kayb

I don't really want the recipe...but I'd LOVE to sample the finished creation!

That is a gorgeous meal. And this has been a marvelous blog. Thanks!

I swear by Mark Bittman's fried rice recipe/technique in How To Cook Everything. It's for the most part a reheat, but you do fry long enough you get some crispy bits.

"Honest" food, to me, means knowing what's in it and where it came from. I mean, I bought sweet potatos at Kroger today. They are sweet potatos. They came out of the ground, somewhere. They do not have 87 additives, preservatives, and so on. They were probably grown with fertilizer and perhaps have come in contact with genetically modified organisms. Nevertheless, they are a sweet potato, in large part indistiinguishable from the sweet potatos we used to grow in the garden when I was a kid. I had a burger tonight; grass-fed beef that I cooked on my gas grill. I will roast a chicken later this week that I also bought at Kroger; it's probably laden with antibiotics and hormones, but nevertheless, it is a chicken, no matter how little resemblance it will bear to the farm-raised broilers I'll pick up in late March to see if there's a huge taste difference (my first venture into organic chicken). Dishonest food? Chicken McNuggets. Krystal burgers (if you are not in the southeast this won't mean anything to you). I am convinced vegetarians can eat Krystal burgers, because I can't believe there is any meat anywhere about them. That said, I want a sackful of them about once every two years. Pop Tarts. Marshmallow Creme. Or saying, "I baked you cookies," when what you did was hack pieces off the roll of Pillsbury cookie dough onto a baking sheet and put it in the oven."

There have been so many wonderful meals posted this week, I won't event attempt to call them out. With one (well,two) exceptions: Shelby and dcarch, your Fat Tuesday meals were absolutely astounding. Shelby, if you're making your own olive relish/salad for the muffaletta, and I feel pretty sure you are, I'd love a recipe. dcarch, the whole meal is gorgeous, but the pepper masks really topped it magnificently. The only thing I've cooked this week: Sous vide ribs. Not bad. I'm getting there.

Good Lord. And I just complained about a pear upside down cake because I thought it was too fussy. That's more complexity than I can handle in the kitchen -- but damn, I'd love to taste it.

There used to be -- this is a while back, so not sure if it's still there -- a place called the Wild Boar on West End that was pretty good. I'm also fond of Chappy's, on, I think, 21st, close to Baptist Hospital. Creole/Cajun place, chased out of Biloxi/Gulfport by Katrina. Well worth the visit, if for no more than the four different compound butters they bring you with your bread.

Personally,I'm intrigued by the garlic jelly.

Agreed about the hard water issue. I live in a household of garbanzo haters, so I buy the canned beans and make small batches of hummus for myself. The Philistines here wouldn't eat a falafel if I paid them. I can't even get them to eat three bean salads in the heat of summer. You gotta love those Philistines! (else you'll kill 'em.I have raised four children, three of them confirmed Philistines.) For my money, you fix a big ol' pot of white beans and ham hock, with some beans with something else for the vegetarians.

No, not caramelized at all, if I do it right: they are supposed to remain white, according to the recipe. And no beef stock on hand, alas. I'm trying to think of things I could fry them up with: presumably they will completely disintegrate, so that has to be OK in the dish. I can't think of much of anything that wouldn't benefit from that. Except maybe ice cream. Soubise, maybe? Or I'd put it into a white sauce and make a hellacious scalloped potato casserole.

That's almost exactly how I do mine. I don't make the kraut into a patty, just dry it and toss it loose on the griddle long enough that it just starts to caramelize the edges. I like to add just a (very thin) slice of good pastrami, all pulled apart, to the corned beef and I also give the meat a quick run on the griddle. I think having the meat and kraut hot from the beginning just makes the cheese that much more...melty. Good Swiss cheese in a must, but I like to add just a little grated Comte' right in the middle. The weight on top is essential in my mind. Like Jaymes said, crispy, crunchy perfection. ETA: Around here (Nebraska, home of the original) its mostly thousand island these days. I like to add just a little horseradish to a good store bought thousand island. Sounds weird, tastes great on the sandwich. Can I come eat with y'all? It'd be worth falling off the gluten-free wagon. A few years ago, when my father was ill, I would go home every weekend. One weekend he said, "I wish I could have a good Reuben." So I went to Fresh market, got the good corned beef, the good swiss, the good sauerkraut, good rye bread, took it to his house, made him a Reuben. He thought it was wonderful, and I took the makings of a Reuben to his house every weekend from then until he passed on, and I've been inordinately fond of a Reuben ever since. However, the best one I ever had was in the Senate dining room.

A few of my favorite casseroles: Squash casserole, with lightly sauteed squash and onions, cheese, cracker crumbs, white sauce. Spices of your pleasure. Enchilada pie: A 9-inch deep dish pie shell accomodates this well. Layer flour tortillas, browned beef with Mexican seasonsings of your choice, drained whole-kernel corn, drained and rinsed black beans, salsa or tomato sauce, cheese. Repeat. Tamale pie: Essentially the same ingredients, but a masa/cornmeal batter on the bottom and top. +1 on the pastitsio and the moussaka/eggplant parmesan (depending on how you wish to season your tomato sauce) The inimitable Hash Brown Casserole, one of the two remaining things for which I keep "cream of" soups in my pantry -- a 2-pound bag of hash browns, cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, caramelized onions, sour cream, sauteed peppers if you want 'em, diced and browned bacon, cheese of your choice, all mooshed up together, topped with either crumbled corn flakes or crumbled potato chips. Mainstay of many and many a church dinner-on-the-ground. And if you have not been to a dinner-on-the-ground, you have not lived.

