February 2013
9 posts
Sorry for the flood of pictures. Just realized I hadn’t posted any in a while.
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Did some cleaning/organizing in the Spice Matrix/pantry on Monday. Considered organizing my spices…. GEOGRAPHICALLY.
August 2012
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No photos, cuz I was hungry and dumb...
Last night was a huge cooking night. Everything came together fairly well and CLOSE to the advertised time. Let’s talk about it…
It was a planned dinner party with 2 other couples plus El Roommate (7 stomachs total).
APPETIZER COURSE
Caprese Slider. I take some thin slices of baguette bread and toast it. On top of that, in order from bottom to top, sits fresh basil, tomato from the...
July 2012
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Actual Dadgum Recipes
I started this whole thing as a way to chronicle my cooking, since I tend to do a lot of improvisation and experiment and often have difficulty recreating a successful dish. It’s devolved into basically just random pics of meals, which is ok, but unfulfilling in the long term. Let’s see what I can do about that… If not full recipes, at least some guidelines on what worked.
MY...
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June 2012
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May 2012
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April 2012
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March 2012
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Corned Beef
I was able to purchase an ENTIRE brisket from a local organic farm via New Leaf Market. It was 6.5 lbs of awesome grass-fed meaty goodness. Using the recipe from Charcuterie (amazing book), I made a pickling spice mix and a curing brine for the meat. I cut it in half so it would fit into my gallon ziplock bags. It sat in my fridge (taking up a good chunk of space) for 5 days. After that, it was...
December 2011
2 posts
Return.
I’ve been slacking here, sorry. But, I went to a wedding in the Sudan, bought a house (not in Africa), moved all my stuff, went to my cousin’s wedding, had Xmas, worked renovating the new house, etc. so you can see why I haven’t been posting dumb photos of food.
But here’s some light reading for you until I get something better going on…
Two Steps Forward…
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November 2011
4 posts
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Cured Sausage Experiment Notes #1
So, after spending most of 2011 gathering supplies and learning some rudimentary skills, I’ve taken the plunge to making a cured pork sausage. I’ve done some quick easy cures, like bacon, tasso and salmon, and one trickier piece, the famous bresaola.
So, 5 lbs of fatty, organic, happy-pig meat was ground and mixed with a simple blend of salt, sugar, curing salt, fresh black pepper...
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October 2011
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Bresaola Finito.
Sunday, I checked on the bresaola with the intention of cleaning up any ‘bad mold’ spots. My faith in this project had been weakened, considering all the humidity control woes I’d encountered. (And an unexplained incident referred to as ‘Bresaola Stigmata.’) I noticed that the ‘good mold’ layer was looking great, taking up all the real estate and crowding...
September 2011
12 posts
Humidity Woes
So, when I bought my wine fridge I plugged it in to make sure it worked. It did. It got cold, hell, even the light worked. What I’ve hence discovered is that the temperature it SAYS on the thermostat is actually no where near what it actually is inside. That’s led to some wild fluctuations in temp and me purchasing an external regulator. So, now the thing is keeping a perfect 60...
