Still Eating After All These Years

We are very fortunate to be able to at times be pretty self-indulgent when it comes to food - e.g., we cooked an outrageous (and so-priced) standing rib roast on behalf of our mothers on Easter.  But it is pretty unusual for us to get into such pricey territory.  Mostly we are about exploring more mainstream and economical fodder, and making it more or less from scratch.  We will be slow-cooking a pork shoulder tomorrow that went for less than a dollar a pound.

Sean (son-in-law, keep up here!) and I somehow found ourselves unsupervised (baby shower?) a while back and thus had to assemble from-scratch tamales all by our lonesome.  A little scary when one of us had never done this before and the other had only delved into masa one time.  We had our hands so full that there is limited visual record.  We learned by doing, and my impression is that the results were enjoyed.

I feel truly blessed to be surrounded by not just food-lovers, but more than a few lovers-of-making-food.  It's a lot more fun when you're not doing it alone.  It's a true bonanza to have both son and son-in-law quite prepared to instigate and implement intriguing food explorations.  Frankly, when I was their age or just a bit shy, I was still resonating with Rice-a-Roni and similar boxed foods that you threw a pound of ground beef into.  This is something quite terrifically else.  And I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge also that spouse Marg and daughter Mara have been from early-on full-fledged members in this foodophilia.

Somehow in the crush of circumstances I failed to get a picture of the ultimate result, but I made French onion soup a couple weeks back to pretty good effect.  Aside from a lot of onion-chopping, it isn't a major undertaking.  I couldn't quite accept the dictate of all red onions, instead doing half yellow, but otherwise I scarcely strayed from basic recipe.  I made the basic soup one night then re-heated and added toasts and lots of grated gruyere (actually, recipe was a tad skittish about such "strong-flavored" cheese - you have to know when to ignore the nay-sayers, right?) and broiled the next.  And, though toast was alas in short supply, I was quite delighted with left-overs the next night.

It was probably only a week later that Eric dropped in to take charge of dinner yet again, as he used to routinely do when he sojourned here.  I think this was an accompaniment to previously-mentioned Rib Roast.  I photographed his double-cooked potatoes.  Boiled until semi-done, then fried and seasoned with garlic for sure, s&p.

Marg put together a wonderful pork goulash recently that for me evoked a number of comfort foods, including choucroute, pork-chop spaghetti, and somehow cabbage-rolls.  Sauerkraut is always for me a happy ingredient, though I know that is not the case with everyone.  This was another keeper.

In the meantime, Sean and Mara purchased a wood-pellet Traeger griller-smoker.  We had the good fortune to be there for its' most audacious launch, involving a leg of lamb and "spatchcocked" whole chicken (in brief, backbone, breastbone, and ribs removed, allowing for much faster and more even cook).  The concept on this unit is quite different from the Weber Smoky Mountain I have.  You set the temperature you want and pellets are fed into the fire chamber accordingly.  It is probably more flexible than my smoker, as it can basically serve as a conventional BBQ in addition to doing what you need in the way of smoking meats. I might have an edge on cooking capacity (volume) and cost of fuel.

It will be fun to compare our experiences.  We have not even fired up our smoker since last Fall, but I did stockpile some charcoal recently, and I have quite a variety of smoke sources available, mostly locally-collected.

But Sean certainly did a terrific job on his lamb and chicken.  To swoon for, believe me.  Your eye does not deceive you.