Well, shit, maybe this sobriety thing's not all it's cracked up to be. Ya hear that, resolution chumps.....

Happy New year guys.

I'm making an execute I've decision and declaring this too salty to serve; It just is. It tastes like ham jerky, at least on the outside. I'm putting it in the fridge and going to sleep and telling my family see if we can make something with it in a day or so. Also, i just need some fucking sleep.

I get the feeling you've got a deli slicer in all of that kitchen gear. Sammiches, Bro!

Actually, it might not be that bad. Just the outside slice was crazy salty. I had some sleep and now things are looking better. My parents are coming over with some mashed potatoes and peas soon. I'm gonna make a glaze for the outside of the ham now.

I take back any self-criticism, it was an awesome ham. I did kinda mess up the process of crisping the skin and adding the glaze, so the outside kinda burnt. But the ham itself was wonderful. Not too salty and the brine cured the entire 21lb. piece of meat all the way through. All in all, a successful dinner. Ham & eggs for breakfast tomorrow!

It don't gotta be Thanksgiving to cook turkey. I fired up the charcoal grill and made a turkey breast last night. Threw a few chunks of cherry wood on just before I put the bird tittay on the grill.

Had some leftover dough from lunch and made these on a pan instead of tossing out the dough. I call them PiStezzo's.

Tonight I'm making meatballs and gravy over either rice or egg noodles.

Grilled flank steak & steamed broccoli. 5 min. per side on a superheated grill with a 10 min. rest before slicing.

Getting ready to make chicken fettuccine Alfredo and garlic bread.

Maybe some stir fried chicken and veggies with rice tonight. Haven't decided yet. Have any of you all eaten chia seeds or used them in cooking? Saw a vid calling them a true super food today.

Chia seeds are high protein. Look up chia seed pudding recipes or just eat them as is in salads or yogurt.

Thinking about making stuffed cabbage, but it is literally an all day event. Not sure if I feel like making that huge of a mess out of the kitchen.

Last year's salmon is still holding up great. I brined it for a bit in salty water so that when I cooked it, that white gloop didn't ooze out. Then I seasoned it and cooked it the way I've been making salmon lately. I sauteed it flesh side down in a mixture of olive oil & butter and then flipped it over and let it finish in a 400degree oven. It was great. My cat even ate a little piece that I gave to her, which is something she's never done before.

Salmon and Asparagus Frittata

I used nine whole eggs instead of the whole egg/egg white mix, and used a 10" skillet instead of a 12" skillet because the pie plate I usually use to store it is 10". The frittata is "higher", and needs a bit more cooking time, but I like it better. I think it needs one extra egg, for texture, but that'll still fit comfortably in the 10" skillet. Tasty as fuck.

That sounds and looks wonderful. But why does the recipe on epicurious specific 6 whole eggs and 3 egg whites? It doesn't say except to refer to this as an "egg mixture". It would seem this is a negligable percentage increase in eggwhite for either health reasoning or flavor/texture considering the nature of the dish.

^ Exactly, thus, why I used whole ones.

Blackened Turkey Po' Boys.

Unheated tomato bisque from Walmart directly out of the can with a plastic spoon. Shake, open, enjoy.

Add a hunk of moldy cheese and some cheap horseradish and that would be Panzeresque.

Something to try - Paella (and saffron rice for another time)

Source: Marimar Torres, The Spanish Table

Loaded my pizza oven with hickory wood, pushed the wood all over to one side and let it burn down until the flames went out and the oven temp came down to 500 degrees, then I put a nice hunk of choice ribeye in there and let it brown in the high temp. When the oven temp got down to around 350 degrees, I closed up the front door and left the top chimney open just enough to maintain the temp for the next hour or so.

I was talked into leaving the roast beef in the oven until the internal temp. got up to over 132 degrees, and it continued to rise to around 144 degrees after I took it out of the oven to rest, which is too well done for my taste. Next time, I'm taking it out at 120-125 degrees internal temp. Otherwise, it was an amazingly crispy, tasty roast. Now that I have the technique down, I'm going to try this again with a bone-in pork loin roast soon. The only other change will be to throw another small chunk of hickory wood onto the smoldering coals before I put the meat in to provide some additional smoke flavor.