Not sure how proper to the season it is, Memphis being much more Protestant, but Calvary Episcopal Church's annual Lenten Luncheon and Preaching series is a must-do for many in the Mid-South area. Some of the favorites include a shrimp in aspic, a "fish pudding" (which I could never bring myself to try; it looked horrible), and chicken-and-waffles, a chicken hash over waffles. I alternated between the shrimp in aspic and the waffles.

Great stuff, Chris! Thoroughly enjoyable. And, late to last night's party, kampei!

Most anywhere you go will be better than you've ever had anywhere else. Some of my favorites: Interstate. Go for lunch. It's in the 'hood. Ask for sauce on the side; they have a heavy hand with it. Central. Two locations, one on Central, one on Summer. Excellent sides. Good beer selection. Germantown Commissary. Out of the way, but good. Huge portions. Deviled egg half with every plate. BarBQ Shop. Good variety. Nothing to sneeze at. Three Pigs. Hole in the wall at Quince and White Station in a strip mall. Barbecue like they used to serve it in any number of Memphis bbq joints. No frills, cheap, good food. Cozy Corner. Also in the 'hood. Worth the trip for the smoked Cornish hens. You will note I don't mention the Rendezvous, potentially Memphis' most famous BBQ joint. That's because I don't think they're that good. Ribs are OK, if you get there early before they dry out, but mostly, it's atmosphere. Quintessentially Memphis, though. Corky's used to be great. Not so much any more. Leonards, back in the 50s and 60s, was allegedly wonderful; not so much any more. Tops, one of the most ubiquitous, is only average. If I could only go to one, it'd probably be Interstate at lunch, Central in the evening. Other barbecue aficionados will swear by others. Those are mine. Finish your dinner off by going to Westy's, downtown, for hot fudge pie.

M'mmm, RRO. That looks marvelous.

There was a sizeable Italian community in the small Arkansas Delta town where I spent 30 years. Tomato sauce, with meat, was "spaghetti gravy."

Hello, almost-neighbor (I'm some 5 hours to the southeast). Looking forward to this. One of these days, I'll get ambitious enough to make my own tamales. Anxious to see what you have in store for us! (edited to change directions)

Bumping this thread, because I made a reasonably decent ricotta cheesecake tonight. I've gotten into making homemade ricotta, since I've found a source for fresh milk. So a half-gallon of milk yields about a pound of ricotta, which in turn goes into a cheesecake with six (farm-fresh) separated eggs, 3/4 cup of sugar, some almond flavoring, some almond meal, and some heavy cream. It's sprinkled with turbinado sugar: and baked at 350 for 40 minutes. And there it is. It'd be better with a fruit compote over it, but I was lazy. Not at all bad by itself. Recipe is 6 eggs, separated ¾ cup sugar 1 teaspoon almond extract 2 cups fresh ricotta 1 tablespoon lemon zest 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 ½ cups almond meal ¼ cup heavy cream ¼ teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons demerara sugar Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter the sides and bottom of an 8” springform pan. Dust the sides lightly with hazelnut flour. Line the bottom with parchment paper and butter this, too. Whisk together egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy, then whisk in vanilla. Stir in ricotta, lemon zest and hazelnut flour until well blended. Whip heavy cream until soft peaks form and fold that in. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with salt until they hold firm peaks. Fold this into ricotta mixture in three increments, trying not to overmix. Pour into springform pan and sprinkle a layer of demerara sugar over the top. Bake for 20 minutes; rotate and bake for another 20. Cake is done when slightly springy and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve with a dollop of créme fraiche, whipped cream or whipped ricotta.

My go-to at Cracker Barrel is the hash brown casserole. Cheesy,oniony, potato goodness.

I received my SideKIC in the mail this past week, and put it to work today. Strip steaks, from my CSA grass-fed beef vendor. My set-up: Custom-cut styrofoam lid, per Chris Hennes: I like my steak just to the medium side of medium rare, so I set the controller to 137.5. Way too done. I'll roll it back to maybe 130 or 132 next time. In any event, I was quite pleased with my SideKIC, particularly as a sous vide newbie. It was simple to use, and did what it said it would do. I have ribs in the fridge vac-packed with dry rub, that'll go in the cooker tomorrow for 48 hours; ribs on a weeknight will be a novelty! I'm pleased, glad I bought it, and looking forward to exploring the world of sous vide.

Welcome, amkr! Lovely meals. Please tell me about the last one.

Adding my thanks to David...will be cooking a corned beef brisket between now and St. Paddy's Day, and be assured this will be the destination for a good bit of it.

All about sinful.

Only rarely have I had distinguished guests, but I've done versions of this, for sure.