Recently in supper Category

On March 25th CajunGrocer.com contacted me and asked if I'd like 10 pounds of mudbugs for 'review'. Oh, let me think, YES. Remember them? They were the ones that sent Meathenge Labs a Turducken, yeah that's them.

The little guys come delivered to your door alive, moving, and making this clicking sound like rice crispies in milk. The party wasn't until Saturday, said crawdads arrived on Friday, not a problem. Hose them down, toss into cooler with a bag of ice (drain open), easy enough. But it didn't say whether to leave them all tied up in their sack or not, I decided to let them out in to the cooler. Free range crawdads ... dumb Californian. Wanna come see how it turned out?

How could I possibly take this photograph last night and not share it with you today. I mulled it over for 4 or so hours and decided, "It's going up!".

The boys and I have taken our local Joya de Ceren market to heart lately and added some kind of taco dish at least once or twice a week. In the past we've used their premade meat/pepper/onion mixes, they're all really good. But they have a chile powder and related in them (yum!). And unfortunately Z ain't hip to them flavors, so I decided to make my own, sorta. Sure I'll be compiling my own lime based marinade soon, but a bottle of La Lechonera Spanish Marinating Sauce did just fine for last night.

Check out the picture of a fat little piggy, in a sling, with the marinade also in a sliing, getting the piggy all ready. Priceless.

We ended up eating 2 pounds of flank steak for one dinner. A little excessive I know, but it was really good. Especially with corn tortillas that get all puffy when you heat them, so good. I'll make up my own marinaddy for next week and see how that goes.

Cheers!

Um, this recipe actually turned out really tasty. I pulled it out of a 1968 Family Circle Great Chicken Recipes book, see?

Yeah, that one. I had originally wanted to do a recipe from a recent Food & Wine issue. But after nodding off while reading the list of ingredients I decided this book would do just fine for a Saturday evening. Come see, the pictures are quit tastee.

Been spending more and more time at Joya de Ceren market, it's close, it's happy. Plus, when shopping for dinner, I really have to work at spending over 10 bux for everything I need. Crazy, huh? I made my way back to the meat counter and had planned on their marinated meat action, always good. But noticed these crazy little center cut pork chops. They had fat and most importantly, they had plenty of bone in there (best flavors to gnaw on). So, I had Omar toss in 4 of those, just in case.

I'll be honest with you, this post went around a few different poles before landing here. I was heavily armed with most certainly one of the best pork chops within 1.2 million miles, the technology to bring it forth and an absolutely sure fire way of making the best mashed potatoes ever, easy.

Good thing Meathenge is here, with his camera. To capture it all and lay it down so you can run home to play. Don't you love me? Don't you care?

Tuesday evening Tiny E came from the kitchen and said to me, "Papa, we need to go shopping to fill up the fridge." And I'm thinkin', "I'd rather go shopping to fill up my tummy." We did both.

One of my things is to start on the side of the grocery store where there's no meat. This way I can weave my way through the store, ever building my expectations. Was hoping for the sale on the baby back porky ribs, nope. Guess what I spied with my meaty eye? Those large packages of beef with the little spice packet for to make the corned beef dinner! Sure if I was a real go gettem' food blogger I'd spice my own. But it was Tuesday evening and wasn't feeling it.

As you can see, this post is here because the pictures came out all pretty. Boiling meat for 2.5 hours with spice packet, then adding taters and cabbage doesn't exactly count, in my book, as a recipe. It was a fricken' great meal though. And the leftovers? I can hardly wait.

Oh, and this meal doubles as an air freshener.

xo, Biggles

Alright, so I was in Joya de Ceren, an El Salvadorian grorcery in Richmond, for pork chops last night. They had some really wicked little chops all riddled with juicy fat. Yoink. Just one row over I noticed they had some pork shoulder pieces. I love pork shoulder. I rarely see it cut like this, it was cut just a tad over 2" thick. Kinda like a pork steak, only measured in pounds. Yeah, I bought it. That and two smaller chops, two sodas came to a whopping 8 bux. But how to prepare?

