Aww yeah. Spicy Brittled Peanuts from the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook. A pound and a half of raw peanuts is a giant pain in the ass to shell, but I'd say these are totally worth it. :D A large bowl of Vinegar Slaw from the same book is chilling in the fridge, and the Red Wine Velvet Cake is on the list for (hopefully) tomorrow. And I get to meet the author tomorrow afternoon!!! <fangirl squee>
Made Melanzane alla Parmigiana again and learned that the name actually has nothing to do with the parmesan.
I made ham hock aspic. If you boil a cured ham hock for a few hours the resulting liquid will turn to jelly as soon as it cools. All I needed to do was season to taste while boiling (onions, carrots, pepper, and a couple bay leaves) and pour it in a suitable container to cool and now I've been eating pig flavoured jelly sandwiches for nearly a week.
Gumbo tonight. Karen accidentally poured too much cayenne in, so it's pretty spicy. I'm fine with that. :)
This Belgian beer stew is currently bubbling away in my kitchen. The kitchen smells like a meaty pub.
So I wonder how different your cheddar scones are from my cheddar shortbread...? They're awesome, so let's see your recipe.
My dinner was fucking lovely!! I am so impressed with myself (for following a recipe. ) It was perfect winter food. Although it wasn't really a stew and more meat in a really thick gravy/sauce, with spuds on the side. It's amazing, I can cook something as good as that but I mess up the boiled potatoes. The only thing I think it was missing was maybe throwing a few mushrooms in with it for the last 20 minutes, small little roundy button mushrooms. I'll do that next time because I'll definitely make it again. Of course all my family are refusing to eat it. My father complained that we had the weeks food sorted already (last time he said that he had my soup for dinner.) Then he complained that the taste he had was too salty, and that I should season it for the average person (him) and not for myself. So I have to season it for him even though he says he won't eat it. I'll have to wait for my mother to get home, she might have some. She always cooks for my father and herself unless it's a curry so I think she likes it when there's food easily available for her.
Got a new cookbook (Thomas Kellers Bouchon Bakery), and tried the almond plum tarte. Now I am alone at home. Well, not really alone - there is a delicious tarte here as well. A not really low-calorie tarte. Mmhhh.h..
For my birthday my in-laws got me two awesome books: The Bread Bible and Rose's Christmas Cookies both by Rose Levy Beranbaum and I cannot WAIT to start testing out recipes!
It's a cake-like gingerbread that has ginger syrup poured over it after it bakes while it's still hot.
Cuisine Magazine, actually. I don't think they post much of their stuff online, since they want you to buy the magazine. I imagine it's all basically the same. :)
Sort of tangentially cooking-related, a New York Times review of Guy Fieri's new Times Square restaurant. I guess Guy got the "Dive" part right, at least.
I have recently started making basic stews in the slow cooker, and am kicking myself for not doing so earlier.
Isn't it awesome? Even highly mediocre cuts of meat produce very flavorful stews when left to their own devices. :)
About 15 home grown habaneros, from stock picked for heat over the past decade or so, dried and crushed.
Slow cookers make awesome stew (also: pot roast), especially if you can bear to let it refrigerate for 24 hours afterwards, before you consume. The downside of using slow cookers to make stew is that if you work at home, it ends up being a form of slow torture over the course of the day.
Ah, well cram it all into a single super spicy burrito and burn your mouth down! Also I suggest you start getting into the growing of hybrid super spicy peppers.
Anyone made their own sausages before? My dear wife has been going ON AND ON about her favourite pork and pineapple sausages from a now long closed butcher's shop and when I said "so make your own then" and her reply was "I'd love to try", my immediate response was to buy her a mincer and filler for her Christmas present :) But I'm left wondering what cuts to look at for stashing in the fridge for Christmas day and really don't have any ideas on where to start (or any other tips you might have). Also, since I've finished the Christmas shopping early this year I've decided I'd like to have a crack at a Christmas fruit cake. There's more recipes for these than there are people to make them, so any recommendations would be gladly received (must be capable of being iced with almond icing, else the aforementioned Dear One will murder me). I'm a big fan of AB's Carrot Cake so my current plan is to try his Fruit Cake........
I still got a huge batch of my haberneros from the year before last dried up and ready - I crush them as needed. (my greenhouse died in a bad winter storm, and I didn't replace it, so this summer was my first with no fresh chillies :-(
I don't know how to make them either, but maybe these books can help you: Home Sausage Making Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages
I always put butter on the bread before putting it into the pan for a grilled cheese. I never understood putting butter in the pan first, it uses more butter. I cooked eggs for the first time in a long time. I have to learn how to flip a fried egg better, I broke the yolk today and it fried up immediately, leaving me without any gooey goodness to spill over my bagel.
This is going to blow people's minds, but you should put mayo on the outside of the bread before cooking your grilled cheese sandwich. No fooling. Just a very small amount, spread evenly across the surface of the bread. Also, Pogo, re: fried eggs - don't flip them. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to (very) low, or take it off the heat entirely if you have a coil stove, and wait a minute or so for the whites to firm up.
