What's Cooking?

[Flysmallie]

I was up until 1:30am getting these ready for the morning. Worth the trouble. 

[Johnsfolly]

23 minutes ago, Flysmallie said:

I was up until 1:30am getting these ready for the morning. Worth the trouble. 

They look great! I can smell them from here☺!

[rps]

On 12/24/2017 at 9:39 AM, ness said:

...Not from scratch. Rotisserie chicken and Reemes frozen dumplings. But...dismantled the chicken, discarded the skin, cut out the back and deboned the thighs, legs and the rest. Tossed all the bones into a stock pot with an onion, some celery, carrots, peppercorns, bay leaves and let simmer for a couple hours.  Then cooked the noodles, adjusted seasoning and added back in the chicken. Broth was outstanding. 

Been experimenting with ciders a lot lately, and have zeroed in on a few that I like. All on the dry side. Last night was Crispin's Browns Lane -- very dry, billed as an English-style. Really tasty -- just can't do the really sweet ones. Crispin Original, Samuel Smith's Organic and JK's Scrumpy are all good too.  

The British style dry ciders are fabulous! Someone else can have the sweeter ones.

[rps]

The wife and I have been in Savannah three days visiting the daughters. They let me cook (although they are both excellent cooks themselves, and one of them has a partner who does very wonderful cajun/creole dishes). 

I shucked half a bushel of fresh oysters and made sides like hummus for one meal. Chad, the partner, made a creole style gumbo with smoked sausage and the remaining oysters for lunch the next day.

Last night I reverse seared a four bone pork roast, made a Cremini mushroom and caper sauce, and I made a sweet potato gratin as the starch and stir fried some broccoli as well.

Tonight I am roasting a duck with duck fat potatoes and pan roasted asparagus finished with Col. Pabst Worcestershire sauce.

I sincerely hope all of you have had as wonderful a Christmas holiday as we have!

[BilletHead]

          A tale of three Christmas meals,

  So due to scheduling BilletHead Jr. and his tribe were supposed to here Saturday morning for family Christmas. Grandson requested grandmas turkey and noodles so it was being prepared. Well day one did not go so well. On way to BilletHeadVille Jr. lost control on an icy overpass on I-44. Bashed the bridge side and pretty much messed up their vehicle. Scared them all pretty bad. All buckled in except the dog. Bruises, scrapes and sore places. Granddaughter has a black eye. Yanked off fender and plastic part of bumper plus fan not working. Cold enough to not hurt motor because of that they crippled home. Thank the good lord that was all. So the Mrs. and I ate alone sad but happy the outcome was better than it could of been. Turkey and noodles on a mountain of mashed taters, dressing, corn and hot rolls. Good eats but again sad as we enjoy the boy and his family. Meal one down. That night they called and borrowed another vehicle and would try again the next morning. Morning arrived and so did the family safely this time .   Leftovers to us but a new meal to them we ate again. Christmas meal two done. Had a good visit and watched the Chiefs win. They left full and happy and we were full of goodness from the visit. Now to Christmas day and all was quiet just Mrs. BilletHead and I. Got up to 20 degrees. Did not take long to get out of the warm bed on the porch and make it into the house. Fun way to wake up, exhilarating would be the best way to describe it . As we ate breakfast we asked about the same time "What do you want for Christmas dinner? Lets see we have duck, goose, wild turkey or venison. Oh and we have some beef hamburger gifted to us from the farmer neighbor, a few fish fillets" I use what authority I have and make the call it will be Sous Vide deer back strap roast. After it thaws I find some Argentina steak rub we found on a discount rack at the kitchen store. This will work I thought. Dried and coated the roast well, vacuumed and sealed and out it into the water bath at 134 degrees for two hours.

While that was going I looked into making a compound butter. Jalapeno lime looked good but no fresh peppers to be had. Got that covered maybe I thought we have some smoked and frozen jalapenos in the freezer. Out they came and I seeded and chopped them fine and went to making the butter. Turned out good, smoky with a hot bite and citrus. Not too shabby. The closer the meat became to the two hour mark the Mrs. Began to get the sides ready. I got a cast iron skillet warming on the back porch propane burner. Timer going off opened the vac bag and took a good wiff. Smelled nice. Cast iron now smoking hot in goes a spoonful of goose fat went to smoking some and on went the roast to sear off,

  A real quick sear and off to rest,

   Still having some leftovers wit the meal and something new to us. Blue cheese mashed taters, some garden rosemary in there too, the roast, sweet corn, dressing and cranberries. The meat when sliced ran juicy and the compound butter put it over the top,

   The tale of three Christmas dinners is over and I did not even have to go anywhere to eat them. Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for letting us share meals and for all you guys have shown us. Let there be feasts to be shared again for all of us in the new year,

  The BilletHead's

[MOPanfisher]

Beautiful looking venison, and Bleu cheese in taters is delicious.  Dang!

And very glad the family made it and without serious injuries.  

[BilletHead]

4 minutes ago, MOPanfisher said:

Beautiful looking venison, and Bleu cheese in taters is delicious.  Dang!

And very glad the family made it and without serious injuries.  

Thanks man,

  Still have you some fibreglass arrows. Someday you might want to stab a fish😀. 

BilletHead

[Johnsfolly]

We had brown sugar glazed ham with green beans with brown butter and almonds and au gratin potatoes. Ni pictures. Also a nice local whit wine.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope to see new recipes in the New year.

[MOPanfisher]

1 hour ago, BilletHead said:

Thanks man,

  Still have you some fibreglass arrows. Someday you might want to stab a fish😀. 

BilletHead

I keep thinking "when I get caught up", but i think I just get further behind.

[Deadstream]

46 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

Ni pictures. Also a nice local whit wine.

How much wine?   Merry Christmas all