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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on May 28, 2024 12:03:10 GMT -5
Sunday: Strawberry, walnut, gorgonzola, spinach salad with bread and butter Tuesday: ? Honestly not a clue about tonight
Wednesday: Corn, bacon, and cheese ravioli with ramp pesto and chicken-feta sausage
Thursday: Peri-peri chicken livers, collard greens, sourdough bread and butter
Friday: Nachos with shredded beef, queso, avocado, pico de gallo, black beans, and sour cream
I did a lot of cooking yesterday! I got a 3.75-lb. chuck roast at the store and put half in the crock pot with a marinade of dried/rehydrated ancho and guajillo chiles, orange juice, garlic, onion, marjoram, bay leaves, fresh anaheim peppers, and some other seasonings to make a sort of barbacoa (the other half went into the freezer to make chili or Mississippi pot roast down the line). It made the whole house smell delicious. I've left the roast whole in the cooking liquid for the time being -- I'll pull out the bay leaves and marjoram stalks before I put on the crock pot again Friday afternoon.
I made a pot of collard greens and intended to have some last night, but my dumb ass bumped into the TV tray and my bowl of greens went face-down onto the carpet. Sigh. The chicken livers were incredible, though! I soaked them in some kosher salt and buttermilk for an hour in the fridge before draining and rinsing them in cold water, then let them drain again before they went into the pan. So mild and velvety! And the sauce is spicy! I couldn't find peri-peri chili pepper, so I just used the Penzey's North African seasoning (what used to be Berbere/Amazigh) and that was a good substitute because it's hot as fuck.
I forgot to take out the ramp pesto and sausages from the freezer yesterday, so I'll make the ravioli tomorrow. The hard part of making the filling is already done -- I sauteed bacon with shallots, then mixed it with corn that I roasted in the oven, some Italian seasoning, and basically every cheese in my fridge plus a beaten egg. I'm going to use egg roll wrappers, which I've never done before, but I know it's a damn sight easier than hauling out my pasta attachment for the KitchenAid, especially on a weekday. I would have finished them up and gotten most of them in the freezer yesterday but I ran out of steam. I have a deadline Thursday morning, so I'll be working late tomorrow, which means I'll welcome the break to stand in the kitchen for half an hour or so while I make up these ravioli. |
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on May 29, 2024 17:01:16 GMT -5
Yeah, I had visions of these ravioli bursting apart while boiling as I was doing them; the dough was much more fragile than the homemade pasta dough I'm used to working with. So I gave up after making about six and just banged out a loaf pan of lasagna with the egg roll wrappers, ravioli filling, a jar of Wegmans pasta sauce I had on hand, and roughly 3/4 of the pesto. I baked it at 350 for an hour or so. Smells good. I'll keep it on hand for when I don't know what to do but I just want a slab of pasta and cheese.
I put the pesto back in the freezer because it'll probably be fine, and I'll just fry up my sausages and have them with some collards on the side. That'll be good.
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Post by Floyd Dinnertime Barber on May 29, 2024 18:15:27 GMT -5
We went to buy fresh strawberries from our local grower today. Mrs. Floyd had called ahead and reserved four quarts. It turned out that they were some of the very last of the season,so we asked if there were any more left, and were able to get two more quarts. They are absolutely amazing. Grocery store strawberrys taste like chewing paraffin compared to these .
We had the kids with us and we ended up eating a full quart on the way home. The orchard that has the strawberry patch is run by really nice folks, and they said the next thing they will have is peaches, I think they said by late June.
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Post by pantsgoblin on May 31, 2024 11:35:57 GMT -5
Sunday: Strawberry, walnut, gorgonzola, spinach salad with bread and butter Tuesday: ? Honestly not a clue about tonight
Wednesday: Corn, bacon, and cheese ravioli with ramp pesto and chicken-feta sausage
Thursday: Peri-peri chicken livers, collard greens, sourdough bread and butter
I love peri-peri sauce and have been kind of obsessed with the thought of this dish since you mentioned. Though my cholesterol levels don't need chicken livers. |
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on May 31, 2024 12:30:06 GMT -5
I love peri-peri sauce and have been kind of obsessed with the thought of this dish since you mentioned. Though my cholesterol levels don't need chicken livers. I bet you could do this with boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead and it would be every bit as delicious! |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jun 3, 2024 8:29:09 GMT -5
I try not to complain too much about the price of groceries like a boomer but the price of a can of beans - just basic, store-brand black beans - used to be around 89 cents, sometimes down to 50 on sale, and yesterday it was $1.39. Sheesh.