Ya ever have a hard time frying a pork chop? Ever sit down to your meal and just shake your head and think maybe some day you'll get it right? Well, we're smarter now, huh. We have that dumb Cook's Illustrated and we all know now that we need to brine or make sure we get a thick one. Blah, blah, blah. But what if you're at the store doing some shopping and you get the urge for a nice pork chop dinner for tonight? No time for brining and finding a thick pork chop at the local grocery can be few and far between. Aroo?

Meathenge is honored to have the very famous musician, artist & all around fun person, Amelia Ray step in for a little recipe action today. I haven't seen her in quite a while, but it looks as though she's doing just fine. And I have to say this recipe is pretty fricken cool. Just when you thought you'd had chicken every possible way, something like this rolls along. Let's sit back and see what's she's gots.

Lemon Chicken (Ivory Coast Recipe)

Someone left an entire chicken in my freezer a couple of weeks ago. I don't have an oven, so I searched around for a recipe for cooking a chicken in a pot on the stove. I found a dusty old Italian recipe book, and there, to my delight, was a lovely recipe for lemon chicken!

Here we find a most excellent sirloin of beef roast. The sign said it was grass fed & had a range to roam around in or on. Let the little dear come to room temp first. Wash, dry, install the extra virgin. Fleur de sel straight from Paris. Laura gifted it to me a while back and have been using it sparingly. Anyone know where she went? I hope all is well. Okay, so we have the oil, salt, fresh rosemary & creamy white pepper corns from my good friend Rob over at Salt Traders. He's got some seriously badass product over there for sure. Carefully lay 3 bacon rosettes on top, I had to use a toothpick to hold in place. The bacon is some of Fatted Calf's finest and has a nice firm texture, hence the toothpicks.

Introduce your work of art in to a cast iron pan with a trivet below. This goes in a preheated 375 degree oven, on the bottom rack until about 130 degrees internal temp (kinda on the juicy rare side). Check temp at 40 minutes, just to see. Pull, let rest for about 10 minutes, slice as thin or thick as you wish. Mines is about 1/4", dredge each slice in juices that flow from hunk. Serve with pride!

Oh, and since I only used 3 slices, I decided to cook up the rest to a medium rare.

Serve as Hors D'oeuvres, people will love you.

Ya know, the roast tasted like really good, mild beef. Not all grassy, must have been finished with a little corn, eh. Thank you! Not bad for a little Wednesday meal, eh?

xo, Biggles

My most excellent friend Kevin of Seriously Good, whom I spoke with today, informed me that his recent adventure was inspired by a meat photograph I took recently. He rambled his self down the Florentine road and came up with Pork Chops Florentine.

I'm impressed and wishing some of his creation was warm, and in front of me. Go have a gander and it could very well inspire something within you.

xo, Biggles

I've been accused more than a few times that some of what I do here isn't reproducible in their kitchen. I feel kinda bad because most of what I do is quite simple, straight forward and doesn't require rocket science. I think it was Shannon that tried this Pressed Chicken and the first time was a complete disaster. Meathead attempted the salt marinated chicken and ended up throwing it away, so sad.
What to do, what to do? Tinker and Tanker knew what to do, and they did it!

This recipe was given to me by Gramma D'Alessio a handful of years ago. I was seeking something off the beaten path for my typical American ways of tomato based sauces. She hit the nail right on the head with this one. She's been cooking for so long, you know damned well she doesn't necessarily work from recipes. Spoonfuls of this, handfuls of that and if an ingredient doesn't pass muster? Use something else or leave it out altogether. When is it done? When it's done. This is why I didn't probe for exact amounts. All I wanted was her story. What did she usually use? 1 or 2 pinches? What does she see, smell, taste and feel?

This is a simple love of ingredients that when fawned over will produce a warm, rich and inviting sauce. This will easily go right over ravioli, use as a poaching base for seafood or for a dressing around meats & veggies.

