Steve Irby

Lunch was spaghetti with a quick meat sauce made with Rao's Marinara. Served with a couple of grilled links of homemade Italian onion sausage, Salsiccia di Cipolla. The recipe for the sausage came from the Len Poli Sonoma Mountain Sausage site. I've prepared a number of the sausage formulations over the years and they have all been excellent. All of the recipes open as pdf files so it's very easy to build a sausage library!

I was in charge of dessert for a New Years gathering so I made a strawberry tart. The crust for the tart was a pate sablee. The recipe called for a 9-inch diameter tart pan and I used a ~ 4" x 13.5" rectangular pan. I used four prepared tartlet shells to use the excess pastry cream. The strawberries were grown in Florida and were very even in size and made for a nice presentation.

Here's a sampling of the output from the past several days. I've made Cornetti from the Carol Fields bread book for years. Not Instagram ready but so good hot out of the oven. The trim was placed in a muffin cup with homemade pear preserves. Chocolate Seduction from a little Consumer Guide booklet that I was gifted around 1982. The recipe calls for a 10 inch tart pan but I made five 4-inch tartlets. And from a yard sale cookbook by Linda Collister - Divine Chocolate Recipes. Maybe my favorite chocolate and pecan cookie recipe. I used Callebaut 811 in all of the recipes.

Last night's dinner was a sampling of sausages from the weekends effort. I prepared 10# of fresh Spanish Longaniza sausage, 10# Bubba Five Alarm Hot links and 8# of Italian onion sausage. All formulations are from the Len Poli, Sonoma Mountain website. The temperatures have been low enough for me to air dry the longaniza sausage in the garage for a few days. The hotlinks were smoked on my gas grill using my Smokai smoke generator. Here Charlie patiently waiting for the batch of mixed songbird and lizard sausage

I've been making this recipe from the New York Times for quite a few years now - Galatoire’s Sweet Potato Cheesecake. This year I finished it with praline pecans from JW Renfroe Pecan Co. and a butterscotch drizzle.

This ones going to be lunch for days! Smoked turkey with a cabbage and potato concoction. The turkey was smoked pretty hard but pulled from the grill when the meat was still a little pink. The meat was perfect after being reheated in the stew -moist and very tender. The dish was seasoned with some mystery spices that my sister brought back from a recent trip to Turkey. I used a red spice blend labeled meat and ground chilis labeled black, black pepper. I think the chilis are black urfa.

I'm getting started on my annual loss leader turkey fest. This year I bought a 21# turkey and defrosted it in an ice chest. I was afraid it would break the glass shelves in the refrigerator! The breast were dusted with a combination of Tony Chachere's seasoned salt and a Dangold seasoned salt. The wings were bagged with sage, lemon, butter and S&P. The tenderloins were trimmed of the sinew, dusted with meat glue and Tony's and wrapped in bacon. They'll be in the hot water bath for about 3 hours @ 141F. I'll chill and finish the items later. The leg quarters were heavily seasoned and are smoking on my Weber kettle.

Grilled pork chop dusted with Penzey's Revolution spice blend then finished with a soy-satsuma-honey glaze.

I've had better luck using two squares and sandwiching the bone or carapace. I've tried to wrap bones with one sheet but the boneguard shifts making it a little fiddly to adjust.

BJ's had a really nice package of thick cut pork chops so I stuffed four of the six and cooked them sous vide. I used some homemade longaniza for the stuffing and made a quick sauce of heavy cream, pork gelee, tomatoes and green onions. I used a boneguard from JVR to prevent the dreaded puncture in the hot water bath.

Shrimp remoulade and fried green tomatoes.

Tonight's dinner included a pear and starfruit salad. The pears were downed fruit from a neighbors tree and the starfruit came off the reduced for quick sell table (6/$1.50). The salad ingredients included surprisingly hot serrano peppers, mini red peppers, red onion, walnuts and blue cheese. The dressing was a pear preserve vinaigrette. The preserves were prepared with the scavenged pears, lemons, oranges, cinnamon and candied ginger.

I think the dish was a restaurant original. I use gruyere cheese grits as the base.

Dinner was leftovers from a late lunch on Saturday. My wife is very involved in animal rescue and I prepared a big spread for the TNR gang. The mezze's included roasted beets and carrots with whipped citrus goat cheese, marinated roast peppers and eggplant (Escalivada), grilled zucchini , sautéed shrimp with feta, smoked eggplant dip (Mutabal) with toasted pita and bread. I was so busy with prep and serving that I didn't take a single picture. Dessert was white chocolate cheescake. This slice is heading over to the next door neighbor. The main course on Saturday was my take on Salmon Rockefeller as served at the former Madison's Restaurant. This photo was from dinner a few years ago but the plating was identical. My blender hollandaise was definitely not as good this time as it was a little thin.

