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Klatsch: Don't Shop Now!


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Saffron rabbit turned out great, though next time I'll use tamer olives. I used black shriveled (dry cured?) ones that turned out to be too salty once heated up. Great cold though! More work than your average dish, had to butcher the rabbit first too, but it all came together great. I cooked up the spinach with left over pine nuts (toasted and sprinkled with paprika) and fried up bacon bits, a spoon or two of left over sour cream. Turned out very tasty! Also defrosted a sourdough bread from a while ago and baked it up. Great medieval dish, that I'll make again for sure. Maybe also with chicken someday.

I did buy some stuff today, but won't use it this week. Had to go to CostPlus to get Advent Calendars for the kids, luckily they still had some. As they have things there I can't get anywhere else I bought them instead of going back in a week, but they won't be used in this weeks cooking. Only stuff I'll keep on getting fresh is milk, muffins and greens for salad.

Part of the fun of this project is figuring out what to do with the items I have, going through books and selecting recipes that fit what I have on hand!

I also really like getting to all those good things I packed in the freezer, I might just continue with this project until next year, make room for other good things to store :-)

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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Monday – Day 5: I was able to move the remaining items in my small upright garage freezer into the kitchen freezer today. The garage freezer is now all defrosted and set on low to keep it cool until I get more stuff for it! Actually, I don’t need the extra space and may try to sell it. I had bought it about 10 years ago when I was breeding dogs and used it to store the 40 lbs of chicken necks I got every couple of weeks. Today’s Meals: I wasn’t hungry this morning so only had tea but my husband had the last English muffin with butter and grape jelly and his usual large orange juice. He eats lunch out every day during the week so it was only me making a dent in the turkey salad today, again on dark rye. Dinner tonight was tilapia fillets dusted with flour, salt and pepper and pan fried in a bit of olive oil. I used the last of the fresh mushrooms with some butter and parsley (from the garden) to finish the fish. For sides we had green peas and steamed russet potatoes dressed with olive oil and thyme leaves (again from the garden).

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And, any idea what to do with celeriac, a whole grain torpedo shaped loaf of bread from Bouchon Bakery (found in the bottom of the freezer), 1# ground lamb, a bunch of tiny little lamb chops, a bag of bread ends, tons of flavored brats (no grilling in the winter), or leg of lamb ends?

Not sure about the rest, but that lamb can all be ground or minced, combined with some of those onions and that that garlic, some spices, and made into little meatballs or kebabs.

Chris Amirault

eG Ethics Signatory

Sir Luscious got gator belts and patty melts

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.....And, any idea what to do with celeriac...

Celeriac (aka celery root) remoulade, baby. Plenty of recipes on-line, or just shred it up and use your favorite remoulade sauce recipe. Also gratins, creamed...etc. Google "celery root recipes" and you should get a bundle of ideas. Remoulade being the best :wink:

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

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Yesterday, uneventful....Leftover meatloaf (there was a lot!) and Pasta e fagioli made with canned borlotti beans. We didn't even have sides. It was a cold rainy day and we had big bowls of pasta e fagioli for lunch so just the protein was plenty at dinner. We also large cups of tea.

Today We've been invited to lunch at my Mother inlaws....I'm excited to eat the tortellini in brodo she is making...

Edited by ambra (log)
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And, any idea what to do with celeriac, a whole grain torpedo shaped loaf of bread from Bouchon Bakery (found in the bottom of the freezer), 1# ground lamb, a bunch of tiny little lamb chops, a bag of bread ends, tons of flavored brats (no grilling in the winter), or leg of lamb ends?

Not sure about the rest, but that lamb can all be ground or minced, combined with some of those onions and that that garlic, some spices, and made into little meatballs or kebabs.

I second the idea of meatballs, grind up some of the bread ends for crumbs; the remoulade already mentioned; the brats can be worked into a bean dish, or with cabbage or sauerkraut and some more of the onions. Brown the sausages slowly in a deep frying pan, toss in the onions, sliced, after a little fat has rendered from the meat, then after the onios get limp and brownish, add some garlic and the kraut (well rinsed and drained, please) and/or the beans (rinsed and drained) Simmer for a while and serve on the 'torpedo' bread, toasted. HTH!

"Commit random acts of senseless kindness"

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Except for cereal for breakfast yesterday and today, I am still subsisting on leftovers from T-Day.

