Food & Drink

Grumpy Bear · October 19, 2021

Rutabaga

Okay this was my first attempt and the curve is steep. A seasonal root veggie they are preserved in paraffin. Didn't know that. BTW so are Parsnips. Peel it! It's a long clean up if you try boiling it first. Whole you might be waiting for the next polar flip before you cook one of these through whole. They are very hard. Better quartered or smaller. A note for next time. Plenty of peeling tips on YouTube. Yea, I looked afterward. While you picking in the pages of the internet the history of this veggie is quite interesting. Store unused in an air tight container and in water or they will darken like a potato.

I quarter inch diced this lightly par boiled root and fried a 100 grams in bacon grease rendered from a diced half slice of thick hickory smoked stock I had going. Near the end I added about 25 grams of diced red onion, salt and pepper. It never really softened but I'll do better next time. I ate them with an egg and toast.

They develop in your mouth like wine. Weird. The front end is much like a turnip but milder then it gets slightly peppery like a cabbage heart is. Warmth like nutmeg not heat like a pepper. Finally it leaves sweet and smooth. No aftertaste so the next bite of whatever is next isn't tainted. A really complex for a root.

Grandfather raise rutabaga in the timber and in the fall let the hogs forage for them among the acorns. Never thought them fit for humans. I respectfully disagree pops but they do make for tasty little pigs.

I will be exploring this root more and I will be looking of other unusual and overlooked veggies I've never tried. This is fun!

Grumpy Bear · November 1, 2021

Sunchokes

https://www.cookinglight.com/food/in-season/what-are-sunchokes

We tried these the other night with pasta. Nice flavor! Bad gas

:crackup:

She might have made to many?

Grumpy Bear · November 2, 2021

Sweeteners with Punch.

Know those cute little plastic Bears Honey comes in? Cleaning up two more empties; now one is filled with Molasses and the other with Sorghum. The latter use to be a crop in the field behind my childhood home we would pilfer for raw cane after school. Waconia Mills was just down the road and by best friends mother worked there when in season. A taste that has fallen out of favor but should not have. Good on toast, in coffee, a BBQ base...if you like verity.

Grumpy Bear · November 5, 2021

Golden Kiwi

If you have not tried this you must. A Golden Kiwi is about 85 grams shedding is skin. Chop that into 85 grams of vanilla nonfat Greek yogurt and a nice fresh grind of cinnamon. It better than Creme Brulee or Key Lime Pie and about 2 minutes prep time. I was just pulling left overs from the ice box and said, hum...that looks interesting. BOOM!!

Darn few things healthy taste this good. Feed back more than welcome.

txab · November 5, 2021

On 10/16/2021 at 12:00 AM, Grumpy Bear said:

We said farewell to a kitty this week we've had for 11/12 years. For a few days comfort food and ill advised eating will be center stage. Trixy was a rescue. Three legged and abused we got her when about 3. RIP little girl.

Doesn't she look dressed for the Mardi Gras?

6 pounder that punched well above her weight and as fast as anything on four pins. My wife's favorite child and constant companion. The other three kitties miss her an so does Rex.

RIP Trixy.

Grumpy Bear · November 14, 2021

One of those meals.

Wife made a dish tonight off the cuff of Bok Choy and cremini mushrooms seared in olive/sesame oil, red pepper flakes and shrimp served over seasoned Thai Rice noodles. WOW!

Blue Bunny Premium vanilla ice cream with candied Michigan cherries and a double espresso for desert.

A Digestif of a double Woodford Reserve Straight Bourbon Single Oaked and a nice piece of chocolate.

Bok Choy is something she has been experimenting with for some months and just nailed it tonight. Thai noodles with this was other worldly. Well done Sugar Bear !

Grumpy Bear · January 19, 2022

Jicama

When you are on a diet you're always looking for something to chew on when you're well past your calorie limits. I like Jicama but I don't eat much of it because they, for me, are such a pill to peel until recently. While I do it a bit different the idea is identical. I just do it in a different order.

Slightly sweet, crunchy snack plain or add to sides like water chestnuts. Cheaper too.

Per 100 grams.