Also, they didn't have standard boneless/skinless chicken breasts in my preferred brand, only skin-on and "thin cut", which is annoying.
Sunday - chicken sliders
Monday - chicken nachos
Tuesday - stuffed shells
Wednesday - black bean empanadas
Thursday - chicken tikka masala
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jun 3, 2024 10:01:01 GMT -5
Back to normal life after a week of living the staycation dream! We ate a lot of pasta last week, is my food report from there. Hardly a shocker. But now it's time to be responsible about planning leftovers for work lunches and all of that adulting nonsense; sometimes I think that retirement looks so appealing to me less because of the "being able to spend my time on the stuff I want to do" aspect and more because of the "I wouldn't ever have to plan dinners around how many lunches we need for the coming week" angle. Anyway! This week:
Sunday: We had a big orzo-and-chicken salad with a vinaigrette of garlic scape and herbs from the garden, and some of us who have refined tastes had the first farmshare zucchini and some kalamata olives with ours, while Hugs just had orzo and chicken. Her loss. But anyway, that was delicious, and also saw us halfway through the week with lunches.
Monday: Boomer and I will be having stir-fry while Hugs works the late shift. I'm suddenly DYING to have steak and asparagus, but I don't have any steak and am not about to drive out of my way to the butcher to get one just for this, so it'll be -- sad trombone -- mushroom and asparagus instead. Probably also with some kohlrabi. This'll generate the rest of my leftovers.
Tuesday: Tuesdays are my lowest-ebb day of the week, but we'll have run out of lunches for Hugs by now, so I have to make something. I had a flash of inspiration this morning to cobble together something sufficiently low-effort that would pass muster for her -- I'll grill (weather permitting; otherwise just saute) some seasoned-somehow chicken cutlets (and asparagus, for those who partake), and serve it with black-and-tan rice from the fancy rice place, and everything can be dressed with a relish made from quick-pickled scapes.
Wednesday: We're in the middle of a reasonably up-tempo (from our usual pace) mileage challenge right now, ending early in July. So we have to go out for a long-ish walk after work on Wednesday, which means I won't want to make dinner when we're done. So... takeout burritos?
Thursday: I feel bad about the Wednesday burritos because apparently we made a date with friends to have pizza on the deck on Thursday night. Huh. Guess I'm not cooking either day?
Friday: I am neglecting the farm boxes this week so far (I mean, Boomer and I will tackle the leafy greens with our lunches on Wed and Thu, so that helps), but we've kind of codified pancake dinners on Fridays now...
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jun 3, 2024 12:01:52 GMT -5
Just returned rorm a vacation myself, though just for the weekend. Not back at work until tomorrow. Here's the plan:
Monday: Grilled pork chops with cinnamon apples and mashed potatoes.
Tuesday: Street-cart chicken and rice
Wednesday: Craving chicken fried steak all the sudden, so: chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and TBD second side dish, maybe just simple green salad
Thursday: Some protein out of the freezer, maybe with biscuits (?)
Friday: Pizza |
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on Jun 3, 2024 15:37:01 GMT -5
It's a "busy with work/too hot to cook, so turn to the freezer and supplement with a few fresh things from the store" kind of week.
