Whatcha Cooking today?

[worth1]

First and foremost you have to love and have pride in what you're doing.
If not it becomes a chore you don't want to do.
That almost always results in a poor product.
Not always but many times.

[worth1]

Homemade bread crumbs from homemade bread siffted and ready.

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[worth1]

I broke out the big guns when it comes to this dish.
It's my large magnalite skillet.
Conducts heat better than cast iron.
Plus s little seasoning before using it
Secret weapon under the skillet.
Aluminum welding rod.
Keeps direct contact off the glass top stove.
Less likely to burn.
Stops skillet from turning.
Even heating.
Keeps bottom of skillet clean.
Also salt and peppered both sides of meat.

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[worth1]

Homemade bread crumbs from homemade bread made all the difference in the world.
Flour egg wash bread crumbs and into the hot fat.
Don't pre dredge the meat do it right before you cook it.
You have plenty of time and it allows the oil to heat back up.

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[worth1]

Unbelievably delicious.
Crispy crust too.
Gravy fantastic and full of flavor.

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[rxkeith]

today turned into a cooking day.
got some cowboy pork chops from the store. not sure what makes them cowboy.
they are a thicker cut, so stove top frying doesn't work so well. outside is really cooked
by the time the inside is cooked well enough. they went into the crock pot. they cook up
fine in there. haven't tried baking them yet. while they were cooking, i made some english muffin bread,
and chicken soup from left over chicken. i ate a chop, and three pieces of bread. just tasted the soup
to make sure it was fit to eat. i will take the soup for lunch at work tomorrow.

my son ate the bread, a chop, the soup plus an earlier slaw salad.
it takes a while to fill him up.


keith

[Tormato]

I used made in Italy Armando Farfalle that was bought from Aldi. I can’t remember exactly what I paid for the 16oz. Bag. Aldi here generally has good pasta available for reasonable prices. Good Italian Bronze cut pasta generally runs 1.99/# or less at times, but this Armando Farfalle isn’t bronze cut and I would not have paid as much for it. I don’t remember, though, it being as low as 99 cents/#. I try to keep several pounds of pasta on hand as pasta is sort of a no-brainer apocalypitic/pandemic/can’t think of anything else for dinner type of food to have around.

This recipe called for a block of greek sheep’s milk feta in the brine. Evidently, domestic cow’s milk feta doesn’t melt correctly. The feta was the most expensive part of the meal. I got a 6.4 ounce block of Greek Sheep’s Milk Feta and it was approaching $6. Cow’s milk feta is less than half the price. The feta melted beautifully after spending 45 minutes in the oven at 400°. I used a little of the reserved pasta water to make the sauce even more clingy and creamy.

For the next week, Dungeness crab clusters, legs, claws, body, cleaned and cooked are on sale at HEB for $9.97/#. Dungeness crab is my favorite. I’m thinking of adding some of that crab to the leftover pasta from last night for tonight’s dinner. We don’t often buy dungeness crab, but it’s hard to pass up at that price. Not too long ago, it was over $20/#, no way was I going to buy any at that price.

Pasta with just cheese and veggies often leaves me ravenously hungry like last night, maybe adding in the crab tonight will solve the hunger pains issue. Eating the crab in just melted butter and lemon without adding anything else would also not likely satisfy my hunger.

With paying nearly 6 dollars for the cheese and I used about nine ounces of the Farfalle at perhaps $1.50/#, the rest, the tomatoes, onions, garlic and basil all came from the garden. No telling how expensive that garden produce is especially factoring in my labor. That labor is why I’m hungry even after eating.

The bronze cut pasta, here, is all of the celebrity stuff, running $2.99 to $4.99/lb. Even with a population that is 1/3, or more, of some Italian heritage, it's the lowest priced pasta that moves off of the shelves. Even at $1.19/lb it will sit, if the pasta next to it is .99/lb.

I basically have a minimum of about 15 pounds on hand, about half a dozen shapes. Most are for Italian-type cooking, but others are for mac & cheese, or various cold pasta salads. I'm winding down the 25 pounds of angel hair that I bought more than a year ago at .49/lb. Every time I shop I visit the pasta aisle, and will always buy when it's on a sale, and sometimes buy when not on sale.

