What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Trout, simple seasoning, pan-fried, then dressed with a butter sauce containing pine nuts, fresh thyme, blood orange zest and juice. Just as good as it sounds. Served with mixed pan-cooked vegetables and farro boiled in the (filtered) water used to rehydrate a couple ounces of dried black morels.

The morels, yesterday, joined some fresh thyme, lemon, garlic, and cream for a splash over a potato knish!

Ham with Major Grey's chutney, asparagus, fried plaintains.

Here's a poem called Rank Injustice. No idea who the author is.

All things chickeny and mutt'ny
Taste far better when served with chutney
This is the mystery eternal:
Why didn't Major Grey make Colonel?

-Paul W.

Here's a poem called Rank Injustice. No idea who the author is.

All things chickeny and mutt'ny
Taste far better when served with chutney
This is the mystery eternal:
Why didn't Major Grey make Colonel?

-Paul W.

Yeah, especially when Sanders did.

Sanders was a Kentucky Colonel; it is not a military title. As for "Major Grey", he probably didn't exist -- there is no copyright on it so it is a type name, not a brand.

And I still like the poem.

Absolutely true (I could be Major Grey). But I still like my joke.

Pray tell what is a Kentucky Colonel?

An honorary title conferred by the governor of Kentucky on anyone who has done great service to the state. In practice, it's a bit of grandstanding so the governor has a photo-op with some famous people. The list of "colonels" ranges from Mae West to J. Edgar Hoover to the pope: https://www.kycolonels.org/famous-colonels/

One might also observe that General Tso did not cook his own chicken, nor did Napoleon whip up Chicken Marengo.

Nor did Napoleon invent the napoleon pastry. Likewise, Dr. Pepper didn't invent Dr Pepper.

[Jenise]

Christina, I've never made ricotta gnocchi, but it has been on my list since having a particularly heavenly version in a good Italian restaurant in L.A. a few years back. Three perfect quenelles resting on a bolognese--as artful to look at as taste. They would have been steamed to get that look.

In Montana last week I was the 'camp cook' in a rental house, and your combination reminds me of one of the dishes I made one night, an on-the-fly vegetarian pasta involving wild asparagus, peas and dill with penne in a lemon-butter sauce. Great success, and something I will make again for sure. Though I wanted tarragon the dill worked great, especially since it turned out that Barry (Bob's son who we travelled with) has a teenage daughter with extreme dill-hate so he never gets to experience that flavor at home.

[Jenise]

I have to be a low-purine vegetarian for a few weeks, so last night for dinner I served veggie tacos. Bottom layer: potato-jalapeno hash. Middle layer: zucchini finished in Cholula sauce. Top layer: slivered sweet onions and cilantro spritzed with lemon juice. Bob said: "Who needs meat? Give me these any time." Today: corn on the cob and tomato salad.

Moving pretty slow today, but made a nice ham and cheese souffle with a tossed salad. For extra flavor, I added a little cayenne and Dijon mustard. But almost forgot to add the yolks. Duh!

Eggs are so cheap here the last couple of weeks, they're almost free. So I'm trying to use up my 4 dozen or so as fast as I can in creative ways. Ideas?

At a salad bar place today I had some very nice egg salad: hard-boiled eggs and mayo, of course, with corn kernels and fake crabmeat. Flavors and textures worked nicely.

Deviled eggs is always a good way to move a half-dozen or a dozen.

A batch of eggnog or ice cream.

If you're really bored you can fill ravioli with the yolks.

If you're feeling trendy you can make shakshuka.

Challah!

Great produce in the garden and markets so garden asparagus, market snap pea, leek, shallot stir fry with a few Argentinian shrimp ( Costco). Threw in some shichimi togarashi. Quick, easy, light. Perfect after working in the garden to get the Romano beans, shishito peppers and tomatoes planted. Harvesting spinach, arugula and asparagus is time and energy consuming !
I've decided that this is my favorite season because of the sense of anticipation and accomplishment that accompanies planting in the cool, bugless, greening landscape while thinking about new ways to use the product if successful.

[Jenise]

Christina, it's 6:11 p.m. and I have no plan whatsoever about what to make for dinner. I've been living on nothing but plants and water all week and have rather unusually lost interest in being creative. I had thought I might do a Japanese vegetable pancake (first-timer on that) but that sounds like too much work. A veggie stir fry sounds like a great idea instead.

Chicken tagine tonight, using my homemade preserved Meyer lemons.

-Paul W.

Tasted my first macadamia nut oil tonight. Buttery. Used it in a vinaigrette with sherry vinegar.

Chicken cacciatore. Lamb carbonnade. Orange-mango popsicles. Avodine.


"Avodine" - Mash together an equal number of avocados and tins of sardines (in good olive oil), add a squeeze of lime and as much garlic/herbs as you like. Now find your crispest, seediest bread and a white wine with a good cutting edge... Muscadet, Albarino, Vermentino.

Breakfast was huevos rancheros, one my faves. Dinner was a tri-tip beef roast with roasted vegetables.

[Jenise]

Jeff, what's avodine? Sounds like something you feed your dog to give it a shiny coat.

I haven't been cooking much that's interesting enough to talk about. Went to a friend's Saturday night which I made a smoked trout-jalapeno pate for, and that's kind of it. Last night Bob and I had the rest of the pate after spending the day in Seattle. Today, don't know but I feel like I'm ready to introduce more protein and I want some halibut.

Jeff, what's avodine? Sounds like something you feed your dog to give it a shiny coat.

And it might just do that. I wrote about it once before so copied the note onto the post, above. It's an avocado-sardine dip that is perfect for those days when you can't even consider lighting the stove.

Mmm, mmm.

I'm trying to figure out what wine to pair with my roast beef tonight. Total Wine has some new wine flavors: Liquid Popsicle Sweet Red Blend, Liquid Popsicle Cherry, Liquid Popsicle Strawberry, and Liquid Popsicle Orange Dreamsicle. So hard to choose.

[Jenise]

Oh roast beef...you're killing me Larry!

But I am going to make meat tonight, chicken wokness. Fermented black beans and green bell peppers will go down for the cause. Yes, Mondays here are usually meatless but considering the fact that I've been meatless for almost two weeks now, I've paid for this in advance. As for your wine choices, maybe you should write to Popsicle Pete (remember him, on the back labels? Kids really did write; I know because my mom was Popsicle Pete. For real.)