Food Thread - What are you eating?

[Gromnir]

3 hours ago, Keyrock said:

In terms of pickle varieties, I'm partial to Ogórki Małosolne.

is there a polish market in charlotte? e stopped gardening at the end o' the previous century, which is when we last had a dependable supply o' horseradish root. in nor cal it takes effort to get decent horseradish root and cherry leaves and whatnot. live in chicago and would be no problem. same for parts o' arizona. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Keyrock]

13 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

is there a polish market in charlotte? 

There's one in Pineville, which is right next to Charlotte. The store is tiny so the selection is limited, but they have the essentials.

[Guard Dog]

I made six mason jars of pickles and picked peppers.  I used petite cucumbers and jalapeños from the garden. I filled six 24oz jars with the veggies and dill, red pepper flakes, minced garlic and fine chopped Vidalia sweets. The brine solution has water, vinegar, sugar, pink salt, pepper. 
 

They are in the fridge waiting on chemistry to do it’s work.

[LadyCrimson]

Send me a jar of pickles. If I (or hubby) likes them, can we order a few jars every time you make them?  

And, uh...today I ate my usual veggie/meat mash mixes.  I've grown so tired of them in general (even mixing it up which veggies/ingredients a bit here and there) that I started to toss about half a jar of store-bought pickled "hot!" (as opposed to the "mild!") jalapeno's in each batch.  I'm not sure it makes the meals less repetitious, but they are then at least not ... boring.  *sweats*

[BruceVC]

Sunday, winter weather and only one proven, scientific remedy for such temporary but melancholic times....a Sunday roast 

So Im cooking mini-Pork belly with buttery, creamy mash ...for a change 

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Sautéed zucchini and bell peppers with hot sauce. It's good for losing weight I guess.

[BruceVC]

Last night I had a steak and decided to do something different to create a sauce that I always see being done on the Food Network on DSTV

I cooked the steak in  a  frying pan and once it was done I poured  away the excess fatty oils but kept some stock and " burnt bits " in the pan. I then mixed corn-flour with some water and poured that in. That created, as expected, a delicious and robust steak sauce like a bought  stock sauce but this was natural and fresh. I then mixed in that a good quality, store bought  cheese and mushroom sauce which created this scrumptious hybrid cheese and steak sauce which I used with the steak and potatoes for dinner

And it was really tasty  

 

 

 

[Guard Dog]

I grilled a small pork chop and made a salad for dinner last night. I also made one of these. Oh my God was it good.

[ShadySands]

Burgers for lunch with grilled onions and grilled jalapenos. I was curious which would be better so I did fresh jalapenos and also pickled ones and pickled won according to everyone.

[BruceVC]

I was thinking about my cooking of certain meals and then comparing them to restaurant food and in most cases restaurant food is always of a better quality and taste than what I can cook. And thats fine because restaurants, for example,  which are  French themed  have trained Chefs in French cuisine so you expect the food to be of a high standard 

But I do a better cooked breakfast than most breakfast  places, thats the exception and I was thinking why  my breakfasts always taste better and its because of the myriad of ingredients I cook and the freshness and quality

This morning I am having hashbrowns, cheese grillers, fried eggs, toast and boerewors which is a type of sausage 

Then I eat breakfast with  the scientifically, proven  best breakfast sauce in the world..brown sauce. If you have never used a brown sauce with your breakfast then you havent lived and I urge you to change your eating habits. Here is an example of a common brown sauce which you should be able to buy where you live, I have tried many brown sauces but HP is stil the best  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_sauce

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Sauce

 

 

[ShadySands]

Rigatoni with Italian sausage and a creamy pepper sauce

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, ShadySands said:

Rigatoni with Italian sausage and a creamy pepper sauce

Its a pity you and I never got married, we have so much in common like an appreciation of good food and an enjoyment of cooking 

[ShadySands]

Maybe in another life

[BruceVC]

3 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Maybe in another life

" I will see you in another life, when we are both cats”

Vanilla Sky, 2001 

 

[Gromnir]

the dogs are confused.

the local farm where we buy most o' our produce from late may 'til mid/late september is having snow peas and corn in season. they got loads o' other stuff available, but the snow peas and corn is particular noteworthy. steamer basket a bunch o' snow peas. maybe we add a little olive oil and balsamic, but ordinary we eat unadulterated. don't even need salt for the snow peas. the local corn is the best we has had anywhere, and recall we lived midwest. microwave an ear o' corn, in husk, and then add salt and butter and eat from the cob.  am not joking when we say that we have had a meal of snow peas and corn multiple times in the last couple weeks and we don't feel at all bad 'bout such. 

can pick your own vegetables on tuesday and saturday morning 'tween sunrise and 1pm, but there is a $20 dollar minimum. $.40 per pound. takes considerable effort to pick 50lbs o' vegetables. 

alternatively, a 2.5 bag o' snow peas sets us back $4.50. a bag o' eight ears o' corn costs us $4. 

down side to all the vegetable meals is the dogs is confused. 

and am perfect aware snow peas and corn is 'bout the least healthy vegetables you could possible name. don't care. add a freaking kale salad would ruin the enjoyment, though we do try to get some broccoli into the rotation along with other greens.

regardless, the next month, or as long as the snow peas last, is gonna be rough on the dogs.

