pastameshugana

Walnuts. I know I said almonds, but it's walnuts we've got. That feta combo sounds nice - I'll see what we can drum up!

Today has started out crazy - so Mrs M did breakfast - French toast strips all around. We've eaten so much pork this week, maybe something light tonight. Looking at steamed veggie pasta, and we've got some pears & almonds we'd love to make a salad out of. Any ideas?

No. Food is just...food. But Foood is something special.

Beautiful - now we need one for the iPad for the kitchen.

Pork wrapped pork! Yay! I think what that meal needs is some pork on the side. It must be a theme for tonights dinner, over on my eG foodblog here I just posted the rest of this meal: Bacon, chorizo and pork discada: Kim Shook - beautiful all American meal! SobaAddict - that's a fabulous looking pasta dish.

Well, we polished off the majority of the discada, and here's the (lengthy) tale: Lard melted and 1lb bacon in (Bar-S, my childhood sweetheart): After a few minutes, 1 can of Coke added to make a simmering sauce (most recipes call for beer): Somehow I missed photographing the step where I pushed the bacon to the edge and added the chorizo to the liquid. After that, push the chorizo out and add the pork tenderloin, plus the 'hard' stuff (chile & garlic): Closeup beauty shot: Long shot showing corn going onto the grill in the background (and Mrs Meshugana's ankle - woo hoo!): Closeup of the corn: Last step - adding the onions and tossing: Yum! (bad pic, sorry, but I was preoccupied with stuffing my face at the moment: The black is from (I believe) the coke carmelizing (burning?) onto the disco and being scraped off while tossing. It actually was an extremely tasty, salty sweet and porky crunchy substance that I intentionally scooped from the bottom of the serving bowl onto my tortilla. (Doesn't 'Salty Sweet and Porky Crunchy' sound like the name of a punk band's debut album?) We used flour tortillas in the past, this time we had flour and corn. I must say, this meal calls for corn tortillas. Lightly fried in oil - that's the bomb. Stuff a tortilla with the filling, cheese, crema mexicana (a cultured sour cream (not in the "pinky in the air while sipping tea" meaning of cultured, the "this milk has gone slightly off" meaning of cultured)), and a dash of El Pato. Oi vey. I'm going to have to roll down the hall tonight. Sweet dreams!

Mmm. Me and the kids (the two youngest) actually dip potato chips in plain El Pato, which is a very tasty treat.

Yes - that's exactly it! I promise to get pics, even if they're iPhone pics.

Countdown to disco time. I've got my raw ingredients ready: What you see is the meat: Chopped bacon, pork filet, and chorizo. A separate bowl for chili and garlic, and one for onions (red and green). I had to chop the chiles (anaheim, red jalapeno, serrano) large b/c we've got some non-chili-heads coming over that may want to pick them out. (I did however, surreptitiously crush into tiny bits a small handful of dried chile pequin that they'll never find! If they don't like it, more leftovers for me! Bhuwhahahahaa!) The basic method: Melt some lard in the disco (I may try a little coke as well, who knows), add bacon till lots of fat releases, move it out of the way (to the side of the disco). Add the chorizo to the bacon-y lard (I'll add the chili and garlic at this point), when about 1/2 done move it to the side. Add the pork to the middle and cook a while, then add some spices, the onions, and bring it all together and toss to finish. I'm adding the onions late so they'll stay crunchy and sweet-ish for some texture. I forgo the traditional 'wieners' or sausage in this dish because I really don't care for them. One more beauty shot: I'll update later on this one!

Thanks - you should've seen the last one, I was much, much happier with it... but oh well - still tasted great.

Some things in life are too tasty to be coincidence! BTW - I love your signature line!

Hmm - I've never thought about eating it cold - but I'm also not big on cold soups. I bet it would work, though. For this batch we used: 3 large leeks, 6 medium potatoes, 7 (anemic) carrots, 4 green zucchini, 2 yellow squash, 6 stalks celery, 6 cloves garlic, and 1/2 can of diced green chilies (a last minute addition), 12 cups of chicken stock for the simmering. When just about to serve, one 1/2 pint carton of heavy cream was stirred in. Last night we had some 'vegetable haters' in the house, and they all had seconds and thirds!

Well, here's a few pics from the rest of the prep for tonights dinner. Challa out of the oven: The bread really isn't as brown as the pictures make it look. It was cooked nearly perfect, but the color correction is wacking these photos out. This is, however, actually one of the more disappointing challas I've made. I used all-purpose instead of bread flour, and it wasn't perfect. Still darn good and there's barely a shred left, but not perfect. Kebabs onto the skewers (Bacon wrapped through pieces of ribeye, onion, and anaheim pepper: I feel like crying because I didn't get a picture of the finished product. It was worthy for sure. The meal was just eaten in a frenzy, so all picture taking was out the window. Finally, the main course, Mrs. Meshugana's Leek Soup: Just leeks, garlic, yukon gold, carrot, celery, sauteed in butter, simmered in chicken stock for an hour, then blended. Added about a cup of heavy cream to finish. Yowser. That, my friends, is a soup worth eating. So incredibly simple, healthy and tasty to your toes. Back in the morning with more adventures!

