October 2004 Archives

Yeesh, what a long and winding road it's been over the last day. On Thursday (yesterday) I stayed home to look after one of the chillins, which made sense because I had and have a nasty head cold. Okay, so Senior Biggles is home, what should he do? Cook.
This sounded like a perfect day to try something out of Dana Crumb & Shery Cohen's Cookbook. And I have to say, some of the recipes are a bit dated, but the content is right there. From diet advice to offering really nice vegetarian alternatives to the main recipe, very thoughtful.

OH crap, who am I trying to kid, it's just a really cool book by a really cool group of people and the pictures are fun to look at. That being said, I wanted to try, "Robert Crumb's Favorite Macaroni Casserole."

Thanks to Big D for the garlic you see above, juicy juicy.

Sing Hay! For the Quail with Mushroom Sausage. Boy, talk about a little happy meal package. 1 per person and off you go. I'm still going to fire up the smoker, even though it's 50 degrees out. I suppose I could try the oven in the house, but I don't want to. Not the same. Unless you have a gas grill, then it is the same.

Last weekend at the market it rained, you know? Wet. You bet. I believe it was one of the most enjoyable markets ever, except for a few in August, but I can't go in to that right now. Last Saturday was really nice, only the hard core market goers were there. The proprietors looked extra happy to see people coming & going. And I have to say the mood amoung the public was really good, all smiles. The sellers had their fancy stalls all bound up for winter and the tables turned opposite sides so one could walk IN to the stall and get out of the weather. Fresh warm breads, fancy oils, bristling green vegies, hot coffee and Taylor out there WITH NO SIDES ON HIS STALL. Brrrrrr. Wide open he was and pulling the coolers closer in to the center I found him. He was all smiles though and I walked away with Hocks & Andouille. Not before he accidentally dumped a quart of water down my back, thank goodness for rain gear, eh? This week it will be quail and and more hocks. Gotta love them hocks. Here's the deal, you read the newsletter and go to the market rain er shine.

Earlier this month I was perusing some new food blogs. I'm always amazed at how many are up and running, how many are derelict and how many new food blogs are popping up on a monthly basis. Some interest me and some I pass over. It isn't personal, but I just don't care much about vegetable technology tossed over ... whatever it was. One caught my eye, there was a recipe from the C&O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Railroad during the 1940s & 1950s. The first ingredient was and IS, lard. Okay, you got me. I'm interested. I'm piqued. Thank you Karen from Let's Play Restaurant! for putting this up. Split Pea Soup? Didn't interest me until I saw the Lard.

Tower of Del Monte Canned Goods at The Cannery, San Francisco

My mother in law was in town for a few days, so Mr. Meathead and I took the opportunity to take her to some of our favorite restaurants, and even one new place! Not all the pix are even half top notch, but all the food was reeeeeal good.

Welp, it ain't summer no more. We've just been through our first rain storm of the year and the nights are getting nippy. Plus there's flippen condensation on the windows of my truck every morning. Makes it darned hard to SEE, even if you hose it off.
I suppose it's time to keep the fires burning and toss that huge pot of beans on to the stove. Fatted Calf has provided us some fancy Ham Hock action. I'll surely grab myself at least 2. One for split pea soup and one for some BEANS !!!! Hey, maybe some black eyed peas, yes. It's all becoming clear to me now, all clear. I've got my Meat Goggles on and am ready for action. (Don't forget to pick up some Andouille too).

onward ...

Yes, it is exactly that. Fried Chicken stew and it must be about the most hillbilly thing I've done in quite some time. It doesn't match my country fried pork ribs, but it still ranks pretty darned high. Read on if'n you're interested, if not, I understand.

Here is Fatted Calf's Red Wine Salametti. This is a pure meat product, lean and the most tasty of all. I like the part when you remove the casing and the powder launches in to the air. It is beautiful.
I received 2, one for me and one for a friend.

How would this look as a holiday card? Treeemendous.

This last Friday Big D and myself headed out to Oakland to East Bay Restaurant Supply. It was an impromptu adventure born from the sheer need to leave the company compound. I have some other photographs that I took and up until yesterday evening, I would have used them. I believe however, this really ties it all in together.

A few days ago, early in the morning, at work, before coffee, Meathead walked in and handed me a bag with some bloody meat in it. He assured me it was a cut of beef and the label said, Onglet. Since it was from Prather Ranch I figured it must be okay. They gots all that fancy Certified Organic meat. I thanked him & my sister for the gift and ran back to my computer to google "what the HELL is a beef onglet?"

Featured above is the Fatted Calf Ham roast from last week. Succulent beyond compare, not like that precooked waffly bowed ham you're used to.