HA! Good Fun!

[BruceVC]

50 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

the dogs are confused.

the local farm where we buy most o' our produce from late may 'til mid/late september is having snow peas and corn in season. they got loads o' other stuff available, but the snow peas and corn is particular noteworthy. steamer basket a bunch o' snow peas. maybe we add a little olive oil and balsamic, but ordinary we eat unadulterated. don't even need salt for the snow peas. the local corn is the best we has had anywhere, and recall we lived midwest. microwave an ear o' corn, in husk, and then add salt and butter and eat from the cob.  am not joking when we say that we have had a meal of snow peas and corn multiple times in the last couple weeks and we don't feel at all bad 'bout such. 

can pick your own vegetables on tuesday and saturday morning 'tween sunrise and 1pm, but there is a $20 dollar minimum. $.40 per pound. takes considerable effort to pick 50lbs o' vegetables. 

alternatively, a 2.5 bag o' snow peas sets us back $4.50. a bag o' eight ears o' corn costs us $4. 

down side to all the vegetable meals is the dogs is confused. 

and am perfect aware snow peas and corn is 'bout the least healthy vegetables you could possible name. don't care. add a freaking kale salad would ruin the enjoyment, though we do try to get some broccoli into the rotation along with other greens.

regardless, the next month, or as long as the snow peas last, is gonna be rough on the dogs.

HA! Good Fun!

That sounds really convenient and healthy having a local farm to get fresh produce from

But are you saying your dogs are also  eating these vegetables only and no meat ?

[Gromnir]

Just now, BruceVC said:

That sounds really convenient and healthy having a local farm to get fresh produce from

But are you saying your dogs are also  eating these vegetables only and no meat ?

the dogs are getting dog food, which is likely causing a considerable level o' confusion. ordinary the pups get some portion o' whatever meat Gromnir indulges. no meat for Gromnir means dogs need eat what is in their food bowls. 

*gasp*

HA! Good Fun!

ps as odd as it sounds, one major reason we ain't moved away from the sac valley with all its heat and wildfire smoke is 'cause o' the local produce and meat... and as crazy as it sounds, fish. 

 

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, Gromnir said:

the dogs are getting dog food, which is likely causing a considerable level o' confusion. ordinary the pups get some portion o' whatever meat Gromnir indulges. no meat for Gromnir means dogs need eat what is in their food bowls. 

*gasp*

HA! Good Fun!

ps as odd as it sounds, one major reason we ain't moved away from the sac valley with all its heat and wildfire smoke is 'cause o' the local produce and meat... and as crazy as it sounds, fish. 

 

That Passmore Ranch looks great and the people involved really committed to the ethos of quality and freshness 

Its interesting but you often see places like that on Food Network channel about the US. On shows like Bizarre Foods Andrew Zimmerman loves to go and eat the  food on ranches and farms specific to the area. His favorite thing is focusing on what the locals eat and eating unusual food like delicious offcuts which I love but they not commonly found in SA 

[majestic]

We used to grow snow peas a long while ago while I was little, we usually just ate them straight from the plant.

Good old times when my (maternal) grandmother was still alive.

Edited June 17, 2021 by majestic

[Gromnir]

made 'bout three quarts o' red beans. why so much? start with 1 lb o' dry red beans...

*shrug*

if we start with 1lb o' beans, then we end up with 'bout three quarts.

as often as not we use kidney instead o' small red 'cause we learned from the tv show justified that kidneys is the, "cadillac of beans." didn't have kidney though.

the main reason we made the beans is 'cause is so hot. am not gonna turn on the oven save at gunpoint for some number o' days, and grilling outdoors is requiring us to mop sweat outta our eyes constant as the temps is in the +100F range... 109 for the daily high temp. cooked beans stovetop at 5:00 am when it were relative cool and we were almost done by the time the temps outside hit mid 90s.

so now we got an easily microwavable meal o' which we will be indulging frequent for the weekend and beyond... along with our corn and snow peas. s'posed, 'ccording to science, spicy food makes a person feel cooler, so perhaps the beans help.

am needing be careful. have overindulged our red beans once or twice and had genuine unpleasant heartburn as a result. am no doubt a bit gassy as well, but the dogs has never once complained.

