Ate a whole bunch of fish again tonight. It's late winter/early, early spring. All I want to eat is fish. Such an appetite for the fish, I don't make time to mess with fries.
Probably calamari in the pub tomorrow.
I got a Saturday invite for supper. Lady turns 60. She used to weigh 390. She weighs 180 now and even has a waist line again. Yeah! 210 lbs fat GONE. She was a blob, no two ways about it.
I gotta get in there and set it up so I buy the entire dinner as my birthday gift. Her hubby has been my gardener and handyman for years. Looking forward to this toot. Hope I can play dumb and bring it off.
Bison burgers! I'll do up a batch, eat while I cook and freeze the rest. Seems to me that North American ingredients fit together here. Bison. Corn oil. Sage. Bird eggs. lots of onion. Same goes for bison taco.
I was right! Bison burgers is a salad. McBride sunshine. Asparrowguts with mustard sauce on a puff pastry base as a pizza snack. Seasonal treat I must build.
I confess that I have a shopper for groceries. If it ain't on the list, it does not get bought. Just with a cane, I can't carry big shopping loads any more. So seasonal stuff can get passed by and I'll never know. I keep adding to my master grocery list (10 pages now).
Yesterday, wife and I spent all afternoon in mother's bedroom cleaning it out, going through all of the drawers and closets, etc. An exhausting and emotional day. So, on way home we did drive through for a cheater meal. Seems anymore, that lately when I do a drive through, I cancel that fast food brand from future business. Bad food, bad intercoms, incorrect orders and charges. Etc.....brad Tonight I cook!
I confess that I have a shopper for groceries. If it ain't on the list, it does not get bought.
Just with a cane, I can't carry big shopping loads any more.
So seasonal stuff can get passed by and I'll never know.
I keep adding to my master grocery list (10 pages now).
If we're confessing Brian, I have to admit that we have a shopper too. Usually she would help my wife by taking her out shopping and then doing some meal prep. But since we've been locked down, she does the shopping and then makes 3 or meals up, packs them in Tupperware containers and delivers them with the rest of the shopping - we feel very spoiled as she's also a trained chef which is just the icing on the cake.
I'm sure it's profound relief to have that sort of help. Better yet when I see your kids building meals. Wouldn't it be fun to get together and make a mega-batch of pakora some night?
Pre-covid, I used to go shopping with my gardener-guy. We'd visit and he could haul the groceries into the house and up to the kitchen. Then the company found out. OH, NO! Heavens forbid! You MUST have an additional person for shopping. Actually, she thinks like I do and makes logical substitutions. Dislikes the same house brands that I do. So we b**** and commiserate about poor quality foods.
I got my two into doing kitchen prep. Now when were are/were together, they step right up when they see what I need done. Translated, that means they show up to eat stacks of the old man's ruffed grouse devoured with his 2 yr old aged plum sauce.
I think I'd enjoy the exercise and my new-found, post-op mobility but carrying many bags is an impossibility, needing a cane. Now that I can standup longer than it takes to make toast, I like getting back into the dusty pages of my cookbook and making things I have not tasted in years.
I'm sure it's profound relief to have that sort of help. Better yet when I see your kids building meals. Wouldn't it be fun to get together and make a mega-batch of pakora some night?
Pre-covid, I used to go shopping with my gardener-guy. We'd visit and he could haul the groceries into the house and up to the kitchen. Then the company found out. OH, NO! Heavens forbid! You MUST have an additional person for shopping. Actually, she thinks like I do and makes logical substitutions. Dislikes the same house brands that I do. So we b**** and commiserate about poor quality foods.
I got my two into doing kitchen prep. Now when were are/were together, they step right up when they see what I need done.
Translated, that means they show up to eat stacks of the old man's ruffed grouse devoured with his 2 yr old aged plum sauce.
I think I'd enjoy the exercise and my new-found, post-op mobility but carrying many bags is an impossibility, needing a cane. Now that I can standup longer than it takes to make toast, I like getting back into the dusty pages of my cookbook and making things I have not tasted in years.
I've got one making pakora and one making samosas tomorrow night if you're free Brian.
my wife uses a wheelchair or scooter, so the kids are really good at helping out - to,the extent that when we see someone in your situation struggling, they get loaned out in the supermarket !
Actually, tonight will be a socially distanced birthday toot at the local pub. Just 4 of us. The birthday girl turns 60 (her husband has been my gardener for years). She has dropped from 390lbs(28st) to 180lbs (13st). I've called her "skinny."
