kayb

YUMMMMM! Glad to have inspired it, sure wish I could have sampled!

I cheated; the previous night's dessert was so good I had another helping for breakfast. Best cake I ever made (recipe here), topped with fresh peach compote and barely sweetened creme fraiche. Yum!

robirdstx, at what temp and for how long did you fry them to get them crispy? Mine never seem to crisp up! And that very sauce is marvelous over cheese ravioli. I also like doing it with browned butter alone (limp sage leaves and all....)

No. 1: A BLAT -- Petit Jean Meats peppered bacon, dead ripe tomato, large enough that one slice covers the bread, Hellman's Mayo (or homemade), leaf lettuce, and ripe avocado smushed up with a little lime, enough to be thickly spreadable. Avocado on one slice of toasted sourdough, mayo on the other; lettuce, tomato in the little "cup" formed by the lettuce, bacon, and the other slice. With a tall glass of iced tea, on the back deck, looking at the lake. No. 2: A Reuben. Homemade rye. The best corned beef you can source in your town. Sauerkraut. I prefer spicy mustard 'sted of Thousand Island; so sue me. No. 3 (with a bullet to No. 2 when it's cold): Grated fontina, Gruyere and Emmenthaler, with a couple of slices of bacon, grilled on sourdough, with a big mug of homemade French onion soup or tomato soup. No. 4: Veggie. Ricotta or goat cheese spread on wheat bread, with sliced avocado, tomato, lettuce, sliced radishes.

Just read back over the final two pages of this thread, and wondered -- Katie, did you ever try duck confit in the crock pot? I have just learned to confit duck and I'm thrilled with this new trick....but being that it was 97 today, I'd much prefer to do my next batch in the crock pot as opposed to the oven! And being that my local gourmet store had HVFG duck leg quarters on sale for half price, and being that I bought a dozen of them.....well, you know.

I have one like Andie's pictued one, except that the insert where the spoon actually rests is porcelain instead of metal. I like it because it can move elsewhere on the counter if I am using a deep fryer or my crockpot. I also have a lacquerware tray I acquired in Japan, about 3 inches wide and about 6 inches long, which works well for holding a couple of spoons or spatulas at once. Other stuff usually lands on the cutting board. I don't use them so much to keep the stovetop clean, since, if I'm cooking, the stovetop is GOING to get dirty, because I'm just sloppy like that. Can't stir without splashing something over the side, forget to turn the heat down and let something boil over....I'm hopeless. I've fallen in the habit of giving the stove a wipedown when I clean up after cooking, and then two or three times a week, a good scrubbing with boiling water from the teakettle after I've poured the hot water in my French press in the morning -- it's nice to feel virtuous that early!

dcarch, I'm fascinated by the watermelon rind, and will have to try that with the one I have sitting on my kitchen island right now. But you outdid yourself with the plating on the creamy corn and crab cakes -- so creative! (Bet it was yummy, too!) How long do you microwaveit before stirfrying, and what kind of sauce do you use?

Been a while since I was up there, and when I was, I was actually in Bentonville, some 20 miles north. James at the Mill is still there, still excellent, from what I hear. AQ Chicken House, just up the road in Springdale, does all sorts of things with chicken, and it's pretty doggoned good; it's an institution. Herman's Rib House is still there, decent but doesn't make me say "Wow!". I can't remember which highway it's on, but Venetian Inn is another institution in the realm of Italian food up there, as was Mary Maestri's until it got shut down for non-payment of taxes, and I haven't heard that it's reopened. There used to be a place in Bentonville, Fred's Hickory Inn, that, if it's still there, is worth the 30-minute drive for the smoked prime rib, which was perhaps one of the most sublime pieces of meat I've ever consumed. Coming any further into the state? If you get as far as Russellville, Little Rock or Hot Springs, I have some good recommendations for you.

What a wonderfully varied background....but oh, to be so close and not have Hatch chiles! I still swoon for the huevos rancheros I had in Santa Fe last month -- and that's not that close to Hatch, either. Anxious for the ribs update; I tend to smoke pork butt on my gas grill, but hadn't thought of the country stylel (boneless) ribs; they should work nicely, and more quickly!

French toast and Petit Jean Meats peppered bacon. You can order their cured meats online; I highly recommend it (shameless commercial plug for an Arkansas company, here....)

Simple, quick and tasty: Grilled tilapia, mac and cheese, fresh tomatos, fresh sugar snap peas, lightly blanched and tossed with butter and tarragon.

