Steve Irby

It's been a steamer on the Florida Gulf Coast so I was looking for a minimal effort dinner. Grilled vegetables and homemade sausage fit the bill.

A simple breakfast of very good seasonal fruit served over yogurt and granola with a drizzle of local honey. The coffee is a flat white made with Sweet Maria's Espresso Monkey Blend.

I thought you focaccia was sticking out it's tongue and taunting me then realized it was the tomato!

After spending too much money on mediocre food while dining out recently I decided splurge on a few treats to enjoy at home. Repurpose my dining dollars so to speak. After a lifetime of buying generic olive oils I decided to get a selection of monovarietal olive oils to experiment with. I enjoyed the vibe from https://oliveoillovers.com/ and ordered a selection of oils. They offer free shipping on orders over $100 and offered a free 100 ml sampler for orders over $125. I think I got out the door for $136 with an assortment of very promising products. I've only tried the Grumpy Goats coratina oil so far but it is very tasty. BTW Olive Oil Lovers did a great job packaging the order.

A cooling sandwich for a hot day. Marinated artichoke hearts, confit tomato's, cucumber, sweet onion, mushrooms, kalamata olives, muenster cheese and a generous splash of coratina olive oil on a bagel.

My flat of marked down peaches has made a lot of neighbors happy. I made four galette's which I gave away except for a couple of slices. The flavor of the peaches, as @Smithy and @OlyveOyl commented, matched the flavors of our memories. For eight dollars I got four galette's, ~10# of prime sliced peaches in the freezer and a whole lot of love.

Unfortunately I don't have the will power to build any inventory!

Our local produce market had these really nice Chilton County peaches on the quick sale rack for $8.00 for about ~15-16 pounds. I'll buy a flat or two each summer and freeze for smoothies or cobbler. The peaches are usually bordering on over ripe or ding up and I' have to cull some. These were pretty flawless. As much as I love a peach cobbler it's hard to beat a galette or tart made with great fruit.

Probably one of favorite summer meals. Catfish, potato salad and coleslaw. I fried about four servings of fish which turned out to be three portions for me and one for my wife😋. Served with a quick dill pickle tartar sauce and lemon.

I was heavily influenced by Jeb Clampett!

Looks like it's been a good week for pasta! Tonight's dinner was homemade cheese ravioli with Italian oyster mushrooms topped with parmesan reggiano.

I started to make a greek salad for lunch but it looked pretty boring. I decided to gussy it up a bit by adding some fresh mint, basil, oregano and garlic chives along with domestic feta that I cubed and rolled in calico spice blend from Worldspice and includes purple sumac, mild red chile, dill weed, black sesame, and sea salt . I dressed the romaine prior to assembly with oil and vinegar and finished the salad with a feta and goat cheese dressing. The dressing was made by adding feta with brine, goat cheese and a clove of garlic to my almost empty mayo container and emulsyfing with my stick blender.

Another protein from the freezer. Fried catfish seasoned with Zatarain's seasoned fish fry served on cuban bread from BJ's. I cut the filets into fingers so there's a lot of crust. Finished with a generous swipe of mayo and Tony Chachere's creole seasoning.

Lunch was smoked turkey breast, fresh roasted green chilis, bacon and pepper jack cheese on a toasted sesame seed brioche bun. Topped with sweet onion, avocado and tomatoes. I had forgotten that I smoked two breasts on the grill last November and then froze them. The chamber vacuum sealer does a phenomenal job in maintaining food quality. The breasts were smoked using a Smokai smoke generator with pecan pellets. e

Not the most photogenic plating but this shrimp and chicken karahi dish was delicious. It's loaded down with fresh garlic and ginger with quite a generous amount of kashmiri curry powder. Served on spiralized zucchini which helped to temper the spicy gravy.

I stuffed them with a fresh Spanish sausage that I have been making for years. http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Longaniza-Spanish-fresh.pdf . The stuffing was bulk sausage leftover from the linking up process. Next time I'll add some bread crumbs to bind the mixture and give it a better mouth feel.

The last two stuffed porkchops from the freezer. I cooked them last October in my sous vide circulator and seared them off today in a smoking hot steel pan.

A nice summer sandwich using up some odds and ends. I used a generous amount of grilled zuchinni, grilled yellow peppers, tomatoes, and domestic feta along with a few slices of Citterio sweet capicola and genoa salami. Served on skillet toasted homemade bread.

I finally mined out the chicken wing vein in my freezer! I smoked two wings last October and just used them to season a pot of fresh cranberry beans along with two links of homemade hotlinks. The beans were also seasoned with World Spice New Mexico Chili powder that includes Hungarian Paprika, Guajillo Flake, New Mexico Chile Flake, Cumin, Garlic Granules, Onion Flake. Served over lemon rice with garlic bread

Lunch was twice fried russets, bagged cabbage slaw mix dressed with sour cream, mayo and homemade sweet pickles which were served with fried turkey wings. The wings were previously cooked sous vide and I gave them a quick fry to give a little color. The potatoes and slaw were the star of the meal and the turkey got a passing grade but barely. Thanks goodness that I fried them outside on my grill's side burner. There was a lot of sputtering and cussing while frying the wings and I'll probably use about a half a bottle of Shout Out on the grease spots on my shirt.

Yes. Have you tried recipes from her site? I may try the Polpette di Melanzane tomorrow.

My wife sent me a Facebook link to a limoncello italian cake that I thought I would try. It turned out a little squatty but looked and tasted great. We've been serving it with whipped cream and fresh strawberries from Cassebaum Farms in Lillian AL.

Here's a couple of loaves that I started early yesterday morning with the plan to bake in the evening. The rise was looking a little puny so I refrigerated the dough overnight. This morning I shaped into loaves and let them proof about three hours while I ran errands. The dough is 78% hydration.

Sweet Maria's has a great deal on replacement Bodum carafes. https://www.sweetmarias.com/bodum-replacement-glass-breaker.html I'll add a couple to my coffee order before the tariff increases take effect.

I use a bi-metal blade listed for use with wood, plastic and soft metal. Any bone meal can be removed with a knife or damp cloth as you would if the meat was sliced with a meat saw.