We had some friends over. We ate seafood gumbo, red beans and rice and shrimp po'boys with Creole mustard.

Dan

Popcorn made with bacon fat. Already I'm regretting it.

Roasted a halved capon on a bed of apricot/walnut bread stuffing; roasted Brussels sprouts on the side. Scrumptious.

I'm making this tonight

The Temporary Vegetarian: Vegan Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash and Apple With Candied Walnuts
http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/the-temporary-vegetarian-vegan-roasted-brussels-sprouts-butternut-squash-and-apple-with-candied-walnuts/

made the candied walnuts (but used a different technique that is way easier)

easy...

Ream's debreziners in the deep fryer, dressed carolina carolina style -chili & cole slaw

pre-oven roasting (as the daylight fades away...)

Salmon Asparagus and Potatoes, all cooked on a Cedar Plank on the grill. Mmmmm!

Grilled grass-fed, bone-in strip steak with parsnip puree, sauteed mushrooms, and braised radicchio. An all-brown, visually-unappealing plate, but delicious nonetheless.

After braising, the radicchio quarters got sauteed with anchovies, garlic, and butter, then served with a splash of meyer lemon juice; salty, bitter, acidic, and full of umami. Luckily I like that kind of thing, and the deeply-flavored grass-fed beef held up to its side dish's flavor onslaught.

-Dan

If I can catch it...

pot pie made with leftover sous vide turkey breast from Tuesday

mhill95149 wrote:
pot pie made with leftover sous vide turkey breast from Tuesday

Oh My God !!!
That looks beyond amazing....

FWIW, it was a bit soupy... tasted good but the butter / flour / turkey stock sauce lost much of it's thickness during cooking.
maybe arrowroot or corn starch (must try different thickener)

tonight it is brined and then roasted chicken

I baked a half pound of filleted whitefish in white wine, with butter/salt and pepper/parsley on top. Served that with a buttered baked potato and steamed asparagus, and drank a cold Prosecco along with it all.

Comforting, that is, on a cold damp night in Evanston. I *almost* don't care if it does snow.

Almost.

mhill95149 wrote:FWIW, it was a bit soupy... tasted good but the butter / flour / turkey stock sauce lost much of it's thickness during cooking.
maybe arrowroot or corn starch (must try different thickener)

tonight it is brined and then roasted chicken

Nice; more meat than I thought you'd get from that one as originally posted from your deck last week.

It's roast chicken night: the bird's been brushed with olive oil, lemon juice, tarragon and parsley, and stuffed with sprigs of fresh parsley and thyme (and the thoroughly squeezed, quartered lemon that provided the juice). Instead of a roasting rack, the bird's finishing its roast (at 350 degrees) while resting on cut-up potatoes and endives (which will go onto the plate with the finished bird). I'm drinking a nice Prosecco, the same one I had with the cold artichoke/herb mayonnaise to start the meal a little while ago.

I should mention: it smells like the south end of Heaven in my apartment just now.

SHOPPING ALERT: Treasure Island has Miller Anish-raised whole chickens on sale through Tuesday for a measly .88 per lb. (!). Good stock-up price, should you have the freezer room available. And lord knows this week will provide very favorable chicken-roasting weather for one or two that you don't freeze. Brrr!

(Idea: roast two at the same time; one for dinner, and one for a next-day pot pie. Multi-tasking! )

- Slagel farms spare ribs(Butcher and Larder called them country ribs, but these are spares cut from up near the shoulder), way too expensive @ $9 a lb., but I wasnt going to be near my cheaper heritage pork sources so I grabbed them. Smoking this small meaty slab on the WSM(basic rub, using co-shell coconut briquettes, cherry and pecan), I hope it lives up to the Berkshire & Duroc pork I have become used to.

- beef bone marrow. Got a couple 2" sections of bone marrow from the folks @ B & L, appreciated that they already pre soak theirs to get out the impurities. Smoking these alongside the ribs. Rubbed the marrow segments wth olive oil, kosher slat, black pepper and fresh rosemary.

