Those lobster rolls look amazing!!

We had this last night:

Alas no pictures when it was done but it was delicious!!

For the first time ever, I made polenta last night. It was just plain, water, salt, polenta. Cooked it in my IP. It was so good. Had it with green beans with garlic and onion, also cooked in the IP, and a country style rib cooked in the IP, too. Forgot to take a picture. The polenta was supposed to be a serving for one, but I could eat only 1/2 of it, so mixed the other 1/2 with some broth than came off the rib (pure pork broth because it was cooked pot-in-pot style in the IP) and diced the small piece of left over rib to mix with it. Right now, the plan is to saute it when it has congealed one night this week and to serve two fried eggs and some warmed salsa on it with a side of avocado.

Gorgeous lobster rolls, Sleeve!!! I hope you're feeling better by now.

Annie.......freezers!! I get frustrated every time I go in mine (chest freezer). I hate rooting around in it, then I get mad and just slam the door and walk away. But the uprights just won't do for the amount that a chest holds. I see the ice is building up on the top and sides again, sigh, time for another defrosting session.

I've been without internet and home phone since Sat. Supposedly it'll be up and running tomorrow. I'm livid at the service. No phone or internet= no work.

I'm using my neighbour's internet now.

I made a new recipe, chicken, mushrooms, onions, broth (I used half broth and half wine) cream, simmered, served over noodles. The picture on the blog showed a delectable creamy rich sauce. Hah, not mine. Nothing to make it thick, the cream didn't do it. I ate it, but threw out the recipe. I hate blogs! LOLOL

But yesterday I roasted some chicken quarters, lost some of the skin when I turned it; and drums, along with onions, potatoes and carrots, early in the morning while it was still cool. In a heat wave now, did I mention I hate summer? 32C or 90F.

I heated it up in the microwave for dinner and heated some barbecue sauce for dipping. It was good! Helluva lot better than that other crappy recipe. :-)

Well, Happy Anniversary again, sleevendog. I don't even have to tell you how I feel about those lobster rolls. (sigh) They look amazing.

Sarahsocal, now that's what I call a chunk of beef, wow!

Walnutcreek, Grandma would be proud of you. She always told me not to cook one thing when I could cook two or three using the same heat and pan. She was efficient!

Jasdip, I agree on the freezers, but I'd rather stand on my head fishing things out of the chest freezer than have everything fall out when I open the upright.

I'd be pretty upset if my phone and internet was out that long too, although mine is a company that put an antenna up on the roof. We're having storms tonight and 20MPH winds, so we'll see if my antenna is still there in the morning. If you don't hear from me, you'll know why, my internet will be out too!

Your chicken looks good, but those vegetables look amazing, I could make a meal of those.

Here I'm experimenting with the sous vide and I haven't managed to make anything with it that's worth shouting about. Tonight it was pork chops. The last batch I made was mushy, I guess I held them in the water bath too long. The purpose of the sous vide, for me, was to be able to put something in there and leave it, for hours if necessary, then take it out and grill/sear it when it was convenient. Turns out that doesn't really work, LOL, unless you like mushy meat. So, I went in the other direction and cooked them at 167F for 45 minutes. Because I won't eat pork rare or even medium rare, it's tricky to get it just right and not overcook. This way didn't work either, it was dry and tough. More experimenting, I suppose, but between the air fryer failures and the sous vide failures, I'm about to give up the gadgets and just overcook my pork chops in a skillet, the old fashioned way! Elery ate his and the dog was happy, she got mine.

I did brown some butter with fresh sage from the herb garden and use that to sear the pork, and served it with some leaves from the hoop house and a salad made of calypso beans and a jar of the home canned southwestern corn relish, a recipe I got from Readinglady.

Annie

LOL at your 'overcooking the pork chops the old fashioned way, in a skillet' Annie!

I don't have room for any more gadgets, the air-fryer intrigues me, but there are so many out there, and I don't need to be eating fries, and fried chicken all the time. Like the Instant Pot that I was wondering about. Hubby and I visited his brother and SIL and she got one for Christmas. Me looking over the instructions and seeing the absolute size of the beast, turned me right off of getting one. She took it back, as well. She cooks everything she needs with the slow cooker, roasting, etc normally. I've never thought of an ip since, no desire at all.

