Anna N

Toulouse sausages — homemade – but not by me! Sous vide from frozen for two hours at 68.3°C then dried off and browned in the oven at 450°F for 10 minutes.

Grilled sharp cheddar and caramelized onions with a side of pickled onions.

Had some eggs that were getting a little long in the tooth (what is this about “scarce as hens teeth”?) but really did not want to waste them. But I also wanted eggs on toast. So they were boiled for five minutes, scooped into a bowl, seasoned and then spooned onto toast. Quite satisfactory.

Before proceeding to the next chapter of the Crusty Chronicles, I want to back up a bit and show you the comparison between the sausage roll that I had and the sausage roll that Kerry just posted. The upper one is mine and the lower is Kerry ‘s. Bearing in mind that these are supposed to be fully cooked and only require reheating, it is obvious that the one that I had was not fully cooked. I only reheated mine for 10 minutes and Kerry reheated hers for 20. I’m guessing she was able to cook it through. Still, it’s a bit disconcerting that it is not fully cooked when purchased. so on to new adventures. Kerry stopped by the The Hamilton Meat Pie Company Here are their offerings. There are certainly some strange flavour combinations going on here. but for me it was the steak and kidney pie. A good choice so we could have a fair comparison. I was suitably impressed that it came in a lovely box rather than a paper bag. and equally impressed by the directions for reheating stamped onto the underside of the lid. The pie as it came out of the box. after 20 minutes at 350°F in the Breville smart oven. Upturned into a bowl. Does not have that pale, strange looking crust of my previous steak and kidney pie. broken into. and proof positive that this was a much better experience. 20 minutes was not quite enough to heat it to my satisfaction but that is easily remedied. The ratio of kidney to beef was perfect. The kidney was tender and in small pieces. The crust was just as it should be — not any strange franken hybrid of puff pastry and shortcrust pastry but just short crust pastry as it should be. This one will be hard to beat. I might have to give Kerry a shopping list for this company to try some of their other pies although I do think I will give the Emerald Curried Chicken Pie a miss.

I did try it and I despised it. What can I say? I was raised on the stuff.I had an uncle who called me and my brother the Bisto kids. Maybe I should discuss with with my therapist.

Interesting. Perhaps next time somebody pops into IKEA I will ask them to grab me a package.

This would probably not work for me since milk is not anything that I normally keep in the house. I neither drink it nor use it in my coffee and for baking I use powdered milk. What thanks for sharing. (I don’t think I’ve ever seen the veal version.)

It wasn’t great. This was the McCormick Mix mentioned in another thread.

not a great photo. Hot, open-faced pork loin sandwich with broccoli. Note 2 Note to @rotuts The pork loin was almost as tender and juicy as the pork tenderloin.

This topic came to mind as I was pouring a just-made gravy down the drain! I know we have discussed gravy thickeners such as Bisto but I’m not sure that we have ever discussed gravy mixes such as those offered by Club House, McCormick’s and Knorr. Nobody, least of all me, is prepared to suggest that any of these are better than homemade gravy. But sometimes homemade is not an option. When you have a rotisserie chicken and would like a hot chicken sandwich you are unlikely to have any gravy on hand! And you can certainly make a hot beef sandwich from deli sliced roast beef if you’re not up for making a roast with a gravy mix. i used to always have on hand jar of Trio gravy mix from Costco. It made what we call “chip truck gravy”. I would sometimes gussy it up with some fresh cream or even a little Calvedos and it served the purpose. But much to my horror Costco no longer carries it. In the past I have used and been quite pleased with Knorr gravy mixes. I have found their demi-glace, classic brown and roasted chicken to be quite tolerable. But when my daughter was shopping for me and I asked for these they were not available. My choice were either Club House or McCormick. I settled for the McCormick wild mushroom and roast gravy mixes. In preparation for making a hot meat sandwich I decided to mix up the gravy now. I followed the directions for the wild mushroom gravy but when I tasted it I could only think that it was cream of chemicals. I knew I could not even choke it down. So it went down the drain. Next I made up the roast gravy package. It’s not nearly as off-putting. I will at least be able to have a sandwich. What say you? Do you use these mixes? Found any that pass muster in a pinch.

Have not yet got around to trying the loin. I find for my own tastes 58°C works great.

Sous-vide pork tenderloin on toast. I would not normally sous vide pork tenderloin since it’s already very tender but my daughter had heard my plea for some pork and picked up both a tenderloin and a loin. Seemed convenient and reasonable to put them both in at the same time.

From the menu which is on their website, posted above, white cheddar and caramelized onions.

It seems like only yesterday I was reporting about lunch and it really isn’t very long ago but here we are again. Kerry stopped off at The Burnt Tongue on Locke Street in Hamilton and grab the soup for me and sandwiches for herself. Apparently as Kerry discovered today all their sandwiches are basically grilled cheese sandwiches with various and sundry additional elements. Thai pork ball soup. This was an odd concoction. It was quite palatable but had little to remind me of Thai food. It was more like a cabbage soup with some well seasoned pork meatballs. I still have a little left for another meal. I still have a little left for another meal. Sandwiches for Kerry. One is grilled cheese and French onion and the other is grilled cheese with spinach and artichoke. She managed to eat one and a half sandwiches and I can look forward to the remaining half sandwich at another time.

A small pork loin and a small pork tenderloin. They are swimming together at 58°C. I will give them about two hours.