The anise flavor is one I love, too. Many things I use with that flavor, a favorite one being Thai Basil.

I can take the star anise soak it in sweet sherry to soften it and chew on it while drinking the sherry.
Weird yes but tasty as well.

Did you know Frito pie is basically an Americanised TexMex version of chilaquiles.
It's true and remember you heard it here first.

worth1 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 14, 2023 10:55 am Watching YouTube videos on how to use the fennel bulb.
I always get excited when cooking new things.

One of my absolute favorite salads is fennel bulb, celery and apple with an apple cider vinaigrette. Delicious on a hot summer day.

worth1 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 5:11 pm Did you know Frito pie is basically an Americanised TexMex version of chilaquiles.
It's true and remember you heard it here first.

We had frito pie last night. My wife was adamant that I not use the HEB knockoff fritos we had in the pantry as she described them as “tasteless”. By golly, I tasted one and she was right (aren’t they always). HEB brand frito clones are missing that essential flavor of true fritos.

Luckily, I had a bag of Clancy’s (Aldi) knockoff fritos and those got the thumbs up from her for frito pie.

I haven’t made chilaquiles (that I remember) and have only ordered it a few times. I can certainly see the similarities to frito pie.

Corn chips and corn tortillas seem to be variable in their flavor. It’s more than how toasted the corn is I believe or the salt level. There’s brands of corn chips I avoid and ones that are acceptable. Corn tortillas and chips can be heavenly when everything is right.

I used for the chili that terlingua brand chili con carne box made in Boerne. It’s basically a box with recipes instructions and a big bag of chili powder and spices. I really like their blend of ground chili peppers and spices. The biggest flaw I see in the terlingua spice blend is it is a little too salt forward.

I need to come up with a tasty blend of ground dry chili peppers and spices for chili con carne. Goal is to grow some of the peppers for the blend this season and dry them, then grind them up.

I like making my own barbecue rubs rather than always defaulting to the premix ones and I ought to be able to come up with a good blend of peppers and spices for chili con carne rather than rely on the premix ones.

I've yet to show all the different dried chilies and chili powders and other spices I have.
It boggles the mind.
I really need to make a separate station for them because the things are scattered in every spot I can find room for them.
The curry powder is kept in the freezer.
As far as chili con carne I don't have a set recipe.

As far as spice blends.
If a person on YouTube starts promoting their rub and spice blends in every recipe Im basically punching out and won't bother with them anymore.
No problem with them making money but I'm not interested in paying astronomical prices for a seasoning blend.

Back to basics fried chicken.
Or BTBC.
I honestly can't remember my mom going through a lot of trouble to fry chicken growing up.
As far as I can remember all she did was dredge chicken in a dry flour spiced with salt black pepper and garlic powder.
Then in a giant cast iron skillet it would go.
If memory serves me correctly it was about 14 inches in diameter.
She found the skillet in a camp fire someone had made on our place in Texas.
No idea why they left the skillet or who it was that left it.
The mystery remains to this day.
I do distinctly remember her getting out of the old 1950 GMC pickup truck and pulling it out of the ashes.
This was on the way back from feeding cows.
I was probably about 5 years old at the time.
I remember many a meal cooked in that giant skillet and is was probably the beginning of my love affair for cast iron skillets.
Mostly because I could always depend on something good coming out of it.
Everything from fried chicken deer backstrap steaks dredged in flour pork chops or even a sunmer time conglome of vegetables I later come to know as ratatouille.

Years later right before my mother died i was out running around with a teenaged boy around 18 and I was 21.
Our in West Texas it was.
I knew his mom very well.
We got hungry and were starving.
We went to.my apartment and I fried up some back to basics fried chicken along with mashed potatoes and gravy.
Later he went home to his place right next door.
He told his mom what I cooked and she was flabbergasted that a young kid could cook so well.
You actually made fried chicken gravy and mashed potatoes in the middle of the night.
Yes.
How did you learn to do that.
By standing next to and helping my mom cook growing up.
Wow you cooked growing up
That's odd for a boy.
Well I did because I loved food and wanted to learn.

