Steve Irby

Burnt ends and slaw for lunch. The pickled onions are adapted from a Judy Rogers recipe and the ancho-fig sauce from Aaron Franklin. The sweet pickle used in the slaw came from the pantry and were based on my mom's recipe.

Fresh garlic, thyme, oregano and rosemary with a little dried fennel and coriander. I also added some preserved meyer lemon.

Here's a photo of the turchetta after being browned and sectioned. Very moist and tender after 5 hours @ 138F. I sectioned it into three portions for latter use.

Supper was leftover leftover's. I prepared a pho-ish type turkey broth the other day and went a little heavy on the garlic and chili paste. I toned it down a little last night with the addition of turnips greens and broth. The turnip greens were a hybrid called Alamo that were really tasty (and tender)

A light supper for the post Thanksgiving taper😛. Two dozen oysters and a bowl of gumbo. The gumbo used SV turkey leg quarters and homemade andouille sausage. The oysters were the best of the year - briny, fat and a steal at $15.99 for two dozen.

Thanks, I used pecan pellets and smoked the meat for a little over 3 hours. That little Smokai will crank out quite a bit of smoke with the air pump on high and was glad to get such good color. My gas grill is getting pretty old (and inefficient ) with one burner on low. I checked the internal temp toward the end of smoking and was below the water bath temp.

I'm finishing up my annual turkey fest. I cooked two birds - one 17# and the second 12#. The leg quarters and wings were seasoned, bagged, then sous vide for 36 hours at 148. I let them air dry for a few hours then smoked with my Smokai pellet smoker on the gas grill. Two legs quarters have been deboned and will be used in gumbo tomorrow. The breast were prepped three different ways. The tenderloins were separated from the breast and were bacon wrapped and bagged. The larger breast was prepared using the Serious Eats turchetta recipe then bagged. The smaller breast was seasoned and bagged. They were cooked at 138 for about 4 to 6 hours. I'll finish them by flash frying over the next couple of days.

Here's another pasta dish. A quick sauce composed of sautéed onion, garlic, campari tomatoes, capers, cured lemon and thyme. Served with feta, olives, Italian sausage and Aleppo pepper.

This dinner would be just like I had as a kid if I had used yellow cheddar cheese on the pear instead off white. You can tell we did not have guest by the absence of iceberg lettuce under the pear😊. The beef is carved off a prime brisket (packer) that I bought at Sam's earlier in the week. It was roasted for about 12 hours at 220. I loosely tented it the last couple of hours. The fond made the best mahogany colored gravy.

Stop does abort the cycle while using the down button progresses to the next step - seal. The glass lid makes it very easy to monitor overflow. The keypad has an optical sensor so it's important to let you finger cover the icons.

Brisket sandwich coming up!

I'm very satisfied with my purchase. I use the unit daily and it has performed flawlessly. It's been easy to clean and service. My brother bought one for christmas this past year and he is pleased with his unit too.

Gulf shrimp and Conecuh sausage over Dixie Lily yellow grits. The sauce was made with shrimp stock, butter, fresh corn, tomatoes, serrano peppers, and green onions. I'll add a couple of desserts from the past week or two since I'm Jonesing for a little something sweet tonight. Black bottom pie which has been a family favorite for 50+ years And amaretto white chocolate cheesecake with raspberry that has become another family favorite.

Chicken Salan over basmati rice. Served with a spiralized cucumber salad.

Me too. It's hard to get your butter to pool up on regular bread😋😋😋

Perfect bread to meat ratio. Just enough bread to keep the finger tips from getting the mustard jar greasy.

@heidih Greens and beans are both the source of pot liquour in the southern states. I used the pink eye purple hull pot liquor for lunch and for supper I had a bowl of the turnip green pot liquor with rice and ham. Here's a link to an interesting discussion of different variety of peas common in the south and the resulting pot liquors https://hemctier.wixsite.com/mctierfamilyfarm/post/2019/09/18/whats-pot-liquor

Working mans lunch. The purple hull peas and cornbread are mixed and mashed on the plate then topped with pot liquor and pepper sauce. This one of favorite childhood meals-we got to play with our food!

No muss no fuss meat and potatoes with SweetWater G13 IPA.

If you run across this one give it a try. It was my favorite at Firehouse Subs but I never saw it stocked locally. Loads of flavor from black, red and cayenne pepper. Nice texture and pretty spicy without being mop-your-brow hot. Recently I ordered a half-gallon directly from Gator Hammock. I'm still using directly it from the jug but have decanted portions into pint jars for later use.

Filé Gumbo on a cold day.

Slightly dressed up leftovers. Sous vide, sausage stuffed and bacon wrapped turkey breast over medium grain rice. The turkey slices were reheated in a gravy made with the sous vide bag juices. Topped with sautéed blue oyster mushrooms and sieved pickled egg. The slightly dressed up part was using a 4-inch ring mold. The dogs were not impressed😕 with the plating but sure enjoyed the plate.

White Bianchetto Truffle with homemade tagliatelle. I ordered the truffles from Burwell Farms about 15 months ago after seeing a post by @Paul Bacino . They were sold out for the 2022 crop but I made the cut for 2023.

Todays lunch was bacon wrapped, sausage stuffed turkey breast served in a pita. The breast was prepped around Thanksgiving and cooked sous vide prior to freezing. I defrosted it overnight and browned in a little oil for lunch. Lunch from last week-Panera bagel with smoked brisket and gruyere served with coleslaw made with Durkee's Sauce

Heading into the New Year on a healthy note. Blue oyster mushrooms from my garage with a wild/brown rice mix and salad greens. The recipe called for swiss chard but none was to be found so the lettuce was pressed into service. Finished with Red Boat fish sauce. The mushrooms earlier today.