My husband went to Costco today, and found no good beef or chicken options, but plenty of fish. Tonight's dinner was sesame seed crusted seared ahi, with a spicy lime soy sauce, jasmine rice with shallots, ginger and garlic, and sauteed green beans. Wine was our homemade 2019 Sauvignon Blanc. We had a hot day today, but by the time we were ready to eat, it was pleasant outside.

That's a heck of a meal Lynda!

I had some vegetables to use up, so stir-fry was calling me.

I don't usually post in this thread—for home I generally just prepare a bunch of food, and willynilly dish some up for meals. Today, however, my preparations turned into an actual dinner, rich and satisfying, with pictures. They were really good together, if very eggy. :) It was a hot day. :)

Salad of broccoli stem chips and thin sliced cucumber in a dressing of mayonnaise thinned and acidified with a generous amount of red wine vinegar, with a dehydrated herbs, pepper and smoked Spanish paprika.

Egg bake (somewhere between crustless quiche and baked omelette, but not actually either, eggs and cream but not custard) of red curly kale, with dried alliums, pepper, mushroom salt, and crushed red pepper flakes, topped with sharp cheddar.

Pulled pork with Ann T’s TBQ sauce. I didn’t have garlic powder, so used fresh garlic. I didn’t feel sandwichy, so cooked some plain white rice. Melon for dessert.

Here’s the pulled pork right out of the oven:

Comfort food, and I needed some comfort. After buying that nice cut of fresh pork, I popped into the library to pick up a book I’d ordered. There were two librarians and two subscribers queuing up – each of us standing behind a red line 2 meters
from each of the librarians, but after a minute appeared another woman and walked
right up to me – actually right up into me, literally breathing down the side
of my face. She wasn’t even wearing a mask. Just a clear plastic face shield. I
told her to get away from me, so she reluctantly moved back a few centimetres.
I said that’s not 2 meters. Get away from me! (in Israel it’s the metric system,
so it’s not 6 feet but 2 meters). She moved back some more, but was still way
too close. “Don’t worry. No one is going to jump ahead of you in the queue”, I
told her. “I’m not worried someone might jump ahead”, she said. “So why are you gluing yourself to me?!” I asked. Her reply: “Because I feel like it!” And it
wasn’t a generation gap thing. She was about the same age as me: early sixties.
She also looked normal except for acting like a contrary teen.

The Ahi tuna looks so good. Not been in our Costco since the holidays. Surprised they are having protein stocking issues. Maybe its the new t-p crisis. Those with emptying freezers are stocking up.

We have cooked pork shoulder twice since mid March. Nice quick meals in the freezer. Usually big veg lettuce wraps using blanched Savoy cabbage.

Disturbing story about your social distancing experience. I just don't understand those that feel so entitled to aggravate those of us being responsible.

I'm ok after the stressful TWO dentals. So did not want to do that. And how different the two offices dealt with the virus. Most are careful anyway. They all want to protect themselves 24/7 for years. 9 days since that first appointment.

Terribly sad about the state of our country. We have been floating, holding our breaths, self-centered, for years. And muzzled to not speak up. Toxic work environments are rampant. Fortunately we are union and freelance. A toxic job will be over in just a few months.

Pilllog joins the party!!!😀

We have a weekly egg yada-yada. It just makes sense these days. Dinner, side veg. Also, what to call it, being so much veg content from the crisper. 'Frittata' works for us.

We snaked on quick pickles in the kitchen that had a ginger dressing. That dressing on our salads with the mixed grain.

This was good last week. Not sure if I posted or not. DH has wanted a pasta night in our rotation. (not usually but comfort food)

1/4 pint frozen mushroom ragu, 1/4 pint bone broth. (I took the fat layer off easily). like it sometimes.

Leek, celery. Soaked some dried porcini. Final excellent addition...a 1/4 cup of gooey fresh young gorgonzola.

Ouch Sleevendog, hope you are on the mend now.