I just visited a local store that is frequented by many of the Hispanic population in the area. Rice has almost doubled, in price, in a year. The least expensive now, is about .65/lb, with many brands over $1.00/lb. I scored some corned beef at $1.49/lb (flat cut!), and pork spare ribs at .99/lb. The ribs will be an adventure, as I've never made them before. The ribs cost about $11.00, and I copied the cooking instructions off the bottom of the $35 boxed ribs sitting next to the vac/pac ones I bought.

[karstopography]

Walmart brand pasta here runs $.98/#, looking at their website. HEB brand pasta is $1.16/# , Kroger brand 1.25/#. Then our dominant name brands in the stores around here are Skinner and Barrila. Skinner is about 1.50/#, Barilla is about $2/#. DeCecco $2.5/#

Walmart has 5 pounds of long grain rice for $2.94.

I haven’t figured out a way to look up Aldi’s prices online. I generally get pasta at Aldi except I like Skinner large elbow macaroni. My wife seems to be picky about which rice we have and for long grain it should be Mahatma.

I haven’t bought pork spare ribs in a long time other than the St. Louis trimmed ones. .99/# for spare ribs is a great price. I recently bought two 3# racks of St. Louis trimmed ones for 2.94/#.

I’ve got to cook those ribs Saturday or Sunday or freeze since they haven’t been frozen before. I also have a 2# Prime picanha top sirlon cap I need to cook or freeze soon. Those Prime Picanha normally run 9 or 10 dollars a pound, but I got this one for a little over $6/#. My wife for reasons unclear to me likes the Tri-tip Sirlon better than the Picanha.

[Tormato]

Not often do I make the gravy before I cook anything but this is an exception.
Mostly because of the long cooking time.
I used what little bacon drippings I had and a little oil with some flour but didn't make a cooked roux.
It was just to mix it up and make it easier to incorporate the water.
Lots of water because it's going to simmer and reduce down.
The simmering will be what cooks the flour.
The only spices are..
Black pepper.
Nutmeg freshly grated.
Mace.
Ground dill seeds in the molcajete and rinsed out with a little water.
Salt.
Quite naturally you don't want to salt to taste with all that water because if you do its going to be way to salty when it reduces down.
Also it will foam up and this foam is protein from the flour.
I have to keep a close eye on it.
Obviously I'm making pork schnitzel with some pork loin I'm thawing out.
Germans aren't known for heavy wild and crazy spices with this dish so I'm keeping it simple.

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Worth,

You're quite the technical cook.

So, when you say pork loin, I'm going to assume you do not at all mean pork tenderloin.

[Tormato]

Walmart brand pasta here runs $.98/#, looking at their website. HEB brand pasta is $1.16/# , Kroger brand 1.25/#. Then our dominant name brands in the stores around here are Skinner and Barrila. Skinner is about 1.50/#, Barilla is about $2/#. DeCecco $2.5/#

Walmart has 5 pounds of long grain rice for $2.94.

I haven’t figured out a way to look up Aldi’s prices online. I generally get pasta at Aldi except I like Skinner large elbow macaroni. My wife seems to be picky about which rice we have and for long grain it should be Mahatma.

I haven’t bought pork spare ribs in a long time other than the St. Louis trimmed ones. .99/# for spare ribs is a great price. I recently bought two 3# racks of St. Louis trimmed ones for 2.94/#.

I’ve got to cook those ribs Saturday or Sunday or freeze since they haven’t been frozen before. I also have a 2# Prime picanha top sirlon cap I need to cook or freeze soon. Those Prime Picanha normally run 9 or 10 dollars a pound, but I got this one for a little over $6/#. My wife for reasons unclear to me likes the Tri-tip Sirlon better than the Picanha.

I really like(d) that jumbo macaroni. It is the one shape that I will use for virtually all types of cooking, whether it's with sauces, macaroni salads, mac & cheese, added to soups, etc... It may not be the absolute best shape for everything, but it is extremely versatile, for me. If I don't have on hand the shape that I'd like to use, jumbo macaroni was often the first substitute, instead of a trip to the store.

