'Tis Hunting Time—A smallish blog

[Shelby]

16 minutes ago, KennethT said:

yay!  More hunting blog!

 

I don't want to rain on your parade or anything, but Mam Nem isn't really fish sauce... it's more of a fish paste-y-sauce and is much thicker and more pungent than normal fish sauce (nu'o'c mam) which is thin and clear.  They're certainly not interchangeable if making a dipping sauce.  If you take a look at my Central Vietnam foodblog (shameless plug) you'll see us eating things with mam nem a few times.

 

While Red Boat fish sauce (nu'o'c mam) is certainly high quality, it is really expensive.  When in Vietnam, I've asked people about it, but no one I've spoken to over there has heard of it - it seems that it is only made for export.  Then again, most of the brands used over there are not exported, so take it for what it is.

 

Personally, I always have a big bottle of Squid brand fish sauce (it's Thai, not Viet, but practically the same thing).  It's good enough to have straight, but cheap enough where I don't cringe every time I use a whole lot of it.  We use a 1 liter bottle every couple of months - and it usually costs us maybe $4-5, unless I get it while in Chinatown and then it would be like $3.

Thank you so much for this information.  

 

I need all of you EG people in my phone so I can have access immediately to you for questions 

 

So now I have Red Boat and a bottle of pungent fish paste.  Lucky me LOL.

 

The isle that is marked "fish sauce" in the market is seriously long.  I bet there were 100 different kinds/brands.

 

So, I picked the one that said "GOOD" on the label.

15 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Oh Shelby.  So many of us do that!   Then we go out and buy more. Finally when we see six bottles of fish sauce in the pantry we accept that we actually have some and don’t need to buy anymore. 

  

 

Sigh.

 

Exactly.

[kayb]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

 

Documentation as you can on the Asian food please: I buy those things, then can't figure out what to do with them. I'm trying to get better about not making impulse purchases of odd foodstuffs, but I still have a backlog. 

 

Blog on!

 

A kindred spirit! I do the same thing. I have stuff in the pantry that I look at and think, "WHY did I buy this?"

 

@Shelby, are we hunting deer and pheasant both this trip? Duck season is in full swing here, but for the fact that it's been so dry and so warm, there are no ducks to speak of.

 

[Shelby]

3 minutes ago, kayb said:

 

A kindred spirit! I do the same thing. I have stuff in the pantry that I look at and think, "WHY did I buy this?"

 

@Shelby, are we hunting deer and pheasant both this trip? Duck season is in full swing here, but for the fact that it's been so dry and so warm, there are no ducks to speak of.

 

I think what ever that is in season is on the kill list .  So, yes.  Deer, pheasants, geese, ducks......we are in the same boat as you, though, on the geese and ducks.  There just simply aren't any around this year.  

[Smithy]

17 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I think what ever that is in season is on the kill list .  So, yes.  Deer, pheasants, geese, ducks......

 

This sounds like one of the hunting trips I went on before my then-boyfriend and I had deer rifles.  We carried shotguns with slugs for the deer, as well as shot for the grouse.  At lunch time our group sat in a clearing and munched sandwiches, having spent the morning with our friends' dog looking for grouse.  P decided to change ammunition and go looking for a deer. (I have NEVER been successful in sneaking up on a deer in the Minnesota woods, but he was an optimist.)  He was gone quite some time. On his way back to our clearing, still loaded for deer, he stepped over a log and a grouse erupted at his feet.  The loss of opportunity was worth the hilarity, but we were glad to have a pot of chili back at the shack that night. (I wish your hunters far more success!)

[rotuts]

Im so looking forward to this.

 

your haul of stuff looks fantastic !

 

did not realize some of that stuff

 

permeated into KS

 

might fine Id say.

 

wait

 

didn't see too much Scapple 

 

maybe next year ?

 

 

Id bet everybody is going to have a really fine time

 

OK

 

maybe not so much The Cats ?

