kayb

Lord have mercy. What marvelous meals! Norm, love the smoker set-up. I want a small smoker; thinking I may make the plunge this year. Avarserfi, I'm intrigued by the broccoli custard. It looks lovely. Did it taste as good as it looks? mm, please enlighten me on the maquereaux au vin blanc. I'm not certain what I'm looking at (but it's lovely!) Kim, your mom and I could easily be dining partners. I love an antipasto main course! Enrique, one of my goals is to visit Spain, just for the Iberico pork. That looks luscious. It's been another heavy work week, so I cooked only twice: Sous vide ribs, glazed with barbecue sauce and seared in the oven. Chicken tenders, coated with a chili-powder-based dry rub, wrapped in bacon, sprinkled with brown sugar, baked. They were excellent (as were the ribs). Edited to boldface the names.

The wine looks expensive, if I recall my Euro exchange rates correctly. Is that low, mid or upper range in overall wine prices? So very much enjoying your blog, especially the markets!

More like brunch, but I made my son a scrambled egg and cheese sandwich on an everything foccacia roll from the Farmers' Market: Sorry for the blurry photo; my camera decided it wanted to shoot at 1/4 second, and I could NOT make it change its mind! I had a fairly complex breakfast...guacamole and bacon over tomatos, with duck eggs over rice tortitas. (I was looking for a new starch, else be assured I'd have had the other half of the kid's foccacia, gluten be damned!) I used the technique discussed upthread for cooking the eggs over low heat (in butter and truffle oil) until the whites were no longer transparent, but not completely set, then turning up to medium low, adding a bit of water, and covering to steam done. Perfect. Will never do them any other way. Money shot:

Lovely oricchette, Franci. Having never made pasta, I am most envious of those who turn it out as a matter of course. And unhappy that gluten intolerance keeps me from eating it, unless I cheat. Looking forward to your blog; I always enjoy your creative meals!

This I have to try.

There are unhealthy olives????

PC, thanks for the other-thread candied figs directions. Duly copied and saved, and waiting for the figs to ripen. Kim, to my mind, quail eggs are perfect for Scotch eggs. Maybe I'm too heavy-handed with sausage, but my regular egg ones don't get done to my liking. I've had success with guinea eggs, though. Getting another dozen quail eggs at the FM this weekend to make another batch; and I have to take one to the quail-egg vendor, who had never heard of such. I finally got to cook a breakfast this past weekend, for the first time in a good while: Fried potatos, duck eggs, bacon, fresh tomatos. Held me over for the better portion of Sunday, it did.

Dear Sweet Baby Jesus. I will be SO waiting impatiently until the figs get ripe to try this! I can only imagine how good it would be to just go on and cook it until the figs dissolve and make fig preserves. Thank you oh-so-much for the detailed how-to, which I have duly saved.

SUCH marvelous meals -- too many to call any of them out, but if I could eat dinner with each one of you, I'd be thrilled. Still not cooking a lot....the move, and hair-on-fire busy at work. But I did manage a sous-vide pork loin, 24 hours at 155C, then glazed with barbecue sauce and seared in a hot-hot-hot oven. With baked potato gratin and baked beans. Not half bad. Particularly when accompanied by a caprese with good, fresh tomatos and buffalo mozzarella.

PC -- I have access to a friend's very prolific fig tree. Inquiring minds would love to have a recipe for candying figs. Can they be preserved as candied, or must they be eaten quickly?

Quite out of place amid such magnificent meals, but I've been hanging with the tried-and-true during a period when my energies have been focused everywhere but the kitchen. Sous vide country style pork ribs, 48 hrs at 155F, topped with barbecue sauce and ready for the broiler: With potato salad and baked beans:

Found quail eggs at the Farmers' Market the other day, and made Scotch eggs, with fresh pork sausage from my CSA. Excellent with a squiggle of honey mustard. A dozen of the little darlings in my 1 1/2 quart saucepan. Wrapping in sausage. Done.

