mgaretz

It really depends a lot on the teacher. Some are good, some not so, even at the same school. You could take one of two approaches: take a class that you already know the subject and use it as a gauge as to whether you know more or less than they do, or take something you know nothing about and see if you learn anything useful.

Thanks Nikki. I've been to Greensboro once, and I ate as much pulled pork as I could. I don't remember anything about the pork, but I do remember a meal at my hotel. The restaurant had just opened with a new chef. The carmelized baby beet salad was out of this world. But I also remember a steak that had been rubbed with sage and it did not work for me.

Thought you might like to see some pics of a meal I made last week - pulled pork. I make it in the slow cooker, lately without any flavorings or spices. "The girls" have been in and out of the mood for spicy things, so if I make it kind of neutral then we can add whatever sauce we feel like when we eat it, and it lasts a few days so we get a few different meals out of it. First, here's my slow cooker - the All-Clad model with the aluminum insert you can use on the stovetop. It's pricey but great. Here's the boneless pork shoulder. It goes in the cooker pretty much as is. I'll sometimes add a splash of bourbon and some liquid smoke. That's about it - no other liquids. This time it just went in plain. I cook it on low for about 8-10 hours. This time I could only give it 8 hours and it didn't have much of crust, so I popped it my new Breville Smart Oven on a 450F broil for about 5 minutes on a side to give it a nice crust: Then I shred it by hand, removing any big chunks of fat. This particular roast has almost no fat. Here's the shredded pork, ready to get plated with sauce or made into another dish. The first two nights we had it as pork with sauce - BBQ sauce in this case. I used to make my own sauce, but when Bullseye came it it was so close to what I made, that's what I use now. We also like Kinder's, which may be a local brand as they have delis in the area. The last night Ellen made it into a something like machaca con huevos.

Tonight was another simple dinner - chicken with baked potato. Rebecca wanted her breast plain, so I simply grilled it with no seasoning whatsoever. Ellen likes dark meat, so I made her a thigh that had been previously cooked sous vide by grilling it plain and she added BBQ sauce on the plate. For mine I used a dry rub that I normally use for veritcally roasted chicken, but I grilled it instead of roasting it. Here's the breast after applying the rub: The rub consists of garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Here's the breast grilled and plated with half a baked potato, before butter. I like my baked potatoes with butter, salt and pepper - pretty traditional I guess. Ellen will put just about anything on a baked potato, from my vinaigrette to peanut butter to chocolate. But tonight she and Rebecca has theirs with butter and mozzarella. I had a salad as well.

Do you recall what the Chef's reasoning was for adding the caramelized sugar? Of course it was to add some sweet element, but was it a case of the caramel in the sugar adding a "deep" caramel, (i.e. "burnt sugar), note? That leads me to wonder if you added caramelized onions to a Bolognese. It would add somewhat of a sweet/caramel note with the added flavor of onion. Could also be for color as it would brown up the sauce.

The marsala doesn't add that much sweetness, probably the extra added sugar does that! But I like sweet meat sauces! (I use marsala, cream sherry or port in a lot of my dishes.) There's also a ton of tomato paste in my recipe, so the sweetness is used to balance the tomato tartness.

After last night's feast and lunch out (the scale had an extra 2 lbs on it this morning), we were feeling like something lighter. Ellen and I also have minor colds, so soup seemed like the ticket! I also have salad most nights (Ellen hardly ever does and Rebecca does some of time) so I make up a bowl and it lasts three nights or so. Here are the ingredients for the salad: Lettuce, carrots and peppers from the new CSA, heirloom tomatoes from the old CSA and organic celery from Costco. Here's a serving of the salad, along with my ever-popular raspberry vinaigrette. The vinaigrette never fails to please - the recipe is here. Here's the soup: Chicken stock, thigh meat (previously cooked sous vide and frozen), carrots, collards and shallots from the CSA, celery, apsaragus, peas, barley, 21 Seasoning Salute and fresh ground pepper. It was very yummy and hit the spot! Normally I'd put noodles in it, but felt like trying some barley. I didn't use a lot, maybe a 1/4 cup (it was actually a handful) and it gave the soup a nice extra undertone of flavor. Rebecca wanted me to tell you that I put celery in the soup even though she doesn't like celery.