 

now they might love some crispy yet soft in the middle

 

thick cut Scapple.

 

they might not like the maple syrup on the top

 

nor the fresh ground pepper 

 

but Who Knowa ?

 

hope everybody has a fine time

 

so .....

 

is Ms Chum going Nuts ?

Edited November 28, 2017 by rotuts (log)

[rotuts]

in re-thinking this

 

perhaps Ms Chum does not go deer hunting

 

hard to take hand signals and whistle commands to lug back a 200 lbs

 

deer

 

so she might stay at home with you ?

 

good luck once she sees all that Filson Tin Cloth

 

Ill dig mine out and wear it to the library this week.

 

 

the librarians with just roll their eyes.

[Shelby]

27 minutes ago, rotuts said:

Im so looking forward to this.

 

your haul of stuff looks fantastic !

 

did not realize some of that stuff

 

permeated into KS

 

might fine Id say.

 

wait

 

didn't see too much Scapple 

 

maybe next year ?

 

 

Id bet everybody is going to have a really fine time

 

OK

 

maybe not so much The Cats ?

 

now they might love some crispy yet soft in the middle

 

thick cut Scapple.

 

they might not like the maple syrup on the top

 

nor the fresh ground pepper 

 

but Who Knowa ?

 

hope everybody has a fine time

 

so .....

 

is Ms Chum going Nuts ?

 

You know, I don't think scrapple can be found around here--or maybe I don't frequent the right places.  Pork belly=yes.  Scrapple=no.  I'd love to try some.  Looks like something I would devour.  

 

I'm hoping for a really great time for them, too.  

 

Yes, Chum is beside herself.  She knows he's coming (truly I swear she does) and she knows what that means.  Lots of quality time with the guys .

 

And you are spot on about the cats.  They also know something is going to happen--too much cleaning going on lol.  However, they have been very busy on the mouse front most nights so maybe they will be too tired to care much lol.  The upside is they are gone for much of the day so it doesn't interrupt the cats' very important daily routine much.

 

[Shelby]

3 minutes ago, rotuts said:

in re-thinking this

 

perhaps Ms Chum does not go deer hunting

 

hard to take hand signals and whistle commands to lug back a 200 lbs

 

deer

 

so she might stay at home with you ?

 

good luck once she sees all that Filson Tin Cloth

 

Ill dig mine out and wear it to the library this week.

 

 

the librarians with just roll their eyes.

Oh no, she goes.  Well, she goes if they go duck or pheasant hunting first and then deer hunt in the late afternoon evening.  You can find her sitting in the shooting house on this blog last year.

 

If she doesn't get to go, she is an absolute wreck.

[rotuts]

yep

 

I remember that pic.

 

very intense 

 

which is a Lab Working.

[catdaddy]

Yes! Hunting Season w/ Shelby. I'm just adding my words of encouragement for gritty details from the kitchen and the hearth.

[Shelby]

I'm bushed and so is Ronnie...lots of prep goes on to get ready.....

 

Soooooo after finishing this

 

 

I'm hitting this

 

 

See you guys in the morning!!!!

 

 

[FauxPas]

ha, do you have a Xmas tree in your bedroom as well as your living room? I was over at a friend's place tonight and she had one in her bedroom, one in her living room and one on the back patio. She loves Xmas. 

 

PS  I absolutely love the glimpses of your house, it looks so warm and welcoming. 

 

Edited November 29, 2017 by FauxPas (log)

[Smithy]

Hey, I'm pretty sure we have the same Christmas glassware!  But mine is at home and out of reach.  Enjoy some extra usage on my behalf!

[Shelby]

11 hours ago, FauxPas said:

ha, do you have a Xmas tree in your bedroom as well as your living room? I was over at a friend's place tonight and she had one in her bedroom, one in her living room and one on the back patio. She loves Xmas. 

 

PS  I absolutely love the glimpses of your house, it looks so warm and welcoming. 