Lunch today will be one of the stuffed squash and the last portion of pickled nopales and dinner this evening will be the last of the tamales with some fruit salad.

Tomorrow I will have to begin cooking again and for the moment, haven't a clue as to what I will prepare.

Meanwhile I am getting on with the holiday baking projects. (All supplies laid in weeks ago.)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Tonight for dinner I had more left over meatloaf and my husband didn't eat because his mom stuffed him today!

I went and did shopping for my party tomorrow, but I think you will all be pleased with my minimal shopping! I bought yeast, mozzarella, lemons, flour and butter. I am making Lemon Layer Cake and Panzerotti for my party tomorrow!! I thought my minimalist menu would go well with this project!! I did by extra sugar and milk as well as fresh fruit for my son as I don't even have any fruit purees left. And I can't live with out my caffe latte in the AM!!

Edited by ambra (log)
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Tuesday – Day 6: First, I forgot to mention yesterday that I had made a batch of breakfast taco mix (ground pork sausage, russet potatoes, pico de gallo, and egg) that I used to fill my last six whole wheat tortillas. We each had one of these tacos (reheated in the microwave) for breakfast this morning. Mine with my tea and hubby’s with his orange juice. (I did have to replenish his supply of oj when I shopped for cleaning and paper products yesterday. Think of it as getting milk for your child!) We have four more premade tacos that will take care of breakfast for the next two days. We both had lunch at home today – most of the rest of the turkey salad on dark rye with tomato slices from one of our two remaining romas. There is now only about a quarter cup of the turkey salad left. Dinner was meat sauce from the freezer over rotini and a green salad with balsamic vinaigrette. The salad used up the last of the romaine, one of five carrots, one stalk of celery, half of the last tomato, and the last two marinated artichoke hearts that have been hanging out in the fridge for some time. Both the pasta and the salad were sprinkled with grated parmesan. My husband usually has garlic toast with his pasta but since we didn’t have any he slathered a piece of the dark rye with butter and had that instead.

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And, any idea what to do with celeriac...

I have a couple celery roots languishing in my fridge, so I was wondering what to do with them, too.

The easiest solution--peel, cut up in chunks, rub with chopped garlic, olive oil, S&P, and roast 'em like potatoes in a hot oven (400 degrees). Serve as a side dish. If you have any potatoes around, cut those up and marinate as above, and roast with the celeriac.

Or you can boil/steam some potatoes and celeriac, and mash them together with S&P and melted butter.

Potatoes and celeriac are a great combo.

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I am now working on some of the items which have been lurking (unnoticed) in the pantry for some time. I threw out half a bag of pistachios in the shell. The expiration date was 09/04 - so I suspect they were a bit past their prime. Obviously, no one in our home cares for pistachios - or at least they won't eat them if they are so labor intensive as to require shelling. I just finished off a box of instant tapioca and began on the replacement box. That is one less box on the shelf and tonight's dessert is ready.

For breakfast this morning, I prepared a bowl of Quaker Steel Cut Oats. I think two more breakfasts will finish off that box. Then I can resume my regular oatmeal mix which I normally have about five times per week.

Dinner tonight will be pork chops and gravy from the Cooking Light Slow Cooker cookbook along with mashed potatoes from The Complete Cooking Light - using buttermilk rather than regular skim milk. The tapioca was also made with buttermilk. Also being served is some walnut raisin whole wheat bread - also from The Complete Cooking Light - which will be sliced, buttered and toasted before being served.

Nothing consumed at home last night because Janis and I went to see "Julie and Julia" and grabbed a quick bite on the way. The movie was very enjoyable and we left hungry and stopped for another quick bite on our way home. That is one movie that needs the same advice as grocery shopping. Don't go when you are hungry.

I have begun to realize that we have a lot of rice and other grains. Most meals need to include these or they will be here forever. I also have a couple of acorn squash and several sweet potatoes - along with several russets. The starches may outlast the meats.

My belated suggestion for the ground lamb is chili. I have used a variety of red meats in chili and they have all turned out well. Bison, lamb, ostrich, beef, pork, turkey, and chicken all get used in chili around here. Red meat and poultry recipes are different, but the red meats and the poultry used can vary greatly.

