Enjoying the last bottle of a 2 1/2 year old Mustang Grape Pyment my son and I made from wild mustang grapes harvested about 100 feet from our house. Surprisingly complex and this one has definitely improved with age. Has a faint Brettanomyces characteristic that is disappearing to almost undetectable after that first glass, but instead of a flaw, the Brett presence is interesting. Perhaps a tiny whiff of TDN gasoline like aroma, but that’s often found in the very best Rieslings.

The pyment is seemingly sweet on the palate, but not in the slightest cloying, it is juicy, luscious with a good body and deliciously bright and tart and there’s pleasantly lingering aftertaste of grapes. The ethanol amount isn’t noticeable as too high or too low. I’d say this wine represents grape jolly ranchers in the best possible way. Too bad it is the last bottle.

Not being one to rest on tradition I made a pozole with all manner of things that I needed to cook and or leftover from yesterday.
Some of the Pork roast.
A sweet potato I had stashed away.
The carrot and onion plus the juice but not the fat from the roast.
Big can of hominy.
Regular can of sweet corn.
Leftover potatoes.
4 of my homemade Weisswurst I thawed out.
Some sweet snacking peppers.
Ancho powder.
Fiesta brand chili powder.
Chipotle powder.
Paprika.
Lord only knows what all spices but it's delicious.

Well, I finally cut up that prime rib. That was a bit of a job. I got 11 steaks out of it, vacuum packed and in the freezer. Bone got roasted in the oven and put in the IP with celery, Carrots, onion, and just salt and some peppercorns for seasoning. Now I need some advice. Don’t use the IP much, I am used to slow cookers with low B medium and high. The IP only has “slow cook”. I don’t know how long I can let it go. Think it’s ok overnight for 8-10-12 hours? I would easily do that with a slow cooker on low, but not on high. It switches to “keep warm” when the time is up but I am not sure how long that stays on either. I don’t want to turn it on several hours before I go to bed if it only needs to cook for 8 hours, and sure if the time really matters that much. I have never made beef bone broth before. https://flic.kr/p/

Pork roast sandwich with black pepper and mayonnaise.

I made pork too - tenderloin en croute with the duxelles and all, for our family celebration on the 23rd, and ate some "laughed-overs" on Christmas day. Huge pot of lentils yesterday with fried vegs, rice and lemony secret sauce. Gave half to my Mom and froze the rest of the extras. Jamaican patties today with Sherwood-arugula salad from under the lights

Well it’s been almost 24 hours for the bone broth. Turns out the IP does have a low, medium and high for the slow cook, they just call it less, normal and more. after 12 hours on low the meat wasn’t even falling off the bone yet, it’s been 18 hrs now and it is starting to. I read online some people will go 24-48 hrs with beef bones! Anyone have any experience with that? Can you overdo it?

I was having a craving for one of my Szechwan dishes, so I made that Szechwan eggplant, using some dried eggplant, that I soaked in hot water, about 3 hours before I started the rest. I started the one dish meal in the IP on sauté high, and cooked the garlic and ginger, followed by the chili paste with garlic. When cooked several minutes, the ground pork with onion (if it hadn't been raining, I would have harvested some scallions!) and soy sauce mixed in, and cooked about 3 minutes. Then I added the drained, soaked eggplant cubes - about 2 lbs equivalent - and cooked, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Then I added 4½ c water, and brought to a boil, and added a lb of pasta, and pressed it under the surface, as well as I could, then hit OFF, followed by MANUAL and set it for 5 minutes. After it finished the 5 minutes, I released the pressure - takes a while after this - then re-set it at sauté, and stirred just a couple of minutes, and then took the pot out of the IP, so it could cool faster, after I had my first bowl of it.
Szechwan eggplant, with pasta, cooked in the Instant Pot. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Sue_CT wrote: ↑Wed Dec 27, 2023 6:02 pm Well it’s been almost 24 hours for the bone broth. Turns out the IP does have a low, medium and high for the slow cook, they just call it less, normal and more. after 12 hours on low the meat wasn’t even falling off the bone yet, it’s been 18 hrs now and it is starting to. I read online some people will go 24-48 hrs with beef bones! Anyone have any experience with that? Can you overdo it?

Sue I haven't responded about your bone broth experiment or the insta pot because I don't know anything about the insta pot.
I do know many people roast the bones at 400F for around 45 minutes to one hour for a more flavorful robust broth.
Most bones used for this method are the marrow bones.
Legs hips and so on.

One might look up "pot polished bones" and the Franklin expedition for more information.

My problem with the insta pot and others is they dumb it down to the lowest common denominator.
Less normal and more means nothing to me.
Has society gotten that stupid?