Great looking meals everyone. So lovely to see ‘new’ posters’ meals. (Hoping that apostrophe is correct lol)

Crispy skin fish, salad and potato.... easy Friday night dinner.

Crispy skin lovers here. Yum, and nice side salad.

I think you mentioned you are visiting with your family and new grand. So things are loosening up but you don't have mandatory masks?

I'm in no pain, swelling gone. Just was stressed about being in such close contact. It is almost day 10 so I doubt I was in close contact with a carrier of covid.

Thank goodness this surgery happened with our numbers way down. And mandatory masks for everyone. Our state is making our own and handed out free everywhere even free in my grocery delivery. And free hand sanitizer.

Our Governor Cuomo's daily address today..."This is not a mask. It is a chin guard, Cover your mouth AND your nose!"

Salmon crispy skin in a cast iron skillet. Ginger/turmeric Meyer lemon. Should have put it under the broiler a few minutes but wanted it on the rare side. Fridge mixed grain and kimchi.

Another 'heap' plate last night. Burgers. If we had company I would have the toppings at the table for build-your-own and a side salad plate.

(salmon was Wed/Thursday night I think)

DH likes a pile tending to eat with his (clean) hands since a burger is hand held. Rather than spoon out from little bowls. Gorgonzola blob.

Pickled onions and cuke pickles. Radicchio and fennel slaw/salad.

Great healthy looking meals there Sleevendog. We are gradually ‘opening up’ here, both the whole country and the city where I live. DH and I do have that country holiday home we also visit and I say my feet touch down only from our place to our place. We buy petrol/gas in the country town. Personally, we are being very cautious. Only visiting my son with his wife and our grandson. I know they are very strict, work from home and wear a mask for anywhere they might have to go. (rare). Mask wearing is not very prevalent here because our numbers of active cases are so low.

Melbourne (my city) has a population of over 4 million with at present 47 active cases. At our worst we had about 1700 cases with 19 deaths. Although we had a few hiccups with Cruise Ships, broadly speaking I think our Gov has done well by us. Shutting down the borders mid March and only allowing citizens into the country who must isolate for 14 days in Gov paid hotels. A lot of testing and tracing of people in contact with people with the virus. Then insisting they have complete isolation. The country has been pretty much locked down for 3 months. The Gov gave workers who lost their jobs or couldn’t work from home, $3000 per month which has enabled everyone to keep going, pay bills etc. Like everyone round the world DH and I are worried about a second wave so we continue to isolate as much as we can. Stay safe all our dear Cooking people from everywhere.

Dinner last night was pasta with meat sauce and veg.

Those meals all look amazing!

@sleevendog Are those homemade hamburger buns? I have been wanting to try to do that forever.

We were craving steak, and not seeing anything great at Costco, so we stopped by one of our local universities. They have a meat and ag programs which sells directly to the public a couple of days per week.

We picked up several steaks, a fresh whole chicken, and some strawberries. The small group of students still on campus to caretake the program, do a great job taking orders by phone and email and bringing the orders out to the car. During the health crisis they have added produce boxes, ice cream and bread all grown or produced on campus. This is our third trip, since Covid began. This time we picked up a grass fed porterhouse that has to be the best steak I have ever had.

What a great service for the community.

Yes, we have been making the NYTimes Light Brioche Buns since it was published. Recipe HERE. The NYT has a paywall but have many recipes open since covid started and well as news articles. Link, HERE

We add just a tsp of sugar. Do not care for sweet breads. We don't stock milk so just add a couple Tbsp of plain yogurt to the cup of warm water. Any flour on hand works. (they freeze beautifully)

Another recipe HERE. OK idea for multiple batches. But not shaped properly.

Thank you so much. I can't wait to try it.

Your buns look fantastic, Sleeve! I made some yesterday, but I used too small of a container, and they rose together and have a triangular shape to them, not what I was looking for. :-(

Neely your pasta looks light and healthy!!

I can't count how many people I see with their nose hanging out of their masks. Frustrating.