Wanna come see?

We don't eat much beef steak or fancy beef roasts around these parts (Meathenge Labs). Why? For several reasons. One of which being it costs too much. The other is that I find beef is really quite quirky as to its cooking times. One minute you have perfection and in five? A stinky ol' boot. While this isn't a problem for skilled meat craftsman, I've got 2 small boys and their neighborhood friends about my feet at most times. I need a meat that will give me a few minutes of leeway.
That being said, I had my Highland Hills Farm Chateaubriand from the farmer's market last Saturday and Monday night seemed a perfect moment for me and my meat.
Today I'd like to offer up a few pictures and meat technology that might help some of you getting a good steak from your range in your kitchen. I didn't have time for the grill and I hate my broiler. So, off we go!

No, this isn't a close-up. Look to the right and you'll see my stove, and there in front? A large bread knife.
Where did it come from? What would one possibly do with such a beast? Got any ideas?

Today's entry is brought to you by Nikon's latest and most recent release, the 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor with Nano Crystal technology. Man this lens is fricken amazing. You can shoot 4 stops slower, hand-held.

You shuddup. No, you shuddup. No, you shuddup. You shuddup. No. You shuddup. Purely having fun today, nothing more, nothing less. I've been in an odd mood with regards to food over the last week. At weird times of the day I've been lusting after those old traditional American casseroles. Something way too rich, creamy and/or cheesey. A dish made with frozen vegetables and a crunchy topping of some kind. A dish that Gramma would carry in with a huge smile during the holidays, warbling something about someone's favorite casserole. That's what I wanted, but wasn't sure how to go about it. Then, I was also interested in cooking chicken another way, other than roasting. It wasn't until yesterday when I was digging through Meathead's discarded cookbooks that I sawr my prey, Tater Coated Chicken.

Oh man oh man, oh man. The weather here is bright, warm and clear with a finish of crispy clean. The family and I recently returned from a fine 2 day getaway and are doing well. I come here today with a recipe I sorta followed from a newly translated cookbook, La Bonne Cuisine by Madame E. Saint-Ange. This revered tomb was lovingly translated by an amazing man by the name of Paul Aratow. Why am I so googly over such a cookbook? It was originally published in 1929 and has probably been a bible of sorts for many French Chefs since then, such as our beloved Julia Child. And today, I find it such a great big fat hairy deal because only last year was it released in English!
At first I considered the recipes a little long winded, mostly because for the 1 recipe I was interested in for that moment, I already knew most of the ins and outs. But then I realized, if someone didn't know how to deal with wild game (a rabbit), this book lays it down so you know what to look for and how to judge. This book is a walk-through guide to French cooking and a glimpse in to the past. Some times it's this good to be alive.
Before we dive in I would like to give a warm congratulations to Ten Speed Press of Berkeley for landing the opportunity to publlish this book. This most surely is a chesire moment for ya'll. Okay then ...

I have a whole fresh rabbit, a fancy cookbook and a little time. Interested to see how it all came together?

I can't believe I'm sitting here thinking that this is the first time I've had bacon as a main course for dinner. Sure we've all had bacon with dinner. Or bacon as dinner, at least some of us anyway. But this is the first time I've served bacon as the main course in dinner.
Last weekend I received an email from Chilebrown, he was starting up another load of his homemade bacon. Each batch varies a little, smoking temps, cuts of meat and cure times. I've been pleading for a bacon with more smoky flavors. And brother, or sister, he came through in flying colors.
I enjoyed this batch a lot. It had great pork flavor and was matched by an applewood smoke that left you smacking yer lips. Both Mama and agreed it was on the salty side, but it seemed to go over fine because everyone's plates were clean.
Saturday's supper was easy, fast and a topnotch way to end a nice afternoon.
Meathenge recommends you try having bacon as your main course for your next Saturday Supper.