Not sure how "Bolognese" this is, but here's my recipe: Ingredients (makes enough to serve 4-8) 1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes (or 6-8 fresh ripe tomatoes, peeled and diced) 1 6 oz can of tomato paste 1 tsp Italian seasoning blend 1 tsp sea salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1 tbs sugar 2 medium garlic cloves, minced 1 medium onion, fine diced 1 large carrot, peeled and fine diced 1 large celery rib, fine diced 1/4 cup sweet marsala wine 1 tbs olive oil 1/2 lb lean ground beef In a large sauté pan over medium heat, sauté the onions, carrots and celery in the olive oil until softened, about 8-10 minutes. Add in the seasoning blend and garlic and sauté another minute or so. Stir in the marsala to deglaze the pan, then add the tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, pepper and sugar, stiring well to combine. Bring back to a simmer and stir in the ground beef, breaking it into small pieces. Simmer on low for another 30-40 minutes. Can be served immediately but it's always better the next day.

Thanks dcarch! You don't see the yellow in the cutting board in normal room lighting, but it must be there because the camera captures it. I'll remember the bleach trick though.

Besides breakfast, today was a day of eating out. I had actually packed and brought my lunch to work, but my co-workers felt like lunch out and they chose my favorite local Chinese restaurant: Uncle Yu's in San Ramon. I only shot my lunch special: Beef with black mushrooms and vegetables, more vegetables and chow mein. Not shown was the hot and sour soup, which wasn't very spicy today. I'll eat my packed lunch tomorrow! We had a scheduled dinner with some friends and my daughter at one of our favorite restaurants: Esin in Danville. It's named after one of the owner/chefs - Esin deCarion. The other owner/chef is her husband Curtis. Here are shots of the exterior and part of the interior: (Rebecca would want me to tell you she's sticking her tongue out at me even though you can't see it - she's the one on the left. Ellen's the one next to her.) I had a New York steak with mushroom sauce and carmelized onions, served with Yukon Gold roasted potatoes and green beans. And a glass of Ancient Peaks Zinfandel from Paso Robles. Rebecca had pork chops with bacon and cabbage and a gingered applesauce. Ellen had the spinach lasagna: Our friends had a beet salad with greens, feta cheese and grilled chicken breast and the pot roast: For dessert, I had a lemon meringue tart on raspberry purée: Rebecca had a pecan tart with caramel sauce and creme anglaise: And Ellen had a vanilla/banana/butterscotch bread pudding: We all came away happy and over-stuffed!

How about a tour of my kitchen and cooking gadgets? Here's a couple of shots of the kitchen so you get a general idea of the layout and size: Facing left. Facing right. Here is closeup of the appliance counter: Left to right there's my FoodSaver vacuum sealer (up against the side wall), a Cuisinart 4 slice toaster, K-cup spinner, the Cuisinart K-Cup coffee brewer, KitchenAid stand mixer, Cuisinart 16 cup food processor and a BlendTec blender. I'm not very happy with the food processor, but I like everything else. Here's my latest toy - a Breville Smart Oven. I really like it. In front is my OXO kitchen scale. The display pulls out so you can see the weight when using a bigger container. My stove and microwave, flanked on the right by the electic kettle and the ever present collection of bottles (three kinds of oils - peanut, EVOO and canola, balsamic and cider vinegars, hoisin sauce, etc.). My SousVide Supreme. It currently lives on the dining room table and gets moved into the kitchen when in use. I like to use it next to the sink becuase it's easier to fill and dump the water that way, but it can't live there! Most of my All-Clad pots and pans. My favorite is the D5 4 qt sauté-simmer pan. It, and the 4 qt suace pan, get the most use. Here's my pantry "extension" that lives in the breakfast room. To the right are some more pots and pans, below you can't see my rice cooker, 6 qt french braiser, and my All-Clad slow cooker. On the middle shelf to the left you can see a box of the new Starbucks K-Cups - pretty nice. Here are my knives: They are all Wusthof Classics. The Santoku is my favorite - it gets 99% of the usage. The 6" chef's below it I bought on a great sale, but I hardly ever use it. Below them are the boning knife, parer, slicer, and the offset bread knife. Not shown is a new salmon filet knife - it's a Cutco "mercy purchase".

