I made a salad today, since it was hot out (well, maybe not hot, but like late May around here!). I cooked some whole mung beans and chana dal, and added some diced potatoes (got a little too soft for a red potato, in that time), a large diced red bell pepper, plus some scallion greens, cutting celery, dill, and parsley from the hydroponics. I drained a can of kippered herring (got a bunch of these from Ocean State Job Lots, for $1.49 with a digital coupon), and chopped them up, and chopped 5 frozen Thai peppers, and stirred all this together, with a couple tb of toasted sesame seeds. The dressing was a simple EVOO and white wine vinegar, a little soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper, as always. Delicious! Could have put more heat in it - maybe tomorrow.

I also made some breadsticks, with the new yeast I just got, because I noticed that the old yeast was showing its age, the last couple of times I used it. It rose incredibly well, as always, when new, and I didn't even use the usual amount. I keep it in the fridge, and the "best by" date I wrote on the label was 5-22, but I definitely needed to replace it. Only wasted a few tb, so most was used.
Bread sticks, made with new yeast. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I soaked a cup of mayocoba beans for 24 hours, drained and rinsed.
Added fresh water and some really lean salt pork.
Its simmering and cooking for tomorrow.

Salad tonight here. Thawed out a ribeye. Pan broiled that in the cast iron skillet to medium rare. Rest, slice thin, toss the steak slices with merlot lettuce and castelfranco radicchio from the garden, plus feta cheese, and dress it all with EVOO and aged balsamic vinegar. Easy peasy and delicious.

The beans are heavenly with lots of runny juice.
Brought them back to a boil with added sausage link.
Added Knorr chicken bullion.
Probably going to make a small pan of cornbread in one of my cast iron cornbread molds.

Had oven baked chicken thighs and potato slabs, and fried a head of cabbage with an onion. Thought about making baked apples for dessert, but too full as it was, fried cabbage was what I had a craving for. Gonna make the baked apples tomorrow and have them with some good local vanilla ice cream. Made the apartment hot, but got to cook up some food after friend bringing by groceries right after we did a bigger shop. Fridge and freezer full, so we are fortunate.

@rxkeith; "don't you have anyone down your way that knows how to make a decent pasty?" Nope.

"you gotta come all the way to da U.P?" Yup!

We always get a cooler-full (40 +) before we wrap things up in late August/early September.

We'll likely be stopping up to see my in-laws and will...um...audit yer recommendations.

The Gotch

That @karstopography pork chop pic got me thinkin'...and while walking past the REDUCED MEAT section at the Metro Market, lo-n-behold, I espied_with_my_little_eye some absolutely beautiful lean pork tenderloin chops looking for their Forever Home.

At half price, they found it! Nothing fancy (no marinade) just medium heat on the Weber five (5) minutes each side in the sunny, early evening calm of[attachment=1]thumbnail_IMG_1223.jpg the last day of winter.

Mmmmmmmm!

The Gotch

I have a little under 3 pounds of hamburger meat that needs attention and some tomatoes in the same boat.
Going to make hotdog chili with it.
So it's chili dogs for supper.
This chili won't be as pungent as my regular chili.
And the fresh tomatoes will cook down in it.

I had another one pound beet left from my salmon experiment.
Decided to make a beet and potato clam/smoked salmon chowder.
Potatoes are Yukon gold.
Here's the beet in the water.
Other ingredients include heavy cream and more.

Smoked salmon thin tail end about to go in.
This stuff is killer good.

Doing my fair share to reduce my carbon footprint.
Made the cracker flour with the molcajete to help thicken the chowder.
Potatoes completely cooked away.
Need to add more potatoes for the actual eating part.
Spices and herbs added so far are...
Fennel ground up in the molcajete.
Knorr chicken bullion powder.
Sweet smoked paprika.
Black pepper.
Dried onion.
Garlic powder.
Just before serving will add diced potatoes again to let just cook until tender.

worth1 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 24, 2022 6:35 pm I had another one pound beet left from my salmon experiment.
Decided to make a beet and potato clam/smoked salmon chowder.
Potatoes are Yukon gold.
Here's the beet in the water.
Other ingredients include heavy cream and more.
20220324_181813.jpg

Beets and cream? I think the finished product may "quickly" turn into...

Tormato wrote: ↑Thu Mar 24, 2022 8:47 pm

worth1 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 24, 2022 6:35 pm I had another one pound beet left from my salmon experiment.
Decided to make a beet and potato clam/smoked salmon chowder.
Potatoes are Yukon gold.
Here's the beet in the water.
Other ingredients include heavy cream and more.
20220324_181813.jpg

Beets and cream? I think the finished product may "quickly" turn into...

Ya know I've never watched a full episode of that show.
The chowder is marvelous and it's way past my.

@Tormato
This is more like the chowder.

Loved that show, lol.

venison pastrami reubens, and coming up on the last of the lehigh potatoes, they still taste great. and it has to be heinz ketchup for bay fries. Cheaper ketchup for meat loaf or something, fine, but give me the good sweet stuff for fries. Heck yeah I'm serious, heinz is the good stuff!

It has been a few years now, making venison pastrami. We used to use corned beef for these. Not anymore. I have frozen corned beef that needs to be used. I either need to can to make hash, or mix it in for the next venison sausage. I have no taste for it anymore, in sandwiches, way too salty and fatty.

I have some corned beef leftover not salty.
Seems like a sandwich is in order but.....
I'm smoking the rest and also smoking some Swiss cheese too.
Going to make some coleslaw for something cool on the side.

Heck we bought that corned beef before I had a smoker...I need a recipe for that. I use a 30" masterbuilt. We have always done corned beef, just in a pot, with the spice packet added. It is good freezer, they are probably okay yet for more than sausage fat balancing.

I was on a cheese smoking kick at some point maybe two years back, until I oversmoked some, turned me off to it.

I have some trout from last May too that needs to be smoked. We had a bunch and brined them all, smoked half, and it was too much to eat. So I froze the rest in a bag, brine and all. And now we are a week from this year's opener, and I just uncovered that bag when I took out some frozen peppers and... zucchini. Sour dough zucchini bread, that was made last week for a comm garden work day.

Molcajete...that it the mortar and pestle? What material is it? We just have a wooden one...I wouldn't say it works great.

@JRinPA Those molcajetes are traditionally made from volcanic basalt, and are very heavy, and the coarseness of the rock makes it good for grinding. I prefer that to my Thai marble one, which is also very heavy. I have a small wooden mortar and pestle, but just use that for crushing seeds, just to release the flavor, like with caraway for bread.