WHAT ARE YOU EATING TODAY?

[armedoldhippy]

damn, moose. i don't know what you've done for a living over the years, but...you coulda been a famous chef!

 

[moose eater]

damn, moose. i don't know what you've done for a living over the years, but...you coulda been a famous chef!

Contrary to the old adage about finding something you love to do, and doing -that- for a living, my observations have been that for the most part, or at least fairly often, when you find something you love, and you do that for a living, with the fickle and whiney nature of human beings, you'll soon find you no longer love doing that (whatever that was/is) because of the conditioning process built into having pissy people complaining about the product left, right, and center.

So, my limited time in restaurants at a counter dealing with people, taught me that restaurants are a great place to deal dope from or get cheap or free food and drinks, but not the best place to retain the love of cooking and eating.

Prep-cook work, from a secluded room with a good/decent stereo system, allowed a relatively safe distance from humans and was still strategically situated suitably for the drug dealing. a win-win, in my opinion.

*But if it's a sports bar and restaurant where the phone's frequently used by people calling their bookies to place illegal bets, that phone might not be the best choice for making drug deals, no matter how refined the agreed-upon code is.

The end conclusion is that one should cook for themselves and those they care about, not the general public. My sense of it, anyway.

 

[superx]

Just cooking the bird now; let my wife have the bird's cavity for her standard bread stuffing, though she flinched when I mentioned adding a decent breakfast sausage to the bread stuffing.

Deluxe mashed potatoes are in a bread pan, covered in foil and waiting for the time to put them into the oven covered.

The wild rice and oyster dressing with water chestnuts, mushrooms, celery and onion is waiting for the wild rice to finish cooking; that stuff takes a long time and more water per measured rice than standard rice.

Plenty of pecan pie left, though I sampled it when it was too warm last night, and this recipe is just barely sweet enough that if it's warm the taste of the pie's sweetness is less perceivable. Had a micro-sliver of it chilled this morning and it was much better.

Brussels sprouts are still waiting for their time in the skillet and under the broiler; they'll get a minor touch of vinegar, salt and pepper, butter, and some crumbled uncured crispy-fried, hard-wood-smoked bacon.

Other than for that, it's still -35 f on the front porch mercury and glass thermometer. The digital sensor in the barn becomes far less accurate the colder it gets. But the digital read-out is in the kitchen, so you don't have to freeze your nards off to find out what temperature it is outside, and if you want to read the digital kitchen unit during extreme cold, the lying it does is somewhat optimistic and (falsely) relieving. Right now, the kitchen (the lying kitchen reading) claims it's only -26 f in the open-walled pole barn where the senor's located, whereas the far more accurate (much cheaper) mercury and glass on the front porch state's it's the previously reported -35 f.

It's mostly about perception and acclimation anyway, and we've got a bit over 30 pallets, mostly size large, to burn on the bonfire pit today to make it feel cozy outside. Just means that come later Spring, if I try to salvage wood ash from the fire pit, I'll need to use 1/4-inch hardware cloth in a wooden frame we built to fit over the wheelbarrow to screen out screws and nails. Tilling them into the gardens or field is a no-no.

Hope you're well today SX.

Hey Moose,

That was like reading a excerpt from 'bone in the throat' (Anthony bourdain)
Well done on bringing it all together, what did you wash that fine meal down with.

Shame about the breakfast sausage (sausage meat) mad Irish eh..
Deluxe potatoes? Are we talking nutmeg and cream.
I would of enjoyed being a fly on your kitchen wall, hope you all had a pleasant and enjoyable feast..

OK, I understand we are still in the month of November.. Will you be repeating this great feat on the 25th December? Do you guys tend to push the boat out just for Thanksgiving and not as much for Christmas or the 4th of July.

I'm clocking off soon enough, it's that time of the week for the black stuff..
Hope your feeling better.

 

[Rgd]

yellowfin and salmon sushi..

had it recently but this is for science



why?

finally got the real stuff..the fake wasabi japanese horseradish/mustard is good but I wanna try actual wasabi

almost grew it to being ready but shouldn’t have brought it outside,,it got whiteflies i could not get rid of
[painful loss after more than year.. may try again]

 

[superx]

yellowfin and salmon sushi..

had it recently but this is for science



why?

finally got the real stuff..the fake wasabi japanese horseradish/mustard is good but I wanna try actual wasabi

almost grew it to being ready but shouldn’t have brought it outside,,it got whiteflies i could not get rid of
[painful loss after more than year.. may try again]



View attachment 19107663

Very nice..The peas are great for a munch attack.