I don't think the salmon was dyed. I know their farm-raised salmon is dyed, but I don't think the wild-caught is. Well it got down to 34f the other night and the farmer said that was the end of the tomatoes, but the peppers survived.

Dinner tonight was wild caught sockeye salmon and broccoli and carrots from our new CSA. Ellen wanted her salmon plain and Rebecca wanted her salmon with my normal honey mustard/orange/port glaze. (There wasn't enough salmon left for three, so I finished the last of the Belgian Beef Stew.) So I precut the filet into two pieces. The glaze is next to it. (The pattern on the salmon is from the Food Saver vacuum bags. I buy the salmon at Costco, so it comes in large packages. I remove the skin and cut it into smaller pieces then vacuum seal and freeze.) The glaze is honey mustard, more honey, a little orange extract and ruby port. I didn't measure but the approximate proportions would be 2 tbs honey mustard, 1 tbs honey, 1/8 to 1/4 tsp orange extract and 1 tsp port. You can also substitute any red wine for the port. I used to use Zinfandel, but I now use port because it's always handy. I cook the salmon on my gas grill, a Weber three burner. I put all burners on high for about 10 minutes then turn off the middle burner and the outside two are turned down to medium. The salmon goes in the middle so it gets cooked by indirect heat. Normally the salmon is seasoned on both sides with 21 Seasoning Salute, a nice spice blend from Trader Joes, but I left it off tonight. The salmon goes on the grill and the top side is brushed with the glaze. Close the lid and cook for 6 minutes. Open, brush again, flip, brush the new top and close the lid. Cook for another 6 minutes and they are done. You can adjust the time lower if you like your salmon less done. Here is the plated salmon with the the veggies, which were just steamed: I have played with salmon cooked sous vide. Despite brining per Douglas Baldwin, I still get a lot of albumin coating, so I am still experimenting. (In a private conversation, Douglas said he was also seeing a lot more albumin forming lately.)

Today we picked up veggies from a new CSA we're trying out. (A bit of background: Three faith communities got together with a local farmer to provide produce for a 22 week season that ended 10/31. For a variety of reasons, we aren't continuing with that farmer and we're auditioning this new farmer. The bummer is we're on the tail end of their 28 week season (3 more weeks left after this one) and they won't start up again until May.) My wife, Ellen, is the primary organizer for our congregation. The primary organizer for one of the other congregations had started with this farmer 2 weeks ago and we saw her "box" and were very impressed. Anyway this evening we got our first box, and wow! From left to right there were two kinds of lettuce, broccoli, collard greens, carrots, sweet peppers, shallots, beets and butternut squash. The quality and freshness is extremely high. All for $22!! We are impressed! While we are on the shopping subject, here are some shots of our local (Danville) farmer's market. It's one of the oldest in the area and has the most vendors. San Ramon has tried to get a decent market going, but Danville is still better with about twice as many vendors and that keeps prices more competitive. A long shot where you can see about 2/3 of the market. A typical vendor. And another. There's always some kind of music. The apple vendor always has some interesting varieties. I came home with some Arkansas Blacks. I also love to shop at the local Asian markets. We used to have a very large indpendent, but unfortunately they are gone. They had the best selection and prices. Now we just have two Ranch 99s - one is really huge, but it's a little further (Andie - it's in Livermore) and I didn't make it out there, but here are a few shots of the smaller one (Dublin): The produce section. Greens and herbs. (This shows about 1/3 of the greens.) The noodle aisle. One of the sauce aisles. And the other side of it. We also have a new Sprouts. A little pricey if things aren't on sale, but not as bad as Whole Foods. A longish shot. Some of the many bulk bins. And I couldn't resist these asparagus!

I do the same thing with my food mill, but I just use butter and omit the milk. They come out great, but I wouldn't call them puréed - just very well mashed.

Thanks Katie. I'm lactose intolerant, and the original Kashi has milk in it (but the "crunch" version doesn't). It has 8 grams of fiber, however it has 29 grams of other carbs - to get 12 grams of fiber like in the tortilla I'd be at 43 carbs vs. the 6 carbs in the tortilla.

I should mention that if anyone wants the complete Carbonnade recipe, it's on my other blog (first link in my sig).

Maybe I am your old boss!

I bought mine the same way a few weeks ago and I love it so far!