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

[LadyCrimson]

Nothing that interesting, but ... when you have to watch your total carbs,  you've already eaten a couple (small/thin) slices of bread for the day, and you're really wanting something to munch on.  Thus ... turkey bacon (sadly no salami in the house), tomato, onion, pickle, romaine lettuce rollups.  Or something like that.

Summer and I want to nibble vs. cook "meals." Deli sandwiches on sourdough bread, potato salad, cherries/summer fruit, carbs carbs carbs. Dangit. At least pickles/onions/tomatoes/lettuce are a great combo. Honestly recently I could probably just eat a yellow onion like an apple.  *munch munch munch*

Edited June 25, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[Gromnir]

for the fourth we did our one day a year o' obligatory grilling for multiple people, which were ok 'cause 96F is less than ideal but not on the "yikes" end o' the sac valley heat spectrum. however, is projected to hit 108F by saturday, with multiple +105F to be looking forward to. sure, our forecast is not arizona hot, but is uncomfortable nevertheless and such conditions make the oven a verboten cooking device during such week(s) long stretches o' unpleasantness.

salads as a solution? am only gonna eat so many salads before we go insane and too much o' the fruit salad options has obvious downsides. also, am admitted not a salad guy. 

for the past couple years we has used our instapot more often during the summer. am recalling having mentioned how ez is carnitas in the instapot. the thing is, and nobody is more surprised by this than Gromnir, we finally used a gift air fryer and it were kinda great. is a six quart model, so considering we is usual cooking for one or two, the fryer is more than big enough to accommodate our needs. we already own one o' those fancy toaster/mini convection ovens, so the air fryer struck us as utter pointless as it is, for all intents and purposes, a mini convection oven... sorta the betty crocker ez bake oven o' convection ovens, but a convection oven even so. am not certain what possessed us to finally unbox the two-year-old air fryer and give it a test run other than a kinda morbid curiosity.  glad we indulged the whim. 

first "recipe" we tried were chicken wings, 'cause we figured were iconic and would be a fair test o' capabilities. used a freaking food network guide for estimated cooking times but we cooked half the poundage recommended. cooking time involved three separate 12 minute increments, which were kinda what we expected given our convection oven would be requiring 33-35 minutes to accomplish the same task. after the first twelve minutes of wing cooking in the air fryer, the chicken appeared mostly done, but am kinda ADD 'bout following recipes exact at least the first time, so we cooked second 12 minutes and then concluded an additional 12 minutes would resulted in desiccated and inedible chicken. in fact, twenty minutes total woulda' been sufficient and as such is our cook time for 8-12 wings. in the convection oven we utilize an uninspired combo o' salt, pepper and baking powder to add an extra crispy quality to the drumettes. air fryer makes the baking powder unnecessary. absolute zero complaints 'bout air fryer wings and they is better than our convection oven approach.

moved on from the wings and added other items. get considerable use from the silly little contraption with near zero oil roasting vegetables and making chicken breasts so we have a bit o' protein to add into a few o' those salads we earlier mentioned. am not gonna make real fried chicken in the air fryer, just as a matter o' principle, but we will admit admit we made fried chicken breast for chicken sandwiches and the breasts cooked much better than anticipated in spite o' no oil.  baked potatoes turned out great, but we eat baked potatoes maybe a couple times a year. 

haven't tried fish. salmon would be a no-brainer option but we can't shake the notion that everything made in the air fryer for the next couple o' uses would be suffering a legacy o' salmon. 

regardless, in spite o' our general food snobbery, am conceding we has gotten more than a fair amount o' use outta our air fryer. maybe not the best cooking device evar, but the little fryer (which ain't near as noisy as we were warned) has meant we is almost never needing turn on our massive professional grade oven to cook a couple of chicken breasts and roast a bit o' broccoli on days/weeks when the temps is +105F. 

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Guard Dog]

I bought a Boston Butt to cook in the smoker today. I expected I’d have folks here to feed it to. Thought it would make for a nice dinner. But turns out they had other plans. Looks like I will be eating smoked pork this week. All week.

[BruceVC]

3 minutes ago, Guard Dog said:

I bought a Boston Butt to cook in the smoker today. I expected I’d have folks here to feed it to. Thought it would make for a nice dinner. But turns out they had other plans. Looks like I will be eating smoked pork this week. All week.

Didnt your brother come through? 

[Guard Dog]

9 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Didnt your brother come through? 

No they got in about 8 o’clock last night and left about 8 o’clock this morning. They couldn’t get gone fast enough. I had to insist on making them breakfast. They said they would get something on the road. Whatever.