Steve Irby

It's kind of strange to have limited meat supplies and still have low prices. I bought some really nice leg quarters at Sam's for 59/cents lb and a prime beef packer for $2.94 lb. The leg quarters had a portion of the back attached that I filleted the "oysters" for a later meal. I marinated the chicken with fresh thyme, rosemary and sage and then grilled. The chicken with fresh corn and a vinegary coleslaw made a great lunch. Vacuumed bagged, bacon wrapped, deboned leg from a few weeks ago. The Vacmaster VP112 continues it's yeoman service.

I was breaking down some pork butts for sausage and decided these well marbled cuts would be perfect seared. They pan drippings were finished with a quick sauce of meyer lemon, butter, garlic and rosemary. I made a caeser'ish salad with pecorino romano to counter the fatty richness of the pork. The fatty pork was really tasty.

We had a quick salad last night with grilled salmon and pineapple. The main focus was cubing and seasoning four pork butts to make into sausage. Today I ground and linked up approximately six pounds of luganeca, six pounds of shawarma/feta and ten pounds of southern style sausage using A. C. Leggs #10 blend. I added some pink salt to the Leggs batch since I plan on smoking some tomorrow. I set aside about four pounds of Leggs as bulk sausage for breakfast patties. Supper tonight was a test link of each style for quality control purpose's. No photo but the samples were great.

I had some leftover pulled pork that I incorporated into tamales. I used the rendered fat and jelly from the roasting pan in the masa. They were really tasty coming right out of the steamer.

The hot dish tonight was orphaned vegetables with tempura batter wanna-be. I had some leftover vegetables in the frig (gold pepper, zucchini, artichoke hearts) that became a fritto misto type dish to accompany beer (for me) and wine (for the wife).

Lunch was a bacon, green chili cheeseburger with chips on a homemade bun. Wright Bacon, Hatch Chilies and Tillamook Pepper Cheese helped produce a great burger. The buns were from a KAF recipe. I roasted the peppers last year and froze them on big sheet pan prior to vacuum bagging. It makes it easy to break off a chunk for meals. The potato chips were double fried then hit with sea salt.

Very full tart from the Plenty cookbook. The pie crust was bit of a struggle. Warm temps, high humidity and losing power due to severe thunderstorms were the primary hurdles. The filling itself takes a bit of time to complete but boy is it tasty.

Thanks, yes those are deboned drumsticks stuffed with toulouse sausage. I'll include a couple of pictures during prep. After stuffing I always wrap each drumstick with plastic film to hold the bacon in place prior to slipping into the vacuum bag. The bagging ensures good adhesion of the bacon and overall appearance. The next day they are ready for the grill or SV bath.

I've been shopping/cooking like others have been buying toilet paper. I know I don't need that big a** can of Bush beans from Sam's but I can't help myself. Thank God for a chamber vacuum sealer and an extra freezer. Over the past few days we've had a lot of yummy baked beans, cajun potato salad, homemade tortilla chips (please get behind me Satan) and various grilled meats. I'm also riding the skirt steak surge like others. Tonight's attempt at moderation was a compressed watermelon salad with feta. It was so darn good after the "heavy' food binge of the past few days.

The recipe is posted on a sausage centric site by Len Poli. I came across the site shortly after my introduction to sausage making via Charcuterie by Ruhlman & Polcyn. It's been a great resource for formulations by nationality and each recipe opens as a .pdf so they are easy to archive. Here's the link to the Toulouse - http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/French Toulouse.pdf My favorite formulation is the spanish longaniza - http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Longaniza-Spanish-fresh.pdf

A little baking and grilling today. I bought 10# of chicken leg quarters and froze the thigh portion for later use. I deboned the drumsticks and stuffed with homemade Toulouse sausage. I skinned then bacon wrapped seven portions and kept three skin on. I smoked the chicken on my weber gas grill using my Smokai smoke generator. I'm also cooking a pork butt on the grill which will come off later in the day. I baked the bread this morning and reheated a apple pie from the local farmers market. I'm pretty stuffed and am looking forward to my nap!

I cut up a few catfish fillets into "fingers" and fried them along with the oysters.

Prep And dinner.

I don't want to sound overly dramatic but the fennel soup was simple but sublime. Fennel, along with celeriac, are a couple of ingredients that are rarer than hen's teeth on menu's in the deep south. I've been pretty resourceful in incorporating celeriac into various dishes but fennel has certainly lagged. BKEats piqued my interest with fennel pesto last week so I incorporated fennel it into a light soup. The soup base was a puree of fennel, onion and chicken stock. The soup was finished with diced potatoes, cauliflower and fennel fronds.

The problem for us gluttons is we graze all day then come meal time we're not hungry. I cooked a ham early in the day and if it hadn't been for my wife hogging up the counter top in front of the ham it would be gone by now. Dinner was pop overs, deviled eggs and a little bit more of the ham.

Just like my mom made them! The sliced onions are soaked in milk and then tossed in a brown paper bag with AP flour.

I've been jonesing for a good cheeseburger so I took my first crack at brioche buns today using a recipe from the NYT. The buns and burger, with a side of onion rings, hit the spot.

I made a batch of pizza dough from Ken Forkish FWSY and used two portions of dough yesterday for pizza with homemade pork sausage and pepperjack. Today I used one portion for pizza with smoked turkey, more pepperjack and oil cured olives. The remaining dough was roughly formed and baked after the pizza was cooked. I used the gas grill both days.

Dinner was an adaptation of a Jody Adams recipe for chicken with poppy seeds and pancetta. I substituted Wright's smoked and peppered bacon for the pancetta and cooked the bird in the oven instead of the grill. Served with comfort sides and cornbread.

Gruyere and heavy cream. The cheese was cut from a wheel that must have had a little age on it as it had a much earthier taste than the shrink wrapped blocks.

Käsespätzle and fried onions served with smoked brisket and asparagus. Last night dessert was a celestial brownie with Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. I was a little heavy handed with the whipped cream but we suffered through it.

Yesterday I made a double recipe of cannelloni to distribute to some of our housebound friends and for the freezer. I have used the same recipe from Cotton Country Collection by the Jr. League of Monroe LA for about forty years. The filling is ground beef, spinach and a little chicken liver bound with eggs, cream and pecorino romano. I make fresh pasta sheets to substitute for manicotti tubes. The stuffed pasta is covered in a bechamel sauce then topped with red sauce. I'm embarrassed to say how much we inhaled for dinner but the freezer certainly isn't going to have to work as hard.

Roast beet salad with whipped goat cheese. The goat cheese is a recipe from Alon Shaya and is just terrific. A dish we never get tired of shrimp and grits gussied up with scallops.

Butter poached royal red shrimp and pasta with oil cured olives, capers and piment d'espelette.