kayb

Peas, of most any variety, are wonderful things. One should serve them with fried okra and creamed corn and sliced tomatos. Meat be damned.

Ham. I'm Southern. With roasted asparagus, with lemon juice and parmigiano. Grilled pineapple. Potato salad. Very traditional, and I am cooking for one (plus the dog). Cooking with an eye toward repurposing later in the week.

Slightly beaten egg whites?

Yes, it's been forever since I posted. Yes, I'm still alive, emerging from work-induced hell. A couple of breakfasts recently. A Mickey-Mouse themed brunch for a two-year-old's birthday. Who doesn't love pigs in a blanket, particularly with good honey mustard?\ OK, it looks like the cat threw it up, but it's eggs scrambled with bacon, diced tomatos, diced yellow squash, and I'm-not-sure-what-all-else, accompanied by cheese grits. Worked. Latkes and a bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese spread.

Oh, that's marvelous! Thank you!

b1os, the avocado souffle is the most astonishing thing I've seen in ages -- would you elaborate on rx, techique?

I am using, for the first time in my culinary career, caviar in my appetizers for the Super Bowl. It's Tobikko black pearl, wild-caught, flavored with wasabi, and I'd guess it's about a two-ounce jar. I think I paid somewhere around $16 for it at my local culinary and gourmet store. What I discovered, in topping two dozen tiny new potatos, cut in half and dabbed with creme fraiche, with a dab of caviar, is that caviar goes a LONG way. I used well less than half the caviar topping the potatos. So I have two questions, being that I won't have an occasion to make copious quantities of hors d'ouevres again for some period of time. 1. How long will caviar, now that it's been opened, keep in the refrigerator? 2. What are some good uses for it as an ingredient in a main course? It has a noticeable, but not overpowering, flavor of wasabi. I first sampled it with cream cheese and smoked salmon on a toast point, and that was excellent, but I'd love to showcase it in an entree. My apologies if there's already a caviar topic; I looked and didn't see one.

Making my way back to eGullet after several months' absence, only to find the bar's been moved higher than ever! Wonderful meals since 1/1/13; I think if I had to pick just one, it'd be the holiday beef Wellington, a dish to which I aspire one day. A few recent dinners: Meatballs and marinara sauce over polenta, with a salad of fresh mozzarella, roasted baby Roma tomatoes, and balsamic cream. White beans and ham. Unremarkable but for the fact this was a Broadbent country ham from Kentucky, and possibly the best country ham into which I have ever sunk a tooth. I got enthusiastic over the weekend and cooked a vaguely Germanic pork shoulder roast. Brined it for 24 hours in a brine of water, kosher salt, brown sugar, allspice and cider vinegar. Braised it in apple juice with dried cherries, onion and garlic. Served it with caramelized apples and onions, potato salad, and red cabbage. It was quite excellent. The brined roast The braised and finished with a honey and apple juice glaze roast in a 500-degree oven The well-filled plate!

mm84321, thanks for the carrot directions. I do them in a similar manner, with coriander, although I don't use the parchment. The combo of cinnamon and basil intrigues me!

It's awfully simple, but awfully good. .75 oz peach-infused simple syrup 1.5 oz good vodka Stir or shake well and pour over ice in a tall glass. Fill glass with sparkling water. Very cool and refreshing.

I picked up cherries at the market this morning. I've been playing with flavored simple syrups (well, I guess if it's flavored it's not simple, is it?). So I used about a cup of cherries and boiled them with some sugar and water. I'm going to use some, with some of the whole cherries, with some brandy and some sparkling water to make a cocktail. I'd think cherries in white vinegar, with a little sugar, and a bunch of chipotle, would be good.

Details, please? I love the sound of the flavor combination.

Fascinating blog. I know next to nothing about Denmark other than where it is and some vague bits of WWII history. Does its cuisine resemble any of that of its neighbors across the Gulf, or are there German influences from the south? Interesting that you can eat spelt bread and not wheat. A newly diagnosed celiac who is having to rethink the entire baking world, I thought spelt was, like wheat, banned. Is it not? And does it approximate wheat in taste and behavior? If you tell me it's safe, I'm off to the bulk store to load up on spelt flour.

This sounds like such a treat, and I do love Philadelphia. Unfortunately, my August is booked completely (the weekend in question, I'm in Phoenix and Tucson). I'll be watching for details of the 2013 event, and will plan to be there!

