kayb

As usual, gorgeous meals, everyone! I've been on the road all week so no cooking, but I did have the absolute best meal I've had in years Friday night, at Murphy's in Atlanta -- my very first duck confit. I am now on a mission to learn to make duck confit. I will report.

Brisket braised in Guinness and onions; snow peas sauteed in sesame oil with ginger and sesame seeds; new potatos tossed with olive oil, seasoned salt and chopped fresh rosemary and roasted; and sliced tomatos from the Farmers Market. Brisket was one of the best I've ever done. I salted, peppered and browned it; took it out, caramelized three medium sliced onions and four cloves of garlic, added 2 tbsp tomato paste and cooked that a bit, added a 12-oz bottle of Guinness, two cups of beef stock, a little brown sugar, a little spicy brown mustard, and about 5 fresh sage leaves. Added the beef back in, clapped a lid on it, and into the oven at 325 for about 3 1/2 hours(it was about a 3-pound brisket).

Huevos rancheros. Over easy for me, scrambled for the teenager. And smoked gouda grits. Aaaannnnnddd....the money shot.

All day, every day. In the summer when there are lots of berries, I cook berries, water and sugar into a thin syrup, strain it, and keep it in the fridge. A half-cup of it gives iced tea a wonderful flavor. I also use a lot of the mint growing on my back porch.

Sheer brilliance! About six or eight inches of soil? Or more? I live on a rocky hillside and this sounds like it has definite possibilities! Traveling and reading only sporadically, but I'll sit down with your blog soon as I get back.

Bangers and mash? Bubble and squeak? Seriously....scones, clotted cream, cucumber sandwiches.

Bumping this thread up...I'm headed to Albuquerque, where I've never been, this weekend, there through next Tuesday. Got reservations at Zinc wine bar and bistro for Saturday. What are some killer places to take people?

Come to Arkansas. You can buy milk straight from the farm. Unpasteurized. Unhomogenized. With a layer of cream a quart thick. Makes hellacious cheese.

I pay four bucks a gallon for unpastuerized, single-farm milk via my CSA. That compares to $3, or thereabouts, for regular milk at the supermarket. I'm not sure why anyone buys or uses or drinks supermarket milk when they have access to the real thing. I wonder if the Blahnik cows wear high heels?

If you're not determined to cook it, here's a good recipe for marinating the raw version: http://www.food52.com/recipes/6999_marinated_cauliflower

dcarch, I love the way you used the jicama slices in the seafood salad; gorgeous! And I'm astounded at ripe tomatos this early -- local farmer grows them in "hoop houses," under plastic until it gets warm enough, and then open air. I have just joined a CSA that will guarantee me two pounds a week of them year-round! mgaretz, in what did you marinate that tenderloin? I have one reposing in the freezer I'd love to try that on. Bruce, those wings and asparagus...oh, my!

A year or so ago, I finished losing a total of about 40 pounds over a 12-month period. Part of it was working out, but part was changing eating habits. 1. I stopped keeping junk food at home. If I wanted junk food, I went out and got it, but only a single serving package (chips, candy, etc.) 2. I cut way back on cooking sweets, and keeping them around the house. 3. I cut way back on simple carbs (white bread, white potatos, etc. 4. I consciously worked on upping my intake of protein and fiber. 5. I all but stopped eating fast food (no great loss, as it's generally horrible anyway). What I did NOT do was alter my fat intake much at all, other than what I cut out by abandoning significant quantities of potato chips and French fries and the like. I determined early on I was going to cook with butter, and bacon drippings when called for, and I was not giving up half-and-half in my coffee. The two big keys to losing weight, I found, were eating breakfast -- something with protein -- and having some protein-filled snacks for midmorning and midafternoon. I found a graham cracker with peanut butter, some tuna salad on whole wheat crackers, or a handful of fruit-and-nut trail mix worked really well in those instances, as I could keep them in my office without much trouble. The midmorning and midafternoon snacks made portion control MUCH easier at lunch and dinner. If I got hungry after dinner, which didn't happen that often, a piece of fruit or a wedge of cheese was generally enough to handle it. A year or so later, I've gained five pounds or so back, mostly from increased alcohol intake (what used to be a glass of wine a night has become half a bottle...ok, maybe a little more) and edging back into candy (damn you, Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter!). Part of it was the gym schedule going to hell in a handbasket. Now that there are no more candy-centric holidays until Halloween, and summer with its slower schedule is approaching, maybe I can work on both of those.

I used the Triple Rye Bread recipe from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, and I added some caraway seed to the starter. Really good rye. I had a chunk for lunch yesterday and brought another one to work today. I think if I were making it for dinner, I'd do red cabbage, and German potato salad. Just because I love both of them!

Great blog, fascinating cuisine, and it was great to learn about all the Passover customs! Thanks!

Well...I don't know that it's a sandwich, per se....but I was making my maiden voyage at rye bread (not half bad, btw), with an eye toward making pastrami sandwiches...so I figured, why not make the sandwiches at the same time as the bread? Dough rolled to about 3/4 inch thick; middle third basted with spicy brown mustard, topped with pastrami, in turn topped with Swiss cheese. Edges, cut in "wings," folded over (the idea was for them to be long enough to be sort of latticed; they were too short). Brushed with an egg wash and baked. I'll do it again, maybe with some horseradish sauce, too....

Auto Zone Park (Redbirds, the Cardinals' AAA affiliate) in Memphis has barbecue nachos (an abomination) and cheese and sausage plates from the Rendezvous, long-time Memphis barbecue landmark. AZP is perhaps the biggest thing I miss about Memphis. Great park.

New one this week: Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. I think I like it better than the Breadmaker's Apprentice.

A BLT on sourdough with avocado, made with wonderful greenhouse-grown tomatos from an organic farmer nearby.

If you're near a factory outlet store, look for a set of copper-bottomed stainless Revere ware. I bought a set a few years back with a 1 1/2 qt and 2 1/2 qt saucepan, 6 1/2 qt Dutch oven/stock pot, and 10-inch saute pan for, I think, $110. They're heavy enough to be serviceable, and have lasted well.

Good Lord. How large a staff turns that out? And are all the quantities similar to that of the chopped liver?

Old house + tiny kitchen = no exhaust fan. The stove, however, is less than four feet from the kitchen window, which I pop open and use a 5-inch fan on a clip bracket to vent stuff right outside, where it then draws every cat and dog in the neighborhood and makes my pug bark frantically because there are visitors on the back deck. I believe the pug is more annoying than the smoke alarm would be.

I've never tried this recipe, but there was one this week in the NYT in Sam Sifton's column for duck ragout that sounded positively stunning. I can't wait to try it.

Finally had time to sit down and catch up with the week's worth of posts. Fascinating! The brisket is absolutely drool-worthy, and I'm most impressed with the blintzes, as well. Forgive my ignorance -- I know the blettle are cooked, and then you roll the filling inside, but you made mention of them cooking up more or less crunchy, depending on filling. So I presume they are cooked again? Are they fried, or baked, or did I misread? I'm intrigued by charoset, as it sounds like something I'd love. Do you prepare it any time other than Passover? I can't get excited about matzoh ball soup, but the next time I'm in NYC I'm going to a good Jewish deli and try some to seem what I've been missing. Thanks for sharing your holiday; I've particularly enjoyed the explanations of the dietary rules and the customs.

I have herbs in the pots on the deck. Too damn many rocks in the ground on this mountain to have a real garden. Everything's kitchen ready except the basil, which needs a couple of weeks yet.

Rarely.