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Wednesday – Day 7: This morning we had breakfast tacos again. Lunch was the last of the turkey salad with sliced tomato on dark rye. Dinner was a chuck roast (from the freezer) with the last of the carrots, half of the last onion, and four russets (leaving 5 or 6 to go from a ten pound bag). I made gravy from the pan juices and a batch of dinner rolls from scratch. Dinner tomorrow night will be leftovers from tonight. I will be shopping tomorrow but only for the regular items we need to replenish. I still have enough meat in the freezer to go several more weeks so will not be buying any this week.

Edited by robirdstx (log)
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Today I made roasted pork stock with the leftovers from Thanksgiving. For dinner, we had hot & sour soup and pork & scallion dumplings. This used up some of the stock, some of the Napa cabbage from the crisper (I love them because they stay good forever and make tasty salads when I need some crunch!), plus about a pound of roasted pork meat between the two recipes. It also took advantage of my stock of Asian spices and condiments. Leftovers from this meal tomorrow for lunch!

Edited by Corinna (log)

Corinna Heinz, aka Corinna

Check out my adventures, culinary and otherwise at http://corinnawith2ns.blogspot.com/

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I've been keeping an eye (lurking?) on your progress, thinking about how great it would be to participate. But...then I pop into the market for a couple of items and tell myself that I've "blown it" and will have to wait before joining in.

I arrived home from work last night and didn't have thawed meat or leftovers ready to serve for dinner. I was tired and wasn't patient enough to defrost something, so I scrounged through the pantry and fridge. I ended up making a quick version of Onion Soup, with canned chicken stock instead of homemade beef stock, and threw together a salad with romaine, onion and celery (the only fresh vegs in the fridge). Dinner was great and I was impressed that I created something out of "nothing".

Then, I realized, it was time to join the Klatch.

I admit that I stopped for hard taco shells on the way home tonight, but dinner for the family was ground beef and black bean tacos with onion/lettuce/sour cream/cheddar and salsa. Dessert was some leftover chocolate cake we've been snacking on.

Breakfast for me was oatmeal with blueberries frozen last summer, while the kids ate peanut butter. That's it - just spoonfuls of peanut butter. Hubby has cereal. Lunch was a peanut butter sandwich, steamed broccoli and raisins. The kids bring their lunches to school each day and husband comes home for lunch - usualy eating a sandwich and chips. Kids ate sandwiches, apples, chips or pretzels, cheese sticks and water.

We're a family of 4 - with 2 teenagers - and go through a LOT of food each week. I'm taking on this challenge in part to come up with new meals, limiting myself to food only found in the house. Now that I'm finally posting, I'm holding myself accountable and will post updates. I wonder how long it will take for anyone in my family to even realize I'm not shopping for food this week?

Beaches Pastry

May your celebrations be sweet!

Beaches Pastry Blog

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dinner was a medley of different brats I found in the freezer, plus potatoes and some salad. 5 kinds or so of mustard (I'm and addict) and it was all good.

I'm nearing the end of my part here though, it's been two weeks more or less. Tomorrow evg we'll be at a book signing by Thomas Keller, supposedly with some catered snacks, Fri I'll probably make pasta with frozen meatballs to make more room in the freezer, but I'm now out of just about anything fresh, no more potatoes, tomatoes, low on onions and garlic. Lots of good stuff in the freezer still, and I won't shop for meats for quite a while now, but I'm gonna have to pick up some more fresh things, most likely will hit the farmer's market on Sunday.

That'll make almost 3 weeks w/o any major food shopping! Not bad, especially before x-mas and considering we had to put some major cash into my wife's car this month, all fell into place just fine I guess :-)

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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I am plugging along, but I think I'm beginning to see the end of the road pretty soon. MAYBE one more week, but I fear that would deplete the freezer/pantry stores too significantly for me to be comfortable. For a variety of reasons (living in earthquake country, having a chronic health issue that often leaves me unable/unwilling to cook from scratch), I like to have a fairly good-sized stash available to me in case I can't get to the store or don't feel like doing anything more than throwing something into the nuker.

I *can* happily say, however, that all of the really old stocks are gone, used in what turned out to be surprisingly satisfying and tasty dishes.

We last chatted, I believe on Sunday, with my best-ever pizza out of leftover dough and salumi products in the freezer, plus decomposing grape tomatoes and other stuff from the fridge.

