kayb

I do think it's a budgetary issue. I recall schools, and hospitals, where the food was pretty good. That's way back in my dim recollection. More recently, hospital cafeteria food has been, well, to be kind, low quality and bland, and school cafeteria food the same. But I have tremendously fond memories of school lunchroom chili and cinnamon rolls (why were cinnamon rolls ALWAYS the dessert paired with chili? But it was a "thing."). I had "Grandparents Day" lunch with my grandson at school last year. Canned corn, dumped into the steam table, heated slightly, sloshed on the plate. Spaghetti with meat sauce. A meager salad, no dressing. (Teachers and adult guests could get packets of dressing; nothing for the kids.) Dessert, a brownie, was decent, which is to say, edible. No wonder my grandson, who will eat exactly six things, takes his lunch from home.

Then again, there are instances where, due to my own fallibility, I was unable to eat some very excellent food. We were at Mary Mahoney's a legendary Creole seafood place in Biloxi, Miss. We shared an appetizer of mini-softshell crabs, six to an order, bodies about the size of half-dollars, and had a small side salad, mostly lettuce, a dab of tomato, with viniagrette. I had ordered my standard order there, shrimp and crab au gratin, which is tremendously, sinfully rich. I was about two days past recovery from a stomach virus. I managed two bites of it and knew if I ate any more it would not be a good conclusion. The waiter was terribly concerned. "Is anything wrong with it? Did you not like it?" I assured him it was excellent, but that I was just past being indisposed with a stomach virus, and it was, regretfully, too rich for me to enjoy. They took it off my bill. I felt bad about that.

Which brings up a question that might ought to be in Absurdly Simple Cooking Questions. I thawed a vacuum sealed, raw beef roast t'other day in the fridge. Some blood drained out of the meat into the bag. I ran the blood down the sink. I presume that's what I should have done with it, as opposed to putting it in the dish with the meat (it was destined for pot roast). The roast was a local, grass-fed, locally processed one as opposed to a feedlot steer from a packing house, if that makes a difference in this instance.

Hi, Rob. Native Tennessean here, but real close to the Kentucky line. What part of the state? Welcome.

Pork loin sous vides well, and can be seared afterward for a pretty finish. Try marinating one in apple cider (the hard kind) with warm spices (cinnamon, cloves, etc.), then sous vide, chill however long you want, then combine some hard cider, honey, and spices, reduce to a fairly thick glaze, and sear and glaze. Could keep some sauce back to serve over. Personally, I'd want some spiced baked apples with that (apples with the red hots in the middle come to mind). Also easy to do ahead. Your sweet potato latkes would go wonderfully with that, as would the broccoli. I SV the pork loin about six hours at 140.

Church usually does a fall carnival with games, bounce houses, "Trunk or Treat, hot dogs and popcorn for the neighborhood kids. Sadly, not this year. I suspect my only T or T'er will be my grandson.

Dear God. I cannot comprehend ham and mayo on a bagel. Ham, maybe. Mayo, never. Taint right.

Dear Sweet Baby Jesus. Mad Dog 20/20, maybe?

We've seen a photo of your mother. Surely that sweet little lady is in no form devious!

You GO, girl! If I wore sky-high stiletto heels to cook, no matter if I were wearing them with a snowsuit, I'd damn well expect appreciation for it.

Back in the late 1970s, early 1980s, there was a small neighborhood grocery that was renowned for its steaks. You'd go in and ask Mr. Barfield for a ribeye, a strip, a filet, a T-bone, whatever. He'd ask, "How thick y'want it?" and proceed to cut it, wrap it, weigh it and write the price in grease pencil on the butcher paper. If you ordered a filet, he'd wrap a strip of bacon around it and secure it with a skewer. I always thought I could see a twinkle in his eye (he was otherwise a dour older man) when I'd ask for my steaks two inches thick. I think he approved. Before that, there was the country store within easy walking distance of my house. Not much of a meat counter, mostly lunch meats, a big wheel of cheddar cheese, and some hams, bacon and sausage. The best lunch in the world was a sandwich on white bread with a slab of "rag bologna" (so-called because it was wrapped in a cloth casing that had to be pulled off each slice) and "rat cheese" (the cheddar). A couple of years ago, I stopped at an Amish grocery while exploring a back road to get something to drink. And there was a meat counter, with folks dishing out sandwiches wrapped in butcher paper, the price written in grease pencil on the paper....And I was transported back.