Yes there's very good illustrate braiding instructions. More pics in a few hours! We also added ribeye kabobs to the menu... From iPhone using Tapatalk

Bravo! That sounds like a line out of a food romance novel!

Yes! The leftovers get made into eggs on toast and French toast (Mrs. Meshugana). Absolutely the best french toast ever. You should give it a whirl, it's really quite easy. In fact, this is the only bread I've ever made. The only hard part is the braiding, but there's so many designs (like the pull apart loaf you see there) that are much easier. I also highly recommend this book, very easy to follow for a 'non-recipe' guy like myself.

Challa just about to go into the oven... From iPhone using Tapatalk

Where in Northern AZ? That's my 'native place' as they say in B'Lore.

Getting ready for tonight's dinner. My favorite (only?) baking book (if we say cookbook, can we say bakebook?): "I'm-a-kneadin-my-dough, I'm-a-kneadin-my-dough"" I actually made challah the first time by hand, just to say I could (and because I didn't own a stand mixer!). Back in the days I had the time I made all my pasta by hand (no mixer) because it was very relaxing. Now I buy dried... I know, I'm ashamed.

I am really curious to hear about and see some discada....it is a recently discovered fascination of mine. Our newly-found favorite Mexican Market, Bonito Michoacan in downtown Kansas City, Kansas is the first place I've seen it. Their version is basically the trimmings (discards/discada?) from marinated beef and pork, bacon, hot dogs and ham. It goes from scary looking back at the meat counter where you can buy it by the pound...to "if loving this is wrong I don't want to be right" when it's coming out hot in a street taco, gordita or torta at the front counter. Curious to hear if this is in any way similar to what you'll be preparing...and if so, the different variations, etc. This is the basic idea, although I believe the name comes from the 'disco' (dee-sko) that it's cooked on. Traditional lore says it came from cooking in a beaten plow, but this is what I'm using nowadays. The meat is something like what you mentioned, although I forgo the 'wieners' and use: Chorizo, bacon & pork cutlets, plus random spices and chiles along the way. We usually serve it outside, coming hot off the disco into fresh tortillas. I'll document the whole thing in detail tomorrow!

Today's a busy day (in my other, non-cooking life), but I'll be posting as I go along. Keep your eyes open for 6-braid challa and Leek soup. Here's a peek back at one of the treats from last week in Lubbock. A little pizza place called West Crust Pizza. Here's a look at the decor, very 'surfer-dude' friendly, and comfortable, actually for being so pretentiously hip: Note the real, fresh pineapples in the baskets (barely visible in the top picture). From what I could tell everything was real and fresh. Now, I can be a pizza purist at heart - have spent my time searching for that elegant, simple pie, and I know the beauties of a simple pizza (and there's one to show here, don't worry!). BUT. And that's a big but. There are times when it is OK, even praise-worthy to do something completely out of the ordinary and wild on a pizza crust. Sure, Grandma Fuzaro wouldn't approve of this pie, but oh! what a treat! The special on the menu: The special on my plate: (it didn't last long) This was one of the finest 'complicated' pizzas I've eaten in memory. Everything was perfectly balanced and just exquisite. Now, here is the aforementioned 'simple' or 'classic' margherita pizza on the table: (it's the bottom one) In spite of being just a tad bit saucy (which softened the nice 'cracker' crust), this really was a fine piece of pizza as well. For all the culinary shenanigans that the curry pizza pulled, they still managed to do a spectacular job at a pizza my dad would be proud of (especially considering the place is in West Texas (no offense meant to our Texan brethren)). Be back soon with more!

robirdstx - just a tip - you'll usually find the El Pato in the tomato sauce section, not the hot sauce. Good luck!

Struck out on that island - it was a battered floor-model only. On to better things! Here's the final result of those smoked pork ribs, on a bun: I tossed the meat with some 'magic dust' from Memphis Championship BBQ, and a little bit of Stubbs BBQ sauce. This was a sandwich of glory. Tonight was supposed to be discada, but our friends cancelled and other things came up, so maybe Thursday for that. Tomorrow I'm planning on Challa bread and Leek soup for dinner. We'll see what else happens!

robirdstx - looks wonderful! How did it taste?

Headed out to buy a new prep island my wife saw on sale. From iPhone using Tapatalk