NolaCaine

2 hours ago, deangold said:

Just three? Hocks, bacon, pork meat & lard would be 4. Tasso 5. Andouille 6. Looks like you are going for the healthy version!

YOu are so right. THey are bland. bacon; hocks, andouille. Not enough. Needed more ham. Trying family tricks now. WIsh me luck.

I am making Red Beans and Rice. I have three pork products in there so hoping for the best. 

2 hours ago, MarkS said:

In my area, Annapolis, it seems they have expanded dinner under the stars to start Wednesday.  Each Wednesday night streets will be closed so that restaurants can move tables outside.  There are efforts underway to expand this to weekends as well.  Annapolis is first and foremost a sailing town with the majority of visitors between Memorial day and the boats shows in October.  Local restaurants started with putting tables in parking lots as a step to open up and not go under.  The majority of them did offer take out as well.

My wife and I have no plans for outdoor dining yet.  We have been taking in regularly and have a waterfront view on our deck.  Saturday it was O'learys, one of the finer seafood establishments here.  I had their Crispy Rockfish while my wife had Crab Cakes.  Both were excellent.   

My FIL and his boat are headed your way. Would love to know others that are up and distant. They are both in their 60s and one is immunocompromised. 

9 hours ago, DonRocks said:

I saw Taberna del Alabardero serving on the patio last night.

In DC? That's brave of them.

Did Annapolis for crabs. Totally touch free and yum. 

Everywhere. Anywhere.

2 hours ago, lion said:

Are you using some kind of planter system or just a regular pot? Wife and son want to do that on our deck but haven't had the time to research it. 

Thanks for asking! About 6 in the ground in a bad part of our yard that doesn't get much sun so we'll see. Nothing else will grow there. Two others are in grow bags. I did one grow bag with actual seed potatoes and the other pot with real potatoes that grew. You see, I am "homeschooling" science. I'm really proud of my experiments. I did it once before and kids LOVE harvesting them. My 3 year old (at the time) and his friend got so dirty. They had a blast. I did "5g grow bags" (your search term) with potting soil. You Tube has LOTS of videos. (how to grow potatoes in a bag). Easy!

1 hour ago, Keithstg said:

🙄

The Ashby will be at peak porch for the next month or so, easy. Please note that seating is limited and if the inn is filled with overnight guests there is little/ no reservation room - and no walk-ins.

I've enjoyed many, many Ashby lunches and dinners. Covid has rendered our two income family a one income family and we had two kids so X4 is a little much for me. That's all I was saying but I guess I should have provided more color. In other news, the family loved the lunches that *i* made overlooking the actual sky meadows. I never made up to the top before! Embarrassing. There are actual meadows in the sky! Paris looked lovely. I hope this is not too off topic Don.

10 hours ago, bookluvingbabe said:

Cooking for a bottomless pit of a 13 year old here. 

He had the audacity to tell me he is tired of rice.  He used to beg me to cook rice.  Dinners are usually some type of meat, cooked with onions and zucchini and garlic, with any other veggies I want to throw in, a can of beans, a sauce, and then served over rice.  Or pasta if I’m feeling kind. It isn’t fancy.  It isn’t going to win awards. But it keeps us fed.   He has the leftovers for breakfast. 

I did make a shepherds pie that we all loved recently and if I can ever get decent potatoes again, I will serve it again. 

I have also stopped asking what he or Mr. BLB want or think of my dinner plan. I just cook.  If they don’t like, they can cook dinner. 

I'm growing potatoes. Mostly to prove to myself that I can grow a carb in ARL.

13 hours ago, leleboo said:

So apparently we've all stopped feeding the kids ... or it's a parade of chicken nuggets and homemade sourdough. LOL! 

@lion I tried to respond to you once before and teh site ate my comment. If you haven't splurged on Disney+ yet, do it -- on Wednesday, the original Bway cast filming of Hamilton drops. WORTH IT.

I'm like 183% burned out on cooking. Three meals a day plus snacks, and that's just the kids. They invariably don't want to eat what I'm making OR what the other child wants. I have repeatedly told them I'm not a short-order cook and this isn't a restaurant, but I am so tired of the whining and fighting. Anyone else?

Disney+ we watched everything. Waiting for Hamilton before canceling. 

I've been sous Vide-ing for the kids. They like duck, pork, and meat (but not steak). I'm not yet sure what meat is but i suspect it was a really tender, perfectly cooked steak that I can't replicate.

Can we talk about apples? My  kids go through apples and pickles like there's a pandemic or something...

How fun! A thread revival. My favorite bathroom attendant story is this one: One night, at House of Blues, Blondie was playing with her jazz band. My friend and I went to the ladies where, as always, there were attendants. While I was washing my hands in the crowded bathroom, a woman entered with this "i'm about to vomit" look on her face. The two attendants rushed to her side, helped her into a stall, one HELD BACK HER hair as she vomited. Every other woman in the place, dug into their pockets, bags, ect and tipped them. 