Monday: Assorted cheeses, crackers, pecans, walnuts, assorted fruit
Tuesday: Meatloaf and gravy, stuffing, green salad
Wednesday: Manwich over a twice-baked potato, coleslaw
Thursday: Red beans and rice, green salad
Friday: No earthly idea because it's deadline day so probably pizza
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Post by pantsgoblin on Jun 4, 2024 9:49:08 GMT -5
So I've been getting into herbalism over the past couple of years (it sometimes pays to live in a hippie burg). My latest experiment is a tincture made from bugleweed, which is a wetland plant found in mountainous regions. I got a bag of the dried leaves which I steeped for 2 weeks in everclear and then strained out the tincture. Tastes wretched so I mix a teaspoon with vitamin C powder before bed. It's a quite potent sedative and it's good for blood pressure, which I need. Impressive stuff and it's going to be my standby for now since my attempt at growing valerian last year failed.  |
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Post by Floyd Dinnertime Barber on Jun 4, 2024 20:16:22 GMT -5
It's back from the dead. Again.
Choc-Ola, a dearly remembered drink from my misspent youth has once again been resurrected from the soft drink graveyard and is available in stores in Indianapolis and the surrounding area. It's like Yoo-Hoo except it is made with actual milk products instead of vegetable oil, and it doesn't suck. I bought some a couple of weeks ago when I was in Terre Haute and it is as delicious as I remember. It was around for decades until through some kind of corporate shenanigans the parent company of Yoo-Hoo bought the formula and killed it. Eventually they let the trademarks lapse, and former Choc-Ola aficionados acquired both the name and the original formula and brought it back. It came back on the market for a short time a few years ago, but hopefully it will be here to stay this time. Right now it's too damn expensive, but I am hoping their sales reach a point where economy of scale kicks in. It really is good. You should try some. It is in a very limited area right now, but you can order it online.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jun 4, 2024 21:44:21 GMT -5
It's back from the dead. Again. Choc-Ola, a dearly remembered drink from my misspent youth has once again been resurrected from the soft drink graveyard and is available in stores in Indianapolis and the surrounding area. It's like Yoo-Hoo except it is made with actual milk products instead of vegetable oil, and it doesn't suck. I bought some a couple of weeks ago when I was in Terre Haute and it is as delicious as I remember. It was around for decades until through some kind of corporate shenanigans the parent company of Yoo-Hoo bought the formula and killed it. Eventually they let the trademarks lapse, and former Choc-Ola aficionados acquired both the name and the original formula and brought it back. It came back on the market for a short time a few years ago, but hopefully it will be here to stay this time. Right now it's too damn expensive, but I am hoping their sales reach a point where economy of scale kicks in. It really is good. You should try some. It is in a very limited area right now, but you can order it online. So it’s….chocolate milk? |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jun 5, 2024 7:44:10 GMT -5
Just returned rorm a vacation myself, though just for the weekend. Not back at work until tomorrow. Here's the plan:
Monday: Grilled pork chops with cinnamon apples and mashed potatoes.
Tuesday: Street-cart chicken and rice
Wednesday: Craving chicken fried steak all the sudden, so: chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and TBD second side dish, maybe just simple green salad
Thursday: Some protein out of the freezer, maybe with biscuits (?)
Friday: Pizza For reasons I did not end up doing the street-cart chicken yesterday, so I made bacon, waffles, etc., the usual breakfast for the kids meal. Then yesterday while we were eating:
Mrs.: Can a make a request?
Bro: Always.
Mrs.: Can you make that chicken and rice thing, with the white sauce? You know the one?
Bro: I'm literally making that tomorrow. I was supposed to make it tonight.
Love it when things work out. The street-cart chicken and rice is a dish I would probably make at least a couple times a month if not for my kids, who won't eat it. Or probably won't eat it. I mean, they never have before, but today is a new day.
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Post by pantsgoblin on Jun 5, 2024 11:15:30 GMT -5
Just learned a friend has been diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome from a tick bite, meaning she can no longer eat red meat or dairy. She already had a heart condition and the cardio effects from this allergy could be deadly for her. What a drag. |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jun 5, 2024 13:49:26 GMT -5
Lo these many years ago there was a farm not far from here that offered half- and whole-animal shares. I got a half pig and then a whole pig after that, and it seemed a number of my friends in various parts of the country had similar options and had gotten quarter cows or their own half pigs or whatever. After my whole pig was done I went back to that farm but they were transitioning into a weird retail model that didn't really seem to work out, and then I found some other meat farms closer by and that was that. But that "whole/partial animal" thing seemed to be a thing for a while, and I haven't seen anyone offering it at all in the last ten years or so.
