Post #41 - White Bean and Tomato Dip, and a Rant

I made this recipe from What Did You Eat? for Herb Pita Crisps and Sun-Dried Tomato Dip just now. It's wonderful. I also have lamb-feta burgers refrigerating, tzatziki sauce mellowing, and spicy green chutney doing whatever it does.

However, no pictures because I just got a call from my doctor - the x-ray of my knee showed evidence of fluid buildup. I'm supposed to rest the leg, elevate it, ice it for 20 minutes out of every hour when it hurts, and compression-wrap it if I have to move around.

WTF? I never realized how much I move around until I had to make a conscious effort not to. And what about work? It would be lovely if I could sit at my desk all day (with my leg elevated, of course), but there's no way in hell that's going to happen.

Getting old sucks.

Post #40 - Garlic?

*
From the December 2007 issue of Saveur:

"Rub the slices generously with garlic and set aside. Discard any remaining garlic."

Umm...excuse me...discard WHAT?!?!


*Picture courtesy of Laura Rebecca's Kitchen

Post #39 - Leftovers!

Turkey
Stuffing
Celeriac / Parsley Root / Potato gratin

Chop it all up, throw in a skillet, salt & pepper.

Serve on toast (rye is especially good) with hot sauce and an over-easy egg.

We had this for both lunch and dinner, and no pictures. It was that good.

Post #38 - MicroChula

Before you PETA-people get all upset, I never even closed the door.














I just figured, because she's so tiny (micro), and it's a microwave, ... well ... yeah.

Post #37 - Turkey!

We rarely eat turkey. And by rarely, I mean about once a year (but for 4 days straight). Maybe some ground turkey mixed up in something about 6 months later...

This year, the kids are elsewhere, and we're spending the day with friends, so I cooked my turkey on Wednesday.

I watched a couple videos on how to carve a turkey the butcher's way. This is so much better than carving at the table. Look at the coherent chunks!
















Everything came apart so easily and completely, without the typical plateful of shreds, and I'm not left with a carcass that sits in the fridge for days while the household vultures slowly and messily devour the edible bits.

(The questionably-edible bits go to the resident animals.)

My formerly-feathered-friend's skeleton (now broken into bits) is going to turn into Ruhlman's turkey stock, that bakes in the oven for hours instead of boiling on the stovetop. At his suggestion, I'm thinking risotto. With turkey. And the next day, vegetable soup with dumplings. And turkey. And then probably a stuffing & turkey hash, with eggs baked on top. Mmmm...

Post #36 - Coppa Cabana

The pig is a wonderful animal. Just think about it - bacon, pork chops, pancetta, pork belly, char sui, chili verde, salami, sopressata, lardo, paprikas, capicola, coppa, prosciutto, Jamon Iberico, etc. etc. etc.

Next time I run across a live pig, I'm going to give him (her?) a hug.

















But, in the meantime, since there are no live pigs in my immediate vicinity, I'm going to enjoy my "dry coppa", on a fresh-baked epi with some provolone.

Post #35 - Acorn Squash

Acorn squash is one of those things I know I should like, because they're good for me. Like eggplant. And Bloody Mary's. But, try as I might, I just can't make it taste good. (I've solved my eggplant problem, however. See here.)

So I found a recipe on Epicurious for Roasted Acorn Squash with Chile Vinaigrette. The comments were overwhelmingly favorable, and chile-lime makes practically everything taste good, so I thought I'd give it a shot.











It's certainly pretty. But I still didn't like it (neither did hubby). On the bright side, the 16 17-year-old said it was good.

Post #34 - New Stove!

We have a new stove. Old one was probably the one that came with the house when it was built in 1978.




















A little over a week ago, the element in the lower oven decided to burn out. Bright sparking white fire slowly moving across the element. Had to flip the breaker to get it to stop, because the off-knob decided to not work. Pretty scary.

So here's in-process. The walls were mustard-yellow behind there. (Better than butterfly wallpaper, I guess.)




















And here's my new stove & new microwave:




















And, bonus! - The oven has a "Sabbath Feature". You can program it to cook stuff later, so you don't have to do any work on the Sabbath. I almost want to convert.
















I'll stop here. I mean, what can you say that can possibly follow the Sabbath Feature?