kayb

The Bread Maker's Apprentice.

Interesting sidelight upthread about what our children eat. I have three grown daughters, all of whom will eat fairly adventurously, like most stuff, but don't really get into cooking at all. And I have a 15-year-old son I took in last year, after his eating habits were formed. Nothing green. Very little fruit. If it weren't for his fondness for anything with tomato sauce on it, I'd fear he'd get scurvy. I'm trying my best to get him to branch out, but with little success. Any suggestions?

Gorgeous dinners, everyone! It's been a couple of weeks since I've had a chance to look, and post, so it was a virtual smorgasbord to see everyone's wonderful food. Finally had a chance to do some cooking this weekend. Friday night, Ann T's Greek meatballs over orzo, with zucchini fritters on the side. They're really not burned, though they look it.... Saturday, flank steak that was destined for the grill but didn't make it because we got home too late from the racetrack. So I seared it in a hot skillet, instead. Perfect rare/medium rare. Served it with a mixed green salad and a potato gratin: Today, I made shortcut banh mi with pickled veggies for lunch (and I got that recipe from some blog I read, can't remember which, but if it was anyone on here, thank you; it's wonderful). Rolled it up in a flatbread wrap. And finally, tonight, fired up the grill; pork chops and chicken breasts. The pork chops were just salted and peppered, grilled and then glazed at the end with Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce. The chicken breasts were marinated in an orange juice based marinade with Asian spices. Had it with black bean and white corn salad, and mac and cheese that I didn't eat, but the menfolk seemed to love.

An extremely busy month so far -- new grandchild on Feb. 28, and work stuff when I got back in town a week later -- has kept me away from this thread and most of eGullet (and much of the rest of the internet). But this weekend, I got serious about cooking. To do that, of course, one must fuel oneself properly: Corned beef hash, made from leftover corned beef and mashed potatos I'd made for an early St. Patrick's Day dinner. With an over easy free-range egg. And a slice of spicy cheese bread, spread with fig preserves. A gal can cook all day on that. Except I went to the racetrack instead.

It's fairly common around here at the meat-and-three places that are popular with the noontime office crowd. You dash out by yourself, sit at a table with eight or 10 others, order from the menu, chat if you want, read if you don't. Beats having to wait for a table for a single.

Took me until now to get to your blog, and I just read it in its entirety. Marvelous! Particularly loved the potato skins, one of my family's favorites as well (and quick and easy to make if you bake your potatos in the microwave). Your kitchen is lovely, and I envy you being so close to the coast with your access to good, fresh seafood, and far enough south there's fresh produce so much earlier than here. I'm making my first New Mexico trip in about six weeks, and will be looking forward to some of that wonderful food! Oh, and add me to the list of those with kitchen envy.

I corned beef with it last summer. Worked fine.

Cranberry salad. Cornbread dressing. BLT's. Biscuits (unfortunately, not gravy, at which I am still horrible). Southern standards. I never branched out until I was an adult.

Way cool on the pierogis! I'm gonna have to try that .... but not this weekend, which is bread and short ribs!

Have been cooking in my daughter's kitchen the past week, visiting her and her husband and my brand new grandchild. A bit limited -- you don't THINK to buy things like, oh, baking powder, that aren't staples for her -- but I managed to turn out some decent dinners: Organic, grass-fed rib-eyes, from my local organic farmer, that I took up there with me for a celebratory home-from-the-hospital dinner: Short ribs, which after browning got braised in a lovely tomato ragu, heavy on paprika, and served with gnocchi and carrot croquettes topped with yogurt sauce: It was my maiden attempt at making gnocchi, but I had a bunch of homemade ricotta I needed to use, that I had taken up there with me. So I made about 5 1/2 dozen, cooked 2 dozen, and froze the rest. Discovered you CAN, in fact, make gnocchi with gluten-free flour. And shrimp enchiladas in chile verde sauce.

Sigh. To be able to eat at Highlands B&G twice a month. And the Hot and Hot. And what is that Fish Market place? Birmingham DOES have some fine restaurants.