Dawn to Dusk loaves. Started in the AM with 1000 grams of flour at 78% hydration and 2.4 grams of yeast. Finished sometime after dark.

Tonight's supper was leftover grilled salmon repurposed into salmon cakes with celeriac remoulade. Served with a pizza slice from Flourish And yesterday we had Chinese broccoli, chickpeas and preserved lemon over pasta. Topped with Fulvi pecorino Romano and Aleppo peppers

@BonVivant that fried okra and tofu has me drooling. What's the procedure for the tofu and duck yolk sauce? Okra was also on our menu today. Lunch was a variation on "Meat and Three". The okra is sliced then rolled in cornmeal prior to frying in hot oil. My Mom couldn't fix enough for us kids.

A little grill action for some very nice eggplant and zucchini from the farmers market. The vegetables were brushed with olive oil, lemon juice and S&P then grilled on my gas weber. The grilled vegetables were topped with Kashaval cheese, oil cured olives, tomatoes and fresh oregano & mint. It made for a very nice lunch served on a toasted pita.

I thought they adhered very well. I used a raw russet dipped in a cornstarch and butter mix. The prepped fillets were placed in the frig for about 20 minutes then seared off in a black steel pan. The scales didn't shift going into the pan or when they were flipped.

After a few higher priced restaurant meals recently I decided I better step up my game. The old SSI check doesn't go as far as it used to with entree's hitting $40 bucks. Todays lunch was potato crusted cod with a pea puree. This was my first try with potato scales and I was very happy with the results. Here's another cod dish from last week. Greek inspired salad with some mint and basil and a really creamy goat feta.

Pommes Anna is kind of my go to comfort food and tonight it was topped with a little ode to Spain. Not that I've been to Spain but I have aspirations! Seared cobia with pecans, green olives, onion, garlic and a lot of butter and lemon juice. My Ozempic was caught flat footed.

@btbyrd beautiful sear on that steak. Yesterday it was six dollar day at a local "bargin bin" store where I spotted a nice Mafter pan. Once home it took about two minutes with my vise to press the handle back to the original position. I'll start the seasoning process later today. Seared steak is in my future!

Thanks, Here's a copy of the recipe from a blog. Pretty much like the recipe as published with the omission of ingredients by weight. The original recipe called for floury potatoes so I used russets. I used pancetta for that delicious stuffing and Wright thick cut bacon roasted with the potatoes. If you want to gild the lily you could make a pan gravy after searing the chops. Costolette di Maiale con Salvia (Pork Chops with Sage) Serves 4 2-1/2 lb. all-purpose potatoes, peeled and diced sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 4 thick pork chops, on the bone 24 fresh sage leaves 1 bulb of garlic 4 slices of prosciutto 4 tablespoons butter, finely diced 4 dried apricots extra virgin olive oil flour 6 thick strips of pancetta or bacon (1/2 inch thick, if possible), or an 8-oz. package of pancetta lardons Preheat the oven to 425°F. Put your potatoes into a pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Give them 3 or 4 minutes - you only want to parboil them - then drain them and allow them to steam dry. Lay your pork chops on a board and insert a small paring knife horizontally into the side of each chop to make a hidden pocket. Make sure the tip of your knife stays in the middle of the chop, as you don't want to cut through the meat to either side. Be careful -watch your fingers! Set aside 8 of the largest sage leaves. Add 8 more leaves to your food processor with a peeled clove of garlic, the prosciutto, butter, apricots, and a pinch of salt and pepper and give it a whiz. This is now a beautifully flavored butter that can be divided between the pork chops and pushed into the pockets. Dress the 8 large sage leaves that you set aside with a little oil and press one side of them into some flour. Press a leaf, flour side down, onto each side of the chops (so you have 2 leaves on each chop). Leave the chops on a plate, covered with plastic wrap, to come to room temperature while you get your potatoes ready. If you're using thick strips of pancetta, slice them into matchsticks, as thick as a pencil. Put them into a large roasting pan, with your potatoes, the remaining sage leaves, and the rest of your whole unpeeled garlic cloves. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and put the pan into the preheated oven. After 10 minutes, put a frying pan on the burner and get it very hot. Add a touch of olive oil and put in your seasoned pork chops. Fry for 10 minutes, until golden and crisp on both sides, then remove the pan of potatoes from the oven - they should be nice and light golden by now - and place the chops on top. Put the pan back into the oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on how thick the chops are, then remove the pan from the oven and serve.

I was breaking down three pork butts to make sausage a few days ago and decided to save these steaks for another use. And the use was a recipe for pork chops and sage from Jamie's Italy. I had been eyeing this recipe for awhile and finally bought some dried apricots for the stuffing. The stuffing is a paste of butter, garlic, prosciutto and apricots. Served with a simple green salad. I will definitely be preparing this recipe again.

It's a cold, rainy and windy day on the Gulf Coast. Perfect weather for a bowl of gumbo prior to walking the dogs.