beef, this year with the Ruhlman recipe from Charcuterie, which I will follow slavishly. Meanwhile, simple dinner last night. Top sirloin, SV for four hours at 140, then seared in an iron skillet. Damn steak was still tough. Lima beans and corn were excellent, though.

Ahi tuna poke with pineapple over rice, cucumber salad, stir-fried brussels sprouts in a ginger/soy reduction.

I can get better frozen scallops at Sam's. But the king crab legs were excellent. Mini-dogs were as good as I remember. Haven't gotten into my cod yet. Having raw ahi tuna poke with pineapple and cucumber tonight. Have another box of crab legs coming next week.

It was binge-watching time for House of Cards Season 4 last night, which called for finger food. Potato skins, deviled eggs and pickles. Followed by the first strawberries of the season. Well, not local berries, but better imports than the imports we've been getting.

Short ribs rubbed down with gochujang and cooked sous vide for 72 hours at 135 F. Refrigerated for a couple of days, then seared in a hot oven with a galbi sauce. With rice and stir-fried broccoli. The gochujang, surprisingly, doesn't impart a great deal of its heat to the ribs. They have a tingle, but aren't fiery. The galbi (a commercial brand I picked up at the international market) was a nice counterpoint. Although they were good, I continue to fail to see the amazing properties many attribute to short ribs; I can't make a lot of difference between them and a good chuck roast.

The leftover crab meat from crab legs went into the fridge, and a couple of days later I combined it with some shrimp in a seafood au gratin dish, with some asparagus. Only dinner I've cooked all week.

Finally excavated the freezer down far enough to find a shoulder roast, which became a pot roast for family Sunday dinner. With potatoes, carrots and onions, and sides of salad and green beans cooked in bacon grease, soy sauce and brown sugar with crumbled bacon over the top. Normally it would have called for rolls, but the kids are low-carbing it so I left them off. While I was searching for the beef roast, I grabbed a couple of packages of short ribs. They came out of the sous vide last night after being slathered in gochujang and cooked for 72 hours. They're currently reposing in the refrigerator, and about Wednesday, they'll come out, get a coat of galbi sauce, and go in a hot oven for a final roast/sear. I'm thinking rice and kimchi to go with them.

The crab legs which got put off from Friday night made an appearance last night, along with sugar snap peas. I do love a meal that goes together in 20 minutes. The Schwan's crab legs, while pricy, were quite acceptable, though I don't do much of a job clarifying butter.

I had planned on crab legs tonight, but you know what happens to the best-laid plans.... So I had a cheese and charcuterie plate instead. Cheeses included Wisconsin white cheddar, aged gouda, aged havarti, and Oregon blue. Charcuterie came from a wonderful shop in Memphis where they cure their own -- my choices were duck proscuitto and loma embuchado. I loved the loma embuchado with the Oregon cheddar, while the duck was great with the aged gouda. Crackers spread with a bit of cream cheese (my creme fraiche, I discovered, was no longer "fraiche"), along with some buttered radishes with sea salt, some most excellent sweet pickles with horseradish (Boar's Head brand; I highly recommend 'em), and some Castelvetrano olives rounded out the plate. Crab legs tomorrow night.

@Shelby, glad you and your husband avoided injury. I "planned' all winter to prep raised beds. Haven't done it. Now they'll have to just be raised beds with topsoil and compost atop the yard that's there, after a week or so under black plastic to keep the grass from greening and the weeds from sprouting. Now just have to "borrow" a friend with a pickup truck to help me get all the stuff here from the nursery to build the beds. Two 6 x 12 beds, plus my front flower bed that's about 4 x 12. Front bed will get cucumbers and squash, so they'll serve as ground cover in the bed; two raised beds will be tomatoes, herbs and possibly onions and peppers. I have another space in front of the house, across the front stoop from the flower bed, that I think probably used to have boxwood or some such. Contemplating planting blueberry bushes.

About to put some short ribs, slathered with gochujang, in to go for 48 hours. Then I'll chill them, and finish them off one night next week with a sear in a hot oven. Or on the grill, if this gorgeous weather holds.