Uh oh, Scotty's watching! Can you come over and plate my dishes for me? For those that didn't follow Scotty's excellent blog a few weeks back, he does "in your home" meals and we're planning to have him cook for us at some point!

One of my dinners out (tomorrow actually) just got cancelled! Let me know when you'll be in town!

Partly for weight management, but I also need the fiber (since I don't normally eat a lot of carbs) and they give me enough protein to keep me from snacking (usually!).

Thanks Cherie. I was sorry to see the store/school close. (I still had a free class credit too!) I also took the knife skills class. My folks still live in Orange County (where I grew up) and we get down there about 8 times a year. And my son is about to move to Century City. He also loves to cook, and is pretty good, but I'll see if he wants to take any of your classes and maybe I can come too!

So you know what I had for breakfast and lunch today! (Assume it's the same every day unless I tell you.) Dinner tonight was left-overs! But it was from a great dinner from the night before. (Warning - most of my meals are not this involved - but my son was over for dinner and the matinee we wanted to see was sold out, so I had some extra time to make dessert.) One of my most requested dishes (from family and friends) is my take on Carbonnade a la Flammande or Belgian Beef Stew. We spent a few weeks in Belgium (with side trips to London/Paris/Koln/Amsterdam/Antwerp and Bruge) in the summer of '09 and I fell in live with this dish. I had to sample it everywhere they had it on the menu. The best versions were made with a fruit flavored lambic - Kriek was my favorite, Framboise second (Cherry and Raspberry). I looked at a lot of recipes here but finally decided on a version from the CI folks - but of course I changed it up a lot and I make it in the slow cooker. My mother-in-law is a Belgian and she approves of my recipe. Her comment was "I wish I could make it this good!" It starts with 3 to 3.5 pounds of boneless short ribs: (We get most of our meat from Costco.) Cut into chunks about 3/4" wide: I brown it on the stove in the pot from the slow cooker - one of the things I love about the All-Clad slow cooker with the aluminum insert. Here's all the meat browned: While it's browning I cut up the onions (2 lbs) and carrots (1 lb): The onions get sautéd next: Then they get floured and cooked some more. Then the rest of the ingredients get added: For the beer, I try to use Kriek, but I got a good deal on Pommé (apple) at Costco, so I used that and some chery preserves instead. I served it with "retrograde" mashed potatoes from Modernist Cuisine and steamed broccoli: The potatoes were just OK. I wouldn't bother again unless I was making a real pureé which is probably never going to happen! As advertised, they did reheat well tonight. My son loves bluberries and blueberry pie is his favorite. I was too lazy at this point in the afternoon to make pie crust, so instead I made a crisp (of sorts). Blueberries with sugar, a kiss of allspice and nutmeg, a little lemon juice, and tapioca starch for thickner. Baked in ramekins. After cooling I sprinkled crushed, cinnamon-honey glazed almonds on top. Very tasty. Whew!

I'm back! Ok, let's get a few questions answered first. The brewery is no more, sad to say. I don't homebrew anymore, pretty much gave that up when I had 1000s of gallons of beer on hand and when packing/shipping/talking beer all day, the prospect of making it lost its appeal! (Lesson - don't turn a hobby into a business unless you're done enjoying the hobby!) In fact, I rarely drink beer any more - I now prefer a good red wine (a fruit-forward, jammy Zin please!). Let's get breakfast and lunch out of the way. I'm pretty boring when it comes to these two - I pretty much eat the same breakfast and lunch every day. People don't understand how I can do that, but I think of it as medicine (which the fiber really is). Breakfast is usually a cup of strong coffee and a peanut butter burrito, made with a low carb high fiber tortilla and extra chunky Skippy: About 2 tbs of peanut butter: Rolled up: Everyone I know thinks these tortillas taste like cardboard, and I tend to agree, but I am used to them and they each have 12 grams of fiber! So I get some protein, fiber and caffeine to get my day started and it keeps me from snacking until lunch! Weekdays, lunch is another of these burritos, celery and carrot sticks, an apple (Fuji's are my favorites) and a Coke Zero. Sometimes I get really daring and have a Cherry Coke Zero. Weekends vary for lunch, but if I am home it will often be the burrito, coke and apple because I am usually too lazy to cut the celery and carrot sticks!