I once had a whitetail deermeat steak at my friend's marinated and prepared in a smoker with hickory chips. And even though hairy buffalo was involved it was objectively the juiciest, tenderest, most delicious meat I have ever eaten. Now understand, I have never eaten in a decent restaurant and I estimate that probably 88% of all hot meals I've eaten over the course of my miserable existence have come out of a microwave. However this is Ohio, where they give children excused timeoff from elementary school to go deer hunting with Dad. But a large portion of these idiots wrap their venison in bacon or turn it into hamburger helper. This is not culture so much. Another interesting fact perrhaps is that I have never been hunting, only fire a gun twice (courtesy of same friend above, the day after 9/11 he was in his back acreahe watching tje sky fully prepared to shoot down any aircraft that wasn't supposed to be there and had the illegal arms to do it), I'm a liberal and a vegetarian but non practicing because I want to be dirty and within the belly of the beast.

Bunch of different shit tonight... steak, lobster, potato "roses," brussels sprouts with crispy bacon, etc. But the home run was some no-knead bread. Takes a while to get the technique down, but if you get it right, this is always a big hit. Maybe a little too much flour on the right side, but it mostly all brushed off.

Several bowls full of Kashi Autumn Grains. Whole milk. Pour cereal in bowl. Add milk until a single layer of cereal remains unsubmerged. Eat with plastic spoon. Retire to the toilet for the necessary amount of time with phone and a bottle of Orloff vodka balances precariously on edge of sink.

Salmon. Almost every fish has been nice and fat so far this year.

I replicated the curry cauliflower tacos at Salvation Taco and they turned out awesome! But I did low fat yogurt instead of sour cream.

I bought a plastic wrapped mass produced "New York Deli" subwich at Wal Mart and forgot to refrigerate it when I got home before I passed out. Many hours later when I regained consciousness I found it still laying on the counter perceptibly slumped in the humid heat of a sealed living space. I put cooled condiments on it and the effects on its flavor of what it had been through were very interesting, though the lettuce was slimy and unpleasant. This counts as cooking even if it was unintended.

Falafel cauliflower poppers from busyinbrooklyn.com.

If you're into trendy, quick, kosher food, this recipe blog is for you. Im making these soon, but found this too cool not to share.

http://www.busyinbrooklyn.com/falafel-cauliflower-poppers-baked/

I remember making something like this using egg and a batter made from chickpea flour. Bhajjis I think - onion, cauliflower, broccoli. I want to make some with slices of eggplant and see what happens.

Cooked a whole 42.5lb. pig on my new charcoal rotisserie spit. Don't have wifi here at the fishing spot, so I can't post pics. Turned out awesome.

Currently using some of raspberries from the garden to make infused vodka. Tried vacuum sealing some in a bag, but it made a mess. So the other half of the vodka is in a bottle full of raspberries, sitting in a pot of 150degree water. I'll prolly let it sit at 150degrees for about 2 hours and then pour it through a strainer.

One of my butcher shops had some boneless turkey breasts in a lemon pepper marinate. Very oily marinate w/ very light lemon flavor. First bite reminded me of a tuna steak I got at a restaurant a few years back. Grilled it at 9 tonight, and I was still sweating like a pig. It was yummy though. My son even liked it and asked for seconds.

Here's a few pics from the past month of fishing/partying....

Cooking up some raspberry vodka. Kettle One, some bagged up and vacuum sealed with raspberries, some just poured into an empty jug with raspberries stuffed inside. Cooked for 2+ hours at 150degrees.



Finished product, poured through 2 strainers and then some cheesecloth and back into the original vodka bottle.



Prepping the pig for roast. After seasoning, the rotisserie rod is inserted through the anus...and then through the mouth...



4-5 hours later, cooking at 225degrees or so with lots of hickory and apple wood for smoke.



