Nicest 3.82 lb/1.7 kg filet we've had in a LONG TIME! Adorned with home-made bread crumbs, fresh minced Garlic, and shredded Parmesan.

How big was it? We had to break out one of her Reiss Gastronorm Baking Trays (https://www.riess-markenshop.de/en/Ries ... ray/39042/ 53 cm L x 32.5 cm W x 4 cm D/~20" L x 13" W x 1.5" D), generally reserved for Tomato processing) to accommodate it: ¡Finalizado! The Gotch

Coking with wine is great. Other alcohols, eh.

Last night I made a concoction of mushrooms squash peppers onions garlic and so on and added shrimp.
Put it in the refrigerator for tonight.
I also made a thing with 1/4; inch thick slices of sweet potato and thin slices of ginger.
It has the usual spices.
Black pepper.
Nutmeg
Allspice
Anice.
Salt.
Brown sugar.
Real cinnamon.
In the oven covered at 365 and baking in it's own juices.

I decided to test out the power of those bulk spices, the Lal Mirch hot pepper (which is not cayenne) and the bulk paprika which is a really dark color, on a bulk pack of chicken legs roasted with sweet potatoes. Quite a lot of the Lal Mirch heaped into the evoo/lime juice spice mix with the paprika, coriander, lots of fresh garlic, salt, pepper, and some honey and summer savory to add sweetness.
It was definitely not too hot to eat, which it would've been for the same amount of true cayenne pepper. I think the honey helped the flavor but tbh if I had to describe it, ' ordinary bbq sauce' comes to mind. Oh well no problem with that.
I made an apple crisp and put in after the legs to take advantage of the hot oven.

Beef and vegetable soup. Substituted patty pan squash for the potatoes. Yummy. The bread was made by my daughter this morning and was so delicious.

First batch of collards this winter. Yummo.

These collards were amazingly delicious. Recipe had onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, chicken broth, and something like bacon or a smoked turkey leg. I chose bacon.

Cooked until tender. Recipe called for a dash of vinegar to curb any bitterness, but there was not a hint of anything bitter so I omitted the vinegar.

I had a bunch of shrimp that needed attention.
I cooked them in a pot of water with lots of salt and Indian hot red pepper powder for about 2 minutes.
Put them in a bowl and added....
More of the Indian hot pepper powder.
This stuff is not cayenne pepper powder it's hotter.
Raw chopped garlic.
Fresh ginger grated.
Ice cold butter.
Cumin.
A goodly amount of hot J Lek Sriracha sauce.
The juice of one fresh lime.
Cumin powder.
Chili powder.
Cooked Yukon Gold potatoes that were cooked in the boil.
Mixed everything up and put the potatoes in last.
The butter is used to stop the cooking and remains creamy if everything isn't too hot.
Best shrimp I've ever had outside of fried.
Extremely delicious.
It will go with a bowl of chili I made yesterday.

Cold weather is here. meaning chicken soup time.

I freeze some of the broth, just in case I catch something that knocks me off of my feet. If it's something really bad, I can't stomach solid food for awhile. Roughly 48 hours of chicken broth will keep me hydrated.

I have never in my life been so sick I couldn't keep something down except for food poisoning in Italy.
A bowl of hot chili seems to help my sickness.

I made a delicious recipe today, that was definitely one of those "random recipes". I wasn't sure what I was going to make, just started with cooking some diced up bacon (just put a bunch in the freezer today, and took out the oldest, to use it) slowly in the Instant Pot. I chopped up a large onion, the last carrot in one bag, two stalks of celery, and two green bell peppers I'd had for a while. And I chopped up the last Swiss chard I had - about 3 c chopped up. That was about the last of the older veggies from the fridge (still have those two bok choy, but they look like I just picked them yesterday!), but next I checked my bean pantry, and found that one half jar of Rancho Gordo, labeled Christmas Lima Beans, so I used the end of those. After the bacon was almost crisp, I removed it to a PT on a plate, then cooked the onion first, followed by the other chopped veggies on the high sauté mode, then added about a tb of minced garlic and a couple tb of red miso - the umami flavor in this, along with the mushrooms later. I added about a half tb of thyme, a tb of smoked paprika, and 3/4 tsp of ground cloves, plus 5 fresh bay leaves - the creole/cajun seasoning I was thinking of. I also put in a tsp of turmeric, though the flavor is not noticeable here. For heat, I added about 3/8 tsp crushed datil pepper - the end of the jar, so I also put at least 2 tsp crushed morita peppers, which I figured would add more smoky flavor, with the bacon and paprika...it also added a generous amount of heat! I put about 6 c of water in with the veggies, then added the bacon and the beans, salted not quite to taste (added more later), then closed the lid, and set the IP to BEANS, when it defaults to 30 minutes, where I left it - usually, other beans cook faster, but these were a little old, and large, and this worked perfectly, when the pressure released in 18 min.