38 calories
8.82 g of carbohydrates
1.80 g of sugar
0.09 g of fat
0.72 g of protein
4.90 g of fiber
150 mg of potassium
12 mg of calcium
20.20 mg of vitamin C

Grumpy Bear · January 31, 2022

Spaghetti Squash

Roasted whole at 375F for 20 minutes then cut in two and seeded. Filled with early peas, diced cremini mushrooms, shallots and garlic sautéed in butter and spring water. [I'd love to do this again with Morel or Shiitake? Something more earthy and peas on the side.]

Desert? Baked seeded Bosc Pears halves smothered in hot Wisconsin maple syrup and toasted slivered almonds and cinnamon. 350F for 20 minutes. [Black Corinth raisins would have been a nice add. Note to future self.]

Digestive? 85% chocolate and Woodford Reserve Distillers Select on the rocks. A double.

Follow. Four minute French pressed medium roast Costa Rica / Guatemala Arabica with molasses and whole milk. Local roaster

Wife is vegetarian but a poached skinless/boned chicken breast would have been good with this. Yes, Bay leaf, garlic and lemon.

https://www.recipetineats.com/poached-chicken/

Edited January 31, 2022 by Grumpy Bear

Grumpy Bear · February 4, 2022

Poached Chicken Breast

(photo recipeland.com)

100 gram serving

165 calories

3.6 grams total fat

1.0 grams saturated fat

0 Trans fat

0.8 grams Poly Unsat

1.3 grams Mono Unsat

85 mg Cholesterol

74 mg sodium

31.4 grams Protien.

This is a dish that is not what it seems. It is moist and fork tender. The very definition of the saying:

Taste like Chicken!

My first attempt turned out perfect. I bought a Capon 1/2 skinned and boned breast that weighed around 1-1/2 pounds. I cut it in thirds as the recipe I had called for an 8 ounce portion for two. In a 4-1/2 quart stock pot you bring about 3 quarts of water to a rolling boil. While it is heating up add a few lemon slices, a bay leaf and a few cloves of garlic. Resist the urge to add salt to the water.

Add to the pot, once on a full boil, an 8 ounce portion, trimmed of most visible fat, cover and remove from the cooktop.

Sat mine on a trivet. Set a timer for 20 minutes but this has a range. 20 minutes to an hour. I settled on 30 minutes. When it times out remove the breast and place on a cutting board for 15 to 20 minutes to rest. Don't hurry this step or you get dry bland cardboard.

Slice in 1/4" slices, season to taste and have at. I'm doing boiled red potatoes and carrots with this one.

There are dozens of takes on this that vary mostly in seasoning. Rosemary comes to mind. I think next time I'll use a 'fryer" breast that will be closer to the 8 ounce weight per half and more uniform in thickness.

I'm inclined to think I could do a 2 pound Capon half in an 8 quart and 6 quarts of water. I'm a work in progress hitting more than my share of home runs. Thanks to my mother making sure all her boys had some basic skills in the kitchen.

Grumpy Bear · February 21, 2022

Cottage Bacon

Cured Smoked Pork Shoulder

Something I'd never seen and enjoy. Leaner than pork belly. More earthy.

I've been stalled at just under 190 lbs. since before the holiday season. Harder time of the year to maintain my 1500 to 1700 calorie target. My calculated basal metabolic rate and a fudge for some light activity which when I focus isn't too hard to maintain calorie wise. But balance wise...it is much harder.

What is on this plate came to 494 calories.

26 grams of total fat.

38 grams of carbs.

26.5 grams of protein.

My personal target is no more than 30% of my calorie intake from fat. This meal is 42%

No more than 7% from saturated fat or 13 grams a day. There is 8 grams in this meal

Little fiber. Little mineral or vitamin content. The other meal or two today will take some focus.

I won't bore you with the remainder of the nutritional breakdown but I think it is worth passing along that that in general we tend not only to eat too much, but badly out of balance. Long term this has some nasty consequences. Mother had a quad done before she was 55 and dies by 72 from heart disease. She liked eating and baking. Keeping track forces me to look and looking helps me make better choices. I've already had one lack of fiber related surgery.

This part is more interesting and more educational. Doing 500 calories a meal in three meals hits my target range that has been maintaining my weight even for several months now. Note there isn't a drink in this meal? I had one. Coffee. Black. Zero calories. Tea, water etc. Not that I don't like milk, juice, pop and the like, but I like to eat and to do that and keep my focus something has to give and it won't be my night cap No deserts are also not optional but also are not required at every meal or even every day.

