Rico

Thanks, Blether! For me, pasta's a fun thing to photograph, if only because it's never on the plate exactly the same way twice. rotuts - Particulars coming soon, I promise. I'm going to get all into the smoker when this weather passes, but for now, I'm just happy for the rain. As for the windows, I chuckled a little when you pointed them out; we had discussed leaving in the old window, primarily for cost purposes, and eventually decided to do so. When the kitchen was finished the old window stood out like a sore thumb and we were forced to address it. Yes, it was well worth the extra cost and effort. Dinner tonight was chicken souvlaki. A few years ago I started making this dish with the recipe from Vefa's Kitchen, and this is still pretty much based on that recipe. The marinade consisted of oregano, thyme and parsley from the garden, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and some s&p. The chicken and mushrooms were marinated for four hours or so, and the rest of the veggies just had some olive oil rubbed on. Had some store-bought pitas, as well. I am disappointed I didn't get to start smoking tonight, but hopefully tomorrow we'll find the weather to be a little more accommodating. I used to be a proponent of using one skewer for the meat and veggies - primarily for the aesthetic appeal - but soon learned that raw onions can stand a much longer cook than small pieces of chicken, and so on. A well known and simple fact, I am sure, but one I learned the hard way nonetheless. (Edited to add garlic to the marinade ingredients)

rotuts - A collector's item! Brilliant! I have a tendency to forget to put it away after use, so I am more accustomed to hearing my wife refer to it as a 'blight on the landscape,' or something to that effect. I'll try the collector's item terminology later this week and report back with results. Shelby - I've got a feeling we're going to be very familiar with this 'rain' business after the next few days; an ominous cloud looms. Literally: it's a big, dark cloud that could very accurately be described as ominous. Logan - Super H is one of my favorite Asian markets in the area. Since I'm in Richardson, the Saigon and Hong Kong markets closer to Garland are a far more reasonable drive, but if I ever find myself in the area of Super H with a little time to spare, I always stop in. I haven't yet delved into the strip-mall restaurants surrounding it, but I'm looking for the chance. As for Addison, I lived there for a few years and loved it. From what I understand Addison gets a lot of flak in Dallas's food community for having so many chains (which they do) but I found it to be a really fun area that, chains or not, did a good job of embracing the culinary culture that they have and putting it on display as well as possible. And their Oktoberfest is the closest thing I've ever experienced to Munich. Much smaller, yes, but the feeling is similar. Anyway, lunch today was quick. I am able to sneak home for lunchtime and make a quick meal every now and again, and today it was spaghetti aglio e olio with some spicy marinated olives (from the grocer's olive bar). One of my favorite quick meals.

Thanks for joining in, RRO! tikidoc - Yes, I am beginning to rely on it heavily and wonder how I got along without it! Spoiled, I am. Anyway, I wanted to give everyone a quick heads-up - a little bit upthread, Shelby mentioned some pretty serious weather headed this way. Well, it's here. Shouldn't present much of an issue, but if there are tornado warnings tonight I might not get to start smoking the brisket as I had planned. We'll find a Plan B, regardless - just wanted to keep everyone appraised! Breakfast this morning is lots of coffee. Was going to take a photo, but ... it's just coffee.

Bruce - Thank you for the sympathy - and the kind words! Now that it is all said and done, yes, it was well worth it. I had my doubts, especially after the demo itself took two weeks and I was left looking at dirt where the kitchen floor had been. Only then did I realize what I had gotten my wife and I into. andiesenji - Yes, I'm starting to realize that about the rosemary. I've already trimmed it pretty drastically, but it doesn't have much quit in it; it is already wanting for another pruning. blue_dolphin - Overall, there's not a whole lot I'd do differently, except for the microwave vent fan: it sucks. Or, rather, it doesn't suck enough. It can get irritating to have to disable your fire alarm every time you want to fry a significant amount of anything, but if that's my biggest complaint, then I don't mind at all. kayb - The basil in my garden was actually store bought as a seedling; I believe our frost date is around March 15, and I didn't want to wait for fresh. I just planted seeds this weekend. There are worse things in life than to have too many basil plants, after all ... annabelle - I agree, though over the past couple of years, Dallas has been undergoing a steadily growing burger craze. There are many new burger joints around town that make a fine hamburger that are served as ordered - in my case medium rare (most of the time). heidi - Once cut in half, the burger could be handled. Perhaps a better man (or woman) than I could take on the task of consuming it uncut, but that is a task I would not venture to undertake. As for the island, the explanation for its existence in our kitchen is that I just love available surface area. In a practical sense, is typically where my mise goes and where I do most of the veggie prep work. And it's where I put my drink ScottyBoy - It was good stuff, man. Funny you should comment on your mom's cooking, when ... ... we went to my parents' house for dinner tonight. Native Chicagoans of German descent, even though it was a day late, they insist that everybody should celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I still don't know why, exactly; I think it has something to do with an excuse to drink beer. Regardless, we had corned beef and vegetables. It was the pre-brined stuff (my mom is past the point of wanting to learn to make corned beef from raw brisket - if she was ever at that point at all), but I enjoyed it thoroughly nonetheless - the few Paulaner Salvators I knocked down in the process of eating didn't hurt much, either. It was a simple meal with little elaboration, but a good time was had by all.

