Chad

KC strips? Yup, Kansas City strips, known elsewhere as New York strip steaks. Call 'em that here in Kansas (where they were ostensibly first served) and you'll get your butt whipped. Damn yummy, too -- USDA prime Sterling Silver steaks pan seared in a rocket-hot cast iron skillet for 30 seconds per side, finished in a 500 degree oven for another 2 minutes per side for a lovely medium rare. The mushroom risotto turned out beautifully, especially for my first try. I'd never made risotto before. Weird, no? I used dried shitake, porcini and morels from Earthy Delights. Yes, I am a man of loose morels. Anyway, the mushrooms were rehydrated in the simmering stock, giving it an even richer flavor. I left them whole rather than dicing them just because it looked cooler that way. Chad (edited to clarify that KC stands for Kansas City)

Bwahahahahaa! Chad

Pan seared KC strips with mushroom risotto (made with my own venison stock!), asparagus and focaccia. Cheap summer swill wine. Chad

This is truly disturbing and brilliant. Chad

Okay, here are mine: Edwin had a brush with Death, a potato brush to be exact, which he used to scrub merrily away at other vegetables as well, never daring to guess at the sinister purposes to which Death might put the aged scrub brush with its splayed bristles and thin wire handle. “Onions, rutabagas, carrots,” recited Chef Paul, running through the list of root vegetables like a man trying to remember the batting averages of the ’56 Mets, attempting heroically to prolong this stockroom dalliance, but the seductions of pink, firm flesh became to much for him and he cried out in his climax, “Radishes! Radishes!” much to the puzzlement of Marie, the garde manger squirming lustily beneath him. “Romaine, it was Romaine,” sous-chef Olaf cried in horror as he stared at his Norwegian-French dictionary, cursing himself for not questioning, but no one ever questioned the orders of Chef Jean-Pierre Guignol with his impenetrable Basque accent when he and his exotic cuisine demanded an ingredient, one simply barked “Oui, Chef!” and started running, though Olaf had wondered when he presented the head of Roman, the Estonian busboy, to the chef what dish it might inspire, never realizing that the Chef was thinking the exact same thing. Hey! I even managed to keep to the one-sentence opening requirement. Cool. Chad (edited to correct the spelling of Romaine)

Ya know, I've wondered about that. I have a crappy electric stove with what seem to be smaller than average burners. I has occured to me that uneven heating due to the pan hanging off the edges might be the culprit. The weird thing is that when the pans warp they seem to bulge in the center. I've taken to whacking mine with a hammer every once in a while to even it out. Chad

Hmm, my Calphalon 5qt saute has warped, too. And this is the second one. I'll keep taking them back to BBB until they get sick of seeing me. One kitchen essential that no one has mentioned yet is a 12" cast iron pan. Absolutely essential. About $15 and available at most hardware stores, Lodge is the reigning king of cast iron. I use mine more than any other pan in the kitchen. Chad

Well, we gussied up the polenta cakes with some jarred salsa and everybody choked it down, but it was disappointing. Very little roasted garlic flavor & way too thick to saute properly so I ended up finishing in the oven. It didn't help that I burned my hand while trying to flip one . But, as I said, the kids are real troopers and are wonderful about trying just about anything I put in front of them. They even ate my bizarre and disgusting lentil & brown rice cassarole :shudder:. Chad

Last night: Grilled chicken breasts marinated in salsa fresca, sauted roasted garlic polenta, broccoli w/cheddar. [sigh] If anybody's keeping score, my polenta sucked. It's pretty much banned from the menu. I can't bear to put my kids through another polenta experiment. Hmm, perhaps while they're away. Chad

Last night, leftover quesadillas (from Sunday's big day at the stove) and homemade salsa fresca. Tonight I'm trying a new idea and grilling chicken breasts I marinated overnight in the remainder of the salsa. Should be interesting. I'm curious to see how much flavor and/or heat works its way into the breasts. They'll be served with roasted corn & garlic polenta and fresh green beans. Can you hear the children groaning from here? They're usually great about the dinners I make. They'll try anything and, for the most part, really enjoy my cooking. However, I've bombed on two previous polenta dishes, so this could be the final moment for the beleaguered corn cakes . Chad