Xo Xo

Barrett from Too Many Chefs has inspired me a handful of times over the last year or so to try some vegetarian dishes. This isn't easy to do, maybe I've changed my wily ways? Probably not, but Barrett puts forth his recipes in a way that doesn't attack me for being a meateater. Or, mentioning in the prose some place how meateaters like it and they never miss the meat! That crap blows my stack. Anyone who tells me I won't miss the bacon or I won't miss the pork roast is off their rocker. Barrett doesn't take that route and it's pleasing to cook from his stash.
Today we have Biggles' version of Barrett's Poppyseed Cabbage and Egg Noodles.

Do you see the froggy relaxing?

Most everyone was in attendance, poor Babs wasn't able to come down to enjoy. Let's give a large raspberry to Allstate for being such pigs. The day's weather started a little gloomy, but cleared up soon enough for everyone to enjoy. Meathenge Labs goes traditional for Thanksgiving (Gravy Day). I figure we have all year to play with food, don't mess with my roasted turkey and gravy, don't mess. Today's post is just a little sharing of what went on in and around the stove and table. Wanna see?

Day of hell finishes with Love, meat love. In fact, it was far better than I had expected. Fatted Calf delivered to us a Rabbit Boudin sausage that I played over the top of a green salad, this was shaved with fancy hard cheese of crazy tasty.
Go in to detail? No. This is what it is, just have a gander.
A kind end to a day, share the love.

Biggles

I rolled home the other day with a pound of freshly gound beef chuck under my arm, ready to make the boys some burgers, they love burgers. After putting my things down I checked the food stuffs for hamburger buns, no buns. See, personally I can take or leave buns for home made burgers. We didn't have them when I was growing up, just didn't seem to matter either way. But our boys care, they love their burgers & dogs on buns. This of course, in no way means they'll EAT the buns, but they're there just in case. What to do? Hmm, we had hamburger meat and I found some hot dog buns. Hamburger meat and hot dog buns, oh dear.

Holy cow, what a month. And here we are at the end and the Is My Blog Burning - Vegan thingy is due, tonight.
It wasn't too long ago that Sam called me out on this one. She specifically nailed Meathenge, which makes sense actually. I've ditched ALL but the Grilling IMBB years ago, just don't have the time. I know everyone is praising the lovely Sam, "oh isn't she JUST THE BEST???" Grrrr.
When she first posted the theme, I wasn't phased. Some of the best meals I've been served have been at least vegetarian, maybe vegan. I don't remember cause it was 15 years ago. In any case, what made me crazy was that I've never intentionally made a vegetarian or vegan meal. And what put me in to a mood swing last week was that I didn't have a slammin' vegan recipe or 3 to make people swoon. Dr. Biggles was in a rut without a jeep or shovel. What to do?

Today's images brought to you by the camera I used when I started Meathenge over 2 years ago. A sturdy little Nikon Coolpix 950 (2 megapixels) with a Nikon SB-50DX Speedlite held together cool lookin' flash bracket. It was tough going back to framing images by looking at the lcd screen on the back, but after a bit it was okay.

The day? Saturday after the farmer's market. I'd picked up my rabbit pate with chives and an olive tapanade stuffed lamb leg roast from Fatted Calf, but had to stop off at El Nat grocery for some milk. That's when the inspiration hit, it was time to once again (5 or 6 tries, I forget now) to attempt John Bell's Southern Fried Chicken. My previous attempt was some of the worse food I've ever produced. But this time I had all my ducks in a row and was sure success was in my near future. Man, I love duck fat.

The genisis for digging up this old cookbook and preparing a dish came from Meg at I Heart Bacon. She's hosting a Virtual 40's-70's Party, neat huh? In true Biggles tradition, I found a cookbook I liked from 1909, not anywhere close to the 1940s or the 1970s. This is how I follow directions, only to a point. I opened it up right to the meat section and found something that interested me, Steak à la Bordelaise. I read through the ingredients and in typical boy fashion, figured I knew how it all went together. The way I figured, the steak was to simmer in the sauce, nope. I had it wrong, a good wrong though.