Brunchie on Monday was a slice of the leftover 'za, which was every bit as good cold as it had been fresh out of the oven on Sunday. I made some "jelly buns" from a recipe out of an old Gourmet I'd just found, all from stock ingredients (flour, eggs, sugar, milk, baking powder and obviously jam). Froze 4 of them for future use, and baked off another 4 for breakies this week. Dinner was a recreation of a childhood favorite, with hopefully some improvements. I can remember my Mom making "Spam kabobs" with chunks of Spam, onion, green bell pepper and canned pineapple on skewers, broiled, and served with box mac & cheese doctored with chopped tomatoes, garlic powder and plain yogurt. No Spam (shudder) but I did have a couple of smoked sausages in the freezer that I used instead. Had the other kabob ingredients in the fridge/pantry, as well as the mac & cheese makings. Although I must admit, it was the "deluxe" boxed mac & cheese rather than the one with the powder.....and although I had plain yogurt, I used creme fraiche instead, since that was open and the yogurt was not. I figured the yogurt would last longer with the original seal. It was surprisingly not bad. Roasted the week-old broccolini to go with it, and had hoped to have some leftover for a small salad later in the week, but it was very meh-ish. My fault, not the broccolini's. I over-cooked it *and* horrendously over-salted it. It was, unfortunately, not salvegable after I'd worked it over. :sad:

Yesterday's breakie was obviously, a jelly bun. Late lunch was the last slice of Sunday's pizza, which was showing its age at that point, but still edible. No longer stellar, but edible. Since I'd had a little "issue" on Monday while putting up Christmas decorations, I didn't go to work, and took an afternoon nap. Late dinner was another breakfast for dinner iteration, all with stocks...pancakes from a Trader Joe's Bisquik knock-off and pork sausage.

Today was work day, and yes, a jelly bun for breakfast. Lunch was leftover caldillo from Saturday, and it was, as "stew-y" things often are, better leftover. Dinner was salmon patties (from the pantry/fridge, don't know HOW long I'd had that can of salmon, but it was a loooooong time) and a baked potato (from the pantry) which also killed the last of the creme fraiche instead of sour cream. I have one potato left out of a 5 pound bag I'd bought almost 3 weeks ago. That for me, is excellent. Potatoes are one of my most frequently discarded produce items. To get some fruit/veg into the picture, I had a D'Anjou pear that had been hanging out in the fridge for over 2 weeks, and it was in surprisingly good shape. That is one of my big take-home messages from this project. I have wrongly assumed in the past that if produce has been in the fridge for a week or so, it's bad, and I should just toss it rather than try to use it. I am learning, slowly, that if I was on the ball enough to get it into cold storage when it's still good, its likely still good in a week or so.

Tomorrow will be a jelly bun, and lunch will be leftover mac & cheese and kabobs from Monday. I'm planning on making a pasta with the last of the pancetta from Sunday's pizza, in a cream sauce, but we'll see what develops.

Friday or Saturday will be my decision day as to whether I keep going, or pull out to keep some reserves in, well, reserve. Overall, I can say I've learned a whole bunch, and hopefully have broken some bad habits in the process.

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

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The party was a hit. The Panzerotti came out the best we've ever made. For lunch I had made sausage from the freezer and some of the little calzone-y type things. Something quick seeing as how I made a cake from scratch, cleaned the whole house, ran the various errands etc.

Today chicken breast from freezer and rice pilaf made by toasting broken up pieces of angel hair pasta in butter, and once it's brown-not black- adding the rice and salt and boiling til done. I must admit that I would LOVE to make some yogurt sauce to go with it, but alas, no shopping.

I leaving town this weekend, so I am probably going to stop on Saturday. I might try to start up again afterwards, but we'll see how I feel when I get back. Honestly, not shopping up until Xmas, would surely help the Xmas budget.

FG, I've been looking forward to your Fried chicken! Wha-happen?

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FG, I've been looking forward to your Fried chicken! Wha-happen?

Sorry to disappear on you. I had to go off the grid for a couple of days for a medical thing and am just getting back in the swing of things. I've got a whole mess of photos to share and stuff to tell and will try to get my act together today.

Quick video preview of the fried chicken:

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Tonights signing with Keller is an invite only thing at Williams Sonoma (don't I feel special! No idea why we got the invite actually), but he's also signing at the Palo Alto store on Sunday. Check the WS website to find more info. I think there are still some other dates elsewhere too.

