Weekend Six (including farmers market psychosis)

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dawnnys

Well-known member
I went to the local FM yesterday morning to get some nice tomatoes for canning (mine are all but gone) at the busiest part of the day I guess, and got pushed, shoved, bumped, stepped on, and run into in the aisles where I could barely stop to look at stuff! Argggh, not a fun experience (we usually go just before closing) but I did get some nice corn cheap, and a half-bushel of tomatoes I've been meaning to stock up on. Oh, and pears. Way too many pears, but there's something about buying good produce in bulk at the height of the season that makes me happy!

Pulled pork with Dinosaur Bar-b-Q sauce and cornbread with kale for supper Friday night. Mmmm, good.

Made a big bowl of chili to use up some ground turkey that I had and it came out really good! Nothing fancy, just your basic comfort food kinda' weekend cooking.

I was given a 5-lb(!!) bag of boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins yesterday, so I'll have to think up something interesting for some of those soon, too. Luckily, my new freezer has a ton of room, and I repackaged them in a few different bags.

Crabmeat-cilantro risotto I saw a recipe for the other day for dinner tonight, with sliced avocados and baked apples for dessert.

Plans to make the apple cake Steve posted, maybe tomorrow.

 
Oooh, Dawn make this pear and walnut cake that was posted again

last week sometime by AngAK and Marge in Canada. I made it last week with the changes they both suggested, add rum for the water and pumping up the spices. It was fantastic!!! So incredibly moist and just loved the hint of the rum. John is already asking for it again. I made it in a bundt pan as they suggested. I highly recommend it.

EDIT: Oops, forgot to put the link. Here it is.

http://www.eat.at/swap/forum6/85_Lake_Country_Pear_And_Walnut_Cake_______judy-mass

 
One thing I forgot to mention is that I find the flavour is greatly enhanced

if the cake sits in the fridge for up to a week. That's the difficult part. But it really is better and moister as well.

Just because I always get annoyed with the Epicurious people who comment on a recipe that they didn't even follow, I did make it once, according to the recipe but thereafter, only my souped up version. And freezing it is better after it sits for a week.

 
My Weekend Six

1 - Trying to be more organized for weeknight cooking, I intended to prep a few dishes today for later eating. Made the North African Meatballs from Melissa D'Arabian and ended up serving them for tonight's dinner - so good!

2 - Prepped potato filling for potato tacos - I left out the cooked cabbage, might add some for serving:
http://www.foodrepublic.com/2012/01/25/easy-potato-tacos-recipe

3 - Another dish I bought ingredients for but ran out of time to prep for, which will make an appearance later this week -

Braised lamb shanks with portobello mushroom, tomatoes and oregano (from the LA Times Food Section this weekend):

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/dailydish/la-dd-this-weeks-culinary-sos-amtraks-lamb-shanks-20120928,0,1449085.story

4 - Enjoyed DS's Sunday morning pancakes for the umpteenth time this morning, I will never get tired of them. smileys/smile.gif Today he accidentally put too much oil in them, with no ill effect. Plus I get to share time with him in the kitchen, and he won't starve once he moves out...LOL

5 - Had a nice economic lesson with DS about home cooked vs take out. We have take out food once a week, and have been very conscious about costs, using coupons, etc. DS mentioned that he hoped we'd have pizza again soon. I reminded him we've been having homemade grilled pizzas once a week, but he really likes the ones from the local pizza parlor better. After I pointed out that we can feed 4 people for $5 worth of ingredients at home, vs $25 for delivery, he decided the grilled pizzas weren't so inferior after all.

6 - We did score a good coupon for our favorite Hawaiian restaurant in Sunday's paper, so maybe we will hit that for out "out" meal this week.

 
Weekend Six (long)

I had a friend visiting from Prague for the last few days, and we more or less ate our way around Manhattan (and walked--I feel like my feet are going to fall off).

1. Made the chicken pot pie from Julia and Jacques' "Cooking at Home", and I think the recipe is great, but my friend said, "Oh! This is good! The sauce is really sweet!" She meant the bechamel, but...it wasn't sweet! It wasn't supposed to be sweet. I thought I added too much salt, to be honest. Different tastes, I guess... smileys/wink.gif

2. Went to a klezmer brunch yesterday--lousy service, wonderful music, good French toast and a trio of dips (hummus, babaganouj, ajvar/Syrian tomato spread--we couldn't figure out which).