Apologies for posting my food in my skillet more often than not. The cast iron group requires pics of the cast iron used, so I get lazy and just use the same photo here.

Tonite was chicken breasts browned and simmered in some chicken broth to cook, then topped with barbecue sauce, crisp bacon and cheese.

Not seeing any bargains on beef right now ... which is odd because it is usually when the county and state fair is going on. Alas, fairs are being scaled back or cancelled, meaning there is supply ... but the private processors are booked. $5 / lb ground beef is outrageous here in the buckle of the meat belt.

Terrific meal and photo Lynda Radke.

It’s been years since I made a baked cheesecake with a pastry crust.

Looks OK. I’ll report back on the taste when we cut it.

Now that is impressive. Just look at that crust.

Green beans already? You must have a long growing season. I have a couple nectarines but came in a Misfit box. I think I'll use one for a salsa.

Made some ginger/scallion baby meatballs for a white miso soup.

@Neely That cheesecake looks perfect! Mine taste fine, but never look that good.

@Sleevendog Yes, super long growing cycle, as we don't usually get freezes. Officially it is 355 days, but we ignore those 10 days and grow spring crops year round. We've had green beans for about a month now.

This time of year we are overwhelmed with fruit. We harvested the last of the nectarines on Friday. We've made nectarine salsa, jam, pico de gallo, wine, spicy sauce and pie filling....and I still have another bag to use up. We also have blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, ollalieberries, and boysenberries in season, so I have been canning jam and pie filling every few days.

Soup looks really good. I am a huge fan of ginger, especially in asian dishes.

Oh wow, Cookebooke!!! 😍😋My stomach growled! I'm going to google Marion Grasby and see if I can find it.

I'm watching it now, and I don't have the shrimp paste or the sweet, thick soy sauce. This should be a good time to use some of the gochujang sauce that I just bought I would think!

@sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA), have you ever used the Light Brioche Buns recipe to make into a loaf of bread? The recipe sounds lovely and am glad you shared it - I have copied it. I just don't need buns right now, but do need a fresh loaf of bread.

Cooking Forum!! What a place to come for cooking inspirations. Everybody’s Everything looks so good. Bread... Ken Forkish’s Autolyse Saturday Bread, I call my “Bucket Bread” I made twice last week. I slice, wrap and freeze, of course only one loaf made it to freezer.

Two rhubarb pies....

Lynda R, I'd think I'd died & gone to heaven if we could get fruits and veggies to grow year-'round. So jealous about now. Our green beans & tomatoes are just starting to blossom. I talk to to tomato plants every day trying to encourage them to turn at least some of those blossoms into tomatoes!

Looks good shirl! We use KenForkish as well. Basically a JimLahey 'No knead' with a few pinch-and-folds. An improvement over Jim's 'gateway' loaf. His intention was to make it simple.

@walnut. We make a Pullman loaf for sandwiches. Half whole wheat. Never tried the brioche for a larger loaf but if you have the covid flour I would try it. (we just had a 25Lb bag delivered last week. Bread ON!)

'Covid flour', lol. Meant if you have expendable flour to experiment, it should do a nice loaf me thinks? Having 25 lbs now we are not hesitant to make anything... but out of eggs. (face palm to forehead)

Lynda, I don't know how you keep up with everything when it grows year round!!

Sleeve, Covid flour LOL. 25 lb yikes! Looking forward to seeing what you do with it all.

Shirl...Awesome baking!!

Tonite was simple....sausages, peppers and onions. Hey, on my plate, too! I spared you looking at my cast iron.

I see on our local butcher's FB page that they have eggplants on for .99 each. I like buying them at that price, vs .99/lb that they sell in stores.

Ruthanna's Caponata coming up soon!

‘Salió mal el pancito.’ ¡Corta, corta!’

‘The little bread didn’t turn out.’ Cut! Cut!’

I’d say the bread fared better 😉 That had to hurt.

Sol

@sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA), would you share you recipe for the sandwich loaf made in a Pullman pan, please. I have a Pullman that I have not used yet. TIA.

Edie ... there is a spy called 'blossom set' that I have found works very well ...

