kayb

Gradually getting back to cooking, with assistance from daughter/apprentice for things I can't handle yet, like dicing onions or shallots. Steak and onion sandwiches on French bread with melted Provolone: And another night, tortellini with pesto cream sauce, and reasonably decent out-of-season tomatos:

My very favorite summer lunch is sliced tomatos with a scoop of ricotta cheese, a little sea salt, and a healthy grind of mixed peppercorns. Also love freshly ground pepper on my second favorite summer lunch, a caprese salad. And on watermelon, with a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Be SURE there's time for lunch at Willie Mae's on Tuesday. Worth the effort.

I did Steel Cut oats on my Cuisinart slow cooker overnight. It's a 6.5 quart ceramic pot unit. I've learned that as nice looking as it is it runs hot on the low and high cooking settings. Now that I know this I actually cook everything with the Warm setting. That's the setting the unit switches to after the cooking timer shuts off. Warm goes to about 180-190F on my unit. Because my pot is on the large size the AB recipe would probably burn given the times etc even on the warm setting. <snip> Every crock pot/slow cooker has a different heat range. I'm not suprised so many people get questionable results from the AB recipe. I'm going to try sous vide oats next. Crazy talk? Absolutely. After seeing some frozen fully cooked steel cut oats at Trader Joes the other day I'm getting excited about the possibilities of taking frozen vacuum packed oat pucks to work. I can't wait to find out if I'm making glue or something scrumptious. Have not yet tried this, as I am not a huge oatmeal fan, but I've read on another food blog to use the slow cooker as a bain marie and cook all night on low. Might be worth a try. Kay (who since she can't cook at present is reading the entire breakfast and dinner threads and clipping recipes)

Barbecue on waffles-- what a cool idea! I've done it on fried cornbread, and that's good. Are your cornbread waffles regular cornbread batter? New and hopefully more mobile cast today; hoping I can cook at least something simple this weekend. Tired of snacking and eating out.

Potato salad. Specifically, my potato salad, still warm from cooking the potatos, with a dressing of mayo,mustard,ketchup,pickles, salt.pepper.garlic and paprika. It's what I love to make for myself when I'm tired or it's been a rough day.

Sigh. A broken arm means I can only read and drool for a couple of weeks.....

Today's weekend breakfast cookery for the rest of the week: Bran muffins with figs and walnuts: Sausage and biscuits (homemade biscuits; sausage from my organic free-range meat purveyor) Feeling somewhat ambitious, I even made up a batch of pimento cheese for lunches. Now I feel very virtuous, and think I'll take a nap. Darienne, congrats on the anniversary! Have a wonderful day!

I cook breakfast maybe twice a week, on the weekends. Unless I have one of my "can't sleep" mornings and get up at 3:30 a.m. and make muffins or something. The rest of the time it's either fruit salad or muffins or sausage biscuits I made on the weekend for Child C's and my weekday breakfasts, or the once-every-two-weeks fast-food binge on Burger King French toast sticks, which are really pretty good and probably absolutely horrible for me.

Seed (or actually, ground). Just tossed them in olive oil, a little sugar, a little salt, and the coriander. Roasted at 325 so the sugar wouldn't burn, for maybe 35-40 minutes (I didn't time, just tested from time to time). M'mmmm....plantains. LOVE plantains. Ate them three times a day last year when I was in Miami. The ones I fry at home just aren't as good.

Now that is brilliant. I am going to steal your idea and use it. Please do! Mama would be pleased.

I used to frequent a (now, sadly, closed) martini bar in Memphis that offered what ranks as my all-time favorite bar appetizer: Fried olives. They took a mix of different kinds of olives, minced them fine, mixed them with egg and I think bread crumbs, rolled them into olive-sized-and-shaped ovals, and deep-fried them. And served them in a martini glass lined with a couple of cocktail napkins, with picks to spear them. Of course, it was Memphis, so they served them with the ubiquitous ranch dressing as a dipping sauce, along with marinara. I cared for no sauce at all, but if I did, I don't think it'd be either of those; maybe a Greek yogurt and cucumber raita, or something. My other favorite appetizer that might lend itself well to bar snacks is asparagus spears wrapped in proscuitto and broiled until the proscuitto is crispy.

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.