What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Oh, those antique cats are such a problem. Hardly anybody left who knows how to re-string them, and it's almost impossible to get the right lacquer to match.

Yes, all of that. But tuning. The real problem is tuning!

Truth. It's been said that the Renaissance lasted 200 years longer than it should have due to the tuning of the viols.

[Jenise]

LOL, Jeff.

I generally make pizza sauce from scratch, but I was too tired and ran across a can of Muir Glen pizza sauce in my cabinet (I like Muir Glen canned tomatoes) and gave it a whirl. It had a lot of organic EVOO that I had to stir back in. The finished product was not bad at all, and I would recommend that brand. I'm sure it wasn't as good as Di Fara's pizza, yada yada yada or yada yada yada, but it was what it was.

My porterhouse last night (seared and oven finished) was quite wonderful. One of my favorite cuts.

[Jenise]

I like everything Muir Glen, too, Larry.

Last night I made chopped steak patties. Combined diced filet mignon, capers, mustard, garlic, and S&P, mixed till the steak broke down a bit then formed patties and fried them in butter with garlic and rosemary. Interesting method, quite tasty, but not compelling enough to do again.

Sloppy Joes tonight. Too tired to cook anything fancier.

Love sloppy joes.

Life gave me a bunch of onions (3 lbs/$1), so I'm not going to make onionade, but French onion soup. Originally for today, but I'm running out of steam. Same with cooking some chicken tonight. (There's always tomorrow.)

So, because I scored a great deal on pepperoni today (2 lbs for $1.99), it's going to be pizza again tonight. Okay by me.

When Life hands me extra pepperoni, I wrap slices in a couple sheets of paper towel and nuke them for 1 minute. They get all crisp, kinda like... bacon! (And it gets a lot of the grease onto the paper, instead of my arteries.)

When Life hands me extra pepperoni, I wrap slices in a couple sheets of paper towel and nuke them for 1 minute. They get all crisp, kinda like... bacon! (And it gets a lot of the grease onto the paper, instead of my arteries.)

I'll try that.

Returning home from the city detoured to a great fish outlet,/processing plant....
So a quick sauce EVOO, garlic, chilli, tomatoes, parsley and basil, dry vermouth, add in beautiful fresh clams and finish with squid ink pasta. Delicious!

Returning home from the city detoured to a great fish outlet,/processing plant....
So a quick sauce EVOO, garlic, chilli, tomatoes, parsley and basil, dry vermouth, add in beautiful fresh clams and finish with squid ink pasta. Delicious!

Exactly what I do sometime with capers and or oil cured olives for braising fish filets, shrimp, squid, mussels, octopus alone or in combination. A great quick sauce and perfect for a piece of darkened toast rubbed with garlic and olive oil to sop up any leftovers.

[Jenise]

When Life hands me extra pepperoni, I wrap slices in a couple sheets of paper towel and nuke them for 1 minute. They get all crisp, kinda like... bacon! (And it gets a lot of the grease onto the paper, instead of my arteries.)

I'll try that.

It's fantastic. Salami works great, too.

Tonight I'm making Poorman's Jambalaya.

-Paul W.

Tonight, I cooked Fesenjan (Persian pomegranate chicken) and, ironically, Israeli cous-cous.

Returning home from the city detoured to a great fish outlet,/processing plant....
So a quick sauce EVOO, garlic, chilli, tomatoes, parsley and basil, dry vermouth, add in beautiful fresh clams and finish with squid ink pasta. Delicious!

Exactly what I do sometime with capers and or oil cured olives for braising fish filets, shrimp, squid, mussels, octopus alone or in combination. A great quick sauce and perfect for a piece of darkened toast rubbed with garlic and olive oil to sop up any leftovers.

I can taste that all working. Seems right to do a quick sauce with a protein that cooks quickly. I served some garlic toast alongside. We’re on the same page!

Tonight, I cooked Fesenjan (Persian pomegranate chicken) and, ironically, Israeli cous-cous.

Yes, the irony, however the cuisines of that region are inextricably entwined I think, so will mix really wel. Sounds delicious..

Tonight, I cooked Fesenjan (Persian pomegranate chicken) and, ironically, Israeli cous-cous.

Yes, the irony, however the cuisines of that region are inextricably entwined I think, so will mix really wel. Sounds delicious..

Perhaps the Iranians call it Freedom cous-cous. We have experience doing that.