I recall being on vacation with herself, we has just dabbed some mdma and went to a Japanese restaurant along the beach front, I just wanted some alcohol, herself was up for a feed. She was yabbling away none stop, I couldn't get a word in edge ways.

The lighting was dimmed inside the restaurant and was rather dark, a platter of sushi arrived at the table we both started sampling the different types and her goodself asks what is the paste in the bowl ?
We couldn't tell the color of it as the place was in darkness and we were both of our bap.
Herself woofs down a good forkful of wasabi, minutes later she was gurgling on the jug of water..
Funny when I look back, there wasn't another word out of her for the rest of the night..

 

[moose eater]

Hey Moose,

That was like reading a excerpt from 'bone in the throat' (Anthony bourdain)
Well done on bringing it all together, what did you wash that fine meal down with.

Shame about the breakfast sausage (sausage meat) mad Irish eh..
Deluxe potatoes? Are we talking nutmeg and cream.
I would of enjoyed being a fly on your kitchen wall, hope you all had a pleasant and enjoyable feast..

OK, I understand we are still in the month of November.. Will you be repeating this great feat on the 25th December? Do you guys tend to push the boat out just for Thanksgiving and not as much for Christmas or the 4th of July.

I'm clocking off soon enough, it's that time of the week for the black stuff..
Hope your feeling better.

Deluxe mashed potatoes here get mayonnaise, butter, cream, sour cream, garlic, salt, black pepper, white pepper, granulated onion, a bit of either spicy brown mustard, Dijon mustard, and/or a touch of yellow mustard powder. Whipped nicely. If they're still too stiff after all of that, which can happen with good heirloom spuds, then a touch of almond milk adds just a bit more of the liquid.

We'll typically do a meal like this for Thanksgiving and Christmas, though not always the same main dish or side courses.

Birthdays, the people involved used to get to choose their 'special meal'. (*I look back on how my 2 of three adult children are now, and sometimes resent having gone all out for them, frankly).

4th of July here has always been a mixed bag for me. For our family as a whole, it has been just casual summer fare; maybe some smoked ribs or smoked pulled pork, or burgers, etc. Some watermelon, which used to be a spring, summer and fall routine occurrence for me, but whereas the fructose in watermelon (specifically) didn't used to affect me poorly, I can't say that anymore.

For me, as a former political activist, the 4th was and is a day of some resentment, so I would frequently or often not attend the local community shindig and/or picnic with any vim or vigor. My resentments about the recreation of many of the same plights by people who claimed to have achieved 'independence' as those they threw off that were invested in monarchy. Quasi-monarchy recreated in the way of Oligarchy. Dishonest use of the military via wars for profit, the greatest number of people imprisoned/incarcerated/arrested per capita in the world while celebrating 'freedom', the drug war(s), restrictions on travel/movement, and more.

So over time, I simply grimaced on that day, and if need be, attended the parade with my wife and kids because that's what kids want to do. And of course, occasionally sitting through the local village barbecue, where a fire-roasted young pig was often on the spit.

Other than Christmas, what are some of your big feast days that I, as a proud Irishman, should be aware of?

 

[armedoldhippy]

have been that for the most part, or at least fairly often, when you find something you love, and you do that for a living, with the fickle and whiney nature of human beings, you'll soon find you no longer love doing that

i grew up as a fishing brat, being allowed (nay, REQUIRED!) to lay out of school when the stripes/crappie were spawning in spring to fill family freezers. spent so much time on local rivers that i could cross the Hugh B. Day bridge at Rogersville and could tell where the striped bass would be. fed myself for years like that, being "professionally unemployed", lol. toyed with the idea of becoming a guide, but came to the same conclusion as you espoused. it might have been a career, but at what cost to my enjoyment of life? nobody has offered me a job eating bacon...yet.

 

[moose eater]

Hey Moose,

That was like reading a excerpt from 'bone in the throat' (Anthony bourdain)
Well done on bringing it all together, what did you wash that fine meal down with.

Shame about the breakfast sausage (sausage meat) mad Irish eh..
Deluxe potatoes? Are we talking nutmeg and cream.
I would of enjoyed being a fly on your kitchen wall, hope you all had a pleasant and enjoyable feast..

OK, I understand we are still in the month of November.. Will you be repeating this great feat on the 25th December? Do you guys tend to push the boat out just for Thanksgiving and not as much for Christmas or the 4th of July.

I'm clocking off soon enough, it's that time of the week for the black stuff..
Hope your feeling better.

Oops! Failed to reply to this inquiry, SX. Apologies.