Last year my current favorite meat farm closed their retail location. I was very troubled when they announced their closing, because they have the best pork I've ever eaten and have very appealing sustainability and animal-welfare practices, and I got all panicky trying to figure out where I'd source meat I could feel as good about buying (or how to get Hugs to eat more non-meat meals). But WHEW! They opened a smaller butcher-only operation (their former retail model had a whole bunch of other bells and whistles), and my meat supply has been uninterrupted. But I've found myself thinking a lot over the last 12 months about how much I liked buying those half/whole pigs. I started to kick around the idea of trying to screw up the courage to ask the farm if they'd be willing to hook me up with a whole-pig order... (I basically had to talk them into giving me a whole boneless pork loin last year when the farmer was going through a "no custom cuts, because it generates waste" kick, so this wouldn't be TOO much of a difference, right?)
Well. Guess what my favorite meat farm just announced! THEY'RE GOING TO OFFER WHOLE- AND HALF-ANIMAL SHARES! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! Time to clean out the old, disused chest freezer!!
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Post by Floyd Dinnertime Barber on Jun 5, 2024 18:07:57 GMT -5
It's back from the dead. Again. Choc-Ola, a dearly remembered drink from my misspent youth has once again been resurrected from the soft drink graveyard and is available in stores in Indianapolis and the surrounding area. It's like Yoo-Hoo except it is made with actual milk products instead of vegetable oil, and it doesn't suck. I bought some a couple of weeks ago when I was in Terre Haute and it is as delicious as I remember. It was around for decades until through some kind of corporate shenanigans the parent company of Yoo-Hoo bought the formula and killed it. Eventually they let the trademarks lapse, and former Choc-Ola aficionados acquired both the name and the original formula and brought it back. It came back on the market for a short time a few years ago, but hopefully it will be here to stay this time. Right now it's too damn expensive, but I am hoping their sales reach a point where economy of scale kicks in. It really is good. You should try some. It is in a very limited area right now, but you can order it online. So it’s….chocolate milk? Oh, it's so much more than that. Nah, it's a slightly different taste and texture than chocolate milk. It's shelf stable until it's opened, and has a lighter texture than milk and a smoother mouth feel maybe? I know I have a lot of nostalgia for it but it's also empirically really tasty and refreshing, at least to me. |
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Post by Floyd Dinnertime Barber on Jun 9, 2024 19:18:53 GMT -5
We worked around the place all day and for supper Mrs. Floyd said for me to forage from the plague locker, so I made Spam and beans with fresh green onions and Tobasco sauce. She was nice enough to make me some cornbread. She and the kids refuse to eat any. More for me. It tastes fine. The Spam
had a "best by" date of March 2021, but it's Spam. Like Fame, it's gonna live forever.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jun 10, 2024 8:51:07 GMT -5
Struggling a little on food this week.
Sunday: Deli chicken sliders
Monday: Pulled pork barbecue nachos
Tuesday: Chicken enchiladas
Wednesday: Mini calzones
Thursday: absolutely no idea
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jun 10, 2024 8:53:15 GMT -5
Another week, eh?
Monday: Spaghetti carbonara with what I suspect is my final asparagus of the year. We seem to be emerging out of the "leafy greens and asparagus" stage of the farm season into the "zucchini and scapes" stretch.
Tuesday: Chicken fingers, grocery-store fries, and possibly some -- surprise! -- zucchini sauteed with garlic scapes.
Wednesday: Stir-fry, using up some harukei turnips and kohlrabi, and possibly with pork tenderloin.
Thursday: It's supposed to be July-hot later this week, so perhaps it's time to grill. I've got a kielbasa in the freezer, and can make an easy slaw with the accumulating cabbage in the crisper, and some potato salad.
Friday: Pancakes!
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jun 10, 2024 9:05:26 GMT -5
You ever hit "Create Post" in the Food Thread thinking that if you just start typing out a menu maybe you'll actually be able to think of one? Well, I'm hoping that's about to happen to me.