Thanks, Shelby, nikkib and LindaK! Shelby, I'm in the same boat - just planted some lettuce, and I may have to settle for micro greens instead. onrushpam, I've got 76 inches between the fridge doors and the oven door, with the table at 20 inches wide. I won't lie - it's a tight fit, but it works. Both doors open all the way, but I do not have room to stand directly in front of the oven if I've got the door open. That's not a problem for me, but it is something to consider. And I realized I forgot the other cookbook photos! Keep in mind that while I do not have a terribly extensive collection, I nonetheless have more cookbooks than I do opportunities to cook from them. So, to assume I have accomplished - or even attempted - all their recipes and techniques would be to greatly overestimate my culinary abilities. The avid eGulleter will notice that a majority of these books (though there are several that have been given as gifts) have been recommended by someone or another on eGullet over the past seven or eight years. This is not by coincidence. On to brunch, and the foodblog's first actual food (imagine that!). There's place in Dallas called The Grape that has a very popular Sunday brunch, and a very celebrated hamburger that they only serve for that meal specifically. A statewide magazine named it the best burger in Texas a few years back, and while I have neither the expertise or the experience to personally grant such a superlative, I can say that I take no umbrage at their assertion. We also had fried polenta, served with cojita cheese and sriracha (and a bit of sour cream) and the Country-Style Frittata, (asiago, goat cheese, dried tomatoes, broccoli and pancetta). And they start everything off with little banana nut muffins. The Polenta Fritters The Frittata And a couple of the burger - I wish I could have photographed it as well as it deserves, but such is life: I will confess that I like everything about The Grape; I apologize for the lack of photos of the place (I will take more interior shots as we go along to other establishments), but it is smallish, comfortable, not too dimly lighted ... it's just a warm, welcoming restaurant, if that makes sense. And, they've got a little patio just off the sidewalk of Greenville Avenue (it was about 75 degrees here today), too. Okay, I'm going to take a nap, now. I am lucky enough to live just a few miles from my parents' house, and they've asked us over for dinner tonight. So we'll see where that takes us!

Thanks for the kind words, all - I will admit to a few nerves when considering the prospect of following all the great blogs everyone's been writing. A high bar, indeed. We'll not be breakfasting today, and will instead be partaking in that wonderful combination of meals known as brunch. In the meantime, a cup of coffee will have to tide me over. It's store-brand coffee, but before you judge, it's not just any store brand. It's called Hill Country Fare, and it's a product of HEB, a San Antonio-based grocery store chain. This particular HCF is called Texas Pecan, and it's fantastic. Incidentally, HEB is also the company that started Central Market, a grand and glorious place to which I'll be headed later this week. Took some shots to give a little better idea of where I'll be cooking from and to elaborate on the garden a bit. Tomatoes, among them Giant Syrian, Super Sweet 100, Yellow Brandywine, and Bella Rosa. I've got a few others getting started, but can't remember offhand what they're called. I am not a bad gardener, but not a great one either, so I just go with volume and hope for the best. Some cucumbers getting started. And the herbs. So far we've got thyme. parsley, rosemary, tarragon, basil, oregano and a few dozen chives just starting to sprout. I may add some more as the season progresses. We just re-did the kitchen. Over the three-month process, I really didn't know if it was going to be worth it; it was a serious pain. However, we are very pleased with the result. Will return in a few hours with a brunch report!

