pastameshugana

I count 8 fishes! (Or aquatic contributions to the menu, if you will)

Amen!

Last week we had our staff Christmas party at the house, but managed to not get a single picture (mainly because guests showed up early...) It's always fun playing Santa and handing out gifts to all the children of the staff, and bonuses to the staff members. We make one main and a ton of desserts, and all the other families bring a main or a side. Mrs. M made a lovely ham, miniature pumpkin pies, a blueberry topped cheesecake (and mini's of that as well), and a massive charcuterie spread. She found a bag of 1kg of frozen, cubed apples, which I turned into little apple hand-pies. My youngest daughter and I thought they reminded us of McDonald's pies, but good. Then this week was a party for a larger group of workers in the area, and being the Southern Hemisphere, it was too be a barbecue (braai, because it's South Africa), but the rain pushed us up under the canopies. Mr's M. was supposed to be bringing a pasta salad, and I was helping her chop the veggies. Curiously, she disappeared around that time and left me alone with the dish, which is how we ended up with a chili-crisp & jalapeno pasta salad. Chopped white onion (quick pickled to reduce their intensity), red & yellow bell peppers, jalapeno, cubed gouda cheese. I had just added the typical mayo and mustard and was looking for seasoning when a little voice told me to just dump chili crisp in. I obeyed. Nothing else was added. I'm not going to say it was the best pasta salad I've ever had, because that would be prideful. But it was.

Deep thoughts this morning.

Those sound amazing.

A week ago, I completed a 7 day water-only fast, so was very cautious in 'breaking' it. I went with just an egg, salt and pepper. Let that settle for a couple hours then went out. Was supposed to be a Christmas Night Market, but got rained out. Turns out rather fortuitous as we ended up at a new-to-us Italian restaurant that was absolutely incredible. I was a little foggy so I forgot to take pictures, but every dish was a standout. For Thanksgiving, as I'm sure some of our other expats can attest, it's weird when you're away. Hard to get the ingredients you count on, nobody else is celebrating, etc.. Anyhoo, I once again made my 'Not Shepherd's Pie', and really took the time to layer the flavors in each separate ingredient. The family voted and this is our new Thanksgiving tradition even when we go back home. Just need to add a nice cranberry sauce to the side. Mrs M made some pumpkin tarts that were just incredible. She accidentally cooked the (fresh, not canned) pumpkin too far, but the results were incredible. Hope ya'll had a great one!

Welcome back!

Two of my favorite ML things: 1) Smoked meatloaf - it's kind of ridiculous how good this is 2) When we make it, for service it is sliced and then quickly browned on each side in a skillet with butter. That crispy goodness adds so much. It also adds a little bit of firmness that makes it perfect on a sandwich.

As someone who has, as a child, been waterboarded by an unseen wave while visiting the ocean (like I'm sure many have), when I hear this all I hear is 'tastes like gritty sea water and snot'. But I'm sure that's not what you mean!

Honestly, I never thought about it. I have made butter (once), but never considered making sour cream. One more thing for me to obsess over!

This is how I feel about sour cream I've had in Romania (Brasov, in particular), and Russia in general. So much more 'something' than what I was used to eating in the US.

So I (semi) regularly make a roasted tomato soup for the family. It's easy, freezes well, and everyone loves it. Tomatoes are just coming into season here (South Africa), so I got a couple kg's worth and made a big batch a couple of days ago. It's very simple: I chop and roast tomatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, red & yellow bell pepper, and a couple of small chillies (birdseye this time) under the broiler, toss with salt & pepper and a little olive oil, then into a pot to simmer, then blend with an immersion blender. At the very end I add cultured buttermilk before we eat it. This time, for the first time ever, while simmering (after blending) I got a persistent layer of scum on the top that had to be scraped off. Similar to when you're making a stock and you have to skim it. Because the soup itself is so thick, it was quite hard to get the gunk off the top without losing a lot of the soup itself. The only difference this time: Normally, when I chop the tomatoes, I dump the insides (seeds and goo) into the trash, but this time I thought I would try to get some of that 'tomato water' so I put them into a fine sieve over a bowl while I did the rest of the prep. I ended up with about two cups of very delicious tasting juice that I added to the mixture. Could that tomato water/juice be the culprit? Or is there something else I'm missing? Thanks in advance!

Thanks to you, I've downloaded the book - looking forward to exploring it!

I asked this question to Dia (AI browser) and it gave me: Estimated yield from 12.44 lb of beef fat Beef suet is roughly 70 – 80 % pure fat; the balance is mostly moisture and a little connective tissue that cooks away or is strained out. Seasoned Advice’s meat‐science contributors put the average fat fraction at about 75 %. ⁠ Redditors who routinely render at home report getting anywhere from 70 % tallow when they chop coarsely and rush the process to 90 % when the fat is finely ground and rendered low-and-slow. ⁠ Applying the mid-range 75 % figure to your 12.44 lb (5.64 kg) of raw beef fat: 12.44lb x 0.75 = 9.33lb So you can expect roughly 9 lb of finished tallow. If your trim is especially clean and you grind or mince it before a long, gentle render you could see close to 10 lb; if there’s a lot of connective tissue or you hurry the cook, yield might dip toward 7½ lb. ⁠ In short, plan on ending up with about 9 lb of shelf-stable, ivory-white tallow from 12.44 lb of beef fat, with a plausible range of 7.5 – 10 lb depending on how meticulously and patiently you render.

This sounds amazing. Especially with something like a brie and a blueberry or raspberry syrup. I'm going to have to make some...