Sunday: Cheese nachos with additional toppings on the side. This is such a frustrating meal, because nachos are, like, an almost universally beloved thing, and as long as it's just cheese, even my daughter will eat them. She asks for them even. I made them last night at her request. But my son won't touch them. Argh! Just one food... just give me one food they will both eat. (I'm still not making separate meals, but how that's working out is that my son goes hungry most nights, because he's more restrictive. Neither are big on proteins, but my daughter will eat a lot more side dishes than my son will.)
Monday: Low on ideas, so probably a pasta night. Buttered noodles with tomato sauce or pesto pasta, take your pick.
Tuesday: I want some shredded chicken meat, so I'm thinking for Tuesday I'll do a roast chicken on the smoker (or roast chicken quarters, tbd), with cole slaw, corn on the cob, and corn bread.
Wednesday: Ton of cheese still to use up from nacho night, so maybe quesadillas on the flat top, with griddled veggies, some leftover refried beans (pretty much my favorite food that I only started making with frequency in the last year), guacamole, etc.
Thursday: The leftover chicken meat comes into play to make Chicken Cakes (chicken patties?), basically crab cakes but ... chicken. From a recipe. I've made them before and remember really liking them.
Friday: Waffles, bacon, fruit. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jun 10, 2024 9:56:20 GMT -5
Here's an update:
I have kept to my policy of only cooking one meal a night. The children have the option still that if they don't want what I've made, they can make themselves a sandwich or bowl of cereal, but they almost never opt for this. Maybe twice ever, and both times it was my son. I've been doing what I've seen some people call the "safe foods" method, where you cook what you want to cook, but you also make sure there are "safe" foods available at every meal. As long as it's not cooked, not expensive, relatively healthy, and does not expire quickly, I'm okay with doing this. So, at the dinner table every meal we have whatever I made, plus a bowl of grapes, a bowl of pineapple, a bowl of either salad or carrots, and we usually have some kind of bread, but that's always been the case. And of course I intentionally cook meals they like sometimes: pasta, waffles or pancakes, oatmeal, pizza (but only carryout), and ... uhh ...
I'm not any happier, because what I want, to cook interesting food that I like and that my family loves and praises, I can't have have and will never get. The setup is working well enough for my daughter, who can eat her weight in the available safe foods if she doesn't care for the meal. She actually stresses me out, because pineapples aren't all that cheap (and are a pain to harvest), and she will legit eat an entire pineapple if you let her. My son is trickier, because he doesn't have any easy safe foods. Ostensibly, the grapes are there for him, and in any given meal he may eat one or two of them, but there are no other fruits and no raw vegetables at all that he will eat. He won't eat applesauce, he won't eat cheese unless it's in stick form. If he doesn't like the dinner, he'll usually just eat his two allotted pieces of bread, then set about making himself as fidgety and annoying as possible, trying to get early excuse from the table through sheer frustration. It doesn't work on me, but it works on the Mrs. so we're not really same page on that one.
So, while I wish she ate a greater variety of foods, my daughter goes to bed fully fed most every night. It might have been just a bunch of pineapple and some carrots dunked in ranch, but it's food. My son, on the other hand, goes to bed having eaten almost nothing probably four times a week. I fear the summer is even harder on him, because no school breakfasts or lunches. He's dependent on me for every meal. His lunchbox comes home empty every day, but I don't know what actually got eaten.
Also mildly frustrated with Mrs. Bro, who has started eating the nightly meal again. That should be great, and I am happy for her that her appetite is returning, but she announced her intention to do that with the instruction that she didn't want to be served a lot of meat along with a list of other things, and like, okay, dear... the whole idea was that I'm not catering to anyone anymore. I have filled the freezer with your approved foods, all of which will probably now go untouched, and your restrictions are just one more obstacle in a situation I had just tried to improve. Her response to my position was ... chilly.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jun 12, 2024 10:09:50 GMT -5
Driving home from summer camp with the kids on Monday.
Little Bro: Daddy, I want to tell you, there's a new kind of sandwich I like.
Bro: Oh yeah? Please do.
Little Bro: I like turkey and mustard. I had that with Aunt Shelly and it was really good.