Hi everyone! Or, to play into an often frustrating - but almost always endearing - stereotype: Howdy, y’all!* My name is Rich, aka Rico, and I’ll be taking you through a bit of my culinary life in Dallas this week. Incidentally, my eGullet handle refers to the name by which I went in my high school Spanish classes many years ago - and I’m still awful at Spanish. Anyway, on to the teaser photos: Only two things that money can’t buy, and that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes (hat tip to Lyle Lovett). We didn’t really have much of a winter this year, so I was brave and planted my tomato seeds at the beginning of February. So far, I’ve had some pretty good luck. Trying out five different varieties this year; we’ll see how that goes. I’ve also got a few different kinds of cucumbers, beans, peppers and herbs going. Unfortunately, this blog will likely be finished before any of them come to fruition - or should I say vegetableition? And Zeemanb, I noted your comment about being six weeks ahead in being able to get a garden going, and I'll just say this - come mid July, when you're harvesting buckets of tomatoes off of your plants, I'm going to be spending my days doing rain dances just so my plants will stay alive in the 110-degree Dallas heat. Take solace in that, at least! My box smoker (wet smoker). This is not the typical sort of smoker I am accustomed to seeing down here. Most of my friends and people I know tend to use the oil drum-style smoker with a side box for the fuel. I do not begrudge that style in the least, but have gotten to know the operation of this smoker so well that I’m not going to change anytime soon. But we will most certainly get into that later this week. A few cookbooks and such. The Neil Sperry Texas Gardening book – the green binding – is ubiquitous in this state but I’m not sure it came through very well. Anyway, those are some of my books. The Wodehouse collections were not left in there intentionally; however, my affinity for the Jeeves and Wooster stories is undeniable. To address the MC volumes briefly – unlike one of the more recent food bloggers, Chris Hennes, my knowledge of Modernist Cuisine is laughably limited. That doesn’t prevent me from trying all sorts of things from it, but I’m probably not going to do anything from it this week; to try my inexperienced hand at it in a public forum might be a major step back in the development of the movement as a whole (kidding (kind of)). All right, then. A few other tidbits, I suppose: Having been born and raised here, I call myself a Dallasite, but for the past three years I have lived in the suburb of Richardson, about 200 yards from the Dallas line. I am fortunate to be in a fine location for a lover of things culinary, as I find myself within a few miles of a Central Market, Whole Foods, Saigon Market, Hong Kong Market, Fiesta, and few standard grocery stores. We can get into what all those are as the time comes, though I would suppose that a most are pretty self-explanatory. My wife will tell you that my approach to food is like a six-year-old with ADD who just had too many Coco Puffs**. I prefer to call it inspiration-driven. Meaning, I’ll tell her that I’m making dinner, and then I’ll happen to see a technique I want to try, spend a while at it, and then she’ll ask me what’s for dinner. “Ummm. Well, in about four hours, we’ll have some really nice dehydrated lime curd! That’s a good dinner, right?” (Note: dehydrated lime curd is never a good dinner). She is of infinite patience. As it is, I’ve got a several places that I can’t wait to show you, and a pretty good outline of what I’ve got lined up for the week . I’m looking forward to it all (and to getting to know some of you better) and hope you all enjoy reading it half as much as I am sure I will enjoy documenting it! *I feel I should explain my understanding of y’all. In Texas, we use it only in the plural sense – as a conjunction of you all – so that in its written form, we substitute the apostrophe for the o and the u in you. It is clear and its use saves a valuable syllable. However, in some southern states I have heard that its homonym can be used to refer to a singular person. It is my understanding that in this sense, it would be spelled ya’ll. I do not understand the reasoning behind this punctuation, and frankly, I do not understand the reason for the word’s use in the singular. All that to say, in this week’s blog you will likely see y’all spelled and used only in the plural sense, if indeed you see it at all. **This also applies to my writing style. My lack of focus and/or patience means I cannot proofread my own writing. I just can't do it; my eyes glaze over and ... well, all I can ask is that you bear with any typos, run-ons, tense disagreements and things of that nature.