This entry came about late last week when the Fatted Calf newsletter rolled in. One of their specials for the week was a new sausage, Cotechino (kotehkeeno). I was interested to see, I wanted to know a bit more. So I did what any wild eyed hillbilly would do, google it. Here's what I found:
"This hearty and satisfying dish is traditionally eaten on New Year's to bring abundance and fortune. Cotechino is an Italian fresh pork sausage. It is creamy and delicate in flavor. It is sometimes sold precooked or boiled but the best ones are fresh. If you can't find cotechino a high quality fresh pork sausage flavored with nutmeg, cloves and pepper will suffice."

Yeah, I dunno. Boiled clove flavored meat wasn't what I was interested in at that moment. I might try it, but surely wouldn't enjoy it, no sir. Later on that same day, Amy stopped by and offered up a recipe she thought would get me close to how it was supposed to be. That was the inspiration I was looking for. Holy cow, I am so glad I did. This meal turned out to be one of the best meat surprises in probably 6 months or more. Meat Surprises can be a really good thing.

Chuck Wagon in background compliments of Mr. & Mrs. Meathead. Thank you!

Here it is, attempt #5 at John Bell's Southern Fried Chicken. Before I go on, let's recap for a moment. Not too long ago a friend visited from Alabama to give us some razamataz and cook a load of fried chicken. Not bad for someone on vacation, eh? Since that warm, fun filled day I've spent my afternoons attempting to figure out how come his chicken is legendary and mine sucks. I have to say though, I've learned a lot over the year and it's getting better. The last attempt I made (while at work) I found out my fryer wasn't hot enough, only 320 degrees. Other than the oil not being hot enough, I was THIS close. Really.

This last week found me at a food blog I hadn't visited before, Kitchen Monkey. I like the name of the blog and he's got a picture of a chimp on his banner, I'll read.
He's got a post on there about making his own noodles for a Ramen Soup thing with tender bits of meat & vegies & egg. I wasn't interested in the soup, but making my own pasta needed to be done. You see, Mama purchased a pasta machine years ago and never really got to using it. It's cold here, been raining a lot, what the hell else do I have to do?

Last night started out innocently enough. It's Tuesday night, family is hungry, time to start cooking. The last few times I've been using a tortilla press to make Flat Burgers for the kids. I know many of you have probably done this more than a few times over the years, but I thought it was worth a mention here. See, usually when one makes burgers, they puff up a bit in the center, then don't get browned on the edges. Plus, since they aren't uniform one part is over cooked and the other is just right. Then, if you do have children you're probably not paying real attention and over cook them anyways. Yeah so, if you make them about a 1/4" thick, they cook entirely in about 3 minutes. Big time score. Alright, so I figured I'd do the flat burgers. And since Z loves mashed potatoes, I'd do that as well. Besides I'm a big fan of the spud myself, no problem. I hadn't planned on making gravy, but after watching the taters loll around in the hot water, they spoke to me. "Make gravy for me, if you love me. If you love me you'll make gravy." Who am I to not listen to a spud?

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."

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.

Yahoo !!! Meat Sauce. Good meat sauce, tasty meat sauce. Lovely happy wonderful meat sauce. The kind of meat sauce you add tomatoes to and nothing else. The kind of meat sauce you don't have to add tomatoes to. Nor do you have to add salt and/or pepper. The kind of meat sauce that gives you smiles from your tummy to your mouth and back again. This my good people, is Sugo Di Carne.
Now that I have your hopes up, here comes the truth. I didn't make it. I picked it up from The Fatted Calf last Saturday. Speaking of which, they won't be there for the next two Saturdays. Good thing I have ONE LAST container of Sugo. However, when they return you'll be able to do this for yourself ...

There they are, cans of 'food'. You know the ones, I'm talking about. Those cans that just don't get used. Those bastard cans you have to move out of your way every time you reach for the pasta, tomatoes or what-have-you. This week my wife had enough of it and as I pushed the cans of beans out of the way so I could get some fresh dried beans (I planned to soak them over night) she said, "use these you foo!" In my mind I cringed, canned beans? Simmered for hours? Wretch.

