What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Jeff, I buy it from Rancho Gordo. It is always what I drizzle on my dried beans after they are cooked. Love the flavor,
.https://www.ranchogordo.com/products/pi ... 2570815299

Excellent. Thank you! (...now to place an order for pumpkin oil and pineapple vinegar... and a jar of my favorite juniper berry rub...)

juniper berry rub? Do you do a lot of German Cooking. I see they have berries so you grind the berries?

I don't do a lot of German cooking. I like it on lamb and beef, and it's generally interesting as a background flavor. The rub is made of juniper, black pepper, orange peel, and salt: https://wineforest.com/collections/wine ... -berry-rub

These folks specialize in foraged foods. The wild rice, farro, and morels are excellent. The only thing I was ever unhappy with was black trumpets because they were very sandy.

[Jenise]

Cooking for tomorrow's wine lunch in Vancouver, a sizable project. More later!

Tonight is tacos, can't wait.

Craving vegetables at the moment and my grocery store had lots of things that appealed so I’m brewing a big pot of “ratatouille “, onions, fennel, eggplant, zucchini, red,green and yellow peppers, lots of garlic cloves, some tomatoes. Looks very pretty.

Sounds delicious Barb, I usually make a big sheet pan of roasted veggies every Saturday. Plus, we eat extra veggies all week long. Check out a website called Clean Food Crush.

[Jenise]

I've been up in Vancouver where I cooked for a Burgundy wine lunch. I tweaked a recipe for Beef Nicoise from a great cookbook I got from Bob Ross, a former member here, called Cuisine of the Sun. It's a great read--we tend to sit over here and think of French food as all one thing, but it isn't, and this book written several decades ago makes it so clear what kind of difference a couple hundred miles--and a few mountain ranges--can make. More fish, more lamb, less beef, less dairy, more fruit, more vegetables, and more Mediterranean ingredients in general which are not preference so much as regional availability. This was scooped over black truffle waffles. Pretty fantastic wine match.

Today I'm playing with leftovers as I made a whole lot more beef than I needed and set some of the plain meat aside. We'll be having beef and potato tacos as soon as the dishwasher installer finishes up!

We'll be having beef and potato tacos as soon as the dishwasher installer finishes up!

Gonna heat those babies up with the rinse cycle?

Still with a third of a vat of ratatouille lurking I ratted through the pantry and the fridge and found, 3 sheets instant lasagne and a half a small jar of marinated feta…game, set and match ! Easy Veggie lasagne.

[Jenise]

Great job, Barb. I brought some fresh lasagna sheets in Vancouver yesterday. Some form of that coming at my house, too!

Today I'm making a paella. Shrimp, chorizo (cured), fresh fennel sausage, artichokes, rice....

I am cooking for one now, so yesterday, I began to scale down, sort of. I was craving spicy, but comforting, so made skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs marinated all day in Spicy Chile Crisp, soy sauce, and local honey. They were roasted with big chunks of garlic, semi-dried tomato halves, and fresh Lisbon Lemon wedges. I made the cilantro Jasmine Rice again because I love it so much and it goes so well with this chicken dish. As usual, a big bunch of roasted veggies, whatever is available fresh this time of year. My dog loves veggies, carrots, broccoli, green beans, so I use at least one piece of veggie mixed with her kibble each day. I'm set with leftovers for a few days.

Jenise, I always add a shredded potato to my taco meat, as well. I have also made a taco recipe you posted with rice in it and I like that too.

[Jenise]

I love the flavor of potato, beef and jalapeno for a taco filling, but pretty much only do that when I have something like leftover pot roast. If using ground meat, usually turkey, then rice for a quick filling. Pretty much I like it all!

So sad about "cooking for one". What a tough transition. Hugs to you and Gene as he adjusts to his new surroundings.

Today we're having ahi poke (purchased) for lunch and beef arancini in a puddle of spag sauce for dinner.

Question that I hope fits in here. It seems the neighbors are into door ditching this year for Christmas. We received some IBC root beer, cleverly decorated. Besides All Recipes, are there other good web sites to figure out what to do with items you won't use as intended? No way will we drink root beer, and root beer float cake with multiple egg whites....no.

Right now seeing if I can regift to someone with parties with kids....

[Jenise]

All Recipes is probably a good place because it's less gourmet-ingredient intensive as many other sights, and figuring out what to do with root beer fits into cooking with Coke (there's a famous rib recipe for this, you could sub the RB) and other stuff. Another idea: drop it off at your local food bank!

Thanks, Jenise. I found a neighbor who is going to a Xmas family gathering with kids. She is taking the root beer so the kids can make floats. Works for me. Otherwise, the food bank is a great idea!

[Jenise]

Tonight is Booze Group and I'm hosting. The topic is upper end Cognac, the $100+ stuff. We're starting with a Pineau Charentes (sp?) cocktail with which I'll serve D'affinois cheese topped with pickled Italian cherries and pine nuts. Next we'll sit down to taste the individual cognacs before breaking for dinner which will be a little gem, pear and blue cheese salad with a lemon and smoked olive oil dressing followed by a Norman-ish dish of stuffed pork loin on potatoes with a Calvados, cream and apple sauce. Then we're back to the cognacs as a night cap with local chocolates and molasses-ginger cookies.

We always kept A & W Root Beer on hand to make Root Beer Floats. My husband and kids loved them. I'd enjoy one occasionally, especially in summer. Never have been a fan of soda of any kind. Never kept it on hand for the kids either, except for the Root Beer and only for floats.

[Jenise]

So that sous vide pork roast last night was the best thing--a 10 out of 10. Five hours at 138F. Absolute perfection, a vertical presentation parked on a mound of mashed potatoes, cream/cognac/cider/sage sauce poured over, three pan seared apple chunks on top, dusting of fresh chives.

I'm making red-cooked chicken tonight. I'll be using some mushroom soy sauce and I will throw in a bit of tangerine peel in addition to the usual star anise.

-Paul W.

Last night made a Lo Mein Chicken, with bell peppers, carrots, a sauce and finished off with a heavy drizzle of fresh limes from my neighbor's tree. Not sure what kind of limes he has, but they are yellow, and a beautiful green inside, they are so good, and I always wait for my bag to arrive from him each year. I finally planted a line tree, but it is only two years old, no limes yet that have reached maturity.

Karen, you made me curious so I looked it up. Apparently, limes are naturally yellow if they are allowed to ripen all the way! They also have the most juice and the most flavor when fully ripe. But the ripening process won't finish in hot weather and most US citrus is grown in semi-tropical places... hence, we have green limes.

(Thanks for the little chase around the internet!)

[Jenise]

Friends in Thousand Oaks who often send me limes send them yellow. They're thin skinned and very sweet, whatever kind they are. Never had any better.