Thread: What's for dinner on 07/21/08

George Shirley wrote:
> Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
> beans. After the 2 minute boil followed by a 1 hour soak they were
> rinsed twice and put back in the pot. Covered with six cups of hot
> water, added 3/4 lb of venison/pork smoked sausage sliced into rounds
> and then the rounds cut in half. Three bay leaves, black pepper freshly
> ground, three cloves garlic, minced, and a wee bit of cayenne pepper.
> The pot is at the simmer and, from appearances has about another hour to
> cook.
>
> We will have steamed brown rice and some freshly made wheat bread when
> dinner is served. Maybe a small green salad with stuff from the garden too.

I haven't even thought about it yet. I think maybe I'll make seitan with
Thai chili sauce. If I don't get to the store for fresh veggies (we just
ran out when I ate the rest of the broccoli for lunch), I've got some
frozen green beans in the freezer.

Speaking of freezers, I may be getting a part-time job outside the
house, and I may buy a small freezer to help with planning ahead and
cooking in advance. I'll need to go check out the appliance group, but
if y'all have opinions on chest vs. upright, I'd love to hear 'em.

Serene
--
"I think I have an umami receptor that has developed sentience." -- Stef

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:40:41 -0700, Serene Vannoy
<[email protected]> wrote:

>George Shirley wrote:
>> Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
>> beans. After the 2 minute boil followed by a 1 hour soak they were
>> rinsed twice and put back in the pot. Covered with six cups of hot
>> water, added 3/4 lb of venison/pork smoked sausage sliced into rounds
>> and then the rounds cut in half. Three bay leaves, black pepper freshly
>> ground, three cloves garlic, minced, and a wee bit of cayenne pepper.
>> The pot is at the simmer and, from appearances has about another hour to
>> cook.
>>
>> We will have steamed brown rice and some freshly made wheat bread when
>> dinner is served. Maybe a small green salad with stuff from the garden too.
>
>I haven't even thought about it yet. I think maybe I'll make seitan with
>Thai chili sauce. If I don't get to the store for fresh veggies (we just
>ran out when I ate the rest of the broccoli for lunch), I've got some
>frozen green beans in the freezer.
>
>Speaking of freezers, I may be getting a part-time job outside the
>house, and I may buy a small freezer to help with planning ahead and
>cooking in advance. I'll need to go check out the appliance group, but
>if y'all have opinions on chest vs. upright, I'd love to hear 'em.

We've got an upright non-self defrosting and it's the only way to go
IMO. Digging into a chest unit is a real pita and you forget what's
on the bottom of the pile.

Lou

"Serene Vannoy" wrote
> George Shirley wrote:

> Speaking of freezers, I may be getting a part-time job outside the house,
> and I may buy a small freezer to help with planning ahead and cooking in
> advance. I'll need to go check out the appliance group, but if y'all have
> opinions on chest vs. upright, I'd love to hear 'em.

I find more efficient in the long run is a chest type and the reason is how
I shop and what I am putting in there. With a chest type, you can have a
huge turkey that barely fits your oven but with an upright, you are always
limited to shelf size, even if you take a shelf out.

Conversely it is easier to find things in an upright. If you'll mostly be
doing smaller hunks of meat or frozen dinners etc, upright is going to be
easier.

On energy efficiency, chest types are slightly better.

We had a small (3.5ft tall?) upright extra freezer. It was very useful when
we did not have room for a chest freezer. Once we got the chest freezer, it
ceased to be used for more than icecube trays and eventually, not even that.
Gave it away ages ago.

What we have is a nice roomy chest freezer. Caught .29lb chicken thighs a
little ago and got 2 months worth. I can get family packs of stuff (we
re-wrap in double layers of ziplocks in 3 serving sized baggies) so can
routinely save 20cents or more per lb of anything just because we have room
to store it. The savings per month are about 4 times the cost of operation.

Lets talk a hidden bonus too. Ours is in the garage, an area outside the
AC/Heat zone. It's nominal added heat in summer isnt relevant. It's added
heat in *winter* has saved my pipes. (I have since had to add a garage
heater as the new unit produces less heat byproduct so had a frozen pipe
issue last year, but the new one still helps with that).

