kayb

Made me second chicken pot pie of quarantine today. Ultimate comfort food. Had a crust mishap. I use boxed, refrigerated crusts, and this was the Aldi store brand and not Pillsbury. Tasted fine, but was much more brittle to work with.

Oh, my God, y'all, she's up to SEVEN fries! We may need to send an intervention team to Kansas...😉

Nice! And an interesting assortment.

Casual indoor outdoor says "grill" to me. Burgers, dogs, chicken. Easy to grill up a big tray of meats, let people fix their own sandwiches/sides. A vinegary slaw and a German potato salad can sit out for several hours with little problem. Ditto skewers of grilled vegetables. Homemade ice cream for dessert if you can round up enough freezers.

Champing at the bit here, as my yard guy can't bring the dirt for my beds until his truck gets fixed. Hopefully next week. Later than I would like to be planting. The herbs look pretty good, though, although something is munching on my basil. The mint is positively taking off in its iron kettle I planted it in to confine it. We will have lots of mint. I need to mix up some fertilizer and feed them today.

Safe travels!

Interesting. More than I could digest at one sitting, so I put it aside at the end of the restaurant section.

@Porthos, I, on the other hand, read voraciously. I'll go through three novels a week (mostly mystery-thriller type stuff; right now I'm hooked on British detectives/police procedurals). But I'll also have two or three other books, normally non-fiction, going at a time. Those take me longer; I read a little, then go back to my novel, etc. Usually there's a cookbook, a history or philosophy or religion book, and some kind of biography going. Haven't been in to reading cookbooks of late, so Cook's Tour will fill that slot for a few days.

There was a good interview with Jose Andres on NPR the other day, too. Read or listen here. Aldi order arrived this morning. After an initial backup on ordering, I logged on yesterday mid-afternoon and could have had an after-five delivery yesterday. Wasn't anything I was desperate for, so I chose a midday delivery today. I have a double front door (Child A calls it a Brady Bunch front door). Now, I could see putting bags in front of the wrong side of the door. However, I had left the wooden door open and only the storm door closed, so it should have been apparent which one I was planning to use. First two bags went in front of that door. I picked them up, brought them in, and put frozen things away. Four more bags had arrived by the time I got back; two in front of that door, two in front of the other door. Maybe they expected me to exit the garage, walk around, and bring the bags back, I dunno. Fortunately, I was able to shove bags out of the way with the door relatively easily. I remain nonplussed by the amount of frozen junk food Child A orders. Pizza rolls. Frozen lasagna. God help us.

I enjoyed Kitchen Confidential, so I sprang for Cook's Tour. I'm wondering if it's going to be anything like Eat My Globe, by Simon Majundar (and I may not have spelled that right). Anyone read it?

I am not a connoisseur of stouts as drinking beers, but I can testify that Green Flash Double Stout makes the best carbonnades a la flamande on the planet.

Lord have mercy, but that looks wonderful. What is the cheese mixture? And is there any moisture added other than the cheese and butter?

Same here. My farmers I buy meat and eggs from have, for the past several years, come to the Farmers Market location two weekends a month during the off season. Handy as heck since I live a half-mile from the market, which is delaying opening. Now one of the regular growers at the market, who has strawberries, blackberries and other produce, has opened up a order-online option. They will do drop-off at two points in my small city. If the market doesn't open in May or June, I'll likely be buying from them.

Be nice. That's my home state whiskey, there. That said, I don't generally drink it. Although their Gentleman Jack isn't bad.

True story. When I was pregnant with Child A, I craved a ripe tomato from about March on. One night in June, mother-in-law called. She had good ripe tomatoes, and we should come for dinner. She had made biscuits (woman made to-die-for biscuits) and mashed potatoes, and milk gravy. I ate until I thought I would die, and ate tomatoes three times a day from then until Child A arrived in mid-September. That child will not touch a tomato (in its raw state) to this day.

Well, we always used to plant green beans in the corn, two or three weeks later, so the beans could run up the corn stalks.

Fruit. Liquid fruit. Ok, liquid grapes. What's the old song? Whatever gets you through the night...is all right...it's all right. Boxed cheap plonk is all right.

I would have happily paid $5 a pound this time of year for a good, fresh, ripe tomato.

Supporting local restaurants: Meat and three -- meat loaf, cream cheese corn, double order of fruit salad.

Are y'all headed home? If you come through my part of the world, let me know. We can't go out and eat, but I'd happily cook lunch or dinner for you.

Honey, just read and get in the kitchen. There's enough on here I'll be learning for the next century, should I stumble onto some long-life potion....

My empty garden beds are awaiting a load of dirt this coming week, in between rains. Meanwhile, I think I'm going to try the trick outlined in this story from the NYT today -- put cardboard over the grass in the boxes, and soak it well. God knows, I have a gracious plenty of Amazon boxes in the garage awaiting the recycling pickup. I'll just recycle them myself.

I've taken to using the term "vaguely Asian" for anything I come up with in the kitchen that uses any combination of traditionally Asian ingredients: ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, miso, mirin, lemongrass.

Ooohh, I want to see where this one ends up.

Yes. And it will want some soaking. I love country ham steaks soaked in apple juice and then fried. For a center cut slice, assuming it's around a half-inch thick, I'd probably go with a 2-3 hour soak. Then dry and fry.