 

 

I've always wanted a Christmas tree in my bedroom...so now that I have a decent looking room, I did a splurge that I really shouldn't have, but I love it.  Also, the cats love it .  They come down with flocking all over their backs looking very innocent.

 

I also splurged on a full size tree for the living room, but after unpacking, assembling and re-packing and shipping back TWO defective trees, I'm done with that.  I have a small tree that I've had for years and years and it will do for another year.

11 hours ago, Smithy said:

Hey, I'm pretty sure we have the same Christmas glassware!  But mine is at home and out of reach.  Enjoy some extra usage on my behalf!

Oh Smithy, I know that you have a great time in the princess mobile, but I also know that you would love to be home, too, with all of your stuff like that.  I love those glasses.  

 

Good morning everyone!  

 

It's windy and cloudy again--it's sad how excited I get even when the wind is out of the north....I close my eyes and wish super hard for snow.

 

 

Last night I needed something easy so I used leftover turkey and made sandwiches.  We really like doing tater tots in the CSO.  Crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside.  

 

But first, I realized I was out of mayonnaise.  

 

This is going to sound snobbish and I swear if someone fed me a cheese sandwich with store bought mayo or miracle whip, I would happily eat it, but, I can taste something in commercial mayo's that well, makes it taste like commercial mayo.  So, I started making our own and it's soooo good.  I can't remember when @Kim Shook told me about her recipe, but it's so easy and it turns out perfect every time.   One thing I have to say is that I've tried to make it with olive oil and we don't care for it...it tastes bitter to us.  But using a veg oil is perfect.

 

 I use a pint jar (it even has measurements on it so you don't have to dirty a measuring cup with oil)

 

1 C. Veg Oil

1 Egg

T. of white vinegar

A tiny blob of dijon mustard

Salt

Pepper

 

Put your stick blender on the bottom of the jar and whizz away

 

 

 

I must do a mountain of laundry so I'll be back in a bit  

[Smithy]

39 minutes ago, Shelby said:

It's windy and cloudy again--it's sad how excited I get even when the wind is out of the north....I close my eyes and wish super hard for snow.

 

 

Last night I needed something easy so I used leftover turkey and made sandwiches.  We really like doing tater tots in the CSO.  Crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside.  

 

But first, I realized I was out of mayonnaise.  

 

This is going to sound snobbish and I swear if someone fed me a cheese sandwich with store bought mayo or miracle whip, I would happily eat it, but, I can taste something in commercial mayo's that well, makes it taste like commercial mayo.  So, I started making our own and it's soooo good.  I can't remember when @Kim Shook told me about her recipe, but it's so easy and it turns out perfect every time.   One thing I have to say is that I've tried to make it with olive oil and we don't care for it...it tastes bitter to us.  But using a veg oil is perfect.

 

 I use a pint jar (it even has measurements on it so you don't have to dirty a measuring cup with oil)

 

1 C. Veg Oil

1 Egg

T. of white vinegar

A tiny blob of dijon mustard

Salt

Pepper

 

Put your stick blender on the bottom of the jar and whizz away

 

 

 

 

 

I know exactly what you mean about those gloomy days when the sky is low and grey, and the wind is picking up ... and hoping for a really good snow. I hope you'll post photos if you get it.

 

Thanks for the mayonnaise procedure.  I've tried it, gotten it, sworn I wouldn't go back to commercial mayo...and then lost the mojo countless times.  It may be that I like that special something in commercial mayo, but mostly I think it's because I don't get the proper consistency.  With your tutorial (and thanks also to Kim Shook) I'll give it another (heh) whirl.  Happens I emptied a jar of mayo just yesterday, so now is a good time to try.

 

You are making such good use of your Cuisinart Steam Oven!  Keep those photos coming!

[ElsieD]

How long will the mayo keep?

[Shelby]

5 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

How long will the mayo keep?

Oh gosh, I'm sure I've had it in a pint jar with a lid on it for at least three weeks.  

