gulfporter

When I lived in Bisbee, AZ, I was lucky to have a large old quince tree in my yard. It was a great producer! I made jars of chutney (many for gifts), as well as a pie filling that I'd partially cook stove-top, then freeze in individual baggies that I'd pull out and bake as free form tarts all winter. When I lived in Mexico we had a lime tree so I made preserved limes (like Indian preserved lemons). That condiment was a treat as there were no Indian foods available nearby. We moved to FL last year and the Meyer Lemon tree at this house isn't much of a producer so I haven't put up anything here. There's an excellent farmer's market here (Gulfport) and in St. Pete, so I could go grab a bushel of various produce, but I guess I'm getting lazy in my old age.

Thx for all the suggestions. I grilled it (s&p only) and it was very good. And yes, it did cook a bit faster than a regular steak. We are not regular beef eaters, but decided we wanted to try an aged steak. It had a nice gamey flavor, but don't think we'd buy it again. We'll stick with duck which we find tastier (and less expensive!). Duck also lends itself to more eclectic sauces and side dishes, IMO.

Before I retired, I often worked 12 hour days (longer counting the awful DC-Metro commute). My lunch times (when I was able to leave the office) were used to run errands, to the dry cleaners or drug store or hardware store or food store (for non-perishables). So, yes, I'd often order something from our office building's deli, pick it up on the way to the garage and eat in the car while doing errands. My husband ate lunch in his work truck (he owned his own contracting business), while driving between job sites. I think this eating pattern was common among our work peers; there simply wasn't enough time in the day to have a proper lunch. Since we retired, we haven't eaten any meals in our vehicles. However, I keep a bag of 'car snacks' on hand for when we get delayed when running errands, or when we're on long driving trips and don't stop for a mid-day meal. Our car snacks are 100 calorie packs of both sweet and savory varieties.

It was aged as a large piece (what you're calling primal, I presume??). They cut off a steak for me this morning. It is prime.

Splurged on a 30-day dry-aged strip steak at a local meat market today. I will grill it. Should I expect the grilling time to be the same as for a 'regular' steak of the same thickness, size, etc.? I normally apply a home-made rub (spicy/salty and a tad of brown sugar, too). Should I use the rub on this dry-aged steak, or do I risk detracting from its flavor (especially since we've never had it before, not at home nor at a restaurant)? Any suggestions appreciated!

For pizza: Geno's East with Charred Pepperoni

Here's an article from Cornell University about growing one's own. Tener cuidado. https://blog.mycology.cornell.edu/2007/11/13/huitlacoche/

Fresh huitlacoche IS indeed marvelous. Canned....eeeewwww. We lived in MX for 5 years and when we returned to the US, I bought the canned version and it is such unlike the real deal. Like canned mushrooms are to fresh mushrooms. I have never seen fresh huitlacoche in the US and even in MX it could be elusive. In San Miguel and Guanajuato is was almost always available. In Chapala (where we lived), it wasn't as common in the markets or restaurants.

Caviar Sea Urchin

We eat hotdogs rarely. When we do, I buy Oscar Mayer Cheese Dogs. I grill till blackened. Top with hot brown mustard and lots of tabasco sauce. And minced white onion.

I cook 90% of my meals outdoors on my gas grill (I only cook one meal a day at home on average). In summers, turning on the oven and/or stove-top generates heat indoors and means more energy for a/c....we live in Central Florida so a/c is a fact of life, but we use it sparingly as we can, have ceiling fans in every room, including the kitchen.

I, too, almost died from e-coli, contracted from a too rare hamburger in Mexico (on vacation, but it didn't stop me from buying a house and moving there). My husband contracted shigella (3rd world dysentery) at a high-end cafe in Fairfax VA (one of the richest counties in the US). The Health Dept. found the shigella in the salad greens. Did I stop eating hamburgers in MX, no (though I learned to eat them cooked tres-quatro); did we stop eating salads at restaurants, no. Did we stop eating greens, no. Do I bleach or UV my kitchen surfaces, no. I do run utensils and cutting boards (plastic) through the dishwasher which we run on high heat. If I work with raw meat/poultry/fish, I throw my kitchen towel in the washer immediately afterward. If I was a bit sloppy working with raw protein, I'll spray some all-purpose cleaner on the counter near the cutting board.

My beer-based recipes are a tad more pedestrian: Beer-can chicken on the grill. Shrimp boil with beer.

Success! I brined the quail for 2 hours. Dried off, then rubbed with olive oil, s&p. I spatchcocked them. Grilled 4 minutes skin-side down. Then about 90 seconds after a flip; let rest 8 minutes. They were very tender and quite good; served with a chipotle-cherry dipping sauce and a mango salsa on the side. Thanks to all for the advice!

I bought some cut-up bone-in quail. Never cooked it before. My go-to method for most protein is grilling. Normally I put a rub on poultry before grilling, rather than marinate. Any suggestions on which method better suits quail. Also, should I brine it? I've eaten quail in restaurants and have sometimes found it too dry, probably from overcooking is my guess as it's not very fleshy (and generally I find many restaurants overcook poultry for my taste). I have googled and found rough estimates of cooking times by quail parts, but will check meat as I grill for doneness. If anyone has hands-on experience grilling quail, I'm all ears. TIA.

I don't find Fieri at all watchable, let alone likable.