I don't have insta pot either and no helpful advice to offer.
I've been recently experimenting with ribs in the oven, that is first of all cooking them low and slow in a sealed pan with or without added water, until they fall off the bones. Have not yet hit on a perfect temperature/time but I can say, if they're not done, keep on going and eventually you'll get there.
In the case of my oven, there seems a major difference between 275 vs 300 degrees. At 275 the ribs seemed they'd be ready 'never', but were obviously cooking when I notched it up to 3.
Even more noticeable with the old fruitcake, which we used to bake 350F for 3 hours in the old oven. This oven starts to burn the fruitcake edges after two hours at 300 F. So the new and final recipe for this appliance is 275F for 3.5 hours, for a perfect cake with nothing overdone.
So yeah, I do think the same probably goes for instapot with the nebulous 'slow cook' settings.
I can say that I wasn't that pleased with the tenderness of the ribs, the time I got tired of waiting and notched it up to 300. IDK if that was due to changing the temp or whether still taking them out too soon. Next time I will start at 300 and stay there, and I will add some liquid too which seemed to make a difference in earlier trials. WRT making broth though, I can't see it affecting the results if you decide to turn it up part way through!

Next time I should probably stay with what I know and do it in a pot on the stove, lol.

Yesterday I took all the rendered fat from the pork and skimmed it off.
Heated up a skillet with it and let it simmer off any fluids.
Added the right amount of flour to make a roux and put it in the oven at around 300 to 325 F and forgot about it.
Ounce it was what I wanted I turned the oven off and let it sit there overnight to cool.
Next day it was set up and flat.
Made about a pint of roux.
This is absolutely the easiest way to make any color of roux you want without burning it.
It's probably shelf stable but I would put it in the freezer.

For Christmas I ordered some raw Nebraska Sandhills red clover honey. I think this is the best honey in the world. My daughter thought it looked funny - it's creamy white/tan as opposed to the dark runny pasteurized honey you find at the grocery store. Here is my breakfast this morning. Served on homemade Focaccia bread.

I get my honey from the Walker honey farm in Rogers Texas just up the road.
It's all natural honey and no processing.

It humorously says this on the container.

Wildcat82 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 2:11 pm For Christmas I ordered some raw Nebraska Sandhills red clover honey. I think this is the best honey in the world. My daughter thought it looked funny - it's creamy white/tan as opposed to the dark runny pasteurized honey you find at the grocery store. Here is my breakfast this morning. Served on homemade Focaccia bread.


IMG_3283.jpg

The honey you have is a honey spread.
It's honey that is whipped.

worth1 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 2:37 pm I get my honey from the Walker honey farm in Rogers Texas just up the road.
It's all natural honey and no processing.

It humorously says this on the container.

IMG_20231228_143005131.jpg

My brother said ZZ'S Bees in Nebraska (a really nice family) had a really bad harvest this year. Not sure why. I may have to check out Walker Honey if I want more raw honey.

worth1 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 2:50 pm

Wildcat82 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 2:11 pm For Christmas I ordered some raw Nebraska Sandhills red clover honey. I think this is the best honey in the world. My daughter thought it looked funny - it's creamy white/tan as opposed to the dark runny pasteurized honey you find at the grocery store. Here is my breakfast this morning. Served on homemade Focaccia bread.


IMG_3283.jpg

The honey you have is a honey spread.
It's honey that is whipped.

The family that owns ZZ's Bees gave a tour for me and my 8 year old daughter about 10 years ago. The honey comb is put through a course filter right into the jar. I figured there was more to than that. Their regular pasteurized honey chrystalizes in only a couple months -I've never had that happen ever to store bought honey.

Wildcat82 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 6:53 pm

worth1 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 2:50 pm

Wildcat82 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 2:11 pm For Christmas I ordered some raw Nebraska Sandhills red clover honey. I think this is the best honey in the world. My daughter thought it looked funny - it's creamy white/tan as opposed to the dark runny pasteurized honey you find at the grocery store. Here is my breakfast this morning. Served on homemade Focaccia bread.


IMG_3283.jpg

The honey you have is a honey spread.
It's honey that is whipped.

The family that owns ZZ's Bees gave a tour for me and my 8 year old daughter about 10 years ago. The honey comb is put through a course filter right into the jar. I figured there was more to than that. Their regular pasteurized honey chrystalizes in only a couple months -I've never had that happen ever to store bought honey.

In another life I a had a few hives with what's called supers on them.
Our original hive came from a tree we cut down and got the honey from and took the bees home along with the queen.
We used a giant crosscut saw to cut the tree down.
This was back in the early 70s.
The wild honey in that area was very dark.
I guess because it came from the forest.
These bees pollinated our fruit trees and garden.

Another apple pie in overdrive.
This one includes maraschino cherries.
Nutmeg.
Light brown sugar.
Flour.
Real cinnamon.
4 large honey crisp apples parboiled or blanched in a spicy water and sugar as well.
Let cool and build.
3 maybe 4 layers about 2.5 inches thick.

Nice looking pie.