Taylor works very hard to bring us new and different meaty meat treats on a weekly basis. Mostly this is great because each week is a wonderful surprise, a surprise that usually will render you an awesome meal along with rich gravy (I'm on the new Gravy Diet). And sometimes it's tough because that special roast or crepinette isn't there the following week. This time though he brought us back the Spalla Ripiene- Pork shoulder stuffed with garlic, greens & walnuts 2-3lbs each. This roast just isn't some pork shoulder stuffed with stuff. This is a Niman Ranch pork shoulder roast stuffed with certified organic ingredients. And dangit, there is excellent flavor from one side to the other.
As I made my way down the list, under Pates, Confits & Terrines I see the Hoffman Farm's Guinea Fowl Terrine. I had half a dozen slices of that a while back and I'll need 2 of those. Pates & Terrines seem to be pretty much the same thing, except the Terrine is cooked & served in the same container. When unmolded it becomes a pate. Either way this one tends to be of the chunky style pate and one of my favorites.
Then down a bit further I see a Red Wine Salametti, I don't know what it is specifically and google didn't give anything quickly enough, so it'll be a surprise.
Saturday will be good, I can see that from here.

onward ...

Earlier this year, March 15th's Entry to be exact, marked my quest to reproduce John Bell's Southern Fried Chicken. This is a specific piece of chicken I'm looking for. I can sharpen my own blades, when I'm not busy and I can fry chicken with the best of them. But I am unable to make fried chicken like John's. This is the 3rd episode within a string of however many it takes to get it done. And brother, (or sister, sorry)I got darned close this time.

After years of sharpening my own knives I decided to see if someone else could do it better or at least not screw it up. This isn't to say I'm not able to get an edge I can live with from my stones & steels. I've always wondered if they could do better? Or worse? A co-worker took their knives to a local guy and it came back with a VERY shiny edge, about 1/2" up. That may be okay for a high-carbon blade, but it would ruin the look of my old carbon steel blades. I held back for a while.

Fatted C's Pancetta & smooshed garlic on bamboo cutting board (thank you Mr. Meathead)

I cain't speak for you, but this weather/season change has got me befaddled. Usually October is our warmest part of the year and it just ain't comin' up that way. No sir, which is why it is time for some roasts. It's time for roasts, such as pot roasts, pork loin roasts and ham roasts. Tee hee, guess what? Fatted Calf has fresh smoked hams this week. I know Emil was looking for them last week and accidentally bypassed the pork shoulder roasts. Now he can get what he needs, a little ham love. I also see they have some fancy Pork Crepinettes with Hot Pimenton and Orange, I'll need a few of those. Oh look, Toscano Salami !! Papa love this one. I would love another hunk of Pate, but ain't sure I should be eating an entire loaf each week. Ah well, what ya gonna do.

Read on ...

My theory about Potato Salad: Nobody likes potato salad. The standard fare deli salads, unless you are lucky, are disgusting to say the least. I was an adult before I had potato salad that tickled my fancy. And now I'm fairly obsessed with it, and usually to my disappointment I'll try it wherever I go.

This love/hate relationship forced me to try my hand at it myself. There are a few certainties with my potato salad: no sweet things, and no eggs. I've had plenty of potato salads with eggs that I liked, but it is always my least favorite part, and in bad potato salads it is down right scary. And I'm just generally morally opposed of mixing sweet and savory on principal. There are always exceptions, but usually only with thai food, or quails stuffed with sausage and figs. So no sweet pickles PLEASE.

Groceries aren't getting any cheaper, by a long shot. As you know, if you take the time to visit a few different stores and keep your eyes open you can really save a load of cash. Sometimes this amounts to tens of dollars or more. And sometimes it amounts to less than a buck. We'll take whatever we can get. This time it came in the form of Grape Jello under the Western Beef label. Personally I believe it was a pretty bad marketing move to put the word BEEF and Grape on the same side of the box. Not to mention the T in Western is a cactus with a cowboy hat on. This isn't right, no sir.

Xo Xo

This Spalla was purchased from The Fatted Calf.

On Saturday we had Pate, on Sunday we had Spalla Ripiene and on Monday morning I had a full tummy at dawn. It was a large, rich weekend and today I need a glass of water and some fruit. I'll get to that ...

It's Saturday afternoon and a sunny one at that. The afternoons now are a bit shorter and quite a bit cooler. I'm still in shorts, this is a good thing (hey Marfa, hope you're doing well).
Yesterday I took the boys on their first camping trip to Lake Chabot (less than an hour drive away). All went very well, good company blended with good food makes an event. Surely you're wondering, damn man you totally missed the Farmer's Market. Nope, Mama headed out this morning instead. SCORE.