Bro: So just the normal bread, sandwich turkey, and yellow mustard?
Little Bro: Yes!
Bro: No cheese?
Little Bro: No cheese.
Bro: Hey it's a protein, I'll take it.
So I made turkey and mustard for him for yesterday's lunchbox. Fam, he ate it. Wouldn't stop going on about how much he liked it and couldn't wait to have another one today. Oh my god I hope it lasts. (He doesn't like peanut butter or, for allergy-restricted applications, Sunbutter, so historically the only cold sandwich he'll eat is a cheese sandwich, which is something but maybe not the most nutritious thing.)
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jun 17, 2024 8:32:54 GMT -5
Food for the week!
Sunday: Chicken club sandwiches*, fries
Monday: ground chicken tacos, chips, salad
Tuesday: Street-cart chicken, naan, salad
Wednesday: Gnocchi, garlic bread, salad
Thursday: Potato flatbread, salad
*So I realized our club sandwiches are not really clubs, the traditional ingredients are ham, turkey, bacon, lettuce/tomato/mayo on a double-decker sandwich. I made chicken, bacon, mayo and cheese. Whatever. Also the bacon I got was a little strange, and almost like slices of canadian bacon - mostly lean, not quite streaked enough with fat to qualify as "normal" bacon.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jun 17, 2024 9:36:57 GMT -5
I can't say I'm feeling especially inspired or anything this week, but I am excited that my farm boxes are suddenly full of things that aren't just leafy greens. It's a big shift in cooking styles, and my favorite way to do meal planning -- I've got more centerpiece kinds of veggies now coming in, rather than lots of salad fixings, so it's easier to come up with ideas. But a lot of it is also longer-storage stuff than the greens are, so nothing's as desperate to use up right away. Monday: We've gotten some colossal broccolis, so I'll tuck some into the freezer tonight, but we'll also give this Citrusy Couscous Salad with Broccoli and Feta from NYT Cooking a try. It'll also help use up the feta floating around in my fridge! I think there's also some bacon that needs to be used up, so our salad will also feature some lardons. Tuesday: It's like Friday night in the middle of the week, since we've got Juneteenth off. Maybe we need to have pancakes for dinner. Wednesday: A celebratory pizza-on-the-deck evening with a friend who's a teacher; it's her last day of school. It's supposed to be a billion degrees out, so I hope it's not too unpleasant in the evening. Thursday: It's like a Monday night in the middle of the week, since we're back to work after a mini-weekend! I think I want to make us some grilled chicken sandwiches. I'll make a potato salad to go with it, featuring a lot of the pretty little fresh red salad onions that came in one farm box. Friday: Actual Friday! I have no idea what we'll eat! |
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Post by LazBro on Jun 17, 2024 10:09:56 GMT -5
Insert insightful commentary.
Monday: Smash burgers on the flat top with oven fries. I'm doing the Oklahoma-style onion burger thing, only with shallots, because I'm curious how that will turn out. The fries are important, too. I'm running some tests. A couple weeks ago I picked up some cheese curds from the fancy cheese section of my local Kroger. This is funny in itself, because cheese curds are, like, the least fancy thing ever, but they're so unusual down here that they qualify for the fancy cheese case. Anyway, when you buy cheese curds, it's because you have poutine on the mind. A big plate of fries, gravy, and cheese sounds wonderful to me right now. But, I want to get it right, and that starts with the right fry. I have no intention of making them, so that means I'm reliant on the freezer section. Normally, my oven fry of choice is the crinkle cut. I'm not a huge fan of these in a fast food context, but in my experience this shape crisps up the best in the oven. They have a good stretch of middle ground between limp and burnt. However, I'm just not feeling crinkles for poutine. I want a more traditional cut fry. So, which direction to go? Ore-Ida alone has "regular cut", "shoestring", "thin cut", and "crispy fast food cut". Idaho brand has a "hand cut" fry with visible skins. Kroger brand has a version of most of these as well.
Tonight I'll test the "regular cut" Ore-Ida french fry to see if it's something I can imagine standing up to five minutes of hot gravy and cheese. I also want to give the Idaho brand "hand cut" fries a chance, those having the most appropriate appearance for the task at hand.