Hmmm, risotto sounds good. I have a bunch of dried mushrooms hanging around in the pantry (sampler pack from Earthy Delights, a very nifty site, by the way). Yup, they had plenty of venison, all from farm-raised fallow deer, apparently a European variety of deer. I hadn't heard of it before. The bones were sold in a cryovac package labeled "Soup Bones." The package weighed about 3 pounds and was priced just under $5. Lots of meat surrounding the bones, too. An added bonus for the stock. The market was in the parking lot of the Agricultural Extension office in Wichita, KS. It's not huge, but everything is fresh and locally grown. The farm-raised chicken I bought to roast was excellent as were the sweet onions and the tomatoes that actually tasted like tomatoes. I can't wait for corn to come into season. Chad

Hmm, I'd suspect that around here making your own stock or spending two days on a biga-style Italian bread are just part of the entrance requirements. I do both, but not all the time. I often cheat and use reduced stocks & demi-glaces from More than Gourmet. They're really pretty good for stuff like pan sauces and quick soups. Of course tubs of "Fond de Poulet" arriving at work get me exactly the sort of looks we're talking about here . But the biggie is when I come in with bare patches on my forearms from sharpening my kitchen knives. I may look like I have mange, but my kitchen knives cut like laser scalpels. It's worth it. It is, isn't it? I'm not like . . . sick or anything? Right? Right? Chad

One of the better finds at this weekend's farmer's market was frozen venison bones. Being an adventurous soul, I bought a couple of pounds, roasted them and made stock. I also tossed in the carcass of a chicken I had roasted earlier in the morning. The smell of the roasted venison bones was amazing, very meaty and spicy. I've cooked venison a couple of times but have never smelled anything like this. Interestingly, there was a lot more surface scum scudding about than usual. It was hard to skim it all. So, I've got about 3 quarts of slightly cloudy stock and find myself running short of ideas. What can I do with it? Obviously I'm thinking soup -- possibly some sort of beef & barley, but what else? Is there anything that just screams out for venison stock? Thanks, Chad

Not sure if this counts, but my favorite misused term was in a menu. Someone was obviously familiar enough with Pasta Puttanesca to make a variation of it but didn't know what the name meant. So they came up with Puttanesca de la Mer . "Ask any mermaid you happen to see . . ." Chad

Canned chipotles in adobo, for the moment. I pluck a few chiles out and puree them alone for the smoked chile sauce. The rest of the peppers & adobo went toward the pork chop marinade/bbq sauce last night. However, I just harvested the first of my cayennes last night, and a couple of others are ripening nicely. If the habaneros ever mature I'll be smoking, pickling, drying and whatever the hell else I can think of. I'm looking forward to trying my own smoked peppers in the sauce (which is really just pureed peppers, sour cream, lime juice and S&P, but it warms up the soup nicely). Chad

Thursday: Chipotle marinated grilled pork chops, broccoli with cheddar ("Trees with Cheese" to the kids), black beans & rice. Tonight (Friday): Beats the hell out of me. My daughter's softball game isn't over unitl 8:00, so dinner will probably be quickie nachos eaten standing up in the kitchen. Saturday: Roasted corn soup with smoked chile sauce, chicken & prosciutto quesadillas. Dunno about the veg yet. Could be julienned carrots & asparagus. That way I'd get to use my mandolin and stick blender in the same meal . Chad

Holly, sounds great! Claiborne's recipe is pretty close to the way I do it, but ya gotta use buttermilk. Lactic acid is good, it imparts a slightly tangy flavor. An overnight soak is good because the buttermilk thickens even more. That's the real advantage to buttermilk, the viscosity. Stuff just sticks to it better and your crispy coating doesn't fall off. I also use a rub of sorts prior to dredging. Just a little garlic powder, cayenne & kosher salt. I sprinkle the rub liberally on the drained chicken then coat with flour. That way the cayenne doesn't burn in the pan. Just a couple of thoughts for your next frying adventure. Chad

