[mention]karstopography[/mention]
These onions are 1015 sweet grown in Hidalgo County Texas.
Very flat and flavorful.
Hidalgo County for those that don't know is on the Rio Grand.
Edinburgh and McAllen are the largest city's next to each other.
Texas produce country.
Give me a block of cheddar cheese and a good raw onion and I have a meal.

I'lll lend you the knife

I got home yesterday and was mentally wore out.
What a week of stress.
I thawed out a pound of hot breakfast sausage and added a ton of freshly ground fennel and some Chipotle powder with a pinch of salt.
Made meatballs and cooked in 140f water.
Then I put a kettle of water on to boil.
Added spaghetti and in the middle of the kettle with said spaghetti I placed a jar of Alfredo sauce to warm up, lid cracked a little to prevent possible explosion.
Works fantastic.
The jar was about half full from another use.

Kind of a Pasta Carbonara with roasted Brussels sprouts and burrata.

Nothing special.
Last night I cooked some macaroni.
I put a bowl on the glass stove top to warm
Diced up easy melt cheese.
Chopped up half an onion.
Chopped up some cilantro.
Put the cooked pasta in the bowl.
Topped it with the cheese onion and cilantro.
Sprinkled with New Mexico chilie powder.
Covered and walked away.
Probably the best macaroni and cheese I have ever had.
And so easy.
Here it is before the cover.

Now ((((That's)))) a wedge salad!!!!
Iceberg lettuce.
Sweet oranges
Sweet onion.
Homemade oil roasted pecans with roasted pecan oil.
Freshly ground clove.
Whole peppercorns.
Homemade orange dressing.
Made with orange zest, oranges, mayonnaise, roasted pecan oil and paprika.

That is the orangest colored salad I have ever seen, lol. It must be the paprika. I make my own orange vinegrette and use it on a salad with peacans and dried cranberries. Orange is good in salads. I bet it tastes good.

Sticking with the mayonnaise thing doing something totally off the wall at least for me.
I bought a fatty chuck roast.
Tied it with butcher's twine.
Covered with kosher salt freshly ground black pepper and garlic powder.
Then of all things I was going to rub it with oil.
Then it hit me why not mayonnaise.
It's in the oven on a rack placed on a skillet as we speak.
Have no idea how this is going to turn out.

[mention]worth1[/mention] It will turn out great! I use mayonnaise to coat my chicken before I bread it when I make Oven Fried Chicken. The mayo helps to keep it nice and moist.

This puppy's ready.
Temperature at 137F inside.
Got some onions and mushrooms going too plus some bacon favored mashed potatoes made from Yukon gold.

I threw together a one dish meal in the Instant Pot - a gumbo style dish, with some of the same seasonings that I put in jambalaya, but without the shrimp. I had a 10 oz pack of turkey kielbasa, which I used in place of the ham or andouille, and I added some chipotle, for more of that smoky flavor. I had a large bell pepper, that I had to use, plus the usual onion, garlic, and celery, plus thyme, bay, and cloves, for seasoning, then cooked about 7 or 8 minutes in the olive oil, in sauté mode. Then I added a cup each of kamut and channa dal, and 5 c water, salt to taste, and set it on slow cook/high mode for 4 hours - default time, but it needed about 1/2 hr longer. The dal broke down enough to thicken it slightly, and the kamut still had a slight bite to it.
Unnamed creole type dish, cooked in the Instant Pot. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Unnamed creole type dish, ready to eat. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The leftover roast steak thing.
Took the bacon flavored mashed potatoes, the leftover onion mushroom concoction, the roast and more added onion whole with some water to thin out.
Will add more cut up potatoes later.
The real reason I'm posting is it's going in my brand new Lodge cast iron combo deep skillet with lid you can cook with too contraption.
Just picked it up today to add to my cast iron family.
The steak roast thing is now a pot roast.

Grilled sea scallops and jumbo gulf shrimp. Green beans from the garden.

I made a stir fry two nights ago and it was good. First time in 5 months that I have been able to really eat tender-crisp veggies.

Used the top portion of the combo deep skillet to make breakfast.
Or more accurately an afternoon meal.
Thick homemade bacon toast three eggs hash brown and apricot preserves.
The reason was to just see if it was practical and convenient.
Also tested for not sticking.
Yes surface is rough but not really a big deal.
The food didn't stick that bad at all.
The slightly lower sides were a plus.
And last but not least you can use a regular 10 inch skillet for a cover to finish the eggs.
Remember the combo lid is a cover so I simply used a skillet for a cover but upside down.
Overall a good choice and can be used to bake bread in placed upside down in the oven.

Too lazy to go to the store but needed butter milk.
What to do?
Had some heavy cream leftover from another project so I made butter so I could have butter milk.
Took the butter and made a butter ball with what I couldn't get in the old fashioned butter crock.

The whole thing is about breaking in my new Lodge deep skillet.
And butter milk fried chicken.
It's deeper than a regular skillet and not as heavy as a Dutch oven.

oh wow, that looks so tasty. Tonight we have chicken in a blue cheese sauce with asparagus and jacket potatoes but i'd sure like some butter milk chicken..

I threw together a Mexican dish today, which started out only because I had to cut up an onion that there was a bad spot on, and I could smell it! lol I diced it up, and sautéed it in a little oil, and set it aside, not knowing what I would do with it later. I got a craving for some Mexican, so I soaked some dried tomatoes, to make some chipotle sauce, and some dried eggplant, which I nuked for 3 minutes a couple of times, while doing the rest of the prep, to soften it faster. I soaked about 1 1/2 lbs worth of tomatoes, and a little over a lb worth of eggplant. I cut up a pound of cremini mushrooms in large pieces, steamed them in a few tb of water for 7 or 8 minutes, boiled the water off, and sautéed in 1 tb olive oil, until browning, then I combined with the onion and set aside.

Meanwhile, I put the soaked tomatoes, plus soaking water (I had filled a 2 c measuring cup to about 2 c) in the Vitamix, plus a tsp of Mexican oregano and 6 cloves of garlic. I blended this until smooth, then poured it into the wok I cooked the mushrooms in, to cook down, and scrape the mushroom fond into the sauce. When done, I added the mushrooms, drained eggplant cubes, and a little salt to taste. This was served in some open flame toasted corn tortillas, with some Monterey jack, and a little lettuce.
Browned cremini, mixed with the sauteed onions, waiting for the eggplants and sauce. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

1.5 oz dried tomatoes, equal to 1.5 lbs, soaked, and blended with chipotle, garlic, and Mexican Oregano by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Starting to cook the chipotle sauce, over medium high heat. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Chipotle sauce, cooked 7 or 8 minutes, to evaporate much of the water, and concentrate the flavor. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Mushrooms and soaked eggplants, added to the chipotle sauce, ready to go into the corn tortillas. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Ground several pounds of grain today, including 5 pounds of Jimmy Red Corn. Looking to make grits among other things.

For dinner, I made thin sliced Pork tenderloin stir fried with filet beans. Delicious.