I'm already feeling like a star struck teenager :laugh: No idea what to say or ask, but I'll post a little note here or probably better in the Ad Hoc thread over in cooking, maybe have a photo or two to share. Not too happy that I have to buy the book again to get it signed, but so be it. Understandable from WS's point of view.

Friends are watching the kids and I'll make some pasta with tomato sauce for everyone. But then I think I have to go shop for some things, still have lots of meat, and maybe I'll make some chicken with rice on Fri. Then I really want to make the fried chicken from Ad Hoc this weekend, but I think on Sun I have to hit the Farmer's Market.

I will try to stop myself from stocking up on "this looks good" and "I have to try that" things though, aside of fresh things I still could last for a long time. Amazing how much food stuff one can tuck away in the kitchen and pantry!

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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Well, Thursday is my usual weekly shopping day and after skipping a week it sure was fun to be doing it again. I had been making a list of the things we had run out of during the last week and am proud to say I stuck to my list, although I was tempted by the specials on wild caught gulf shrimp and a really great price on boneless chicken breasts. I went to two stores, the first is where I get most of my fresh produce and the second is where I get most of my staples. I only bought nine items at the first store for $18.00 and twenty items at the second for just over $36.00.

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It's been a busy week, the family eating out last night, and (for me) again today as lunch was catered in at work. The rest of the meals have been made up from ground beef spiced with taco seasoning, salad and roasted beets, leftover French Onion soup and canned tuna. I don't think my family even realizes that they're part of this effort! I tend to cook lots over the weekend, so "eating the leftovers" is how meals are in our house. It will get more interesting heading into next week, as I'm challenged to use ingredients on hand only.

I love the idea of making pasta - what a great way to utilize basic ingredients to create a special meal. Sauce frozen last month will top it off and no-one will be the wiser! I may find myself baking bread and sub rolls for lunch boxes - which still would be a treat! As long as the peanut butter holds out, we'll be in good shape...

Beaches Pastry

May your celebrations be sweet!

Beaches Pastry Blog

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I have a lot of catching up to do after a week that involved a lot of recuperation. Let me start with the fried-chicken report. To refresh your memory, a few weeks back I received in the mail from the Workman/Artisan PR department a copy of Thomas Keller's new cookbook, Ad Hoc At Home. Included with the book in the promotional package was a Thomas Keller fried-chicken kit.

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This kit, I have since learned, is available at Williams-Sonoma stores for $14.95.

The fried-chicken kit sat on my kitchen counter, taunting me, for some time until I fell into an opportunity to use it: we were to visit our friends in Connecticut. He had chicken. I had the Thomas Keller fried-chicken kit. Between us we had all the other necessary ingredients (like buttermilk and frying oil). So we combined forces. I packed up the fried-chicken kit as well as some other equipment (sheet pans, knives) and headed to Danbury.

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The fried-chicken kit contains enough seasoning and breading to make two batches. We were making one.

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We combined a seasoning packet with water, brought to a boil, let it cool outdoors (the outdoor temperature in Connecticut that weekend was basically refrigerator temperature) butchered the chicken (one small chicken and an extra breast) and put it in the brine in the refrigerator overnight.

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In the morning we took the chicken from the brine, patted it dry on towels and put it in a zipper bag in the fridge for a few hours. We then let it come up to room temperature for two hours before starting the actual fried-chicken process.

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We set up an assembly line: a bowl of the chicken-kit coating, a bowl of buttermilk and a wax-paper-lined sheet pan. The instructions called to dip in coating, buttermilk and coating again.

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We fried in peanut oil, outdoors, on the side burner of Sean's outdoor grill, figuring that doing it outdoors would make less of a mess.

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The first batch, the dark meat, went brilliantly. We let the oil temperature get a bit higher than specified before adding the meat, which caused it to drop right into the recommended zone and stay at about 325 the whole time. The next two batches must have had more mass, or something, because they caused bigger temperature drops and took longer to recover. This definitely made them less excellent, though they were still good.

Meanwhile we made some potatoes for mashed potatoes.