The slings and arrows of advancing age. I find that eating early in the morning tends to bring on nausea. Unless I drink a couple of glasses of water first. Likewise, I go to bed with a glass of water; will generally empty it through the night. When I don't, I invariably awaken with a headache, which I have learned can be due to dehydration. I've progressed to drinking water all day like a thirsty camel.

Country cooking at its finest. Kraut and kielbasa; white beans (RG alubia blanco) and ham, cooked in ham stock; zucchini fritter.

This morning (no photo; can never remember to take pics in the mornings!), steel-cut oats cooked with dates, sweetened with a bare teaspoon of maple syrup. Warm stuff on a cold, rainy day.

That makes sense! It was lurking in the corner beneath the unit through which the oven vents. I will see if I can figure out how to put it back without it falling out again. Thank you!

Anyone have a clue what this is? I cleaned my oven yesterday (it's a self-cleaner) and, as customary, i used my vacuum to clean up the ashes left behind. This time, there was a fair amount of white residue on the glass and the oven floor, so I took a wet dishcloth and cleaned it up, which was when I discovered this little critter lurking in a dark, back corner. It appears to be some sort of light-weight ceramic. Top and bottom are the same. It's a tad over 1 1/2 inch both in diameter and in height. Ideas? I started to toss it, but wondered if it might be critical to oven operation, although the oven appeared to work just fine without it.....

While it cannot hold a candle to @liuzhou and @huiray's authentic Asian meals, here's a Southernized-Americanized version of okonomiyaki and fried rice. Didn't remember to take a pic until I was in the process of eating, thus the "used" fork. Also had cucumbers marinated in rice vinegar, ginger, soy sauce, mirin and sesame oil, but forgot to add them to the plate.

There are several quick-bread recipes for beer cheese bread, which I love, and I've done a yeasted bread that has beer, cheese and browned sausage that's marvelous with a spread of soft cheese as a snack or appetizer for a crowd, or with a soup. I find that dark beers -- stouts, et. al. -- tend to make better, more flavorful breads. I used to make a bran quick bread with chocolate stout that was just stunning for breakfast. My very favorite beer for cooking is Green Flash Double Stout; hate it for drinking, but it's great in breads as well as in stews. It comes in a four-pack and ain't cheap -- $5 or more for four 12-oz bottles. But it keeps well if kept in a cool, dry place; I'll buy a four-pack in the fall and use it in carbonnades a la flamande, or chili, or just a braised beef dish of some description. I also tend to, when a recipe calls for a cup of it, to dump the whole 12 oz in and compensate by cutting another liquid or upping a dry ingredient. More good, yeasty taste. I sampled my RLB potato sandwich loaf this morning. This may be the best sandwich bread I've ever made; it's much more moist than her basic sandwich loaf. It did not appear to have suffered from the bleached flour. I was somewhat puzzled by the recipe, which called for a mere two cups of flour and 1/2 cup potato boiling water. And I misread the recipe and used 4 tbsp, instead of 4 tsp, butter, a mistake I think I'll repeat, as the bread is so good.

Homemade Greek yogurt (have I mentioned I love the Instant Pot?), homemade granola, blueberries. No photo.

A "breadless" Reuben. Cheese subs quite well for bread when you're on a diet. And veggie soup.

I had dashed into the local Price Cutter (warehouse-style grocery) recently to pick up butter, because it's consistently a dollar a pound less than Kroger. Saw Gold Medal for $1.77 a five-pound bag. Unless it's on sale, it's $3.39 at Kroger. I stocked up. All they had was bleached.

Thanks. Doing the sponge for her potato sandwich bread tonight; will mix dough tomorrow.

Question. My copy of Rose Levy Beranbaum's Bread Bible came in today, and I was perusing recipes. I noted she specified, in italics, UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour in several recipes. I have, at present, 20 pounds of Gold Medal BLEACHED a/p flour, because I caught it on an exceptional sale at the grocery recently. Will the recipes work as well with that? What quality does the unbleached flour add that are absent with the bleached?