We had dinner with friends earlier this week and the hostess made shepherd’s pie. I haven’t eaten it in years and was reminded how much I enjoyed it. Since it’s a faux pas to go back for a third helping, I decided to just make my own version of the dish over the weekend.
In my old age, I’ve become a huge fan of vinegar. I don’t know how it happened, but I love anything with that unique sour taste. As a result, I’ve grown to really like the vinegar-based barbecue sauces that are so prevalent in the Carolinas.
I’ve been experimenting with ribs for the past few months. I’ve been trying to recreate the ribs they serve at Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous in Memphis, and I think I’ve pretty much nailed it.
The wife and I visit other people’s homes for Thanksgiving, so we don’t have any leftovers. Each year we make a small, post-Thanksgiving meal just for ourselves. Since there’s no one around to criticize, we can experiment with new dishes. A recipe for Thanksgiving stuffing (or dressing, if you’re in the south) comprised of White Castle sliders has been making the internet rounds lately. The wife and I thought we’d give it a try. It’s actually a pretty good idea. Instead of cooking onions and sausage to go with the stale bread, you just toss in some tiny burgers that already have beef and onions on them.
I’ve been trying to expand my baking repertoire beyond variations on my almost no-knead bread. Since I love the taste of popovers, I thought I’d make an eggy bread that’s somewhere between popovers and French bread. So I made some Challah, a Jewish bread.
I’ve been making leek and potato soup for years. I couldn’t tell you where the recipe came from; it’s cobbled together from several websites and magazine articles. I don’t ever cook it the same way twice. If I’m busy doing something else, I’ll slow cook it for hours until the potatoes break down. If I only have 45 minutes or so, I’ll puree the soup and serve immediately. Still, I thought I’d finally put the basic recipe on the site so I can reference it later.
As I mentioned before, I’ve completely changed my meal planning practices. I used to buy meat in bulk at the grocery store and then plan my meals accordingly. Ever since we moved to Greenville, I’ve gone in the opposite direction. First, I hit one or both of my farmers’ markets and buy whatever looks good, then I go to my butcher, and finally I hit the grocery store to fill in the gaps. It might sound overly complicated, but everything is pretty close to home. It’s much cheaper than shopping at the grocery store and it means that I rely on produce to drive my meal planning. As a result, the wife and I only eat meat about half the days of the week.
I remember trying to make ‘smashed potatoes’ once before and it not being a very good experience. However, Cook’s Illustrated recently did a piece on smashed potatoes that took some of the guesswork out of the process. I’ve made them with baby red potatoes and Yukon golds recently, and they came out great both times.
For years I’ve read pretentious foodies’ comments about how they only buy Mexican Coca-Cola (Coke) because it tastes superior to American Coke. The only difference between the two is that American Coke relies on High Fructose Corn Syrup (a bugaboo to foodies everywhere) for sweetness, and Mexican Coke relies on pure cane sugar. This weekend, I bought a bottle of each and decided to hold a narrow taste test.
I’ve been making homemade potato chips ever since the wife gave me a mandoline. I like my chips nice and thick, and I can control what goes into them when I make them at home. It’s taken me a while to perfect the process, but I’ve finally gotten to the point where I thought I’d preserve my pointers for posterity.
