ness

Better stock = better soup

I'll have to trust you on the potato

Those are cool. I had a friend in college who had a cream colored one. Back end was jacked up, wider tires back there. But I like the look above much better.

😀

Better bones = better stock. IMG_2323.mov

I’m saving a four pack back for you!

So, we gave all four of the ciders a try tonight. The first three aged a couple months and the fourth a month. They were much improved with even the short amount of aging. I gotta say, all four were better than anything I’ve done, ever. Upping the acid and tannin in them all really took them into new territory. My previous attempts were pretty thin and bland. These were nice and crisp and more full bodied. It’s Interesting that my wife didn’t like the Nottingham yeast one at all. She ranked that low from the get go and again tonight. Safale S04 yeast one was easily her favorite. I liked it too, but I thought they were all good. She had a much wider range of opinions. The fourth one, made from Old Orchard juice and Safale S04 yeast was out of balance. It was too tart. We swirled in enough sugar to counteract the acid and it was quite good after that. It had more body and a better color, so I think this is where I’ll go next, but with less added acid. This has been a very fun experiment and has encouraged me to do more. Here’s the pics of the four, which admittedly all look about the same. The color on the fourth, which was done with a different juice (Old Orchard) is a little darker.

That’s a beauty. I always liked those.

Sounds like a good group and a lot of good food. I hope you all have a good weekend! And, I hope you’ll share pics of folks and food, especially the @gotmuddy étouffée.

Is that the roller skates chick? I don’t dare play that because I can’t afford to have that stuck in my head. 😄

Congrats on the purchase!

Our friend Google says 'Temporarily Closed'. That all sounds great!

Yeah, way too dark for me. Supposedly the Gacy documentary is good but I’ll pass. Watched ‘Bank of Dave’ on Netflix the other night. That’s a goodun that’ll leave you smiling.

I think a lot of serial killers started out torturing animals. At least that's what I heard. I don't know any.

There used to be a great restaurant in Newburg, MO, right on I 44, called Cooking From Scratch. I always made it a point to stop there when in the area. They had 'Chicken and Dumplins' (no g) on the menu once, so I ordered it...with the g. And the waitress corrected me and said it was dumplins. Anyhoo, I Googled dumplings and looky here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dumplings

Yep, drop dumplings. I always drop the drop when I'm talking about my dumplings.

'Beware the ides of March.' Not sure why I'm using up brain cells remembering that. I could sure use them for better stuff.

It's fairly nasty over here too -- all the streets are glazed over. Thankfully there's nothing on the trees. A while back the snow plow got stuck in front of the house on the slight hill. He backed down and gave it another try, all the while with the salt/sand going. He made it fine, and we got a triple dose. It looks like a beach out there We're over freezing now but it's overcast so not sure we'll get much melting. Rain expected overnight around freezing temps.

Did the Japanese joint Friday night. Very good, as usual. And, they’re not telling on the salad dressing. I guess that sauce is Yum Yum. Anyhoo, chicken and dumplings tonight.

Here's a follow up on this stock I made a week or so ago. First off, they didn't have the bones I wanted at the store -- I wanted the big knuckles and joints, etc. That's what I've used before, but I settled for the femur slices you see in the pic here. The missus and I both thought the stock wasn't as good as before. I went back and found an old post I did on this and grabbed the pic. Get these kinda bones! All that said, I'm not saying it was a bust. It's just that the bones do make a difference and the big ones had more meat, sinew, collagen, flavor, whatever.

Oishi NW corner of Shawnee Mission Pkwy and Quivira, next to Westlake. They do a ton of sushi there too. I work from home on Fridays and might go there this Friday.

Something else about the Japanese restaurant I mentioned: they’ve got this salad dressing that makes me want to lick the bowl. Fairly thin and creamy, with a big dose of fresh ginger and a little vinegar bite. Dang! I may need to get over there this week.

I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten at PF Changs, but I’ve had a lot of overly sweet ‘Chinese’ food. I like the first few bites but it gets to be too much pretty quickly. There’s a Japanese restaurant nearby that gets things right. Their ‘hibachi shrimp’ has just a little sweet, not sticky sweet. I get their brown rice which is not oily/greasy. Perfectly cooked veggies too and the shrimp are always just right. I asked the waitress to leave out the green peppers the second time there, now I’m forever ’No green pepper guy’ has 😀

I wonder if he even gets Wikipedia out there 😀

I think if you read the first couple paragraphs about the Challenger disaster on Wikipedia you’ll get it.