I've been trying to adjust to the cast iron, and working on it!

Made Pea Soup today. With pigs' feet ($1 for one, split) for the hell of it, for flavor. Couldn't be bothered with picking the meat off of it, but had chucks of ham anyway...

Does it really matter which part of the delicious pig parts come from?? It's all good

Tho, ironically, ham is my least favorite.

Want to make great chicken soup? Use chicken feet. It may be repulsive, but they really make the best soup.

Did you tell this to SC?

Hmmm... Looks more like upchucks to me.



I'll bet you anything SC already knows. Repulsive? Nahhhhh... Simply put, every Jewish baby-boomer who had grandparents knows this fact! (Or should.)

Signor V.

Yessirree... I'll take the feet any day...

Signor V.

He seems pretty anxious to take two feet of cock.

Bastardo!

Jeez, the only thing you could do with something like that would be to make soup!

Signor V.

Or maybe not...



"No cock soup for you!"

Do they serve this soup with matzo BALLS?

Jewish penicillin!

OHHHHHHHHH-KAYYY
moving right along....

Grapefruit goes under broiler
Add warmth to breakfast with cinnamon sprinkle
Faith Durand / http://www.thekitchn.com

Admittedly, the pairing of grapefruit and cinnamon doesn't immediately make sense. At least, it didn't to me. There's something about the tartness of the grapefruit and the distinct spice of the cinnamon that seemed dubious. The idea of hot grapefruit also sounded odd. But when I finally tried it, this recipe quickly became my favorite breakfast dish.

This is such a simple way to add some warmth and freshness to your breakfast. Simply sprinkle a grapefruit half with cinnamon sugar and broil it until the flesh of the sweet-tart grapefruit swells up, nearly bursting with the hot juice inside, and the sugar turns into a gentle crust.


The warmth brings out all the juiciness of the grapefruit and its tart flavor. Every bite has that juicy taste, along with a bit of sweetness from the sugar.

It barely needs a recipe, of course, but see the above directions just in case.
Broiled Grapefruit With Cinnamon Sugar

• 1 large ruby red grapefruit

• 2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar

Heat the oven to broil. Cut the grapefruit in half across its equator. Use a sharp knife to carefully cut around the inside edge of the grapefruit half. Then make small, deep cuts next to each segment's membrane, to loosen the fruit from the membrane. (If you have serrated grapefruit spoons, this step is less necessary.) Sprinkle each half with cinnamon sugar and put in an oven-safe dish, sugar-side up. Broil for 15 minutes, or until the top turns quite brown and caramelized. Let cool for 5 minutes and eat while warm.

Faith Durand is managing editor of TheKitchn.com, a national food blog.
Link

My brother and SIL stopped over yesterday and told me they had this on Saturday! It sounded repulsive to me, but then I'm not a huge grapefruit fan.

I'm not crazy about them but they are supposed to help fight cancer, colds and chloresterol. Anyway they're better than eggs...

My Go-To Places for Regional Italian Food in San Francisco
By MARK BITTMAN
ABOUT 20 years ago a friend took me to Caffe Trieste in San Francisco’s North Beach for an espresso. It wasn’t easy to find a stand-up espresso in those pre-Starbucks days, but — more to the point — it helped me to recognize the strength and authenticity of that city’s not-especially-large Italian community.

Northern Italians, mostly from Liguria (specifically Genoa), were among the first European immigrants to arrive in San Francisco in significant numbers, right about the time of the Gold Rush. Perhaps because their arrival coincided with the region’s development, and because much of California is essentially “Mediterranean” in both climate and topography, their impact was profound.

It’s not novel to say that so-called Californian cuisine is essentially Italian (perhaps “Italian-dominated Mediterranean” would be more accurate). But no comparably sized city has more authentic and better regional Italian food — of all the cities in Italy only Rome has the audacity to support restaurants whose food originated in other regions — and, really, with the possible exception of New York, it may be said that San Francisco is the world’s best city for regional Italian food.

There have been better-than-average Italian restaurants in San Francisco for as long as I can remember, but at no time have there been more than there are right now. (The East Bay is equally good.) In addition to those described here, there are Pesce, 54 Mint, Dopo, A-16, Incanto, SPQR, Ragazza, Little Star, Odesso, Corso, Boot & Shoe and others. These four, all in San Francisco proper, are my go-to places for regional Italian food....

Full NYT Article

Lilo, that picture looks amazing. Yum. I did love the restaurants in San Francisco.

We're so bored with the usual meals, especially since we've been stuck in so much this winter. We had some ground beef, and were toying with meatloaf recipes, sheperd's pie, and then my husband brought up the idea of Jamaican Beef Patties.

