Blog Archives
Tidbits
French toast and those teeny breakfast sausages are a big hit around here, Mrs J is up for this anytime. Me, too!
This is another Harvey rescue. Cute as a button and already adopted. SQUEEE!
Kroger has these chicken quarters on sale pretty often. I think they are asking about $1/lb. I usually buy several packages and put them away in vacuum bags.
Crinkle fries and baked beans with the chicken are just perfect. Mrs J is the crinkle fries fan, but I’m no slouch at putting them away.
More of that crockpot Italian beef, this one on a deli bought roll.
This is a really hopeful looking kitteh. It’s not a Harvey rescue but don’t let that stop you! http://www.stfrancis-care.org/
One moar!
I just pulled this lasagna from the oven. It’s made with those no boil noodles. We are going to have it for dinner tonight and I’ll have more photos later.
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Tidbits
Like I said, the killer app for steaks is sous vide. These spent the afternoon at 136°F. A quick sear then a rest while a pan sauce was made from the bag liquids, butter, wine, and soy sauce. That was a big rib steak, even I didn’t eat the whole thing.
A veggie beef soup follows leftover steak at our house. A smoked pork sammich turned the soup into a real meal.
Kitteh! The kittens were recipients of a round of claw clipping, they were a bit disturbed and needed a firm grasp to hold them for the task.
I told Mrs J to mention that too firm a grasp causes their little kitteh eyes to bug out.
Teeny weenies! Hash browns and eggs! Mmm… breakfast for dinner.
Mrs J spends most of her volunteer time in the kitteh house but she does catch the occasional pupper. This little girl came in when her owner passed. She’s heartworm positive but is expected to be fine.
Fried fish for the win! I made a tartar sauce with fresh dill, lemon juice, lemon zest, minced dill pickles, and mayo.
I’ll finish with an adult cat. No info at all on this one but Mrs J days she’s very friendly. She’s been at the shelter for a week or so.
Tidbits
Mrs J adds Russian Sage to her garden. She has been looking for it a while and finally spotted a set at a big box store.
More naan pizza! These are closer to pitas than the last batch we bought and a bit smaller. I made a white sauce with garlic and stirred in provolone to make it a mornay sauce for the base. Chopped roast chicken was the main topping with Brussels sprout slices and a bit of balsamic glaze. More cheese was sprinkled on before these went into the oven.
They worked out very well. I added some red pepper flakes and a grind of black peppercorns to mine.
Some BLTs with my own homemade bacon. Too early for fresh garden tomatoes so we went with some from the Kroger garden.
More breakfast for dinner. We love those little sausages.
Kittehs! These are two of our own kittehs – Ginger Boy and Ollie.
Makin’ Bacon
I have a pal who makes his own bacon, he has built a smoke house and everything. His bacon uses the traditional recipe using sodium nitrite. I’ve been wanting to make my own, settling on the recipe Dan Barber posted at epicurious.com. He uses a complex rub that I had all the parts to except the ground coriander. I added more coriander seed to help with the lack.
Here it is after several days in the fridge. I flipped it over a few times while it cured.
With a little trimming it fit in this hotel pan. I covered it with chicken stock, put the lid on, and left it in a 200-ish oven all day.
After an all nighter in the fridge to firm it up for my slicer it was turned into all this. I’ll keep one of those in a ziplock bag while we binge on bacon. The other two are in the freezer, they’ll get vacuum bagged when they are solid.
Let’s try some out! Looks good so far. 
Yay! It crisped up well, and the skin wasn’t a problem. I worried a little about that but I figured if the porchetta skin crisped up while frying this skin would, too. I think the next one I do will get the sodium nitrite. I’m sure it will add to the flavor and color.
Tidbits
A little breakfast pr0n to start. The patty is from that batch of homemade garlic pepper recipe sausage.
This is an older picture from a meal we had a couple of weeks ago. Not sure if I have used it so here it is. I bought a batch of purple potatoes and mixed them in with fingerlings and a cubed sweet potato. The pork tenderloin was done sous vide and then seared in a hot pan just before plating. There is a pan sauce made from red wine and the pan juices. I reached for the white but it wasn’t open so the red went in.
Gumbo! This one has andouille, chicken, and shrimp.
A couple of pineapple upside down cakes. There was a little pineapple left over from Mrs J’s carrot cake, and we finally used up the last of the maraschino cherries that have been lurking in a dark corner of the fridge for ages. Not the prettiest cakes ever but they tasted great. There is one small slice left but it will not last out the day.
Here’s Ollie! He’s been mixing about with the other kittehs and we think he’s fitting in quite well. He and Bitsy spent the night chasing up and down the hallway.
I dug one of the rib roasts out of the freezer. It was one of those the market had on sale for the holidays. It was oddly cut, the two end ribs were sliced down the middle, making the piece about 1-1/2 inches altogether. I promised Mrs J that I would turn out the next steak medium done and so set the water bath temp to 140. When it came out I sliced it in half and seared the pieces in a hot pan. The pan sauce was made of butter and the same red wine that I used on that pork tenderloin. The potatoes were rubbed with olive oil and generously salted, then baked in a 350 oven for an hour.
Mrs J left for an appointment this morning. Gabe waited by the door for her return. He misses his dog mama every time she goes away.
That garlic pepper sausage makes pretty good chili.
I’ll close with this salad. It’s a bagged salad topped with a deli made Greek salad with a little extra feta.