Kim, the cruelest thing I could have possibly done to myself right now is look at those biscuits and gravy. I am not really a breakfaster, but I love, love biscuits and gravy, especially when it's sausage gravy. It is my meal of choice when getting to choose breakfast, and that looks like some kind of wonderful. And ScottyBoy, I'm going to make a push for you to revive the egci courses so you can teach us all ... something. I don't care what it is, but your dishes all seem to be made, presented, and photographed with a masterful hand.

Kim, pot roast sandwiches on those biscuits? Do we get a photo of that, too? It's becoming unhealthy how vicariously I eat through this thread ... Speaking of which, RRO: I will be completely honest - that looks like something I would most thoroughly enjoy eating. Made some spaghetti and meatballs yesterday - the wife likes the thick tomato sauce like she grew up with, so I didn't get to get too creative with the sauce. Ground the meat (50/50 pork butt/beef chuck) with caramelized onions, garlic, parsley, and other somesuch before browning. For a simple meal, these turned out nicely. If you're wondering, it was not actually overexposed in real life - that's just the hastily taken photo. Edited for punctuation.

RRO, I'd have to turn mine in, too, for the same reason! And they're so wonderfully cheap ...

Wow, this all looks amazing, but Kim, I've got to say that I am in awe of how that brisket turned out - especially done on a Weber instead of a purpose-built smoker! To me, that seems a very impressive feat - it looks delicious. ETA: Just took a second, closer look, and realized that that is indeed a smoker and not a kettle. Regardless, it looks fantastic!

BadRabbit, you inspired me, and Kouign Aman, thank you for providing Snowangel's recipe based on Ruhlman's book. Talk about a team effort. Unfortunately, it was my unskilled hands doing the work, though I was pleased by the stuffing efforts relative to my previous tries - fried up a small link afterwords, and there's some joy to be found in a first real sausage-making success. I substituted currants for dried cherries, though, and only had two pounds of venison, so pork butt was substituted for the other pound and a half it called for. It will go on the smoker tomorrow over cherry wood, hot(ish) smoked hard around 175F for a few hours. I will report back - there's a braised red cabbage recipe in Robuchon that sounds like it's going to go great with it. And yes, those are twist-ties.

Haven't cooked in awhile, but it's a funny thing - take a look back in the 500's (of this thread) and then go to the past few dozen pages. Man, everyone on this thread has stepped up the game! Not that it was bad before, but this is turning into a truly visually stunning thread! And Anna N, at what temp and how long did you sous vide that chuck? My sous vide setup is getting a little lonely ...

Thanks, Heidi. I've got a feeling I'm just not acclimated to the bitterness - next time I'll go for a longer cooking time and see how it turns out. And I can definitely see how they'd work better as a part of a meal rather than the whole shebang. And RRO, you have taken me back to my two-hour stint in Bruges, driving to Paris from Amsterdam. We took a detour there for lunch (after driving around the city three times trying to find the road in), and those mussels appear to recreate that lunch perfectly (though we went with the less-healthy options of fries and beer). To this day it's one of the most pleasantly memorable meals I've ever had. I've continued on with the Red Lantern, and found a new personal favorite - the suon nuong (forgive the lack of accents), or chargrilled pork, just served with some jasmine rice and the dipping fish sauce. I told my wife the fish sauce was just called 'Asian dipping sauce.' She likes it better that way.

Did I just see smoked bay scallop custard up there? Let me check ... yeah, I did. That just blew my mind, menuinprogress. I'd be interested in hearing a little bit more about how you went about creating it. And Dakki ... They look pretty nice, too. Was there any wood smoke involved? As for me, I made the Stuffed Bitter Melons from Secrets of the Red Lantern, and I have a report that will surprise nobody: Bitter Melons are bitter. Having never had them before, I expected some degree of bitterness, of course, but wow. The filling was great, with pork and black fungus and bean thread noodles, but I almost couldn't taste it over the bitterness of the melon. Could I ameliorate it by leaving it to simmer in the broth for a longer period or something like that? I'd like to make it again with an approach that would dampen the super strong presence of the melons; if anyone has any thoughts, I'd be glad to hear them. But they do make for a neat picture.