I have found it at earl may garden centers ... lasts a long time

quick spritz on each blossom

I finally got hold of a really good chicken, so made a proper roast chicken dinner. Mary's heirloom, brushed with plum sauce and Szechuan restaurant mustard, sprinkled with lots of lemon pepper blend and fines herbes, on a bed of sliced Spanish onion, carrot chunks, and sliced fennel bulb with fronds on. I'm not good at this pictures of dinner thing, but it's prettier raw anyway. :)

Plllog, it's so nice to see you posting on this thread!! That's twice now, does this mean you'll become a regular, or at least a semi-regular? :-)

Your chicken dinner looks perfect! I love the idea of using fennel.

That chicken does look really good. I am interested in the "brushed with plum sauce" -- what kind of plum sauce do you use?

Thanks, Jasdip! Usually, I don't have anything I think is post worthy, but I'm getting better at taking pictures. I've been using the iPad in the kitchen more, which means it's sometimes handy. The raw chicken just looked so pretty with the fennel, I took a picture, and I was so excited to have a proper chicken, I wanted to share. The heirloom chickens are bigger than I usually prefer, but this was a really good tasting chicken, I support the concept of heirloom (I really dislike the chickens with the humongous breasts and vestigial legs), and since I can't go to the butcher, and have to have a shrink wrapped chicken, at least I can be sure of what's inside. Full, single chicken giblets too, neck, heart, liver, gizzard, one of each, like it should be (into the bag in the freezer with the spine for stock). The fennel started as "I need to cook the fennel" and turned into just adding it to the chicken. It worked really well. It was on the sides, rather than under, and got good and roasty, and lent a nice aroma to the chicken.

Thanks, Lynda. This is actually my usual way of roasting a chicken--bed of veg, inc. whatever needs using (though in this case most of the fennel is in its own bag for use in other dishes), and "suntan lotion" which has some oil and some sugar. My poor fridge is overstuffed, so I'm not allowed to add a bottle before I remove one, or I'd make something better balanced. The plum sauce is just a regular grocery store jar. I think SunLuck. So the sugar and oil of the sauce is to help crisp up and flavor the skin, and the mustard on top was to keep the high sugar content from scorching. It worked. It's very dark, but not charred, perfectly crisp, and very tasty. :)

Yummm... Chicken looks so good.

Bragu, thanks for the tip. If those silly plants keep spitting the blossoms I will get some of that to try.

Got my caponata made for tomorrow's dinner! This was a favourite of hubby's in the summer. I'm looking forward to having it with the chicken breast tomorrow night. I added artichoke hearts for more meatiness.

That looks delicious, Jasdip. Can you post the recipe?

I"m tied up right now for the evening, Seagrass. But it's Ruthanna's Caponata. You can try a search for it.

I’d forgotten about Caponata Jasdip. Usually go for the ratatouille. Thank for jogging my memory it looks yummy. Going to make this when I get my hands on an eggplant.

I've yet to make ratatouille Neely. You reminded me of that. :-)

The recipe says to cook it for 10 minutes but I do longer, I like the vegetables softened.

@walnutcreek, here is the pullman loaf recipe I use, HERE. I printed out a hard copy and crossed out the honey. I add two heaping tBsp powdered milk to the warm water. Butter needs to be soft room temp, not melted. I don't stock so many different flours, especially now. But do have regular whole wheat in the freezer for the 1/2 cup. (the butter and milk adds just the right sweetness for us.)

Next loaf will be a entirely new flour I've never used, but I have 25 lbs. Yikes. Hope we like it.

Wow, that was fast. Just noticed we are at 103 posts.

I agree about how some great tasting meals are a bit ugly on the plate but taste good. No problem here. It's been that way forever. Visual and less descriptive. Rarely use anything but my cell phone. Always hot plates from the oven so no time to get fussy. Cold salads I might plate a bit more carefully. Especially lunch salads with nice natural light.

Jasdip - thank you!

Thank you, sleevendog.

Tonight we had shrimp scampi over couscous with shallots and red bell pepper. This is my husband's signature dish. My contribution was the couscous. Fortunately, we both like to cook.