What Are You Chef-ing Tonight, Dr?

shtgunal3

I don’t believe I’ve ever had Snowden’s. I’ll have to seek them out. I see they are made in Andalusia. Shouldn’t be some around here close.

Botch

shtgunal3 said:
That’s Alabama sausage. I’m surprised you found it near you.

One perk of being near an Air Force commissary is the access to groceries not always available in UT; military personnel from all over the US get stationed overseas and often bring back a shiny new spouse from the Philippines, Japan, Korea, England, Germany, Italy, etc, and the Commissary system tries to cater to everyone.  For a long time it was the only place I could find Duke's mayo (although the local markets carry it now).  Also British and German (and AL!) sausages, good kimchi, NY deli-style pickles, etc.  
 
The guy who bagged my groceries and brought them out to the car started chuckling at my personalized license plate "Botch", with an AMMO plate frame, "You don't wanna botch things up working with ammo!"  Turns out he had been an Aardvark (F-111) pilot, and I mentioned I once worked on the CAD/PAD for the F-111's ejection system, mentioning that "Not that it saved any lives..."  and he told me there was one ejection over water where the crew of 2 did survive (the F-111 did not eject the crew separately; the entire cockpit severed from the aircraft as a module but always hit the ground too hard for anyone to survive).  (they were looking at a separating module for the B-1B also, but opted for separate ejections there; I was the Responsible Engineer for that system too.  It was the most complicated ejection system made, 802 CAD/PAD (explosive) components in all!)  We had a pretty good chat; don't know why a retired USAF officer was bagging groceries in retirement, guess he just wanted to stay busy and he seemed like a People Person.  

ColbyLang

Dyal_SC

Reversed seared a tri tip. 

Dyal_SC

Cool burner @ColbyLang !

GrateEggspectations

What time do I show up, @ColbyLang, @Dyal_SC?

Great looking proteins. 

JohnInCarolina

pig shots

caliking

Dat tri-tip @Dyal_SC !!

caliking

@Botch - the bean stew looks really good. I've tried to find Conecuh sausage around, but haven't had any luck.

I'm not well-versed in beans... are white beans the same as black-eyed peas? I ask because we make something called lobhia ( that looks a bit different), but sounds similar to loubia.

Botch

White beans (I used cannellini*) are not the same thing as black-eyed peas, although if you're not fussy they are interchangeable (as are most beans).  
There seems to be more recipes for Loubia/lobhia on the 'net than chili recipes, there's probably all kinds of variations.  
 
 
*I couldn't remember how to spell this, two "n"s and one "l" didn't look right, neither did the other way around, and MacOS spellcheck was no help; looked at the Bush's can and it was two of each.  Along with my near-complete loss of cursive writing ability, since retirement I'm also losing my memory of spelling (which I was pretty good at, for an engineer).**
 
 
**And here I end a phrase with a preposition, and don't punctuate properly (at least according to the damn Grammar/English police).  <<<(yes, I did it again!)    

DoubleEgger

Lemon pepper lavender rubbed King Salmon with Minnesota lake rice and broccolini. 

ColbyLang

Dyal_SC said:

Cool burner @ColbyLang !

Thanks, it’s a Blaze pro series. Dual ring so you can really get it rolling or dial it back to simmer. Love it being outside. Fry fish, sear steaks, make gumbo. 

Not seen is the 70” flat screen on the same wall. We definitely enjoy out outdoor living space 

johnmitchell

@DoubleEgger Tasty and healthy looking plate Mike

lkapigian

Smoked then seared ribeye, no final pictures but sliced and served with chimichurri … about 1.5 hours on the offset to 100 ish, finished on a blackstone they had at the event 

johnmitchell

Wow those folks ate well 😋😋

lousubcap

I am thinking back to @DoubleEgger 's  suggestion that several of the cooks that land in this thread are worthy of standalone threads.  That move could spur more interest in forum participation.  
Anyone else?

BeanHead

@Botch I couldn’t find Duke’s in Texas for our first couple years here. When friends would visit they would always bring me a jar (and a couple blocks of guava paste). I’m guessing TSA has seen weirder things, and thankfully our local grocery has it now. Cool story on the ejection system! 

caliking

DoubleEgger said:

Lemon pepper lavender rubbed King Salmon with Minnesota lake rice and broccolini. 

Beautiful plate. And, a well balanced meal.

caliking

Those look fantastic @lkapigian! One more thing added to the list.

Dyal_SC

Not chef’ed tonight, but for brunch. 😋 

BeanHead

 Went to a friend’s and spent the morning pulling grapevines and canning leaves in brine for future use. Made a batch of dolma as a late lunch to accompany a nice steak and some bread pudding. 

BeanHead

 We also canned magnolia petals in simple syrup for loads of future cocktails…. And we had a couple cocktails…

lousubcap

Great post @Beanhead.  Standalone thread comes to mind for all of your cooks and adventures.  FWIW-

BeanHead

Thanks @lousubcap I will standalone post for my next egg cook ☺️

Botch

Dolmades!  Sadly my two favorite greek restaurants are both gone, and I pulled up my own grapevine when I redid my porch/patio...  

BeanHead

Booo! The dislike is from me @Botch sorry for the loss of your Greek restaurants and your grapevine loss. I have used canned from the store Reese brand in the past and they were good just a darker less vibrant chlorophyll color and needed a squeeze of lime to add some acid. Perhaps you can grab some at the commissary… 

Botch

@BeanHead, do you make your own pickles?  I’ve been trying to recreate the “Grillo’s Pickles” recipes, to save on the obscene cost of $9/jar.  They’re amazingly crunchy, and they use a single grapevine leaf per jar.  I’ve experimented with Ball’s “Pickle Crisp” (I think it’s just calcium chloride), bay leaves, tea leaves, but I still can’t get a “Grillo’s-crisp” pickle.  

BeanHead

I do make pickles! I have not had their pickles and just checked my grocery and they have that brand of fresh salsa and some pickle flavored tomato juice. The grape leaf is old school and works. Can’t remember if it was something I learned from my godmother or from a Foxfire book…it is the tannin in the leaves that make the pickles stay crispy, use grape leaf if you don’t want flavor added or two fresh bay leaves if you like the flavor. 

Botch

Thanks!  

BeanHead

I found a copycat recipe for them. I will try one jar with a grape leaf and one with bay leaves and see if I can tell a difference. Also gonna check a couple other local grocery stores to see if I can find the pickles. If I can taste them I will have a better shot at getting the spice flavor profile correct.