Whatcha Cooking today?

[Tormahto]

Made some stuffed celery and deviled eggs with regular yellow mustard my homemade whole grain mustard mayonnaise and sweet pickle relish.
Hot smoked Spanish paprika on top.
The eggs were older so the the shells slipped right off.
Put a soffritto mix in the bottom of the duck roasting pan with Italian seasoning blend and some water.
Didn't want to use anything acidic like wine with the aluminum foil.
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Looks great!

With a very low supply of eggs, here, they are now always fresh, and almost impossible to peel. Only AFTER struggling with a dozen hard cooked eggs, did it dawn on me to buy some a few weeks before using them.

[worth1]

@Tormato
I always keep eggs in rotation so if I want to boil an egg it's easy.
I seen so many remedies on this and nothing works besides older eggs.
Here's the duck after many probes temperature checking and letting cool off and back into broiler with door wide open for final crisping.
Gordon Ramsay can kiss both sides of my butt.

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[pepperhead212]

Today I got some things out of the freezer - trying to get some "older things" out of there, and got some tortillas and 26 oz of ham. I also took out 12 oz of green beans, from last year's harvest - not old, but I wanted some vegetables in whatever I threw together. Not used often in Mexican cooking, as well as ham, but I put together a chili/mole dish, with some pinto beans - also old, but they still cooked up well.

I made up a mole sauce, with the usual seasonings - some toasted sesame, pumpkin seeds, Mexican cinnamon, allspice, black peppercorns, cumin, and coriander seed. I toasted some whole garlic cloves, and I also toasted some chiles - guajillos, mulato, cascabel, and a pasilla, and some dried tomatoes, and soaked those, before blending smooth in the Vitamix, with the seeds, garlic, and a half a tablet of Mexican chocolate. I scraped this into the wok, then washed the blender out with water, and used that for cooking the pintos. I cooked a large, chopped onion in the Instant Pot in some oil, before adding the beans and that "mole water", and cooked them on manual, 25 min, while doing the mole on the stove, releasing the pressure naturally.

While that was cooking, I cooked down the mole, starting on low, with that splatter screen, scraping more often, once it gets thicker, then I raised the heat, and scraped it constantly, until darker, and very thick.

When beans were done, I put the thawed beans in, along with the mole, and the diced ham, and some red lentils (needed a little more thickness, but I didn't want to do it with masa). Didn't add salt, though it definitely needed more, since the ham will add some. I simmered another 25 minutes, and then added a little salt. Served some, with the heated up tortillas. The tortillas were almost 2 years old, but still good, in the vacuum bag. And these are those really good ones - not made with the corn flour, but the nixtamal, before it is dried out.
Pan toasted dried tomatoes and Chiles, for the mole, before blending. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Pintos, with the sauteed onions - no Chiles in it yet, just rinsed out the blender to use the water. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Mole, just getting ready to cook it down. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Wok cover, to prevent the splatter, in the beginning. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished mole, cooked very thick, and ready to go into the pintos.. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The mole/chili dish, with some frozen green beans and ham added towards the end, cooking another 30 min. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Frozen tortillas, the ones made with nixtamal, not the masa harina. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Those frozen corn tortillas, getting ready to heat some up. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Heating a tortilla up over the gas flame. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The finished chili/mole, with a couple heated tortillas, and some Tia Angelita Queso Fresco. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

Ready set go.
Got everything ready or just about ready for cabbage potatoes and bratwurst.
Cabbage has been sitting on stove with nutmeg salt black pepper oil and nutmeg.
Ice on top to keep cold.
Potatoes on stove with ice and water to keep cool.
Butter slowly separating.
Thick aluminum alloy skillet warming up for bratwurst with bacon in it for the cabbage.

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[Sue_CT]

Made the oddewst combinaiton I have ever had. Spaghetti Mexican Italian style, lol. Mediterrian flavored oilve oil, fresh garlic, dried basil (no fresh in the store!), fresh lemon juice, white wine, grape tomatoes, mozzarella balls and homemade Chroizo from the freezer topped with fresh Parm. I certainly have heard of Tex Mex, Mexican American, etc., but do they Mexican Italian in Italy, lol? Pretty sure not the combination I used. Would have blended a bit better with a little Italian sausage. But defintely tasty. You never know if you don't try.

[worth1]

Made the oddewst combinaiton I have ever had. Spaghetti Mexican Italian style, lol. Mediterrian flavored oilve oil, fresh garlic, dried basil (no fresh in the store!), fresh lemon juice, white wine, grape tomatoes, mozzarella balls and homemade Chroizo from the freezer topped with fresh Parm. I certainly have heard of Tex Mex, Mexican American, etc., but do they Mexican Italian in Italy, lol? Pretty sure not the combination I used. Would have blended a bit better with a little Italian sausage. But defintely tasty. You never know if you don't try.

Now try it with regular spaghetti you won't be sorry.

