kayb

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.

Will be fascinated to experience your Seder via the blog, Pam. Anxious to learn about all kinds of food with which I'm not familiar!

Wow, everyone -- what a week's worth of meals! Shelby, that cheese oozing out of the puff pastry almost did me in. Were you/are you here for the Derby? If you're still around, PM me and we'll meet and grab lunch or coffee or a beer! A few other standouts that caught my eye were Corinna's lobster mac and cheese and Prawncrackers' Dover sole. Friends in town for Derby weekend, so Friday night I grilled shrimp, with arepas, black beans and corn, a pineapple-mango salsa, guacamole, and some stuffed dates wrapped in bacon: Last night, got home from the races (I had the Derby winner, a 25-1 shot, so I came home in a good mood!), and grilled some ribeyes, served with some premade English pea salad and capreses with greenhouse-grown winter tomatos from the local farmers' market. Served it with a slab of freshly baked multigrain bread, proofed in the fridge while we were at the ponies. Dessert was pound cake with strawberries macerated in sugar and balsamic vinegar, with sweetened creme fraiche. Don't think I'm going to cook today!

When I was a new mother, I avidly looked for and used coupons for diapers, baby food, formula and the like. I'd typically save about $10 a week on just baby items, and $10 a week when you have an elementary schooler, a toddler and a newborn is pretty significant (plus the fact that was 21 years ago, when $10 was worth more than it is today). Today, I'm in the store-discount-card and use-a-coupon-if-I-happen-on-to-one-for-something-I-use category. More typically, I'll get one in the mail for something I might conceivably use, stick it up on the fridge with a magnet, and forget about it until after it's expired. The only exceptions are the PetSmart coupons for dog food and grooming services. I covet those, and use them faithfully.

Last night, the first Boston butt on the grill this season. Details over on the Behold My Butt thread. Served with arepas and black bean-corn salad. Possibly the best arepas I've ever made. Recently, gyoza, fried rice and pickled vegetables. And one night when a full-blown meal was NOT on the agenda, potato skins!

Very cool first day, Evan. Anxious to learn more!

Bumping this thread back up, now that it's spring. I cooked my first butt of the season yesterday -- about a four-pounder. Rubbed it down heavily with a dry rub of chili powder, paprika, ancho chile powder, coriander, salt, pepper, garlic powder, allspice, dry mustard (I think that was all). Let it sit over night, wrapped in plastic, to marinate in the rub. Put it on the grill with a heap of coals on either end, and went away and ignored it except to turn it a couple of times. At the end of three hours, I was starting to lose my heat as my coals were burning out, so I transferred it to a baking dish and finished it with another hour in the oven. Marvelous!

Garlic jelly (left front). I am FASCINATED by the notion of garlic jelly. What's it like?

You have, indeed, found your people. Welcome home!

Breakfast out with my girls, in Nashville, where I'm visiting, at Pfunky Griddle, a neat little place where they bring you pitchers of batter, your requested add-ins, and you cook your own pancakes (cute little mini-hibachi-grill tables). Or, in my case, you cook your own potato cakes (mine with cheddar, feta, and black olives; I wish I'd ordered ham as well). I can testify, after sampling a kid's pancake, that Reese's Pieces are the bomb for pancake add-ins!

Porterhouse steaks from Walnut Hill Farms via the Nashville Farmers' Market, as I'm here visiting the kiddos. Dry aged, and they taste it; marvelous! I had eaten way too many cheese and crackers and stuffed dates prior to dinner, so I had only a small portion of one of the porterhouses, as I wanted some of the corn on the cob and roasted broccoli with parmigiano, also from the market (albeit shipped in from somewhere else).

Along the same lines as what has been mentioned before, it seems to me that likely most of us grew up with a good deal less variety at breakfast than at dinner; it is not unusual to eat the same thing, or at least from the samae small group of things, daily for breakfast, when we would not think of that sort of repetition at lunch or dinner. I had Chinese takeout earlier this week for dinner; I won't likely want Chinese takeout again for a couple of weeks. I had steel-cut oatmeal for breakfast yesterday; I'll likely have steel-cut oatmeal at least twice more in the next five days, with toast or a bagel the other days. Of course, all bets are off when one is referring to teenagers like mine, who would eat pizza four nights a week and burgers the other three. Or vice versa.

Basic recipe is here: flax seed potato bread I substituted mashed sweet potato for regular mashed potatos. Apparently they have a greater moisture content, because I then had to add another cup of flour, and the dough was still very, very soft. But it baked up nicely, although I did overproof it on the second rise, so my top collapsed a bit. Lovely, chewy texture, though, and a nice flavor. Good toasted with butter in the mornings!

Dejah, where can I acquire a freezer like yours? I want one that conjures up roasts and such. Kim, thanks for the recipe. We're not far from strawberry season, when I'll be eating them daily. This will be on the list of "to try." Tonight, as I'd been baking bread all day and it was a chilly, gray day (the last gasp of winter, I hope), I opted for comfort food: Meat loaf, mac and cheese, purple hulled peas (frozen from last summer), and sweet potato flaxseed bread. Hit the spot.

Thoroughly enjoyed your blog. Now you've got me craving crawfish; got to get out this week and see what I can find in the markets!