The 'clear' decision was to use the canned beans for my concoction.

Last night we all arrived home a little later than normal. We had about an hour or so to put something together, no big deal. Well, it turns out that my wife met someone at the boy scouts summer camp that had a minivan FILLED with artisan day old loaves of bread. SCORE.
As you can probably guess, we don't abide by the Atkins 'eat no fuel' diet and had no problem devouring a entire loaf of bread for dinner. What made it easier to choke down was a layer of read butter, fresh 'maters, fresh parsely, some pesto, fresh crushed purply garlic, pebrella, fresh mozzarella, fresh parmesan, salt & pepper to finish. Make melty & toasty in oven. Serve.

Brought to you by Mama! Biggles sliced up and heated the ham, that's meat and it is my department.

What does one do with that great big leftover leg o' ham? You make a lot of dishes with ham of course. Last night, it was corn chowder with ham which was very good indeed and inmouth. Tonight, it was spinach-rice casserole with ham. A very tasty dish, even if it is spinach.
I pulled the recipe for Spinach-Rice Casserole outta Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook (New Revised Edition); hacked it up, and called it my own.

mama did this one eh!

Okay, I took my first crack at cooking paella last Wednesday. I used a one
of the simplest recipes, "Tricolor Paella with Cheese, Anchovies, and
Almonds," found in the Vegetable Paellas section of Penelope Casas's
Paella!: Spectacular Rice Dishes From Spain. (I didn't realize that
anchovies were vegetables.)

Anyway, I picked that recipe because we had all of the ingredients to
make it go, except the anchovies and the bell peppers, so it wouldn't
cost us an arm and a leg to prepare it. Since I'm no longer working, I
have to be more conscious about keeping our arms and legs, uh... I mean
maintaining a modest food budget.

Of course, the anchovies turned out to be more expensive than I had
anticipated, because Dr. Biggles (bless him) brought home a whopping
ten-dollar, econo-sized can of anchovy fillets when I only needed six of
the little dudes. I don?t know what the hell I?m gonna do with all the
surplus fishies. Anchovy pancakes, anyone?

Please note: El Cerrito Natural does sells itty, bitty cans of anchovy
for $1.09, but they were fresh out that day.

Mmmmkay, so here is a little yummy from my wife. Everything turned out just fine, as near as I could tell. I really enjoyed it, especially for a Wednesday's supper.
However, IT finally happened. That's right, the dreaded battery failure. Yeah yeah yeah, I know. If I'd used my old bitchen' mechanical 35mm rigs I would have been able to continue. But using film cameras with web logs isn't practical.
Anyway, first off the batteries died in my flash unit (commonly known as a 'potato masher'). Okay, no biggie. I can live without a flash. I snapped off a shot of something and the battery in the camera went dead. No problem I have a backup battery that I charged the other day! ... and promptly left it at work. Sigh. So I grabbed my wife's digital camera, but I didn't know its specs and got too damned close with it. All the really nice shots of the finished meal are WAY out of focus. Way out. Feh. At least the meal came out like it was supposed tah.

Go Mama:

Tonight's dinner was Kashmiri Kofta Curry which I adapted from Indian
Food & Folklore edited by Jo Lethaby. It's much spicier than our usual
fare, but the kids were out of the house and I wanted to have some
flavor on my plate. Never mind that the dish, although wonderful, was
still a bit too hot for me. Yes, I'm a wienie. Fortunately, it was
just right for Dr. Biggles, as would be for anyone else who can stand
the heat.