Favorite on-line food source is Earthy Delights Earthy Delights. All sorts of nifty oils, mushrooms (fresh and dried), high end produce, hard-to-find herbs & spices, etc. Very cool. Chad

Yup, I have one of the mid-sized ones, and it's fantastic. Holds a boatload of peppercorns, grinds effortlessly, turns out a ton of pepper per twist and has yet to bind up. I can't say enough good about it. Of course, this is in home use. Heavy duty home use, but still not the sort of abuse it might see in a professional kitchen. Still, I have a hard time imagining how you could break one. You'd have to really work at it. One day, when I'm cool enough, I might get the hip holster for it. That'd be too cool. Chad

Ah, here we go: "Dear Yahoo!: What is a pimento and why is it in my olive? John Little Cressingham, England Dear John: Great question -- that sweet red blotch inside a tart green olive has always been a puzzler. To answer part one of your question, we headed straight for Epicurious.com, where we found the following definition: pimiento; pimento A large, red, heart-shaped sweet pepper that measures 3 to 4 inches long and 2 to 3 inches wide. The flesh of the pimiento (the Spanish word for "pepper") is sweet, succulent and more aromatic than that of the red bell pepper... Pimientos are the familiar red stuffing found in green olives. Armed with a new appreciation for sweet peppers, we entered "olive + pimento" and "olive history" in the Yahoo! search box, hoping to answer the second part of your question. We couldn't find a specific reason as to where or why the practice of stuffing olives with pimentos started, but we did find some interesting facts about olives that may hint at a reason. First, Spain leads the world in olive production, followed by Italy and Portugal. Since "pimento" is a Spanish word, we're guessing maybe they started the pimento practice. That answers the where, now for the why. All freshly picked olives, no matter how ripe, have a vile, intensely bitter taste. In order to make them palatable, they must be pickled. Since pimentos are sweet and indigenous to the Mediterranean, it's easy to imagine an innovative farmer or chef way back when thinking they would make the perfect neutralizer to the olive's natural acidity. After all, aren't the best dishes created with ingredients most readily available? While this is all speculation, if you visited a Spanish tapas bar and sampled a variety of olive offerings, you'd see our point. So pour yourself a martini and puzzle no more. "

Well, the pimento is a type of pepper, but not, as far as I know, a red bell. It's got a little more heat to it. But I don't see why your pimentos couldn't be used anyplace you'd use a good pepper. Sounds pretty yummy to me. Chad

Well, they're a pepper, so you could use them however you might use a fresh pepper. Salads, salsas, whatever. Or dry them and grind them into Paprika (that's what it's made from). Chad

Hmm, Cholula is a perennial favorite, though Cajun Sunshine is right up there, too. Right now the stuff I'm splashing on everything is Blair's Death Sauce. Man, it's good. I've tried Dave's stuff, but it's just heat without a whole lot of flavor (aside from the chemical aftertaste). Blair's is plenty hot with a lot of flavor and a slow-build sort of heat. I've also been playing with Blue Mountain Country, an inexpensive hot sauce that's pretty tastey but a little vinegary for general use. Next on the list to try are Brother Bru Bru's and Busha Brown's. By the way http://www.screamindemon.net/ has a good selection and really great prices. I've got a couple of habanero, Carolina cayenne and SuperChile plants growing at the moment. Should be an interesting summer o' salsas. Chad

I'm not JAZ, but I can recommend a great book or two. My personal favorite is Sin & Syntax. I've been writing professionally for about 15 years, and this is the best book I've come across for understanding sentence structure. It's also a hell of a lot of fun to read. Chad

Chicken place in Lima Ohio. I can't remember the name, but you had to fight your way through a sea of blue hair to get served. Their slogan? If there's a better piece of chicken, the rooster's getting it. I love that. Chad