[Shelby]

So, it was decided to have some sort of pork roast for dinner tonight.  I found a pork roast in the freezer and decided to make it in the slow cooker rather than SV it. 

 

I can't remember where I found this recipe, but I've had it for quite a while and it's very easy and very good.  You know I like it if it's deemed special enough for me to write down in my little hardbound spiral journal that my Grammy gave me while I was still in high school--so that's like over 25 years ago.  That's depressing.  Anyway, this little book is filled with recipes that I thought were so great when I was 16...looking back I now know that they were not so great ..as you get deeper into the later pages, however, they are filled with SV tips/recipes,  CSO tips/recipes etc.  I bought 3 new lined books last year-- kind of like @rotuts uses --and have every intention of transferring the good recipes....but somehow I don't think I'll ever be able to get rid of this old journal.

 

Anyway, here is a picture of the recipe (excuse my crappy handwriting...I used to have beautiful cursive and over the years it's degraded big time)

 

 

I double the hot water/soy sauce mixture so that we have lots of gravy.

 

 

So, he's now all happy and snug in his crockpot on low.

[rotuts]

re:  home made mayo

 

very nice

 

just the way to do it

 

just to review

 

Lite olive oil is not lite in any way

 

re calories

 

marketing gimick 

 

it just have little olive oil flavor

 

and it heat proceeds from the dregs

 

of the first press   heated etc

 

and has no 'flavor 'nor health benefits of EVOO

 

it might be worse than margarine   

 

you do have to look this up your self.

[Smithy]

That pork roast looks like it will be wonderful. We do something similar in our crock pot, but have never tried adding soy sauce.  It's something to consider.

 

Regarding olive oil in mayonnaise: I've tried it a few times and found it to be bitter, even in small amounts.  Harold McGee gave a good explanation for that in the Harvard/edX cooking class I took a few years ago.  It had to do with breaking up certain compounds in the oil as it was emulsified, and producing a bitter taste.  I don't remember more than that; maybe another reader here can speak up. 

[Shelby]

3 minutes ago, Smithy said:

That pork roast looks like it will be wonderful. We do something similar in our crock pot, but have never tried adding soy sauce.  It's something to consider.

 

Regarding olive oil in mayonnaise: I've tried it a few times and found it to be bitter, even in small amounts.  Harold McGee gave a good explanation for that in the Harvard/edX cooking class I took a few years ago.  It had to do with breaking up certain compounds in the oil as it was emulsified, and producing a bitter taste.  I don't remember more than that; maybe another reader here can speak up. 

Oh that is interesting!  I figured it was just our taste buds.  Good to know.  I would have never thought it was due to something scientific!

 

Venison sausage breakfast burritos have been assembled:

 

[heidih]

On the olive oil in mayo - Kenji over at Serious Eats explains:

"You see, extra-virgin olive oil droplets are composed of many tiny fragments, many of which are bound tightly together, preventing our taste buds from picking them up. Whip the olive oil with enough vigor by, say, using a food processor or blender, and you end up shearing those bitter-tasting fragments apart from each other. The result is a mayonnaise with a markedly bitter flavor. Not only that, but these tiny fragments actually decrease the efficacy of emulsifiers like mustard and lecithin, making your sauce more likely to break"  If you want some olive oil flavor he suggests brinking the mayo together with neutral oil and then whisking in some olive oil.

Edited November 29, 2017 by heidih (log)

[Shelby]

Got the Christmas chalkboard done, too.  I kept the wheelbarrow, erased the pumpkins and drew a tree in their place.

 

 

Stuffed mushrooms ready to pop in the oven for appetizers when they get home

 

[KennethT]

Wow - that drawing is amazing - you did it freehand?

[Shelby]

6 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Wow - that drawing is amazing - you did it freehand?

Oh thank you so much!!!  Yes.

 

I try to change it up for every season/holiday.  Sometimes the inspiration doesn't come though .

 

I tried to draw Santa a few years ago.  Total disaster.  He got erased.