kayb

Oh, dear sweet baby Jesus. That looks absolute wonderful. I believe if I knew it were my last breakfast on earth, that's what I'd want. This morning, I went to the racetrack and ate at the track kitchen with the jockeys and trainers. Had eggs over easy, bacon, grits, biscuits and gravy. And then strolled through the stables and smelled hay and horses and watched the horses work out. Enjoyed bright winter sunshine and temps getting close to the 60s. Gorgeous day!

Meatballs in marinara over orzo, with coriander roasted carrots on the side. The beef, once again, was the grass-fed free-range I've begun buying, and which has forever turned me against feed-lot beef. I am a believer.

I made chili recently, and it was one of the best batches I've made in ages. 2 small yellow onions, diced 4 cloves garlic, minced about 4 tbsp Santa Cruz chile paste about 1 tbsp ancho chile powder about 2 tbsp smoked paprika about 2 tbsp grocery store chili powder about 1 tbsp cumin about 1 tsp salt about 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper 2 pounds ground beef 2 cans pinto beans, drained 2 cans petite diced tomatos 1 can tomato sauce 1 12-oz bottle of beer 1 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp cocoa Saute the onions in bacon fat (I happened to have some in the skillet from that morning’s breakfast) until soft; add the garlic and saute another minute or so over medium heat. Add chile paste and all the other spices; lower the heat to medium low and let it simmer, stirring every once in a while, until it’s a really pretty reddish brown and glossy. Meanwhile, open the tomatos, tomato sauce, and beans and dump them all in the crock pot; turn it on high. Add the onion mixture. Swoosh out the skillet with hot water, and add some oil, turning heat back to medium high. Saute the ground beef until well-browned and the water is evaporated; drain off the grease and add it to the crock-pot. Add the sugar and the beer. I cooked mine on high for about five hours, because that’s how long I was gone, before turning it down to low; had I been home, I’d probably have turned it down a little earlier, but it really doesn’t matter. When you turn it to low, add the cocoa (so it can cook for maybe an hour).

I did at least make the lamb shanks with herbes de Provence. (photo posted on the dinner thread a week or so back) They were...OK. I don't think I care much for herbes de provence; I think the shanks would have been much, much better in a bolognese. And I made Sally Lunn bread, which, while not Shirley Corriher's brioche, is quite similar. Photo on the breakfast threat a while back. Tonight is chicken markhani.

I live on a rocky hillside, so my gardening is in containers. I tried tomatos last year, with little luck. This year, it will be herbs, and I will be starting them in about two weeks, inside. I'm planning parsley, basil, Thai basil, cilantro, chives, rosemary, thyme, dill, mint, lemongrass, and anything else the nursery happens to have. Has anyone tried the tomatos that grow upside down out of the hanging basket? I've had people swear by them; am tempted to try one or two.

I have adopted a habit my mother had of keeping a one-quart plastic container in the freezer in which I put all kinds of odds and ends of vegetables and meat. When it's full, I can thaw it, add a couple of cans of tomatoes and/or some stock, and have a great, quick, extremely cheap vegetable soup or stew.

Comfort food. Hamburger steak cooked in onion gravy, home fries, purple hulled peas with tomato relish.

Thanks kayb! Below is my basic recipe (made up from parts and pieces of several different online recipes) - this time I used fresh roma tomatoes instead of canned and threw in some frozen corn kernels near the end: Thanks! Trying that one while it's still cold weather....

Last weekend (just now posting): Blueberry muffins. I am contemplating sweet potato latkes tomorrow. Had to go to an early class today.

I love a deviled egg, of any and all sorts. One of my favorites has a bit of dijon mustard, a bigger bit of Hellman's mayo, some chopped dill or chives, some flaked smoked salmon and just a touch of horseradish. It's got a dab of creme fraiche and a dab of caviar on top. Oh....my....those are good.

Robirds, that soup looks fantastic! Recipe?

Lamb shanks braised in red wine with herbes de Provence; carrots; polenta. And a slice of slightly toasted Sally Lunn bread.

Champorado, Filipino chocolate rice porridge, with sugar and heavy cream. My first attempt at it, but it won't be my last; it's excellent. Recipe called for glutinous rice, and I didn't have any on hand, so I used plain old brown rice; it worked fine. And Sally Lunn bread, a dense, faintly sweet, brioche-y kind of loaf. A full stick of butter, and more melted on a warm slice; fat grams be damned. Working on blueberry muffins this morning.

Meat loaf (with butterbeans and scalloped potatos), one evening. (And I discovered later in the week that leftover meat loaf, crumbled, works marvelously in beef and barley soup.) My loaf pans were all either in use or in the dishwasher, so I used a pie dish. Worked wonderfully; more ketchup-glazed surface area, which I love, and more crispy bottom.

Leftovers. Thursday night, this was a filet with garlic mashed potatos. This morning, it was steak bites with potato cakes, and I warmed up the asparagus (with either some mashed potatos or some leftover bearnaise, not sure which, sticking to them, but it didn't harm the taste a bit). Brings steak and eggs to a new level.

