Kevin's Watch

Wow Wylde, you sound like a salt freak too. That's a cool salt cellar, I've had my eye on a couple in a gastronomique antique store in town but they're a couple hundred bucks apiece being a hundred years old and more. I deal with this one here wich is not as handy as the wall hanging variety.

and here some stuff I've been using lately with baking.
www.hawaiisalt.com/welcome.htm

Dinner tonight will be...

kosher beef hot dogs, gently simmered until the casings are just starting to plump
honey wheat hot dog rolls (new to us), lightly grilled
Gulden's spicy mustard
Vidalia onion finely chopped
bagged sauerkraut with caraway seeds added, heated until warm
sauteed broccoli florets
and Hyperception's awesome tossed salad

Yum, Menolly! Not a fan of sauerkraut, though.

BGB, you should try Saltworks. They have pretty much every kind of salt you would want. I hear that Fleur de Sel (flower of the ocean) is the BEST salt you can buy. Apparently it is pretty rare and quite pricey.

Harvesting Fleur de Sel

I wanna rake some salt now.

Jenn and I went to Rigalito, a new restaurant in our neighborhood. It was a pupusa restaurant before, now it's fancier Mexican food with a hip look. The food was good though. Jenn had the slow roast dry rubbed pork shoulder and sangria. It was delish. I had the chili relleno and jamaica, very good. Both came with beans and rice. Best Mexican beans I've ever had. I liked that they used real Mexican sour cream and cotija cheese, my favorite, and that the tomatoes were diced correctly, a perfect small dice is hard to come by.

A perfect small dice is a pain in the ass to do, that's why. (Not as painful as julienning carrots, I'll concede, but still...(I'm lazy.)

--A

You know, when I worked in a restaurant, we had a little gadget to make tomatoes into perfect, tiny dice.

As for me, ever since I got a nice santoku knife, I almost look for things to chop up!

Last restaurant I worked in I had to dice up about four cups at the beginning of each shift, the fine way, no seeds or that jelly-like material surrounding them so I got use to it and it really makes a difference once you've had it done like that.

Jenn made skeddies last night so we'll be eating that for a few days, yum!

If anyone has me on their Yahoo, they would have seen I had an away message on, saying I was fixing dinner, even though it's only 3:00 pm. Tonight I'm roasting an 8 lb. oven stuffer, and for me the first step always includes kashering said bird. No, it doesn't make it kosher, but I do feel it vastly improves the flavor, and it's only an hour and a half process, compared to 24 hours to brine.

Once the kashering is done, I'll rinse it and pat it try, and season it with granulated garlic, sweet paprika, fresh cracked black pepper, dill weed, and lime pepper. Then I'll tie it and stick it in the Showtime for a couple of hours.

I'll make some garlic mashed potatoes, gravy from the drippings, and southern-style green beans (no squeekers for me); and call dinner finished.

If Hyperception and I don't have planned overs for chicken tetrazzini tomorrow night, I'll have his head on a platter! Beorn's not home, that should be more than enough for one meal.

U a homemaker Menolly? Or are you just a timing wizz?

I'm impressed either way!

Prebe wrote:U a homemaker Menolly? Or are you just a timing wizz?

I'm impressed either way!

*blushing prettily*

I guess you could say both. Ever since we moved in December, when I had to leave my job as you had to be a resident of the Village to hold it, I've been a SAHM and more intense advocate for Beorn.

But, the fact that I was also the activities planner for my Village for three years in my previous position, including planning and cooking the annual Thanksgiving dinner for 200+ residents and all other cookouts and other party functions has honed my planning skills a little when it comes to preparing our meals.

So, how was the bird Menolly? Dry and boring as turkeys go, despite your valiant effort?

Still roasting Prebe. I put it in the Showtime at 4:45 so it's only been roasting an hour. And, oven stuffers are chickens.

But, my turkeys are never dry and boring, especially when I deep fry or roast them following Alton Brown's (oooo, Alton, *sigh*) method.

Menolly wrote:And, oven stuffers are chickens.

Shows what I know.....

But 8 pounds?? That's not a chicken. That's a friggin mutant hen!!!!

Yep. I like the big ones.

Menolly wrote:Yep. I like the big ones.

...those too...

OK...I've been convinced. That kosher sea salt is da bomb. My chicken last night was the best I ever made, and I did nothing different other than using the salt.

Whoa.

Man, I still can't get over this kosher sea salt. Tonight I made chicken tetrazzini with about half the planned over roaster, and was again totally blown away.

Awesome man, simply awesome.

See?

Guide me in my further attempts to try something new in minute ways, of Wise One of the kitchen.