Think back, back to that all night party that found you sicker than a dog (sorry canine lovers). You know how your mouth salivates right before you wretch? Yeah? Well, when I look at the pictures I took of this meal versus what it tasted like ... that's how I feel. Like wretching. Sure you're thinking to yourself, "dang man, it's just Chicken Cacciatore, lighten up pal." Yeah, well you didn't have any.

preface - Many if not all of MeatHenge's postings include yummy shots of the meal in question. Well, I got pictures this time, but the final shot (for me anyway) didn't look all that enticing. However, all my fears disapeared when I took my first bite. The brother/sister taste of the Merquez sausage and the Kalamata olives was outstanding. As you dug through the bowl you got something warm and happy each time. I'm a big fan of the couscous, so I figured I'd eat it no matter what it looked like. I'm tellin' ya, if you enjoy couscous write down this recipe and make damned sure you follow my wife's changes, they're necessary.

May 6th UPDATE: Well, it's been a few days and we had our second round of leftovers last night. As long as you don't store the couscous with the stewy portion of the meal, it keeps VERY well and tastes wonderful days later. XO

Here is Mama:

When Biggles introduced merguez to me several weeks ago, I became an instant fan of these flavor-packed little bundles of love. They are spicy, yet not hot, and they remind me of one of my all time favorite dishes -- couscous. The rumor was Taylor had merguez available this week, I knew what I had to do...

Directly from The Fatted Calf, upcoming things this Saturday ...

Mushroom Mayhem at the Market

That Taylor, he's always thinking. When our friend Anthony, the part time mushroom picker showed up at the market a couple of weeks ago, Taylor grabbed him and asked for some goodies. What resulted will be ready for you to pick up at the Berkeley Market this Saturday. The Skinny Pork Sausage with Morels will be great on the grill or perfect with pasta this weekend, and the incredible Duck Pate with Porcini Mushrooms actually improves upon what we all thought was a pretty wonderful thing.

Nothing says spring like a basket of home made Southern-like fried chicken. Well, almost Southern-like fried chicken. On March 15th, MeatHenge hosted a birthday party and what turned out to be a real Meat Fest. Other than the birthday girl we had a guest, John Bell from Alabama. He offered to make us some of his fried chicken, sounded great to all of us. Well, we thought we were watching pretty closely. Turns out it isn't as easy as it looked. John's Fry Cook Fu is stronger than we knew.

This just rolled in, hot off the presses. We don't have much time, you must act right now.

Call the Fatted Calf immediately and order your Agniello Ripieno roast for Easter, Phone/Fax (510)653-4327.

Easter Special
Agnello Ripieno
Italian style Lamb Roast filled with Nicoise olives, orange zest and fresh pork sausage.
Price is $7.00/lb., approximate weight will be 5.5 to 6 pounds.
Each roast serves approximately six people and must be special ordered
by Wednesday April 7. For pick up at Berkeley Farmer's market,
Saturday, April 10.

Go NOW.

Wow, what a weekend. I started my Saturday off by heading out to the Berkeley Farmer's Market to visit my pals. I have to say, spring has sprung and people are out. The Fatted Calf had a row of customers 40 minutes before opening and Jan at Blue Bottle Coffee was swamped when I arrived soon after opening (10am). She qued me several times to jump in and make myself useful. That didn't happen, I was still all twitterpated from the work week and 'jumping in' on a Saturday wasn't a possibility, this time.
Since the weather was fair I decided to get myself some Hungarian Kielbasa from Taylor & Kim for some smokey barbecue love action later that same day.

And that is what I did. Around 3pm I fired up the smoker and got my hickory fire all warmed & spread nicely. In went a olive oil and herb flat chicky and I saved the kielbasa for the last hour and a half.
The chicken was served with Everett & Jone's barbecue sauce, warmed ever so gently. IT WAS JUICY NICE !!! You are well aware of how juicy a chicken can be when cooked in your oven at home? It was that juicy coming out of the smoker. What a TREAT. The Kielbasa was rich and bright and just enough heat to make you smile. Since there were only two people for dinner, my wife and I (the chillins won't eat smoked meatses), we saved half the kielbasa for Sunday's meal.
We had to make a few more trips to the store, but later Sunday found my wife hard at work in the kitchen with pie dough. Here is where the remaining sausage