When I eat corn on the cob I eat in "rows" along the length of the cob, as opposed to around the cob, or random bites here and there. The second I can handle if I'm eating with someone who does that; the third drives me nuts. Like @CeeCee, ketchup or any other dipping sauce must be on the side, not on top of the food to be dipped. This extends to A-1 sauce for hamburger steaks. When I'm served a salad before a meal, I'll eat maybe half of it, then continue to take a bite periodically with meat and veggies/potatoes from the main plate. There are certain foods which should always be served with cornbread (pork chops, a big pot of beans, chili, fresh garden veggies), and others which should be served with biscuits (fried chicken, baked ham), and others with rolls (turkey and dressing, roast beef). Rolls and biscuits can interchange to some degree, but cornbread stands alone, except that one can eat either cornbread OR biscuits with sorghum molasses.

One reason we bought the house we did 16 months ago was because it had finishes we liked and we did not want to have to do a lot of work. The couple from whom we bought it had renovated one master bath and the kitchen, and it was the kitchen that sold me on the house. I don't have a good eye for design, but the finishes are what I would have picked, I think; white painted cabinets with just a little decorative woodwork, granite countertops, gray ceramic tile floors. We're doing a few small things along as we can afford them, but basically, we moved into it exactly as it was. Obviously, everyone's mileage varies. We are a mother-daughter pair with some handyman ability but limited tools, etc. We also both work. The house was built in the early 80s, not a tract home but a custom build, and has been added on to and other improvements made since that time. We knew we wanted something ready to move into, and we were fortunate the couple who did the kitchen and bath reno did so with the intention of living here a few more years, so they were good quality. I've always heard/read that you get the cost of kitchen/bath renovations back when you sell.

Pot roast, ready to go in the oven. (I splashed the wine when I poured it over the meat.) On my plate, with great beans from the garden. I didn't make gravy, but saved the jus to make it when it's time to have this over mashed potatoes.

Great story. Thanks for sharing it.

It's hard to beat a loin chop. Newman Farms in SE MO. is a good source for Berkshires. And they ship, and have twice a month pickup in StL. I have a package of pork shanks I'm holding for cold weather, and I'm going to try to recreate a pork shank braised in cider recipe I had at Murphy's in Atlanta that may have been the best pork I ever had.

Boy, that website is a rabbit hole that'll keep you busy for a while. Bookmarked.

Bumping this old topic because I need a lid for a stoneware Le Crueset. This is my pot roast dish. A couple of years ago, I took a pot roast out of the oven, took the lid off and put it in the sink. Moments later, I forgot it was still hot, turned on the water and...well, you know. Any sources where I can just buy the lid?

I'm a convert to the Yeti cup. 20 ounces of coffee (with cream only) and it stays hot. I have one with a Memphis State Tiger and one with a flamingo, but I grabbed this plain steel one this morning. Flamingo water bottle alongside.

I approve of the bottle tree, too.

Lord. I remember those days. After having had two of the three in ER getting stitches within a week's time, I told the remaining one, "Can you please go to bed and just stay there?" Glad you salvaged both the kid and the bread.

Anybody cook anything fun? I did pork steaks, sous vide overnight at 150, then grilled to sear and finish. Cowboy beans (baked beans, the canned kind, sauce drained off and replaced by my blend, plus some browned ground pork), potato salad, mac and cheese, and Brussels sprout slaw. Forgot to take pics, as we fell on it like the Visigoths sacking Rome. But it was pronounced good. The Brussels sprout slaw was a creation of my own. Wanted slaw, didn't have cabbage, didn't want to go out to the store. Had Brussels sprouts, and they're just little cabbages, right? So I chopped them and some carrots up in the food processor and made a dressing out of white wine vinegar, lemon juice, mayo, a little sugar, and Urfa Biber chile pepper (because I had a whim). It was pretty good. The Urfa Biber added a nice note.

Thanks!

@gfweb, how do you make your coffee-ancho sauce? I'm pondering a pork loin for later this week, and I sure think that'd be good on it.

I am off to the Redneck Riviera two weeks from tomorrow. Already planning my meals. There will be grilled grouper. There will be a shrimp boil. There will be Royal Reds, a variety of deep-water shrimp that, in taste and texture, resemble lobster. There will be char-grilled oysters at Acme, which, God love 'em, have opened an outpost in Gulf Shores. I have been known at the beach to eat boiled shrimp for dinner, and the leftovers for breakfast. And I'll bring 20 pounds or so home.