Here is a bit of a story that is worth it.
It's a cream sauce I was making.
Started out by cooking out the water and milk solids in butter on low heat.
Put in cream.
The cream collected the salt and solids and they clumped up.
No worries stick blender to the rescue.
Next added garlic powder and one egg yolk.
Everything is fine and continuing to stir.
Added jack cheese and what the devil It's clumping big time and the heat isn't even on anything but low and the cream isn't warm.
Then it dawned on me I just made butter I'll have to start over but wait a minute.
I'll heat it up.
If the cream turned to butter I can just make it all come back together with heat.
What have I got to lose?
Well it worked so now to thicken it.
Added corn starch and turmeric put on very low and continuing to slowly stir I made a killer cream cheese sauce.

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[worth1]

Here's the fruit of my labor.
Along with the homemade whole grain black mustard.
Stuffed like a pig.

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[rxkeith]

yesterday it was chuck eye steaks on the stove top, cooked to pink. the ones from louies always seem more
tender than the ones from pats iga. they are more expensive at louies, but you get what you pay for i guess.
i baked our last sweet fall squash. this squash is superb. i only got three from the garden, and gave one of them to doug,
and kate for saving all the scarchuks supreme seeds for all y'all. i must grow more of them next year. kinda hard to choose
between scarchuks, and sweet fall which is best. also heated up some corn on the stove. shoulda had something green, but
those three were enough.

today it was roasted chicken, boiled potatoes, both home raised along with a slaw salad, and a couple loaves of english muffin
bread. i used a cup and a half of flour from ground wheat berries, and a half cup of buckwheat flour. the bread came out with a
darker color, and a heavier loaf. i like the texture, and the added little crunch.
while all that was going, i made a small pot of giblet soup. i'll add some chicken to it, and that will be someones lunch tomorrow.

we have made mole sauce here, but it has been a looong time. it will always have a special place in my heart. can't tell you why.


keith

[Tormahto]

Made the oddewst combinaiton I have ever had. Spaghetti Mexican Italian style, lol. Mediterrian flavored oilve oil, fresh garlic, dried basil (no fresh in the store!), fresh lemon juice, white wine, grape tomatoes, mozzarella balls and homemade Chroizo from the freezer topped with fresh Parm. I certainly have heard of Tex Mex, Mexican American, etc., but do they Mexican Italian in Italy, lol? Pretty sure not the combination I used. Would have blended a bit better with a little Italian sausage. But defintely tasty. You never know if you don't try.

That's not odd.

Odd is full blown Cincinnati chili.

[Sue_CT]

It wasn't that far off, lol. It all went well together until the sausage. Too much I think with the lemon and the vinegar and wine. Not balanced acidity and they fight each other a bit. Not terrible, just not playing together as well as I had hoped, lol. By the way, your name is in my freezer. All the sausage patties I froze are labeled "Tormato's sausage recipe", lol, to differentiate them from the Villa Cocina sausage I made. I like your recipe better. That is the one I used.

[worth1]

Made a nice pasta sauce to go on a big plate of vermicelli.
Fresh tomatoes blanched and skinned then cooked to go in it too.
The sauce was just tomato puree with the chopped tomatoes and other select ingredients.

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[Uncle_Feist]

I had a Kennebec hash brown with my sausage and eggs this morning.

[Sue_CT]

Tormato, I do not know why it stuck in my brain that Pepperhead's chorizo recipe is yours indtead of his. When I do that just say "It's Peppperhead's dummy!" lol. Sorry Pepperhead!

[Sue_CT]

Well, I had the left over Chorizo with pasta for an early dinner but this time I put a good fresh grated Romano cheese on it and for some reason it went much better with the Chorizo than the Parm did and tied it all together. It was really quite good. Yay.

[pepperhead212]

BTW, here's that masa harina used for tamales - slightly coarser than the usual variety, used for tortillas. I got a bag at the Mexican grocery today, along with a few other things. It was $5.87 - I was expecting it to be more, being something "heavy". I don't make tamales often, but I use this as the cornmeal, making a lot of cornbreads, since I love that flavor.
New bag of masa harina for Tamales by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

Decided to stop off at McDonald's for a Filet-O-Fish sandwich.

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[worth1]

Obviously I didn't stop off at McDonald's.
@Sue_CT
Where's the corn tortillas?

[Sue_CT]

Got to get on those soon! Been trying to use up food and left over I already have before making new stuff. Spent hours cleaning out the the fridge on steroid energy, took the whole thing apart inside, checked the expiration on every bottle, etc, lol. Soon. soon.

[worth1]

In the meantime I was going to make a simple ground chuck beef soup thing and due to my ADHD I swapped tracks and decided to make meatballs instead.
Then my OCD kicked in and had to weigh each meatball out to within + or - 2 grams.
I had to force myself to stop trying to get each one exactly right.
I mean seriously does anyone realize what 1 gram of meat looks like.
Good lord it's ridiculous.
Then there was the whole arrangement thing to deal with.
In the end they are in the oven at 170F.
I just love not being drugged out so as to dampen my creativity.
In the end I ended up with 48 meatballs and I counted twice.
Still worried if I counted right.
Ingredients are the usual.
Herbs de Provence.
Garlic powder.
Onion powder.
Black pepper..
Knorr beef bullion powder.
Chili de Arbol flakes.
Corn starch.
Water.
Egg.
Cumin.
Powdered oyster crackers in the molcajete.

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[Sue_CT]

I do the same thing with a scale to the single gram, lol. OCD kicks in at odd times.