Great Eats

(…don’t want to run afoul of Alton’s legal beagles! 🙂 ) [If you haven’t seen Good Eats/Alton Brown…shame on you! Go…now!!https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0344651/]). Good Eats will remain one of the few fond spots I have for television. That show (original Good Eats) was/is THE best cooking/science/maker show out there. It was equal parts cooking show, science show, puppet show. He (or his very informative guests) explained the WHY behind cooking, going beyond the ingredients and instructions and into why things are the way they are. The ‘skits’ were icing on an already perfect cake. Not to mention the really cool set with back of oven and back of fridge shots!

Enough reminiscing….this week had some really good meals! Wednesday’s dinner was a 30 minute (took 45 but still not bad) carnitas. https://damndelicious.net/2020/03/27/easy-pork-carnitas/

Very tasty (although a bit dry – even thought added more liquid just before serving). I tried making the corn tortillas in the past but it was a huge flop! What I thought was Masa Harina wasn’t and the whole mess (after much cursing) ended up in the bin… This time….worked perfectly! And so simple! 2 cups Masa Harina (specially processed corn meal), 1/2 tsp salt and between 1 1/2 and 2 cups hot water. Mix all together let sit for about 10 minutes (when the hot water hits the corn meal…smells JUST like corn on the cob!) and roll out to balls slightly larger than a golf ball. Third tortilla…the Amazon Tortilla press handle snapped :(. Tried one with just the rolling pin but it went out in every direction…so used press by hand to flatten the balls into a thick round disc then pin’d them out to the desired thickness. 30-ish seconds on hot griddle flip, 30 more seconds and Done!

Mrs T made Cinnamon French Toast Bagels again….these are SOOO good!! Especially right out of the oven…. We freeze all but a few of them when they cool to lock in the freshness – left out they go stale pretty quick as they have zero preservatives.

The other new thing Mrs. T made this week was granola! Off the charts delicious!! (only down side is it’s probably healthy too… ;)). Probably the last person to try this but a few spoonful’s of this over yogurt in the mornings or for a snack….over the top delicious!!

Tonight baked a loaf of our go-to Blueberry Walnut bread to serve as French Toast for Easter brekkie…. Two regular loaves for stuffing (Turkey tomorrow!! :)), and the sour dough is a rising! Bulk rise as one ball then I’ll split them for the secondary rise.

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The Son also indicated he wanted the ‘Dry Brine’ recipe from BA for the bird this year so….birdie’s currently having her spa evening, after a massage with 3/4 cup Diamond Crystal salt and 3 tbsp brown sugar.

Apparently turned the phone off too soon after taking the picture, so no evidence of the golden Easter birdie..but it was yummy! 🙁

Project wise…worked on the rear of the stealth camping trailer. Finally got last bits insulated. Planning a storage cupboards, kitchen (sink, stove, fridge) at back, but also need to still keep ‘utility trailer’ functionality for University moves and plywood/lumber purchases. Devised a ‘split’ back whereby right side (29″ wide) will be fixed in place, and left side (28″ wide) will lock in place for kitchen, but pivot behind right piece when need to haul long items. Back is 2 glued and screwed pieces of 1/2″ plywood.