The dough was tough to work with, but they came out nicely. Despite using actual Jamaican curry powder, they didn't come out very spicy. I was surprised about that. I would definitely make them again, though, maybe adding a touch of cayenne pepper.

Made "Real Meatballs and Spaghetti" (Barefoot Contessa) with a few minor alterations, but wasn't that thrilled.

Maybe it was my fault, but I don't think so. The 5-star recipe, to me, is too loose and not seasoned enough.

My changes (to the recipe at the link above):

MEATBALLS

Used 1.40 lb meatball mix + .5 lb 90% ground beef
Added 1/4 cup minced onion
Added 1 tbsp minced garlic (not enough)
Added 1/4 tsp chopped crushed red pepper (not enough)

SAUCE

(I doubled the recipe, which you will NEED to do for pasta)

Used two cans San Marzano skinless tomatoes
Added 2 sweet sausage patties (had them in freezer; too much I think)
Added 1 tbsp chopped basil (3 frozen packaged cubes; not enough)
Added 1 tbsp dried oregano (or tsp, forgot to write it down)

Everything else was to the tee, so not sure why it was so thin. I did use the immersion blender since I hate chunky tomato sauce, so maybe that contributed to it.

The meatballs were good, but not great. I hate over-seasoned food, but this probably could've used more than the recipe called for. The sauce tasted too much like sausage, so I guess I used too much -- didn't put beef in the sauce, so no surprise.

Meatball Mix? WTF???

In a mixing bowl

1.5 lbs of 80 /20 Ground Beef
1/4 to 1/2 small sized minced onion
2 1/2 TBSP FRESH minced garlic
2 eggs
1/4 cup of bread crumbs
Light Sprinkle of Salt
Light Sprinkle of Pepper
Light Sprinkle of Oregano
Light Sprinkle of Parsley
1/4 cup of Finely Grated Italian Cheese

Work and Mix in bowl (WITH HANDS) together until you form a LARGE ball. Then form your meatballs to desired size

Brown them in a frying pan using olive oil and when brown all around on the outside (DO NOT OVER FRY THEM) put them directly into your sauce and let them simmer in the sauce for 4 or 5 hours.

As for giving you my recipe for making my sauce, I'd have to kill ya if I told ya!


Last week I made a kick ass Bolognese sauce over Rotelle macaroni! The family went nuts for it!

Umm, meatball/meatloaf mix is equal parts ground beef, pork and veal. Any chef will tell you it adds more flavor than just beef alone.

Geoff, where's the bread? The egg?? I've never heard of meatballs that are just meat. And two sausage patties doesn't seem like a lot of pork. And didn't you cook the meatballs in the sauce??? I really like the Barefoot Contessa, but this recipe doesn't sound very good.

My daughter bought my mom the Carmine's cookbook for Christmas. I have to take a look at their recipe.

Oh, ok. For moment there I thought that you were talking about some store brand Meatball mix in a package or something!

Yes, some like to add veal and pork to the ground beef. I've done it several times and like it. But I prefer all ground beef with the rest of the ingredients that I posted above.

Try my recipe...fuck the barefoot contessa....what the hell does she know about cooking REAL Italian?!?!

(I actually like some of her recipes)






Spoken like a true Sicilian! A REAL Italian!

Personally I rather use Bread Crumb than Bread itself. But that's just me.

Hey Babe, I think that you should make a new commercial for Egg Beaters!

Just like that "Where's The Beef" lady became famous, you may become famous as the "Where's the Egg" lady!

The recipe is in the link. I only indicated what I changed

Sorry, didn't see that there was a link.

Glad you doubled the tomatoes. 1 can would not have been enough. The original recipe sounds darned good, though, with the exception of the nutmeg.

I making stuffed peppers (my wife won't cook for me anymore). Do any of you use tomato soup as the sauce?

I'm gonna make some angel hair pasta, and add some artichoke hearts, a sprinkle of olive oil and grated cheese.

Oh, that sounds delicious. Mr. Babe hates artichokes, so we rarely have them. Can I come over??

I'm trying to think what to make for Valentine's Day and haven't got a clue. I was thinking risotto with chicken and mushrooms, but that just doesn't strike the right chord. It's supposed to be warm on Monday, so maybe we'll grill some steaks since we'll finally be able to go outside without parkas.

That sounds absolutely delicious. But I thought you didn't care for cheese? Or am I confusing it with something else?

Or has my brain gone soft from all that pasta I've been eating...

Signor V.