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:03:47 -0400, "cshenk" <[email protected]> wrote:

>"Serene Vannoy" wrote
>> George Shirley wrote:
>
>> Speaking of freezers, I may be getting a part-time job outside the house,
>> and I may buy a small freezer to help with planning ahead and cooking in
>> advance. I'll need to go check out the appliance group, but if y'all have
>> opinions on chest vs. upright, I'd love to hear 'em.
>
>I find more efficient in the long run is a chest type and the reason is how
>I shop and what I am putting in there. With a chest type, you can have a
>huge turkey that barely fits your oven but with an upright, you are always
>limited to shelf size, even if you take a shelf out.

My manual defrost upright has the coils in the shelves. Can't be
moved. The largest shelf has 14 inches of clearance. There's plenty
of room.

Lou

"George Shirley" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:nu5hk.4857$[email protected]..
> Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
> beans. After the 2 minute boil followed by a 1 hour soak they were rinsed
> twice and put back in the pot. Covered with six cups of hot water, added
> 3/4 lb of venison/pork smoked sausage sliced into rounds and then the
> rounds cut in half. Three bay leaves, black pepper freshly ground, three
> cloves garlic, minced, and a wee bit of cayenne pepper. The pot is at the
> simmer and, from appearances has about another hour to cook.
>
> We will have steamed brown rice and some freshly made wheat bread when
> dinner is served. Maybe a small green salad with stuff from the garden
> too.

Salad (1st California)

Grilled Rib Eye
Baked Tater
Steamed Broccoli


--
Old Scoundrel

(AKA Dimitri)

Serene Vannoy wrote:
> George Shirley wrote:
> > Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
> > beans. After the 2 minute boil followed by a 1 hour soak they were
> > rinsed twice and put back in the pot. Covered with six cups of hot
> > water, added 3/4 lb of venison/pork smoked sausage sliced into rounds
> >
>
> Speaking of freezers, I may be getting a part-time job outside the
> house, and I may buy a small freezer to help with planning ahead and
> cooking in advance. I'll need to go check out the appliance group, but
> if y'all have opinions on chest vs. upright, I'd love to hear 'em.
>
> Serene
> --
> "I think I have an umami receptor that has developed sentience." -- Stef

I've had an upright for about 25 years. The size is what I call one
half of a regular refrigerator. Lots of room and nothing gets lost as
happens in a friend's chest freezer. This one is manual defrost, but
that's no problem. I just move the stuff into the regular fridge,
unplug the freezer, and open the door, and put several old towels and
layers of old newspaper in front of the open door, below the
opening...in about 3 -4 hours the unit is ready to be wiped clean with
a mild cleanser, such as white vinegar & water or baking soda and warm
water, leave the door open while the inside dries and then move
everything back in. the frost builds up when the door is open a
lot...so make one or two trips a week to the unit and you'll be
fine.

Harriet & critter (Had to take ms PK the lady manx (age 14) who rules
the house, to the vet this morning, she is not eating and having
urinary problems) J J the world famous jack russell terrior (age 13
1/2) and I will know the results tomorrow.

On 21-Jul-2008, George Shirley <[email protected]> wrote:

> Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
> beans. <snip>
>
> We will have steamed brown rice and some freshly made wheat bread when
> dinner is served. Maybe a small green salad with stuff from the garden
> too.

sliced tomato & blue cheese crumbles (both from the CSA/co-op) dressed with
eeoo and balsamic
and
stuffed green peppers, steamed broccoli dressed with butter and lemon pepper

Too much produce on hand this week from the CSA. I have a bunch of roasted
yellow squash, zucchini and slices of long thin eggplant leftover, also a
few roasted "baby" yellow and red beets and a small bit of roasted fennel
left; not sure where or when I'll fit those into a meal. Maybe a roast
veggies sandwich on ciabatta for lunch tomorrow.
--
Change Cujo to Juno in email address.

"George Shirley" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:nu5hk.4857$[email protected]..
> Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
> beans. After the 2 minute boil followed by a 1 hour soak they were rinsed
> twice and put back in the pot. Covered with six cups of hot water, added
> 3/4 lb of venison/pork smoked sausage sliced into rounds and then the
> rounds cut in half. Three bay leaves, black pepper freshly ground, three
> cloves garlic, minced, and a wee bit of cayenne pepper. The pot is at the
> simmer and, from appearances has about another hour to cook.
>
> We will have steamed brown rice and some freshly made wheat bread when
> dinner is served. Maybe a small green salad with stuff from the garden
> too.

mmm, mmmm, mmmm! My kind of dish!

