Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics Food, Drink and Cooking Wonder what the poor folks are eatin' tonight?

*Jealous*

But I just took a big pan of Lasagna out of the oven so I wont be going hungry.

We had spaghetti for dinner, with salad and garlic bread. Tiramisu for dessert!

Keyser~I'm sure that this new grand daughter will be delighted to learn how to bake with her grandfather! She will be so lucky to share that with you.

A young man stopped at a local restaurant after a day of roaming around in Mexico.

While sipping his tequila, he noticed a sizzling, scrumptious-looking platter being served at the next table.

It looked good.

It smelled good.

He asked the waiter, "What is that you just served?"

The waiter replied, "Ah senor, you have excellent taste! Those are bull's testicles from the bull fight this morning. A delicacy!"

The visitor, though momentarily daunted, said, "What the heck, I'm on holiday down here! Bring me an order!"

The waiter replied, "I am so sorry senor. There is only one serving per day because there is only one bull fight each morning. If you come early tomorrow and place your order, we will be sure to save you this delicacy!"

The next morning, the man returned, placed his order, and then that evening was served the one and only special delicacy of the day.

After a few bites, and inspecting the contents of his platter, he called to the waiter and said, "These are delicious, but they are much, much smaller than the ones I saw you serve yesterday!"

The waiter shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Si, Senor. Sometimes the bull wins."


And in other culinary news, inspired by the unbearable lightness of bean earlier in the thread, for lunch I made blackeye beans in a spicy tomato sauce (bacon, tomato, onions, garlic, smoked paprika, jalepeneo, cumin and a dash of worstershire).... topped off with black pudding..... beside a ny strip steak.

tonight is something a little lighter:

french onion soup, a green leaf salad and garlic and rosemary rolls.

If you're still searching for a bread breaking technique, you may want to try the book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day,that Greger referred to in an earlier post. I've been using their technique for some time and it produces delicious bread simply and easily that anyone can make. You don't have to knead the dough and you don't need any scales- just some measuring cups. I even started making Reuben sandwiches again using their deli-rye bread recipe. The only difference is that I use pastrami instead of corned beef and sauerkraut all the time- lots of sauerkraut.

I don't care what it says on the package, Schlack, those are Blackeyed PEAS. Ya I know they aren't round like a proper English Pea, but you're not a proper Englishman and they're peas allright. just like crowders, field peas, conch peas, purple hulls and pinkeyes.
Try that same recipe without the Wooster sauce and add in a healthy dose of Allspice and a dash of cayenne pepper for an Island Flavor. My mama thinks I'm crazy because I hate to shell peas and prefer dried Blackeys to fresh ones. I can't tell you how many hours I spent as a kid sitting on the front porch with a pan of peas on my lap and a bucket to throw the empty shells into. Neighbors, aunts and uncles, neighbor kids and cousins would all join in and everyone got a share.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day.

I really want to try that someday. I'm stubborn about some things. Maybe when my old bread machine breaks, I only paid five bucks for it at a thrift store. It's been cranking out two loaves a week for about 4 years now.

Nice thing about bread machines is that you can use them as a very inexpensive small dough mixer. The other alternative is a really big, super-expensive table mixer that can handle a dough hook.

Toss the ingredients in the bread machine, set it for dough, and come back in an hour for perfect dough ready to put in a loaf pan, spread on a pizza pan, wrap around cocktail sausages, etc.

Or just let the machine bake it, too. Only hassle is that the dough hook ends up baked into the bottom of the loaf, and the loaves have a funny shape. But once you figure out how dry your bread flour is, and how active your yeast is, you really can have perfect fresh hot bread every day for just a couple of minutes to measure out the ingredients.

Ponderer, if you use a bread machine, here's a fun recipe for dinner rolls:

1 scant cup hot tap water
Add 1 cold egg to equal 1 cup
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
3Tbsp olive oil
3 cup bread flour
1 scant Tbsp yeast
Measure your cup of water a little bit short and use hot tap water. Add an egg from the fridge to the water. This gets both to the right temp. No need to beat it, the machine will handle all that. Pour it in the machine add the rest of the ingredient in the order listed.
Make dough as usual adding more flour if it's sticky.
when it's done turn the flour out on a well floured breadboard.
Using a Bench Knife cut it in half, half it again and again and again, dredge it with flour if its sticky.
Cut half of the dough into a bunch of little chunks that will roll into about a 1 inch ball.
Have a muffin tin oiled and ready.
roll each piece of dough very quickly into a rough ball and toss them into the muffin tin, 3 to 5 in each section. depending on size. This recipe makes 18 rolls so you'll need three tins that hold six or a twelver and a sixer.
No need to let them rise at all. Just pop 'em in the oven and bake about 25 minutes at 350F til they are golden brown.
Serve right out of the oven.

If you don't have a Bench Knife get one!

They're also great for scooping up spills, or chopped onions from the cutting board. No kitchen should be without one.

I bought some Swai today. Had never heard of it but bought a pound ($3.99) and it appears to be a very basic white fish. Actually looks like Hake. I have no idea what the taste will be but to me just about all white fish tastes the same. I'll just pan fry it with a coating of panko and have some corn and our first garden harvest of spinach and peas.