Nice! I've had my eye on some beef ribs lately since I've done way to many pork. Scotty: There is no such thing as too much pork.

Good fortune in the new gig. Sounds astonishingly interesting. And thank you -- and your cohorts in the eGullet management structure -- for what has been an absolutely astounding experience in the two or three years I've been a member. I've learned so much, and look forward to continuing to do so. Don't be a stranger.

Going to be 104 here this afternoon, so I'm cooking inside. Boneless thick-cut farm-raised pork chops in the SV with a vaguely Asian spice rub; I'll finishing those off in a hot skillet tonight. Fresh purple-hulled peas, fried okra, sliced tomatoes, fried green tomatoes, zucchini fritters. Thick-sliced yellow tomatoes with a bare sprinkle of salt. Cole slaw, made two or three days ago and soaking in its turmeric-and-mustard sweet and sour viniagrette dressing. Canteloupe. Sesame-miso cucumber salad. We will not go hungry.

The best use of blue cheese I have ever found -- and I tend to like it in recipes and salads and combinations, not so much on its own -- is a grass-fed burger, grilled medium rare, topped with caramelized onions and crumbled blue cheese, and then back onto the grill or under the broiler just enough to melt the cheese just a bit. Blue cheese butter spread atop a prime, medium rare steak is also heavenly. There is a restaurant in Memphis that stuffs a filet with blue cheese, and that's excellent. I love the pairing of blue cheese with beef. I'm also a fan of the figs and gorgonzola, mentioned upthread.

During a recent tamale party my Cuban neighbor told me that the combination of fried egg and a tamale was one of her favorites. I gave it a try and am a total convert. The color on the duck eggs is lovely. Are they purchased, raised, or gifted? I have two sources -- I can buy them through my Locally Grown buying co-op, or I can most Saturdays get them -- and quail eggs -- at the Farmers' Market.

Good Lord. Away from the site for a couple of weeks, I have just sat and viewed four pages of the most gorgeous food on the planet and have been by turns enchanted, intimidated, driven to find recipes online, and grabbing my paper towel to mop up the drool. I'm cooking burgers tonight. Too stinking hot to cook anything inside. 100F all week.

Robirds, I'm anxious to try that bread as well. Having both flax meal and almond flour on hand, it's on the agenda. Thanks.

My, my. Such magnificent breakfasts, everyone. My biggest regret in having to almost eliminate wheat gluten from my diet is the loss of wonderful breakfast breads -- biscuits, scones, bagels, English muffins.... So most of the time, I look for an alternate starch for breakfast. Often, it's some form of potatos, but of late, I've been grabbing a few extra tamales at the Farmers Market and incorporating the meat and starch all in one. Today, it was one of those frozen hash brown patties, fried in bacon fat, with a duck egg and fresh blackberries with creme fraiche. One day last weekend, it was a chicken tamale and a duck egg.. Unfortunately, I don't have a pic right now of my fall-off-the-gluten-free-wagon breakfast for this week, at a B&B in western Maryland, but it was the best waffle I ever ate in my life. The recipe is here. Will include photos when I take my next leap off said gluten-free wagon, in a couple of weeks.

I presume there's nothing in Memphis? Or, (wishful thinking) Little Rock? Did the Patterson House in Nashville make the cut?

Kim, I believe there is no higher and better use of squash than to fry it with onions. Which is exactly what I intend to do tomorrow, along with the first okra of the season (!), and some green tomatos for Child C, whilst I stew some green beans and new potatos, and mash some more potatos for the Teenaged Boy, who will eat nothing green. I am watching him for signs of scurvy. Squash, beans, green and ripe tomatos, okra, zucchini (for fritters later in the week), all scored at the farmers' market this morning, along with tamales and fried pies. Blueberries, strawberries and blackberries all in the co-op order yesterday (along with ground buffalo). Tomorrow's dinner will include sous vide grass-fed chuck roast, happily burbling away in the little cooler with the circulator, and berries and creme fraiche, which is currently sitting on the counter getting thick. I love summer.

Everyone: I'll have one of everything, please! Particularly as I have not cooked a meal in two weeks. Lovely dinners. If I can't cook, I can at least vicariously enjoy all yours.