ness

Last night did a couple thick cut chops and some sautéed onion and zucchini. Brined the chops all day then did a quick store-bought chipotle marinade when I got home. Seared in cast iron then into the oven at 450 to 150ish. No tablecloth or ratty deck photos were taken. Here's what it looks like today

Had some homebrew, Dos Equis amber and bought some Negra Modelo for a taste off. Did a blind tasting with gf last night. I knew my clear favorite before hand and wanted to see where she landed. Turned her nose up at her son's home brew ? Didn't really want to pick a winner from the other two. Said one was just a lighter version. My favorite was (and I knew it going in) Negra Modelo. Gonna do this against KC Bier Dunkle and maybe Newcastle - an old favorite of mine.

Yeah, I'm with Al. Gimme light and durable. That 'only lifting half' crap sounds better when you're reading it than when you're wrestling with a boat. I'm not buying a trailer or a pickup anytime soon. So, it's going on top of an SUV. About 60 pounds is all I want to jack with.

There just may be something to the whole 'supply and demand' thing ?

SIL makes cakes, SIL makes rules.

You guys the black sheep?? Somebody doesn't understand sheep. ? Sounds like somebody's not happy, and that's on them. Keep on smilin'. There was nearly some drama last night, but I dodged it. And that's all I've got to say about that. Back to food: baby bro brought some ribs that were just outstanding. Tender but with some bite and spiced perfectly. Dang. Shoulda stuffed some in my pocket.

So we were out and about yesterday evening killing some time before a party, and wandered into this place that sells balsamic vinegar and olive oil. All kinds, different flavors. Sipped a lot of stuff until we were both a little queezy. But, dang, there were some tasty ones. Came home with a plain 18-year-old balsamic and a white balsamic flavored with cranberry and pear. The stuff pours about like warm maple syrup. Tonight, the cranberry/pear turned a blah salad into something really tasty with only about a half teaspoon of it. I can sip this stuff right out of the bottle. Dang. At the party later last night, my sister in law had made a 'King Cake', which is, I guess, a pre-Mardi Gras tradition. A cake with a little baby Jesus in it somewhere. Get the little baby Jesus in your piece and it's good luck for the year. Cut or bite or chew little baby Jesus and things won't go so well I guess. (At least that's my take--no official word on that. I'm not superstitious, just a little stitious, but I was careful.)So, here's the Little feller wrapped in swaddling pastry: PS: I always thought little baby Jesus would be a little more olive-skinned and black haired, based on his neighborhood. This one was a little more like me: pinkish, toe-headed and easily sunburned. PSS: sorry for the last part of this post.

You gotta give me enough time to get my pictures and final edits in, man. About 2 hours is usually all I need ? BTW, those were some great looking taters.

Did you eat the worms or pick them out? I hear some folks like them but the gritty vein tastes like poop to me.

Had some frozen dough balls, sauce and fresh mozzarella from last weekend. Thawed the dough over the last couple days, pruned off enough to get a smaller pizza that fit on the peel right. Kinda cold outside, and didn't want to jack with the kettle. Did it in the oven on a stone. Just a simple tomato sauce (whole San marzano, dash of white wine, salt and olive oil) , fresh mozzarella and basil. Darn tasty and less stress than the kettle.

Looks and sounds outstanding. But...you went wide left on the corn ??

Well since you've got 2-inch lettuce I figure it's safe to start mine. Don't want to harvest it off the shelf like I did last year. ?

I've done some maters and peppers pre-sprouted and into cells. More to come. Didn't start right after Christmas like BilletHead did last year. Compost is in and I've got the beds under plastic to maybe solarize a bit before the season. I've gardened in these raised beds for maybe 8 years now and I think I've got some soil-borne diseases I need to kill. Probably won't get hot enough but nothing to lose.

Hamm's on tap! Don't think I've had this since the seventies.

Yeah, saw somebody picked a morel in extreme SWMO. Really warm and dry here. But it's on the radar.

Screw the >20, just fish, have fun, and don't count or measure. Free yourself. Ohmmmm.

I worked Wednesday

It was really tasty, but salty and rich. Couldn't eat a ton of it.

Just remembered one: their port. A lot of wineries sell port but it doesn't really taste like a port. These guys did a good one based on Norton grapes. If you're up in the Weston area, Green Dirt Farm has a tasting area for Vox Vineyards. They're kind of interesting because they specialize in American grape varieties, and there are some really, really different tastes. The lady there was very knowledgeable and interesting to talk to, with just a hint of wine snobbiness. Green Dirt makes and sells goat cheese.

Riverwood north of Weston. Wines are pretty good. Went to three places and sampled wines that day, (Vox at Green Dirt Farm, Belvoir) and I can't remember the specific good ones at Riverwood. Not usually a fruit wine drinker, but they did a good job on those. They were probably wine mixed with juice, because they were very fruity and not very winey, but nice and not sickenly sweet. We liked the cranberry best. I just looked at some stuff on the web -- the beef on the platter is called bresaola. BilletHead may know that one from his charcuterie book.

I gotta poke fun of 360 Vodka for a minute. Visited their distillery in Weston, MO a while back. They bill themselves as eco-friendly. They are going to work with MDC to plant 360 trees on the site. Doesn't MDC give away trees? They quoted a number of tons of CO2 those trees would take out of the atmosphere. But they truck their Vodka in from a distillery in Indiana for bottling in MO. They also claimed their Vodka was gluten free because it's made from corn. I'm no chemist but, according to them, they distill that stuff out to 90% alcohol then add back water to get it to 40%. I doubt any gluten makes it through that process if it's made from wheat You can't return the bottles but the bale cap can be returned. They had a box sitting there for you to drop them in. So, if you drive to Weston and pay the $10 fee for the tour you can recycle the top. That is all.

Yes, no, who cares, wrong, wrong, wrong, no, wrong, no, no, no wrong, no.

Augmentin -- just finished a course. Also, just looked up Z-Pack and it's got an 'a' antibiotic in it -- Azithromycin

Tough day on the pizza kettle. Still getting the hang of it I guess. Temp was pegged out, above 700. First pizza in kinda hung up coming off the peel and scrunched up. You gotta spin the pizza or it burns. Well, fire was hot and it fought me some. I didn't get it moving quickly enough, so it got burned on the edges. Some careful cropping makes this first one look better. Both came out way too puffy. Figured out I'm trying to fit too big a pizza on the peel, so I'm not getting it thin enough. Got this second one cooked just right though. Strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Haven't had pizza in a while. Made the dough Friday night, in the fridge since then. For years I've used a recipe I adapted from Peter Reinhart's neo-Neapolitan dough here. I leave out the oil and hunny. Gonna fire up Weber with my Kettle Pizza contraption this afternoon. If I don't jack it up I'll post pics.