Loving the blog! (Just got caught up on the first two days, after spending a week out of town with the brand new grandchild!) Inquiring minds want to know -- was that a sugar bowl in the hummus ingredients pic? Don't know that I ever heard of sugar in hummus; share a recipe? As a Kitchenaid noob, I'm looking forward particularly to the breadbaking part of your week. I missed my breadbaking the past two weeks, and will be anxious to get back into it this next weekend. New Orleans cuisine rules. Will be ordering Cooking Up A Storm. And the furbabies are adorable! Lucy Lu says to tell them Hi from her.

French toast. 2 eggs, a half-cup heavy cream, challah. From the bakery, so it passes the simplicity test. Oh, and butter to fry it in.

I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was a tiny little place hanging off a hillside above the village of Kamakura, Japan, in August, with a breeze blowing in off the ocean. The dining room was downstairs, the kitchen upstairs, and meals came down on a dumbwaiter. We had noodles and tempura and yakitori and platter after platter of wonderfully fresh sashimi and mug after mug of ice-cold Sapporo. It was just one of those magical meals.

Menu in Progress, I wanted to lick my screen for those turkey enchiladas. David Ross, gorgeous, gorgeous striped bass. Ditto dcarch on the stuffed fish with the broccoli. I'm intrigued by the concept of making tomato powder, too; can you elaborate on the technique? RobirdsTX, you make it a gorgeous-fish trifecta; lovely snapper! AnnT, I'm going to have to try those Greek meatballs. Have some ground chicken in the freezer. And Rico, I never thought of using canned oysters to fry for a po'boy, but I don't see any good reason why not! Those look excellent!

No, size doesn't really matter; I often use medium. It's just a pain to peel anything smaller than 31-40s. Yes, it's absolutely acceptable to grill the shrimp and then put them over the grits, and pour your sauce of choice over all.

1. BadRabbit, are you speaking of the Hot & Hot Fish Club in Birmingham, Ala.? They have a cookbook? Please tell me where I can acquire same, ASAP! Love that place! 2. Polenta will work just fine. You can take some regular coarse ground cornmeal and make the equivalent of polenta/grits. Perhaps it is a different strain of corn, but the major difference is the grind -- grits are coarser than polenta, which are coarser than cornmeal, which is coarser than masa harina. 3. Grits sources: Two good ones which ship nationally Delta Grind, of Water Valley, MS -- http://www.deltagrind.com/contact.html -- and War Eagle Mill in War Eagle, Arkansas -- http://www.wareaglemill.com/khxc/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=catshow&ref=CerealsWholeGrains&sid=bn03knw03339v3282c808pz769zblj34 (a five-pound bag for $7.95). 4. The grits for shrimp and grits should be made with half-and-half whole milk and water, and plenty of kosher salt, finished with butter and cheese. I prefer smoked Gouda, myself, but your mileage may vary. I also like to let my grits cool and form into a nice solid mass, which I then slice and fry to get a nice crispy grit-cake outside with a creamy inside. 5. Shrimp to go over the grits are of two basic categories: The creamy sauce, and the non-creamy sauce. Neither is preferable to the other; it's what you're in the notion for and what your pantry accommodates on a given night. Non-creamy shrimp-and involves sauteeing whatever aromatics you choose -- I don't do the trinity because, well, I don't like celery and I don't like bell pepper. I usually saute onion and garlic and occasionally diced carrots. I'll add some white wine, let it cook down, finish off with chicken broth and whatever seasonings I'm in the mood for, poach the shrimp in that, reduce until it's as thick as I want it, and go. In the alternative, I will brown andouille or tasso or even bacon, use the rendered fat to saute the onion and garlic, and add coffee and water for a good old red-eye gravy (if you wrap the shrimp in bacon and broil them, you then have Mr. B's Bistro shrimp and grits, which are marvelous). Creamy shrimp and grits starts out the same way, adds some tomato paste to the aromatics, then the wine (can be either white or red) (I have used Marsala when it was at hand), and seasonings, including Pick-A-Peppa sauce, which is critical to a good sauce, and finished off with a healthy pouring of heavy cream which is never brought to the boil stage. Shrimp go in when the wine does, and cook in the base for the sauce. You can also, as I did in this dish, repurpose cooked cocktail shrimp that were left over from a reception the night before; just put them in the sauce when you're heating it back up after you've added the cream. All you want to do is bring them to sauce temperature. Garnish with some chopped scallions, and enjoy!

