Saturday Six (incl. a ham-hock question)

E

erininny

Well-known member
Getting back in the swing of things...

1. Thawed and warmed up pain au chocolat from Maison Kayser for me and my jetlagged better half for breakfast this morning.

2. Made a quick bolognese sauce for lunch with cavatappi (maybe my favorite pasta).

3. When I met a friend at the Hungarian Pastry Shop last weekend (I know, cheating), she fed her 8-month-old tiramisu. I teased her, "Man, that's one Manhattan baby! What's next, caviar?" My own kid looked unimpressed by the stewed apples I'd brought for her.

4. Soaking beans for soup tomorrow. I have two smoked ham hocks--do I just throw one in when I start sauteeing onion and garlic tomorrow? Or do I throw it in with the beans? I just added chopped ham at the end, before...

5. Husband returned from freakishly long (sixteen days) business trip to a few exotic locations with this many exotic foods: zero. smileys/frown.gif (But he did bring back Kinder Surprise eggs, so that counts for something.)

6. Passed the Thanksgiving baton to my brother, this year. The kitchen in our new place is about six feet by fifteen feet long. Despite being able to seat only three or four people, it does have one benefit--you can sit at the kitchen table and cook. smileys/wink.gif

 
My latest treatment for ham hocks

was to put them into a pot with water, carrots, celery, onion studded with cloves, peppercorns and bay leaf and simmer for several hours.

I strained the liquid and put in a bowl int he fridge to let the fat rise and congeal (interesting word, conjures up nasty mental picture). The meat I removed from the bone and chopped.

The skimmed liquid was then used to cook the beans and I added the chopped meat back in for the final hour or so of cooking.

The result was some of the best beans I have made in a long time.

 
I also do this and have done it with a hambone, straining the liquid if it has a lot of yucky stuff.

 
I put the pot into the oven at 275

and had Rich turn the oven off after 4 hours. I think it could have been done sooner,

I think this would be an ideal use for a pressure cooker...if I had one!

 
Saturday "Four"?

Nothing too interesting, but now I have a craving for Dawn_MO's creamy chicken enchiladas!

Leftover turkey meatballs for dinner, in creamy sauce. Cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and roasted squash.

Must make another apple pie before too long. We had planned on going out to pick more yesterday, but it was just too cold out.

Brrr, dark, gray skies and rain. Makes you want to crawl back in bed. :eek:(

 
My weekend 6

luncheon and fundraiser auction at friend's church Sat. Such fun and scored 2 pieces of Iris artwork. I love Siberian irises and they grow wild up here. My master bath is irises and one print is of an old dairy that DH remembers growing up here. So cool

Scored 1 Jar of homemade grape jam too

Started putting up holiday lights. We start early up here. Time to feed the birds again. Hopefully the bears are in their dens now, even without snow. We get fined if we put out feeders when bears are out---bear bait causes nuisance bears

Made the Provençal short ribs. So delish. Served with red cabbage and noodles.

Steel cut oats with apples and walnuts made a perfect chilly Sunday morning breakfast. We did think about our papaya breakfast just a week ago

Making a first batch of nut brittle today to fill in an empty space in a package of canned salmon going to Detroit this week.

 
Weekend Six

I'm still staying with my friend, mostly to stave off boredom, and because she's an amazing cook and we are really enjoying each other's company. Plus are watching lots of trashy TV and eating the leftover baby Ruth bars from Halloween.

I still feel generally dreadful however, and don't have much energy to do much during the day but it's getting better slowly. One more week of leave before I go back to work. Yesterday, however, I saw on Facebook that Cmdr. Chris Hadfield was going to be in Marin at a bookstore doing a reading and signing. We had to go! I slathered on lots of make up and off we went, it was amazing to hear him speak about his mission aboard the ISS, and about his book, and to hear him sing Rocket man to us, incredible.

A chef friend of mine is at a nearby restaurant called Yankee Pier, so I sent him a message on Facebook and off we went for some wine and food after our exciting afternoon. Having friends who are chefs is fabulous, they send over extra goodies. We had oysters on the half shell, fried full belly clams, a dish of Nantucket scallops on a bed of butternut squash purée, And we both had diver scallops for our entrées. One of the dishes was on a bed of puréed celeriac with a caper relish on top and giant trumpet mushroom slices. That was the bomb.

Today was a quiet day for me because I was not feeling great but I knitted several tiny sweaters for a friend who's coming to visit and for myself, pair of socks for my friends cats (and of course we had to try them on them - poor cats!!) For brunch I decided to cook today so I cooked up a huge bunch of Dino kale, with a little bit of bacon and served it in a bowl with slices of fried polenta over the top and a little cubes of feta, my friend got a fried egg. For dinner my friend made Thai red curry with chicken, butternut squash, zucchini, and eggplant. What a delicious day.

My doctor is treating my immunity issues has suggested I try the low FODMAP diet, which is basically for patients with IBS, which I don't have but it might help some of my oral food reactions. For the next five weeks I need to avoid onions and everything from the onion family, most dairy, wheats and legumes, some fruits and vegetables that are high in fructose and vegetables that have other compounds in them, and anything artificially sweetened, and HFCS - the last two things are no problem at all. While I haven't been 100% successful on this diet last for the last week, surprisingly I feel much better in some areas. It might be a bit too difficult to keep to this diet with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, but I'm going to try for a while. The good new is that my lungs are healing.

If only I didn't crave Baby Ruth bars....!!!

http://www.med.monash.edu/cecs/gastro/fodmap/diet.html

 
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