- bone marrow bones from Gepherth's(thanks for the tip Steve Z, great market, really friendly, helpfull staff), these segments were run throught the band saw to halve them, nice 6" segments, these will be done in the oven, and then a quick shot under the broiler to carmelize the marrow.

Serving the marrow bones with sliced, toasted french bread, red onion jam(homemade of course), & a parsley salad(parsley, lemon, salt, black pepper, reggiano) I have to toss together.

- Beans - basic pork and beans with some adders(Ream's polish I will smoke, some brown sugar, yellow mustard, and perhaps some of my homemade watermelon pickles.

- Mac -n-cheese

WSM is chugging along, should be a nice early supper.

Carne Adovada tacos.

Mushroom on the left and 4 cheese on the right

close up of the mushroom ravioli.

Tomorrow nught I'm roasting a couple chickens I've halved but I have a question, I'm trying Goya Mojo Criollo for the first time.
What's a good lenth of time to marinade? Is overnight and through the next day too much? Should I just start in the morning? or just a couple hours?

Frying up about a pound and a half of walleye fillets from Hagen's.

Rabbit in a Gulf-style sour (preserved lemons and sumac) tomato "curry" with radishes, garnished with my homemade olive oil-urfa biber chile oil.

Should be some good eats. Washing it all down with tallboys of Budweiser.

Pork chops off the grill tonight
with mashed 'taters and zuc.

1995 ESJ Durell Syrah in the glass tonight.

Last night, I made a coriander and garlic-encrusted leg of lamb. I always save all the rendered fat when I roast lamb, to cook in, as it makes things incredibly flavorful. I've often cooked potatoes in lamb fat, and even eggs. Today, I tried a sweet potato.

I peeled and shredded a sweet potato and sautéed it, with about a 1/4 tsp of sage and a light sprinkling of salt, in the rendered lamb fat. Just beautiful. Nice combination of soft, crisp, and chewy/caramelized potato, and the flavor is wonderful.

Did a 2 3/4 lb prime Porterhouse sous vide then in cast iron

I smeared the steak with butter before placing into the bag
(can't say I noticed a big difference...)

cooked for about 2 hrs at 139˚ and before that an hour climbing from 100˚ up to temp.
4 min per side in a pretty hot cast iron skillet
and very little resting time (maybe 2 min, longer next time)

Last week we got lamb from Butcher and Larder (I believe lamb loin chops but now I can't remember). I've been playing around with trying to recreate/embellish a lamb dish I had last fall at Canteen in San Francisco. This time, it took the form of dukkah-crusted lamb with muhammara and a chickpea and yogurt salad with mint. The lamb came out great--I will definitely buying this from B and L in the future.

I've been doing a slow-roasted salmon lately that really seems to work well - I may also have been getting extra fatty good salmon, since I guess it's that time of year?

I dust the fish with seasonings, then use a cast iron pan to sear it on both sides, then stick the pan in the toaster oven on "keep warm" which seems to be 160F. The seasonings are a variation on the various rub recipes found on Virtual Weber Bullet Salmon page - http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/salmon1.html

And I'll be doing the salmon that way tonight, or maybe doing it on the grill on a cedar plank, which is nice too!

edited to add:

trying a new salad - topping the greens with chopped dried apricot, feta, toasted pumpkin seeds, and a roasted garlic/golden balsamic dressing with fresh sage.

blackened catfish for my wife and I & a trimmed portion of prime NY strip for my son

DSCN1105 by MsLynnB, on Flickr

"Purple Cabbage Salad with Mango, Red Bell Pepper, Smoked Almonds, and Avocado" from The Complete Tassajara Cookbook.

I've been slowly working my way through this cookbook and really enjoying it. This was wonderfully crunchy with pleasant bursts of creamyness from the mango and avocado. I served it with warm crusty buttered French bread.

Mashed potatoes made with a nice chunk of ramp compound butter and some type of sausage are on deck.