Culinary Conversations

[karstopography]

I cannot stomach those hyper hoppy ales. West Coast, New England, Dank, Juicy, Hazy, those IPAS and their brethren are way too heavy and too much like turpentine for my tastes, plus most run 7% ABV or so. 1/2 pint of a dank IPA and I’m saying uncle.

Hops are known to be quite poisonous to pets, especially dogs.

https://beerandbrewing.com/ask-the-expe ... emperature.

https://www.botanical-online.com/en/med ... p-toxicity

Hops aren’t exactly poisonous to humans, but they do potentially cause some noticeable effects.

Pilsners, various lagers are more my speed.

[worth1]

I bought a 6 pack of Samuel Adams regular years ago.
I ended up using it as snail trap bait.
Worst beer I've ever had in my life.

[peebee]

When I first moved into my neighborhood 30+ years ago the next block over had olive trees. I didn't know what they were until I saw all these oblong berries on the ground. No one ever used them & because of the mess the trees were cut down eventually. After olive oil became more popular I used to wonder what variety they were.

[worth1]

I bet they were Mission Olives.
A very popular and common olive in California at the time.

[worth1]

Reminds me of the Sicilian family I know that had a neighbor that didn't know he could eat the oranges off his orange tree in Arizona.

[karstopography]

I would not recommend eating or even tasting green or black olives straight from the tree. Some people I know cannot stand the taste of any olives of any kind. Olive coca-colas used to be a feature of my grandmother’s drive in hamburger stand. Peanut cokes are good also. That little hit of the oil improves coke.

Figuring out Olives could be good food was probably an accident, just like the first beer and wine were likely accidental. Olive and their oil was used as fuel first in all likelihood. Some knucklehead left a pot of raw whole olives ready to be crushed for fuel uncovered out in the rain and the rainwater leached out the bitter compounds or even better if there was some salt residue in the jar and the olives lactobacillus fermented. Wood ash lye, maybe that was the route olives to edibility took. Lye will leach out the bitter taste from olives, all it would take is olives soaking in a pot of water and some hardwood ashes had been.

[worth1]

I love olives and I have all my life, seriously since I was a wee thing.
The same with peppers and mushrooms.

[worth1]

This is the second time I've bought dates to make an experimental pasta sauce.
A little over 1.5 pounds each time.
Sadly I've kept them too close to me and have been eating them as dessert.
Low and behold I've once again eaten all my dates.
It's not uncommon for people to put raisins in pasta sauce to sweeten the sauce a little.
I figured chopping up dates would be an excellent choice as well.
But no I've gotta eat all the things.
I might have just enough left of I stay out of them.

[worth1]

I managed to chop up a good half cup or more of the dates for the spaghetti sauce.

IMG_20231029_112526388.jpg

[worth1]

Bought a 12 pack of Guinness stout in the bottle for about the same price as Shiner Bock.
Maybe a little less.
15.98.
No brainer as to which is better.

[worth1]

Well another experiment was successful.
Totally out of the box
Instead of bringing the water to a boil for the shrimp I put the whole mess into a kettle and turned the burner on to about a quarter way up, maybe a little more.
Then let it get to around 167F and pulled it off the burner to cool back off.
The shrimp was cooked to perfection and not over cooked.
No rapid cooling with ice if you don't have ice.
No washing the flavors off.
No worrying about the time in boiling water.
I cooked the shrimp in what I soaked it in and it's still in that stuff in the refrigerator for tonight.
Give it a try you might like it.
Just keep an eye on the temperature.

[Sue_CT]

For anyone who might be interested in trying the California Olive Oil I mentioned previously, they usually have a "Bright Friday" Sale, as they call it, in November. Most of their olive oils are sold out, but I am hoping they will be pressing and restocking soon. I have never seen so many sold out before. The new oils come out every year between Oct/Nov and February. I might message them and see what they think the time line will be for the rest of the new oils. Their Sevillano oil is already out, the first to come out I think, just bottled in Oct. 2023 so it is available fresh and unfiltered.