3. Stumbled on the Wall Street branch of Luke's Lobster a few hours later, and (of course) had to have a lobster roll. smileys/smile.gif My friend had never had sea salt and vinegar potato chips, either--it was like watching a baby with a lemon slice.

4. Soup dumplings, pan-fried dumplings, and egg rolls at a place I like in Chinatown.

5. Tried to get in to The Spotted Pig on Friday night because my friend wanted to try their shoestring potatoes... A ninety-minute wait. We stood for five minutes, and then I said, "I'll send you a good recipe for shoestring potatoes," and then went around the corner to the White Horse Tavern, famous for its '60s-era writers-and-artists crowd, and definitely not famous for the food... smileys/frown.gif

6. Sampled a lot of chocolate as the friend did Christmas shopping (all chocolate, this year)--sea salt and almond, from Mast Brothers Chocolate (extremely good); chile-pepper chocolate from Moonstruck (also good); and two others I forget...

Oh, and ended up at a great Italian place for dinner, once, Corsino--I just had crostini (1 pesto, 1 sweet-onion-and-walnut, 1 ricotta-and-honey), but friends said the pasta was excellent.

Discovered that St. Andre triple cream cheese is made with pasteurized milk and just about kissed the guy at the cheese counter. smileys/wink.gif Had a lot of bread and cheese at home, in between excursions.

 
OMG; your comment about nearly kissing the cheese guy made me laugh! Sounds like you had a

great time with your friend! Weather has been perfect!

 
Yes, it was a lot of fun; thanks. Need to set up that Essex St. Market trip for all of us! smileys/smile.gif

 
weekend six: down to the river to check on the flooding. yikes

Baked a double batch of Penny's sugar cookies for a retirement party on Sat evening. fun cutouts of palm trees, airplanes, cabins, fish,flowers, golf clubs/balls. I found my oven needed to be at 340-350, not the 325 in the recipe. Also, if you want the glaze to be white, remember to use the clear vanilla Ang.

drove down Saturday to the Kenai river and our cabin. picture is our dock area, completely underwater. I'm standing at the high water mark. no damage, just lots of rotting fish washed up into the yard. yuk. doggies were happy but we took care of that by giving those yukky fish back to the river. water was at least 25 yards from the house----would have to be a mega flood to reach the house.

had to defrost and organize the freezer for some moose meat that was gifted to us. backstrap and sausage and ground and roasts and moose bacon----who knew? not my favorite meat, but DH grew up with it. stroganov and burgundy are my favorite preparations.

waffles for Sunday morning. I tweaked good old Krusteaz mix with some ground oatmeal and melted butter and cinnamon/ginger. yum. waffles, bacon and coffee and football at the cabin on Sunday morning(our games start at 9am), nice.

dinner was stuffed cabbage from the freezer and steamed artichokes---perfect fun food for the game in the afternoon.

back to work today. a nice baked potato with a smidge of leftover onion dip is what's for lunch. a nice big freshly dug up potato. the only one I had left after sending my package. I will enjoy.

https://recipeswap.org/fun/wp-content/uploads/Finer_Kitchens/AngAk/flood2012.jpg

 
Thought of you when I heard about the flooding--glad you're ok! Also: moose bacon?! Do tell! smileys/smile.gif

 
Your cheese story reminded me that I found white Stilton with cranberries again at Wegmans!

Love that stuff and they had discontinued it for a couple of years even tho it was popular(?).

 
Also about salt vs. sweet. I've noticed that since

I've cut back on my use of salt, things taste saltier AND sweeter to me. I can understand the heightened taste of salty, but I wonder why the sweetness.

 
I love the palm trees! Cabin-day sounds wonderful (except for the rotting fish part!).

'Glad you didn't have any water damage!

 
Um, cause Marg said? Kidding! I didn't peel them as the recipe

said and I'll tell you, I didn't even know they were there. They just kinda disappeared. Why bother? I'm picking up pears tomorrow to make another one. It is delicious!

 
don't tell anyone, but we used the hotdog spears to spear and fling the fish back into the river---

the spears will get a good roasting in the campfire before any foodstuff goes back on them!

 
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