It's been awhile. The one upside to being in my house all the time is the opportunity to play with my SV machine. I've mastered duck, pork, beef, and chicken. I've only had one disappointment. Yesterday I was watching You Tube about improving ramen (yes, I know I shouldn't eat cheap ramen) and found out that SV bag juice (once freed from fat) is basically broth. Seems obvious now but I didn't know and have been pouring it out when not making a pan sauce. That's going to have to stop. 

On 5/29/2020 at 5:40 AM, deangold said:

We had a disturbing experience tonight. We ordered from one of our local favorites. When Kay went to pick up the food, they had a sign saying no entrance without a mask. But when Kay got to the pick up counter, the gentleman handing over the food was not wearing a mask. Well since he was willing to endanger his customers' lives, he was no gentleman. 

I emailed the restaurant and am waiting for a response. That is why I am not naming them, reporting them, or going apeshit on social media. I will report back on their response. 

Arlington's neighborhood listserve is blowing up about a local place. I never liked that place in the first  place but am impressed with your discretion. 

This thread is great and motivating. I was thinking about Ashby Inn today, either take-out or porch so took a look at the menu which is here;

https://www.ashbyinn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Phase-1-Menu-updated.pdf

Holly crap those are some prices but if you take a drive today, or already live near, Ashby should be at peak porch for the next few days. 

Gotta brag about dinner. I did a very lazy version of one of Julia Child's lamb shank recipes and it was fabulous. Basically I browned two lamb shanks in some bacon fat. Cooked some onions and carrots in that pot. Put in about half pinot and half beef broth, some green dried herbs (doubt it matters), and two hours later, reduced the broth, cut the meat from the bone and yum. Served over egg noodles and frozen peas (heated) on the side. Daughter, 6, wanted to drink the sauce like soup and did have her peas frozen. (I like to pick my battles)

12 hours ago, Pat said:

I'm planning to sous vide prime rib for Christmas dinner. Haven't tried such a large cut of beef before and am working from two recipes. Any tips from anyone who's done this?

Other than finishing in the oven rather than searing on the stovetop, it looks fairly straightforward and similar to other sous vide meat preparations I've undertaken.

I'm not brave enough to try anything over a crock-pot type cook time. Something weird about over 8 or 10 hours. But I'm a novice! One of my neighbors got a leak in his brisket bag when he was SV-ing long form so good luck and be careful!

Hum...two years and no reviews. 

Did it improve? I've seen the 1.5 eggs at another restaurant. It looks pretty but seems illogical when typed out.

I did it! I made (for the first time ever in my life) really great duck breasts and had my first real (un-egg-related) sous-vide success.

Unwrapped and left in fridge breasts from about 7 am until they went into the bath (3:30). Placed them in a bag each with some orange juice, zest, salt, pepper, and garlic and a rosemary sprig from my garden (which looked really sad but imparted nice flavor).

Into a 135 bath for roughly  2.5 hours. Removed, scored fat, put, fat-side down in very hot cast iron pan for 5 minutes. Feared that was too long, but perfect. Quick sear of other side, put in warming drawer. Put bag-juice (vaguely strained) in pan with some sherry, some broth and a little more S&P. Reduced; served over rice. I think typing this took longer than the actual prep- time. 

SO EFFING GOOD!

On 12/8/2019 at 6:07 PM, Mark Slater said:

Seasoning must be added to the sous vide bag before "cooking'. The seasoning is distributed by osmosis . 

Now you've got me thinking about planaria. 

On 12/8/2019 at 1:49 PM, curls said:

Did you season & sear the pork chop post sous vide? 

yes. In a very hot cast iron pan.

Again to my up-thread question. Can we make fun of La Fina's name or at least its (lots of bad descriptor words) sign? That location is extra terrible but they are not helping themselves out with that stupid sign.

Thanks all. I am really enjoying my new toy but I work so I can't quite experiment as much as I'd like. I did buy some supplies and hope to experiment more very soon. Will report back.

I think the pork chops were too thin more than another other thing. 

Pork chop from frozen at 144 for about 1.5 hours was bland but not overcooked. 

On 11/27/2019 at 8:10 AM, curls said:

@NolaCaine I recommend starting with Kenji's recipes on the Anova site, the recipes at Chef Steps, and Douglas Baldwin's website (links included below). Hope you enjoy sous vide. I like it a lot for cooking chicken and turkey breasts.

https://recipes.anovaculinary.com/?searchString=Kenji&categorySlug= 

https://www.chefsteps.com/gallery?generator=chefsteps&published_status=published&difficulty=any&sort=newest&premium=everything

https://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html

I have conducted two experiments and am about to embark on my third.  Thank you for these links. They are serving me well. I overcooked salmon but successfully cooked a frozen chicken breast to perfection. Tonight; The Pork Chop.

On 5/27/2019 at 2:33 PM, cheezepowder said:

There's a new Korean BBQ place, Firepan BBQ (I haven't been.)

Or the Hot Pot place. Is there anything new at Eden Center I should know about? There's a tiny Thai street food vender looking good in there somewhere. Would love some reviews.