Nice, John
And, besides everything else, your herb garden sounds excellent - a
while ago, a friend took me on a tour of a mini-green-house he had going
in his back yard, letting me touch and smell, and at times sample some
of his herbs he was growing in there, like rosemary, basil and origanum,
etc., and it's something I think I'd actually love to try look into
myself, one day...<smile>
On the other hand, another friend told me he'd been growing a couple of
rosemary plants, and when they spread their seed via wind, etc., at one
stage he thought his whole lawn would turn into a patch of rosemary, so
suppose you do at least need to sort of keep certain plants somewhat
under control.
Stay well
Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."
On 2016-03-14 5:46 AM, Jonathan Rawlings wrote:
Hi folks:
Well, for the moment, the baby is hypnotized by one of her
favorite TV shows while Mommy works on a personal project and I clean
the kitchen and try to recreate what I originally wrote this morning.
Let's hope it really works this time. I know I haven't been very
active on the list in recent months, but I'd like to do a bit of
catching up now. First, I found a little Italian market here that just
happens to sell the type of yeast that professional bakers prefer.
Sadly, it is no longer widely available in grocery stores, but my
understanding is that it once was. It is called compressed or cake
yeast because the yeast is compressed into a moist, crumbly cake or
block. Unfortunately, this yeast is usually sold in blocks that weigh
one pound, so that means that even though more cake yeast is required to
make the same amount of bread, one block is equal to about 22 envelopes
of yeast from the store. The owner of this little Italian market says
she is trying to find a supplier that will sell it in small packets of
one ounce, but as of when I was there a couple weeks ago, she hadn't
found such a supplier yet. This yeast is said to be especially good for
making doughs that begin with a sponge or starter, or that have long
proofing and fermentation times. I have not made such a yeast dough
yet, but the items I have made with this type of yeast have performed
very well. Sadly, the shelf life of this yeast, even under
refrigeration, is only about two to three weeks. I hope the smaller
packets appear soon.
As far as new things I have tried making lately, there are more
than I can remember at the moment. My most recent success was the steak
tacos I made for us and our friends for dinner last night. I don't have
the recipe typed out yet, but essentially, the flank steak is cut into
four long strips, with the grain, and marinated with a paste made up of
fresh cilantro, cumin, garlic, and jalapeno. I didn't have the
jalapeno, so I used canned chipotle peppers. This paste sits on the
meat for no more than an hour before being scraped off. The meat is
then dusted lightly with salt, pepper, and sugar, then browned on all
sides until well-browned and medium rare in the center. And please
trust me; flank steak does not eat well if it is cooked more than a
little past medium rare. The steak is then sliced across the grain as
thin as possible, as all flank steak should be, then tossed with a small
amount of reserved cilantro paste, lime juice, and additional salt and
pepper, if needed. Serve the meat in warm corn or flour tortillas with
your favorite toppings and fillings, and you're in business. Our
friends commented that it kicked the pants off the carne asada they
often buy already prepared in the store, and since Emily's friend has a
lot of major food issues, that comes as quite a compliment.
The other fun food happening lately came on Valentine's Day when
Emily kicked me out of the kitchen for the afternoon and made perhaps
the best beef teriyaki I have ever had, served with jasmine rice and
steamed assparagus. Emily has come a long way since we were first
married almost four and a half years ago.
As to the next menu plan I am drawing up, the new recipes I intend
to try are a Buffalo chicken salad and a taco salad, both of which come
from my "30 Minute Recipes" book. I also found an interesting recipe on
the King Arthur Flour website for what they call pull-apart pizza
bread. It sounds essentially like monkey bread, except the dough is a
typical pizza dough, and any toppings are mixed in with the balls of
dough. I am looking forward to trying that one soon. Another new
recipe that I have not yet made is one I caught on the "Cooks' Country"
TV show several weeks ago for a whole roasted chicken made in the
skillet, and stuffing that is cooked outside the bird in the same
skillet. It looked and sounded great, but I have not yet made the bread
I will need to make the stuffing.
I have also been trying new recipes from my two books for the slow
cooker. While most of them have been good, only one was a genuine
disappointment. The chicken with 40 cloves of garlic was a dismal
failure. Chicken breasts, with the skin and bones in tact, are browned
lightly, then the skin is removed before being placed in the slow cooker
with a sauce which contains all the garlic. I was suspicious of the
idea of removing the skin, but went ahead and did it anyway since I knew
it would just get soggy in there anyway. In the end, the meat was
under-seasoned, overcooked, and the sauce was not up to par. To date,
the best recipe I have come across for chicken with 40 cloves of garlic
is the one Alton Brown made on his "Good Eats" show on garlic, except I
don't cook mine quite as long.
In other news: We got our Spring garden in last weekend, and most
of what was planted are herbs. I am only growing two basil plants this
year as compared with three last year, which was far more than even I
could keep up with. I also replanted the English thyme, lemon thyme,
and sage. Newcomers this year include taragon, mint, and lemon
verbana, which has a wonderfully-fragrant, lemony herbal aroma that
aparrently works well in both sweet and savery aplications. The only
plants in our garden that are not herbs are the jalapeno, which we tried
a few years ago and had some success with, and cherry tomatoes, which
also did well for us a couple years back. Most varieties of tomato
plants do not do well here, but the cherry tomatoes seem to be the one
exception for us. The dill, parsley, and cilantro are all thriving, and
the only herbs to survive our gloomy but extremely-dry winter season. I
am looking forward to a bountiful harvest of all these plants in a
couple months.
Heather is 22 months old today, and definitely has her Daddy
wrapped tightly around her little finger. Sleeping through the night is
slowly becoming the norm, even though she has been fighting a sore
throat the last few days. She has an easy-going, cheerful,
affectionate, caring, and playful personality that makes for lots of
laughter and smiles and happy moments. She loves bath time, walks
around the neighborhood and exploring, anything having to do with dogs,
playing with other kids closer to her age, blocks, Legos, and even
helping me cook or do laundry. Her language skills are excellent and
continue to improve every day. Few things make her happier than jumping
on the bed or piggyback rides on Daddy's shoulders, and she loves to
both tickle and be tickled. The difficult moments become fewer each day
as her communication and my parenting improve. We always seem to have
far more month at the end of the money than we'd like, but all in all,
life is good. I'm not crazy about how early Spring has come this year
and how very dry it has been, but at least we're not into the really hot
weather yet. If I manage to get any new videos of Heather, I'll pass
them along to anyone who is interested.
Please remember to share your recipe successes with us when they
happen, and let's keep the conversation going.
Jon