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The final feast:

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So, was the Thomas Keller fried-chicken kit a success? It certainly made good fried chicken. I don't think, however, that it's a particularly useful item. The kit doesn't accomplish any of the hard parts for you: you still need to butcher the chicken, brine it, bread it and deep fry it. The kit only saves you from measuring out your own salt and spices for the brine, and from adding your own seasonings to the breading. So you have this two-day, labor-intensive process that involves all these steps and maybe the fried-chicken kit saves you 10 minutes. And it's not like the pre-mixed seasonings are off-the-charts brilliant. The recipe is in the book, you can find it online, you can intuit it from the ingredients list on the packaging, or you can just use some other recipe because this one, while good, doesn't particularly elevate the art of fried-chicken making. One's success with the fryer, for example, is a lot more important to the outcome than the particulars of the seasoning in one's brine.

And look what it did to Sean's beautiful All-Clad pot, though we got it cleaned up fine after some soaking:

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Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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We almost always eat out Sunday noon and occasionally another time - frequently Friday evening. This past week, we have almost forgotten to eat at home. Tuesday found us picking my car up at our garage - which is seventeen miles from home. We were hungry and finally got to eat at a highly regarded barbecue restaurant that was only slightly out of our way on the trip back to home. It was fantastic - but did nothing to reduce our pantry overload. Wedneaday we had the pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy mentioned earlier. I also learned not to make tapioca pudding with buttermilk. I was curious to find out how it would taste and I found out. After eating the first two servings (mine and the rest of Janis'), I threw out the last four - which is something I seldom ever do. That is why the stories on how much food is thrown out amazes me. We totally consume almost everything I prepare - even when it is less than stellar.

Thursday evening found us out again - and close to Tuesday's barbecue restaurant. Near there is another place that I had not visited - but that had been very favorable reviewed on AtlantaCuisine. I had a veggie plate at Gabriel's Desserts and it was fantastic. Collards, fried okra, baked beans, and creamed corn were all very tasty. Last night was the annual holiday party for the staff where Janis teaches. I prepared stuffed fingerling potatoes (using the rest of our feta and goat cheese in the process, along with most of the remaining thawed bacon). They were very well received. Most of us had not had dinner and most of the guests brought desserts. The stuffed potatoes were the first plate emptied. I also brought the extra unused stuffing in a bowl to serve with pita chips. That also went over well.

Tonight's dinner will be catfish with aioli, leftover mashed potatoes and gravy, leftover fingerling stuffing, and a can of green beans from the pantry. A tossed salad will likely also be included.

Our fresh vegetables and fruit are under control. To maintain a healthy diet, I want to replenish those stocks as is appropriate - without any overstock. My challenge is the starches on hand. They need to be included in virtually every meal. The meat is still more than we should have on hand, but the quantities are reducing and I can sense that the end is within sight. Hallelujah!

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great report and pix, thanks! I'm gonna make this some day, I've never made fried chicken (or deepfried anything as I don't have a deep fryer, and as I won't do it often always figured I'm wasting a bottle of oil on one dish), the ones they passed around at the signing were quite good, very crunchy and tasty. They did sell the kit there too, but I did not buy it. Seems more like a gag or stocking stuffer than anything.

So, I'm officially declaring an end to my no shopping for a week now. It's been a good 2 1/2 weeks and it was fun, but I'm now out of potatoes, greens and other fresh things like herbs (the garden is shutting down now). Add to that that I have a sudden urge to cook from Ad Hoc at Home and while I do still have some frozen greens, I want to make those recipes with fresh stuff.

I'm still amazed (embarrassed?) by the amounts of food I found in the house, aside of fresh stuff we could easily eat an other month just fine. Partially because several meat orders just came in around the same time, but even with canned things, rice, beans etc, I would not need to shop much. I will try to restrain myself and make a shopping list (something I hardly ever do) and stick to it, see how that goes. In the course of this experiment I did organize some areas of food storage and got rid of some antiques I found, but I was glad to see that most stuff is going to be fine for a while or almost indefinitely, not too much outdated stuff was discovered. The largest in size were 1 1/2 bags of King Arthur Whole Wheat, still within date but not smelling all that fresh. That stuff goes rancid quick. I'll either buy small amounts from the bulk bin or freeze what I'm not using. And I'll try very hard to avoid the grab-what-ever-looks-good shopping. That was hard the first time I went to the store for milk but I'm somewhat getting used to it. I might just note down what I see that interests me and do a bit of research, find a recipe or two and then buy it, instead of storing it in the pantry where I'll forget I have it (and then buy it again).

This was a fun and interesting experience, I'd be up for joining in again in a couple months, come spring or so? And I'll continue reading along here of course :-)

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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