Drank it all down with a Susitna Brewing 'Blizzard Blonde' ale at 5.5% abv, on sale at a local/rural quick stop and fuel station for $9.99/six 12 oz. cans (same place I scored a nearly half-price deal on half-size bottles of Patron Reposado and Blanco tequilas the other day), and some plain seltzer water and RO water, as well as medicinal green tea X's 32 oz., and 16 oz. of a marginal seasonal 'winter blend' coffee with a touch of 40% heavy whipping cream added.

While I went to our older son's place to pick him up my wife made a good, lower carb (not Keto but lower carb) apple pie in a crust that was 50% almond flour and 50% whole wheat pastry flour, and rolled thinly but still durable and loaded with a variety of cut up pie apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, whole wheat pastry flour, butter, etc., and sweetened mostly with what we now know to be a health hazard, erythritol and monk fruit blend, as well as a couple TBSP of 100% pure organic Canadian maple syrup.

 

[superx]

Hey Moose I hear ya on the 4th, maybe something greasy to mark the occasion. St Patrick’s day and Christmas would be the 2 big ones, through out the year it would vary from season to season with the emphasis always on locally sourced produce. ( same as you guys) birthdays and special occasions would usually mean hitting the city.

We’re a nation of pork lovers, no getting away from it if you tried. We wouldn’t be known for our culinary delights when dinning out, some would disagree not me.

I get more fun cooking for others. Eating for one and left to my own devices it’s usually something simple like a bowl of rice noodles in stock. I tend to spend a fair bit of time in Asian supermarket’s when I can.

 

[moose eater]

Hey Moose I hear ya on the 4th, maybe something greasy to mark the occasion. St Patrick’s day and Christmas would be the 2 big ones, through out the year it would vary from season to season with the emphasis always on locally sourced produce. ( same as you guys) birthdays and special occasions would usually mean hitting the city.

We’re a nation of pork lovers, no getting away from it if you tried. We wouldn’t be known for our culinary delights when dinning out, some would disagree not me.

I get more fun cooking for others. Eating for one and left to my own devices it’s usually something simple like a bowl of rice noodles in stock. I tend to spend a fair bit of time in Asian supermarket’s when I can.

There are a couple of Asian markets here, but the real treat is New Sagaya Midtown Market in Anchorage, where sometimes they're spendy, but they have (or used to) some of the best seafood, fresh produce, a hot buffet with a variety of foods, and a variety of Asian items that aren't found elsewhere, as well as a large selection of yuppie chocolate from all over the place, in all shapes, sizes and colors.

They also have cook ware, and my wife's HEAVY DUTY green stone mortar & pestle came from there when I had spine surgery down that way about 6-1/2 years ago.

At the moment I'm headed into town at -35 f. to pick up a deal on lifetime guarantee tall, heavy knit wool socks that are guaranteed for life and on this Black Friday (a gimmick for corporate America if ever there was!!), where a store in town is having a buy-one-get-one-for-$1 sale on them.

They're a sock brand I initially scoffed at, as they're notably more expensive than what I typically bought in the past, but the prospect of having a GOOD, well-made pair of heavy, tall wool socks that, if they get a hole, a dog chews them up, or they simply unravel, I just send the socks to their factory and they send me a new pair.

And at the time I first bought them, the tall wool socks I'd BEEN buying (Fox River) were starting to go to shit after about 6 months or less of winter use, with holes at the ball of the big toe, etc., so I figured that even if the ones I'm getting a couple pairs of today for Christmas for our oldest son are almost twice the price of the Fox River, I've never had a hole in the Darn Tough brand, never had them unravel, etc., and as stated, if they did suffer a flaw, I get a free pair for some postage.

I've now got a collection of the buggers, have given a pair last year to my younger son (regretting that at this time, by the way), and am going to give the full-price pair and the additional $1 pair to our older son this year. Functional gifts, especially considering how often he's out in the cold doing his primary job, and his accompanying me to the mountains/bush on occasion in the later winter.

On that note, I'm off to town 20+ miles away, as the Sun just barely starts to light the horizon here, but for the clouds. Giving me yet another chance, in addition to chauffeuring my older son last night, to assess the roadworthiness of this particular vehicle, as it's in cue as one of the possible rigs I might drive to Los Anchorage on Monday to score my rims and tires for my truck on Tuesday. Or the camper van, as it would provide a place to hunker down and sleep, were I to find a place near the city where I'd not get fucked with, or maybe the truck, and rent a cheap cancer patient-rate room. Who knows?

Anyway, the car's been running and warming up, so I'd best cease pontificating.