Tuesday: Pasta with tomato sauce and maybe meatballs. Salad.
Wednesday: I've got some buttermilk to use up, so how about chicken biscuits and edamame-corn salad. I'll probably Nashville hot mine, but I miiiiiight change it up and do hot honey instead.
Thursday: ? ? ? (but I'd like to use my griddle again)
Friday: Waffles, bacon, fruit.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jun 17, 2024 10:27:37 GMT -5
Insert insightful commentary.
Monday: Smash burgers on the flat top with oven fries. I'm doing the Oklahoma-style onion burger thing, only with shallots, because I'm curious how that will turn out. The fries are important, too. I'm running some tests. A couple weeks ago I picked up some cheese curds from the fancy cheese section of my local Kroger. This is funny in itself, because cheese curds are, like, the least fancy thing ever, but they're so unusual down here that they qualify for the fancy cheese case. Anyway, when you buy cheese curds, it's because you have poutine on the mind. A big plate of fries, gravy, and cheese sounds wonderful to me right now. But, I want to get it right, and that starts with the right fry. I have no intention of making them, so that means I'm reliant on the freezer section. Normally, my oven fry of choice is the crinkle cut. I'm not a huge fan of these in a fast food context, but in my experience this shape crisps up the best in the oven. They have a good stretch of middle ground between limp and burnt. However, I'm just not feeling crinkles for poutine. I want a more traditional cut fry. So, which direction to go? Ore-Ida alone has "regular cut", "shoestring", "thin cut", and "crispy fast food cut". Idaho brand has a "hand cut" fry with visible skins. Kroger brand has a version of most of these as well.
Tonight I'll test the "regular cut" Ore-Ida french fry to see if it's something I can imagine standing up to five minutes of hot gravy and cheese. I also want to give the Idaho brand "hand cut" fries a chance, those having the most appropriate appearance for the task at hand. Cheese curds are so ubiquitous here that I find that funny. The Idaho brand are some of my favorite freezer fries, both the tots and the hand-cut. If you have an "air fryer" setting on your oven it's great for getting fries crispy. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jun 18, 2024 7:20:48 GMT -5
Cheese curds are so ubiquitous here that I find that funny. The Idaho brand are some of my favorite freezer fries, both the tots and the hand-cut. If you have an "air fryer" setting on your oven it's great for getting fries crispy. I'm pretty sure my oven pre-dates the term "air fryer", but it does have a convection setting, and I can usually get frozen fries where I want them to go with a combination of warming them through with no convention, then turning on the fan for the final crisp.
Ore-Ida's "Golden Fries", which on appearance are their thickest cut non-steak fry, were okay. The kids ate them, but I'm going to keep testing.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jun 18, 2024 9:04:23 GMT -5
Cheese curds are so ubiquitous here that I find that funny. The Idaho brand are some of my favorite freezer fries, both the tots and the hand-cut. If you have an "air fryer" setting on your oven it's great for getting fries crispy. I'm pretty sure my oven pre-dates the term "air fryer", but it does have a convection setting, and I can usually get frozen fries where I want them to go with a combination of warming them through with no convention, then turning on the fan for the final crisp.
Ore-Ida's "Golden Fries", which on appearance are their thickest cut non-steak fry, were okay. The kids ate them, but I'm going to keep testing.
Our new oven has both convection and an "air fryer" setting, which I was kind of skeptical of, but it works quite well for fries (it's basically convection turned up to high). But yeah, in general I do like the Idaho brand, Ore-Ida is fine. Alexia is also good. |
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on Jun 18, 2024 9:43:10 GMT -5
Alexia rosemary fries are my go-to when I want to impress my friends with a potato-based side dish but do zero work.
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LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,281
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Post by LazBro on Jun 18, 2024 9:57:08 GMT -5
I've never heard of Alexia before, and I don't recognize the packaging when I search it. Are they usually located next to the other frozen potato brands?
My search pulled up a variety of stores: Wal-Mart, Target, H-E-B, Sprouts, Tom Thumb, all stores we have here.
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