It showed up in a couple of stores a few years ago. And I will admit that I, alone, probably bought about 1/4 of all that was in stock. Off and on, supplies lasted for 2 to 3 years, and there is none to be found, once again. I keep looking, because as I've said, it's a cruise down the pasta aisle every time shopping.

Barilla and Ronzoni are the mid-priced brands that sell OK, at about $1.49 to $1.99/lb, here. I guess if one was raised on a certain brand, it's hard to change. The absolute lowest price for the store brand/no name brands is what sells, and the expensive specialty stuff collects dust until there is a buy 2 get 1 free sale.

I picked up a 1 to 2 year supply of Barilla regular-type lasagna noodles, at a WalMart clearance/discontinued price of .49/lb. It's a 2 year supply if I just make meat lasagna, a 1 year supply if I also make...



And true story, I once received "kroners" in change.

[Tormato]

For tomorrow, I have no time to make Coronation chicken, nor...



If Worth declares himself King of Bastrop, then I'll think about it.

[worth1]

@Tormato
It was the big loin not the tenderloin found inside the cavity of the critter up by the back bone and rib cage.
I would prefer another more fatty cut for the schnitzel but you have to use what you have.
The gravy was doctored with sour cream right before serving.
No idea what my original intentions were with the gravy but the schnitzel was an after thought.

I've been told and read the best dry pasta is the white pasta not the yellow looking pasta.
But that is relative to personal taste and what one expects pasta to be.
At my store the expensive and only brand of bucatini is white.
Barilla pasta may seem like a good brand but according to the so called Italian gourmet experts it isn't.
When it comes to food never in my life have I seen a culture like Mexicans and Italians get so bent out of shape if you stray out of tradition just a wee bit.
But we are all that way to some degree.
And I'm one of them.

[Tormato]

@Tormato
It was the big loin not the tenderloin found inside the cavity of the critter up by the back bone and rib cage.
I would prefer another more fatty cut for the schnitzel but you have to use what you have.
The gravy was doctored with sour cream right before serving.
No idea what my original intentions were with the gravy but the schnitzel was an after thought.

I've been told and read the best dry pasta is the white pasta not the yellow looking pasta.
But that is relative to personal taste and what one expects pasta to be.
At my store the expensive and only brand of bucatini is white.
Barilla pasta may seem like a good brand but according to the so called Italian gourmet experts it isn't.
When it comes to food never in my life have I seen a culture like Mexicans and Italians get so bent out of shape if you stray out of tradition just a wee bit.
But we are all that way to some degree.
And I'm one of them.

Barilla is currently being sued for claiming to be Italy's #1 pasta brand. If they lose, the consumer will lose, by essentially paying Barilla's fine, at the supermarket.

[worth1]

Let's not stereotype the poor Italians about eating tons of pasta.
They also eat beans.
In this case two heirloom beans from South America
They have many names and are popular in Italy.
Mayocoba beans and cargamanto beans AKA canary beans and cranberry beans plus other names.
My package said white but they are red.
Many varieties of the cranberry bean.

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[Tormato]

Cannellini is the most popular bean that I've seen used by Italian/Americans, here in the northeastern US.

[worth1]

Cannellini is the most popular bean that I've seen used by Italian/Americans, here in the northeastern US.

Not exactly the same but close.
I actually like the mayocoba better.
Since we're on an Italian kick I decided I needed bread.
I'm sure y'all will recognize what this mess is going to be.
No stand mixer needed.
Probably a disaster.

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[worth1]

Well it did good on the first rise but I'm worried about the second one.
Nothing that can't be fixed.

First rise.

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[worth1]

The dough did rise and I had to get busy.
I got a picture of it on the second rise but that was it.
Then I had to dump this mess out and go to work.

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[worth1]

It's ciabatta bread and the easiest method I've found yet.
Naturally not as good as the pros.

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[bower]

Is this the recipe with a tsp of yeast per cup of flour, @worth1 ? That would take care of bubbling it up alright.
My old bread recipe took a tsp of yeast for about 7 cups of flour, and that was enough.
My current bread takes a half tsp to 3 cups, so it seems, about the same.
Yeast is insanely expensive here, it would quickly drive up the price of your bread to use that ratio.
Extra yeasty bread does smell and taste wonderful though.