kayb

Friday night, so it's my "quick and dirty" night. Pasta e lenticche, with an add of sauteed diced salami. Not half bad.

Dear Lord. If I send you a check, will you send me some of that? Name your price! My mouth is watering just thinking about it and the uses to which I could put it! It's enough to make me buy a smoker. Still trying to get ahead on so many things right now. The batch of powder that I need to chop and mix for tomorrow night's tots is drying in the oven as I type. If we ever get in front of things enough to have extra "Magic" I would love to mail it our to you. I'll hold you to that. And if I'm ever in the Lansing area, be assured I'll be stopping by for a sandwich and some tots!

Dear Lord. If I send you a check, will you send me some of that? Name your price! My mouth is watering just thinking about it and the uses to which I could put it! It's enough to make me buy a smoker.

I'm picking up an order of ground goat meat from the co-op tomorrow afternoon. Would goat be acceptable in Bolognese? If not, what should I use the goat for? Ordered it on a whim -- the only goat I've ever eaten was barbecued whole goat. I have some grass-fed ground beef I could put with it, and some good country slab bacon OR country sausage, or both.

In the freakin' WALK-IN? Oh, Lawd. That'd take me out of the mood, fo' sho'.

Here's a recipe for my apple-bacon salad that requires no refrigeration after you get it to work...and the balsamic dressing turns the apples brown, anyway, so no discoloration issues! I'd wait and add the feta right before serving, I think. http://www.food52.com/recipes/8735_applebacon_salad_with_honey_balsamic_viniagrette

Looking forward to this! Also fascinated by palmistry -- how did you acquire an interest/skill in that?

I want ScottyBoy and dcarch to meet in the middle of the country to cook dinner together. I'll offer my house as the spot!

Dear Sweet Baby Jesus. I. Want. Those. Figs. In a sandwich, with queso fresco. I would have said I could have died happy after that, but then there was this: "We were too early to sample the Fritada (chunks of pork belly cooked in their own fat with panela), which is done over wood fires in giant brass cauldrons." Pork belly in panela? Take me now, Lord. There are obviously more things in Ecuador's cuisine than were dreamt of in my philosophy, with apologies to Horatio. Yeah. I got to visit. This particular blog has made me lust for airline tickets more than any I've read here. Congrats, PanaCana. You need to be working for Ecuador's tourism bureau. Y'all are certainly way up on my list of Places To Visit and Eat My Way Through!

Here you go: the definitive compendium of deviled eggs from the Southern cooks who specialize in 'em: http://southernfoodways.org/documentary/oh/eggs/index.html

I was about to start looking for flights when I saw that gorgeous array from the sweets shop. But the prospect of a hot candied fig sandwich? I'm packing! PanCan, this is MARVELOUS! You make Ecuador come alive!

For Friday Night Lights, I defy you to top Berryville, Arkansas. The Home Ec department runs the concession stand. You gots your choice of: -- Chili. Honest to God, serious, thick chili. You can add your own Fritos if you wish. -- Homemade chicken pot pie. Individual size. -- Fried pies. Both savory and sweet fillings. -- Fried catfish fillets, with french fries, hushpuppies and slaw. -- Beef (or venison, if deer season has already opened) stew. For your generic burgers, popcorn, hot dogs, etc., you have to go to the Bandboosters' stand, in the opposite end zone. No, there's not a lot besides football to do in Berryville, AR on Friday night. But I can tell you, when I was in the sportswriting business, we used to fight to see who got to go cover Berryville!

Xilimmns -- belatedly, welcome! Lovely dinners. Entranced with the thought of shrimp, bacon, blue cheese. dcarch, I want that cauliflower. Dakki, I would want those tacos except for, well, tripe. Don't do tripe. Dinner tonight was liquid. It wasn't a very productive day. Damn the business world. I think I'm going to go occupy something.

Ha ha ! I tend to save these now, though I tossed plenty of them before. How does onion jam keep ? Well, I've had that batch in my fridge for three weeks in a plastic container, and it's still good. I'm of the opinion that anything with tomatos, onion and balsamic vinegar in it will be good until you see it sprouting mold. And this has not....yet.

Can I come visit? I'm fascinated!

This morning's breakfast was a pastrami and Swiss sandwich enjoyed at 8:30 a.m. at a little country store where they smoke their own meat. Exquisite. Not sure why I didn't photograph it. But I was hungry again when I got back home, so I had a "tide me over" snack of sausage and cheese bread topped with onion jam. The sausage and cheese bread I had in the freezer from a BIG batch a few weeks back, and the onion jam was made from the onions fished out of a tripled recipe of Marcella Hazen's tomato butter sauce. Discard those onions? Not HARDLY, Marcella!

Have been super busy at work and on the road some, so not a lot of cooking of late. Here are a couple of recent dinners: A grilled grass-fed beef burger, sans bun, topped with caramelized onions and blue cheese; grilled squash, and fresh pinto beans stewed with tomatos. Butternut squash soup with ricotta gnocchi "dumplings." Tonight will be an eye of round roast, roasted zucchini, and mac and cheese for the teenager.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who doesn't do "creamy" eggs. I want those babies scrambled hard. Dry. Now, if they're over easy, I want the white barely done and the yolk runny. I do not try to make sense of what certainly seems to be a conflict. "It just be dat way."

Oh, my. Dorothy, I don't think we're in Kansas any more! Great stuff, Percyn. Loving it.

I don't know if they roast on-site or buy roasted beans, but the regional chain, Cafe Brazil, is a stop I don't miss when I'm in Dallas. Not a coffee connoisseur like many on here, but I like the good stuff, and their Brazil Estate is as good as I've ever had. I buy beans every trip to take home, and just learned this last trip that I can order online! Info on locations, etc., here: http://cafebrazil.com/. Damn fine breakfast, too.

That one must take the cake. Wow! And somewhere, an Albertson's manager got fired over that one!

For whatever rabbit meat you have left over, if any, and the stock from those bones, try rabbit and dressing. It was the prep of choice for the wild rabbit we ate when I was a kid. Just shred the meat up into the cornbread-based dressing. Yummm! And yes, that bread is a thing of beauty. I, however, will pass on the tripe from the Chinese restaurant. I was permanently traumatized by chitterlings when I was a kid, and have never been able to stomach tripe, menudo, you-name-it since.

Looking wonderful so far! Please keep right on!

Keith, that omelette may be the most gorgeous looking thing I've ever seen. The hot pot presentation is pretty astounding, too.

Woke up early to go shoot some sunrise pictures: Which worked up a significant appetite, which I satisfied with bran muffins, bacon, and a double-yolked, over-easy-in-the-bacon-fat, farm egg. And a large mug of cafe au lait.