George Shirley wrote:
> Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
> beans. After the 2 minute boil followed by a 1 hour soak they were
> rinsed twice and put back in the pot. Covered with six cups of hot
> water, added 3/4 lb of venison/pork smoked sausage sliced into rounds
> and then the rounds cut in half. Three bay leaves, black pepper
> freshly ground, three cloves garlic, minced, and a wee bit of cayenne
> pepper. The pot is at the simmer and, from appearances has about another
> hour
> to cook.
>
> We will have steamed brown rice and some freshly made wheat bread when
> dinner is served. Maybe a small green salad with stuff from the
> garden too.

I don't know, leftover soup?

kili

George Shirley wrote:
> Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
> beans. After the 2 minute boil followed by a 1 hour soak they were
> rinsed twice and put back in the pot. Covered with six cups of hot
> water, added 3/4 lb of venison/pork smoked sausage sliced into rounds
> and then the rounds cut in half. Three bay leaves, black pepper freshly
> ground, three cloves garlic, minced, and a wee bit of cayenne pepper.
> The pot is at the simmer and, from appearances has about another hour to
> cook.
>
> We will have steamed brown rice and some freshly made wheat bread when
> dinner is served. Maybe a small green salad with stuff from the garden too.

You already heard what I'm doing--in the spicy mayo thread.... In
fact, I am about to put it together.

--
Jean B.

cshenk wrote:

Thanks for all the info. Snipped and saved.

> What we have is a nice roomy chest freezer.

What's roomy, cubic-feetwise? I see some affordable 7-cubic-feet
freezers online, but I have trouble visualizing how much room that is.

Serene
--
"I think I have an umami receptor that has developed sentience." -- Stef

Serene Vannoy wrote:
> cshenk wrote:
>
> Thanks for all the info. Snipped and saved.
>
>> What we have is a nice roomy chest freezer.
>
> What's roomy, cubic-feetwise? I see some affordable 7-cubic-feet
> freezers online, but I have trouble visualizing how much room that is.
>
> Serene
We have a 15 cubic foot upright, frost-free that is about 30 inches wide
by 30 inches deep by about 60 inches tall. It stays full all the time.
So the affordable 7 cubic foot job would be about half the size of ours.
We had a 12 cubic foot upright that had to be defrosted and it wasn't
quite adequate for our needs what with the gardens, fruit trees, and the
wild stuff gathering that we do.

George Shirley wrote:

> Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
> beans. After the 2 minute boil followed by a 1 hour soak they were
> rinsed twice and put back in the pot. Covered with six cups of hot
> water, added 3/4 lb of venison/pork smoked sausage sliced into rounds
> and then the rounds cut in half. Three bay leaves, black pepper freshly
> ground, three cloves garlic, minced, and a wee bit of cayenne pepper.
> The pot is at the simmer and, from appearances has about another hour to
> cook.
>
> We will have steamed brown rice and some freshly made wheat bread when
> dinner is served. Maybe a small green salad with stuff from the garden too.

We had grilled pork chops. I just sprinkled some coarse salt and ground a
little pepper on both sides of the chops and threw them on a preheated BBQ
grill along with some veggiebabs, sliced a frozen roll in two and brushed with
olive oil and crushed garlic and grated some Parmesan on top, wrapped in foil
and put it over direct heat.

In article <nu5hk.4857$[email protected]>,
George Shirley <[email protected]> wrote:

> Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
> beans. After the 2 minute boil followed by a 1 hour soak they were
> rinsed twice and put back in the pot. Covered with six cups of hot
> water, added 3/4 lb of venison/pork smoked sausage sliced into rounds
> and then the rounds cut in half. Three bay leaves, black pepper freshly
> ground, three cloves garlic, minced, and a wee bit of cayenne pepper.
> The pot is at the simmer and, from appearances has about another hour to
> cook.
>
> We will have steamed brown rice and some freshly made wheat bread when
> dinner is served. Maybe a small green salad with stuff from the garden too.