Grumpy Bear · February 25, 2022

Spaghetti Carbonara

(Guanciale)

I like simple dishes but I also like flavor and there are darn few canvases one can cook on more versatile than Pasta. This dish had an ingredient I'd not hear of since I was a child. Guanciale. Grandfather was a German hog raiser and called it Langenscheidt and use only in head cheese.

Cured hog jowl meat. Cheek meat. Actually more fat than meat and a part of what the Italians called the fifth quarter or offal. Not common in the USA in the mainstream. Often replaced this side of the pond with bacon or pork belly. Poor peoples food but that didn't mean without taste as often salt cured and/or smoked. I used the fatty end of the smoked salt cured pork shoulder, Cottage Bacon, from the previous post. Has that same earthy/salty/smoke flavor lost is lean cuts of sugar cured or uncured pork. Heavy on the earthy. I love that taste and in pasta dishes.....Wow! The Roma version of this dish did not ORIGINALLY use egg yokes. A little Stanley Tucci history gleaned from one of his programs. American service men brought the 'idea' with them during WWII. Missed their eggs and bacon. :(

So I tried it without the yokes. Just the two cheeses and black pepper/salt. Totally different texture and taste and I really enjoyed it with a Pepperoncini and Kalamata olives on the side and crusty dense bread in olive oil, no herbs.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Grumpy Bear

Grumpy Bear · March 31, 2022

Baked Tatters

I did not know that a potato wrapped in foil and baked in the oven is not a baked potato.

It's a steamed in its own skin and moisture potato.

I don't really cook. I practice on myself and starting to enjoy the abuse. But so is the wife and kind of getting use to me in the kitchen and her in front of the TV. She thinks that sly but she gets to do the dishes I'm good with that.

I like the skin crispy and salty and the inside fully white and fluffy. Darn near impossible bought in a restaurant. Doubly impossible cooked in foil which is the way a grocer loves to sell his potatoes for baking.

Lots of 'kinds' of potatoes are grown in Idaho so not all Idaho potatoes are Russet and a Russet is a great baking potato.

As the wife and I watch what we eat I've found it convenient to split one really large Russet so I choose one near a pound, give or or take an ounce or so. If you like your own use two that total a pound but keep some distance between them while cooking.

I wash that puppy with a vegetable brush and plain cold running water but good then pat dry with a paper towel. Pierce the skin with a dinner fork over the entire surface. Just pierce. Not kill it. Pour some good Olive Oil on my hand and rub that baby all over and then generously salt it.

Just because I hate clean up I foil a shallow pan and sit the tatter on that. A small Pizza pan or Brownie pan would work.

80-90 minutes in a 440F - 450 F oven. Each oven is different so perfect may take a try or two and some time or temp adjustments.

Straight out of the oven slam that puppy on a cutting board...FLUFFY.....then divide or open. Serrated or steak knife is handy as the skin is crispy. Sort of like a potato chip. I know eat the skin. Tasty!

You can figure out your own fix'n from there. I'm good with just plain butter, salt and cracked course cold smoked pepper.

If you nail this the flesh is white and consistent from center to just under the skin. Takes about half the butter of the traditional steamed in it's skin style and a wonderful loose soft butter like texture. It also stays really hot really long. Careful

This would make a perfect vehicle of a twice baked by skipping the slamming off the cutting board step and slicing instead lengthwise. Very scoop-able.

I'm also going to try this as the first step for mashed potatoes using cream instead of potato water and milk/butter.

diyer2 · March 31, 2022

Try an air fryer.

KARNUT · March 31, 2022

I've been on weight watchers for ever, it works for us. I ask my wife what’s for dinner then plan my day. Eggs in the morning always. Usually 3 over easy. Then there’s the other with the eggs usually 3-4 times it’s potatoes. Sliced with peppers onions sliced. Microwave together 2 minutes then fried until brown with 3 eggs on top. The grease depends on the points, weight watchers thing. Bacon, butter olive oil or just a spray. Again points. My blood work is always good so grease until it isn’t. Sometimes at night throw a potato in a bag, microwave, split add a little cheese, salsa, jalapeños again low points. Sometimes a little meat any kind. Snack, slice potatoes throw in the air fryer, love potatoes.