Disclaimer: My only experience in the food/restaurant industry was slinging burgers and coffee in the local small-town diner when I was a teen. Some stuff I wrote down; other stuff I didn't; some stuff, I just brought to the table because I knew what they were going to ordeer. That said, I remember well a big group of us going to the late lamented Berghof in Chicago -- must have been 15 or more of us -- and having a waiter who wrote nothing down. We made book on how many errors there'd be. There were none. Be assured that young man got a significant premium over the large-group gratuity already added to the check. It doesn't bother me at all when a waiter writes something down. Nor does it bother me when they don't. I just remember that occasion because it was such a large group, and because of the conversation about it.

And a lovely photo to do it justice.

Watermelon. I could live on watermelon in August. Sliced tomatos. With a slab of fresh mozzarella or a scoop of ricotta or cottage cheese, if you feel the need. Green beans marinated in sesame oil and rice vinegar, sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Duck bacon from Hudson Valley Foie Gras, over-easy eggs, and a yeast roll from the Farmers' Market with fig jam. Broke one of the egg yolks, so I don't have the proper runniness factor....

Opening night of a long weekend brought with it surf and turf with balsamic truffle cream potatos and caprese salads: followed by pound cake with strawberries, creme fraiche and turbinado sugar.

Shrimp boil! Plain water with salt and Louisiana crab boil seasoning (the liquid kind), and use twice as much as the bottle says use. To avoid overcooking, add the new potatos first, cook for 15 minutes; add the corn, cook for five minutes; add the shrimp, cook just until done. I like to take my corn and potatos and toss them in a clean cooler, adding a stick of butter and some powdered crab boil seasoning. The shrimp cool just enough to be able to handle them. Homemade cocktail sauce is ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco. Lots of cold beer. And preferably, a beach.

Your blog makes me want to move to Portland just to eat and shop!

Memorial Day is always a big cooking weekend for me; we usually have friends over at several different times over the weekend, maybe a houseguest or two for the whole thing. And our little hillside-on-the-lake gets together and cooks. I'm thinking Saturday I'm going to smoke duck breasts, which I must go home and brine tonight. I also have frozen lobster tails, and on a whim, I'm thinking those would go well with sliced duck breast, with a risotto featuring fresh spring peas. Am also making duck confit either Friday or Saturday, so it may be that I serve that with the lobster and delay the breasts until Sunday. Sunday will be the big joint cookout. I'm planning a pork loin, some burgers and some brats. Sides will include potato skins, potato salad, roast corn-on-the-cob, baked beans, vinegar-based cole slaw flavored with dry mustard and turmeric (my go-to slaw, have it in the fridge at all times), and sliced tomatos. We'll probably slice up the duck breasts, very thinly, and serve with cheese and crackers as a pre-dinner munchie. For dessert, I'm thinking pound cake with strawberries Romanoff. Monday, I have a nice tri-tip roast in the freezer I'd like to try on the grill. Never did a tri-tip on the grill before; any tips? Will grill some squash to go with that, and maybe some asparagus, and wild rice or a multi-grain salad. What are y'all thinking about for the holiday weekend menu?

I cook supermarket pork loin fairly often on the grill. My tried-and-true method is to coat it heavily in Rendezvous barbecue seasoning (or, if you're not in the part of the world that sells Rendezvous seasoning in the grocery, make up a rub of salt, black pepper, ancho chile powder, lots of paprika, garlic powder, and a little coriander), wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 24 hours. I cook it on a barrel grill, piles of coals on both ends, loin in the middle, to 150 degrees, pull it and tent it with foil for at least 30 minutes. I don't brine mine ahead of time. I serve it with a tomato-based barbecue sauce (here is one of my favorites). My sides of choice are roasted corn from the grill, potato salad, vinegar-based cole slaw (mayo-based slaw is an abomination, IMHO), and baked beans. And beer. Lots and lots o'beer.

Just out of sheer curiosity....what are you DOING with those produce bags? I always keep a handful of the plastic checkout bags in my car's console for trash bags, but the produce bags are too small and flimsy. They're convenient when I take the dog to the botanical gardens or somewhere else she needs to be cleaned up after, and if I think of it, I'll put one in my pocket before we head out. And I've used them to bag messy trash when it was going in the bin and not outside for a while, or until the next day. But checkout-sized bags work for that, too.

Thanks, folks.

Have ALWAYS wanted to go to Powell's. Now, if I ever get to Portland, I'll know some more places to go! Looking forward to the visit into your world.

Bumping this one up because I need to call on the collective expertise here. Having had my first duck confit and loved it, I've sucked it up and ordered duck legs and fat from Hudson Valley Foie Gras. While I was ordering, I decided to order the aged moulard breast as well. I want to try to smoke it. Can someone give me guidance? I do my smoking on a barrel grill, with indirect heat on either end and the meat in the middle; not ideal, but it works nicely. How hot a fire? How long? Particularly, can I put down a drip pan and save the fat that renders out, or will it taste too smoky for reuse?

Hate that. I loved the mead.