kayb

I did a recent brunch for friends. Got behind on my cooking, and so didn't take pics until we were already digging in. Above, from the top, chilled corn soup with shrimp seared in paprika; fruit salad with sweetened creme fraiche; caprese salads. Below, sweet rosemary corn bread, roasted asparagus with a canteloupe/mozzarella salsa (can it be a salsa if it has cheese in it?). And a quiche (zucchini and sausage, with monterey jack and goat cheese) We also had pound cake with peach/amaretto sauce, chicken breasts stuffed with ricotta cheese and chipotle peppers, and, of course, mimosas.

Put me down for the BLAT. Although the addition of shrimp does sound awfully tasty. And Hellman's, or homemade, mayo, please. I like a fried egg, bacon and cheese sandwich, too, but not with the tomato...though I love sliced tomato with bacon and eggs for breakfast. I think it's the cheese that squicks me.

Corned beef hash (from my first attempt at homemade corned beef!), double-yolked fried egg, cantaloupe.

Standard Southern dinner of okra, corn, tomato slice (ok, slab) and a chicken tender (at least I had breaded and baked it myself) And tonight, organic grass-fed beef burger, with dijon, bread-and-butter pickles, and potato salad. Chocolate chip pound cake for dessert.

Thin pork tenderloin chops, fried crispy on the outside over high heat in a cast iron skillet, and topped with a chili-plum cream sauce and fresh sliced plums. My new favorite sauce.

1. Fried okra. Most places, even in the South where they should know better, persist in serving the frozen, battered-and-fried, kind. Okra should be shaken in cornmeal before frying (or freezing on a cookie sheet, then transferred to a plastic bag. 2. An over easy egg. I've not found the restaurant yet that cooks its eggs in the drippings from the bacon or sausage that go with it. That, and timing, is the key to an excellent OE egg. 3. I agree with BadRabbit on barbecue. Depends entirely on where you are. I can find restaurants around here whose barbecue is as good as mine. But not better.

How about coming home from a week-long vacation to find that your fridge/freezer died at some point during the week, with spoiled shrimp and shells (for stock), duck breasts, duck fat, several quail, and pork chops? And that's only the freezer. Oh, dear God. That's horrible. I believe the only solution would be to move.

MaxH, glad it worked for you! The cider vinegar would have added another layer of flavor; any vinegar will work. We used white for some pickles (Old South lime pickles, and some others that escape me), but cider vinegar for most.

Hate the smell of calves liver or turnip greens cooking. Possibly one reason why I will eat neither one. We will not go into the awfulness of the smell of something left in the fridge until it's old enough to vote. Throw away container and all; it's worth it.

The recipe I sorta-kinda followed called for bacon, but I didn't do that. Any egg salad, minus the minced pickles and plus some grated cheese, should work well. First time I'd ever tried it, but it won't be the last.

I acquired a ulu (an ulu?) recently when a friend returned from a visit to Alaska. I find it very useful for chopping herbs. Hadn't thought about cutting pizza, but it'd work for that, too.

Egg salad (eggs, cheese, mayo, Worcestershire, Dijon mustard, Tabasco) on sourdough, broiled: Earlier, quiche with sausage, asparagus, and goat's milk and cow's milk farmers' cheese.

Steak, grilled squash, garlic mashed potatos, tomatos. With fresh peach sauce (amaretto and brown sugar,simmered until the peaches were soft) over ice cream for dessert.

As best I recall, Mama would do this in the morning and it would be usable by that evening. She'd leave it room temp for the day, and then put it in the fridge from that point on, although that's probably not necessary. I do not recall any other condiments; if there were, they'd be nothing other than salt and ground pepper. I see no reason why you couldn't add other herbs/spices to your personal taste. Truth be told, I never used it much, because it was mostly used on greens, and I did not then, and do not now, eat cooked greens. Not certain how I managed to grow up poor in the rural South and not eat greens, but I managed.

