rps

Sounds like only the special people stayed past the holidays.

The good looking and intelligent half of this household left today for a four day recertification course in Advanced Placement Statistics. Every five years she must recertify in it and in Calculus. Calc was last year. Stat is this. When she leaves the joy of cooking changes as does the menu around here. Tonight, I will sear a discount steak I found at the grocery - and probably eat only about half of it. I will oven fry some potatoes and add some tomato slices to the plate. For the oven fries I brick an ordinary russet and then slice it pont neuf style. I marinate the pieces in olive oil, seasoned salt, and pepper. I roast them in a 400 degree oven until the edges are brown and the middle fluffy. Starter pictures:

Welcome Jess!

This is the chicken strips and polenta meal I posted about above.

Isn't that the truth.

I am very pleased to have a hummus "indifferent" person say such kind things. Your description of what it tastes like is dead on accurate. I am also pleased the others love it.

House guests have left. I loved cooking for so many. This afternoon I went through the refrigerator and discarded the tid-bits of leftovers that company compulsively put back in to save. Things like a half cup of cucumber tomato salad. I also took the time to discard things that had been put aside too long because I was cooking fresh for each meal. I found I had a large package of spinach I had not used, as well as a substantial portion of polenta. I thawed boneless, skinless chicken thighs (Sams sells these in large packages and I stock them as a staple) and cut them in fajita style strips. They went into an olive oil, garlic, Cavenders marinade for roasting. The spinach will endure a short garlic butter saute to wilt it. BTW, when you do that to spinach, always hit it with nutmeg. For the polenta, I roasted two ears of corn and shaved the blackened kernels off. I added butter and cream cheese as well. I will reheat that combination.

I am scarred for life, if ever I live so long.

Ham is correct, I only throw the Top Dollar because I am a masochist.

If kale or chard (both of which I like) show up and you must use them, look at this:

Thank you for posting this!

I love posts like this! Thank you for sharing.

I am sorry I have not been holding up my end people. I have have 8 house guests since Thursday and somehow taking pictures and writing essays got left out. A quick recap that omits the lunches and breakfasts: Thursday when the arrival time was uncertain -> beefy enchilada casserole (picture recipe previously posted) Friday -> Smoked ham (Nueske's Shank, bone in) with Greek green beans (recipe previously posted) and polenta Saturday -> gourmet burgers over charcoal with some hickory, no eggs and no olives potato salad, cucumber, red onion, and tomato salad This mornings brunch will be a broccoli, mushroom and onion frittata with a side of fresh cantaloupe. Somewhere in there I also made a wineberry ice cream and Nancy made a bundt cake. BTW, the wineberry ice cream was great and easy: Process a large quart of berries well and strain the juice from the seeds. Bring 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water to a boil (we want to dissolve the sugar) and let it cool. Mix the syrup with a cup of cream. Add the berry juice and chill the mix. Place the mix in an ice cream maker (we have the cheap kind where you freeze the container and then a plastic shell spins it.) and process to smoothy frozen stage. Place in a container and freeze until service.

6 PM

Lost one today on a big fish that I could not turn out of the brush.

Yes, I was just upriver from HI. The baits I had Tim paint have lasted very well. I have given two or three away, beat up a couple, and lost two to fish. I still have fishable ones, but the one that wen away today was nearly pristine.

I fished early on the 4th - 6 AM to 10 AM - and did surprisingly well on a top water. I caught three, including the one pictured, in the first hour. Seven others blew up on the bait but did not connect or stay buttoned. In the second hour I tried a second location and things slowed down. I caught one dink and had two more misses. Right at 8 AM the largest fish I have had on this year freight trained my bait. I could not turn her and she took my bait back into the brush from which she came. I tried to ease up with the trolling motor to see what I could do, but she got leverage and broke me off. She took with her a Tim Hughes painted Top Dollar with Daiichi Deathtrap hooks and hand tied feathers and tinsel. It was Tim's House color #2. If anyone finds it I will pay a reward. After 8:30 I tried to find walleye but only found bait balls suspended at 15 feet over deeper water. Water temp 79 to 81. Surface choppy with boat wakes when I got off.

Hello James. Welcome to the forum. You will enjoy the members here.

without a clue? Oh, sorry. Cause?

and Worcestershire sauce.

OK. Enough is enough. I was not raised to hunt morels or chanterells, but I am willing to sweat and breath hard to learn how. I do not want your patches, I want to know how and where to look so I can begin to get permission to hunt around here. I am booking mushroom 101 for 2016 right now. Tell me when to show up and where.

I was out early this morning. I fished an hour with top water and managed one keeper. After that I started looking for walleye. I caught one short fish and lost a larger one just at the boat. Not exactly tearing them up. The fish I hooked were 30 feet deep. BTW, I caught three keeper spots in the 30 foot range while trying to find walleye. Water temp 82, water color dingy.

Old vines, whether zin or cab or grenache, tend to produce fewer berries, but with a more intense flavor. Vintners nowdays are often using that as a reason to make wines closer to the old world style. More fruit forward, a touch more residual sugar, less than 12 board feet of oak. I like these wines as food wines. Especially a good Aussie shiraz.

My mother was a prominent breeder of purebred dogs. Co author/editor of Medical and Genetic Aspects of Purebred Dogs. I was raised discussing when it was time to outcross a line and risk hip dysplasia and deafness for the benefits the outcross would offer. Appropos your joke, my mother's favorite line when observing certain families was, "Well, I certainly wouldn't have repeated that breeding."