kayb

It is absolutely gorgeous baked rigatoni. I jumped the gun a bit on St. Pat's, as I'll be on the road the rest of the week. Waited too long to SV, so I plunked this in a dish in the oven @300F with the potatoes and carrots about 12:30 p.m. Sunday; added the cabbage about 4, and pulled it about 5 and let it rest 30 minutes. Very good. This was a point cut from Kroger. Lots left for sandwiches and hash.

There's a good recipe on Food 52 that I've used several times..

A pair of salads, one of which confirms to me that nope, I still don't like beets. They taste like dirt. The other is chicken salad in a mildly sweet dressing made of mayo, chili sauce, curry powder and Worcestershire sauce, which I nailed. Close to the best chicken salad I ever made. It has apples, cranberries and sliced almonds in it.

No comment on corn as a sandwich element? (condiment?)

What I recalled as well. Didn't realize they made a "long pepper" bacon. If she can take it, I can take it. Play it, Sam!

Bumping this old thread to ask a question, as I've skimmed it and didn't see it addressed. Can one use a gluten free flour to make gnocchi? If so, which GF flour(s) would one use?

Was it Petit Jean bacon? Or maybe Coursey's? The Arkansas bacon, I mean.

"Red sky at night, sailor's (campers'?) delight! Just beautiful. Thanks.

Comfort food dinner, assembled in 30 minutes thanks to the presence in the fridge of a Sam's Club rotissiere chicken, purchased yesterday but not used because I had also purchased cupcakes, and those were dinner. Sliced the breast and wrapped loosely in foil, then into the CSO at 350 on steam bake for 15 minutes while the potatoes boiled. Drippings from chicken scraped into a small saucepan with water and turkey gravy mix, simmered until thick and then held. Fresh sugar snaps dumped into boiling water when I took the potatoes up, and heated on medium low heat until I got the potatoes mashed (with butter, sour cream and half-and-half), then bumped up to high until then came back to a full boil, then snatched off the heat, drained and tossed with butter. Perfect level of crunchiness. Total cost of the meal, which would have fed four had I thrown a couple more potatoes was way less than five bucks. I have one meal's worth of white meat and probably two of dark meat left, plus the carcass will go in the IP for stock whenever I can be moved to get up and throw it in there. I don't think that's too bad for a five-dollar rotissiere chicken.

I agree. Gorgeous kitchen. And it's big enough!

Well, if you're coming through Eastern Arkansas, give me a call!

Tamales, picked up on the way home from church when I noticed the place I was going to stop and get a salad is now a pizza place that offers "Delta tamales." They're not the best I've had, but are the best I've found in a hundred miles or so. Topped with chili, cheese, black olives and sour cream. Chaser of Rolaids.

It's gluten free bread. Not much taste to it. I'm not really sure what constitutes a preserve as opposed to a jam. I just know I make blackberry jam and pear preserves. Both have sizeable chunks of fruit in them. My fig jam is smoother, but has seeds. And I make apple butter and peach butter, and have even made pear butter one year when I had a bumper crop of pears. Favorites: blackberry, fig, apple butter, peach butter, pear preserves.

Toast. And butter. And jam. Bread is gluten free. Jam is homemade blackberry, which might better be described as homemade blackberry preserves, given the finished product has lumps of partial or whole berries in it.

I just don't like to deep fry stuff. It's a pain in the neck. I grew up eating deep fried foods, but now, I'll just go to a restaurant. Except for Scotch eggs. I still fry Scotch eggs.

....Nah. Not a bit.

I don't eat chitlins by choice. But they are edible, if fried really crisp. Souse meat is in no fashion edible.

I don't think you're supposed to eat the shells. (yes, that's my smart-ass comment for the next 15 minutes). The three things I will not eat to this day, all of which cause my West Tennessee relatives to raise an eyebrow: 1. Cooked greens of any kind. Even spinach. 2. Calves liver (I will eat chicken livers in pate). 3. Souse meat/head cheese. I can't bear to be in the house when Nos. 1 and 2 are being cooked. The smell nauseates me. My late husband did not believe me. He once cooked liver and onions for his dinner while I was out at a meeting. I came home, walked inside, got a deep breath, and threw up. That broke him from ever trying to cook liver at home. Greens are not as bad, but decidedly unpleasant to smell cooking. Souse meat is just nasty. I'd rather eat chitlins.

My local farmers have been short of chicken breasts lately, so I've been buying turkey tenderloins instead. Took a couple and pounded them semi-flat, seasoned, dredged in flour, dipped in egg and milk, then breaded with panko for a more-or-less turkey katsu. Or schnitzel. Or whatever you will. With cream peas topped with the equivalent of Community Organizer, and what I believe may have been my first-ever roasted rutabaga. A rather monochromatic dinner, but not bad. Except I'm not fond of rutabaga.

Awww, shucks. Thanks.

If you have cracklins, I highly recommend cracklin cornbread. With butter and molasses.

I am prone to just drive around when I'm in a new town, looking and seeing what's where. I seem to have an invariable instinct for winding up in the 'hood. On the other hand, I find some good barbecue and soul food that way.

Very nice pies. I don't bake enough of them, and when I do it's with a gluten-free crust, which is a whole 'nother animal. I'd say, per your question on another thread, to wait until they're completely cool to box them. Reheating, if those are about 4-inch diameter? I'm sold on a steam-convection oven like the CSO (sadly, no longer being manufactured). If they're room-temp or refrigerated, 10 minutes on steam bake at 350 will do wonderful things for them. If frozen, a bit longer (may want to shield the top with a loose drape of foil) I'd be interested in hearing you talk about the filling you use.

Getting there!

I wrote a fairly regular mostly-food blog for about 10 years. Now, granted that I did very little to promote it, didn't try to make any money off it, and have only the cooking skills and experience of a fairly savvy home cook to portray. But I am also something of a writer (20 years in the newspaper business), and something of an occasional humorist, my blog was more "somewhat amusing writing about whatever happened in my world, generally including food and a recipe and a photo." I think I peaked at about 120 followers. It was fun. I occasionally think about reviving it. But I don't think too long.