Keith_W - I saw that first photo and said to myself, 'man, I could go for some empanadas,' only to find out down the post that those are in fact Malaysian Curry Puffs. I have never had a Malaysian Curry Puff, but upon seeing your photo, wish to have that condition remedied. And Xilimmns, that's a helluva good-looking sandwich. I had to Google 'Bacalhau,' though. Not sure that's something I should admit on eG ... A friend of mine got me the Reata cookbook - Reata's a restaurant in Ft. Worth - a few months ago, and it sat on my shelf until tonight, when I made the Chili-Fired Shrimp(yeah, chili-fired and not chili-fried. Maybe it's a pun of some sort, or a typo. These are the things that occupy my mind). It recommends serving it with a cucumber slaw, so I did. I also made some fried rice as another side.

Nope. Though in that case, I'm not even sure partaking thusly was even legal, no to mention unsanitary. Was he just treating it as a big, free-sample kiosk? As of reading this anecdote, no. My blissful ignorance regarding the habits of some others is now shattered.

Thanks, Dakki. SWMBO and I just got our kitchen finished, so hopefully I'll pick up the slack a little bit. And mgaretz, that looks fantastic. But you say it was 'fine' - was there something different you do differently next time to up the 'fine' to 'stellar?' Or is it 'fine' in the less blase sense, like 'a fine meal?' Okay, I'll stop talking now. Made some garlic and rosemary shrimp and mushroom skewers. Easy and cheap, when the shrimp's on sale. Except that with the new kitchen, we got a new gas oven, and while I love it, I am not 100 percent on with the timing for the broiler, so these were overcooked by a good minute. But I suppose eating slightly overcooked shrimp is one of those first-world problems, and not a terrible one to have, right?

Keith_W, those wings look great, though they bring up some bad memories of my meal during a recent Game 7 ... don't know if I'll ever be able to eat wings again ... As it is, the recent bolognese cook-off got me looking at my Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, thinking I was going to make it again, as it's been at least a couple years since I've made Marcella Hazan's recipe verbatim. And then right next to it in the book was the Carbonara recipe. I had everything on hand, and it took a fraction of the time. And it's yet another reminder that though I'm knee deep into Modernist Cuisine (thank you for the tip, Victornet) and it's just a tidal wave of wonderful information, keeping an eye on the classics is always important. Served with a Caesar salad - went to a little shindig a few weeks ago with a whole bunch of chefs in Dallas cooking their version of the Caesar, and they gave a recipe for it. This is one of them (figured I'd work my way through the whole group eventually), and it was good, though I don't quite know how creative you can get with it and still call it a Caesar salad ... That was a lot of writing for the Dinner! thread. Sorry about that; got a little excited. (Edited to fix a typo or two)

Agree with kayb - that's a fantastic idea. Do you have a preferred wood? And more directly on topic, I'll be stopping by to get that sandwich if I'm ever in your neck o'the woods.

Yeah, I'm actually going to start complaining that I can't find any Hot'n'Sour soup like yours, too. That looks fantastic! Warmed me up just looking at it ...

dcarch - others have said it better than I can, but wow. Again. Xilimmns - just a couple of posts into this thread and I'm already getting excited when I see you've posted something! That shrimp dish looks wonderful. Dakki - I've got a place I love to go to for tripe and tongue tacos here, but I'd substitute yours in a heartbeat. That's one enticing photo. Anyway, made some lobster risotto as Kenji Lopex-Alt outlined the technique. As far as texture, his technique worked very well to my tastes. As for the taste of my ad-libbed ingredients ... I'll be modifying the recipe. The flavor just never came through. At all.

God help me, I love the stuff. Especially when it's made just by adding the chili to fritos and eating it with a plastic fork or spoon right out of the bag.

This is the most reasonable perspective I can think of, too. No matter how many assurances one may make that he/she is a good photographer, the chef really won't know until he sees the photos. And if they're (as you said) amateurish and poor representations of his/her work, then it's already too late to say 'oh, hey, could you go ahead and not run that?' I'm not sure he was planning on making it a solely pictorial review. To me it seems that good photos always add to good writing - a picture, a thousand words, and all that ... Edited because I'm a poor proofer.

I've got little doubt Richard has more extensive knowledge than I on the topic, but if you're in Plano, then Addison Coffee Roasters is the closest place I know of. Funny thing, though, is that there's a greater selection of their coffee to be found at the Plano Central Market than can be found at their storefront. Actually, there are several Texas roasters that sell at CM, though the names escape me. I'd say check that out.