I've got my usual early spring craving for all things fishy so calamari and halibut with chips ranks high on my list. Probably calamari, too stinky to do at home. I need a dose of yam fries.
I mixed my wing coating for the game tomorrow already. There's almost a cup of spices to 2 cups of flour.
There's 12 herbs & spices in this one! I'm soaking the wings in buttermilk & good stuff. We bake them in the oven with a light spray of Pam olive oil. nice & crispy but not deep fried Terry started sourdough pizza dough yesterday for tomorrow,
We'll have the game on with the sound off & the tunes on! There should be plenty of leftovers for work lunches on Monday.
Homemade rice, with homemade egg foo yung (with homemade gravy) from two days ago, with homemade chow mein (with homemade noodles) from last night. This is one of the homemadeyist meals I have cooked. All the sauces except the soy and hoisin. I am very happy with my curiosity and the joy of finding things out. My stomach is happy too!
Homemade rice, with homemade egg foo yung (with homemade gravy) from two days ago, with homemade chow mein (with homemade noodles) from last night. This is one of the homemadeyist meals I have cooked. All the sauces except the soy and hoisin. I am very happy with my curiosity and the joy of finding things out. My stomach is happy too!
I'll have to give that egg foo yung a shot! Is it a favorite of yours?
I'll have to give that egg foo yung a shot! Is it a favorite of yours?
I made it for the very first time a few days ago, and it is now a favorite of mine. I used half of Rachel Ray's recipe for the Egg Foo Yung and added in some mushrooms, half a carrot and a stalk of celery, and Spruce Eat's recipe for the gravy and added a clove of minced garlic. I used 2/3 cup of egg/vegetable mix for 4 pretty large pattys. The sauce is delicious. I found chinese cooking wine in the ethnic section of the supermarket. If you try it, let me know how it turns out. Mine is really delicious.
Start your own digital cookbook. Even if it is no more than copies of all the other book-foods that you have found to make that you really like. At least then, you aren't searching high and low for the source of something that you really want to make again.
I've just finished incorporating all my hand written notes in what might be the last revision of my family book. Started in 1990 or so, written for my kids to take to university with them. Some people feel an urgent NEED to give me untried recipes. Nope, not at all interested. The motive must lie in your own direction.
Time and time again, I read here what must be the beginnings of great family traditions that should not die with every generation as seems so common.
Start your own digital cookbook. Even if it is no more than copies of all the other book-foods that you have found to make that you really like. At least then, you aren't searching high and low for the source of something that you really want to make again.
I've just finished incorporating all my hand written notes in what might be the last revision of my family book. Started in 1990 or so, written for my kids to take to university with them.
Some people feel an urgent NEED to give me untried recipes. Nope, not at all interested. The motive must lie in your own direction.
Time and time again, I read here what must be the beginnings of great family traditions that should not die with every generation as seems so common.
You have made many great points that I whole heartedly agree with. When I find a recipe, I try it out before ever suggesting it to anyone else. Usually I make the stuff a few times and tweek it a bit to my liking. I save the original source of the online recipes in a folder on my bookmards, a folder which has many sub-folders. I sometimes copy the text, or at least the ingredient list with a short explanation of the method, and put it on a text document in my recipe folder. Since I don't like to work off of the computer while cooking, I have a ton of recipes on index cards (in a box with 6 categories - Soups, Entrees, Sweets, Breads, Sides and Sauces) that I work from in the kitchen. It is a couple hundred really great recipes (to me) of things I have found, developed or was given by family and friends...recipes I just had to have and was thankfully rewarded. I have plenty that I have copied off the food forum right here on the BHO. I am thinking about making Yoghurt right now as I type.
today for the game we are having : tangy pigs in the blanket (i use a bisquick base ,mix sheaded pepper jack cheese wrap then beef hotdogs slice in two pieces along side of a 1/2 slice of american cheese inside)
medium sausage dip ( 1 lb jimmy dean hot sausage,, 1 lb cream cheese,, 16 oz of medium picante sauce... mix all together in a small crock pot and just leave it, stirring once in a while.)
sliced steak subs (bought a couple of small ribeyes,, thin sliced them and will do them on the blackstone with onions and green peppers,, will start the peppers and onions first then will grill the meat and mix in some provolone and mushrooms and brown real nice on the grill and toast the buns a bit too build and eat ,,,,, good stuff )
Hey Good Buddy, we’ve been , actually my wife has been making homemade egg foo young for years and it is one of our goto’s for those nights when nothing sounds good and ya didn’t take anything out of the freezer and takeout doesn’t sound good either. I really don’t think one can screw it up. Some recipes are a little better than others , but it is a great way to use up leftovers when there isn’t enough for a whole meal. I think ours is pretty good and I have been eating EFY for almost 40 years, but our local Chinese takeout joint has the best vegetable EFY I have ever had. Sooooo fluffy and melts in your mouth. They also have a woks that can forge iron !!! Slammer!!!