The moral of the story is.
If life gets you down don't think of all the bad stuff that happened.
Its just going to make things worse.
Think of good things like Back to basics chicken and the meaning of it.
Making life not so complicated.

While making ghee I remembered there's an old tale going around that I've heard all my life.
To keep butter from burning on higher heat add a higher heat oil to it.
This simply isn't true.
You still see people say it on cooking shows.
No matter what you do the milk solids will burn.
The only way around this is to make clarified butter or ghee removing the milk solids.
Them the ghee can go op to around 465 or higher depending on who says what.
Clarified butter is around 485F
Regular butter is 302F.

Don't judge a book by it's cover.
In my case this old school hard-core hard nosed biker type that doesn't hold back.
That's not my not my description but others of me.
It seems as though many people are totally flabbergasted that I cook and bake the things I do.
More than one person has committed that me cooking and baking is the last thing they would think I did.
Then there are the people telling others about it and they are surprised as well.
Heaven forbid they find out I kiss my cat or even have a cat.
Or appreciate fine art and literature.
I have a reputation to uphold.

Yesterday on the way home I had a specific reason to stop at the store.
I chewed on what it could possibly be all they way there.
I figured if I wondered the isles long enough it would hit me.
To no avail could I remember what it was.
So I picked up some stuff and came home.
Then it hit me about an hour later.
It was Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.

worth1 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 7:09 am Yesterday on the way home I had a specific reason to stop at the store.
I chewed on what it could possibly be all they way there.
I figured if I wondered the isles long enough it would hit me.
To no avail could I remember what it was.
So I picked up some stuff and came home.
Then it hit me about an hour later.
It was Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.

I generally have a can or two of that in the pantry at any time. The itty bitty cans.

Well it ain't the end of the world I have all the ingredients to make the flavors so that's what I did.
The canned stuff is more of a convenience.
It's being used in today's recipe.

What on earth do you do with a 7 ounce can of chipotle in adobo sauce when you don't want the whole can?

Speaking of Chipotles I read that Freebirds uses fresher ingredients than Chipotles does.
Go figure because Chipotles brags about it.
And Freebirds has been around longer.
Personally I couldn't care less about either one of them.
They can't even cook Mexican rice right.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... CbAPPKZh5V

I have a jar in the fridge that holds up to a double can of chipotles, and I just use it until it is almost finished, then add another can. After maybe 3 or 4 of the 7 oz cans, I stick it in the DW, and start over (getting the last of the adobo out with some water, of course, to use in the dish ). That's one of those things I never run out of. Also that salsa negra - from Rick Bayless's early book, that uses 4 oz moritas. Between those two things in the fridge, plus the all smoked chiles in the pantry, I can always add that "chipotle flavor" to dishes. I just found another half gallon mason jar of Meco Chipotles in the basement, when looking for something else! I always seal the tops with the vacuum sealer, when I have multiple jars of things like that, and it was still sealed, from way back!

Rick Bayless just posted a vegetarian video on YouTube for tacos for those that are interested.
Contains beans and greens but with the traditional red Chile sauce.

I watched a documentary on YouTube free movies last night.
It was called Fed Up or some such thing.
I remember some of this garbage they started putting on the shelves when I was a kid.
A video well worth watching.
Thank God I had to work growing up.

Due to the unexpected circumstances of having to spend money on a new phone I'm staying out of the grocery store this week.
Everything will be coming from my hoard of food I have stashed away and in the freezer.
Got plenty of alcoholic beverages too.
Beer and wine.
Not gonna starve for sure.

I'm doggedly working away at my freezer hoard too.
It's a good goal for springtime to clean it out completely.
Quite a challenge!

I froze a vacuum packed choice brisket when they were on sale recently and I’ve had it in the fridge since Thursday thawing out. Good it is to chip away at the freezer stash.

Today I dug out a bag of frozen scallops I bought on special just before Christmas. Starting to worry about the condition but there was no ice forming in the bag and when opened, the heavenly smell. A great chowder, and I will keep an eye out for more of these in future - something I wouldn't do if this bag was still buried among the icebergs in the chest.