Game Hen with lime butter, wild rice and salad.

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:49:07 -0500, Lou Decruss <[email protected]>
wrote:


>We've got an upright non-self defrosting and it's the only way to go
>IMO. Digging into a chest unit is a real pita and you forget what's
>on the bottom of the pile.
>
>Lou

Ditto what Lou said.

Christine

On Jul 21, 12:32*pm, George Shirley <gsh...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
> beans. After the 2 minute boil followed by a 1 hour soak they were
> rinsed twice and put back in the pot. Covered with six cups of hot
> water, added 3/4 lb of venison/pork smoked sausage sliced into rounds
> and then the rounds cut in half. Three bay leaves, black pepper freshly
> ground, three cloves garlic, minced, and a wee bit of cayenne pepper.
> The pot is at the simmer and, from appearances has about another hour to
> cook.
>
> We will have steamed brown rice and some freshly made wheat bread when
> dinner is served. Maybe a small green salad with stuff from the garden too.

The beans sound really good, the brown rice very skippable, especially
as you have made fresh bread. Here, it's cook-for-one night if I feel
like it. So far, my contribution to fine dining was to put two fresh
basil leaves into my screwdriver (made with freshly squeezed o.j.,
natch) and I'm munching some cheese 'n crackers. -aem

kilikini wrote:
> George Shirley wrote:
>> Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
>> beans. After the 2 minute boil followed by a 1 hour soak they were
>> rinsed twice and put back in the pot. Covered with six cups of hot
>> water, added 3/4 lb of venison/pork smoked sausage sliced into rounds
>> and then the rounds cut in half. Three bay leaves, black pepper
>> freshly ground, three cloves garlic, minced, and a wee bit of cayenne
>> pepper. The pot is at the simmer and, from appearances has about another
>> hour
>> to cook.
>>
>> We will have steamed brown rice and some freshly made wheat bread when
>> dinner is served. Maybe a small green salad with stuff from the
>> garden too.
>
> I don't know, leftover soup?

About my speed today. I had half a turkey sandwich. Just not hungry lately.

Serene
--
"I think I have an umami receptor that has developed sentience." -- Stef

George Shirley <[email protected]> wrote:

> Started about 1 pm CDST with quick soaking the red beans, aka kidney
> beans. After the 2 minute boil followed by a 1 hour soak they were
> rinsed twice and put back in the pot. Covered with six cups of hot
> water, added 3/4 lb of venison/pork smoked sausage sliced into rounds
> and then the rounds cut in half. Three bay leaves, black pepper freshly
> ground, three cloves garlic, minced, and a wee bit of cayenne pepper.
> The pot is at the simmer and, from appearances has about another hour to
> cook.
>
> We will have steamed brown rice and some freshly made wheat bread when
> dinner is served. Maybe a small green salad with stuff from the garden too.

The weather having been unseasonably cool here, just as I like it, I
made a pig pot of improvised oxtail stew/soup. I based it on the
classical Roman coda alla vaccinara (I posted a recipe before), but this
time I wanted something more liquid, closer to soup, but still thick
enough to be called a stew. So, to the usual components (but with the
celery replaced with leeks), I added a couple of pigs' trotters - which
probably made it closer to the original recipe than the present day
pancetta (which I omitted) - and some mixed beef/chicken/vegetable
stock, thickened a bit with some dark roux. Still following some of
that classical coda alla vaccinara recipe from the famous Checchino dal
1887 in the Testaccio area of Rome, I even added some bitter chocolate
(Dolphin 77% cacao dark flaked chocolate) at the end of cooking. Not
following that recipe, I also added some Hungarian hot paprika paste
(Univer Piros Arany csipös), also at the end of cooking. The result
just happens to be very tasty indeed.

Victor

Lou Decruss <[email protected]> wrote:

><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>I may buy a small freezer to help with planning ahead and
>>cooking in advance. I'll need to go check out the appliance group, but
>>if y'all have opinions on chest vs. upright, I'd love to hear 'em.

>We've got an upright non-self defrosting and it's the only way to go
>IMO.

I didn't even know there was such a thing as a non-self-defrosting
upright. Sounds cool. Those self-defrost events really can
trash frozen food.

Steve