Not to go off-topic, but I think it would be great if a few eGulleters could get together and do a BBQ crawl. I signed up for a KCBS (Kansas City BBQ Society) judging class next week, just for fun and would love to sample BBQ from various regions. Happy to rent a luxury coach for the roadtrip. Y'all come on to Memphis and Little Rock and points in between. I will SHOW you barbecue. How awesome would that be..percyn, keep me posted if this pans out into an actual thing. What's 15-20 hours flight time for BBQ?? Seriously. You can fly into Memphis, which is a Delta hub. I can meet you. We will hit Cozy Corner for the barbecued Cornish game hen; Central because it's a favorite of the masses, and pretty damn good; then Interstate, because, well, it's Interstate and it's iconic. Then we'll head down to Jones in Marianna (latest James Beard American Classic award winner); over to DeValls Bluff for Craigs (Allegedly the best in the state, but I'll contest that), Little Rock for Sims (Carolina-ish mustardy sauce), down to Hot Springs for McClards (I'm not all that about it, but it's Bill Clinton's favorite), back up to Jonesboro for Couch's (GOOD stuff), over to Blytheville for Dixie Pig, and back down to West Memphis for Roadside before you head back to the airport. It would be a barbecue pilgrimage. Three days, much pork. Give me details on time and I'll happily lead the group. And this is probably in the wrong topic at this point, so if it moves, I'll go with it. I'd like to see this happen.

Not to go off-topic, but I think it would be great if a few eGulleters could get together and do a BBQ crawl. I signed up for a KCBS (Kansas City BBQ Society) judging class next week, just for fun and would love to sample BBQ from various regions. Happy to rent a luxury coach for the roadtrip. Y'all come on to Memphis and Little Rock and points in between. I will SHOW you barbecue.

Lovely Easter dinners, all. I had cheese dip, chips and red wine. I moved this week, and am still locating pieces of my kitchen. However, I did cook duck eggs, bacon and apple-pecan muffins for breakfast, if that counts! gfweb, I beg to differ. There are NO menus which are not enhanced by deviled eggs. And yours look lovely.

PC, I would love one! I made some with cornbread that were decent, but don't reheat well. I like to make a batch on the weekend and take them to work during the week.

I like that in a ramekin atop a layer of cheese grits, topped with a tablespoon or so of cream, and if you wish, some diced, shredded or chopped cooked meat of some sort. A riff on the classic ouefs en cocotte.

Kim, I have not yet found a mix I like for the "blankets." you will, though, have to find a baking pan to bake the little darlings in, because the bread dough for every GF.thing I've made is too thin to do anything but spoon in a mold. I found this one at cookware.com, I think. Will pass it along if-when I find a decent recipe.

I have, for the last month or so, used Black Copper Maran eggs. I can get them through my food co-op for $6 a dozen, vs. $3.50 to $4 a dozen for farm eggs. They're good -- but I'm not certain I can tell THAT much difference in them and regular farm eggs. Sure are pretty, though. Some breakfasts using same: Smashed potato, cheese grits, bacon and two BCM's over easy. Sweet potato latke, country sausage, BCMs over easy. Yet another attempt at gluten-free pigs in blankets, baked in the silicone baking pan I procured expressly for that purpose. Edited to fix photos. Yet again.

Thanks, PatrickAmory. It's on my list to try. RobirdsTX, that crawfish etouffee looks stunning. I can't get worked up to peel all the crawfish to make the stuff. And if I did, I'd probably stick to crawfish pie....But that looks lovely. Some recent dinners: Cajun boiled shrimp, with frozen maragaritas. Hard to beat. Rendang. I know it's not as dry as it should be. I cooked it in the slow-cooker, since I was going to be gone, and it just stays more moist. Butternut squash gnocchi in too-thin tomato sauce, with lots of grated parm. Sous vide pork loin chop in dry rub, seared stovetop after 2 hours at 155F, baked beans and potato salad. (Edited to add the right photos. Twice.)

PatrickAmory, that looks and sounds just absolutely marvelous. Do you think one could use canned tomatos, or are fresh ones required?

So where does one go to hunt for morels? I'm sure we have them here in the Ouachita Mountains. I just don't know where to go look, but am well willing to head out, given directions.

Norm, that's a work of art. Shelby, those beer brats look MAH-velous!

A Weimaraner! I LOVE Weimaraners -- had them for years, until I moved where I needed a small dog, thus Lucy the Pug. The breakfast tacos look pretty awesome. Do you make your own tortillas (or did you say, and I missed it?)

So many fishes -- so little time. As previously noted, much depends on where you are, and when. If I'm in Tokyo (not nearly often enough, I might add), it's ahi tuna sashimi at 6 a.m. at the Tsukiji market. If I'm on the U.S. Gulf Coast, it's grouper or corvina. But if I'm at home, in the Mid-South (Tennessee-Arkansas-Mississippi), and within shouting distance of a farm pond or a flatland lake, there's no contest. It's bream, caught that morning, dressed, dusted in cornmeal with salt and pepper, and panfried. There is nothing better.