I tried this recipe after seeing it on the Pioneer Woman blog. It's an amazingly good dessert, quick to come together, and almost all pantry ingredients except the cherries. Worth keeping cherries on hand when those unexpected guests drop by! Cherry Pudding Cake Cake: 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup sugar 1 egg 1/2 cup whole milk 2 tbsp butter, room temperature 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts 1 can tart cherries, in water, drained, juice reserved Sauce: Reserved cherry juice (plus water to make one cup} 1/2 cup sugar 1 tbsp. all purpose flour 2 tbsp butter 1/2 tsp. almond extract Cream together butter and sugar; add milk and egg and combine well. In a separate bowl, whisk or sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to wet ingredients and stir until well combined. Fold in cherries and pecans. Pour into a buttered 9 x 9 baking pan or dish, smooth top, and bake at 375 for about 40 minutes. While cake is baking, whisk flour into juice in a small saucepan, add sugar, and bring to a boil; cook until thickened. Remove from heat and add almond extract and butter; stir until butter is dissolved. When cake comes out of the oven, immediately pour sauce all over the cake. Use all of it. Serve warm or at room temperature. Wonderful topped with a little whipped cream.

Yes, on the pickles. It's what gives them their "snap." Other than that, I have no clue.

Tonight: Lasagna and garlic bread. Last night, a slice of Honey Cornmeal yeast bread: Slathered with the fruits of my first attempt at makign homemade ricotta:

Oh, that beef. Luscious. Loving your blog.

dcarch, I'd be your Valentine any day for a dinner like that. I'm always in awe of your plating (and photography), but every time I think you've outdone yourself....you do it again! Scottyboy, that fudge bar and ice cream had me swooning. Lovely meals, all! I haven't cooked in a week. Last week's meteorological blizzard has translated to a blizzard at work this week. I did manage a fine dinner last night at our local "best restaurant" -- champagne truffle soup, with a brie/crostini "grilled cheese," and a surf and turf with a marvelous filet and lobster, and plentiful pourings of Stag's Leap petite syrah....

I'd gut the thing and start over, knocking out a wall to triple the size while sacrificing a spare/junk room. I'd have a BIG cooktop, gas instead of electric, with a grill/griddle insert. A double oven. Granite countertops. One marble-topped counter that would be the pastry/bread center. A three-part sink, the smaller center sink for rinsing produce, etc. Countertop appliance "cupboards" that would open and allow them to slide out for use. I could accommodate those in the tripling of the counter space I have. At least two full columns of drawers. At least one base cabinet divided vertically to hold baking sheets, lids, etc. A French-door fridge with a big freezer drawer on the bottom. I'd include a big walk-in pantry, keeping me from having to traverse the den to get to the laundry room/pantry, and have a countertop extension to a bar with comfy barstools for people to sit and sip wine and keep me company while I cook.

I was testing a mandoline for a local manufacturer/importer of sharpeners who is expanding into edged tools (not knives, but everything else). He warned me -- repeatedly -- not to use it without the guard. I was entranced with cutting 1/32 of an inch slices of tomato, and removed the guard; somehow, I managed to slice a dime-sized piece of skin and flesh from the underside of the middle finger of my right hand, between second knuckle and palm. Bled like a sonofagun. And my finger was stiff for two weeks while it healed.

Given that I'd just picked up fresh milk, eggs, cheese, butter, sausage and sorghum molasses from the Farmers' Market, I figured I'd come home and cook a pig-out breakfast featuring all of the above. Had I had locally milled flour, it would have been an all-local breakfast (well, except for the coffee). Photo features what I was taught as the proper way to eat sorghum molasses: Put a pat of butter on the plate; pour a dollop of molasses over it. Blend the two with the blade of a table knife. Dab a bit on a biscuit, take a bite, repeat. The egg reminded me of just how good a farm-fresh egg is.