Curry night tonight. Thing one (13) made vegetable samosas, thing two (11) made vegetable pakoras. The thing from the black lagoon (49) made saag aloo ghobi (potato, cauliflower and spinach) and chicken tikka masala.
Brian, your pakoras etc are on the counter - I’d be quick if I were you, they may not make it through the night
Damn! I've been distracted by a need for homemade pizza ( pepperoni, tomato & green pepper.) Jonty, do you call them Capsaicums like the Fair Dinkum Ozzies do?
Pakora need something like a fruit sauce. Plum or peach, somethin like that. I can go with a lot of salt that I really do not need.
We just call them peppers Brian. You’re two days late, pizza night is Fridays here - we used to buy them but I reckon that since last March, the kids have made their own dough and sauce.
Just finished a few slices of super bowl pizza. Very thin sourdough crust with good mozzarella, pizza sauce, black olives, speck & fresh basil & a good pinch of crushed chillies. Pizza stone in the oven. So Good!
I learned to make pizza dough years before I decided that I wanted to make bready things. My crust, my sauce. Apple. pecans & Stilton. Pears, prosciutto and rosemary. Can't buy those. All time favorite is pepperoni and green pepper. Fresh tomato is a recent twist.
I make plum sauce which needs to age for 6 months +. I use large amounts of Major Grey Mango Chutney in that.
I used to work in an Italian restaurant- the amount of people who asked to have an egg cracked on there pizza before cooking amazed me-personal twists I understand... but that one just looked so very wrong.
I used to work in an Italian restaurant- the amount of people who asked to have an egg cracked on there pizza before cooking amazed me-personal twists I understand... but that one just looked so very wrong.
When I was there in the 80s, Germany had lots of Momma e Papa Italian places so I could eat as much good pizza as my budget allowed. The two completely weird toppings that I encountered there were a fried egg and tuna with black olives. As it turns out, both are delicious. Pineapple on pizza, however, is a seditious insurrection, a conspiracy against all that is right, good, proper, and delicious.
I used to work in an Italian restaurant- the amount of people who asked to have an egg cracked on there pizza before cooking amazed me-personal twists I understand... but that one just looked so very wrong.
When I was there in the 80s, Germany had lots of Momma e Papa Italian places so I could eat as much good pizza as my budget allowed. The two completely weird toppings that I encountered there were a fried egg and tuna with black olives. As it turns out, both are delicious. Pineapple on pizza, however, is a seditious insurrection, a conspiracy against all that is right, good, proper, and delicious.
I'm with you on the pineapple .
My all time favourite pizza topping was the one I watched a drunk couple try and eat after turning up in our restaurant just a minute or two before closing time. The manager let them in much to our chagrin, to make matters worse, they ordered one pizza to share. Fortunately the last words the drunk guy uttered were 'and if it's not extra spicy I'll be sending it back'. The chef was already pissed off at having to cook after cleaning the kitchen down, so the poor souls didn't stand a chance. It was one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed, watching these two drunks drooling and salivating with their noses running and eyes streaming - in fact I'm chuckling now just thinking about it.
My all time favourite pizza topping was the one I watched a drunk couple try and eat after turning up in our restaurant just a minute or two before closing time. The manager let them in much to our chagrin, to make matters worse, they ordered one pizza to share. Fortunately the last words the drunk guy uttered were 'and if it's not extra spicy I'll be sending it back'. The chef was already pissed off at having to cook after cleaning the kitchen down, so the poor souls didn't stand a chance. It was one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed, watching these two drunks drooling and salivating with their noses running and eyes streaming - in fact I'm chuckling now just thinking about it.
Reminds me of the time when I was going to look at a flat in London one evening after work. The appointment wasn't until 7 and I had left the office early enough that I had time for dinner beforehand. There was a likely looking tandoori between the Tube and the flat, so I went in, sat down, and perused the menu. I like my chilies, so when I saw an item I didn't recognize that had 5 flames next to it, I said to myself, "By heck, that's what I'll have." The waiter came over and asked for my order. "I'll have the Lamb Phal Bangalore, please."*
A brief shadow crossed his face, "The Lamb Phal Bangalore, sir?"