Actually, I'd never thought of it, but I suppose you could put a pan on the grate where the coals general stay to catch the juices, since there are no coals directly beneath the bird, but on either side. Quite honestly, I can't see a lot of advantage to cooking this kind of bird like this as opposed to in the oven, but it was hot, and I didn't want to heat the house up. You don't get a great deal of smoky taste, as you would on a traditional smoker, because the time isn't long enough. My grill is just a homemade one, a barrel cut in half and hinged, grate in the bottom to hold the coals, grate on the top of the bottom half to hold the meat.

It did. I usually do this in the oven, and the stuffing always cooks. I think the key is a lower heat, longer time. And the stuffing keeps the chicken from drying out.

The peppers used can vary, but I've always seen Apple Cider vinegar used for this purpose. If I'm not mistaken you can put the peppers in a jar, and pour the heated vinegar over them and let them sit. I have not personally done this, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Agreed with NCSU Foodie. The peppers were slim, smaller than my little finger; left whole (stems and all), and picked quite young, as they were two inches or so long. They were mostly green, although the occasional red one would crop up. We grew them in the garden, and they were always just referred to as "hot peppers," as opposed to the bell, or "sweet peppers" and the jalapenos. They were not as hot as, say, jalapenos, but had a bit of a kick to them. And yes, the cider vinegar is just heated to an almost boil and then poured over the peppers; in our case, they were usually in a cruet with a shaker top. Mama would just add more vinegar when that ran out. We later, because of my father's love of hot things, did somewhat the same thing with sliced jalapenos.

While this is really more of a roast chicken, it WAS prepared on the grill. It's stuffed with a mix of ground beef, herbs, ricotta cheese and spinach, has a paste of fennel, garlic, onion and oil rubbed beneath the skin, and then the skin was rubbed with oil and sprinkled with kosher salt and black pepper. Grilled about 2 hours on the center of the grate, with coals heaped on either side. Started on its back, turned once to get a good sear on the breast, and then finished on its back.

I grew up in the rural south with a bottle of "pepper sauce" on the table, which was a bottle filled with a mix of sweet and hot peppers over which a heated cider vinegar had been poured. The vinegar was then applied, via a shaker top, to most anything, particularly to cooked greens or braised meats and vegetables. It was one of the four condiments always on our table, along with salt, black pepper and Tabasco (which was "hot sauce" as opposed to "pepper sauce").

I love pork loin. In the summer, it's probably my favorite cut, because it's so simple to prepare and so good and feeds a good-sized crowd. This was on the grill Sunday: Tonight, it was stuffed pattypan squash. The stuffing was scooped-out squash flesh, cheese and sausage. OK, but it needed a lighter sausage; I'll make that adjustment next time.

Tortilla with potatos, andouille sausage (since I had no chorizo at home) and eggs. Plated with tomatos, sourdough toast, and another dollop of fig jam. About time for figs to come in, too; can't wait! Sorry for washed-out photos. Not sure what happened there.

I love salmon on the grill with just salt, pepper and olive oil, and then glazed the last couple of minutes with a glaze of plum jelly and minced chipotle peppers in adobo.

RobirdsTX, once again you and I have the same idea, this time the black bean and corn salad. Don't you love it? I've also been known to just spoon it over sliced avocado and eat it...or spread crostini with mashed avocado and lime juice, and spoon that on top. Dcarch, I had my first deep-fried crispy spinach recently in a restaurant....I don't normally care for cooked spinach, but this was wonderful. How hot do you have your oil, and what kind of oil do you use? Dyjee, love the look of that stir-fry. I have some pork in the freezer that may call for that.... It's been a nutso week, so little cooking. I did make chicken quesadillas last night. And today I've put my first-ever attempt at corned beef into the brine and popped it into the fridge. Had to adjust the Alton Brown recipe slightly, because I could not find plain old saltpetre, and wound up using Morton Tender Quick, the sugar-salt-saltpetre combo. I used two cups in a gallon of brine for a six pound brisket, which is reposing in a giant zip-loc in my fridge for the next 12 days. Half of it will be corned beef, the other half I'm going to put on the smoker and make pastrami. Wish me luck.

Getting away from eggs, because I didn't feel like cooking: Fresh strawberries, sweetened creme fraiche, pound cake.

Kim, can I come the next time you host brunch? Those dishes looked just gorgeous.