Only small bottles available but they were apparently taking preorders so I am not sure if the rest is sold out because it hasn't been bottled yet or if they already sold out for the year of the larger bottles. Boy, I hope not , lol. If they are selling out that fast now I will have to stop telling people about them.

[worth1]

I read they are cutting the olive laden limbs from trees and running off with them in some country in Europe.
I can't remember which one.

I gotta tell ya today's thieves have no morals at all.
It seems like anything goes no matter what.

[worth1]

Here we go again.
Totally wrong and misleading.

Screenshot_20231112-111949.png

[worth1]

So some guy gets sent to the store obviously by his wife to go thanksgiving shopping.
He's asking they lady at the store about a large bag of cranberries because that's what he was told to get.
No idea what a large bag is.
Then there were maybe 2 brands and didn't know which one to get.
The poor guy was exasperated.
I spoke up and said just get 2 bags and it doesn't matter which one because they all came from the same place anyway.
That's what he did.
Then he shows up at the turkey section where I'm telling another poor guy about the turkeys because he asked me which one to get.
I said the Riverside is what I always get because it isn't the turkey it's how you cook it.
I told him you can't buy the perfect turkey you have to do it right.
So he and the previous guy got turkeys on my recommendation.
Now I just hope they don't get chewed out by their wives.
Maybe HEB should hire me to do shopping consulting or something.
Lord only knows I've done enough of it by being asked by people.

[karstopography]

IMG_2745.jpeg

Got my “free” turkey today. Frozen Riverside turkeys were at 45 cents/pound, but if I bought one of the HEB spiral sliced hams, then the turkey was free since it was under 12 pounds, 11.61 pounds in this case. I was in the market for one of these hams anyway so it worked out. We now have only five coming for dinner Thanksgiving day since my daughter bailed on us to go elk hunting in New Mexico. Good for her, turkey is available year around, but good elk hunting opportunities are few and far in between, especially for a bull in a quality area of northern New Mexico. She’ll have to self guide for the most part but if anyone can she’s the one. She can field dress an animal frighteningly fast. I hope she gets one. We are out of elk from her big cow harvested this time last year.

An eleven pound turkey is plenty for five people especially when two of the five are over 80. I’ve got a pre-packaged brine kit picked up on clearance ready to go.

[Sue_CT]

If anyone is interested the olive sale has started today at Sciabica. The oil is 10% off and 15% off if you buy a gift set. For the first time it is going to go on for a week. Unfortunately, they are still sold out of a lot. I will keep an eye on the site myself to see if the add anything. Fortunately, I get an additional 10% off because I recently placed my 25th order with them, lol. Oy, I am spoiled. If you want unfltered oil I think the only one right now is the Sevalino, which is good. The strongest is the manizillo but this years harvest is not available yet.

https://sunshineinabottle.com/collectio ... oil?page=2

[worth1]

My HEB grocery store was stacked with Huy Fong Sriracha sauce limit 1.
Price $4.87 for 17 ounces.
Not gonna bite.
Bought the J Lek Sriracha sauce 15.38 ounces two for $6.00 instead.
Not being cheap I like the stuff and it's from where this type sauce came from anyway.
They have regular and extra hot I bought one of each.
I highly recommend it if you like Huy Fong Sriracha sauce.
I haven't tried the regular yet but have the extra hot.

[worth1]

I've got a Brand New frozen turkey in the freezer I don't have any idea what to do with.
I don't want.
Baked turkey.
Fried turkey.
Smoked turkey.
Cured and smoked turkey.
I'm at my wits end.
My only option is to thaw it out dissect the darn thing and re freeze it for later use.
I simply can't eat a whole turkey on my own.

[Uncle_Feist]

I'd can it then cook the bones and scraps for a big mess of slickers.