"Yes, indeed", says I, "And a Kingfisher to go with it, my good man."
"Very good, sir," and off he went. But had that shadow now been replaced by the hint of a smile?
In due time, my meal came, and it smelled quite heavenly. Then I took a bite - a tad spicy, even by my standards. But, I assured myself, a swig of the best Indian lager will doubtless quench the fire. No such luck, quite the reverse; the flames were rising. But, it was delicious and I was going to finish it come hell or high water - the latter of which would have been preferable at that point. Then I noticed all the waiters looking at me from the back of the dining room. Now the sweat was starting to come from my brow. My beer was empty. My waiter returned, looking ever so slightly solicitous.
"Another Kingfisher, sir?"
I realized that were I to go down that road, it could end very badly, and I needed to find a new flat fairly quickly, so I declined. "Just some tap water, please. In a large glass." I believe I managed to say the words without losing my dignity, but it was a close run thing, for my entire interior from tongue to abdomen was now on fire.
Somehow, I managed to finish my meal, pay my bill, and make it to the flat. Which I duly took after a very brief viewing. I think my mind has erased the subsequent 12 hours, but my insides likely still bear the scars. I never went into that tandoori again.
*Those of you familiar with Phal Bangalore can probably guess what happens next...
Hawaiian pizza, ham & pineapple, is a Canadian delicacy like bison tongue. Apple, pecan and blue cheese is another. Pears and prociutto is far better than it sounds. As long as we can marry the ingredients to see red, white and green, it's a pizza.
Back to the Basics last night, "Roast Chicken", done simply. (This time I remembered to take chicken out of the shrink wrap, wiped dry, then put bird back in fridge uncovered overnight-to dry out skin a bit):
Fire oven to 500*F/260*C. Put cast iron skillet in oven for 15 minutes. Meanwhile take your wiped-dry bird and grease inside and out. S&P inside and out. *Here your chance for options. In cavity, I added a few sprigs rosemary and 1/2 a small onion. Wipe skillet with high temp oil. *Another option i did. I first laid into skillet a bed of oiled carrots with space between them, then put the chicken on top of the carrots. Put bird filled skillet back in oven, at the 500*F for 15 minutes. Lowered heat setting to 350* to finish roasting for another 30-40 minutes-ish, depending on bird size. Checking temperature with quick read thermometer looking for 165*F.
(When I do a bird in the 10"-ish CI skillet, I like to use a small bird of 3-4 lb. (which we prefer anyway.)
More bison last night. Melted cheese over it. Spagettini (=vermicelli?) with oil, mixed herbs and garlic. A handful of dried Roma tomatoes and a handful of black olives. Probably ate much more than I should have but dang! it was all good.
Got a half chicken. BIG bird it was. Mopick's Country Rub on wet skin. 285F for 3 hours in a shallow roaster pan. If I can find my smoke gun, I'll load it with apple and give the oven a few big snorts every 10 minutes for the first hour. The apple stinks up the oven and makes everything smell and taste good for weeks afterwards.
I'd cook outside but my gassers don't work well at 30 below. Hard to do charcoal in the dark.
Just finished a few slices of super bowl pizza. Very thin sourdough crust with good mozzarella, pizza sauce, black olives, speck & fresh basil & a good pinch of crushed chillies. Pizza stone in the oven. So Good!
That super. bowl about which everyone seems to be talking, is it Wedgewood or Sheffield?
Did it again: two big, fat bison cheese burgers for supper. Yum-a-roonies, but they are good. Believe I should fry some bacon just on principle. A tray of skinless, boneless chicken thighs. Wrap them around a wad of dressing tie with cotton string and bake a dozen in a covered pie plate. That's the plan.
Did it again: two big, fat bison cheese burgers for supper. Yum-a-roonies, but they are good.
Believe I should fry some bacon just on principle.
A tray of skinless, boneless chicken thighs. Wrap them around a wad of dressing
tie with cotton string and bake a dozen in a covered pie plate. That's the plan.
bacon makes everything better,,,,, i saute my spaghetti noodles (after they are al dente) in some of my pasta sauce with a little bacon grease until they absorb the liquid and cook them down . medium high heat and constantly stirring stirring stirring