Meanwhile, I cooked a half lb of mushrooms my usual way - steam them, boil off the water, then brown them in a small amount of oil, then deglaze the pan, to get most of that flavor from the browning. This got added to the beans, when those were done, then, since it had quite a bit of liquid, and the lima beans weren't going to absorb any more, I added 1/3 c each quinoa, and moong dal - the kind I use with the skins still on, but split, so they still absorb water quickly. I also added the mushrooms, and the small amount of liquid, and I salted to taste, this time, added a generous amount of freshly ground pepper, and sealed the lid again, and set to just 8 minutes, and let the pressure release naturally. This thickened it just enough, and it turned out really good.
IMG_20231208_190352 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished browned mushrooms. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished creole/cajun type soup. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

worth1 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2023 10:25 am I have never in my life been so sick I couldn't keep something down except for food poisoning in Italy.
A bowl of hot chili seems to help my sickness.

It isn't about keeping it down. It's about getting it down.

When you're so sick that you're too weak to chew, where every muscle in the body hurts (including jaw muscles), and the throat is so sore, then only liquids will do. It also means you are too weak to cook, other than microwaving some pre-made broth.

Tormato wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2023 10:39 pm

worth1 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2023 10:25 am I have never in my life been so sick I couldn't keep something down except for food poisoning in Italy.
A bowl of hot chili seems to help my sickness.

It isn't about keeping it down. It's about getting it down.

When you're so sick that you're too weak to chew, where every muscle in the body hurts (including jaw muscles), and the throat is so sore, then only liquids will do. It also means you are too weak to cook, other than microwaving some pre-made broth.

I can't remember the last time I had a sore throat, its been many many years.

Chili for breakfast topped with fried onions from the Netherlands.

I had a pound of ground chuck that needed attention and I wanted breakfast sausage.
The experiment ingredients are.
1 pound ground chuck.
1 teaspoon of canning salt.
1 teaspoon of that ridiculously hot indian ground red pepper.
I teaspoon of ground cumin.
2 teaspoons of rubbed sage.
(((((No sugar)))))
Mix by hand until the meat gets really sticky let sit and mix again.
It came out marvelously and I can actually taste the sage and it's hot as well, unlike the store bought stuff that I can't taste the sage or the red pepper.

I ran across one recipe that called for 1/8th teaspoon of red pepper flakes for 2 pounds of ground meat.
Seriously, just leave it out.

Had a ham egg and cheese muffin with a Kennebec hash brown for breakfast.

What to do with the pork butt bone leftover from making salami?
Gumbo!!!!.
Or at least one of a thousand versions of it.
Cooking the bone in water with a bunch of frozen shrimp shells and vegetable scraps.
Roux is slowly cooking and the veggies are cut.
Leftover shrimp in the refrigerator.
Okra in the freezer.
Bacon cooked earlier today.

Smothered Chicken Breast with onion gravy. OMG, delicious comfort food. Hard to believe it’s “diet” food. 610 calories for dinner and I thoroughly enjoyed it. When I get boxed ingredients,“you cook it” food, it’s for recipes like this. I don’t think I would have been able to get this far without them.

Make pasta carbonara

Chicken gumbo on a bed of rice.

I'll be getting ready to make some fresh German bratwurst soon.
Probably this weekend.
I bought some fresh ground nutmeg and mace at the store for the occasion.
This will be an extremely fine grind emulsified meat bratwurst of the white type known as Weisswurst.