Ah, yes. Good ole freedom fries. To go with the hot dogs (frankfurters), victory cabbage (sauerkraut), and Salisbury steaks (hamburgers) we got in WW I, and WW II's V-soise (vichyssoise). How many folks in the USA changed their Germanic surnames during WW I? The British royals did (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha -> Windsor; Battenburg -> Mountbatten).

I made Sichuan xiang la fei niu rou (hot and spicy beef) last night. This is yet another stir-fried beef with bell peppers (red in this case) dish, but built on classic Sichuan ma-la flavors. Plenty of chile (red chile flakes, fresh green chiles, red chile oil) and Sichuan peppercorn (roasted and ground red Sichuan peppercorns and red Sichuan peppercorn oil). Nicely hot and with lots of that tingly Sichuan peppercorn flavor,

-Paul W.

To go with the hot dogs (frankfurters), victory cabbage (sauerkraut), and Salisbury steaks (hamburgers) we got in WW I

I didn't know that!

How many folks in the USA changed their Germanic surnames during WW I?

Great question. As always, it's complicated. (This happens to overlap with my professional research interests)

Some evidence that the stigma led to a move towards Americanization of names:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/how-do-immigrants-respond-to-discrimination-the-case-of-germans-in-the-us-during-world-war-i/73E94E2B4C8EFB3B5B11B4AEB95DAFEE

But also evidence that German identity was heightened for others, a 'backlash'.

https://academic.oup.com/restud/article/87/1/204/5472346

To go with the hot dogs (frankfurters), victory cabbage (sauerkraut), and Salisbury steaks (hamburgers) we got in WW I

I didn't know that!

Because it's mostly not true:
- "Hot Dog" was first used in 1884 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dog#Etymology
- "Salisbury Steak" was first used in 1897 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury ... f_the_name

Salisbury, himself, was dead before WWI began.

[Jenise]

Last night we went Austrian with a cold asparagus salad followed by grilled brats on a hot cabbage slaw. With those, an Austrian blaufrankisch.

Tonight we're hosting a Japanese whisky tasting with two couples in our bubble. Each couple contributes two bottles, gets their own table and snacks (edamame beans with smoked salt, crispy rice crackers with nuts and wasabi peas, yakitori shrimp, smashed cucumbers) to enjoy while we compare the six whiskies. After that we'll move to a Japanese cocktail with sake-marinated broiled chicken wings (one of my guests' ideas which I can accomodate), which I'll follow with shabu shabu beef on rice with a sauce made from soy fermented in used whisky barrels and guests can retaste the whiskies or make their own cocktails.

Shabu shabu is something I've done for us +1 other couple while seated at a table, but never in a group setting like this. Plus--there's Covid. So while we don't want everyone huddled together cooking their own stuff, I have a very big socially open kitchen so it should make good dinner theater to cook the meat in batches whilst people stand about waiting with their rice bowls. It's likely something they've never encountered in a private home before, and I'm guessing the Picky People will have never had it at all, but beef + rice will work for them--just don't serve Dave any vegetables!

Of course, all this requires that I'm able to stay awake. I've got to slice the beef (yes, I have a meat slicer) and find the perfect moment from frozen at which to do that, and I didn't get the meat (a 4.8 lb boneless prime rib center cut) out of the freezer as early as I should have. Worrying about that last night caused me to still be awake until well after 4 a.m.

Using the remaining clams (they come, live, in sealed 1 kilo packs. Too. Much for one but could not resist trying them) which were still in perfect condition. Made Miso clam chowder. Very tasty.

Back from a birdwatching trip, the Francophile retired to his study to do things with photographs. The cupboard wasn't exactly bare, but contained only bits and pieces. So we had pasta with an improvised sauce. An onion, a few cloves of garlic; two rashers of bacon, chopped up fine; a chunk of zucchini and about half a red capsicum - all sliced up and sauteed in a deep frypan. Tipped in about half a glass of white wine to deglaze. Added two cups of tomato sugo, and simmered. Toward the end, added a handful of aniseed basil leaves, and after turning off the heat, added a handful of kalamata olives (stones removed). The Francophile made a lot of appreciative noises, so it must have been good.

[Jenise]

Sounds fantastic, Matilda. Sounds like what I should make for dinner. It's 6:10 p.m., and I don't have a plan yet.