Legalsec, here's my red beans and rice, a family favorite: Soak a pound of small red beans overnight; drain, rinse, and put them in the crockpot, adding enough water just to come to the top of the beans. Saute a pound of andouille sausage, sliced 1/4 inch thick, along with a medium diced onion, 4 cloves of minced garlic, a cup of diced ham (or the meat pulled from a couple of boiled hamhocks)until the onion is soft and the meat browned a little, and add that to the pot. Add a 15-oz can of diced tomatos, a 10-oz can of diced tomatos and green chiles, a couple of tablespoons of smoked paprika, a teaspoon of Lawry's seasoned salt, cayenne pepper or hot sauce to taste, and a couple of bay leaves. Stir it up a bit to combine the ingredients, and cook it on low all day. When you get home, kick it up to high and add two teaspoons of gumbo file powder, a half-pound of raw popcorn shrimp (if you want), and let it cook while you cook the rice, bake some cornbread, and sit down and relax with a cold beer. By the time the cornbread and rice are done, it's ready. Another favorite is white bean and sausage soup -- a pound of navy beans, soaked overnight; smoked sausage, cut in slices and browned; onions, garlic and carrots, diced and sauteed until the onion is soft; a 15-oz. can of diced tomatos; a teaspoon of dried basil, a teaspoon of dried oregano. Cook on low all day. It may want a little more salt when you get home, depending on how salty the smoked sausage is.

Many thanks to the posters who (a) told me to use regular yellow onions, and (b) advised me to use the crock-pot. Now, THESE are some caramelized onions!

I bought a bag of "regular" yellow onions at the grocery yesterday, and they are going in the crock-pot as soon as I get to the point where I can do anything in my kitchen, where I am at present trying to unclog a sink. Will report back in on both projects.

I've been learning my way around lentils this year. Last night,I made perhaps the best ones I've ever had. I started out making a tomato sauce in the Greek style (onions, garlic, tomatos, cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg), salt and black pepper, and added the lentils and some water and let them cook until tender. About midway through the cooking, I added some lamb meatballs I'd made up -- ground lamb, bread crumbs (I actually used matzoh meal, as I had some I needed to use up), egg, onions, garlic, cayenne, cumin, coriander, cardamon, paprika, thyme. Baked those in the oven until they'd developed a nice crust, and then gently added them to the tomato/lentil mixture and simmered for about 20 minutes. Marvelous! These were the cheapie brown lentils from the grocery. I have French green lentils from Whole Foods I'm going to try in Mark Bittman's recipe for green lentils with cashews.

I used to cook a lot of pot roasts and pork roasts in my slow cooker, but I've come to believe that they just taste better in the oven. What I DO use my slow cooker for is lots and lots of soups and stews. My red beans (for red beans and rice), white bean and sausage soup, black bean soup, Caribbean Sunday beans, anything that calls for a dried legume, generally get cooked in the crockpot, albeit that means a little advance planning. I put beans on to soak the night before, and saute all my aromatics and meat and put them in the fridge. Next morning, I put the beans in the crockpot, add the aromatics, add any liquids, tomatos, other seasonings, etc., and leave for work. When I get home, it's bread and a salad prep, and dinner's ready, not to mention lunch for the next day. Oh, and I do posole in the crock pot, too, adding the canned hominy after I get home.

Question about the Foodsaver; mine, which was relatively new, has stopped pulling a vacuum. It still seals, but it doesn't suck all the air out. Any easy suggested fixes for this?

Hungarian braised beef, a chuck roast cut in two-inch chunks, seared, coated in paprika and then braised in a wonderful tomato sauce. I served it over rice, but it would have been just as good, or perhaps better, over egg noodles. A quick after-work meal of migas, heavy on the cheese and light on the peppers, as my 20-year-old was eating as well. Tonight, if I can get the sink unclogged, it's meat loaf, potato gratin and....something.

Most notable meal of the week was chicken cutlets, made from boneless, skinless breasts pounded thin, dredged in seasoned flour, dipped in egg wash, and coated in panko, fried over medium high heat until golden (maybe 2 minutes on a side, tops). Perfect degree of doneness. A sauce made of shallots sauteed in butter, white wine reduced by half, some lemon juice, some paprika, and thickened with a little dollop of butter and flour. Served with zucchini fritters, glazed baby carrots and mashed potatos. No photos because I was cooking in someone else's kitchen and didn't have my camera with me.

Ravioli is always a winner. You can make several different stuffings, and people can take home some of each. A soup swap, where you make three or four different kinds of soup, (and people can also bring some from home) and everyone takes home several quarts of different soups, is fun as well.

Mama (who made some of the best C&D I've ever eaten) always used a roasting hen. She's boil her until she was falling apart, pick the meat off the bones and throw it back in the pot, and then put in the dumplings, which, unfortunately, I cannot remember exactly how she made. They were like a cross between pie crust and biscuit dough, rolled out and cut in strips about an inch wide by 2 1/2 inches long, and dropped into the boiling broth. They cooked up to a wonderfully chewy, toothsome consistency. I won't be trying. I've tried for 30 years to make decent C&D, and I can't do it. Too many good meat-and-three places around here make good ones for me to ruin yet another good hen in the attempt.