We lived in Ajijic, on Lake Chapala. We used it as our base to travel the country by car and by plane (we were 30 minutes from Guadalajara airport). We sold our home in late 2013 and moved back to the US due to family eldercare issues on the East Coast. When we are no longer needed here, we may very well return full-time to MX.

In our 5+ years living in MX, we ate tacos pastor everywhere, but tacos arabes were only in Pueblo. It's the wrap of the arabe that makes it so different....like a marriage between a flour tortilla and a pita. On the vertical spit of meat, we never had pastors and arabes side-by-side, so I can't honestly say how they differ; In my mind they were pretty similar. Jaymes....when you're in Puebla maybe you can do a taste test between the two and report back

This link explains tacos arabes....I think they are the best food in Puebla. http://www.puebla-mexico.com/tag/taco-arabe/ This link tells the China Poblana story: http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/lachina.html Here are photos of both from our last trip to Puebla. The statue of the China Poblana was at the dining courtyard La Casona de la China Poblana. The taca arabe photo was taken at Las Ranas a typical hole-in-the-wall eatery serving them.

Our favorite eatery in Puebla is also a cooking school; the Meson Sacristia de la Compania....reserve in advance. We had 3 meals there all superb. Also ate at the high end restaurant in the hotel La Casona de La China Poblano....their dining courtyard is graced with a larger-than-life sized statue of the famed China Poblano and their service was excellent as was the meal. There was a surprisingly good and very popular Italian restaurant on the zocalo. We ate a few others around the zocalo, a few with top level balconies with great views over the plaza, a great people-watching spot. We also ate (as we always do) in the main mercado....follow your nose to the grills that line the area near the fresh meat section. Great pozole at Pozoleria Matamoras....it's all they sell. The rest of our meals were taca arabe stands...they are EVERYWHERE and all are very very tasty! Las Ranas was the one we liked the best. Cemitas is the tipico sandwich in Puebla with a variety of fillings; the most common is pata de res: beef feet cartilage which tastes way better than it sounds! Again, you will find cemitas stands and holes-in-the-walls everywhere. We also snacked on a lot of candy at the Dulce Mercado/Calle...an amazing site. We spent one day in nearby Cholula touring the pyramid and Los Remedios and the Convento de San Gabriel. In Cholula we ate at a small place, La Lunita where we had conejo en mole' pipian (rabbit mole with pumpkin seeds) and huitalacoche crepes (corn fungus). My Cinco de Mayo meal this year will feature that mole' as I have recently found rabbit for sale here in my tiny FLA town! Enjoy Puebla...we love that it is a bit off the normal turista beaten path.

Since traditionally, fresh pomegranate seeds are found in late summer, Chiles en Nogada is THE dish for Mexican Independence Day on 16 de Septiembre. Every September we would try as many as we could as they would be on many special menus for about a week preceding the holiday.

Cinco de Mayo marks the date of the Mexican victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla; it was a short-lived victory as a year later the Mexican army was defeated and Maximilian was installed as the ruler of Mexico. Cinco de Mayo is not celebrated in Mexico to any great extent, other than in Puebla. Though in the US, Anheuser Busch has succeeded in making it a very big party day at bars and eateries. I lived in Mexico for 5 years full-time and we will celebrate with a Mole' Poblano which originated in Puebla. The word Poblana or Poblano means a person or thing derived from the City of Puebla. Yes, I know that Oaxaca also claims mole' as its dish, but I side with Puebla in this battle. Besides mole' the best dish of Puebla is the taco arabe; the meat is pork on a vertical spit like shawarma and its wrap is more like a pita than a tortilla. They are divine. In all our travels in Mexico, we never saw taco arabes anywhere else. I've heard it argued it was introduced by Lebanese immigrants in Mexico but I don't know if that's true. Though there is a Lebanese community in Mexico, including Carlos Slim, the world's richest man. With what dish will you celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

My DH likes his asparagus topped with either a poached egg or diced hard boiled egg, and some shaved Parm and (sometimes) diced prosciutto. It's a meal for him, not a side.

Toss in olive oil with s&p; GRILL over high heat to get grillmarks outside, still crispy inside. Remove from grill and give it another shot of olive oil and a bit of fresh lemon juice and a shave of lemon peel.

Our current home (bought it a year ago) has no hood over the cook top; putting one in would be expensive and more importantly to me, very disruptive, dusty, messy. Installing a hood would also detract from the openness of our living space. We thought about changing to a downdraft cook top (had one years ago and it was ok), but that option would take away lots and lots of existing lower storage space in this kitchen. Luckily we live in Central Florida and can do most of our cooking outdoors on a large gas grill with a very powerful side burner. I much prefer searing duck breasts and ahi tuna outside rather than inside even if I had a hood...there's no real clean up needed at the grill (the splatters tend to hit landscape plants that don't seem to mind). We are also lucky in that we go out for dinner 5 nights a week. Most of our at-home meals are grilled fish or meats that we serve over salads or with grilled veggies. It's the type of food we prefer. I should also mention that our former house in AZ had a 1927 Garland gas stove with NO insulation; that's when we learned a lot of grilling techniques! When we do cook on the stovetop, we put on two ceiling fans (one in the kitchen, one in the adjoining but mostly open family room). Any lingering food aromas just remind us of another great meal together.