Final product. We scored the skin at the end and cranked up the temp to make it nice and crispy. The ears fell off, even though they were wrapped well with aluminum foil.



Final red salmon of the year.



Goodbye to the Kenai river.

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Btw, nice turkey breast, Jerks. Is that a single-bevel chef's knife?

Single bevel? You mean just one side? If so, no. Hollow ground on both sides. Illinois Cutlery 10" cook knife, I think they went under in the 90s. Have a wood block set w/ 10" cook, 12" slicer, 6" utility, a pairing knife and a 10 or 12" steel. Also have a 10" serrated from them.

I used that because I didn't feel like getting out a cutting board and having something else to wash. Can't use a straight slicer on a platter.

Thinking of the company just made me google them and I found this ebay ad: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Illinois-Cu...A-/111833746746

That "black walnut handle" is plastic w/ a wood grain texture. Also, it aint "Made in the USA" They put JAPAN on the knife right next to the edge, so the first time you sharpen it, it is gone.

Here is how it is on my serrated knife, the only one that hasn't been sharpened.



Oh, and that knife is listed as Vintage, pre 1970, but it is from the 80s/early 90s.

The knife I asked about looks Japanese, which is why I asked if it was single-bevel (sharpened on one side). They do that sometimes. My current favorite knife is from Japan. It's kind of in between Japanese and Western style. It's sharpened on both sides. Something about it just feels right to me. For some reason, I've seen it on eBay for over $1,500, but this is where I got it and for this price or maybe even less at the time: http://www.chefknivestogo.com/takeshisaji2.html It's an amazing knife. High end knives have become a big hobby of mine and I consider them works of art.

Here's one more pic I found from the fishing spot, back when it was nice and sunny out. I miss fishing already.

Cool looking knife. That blade is super thin.

I see you used Royal Oak charcoal on that pig. That is what every Russian and Turkish joint I see uses.

I was in a butcher shop the other day and they were just finishing up dinner. They grilled some t-bones in the yard behind the place, and had a couple left over, so they offered me one.

It was cold, as it was sitting in a bowl in their meat cutting room. I said sure, I'll take a piece. Guy says, "Piece?? Here." and hands me the steak. I take a bite and it was delicious. Another guy hands me a piece of whatever kind of bread it is that Georgians eat, and I sat down on a milk crate, shooting the shit, steak in one hand, bread in the other, chowing down.

I passed on the offer of a beer, because I still had work to do, so the first guy poured me a cup of soda. "This is our soda, from our country. It is good." Pear flavor. Interesting. Not bad, would take some getting used to.

Royal Oak is just what they happened to have at the only Home Depot near the fishing spot. It's a fine charcoal, but not what I use at home. I generally use charcoal made from compressed, extruded coconut shells. Coconut charcoal gives off very little smoke or smoke flavor and lets your bbq'ed meat soak up whatever smoke wood you chose to use. Also, I enjoy saying, "compressed, extruded coconut." Generally though, Home Depot has pretty much everything you need to make decent bbq.

As far as odd Russian shit goes, my Dad has been inviting this younger married chick down recently to come fish with us. Nothing kinky is going on, she's loyal to her husband and he even comes to fish sometimes. But, we always give her the raw salmon eggs that we get when we fillet the fish. They cure them with just salt and then later eat them on top of buttered toast. She gave me a bag of the cured eggs, but I just ended up throwing them out. I couldn't bring myself to eat them.

Back in the day I would often see Russians eating breakfast, as they opened up their restaurants in the morning to get deliveries. Usually was an anchovy and slice of pickled egg on a piece of melba toast, chased w/ a shot of vodka. 2-3rnds of that and they were ready for their day.

I thought Royal Oak was local to the Northeast, or at least East of the Mississippi. I'll use it hen I don't feel like leaving the neighborhood for something better, but it's perfectly good.

Made some latkes from a batch of red potatoes in my cast iron skillet (thanks, JB, for the Christmas gift!) and I hand grated them because I get too lazy to clean the food processor. You're supposed to use white, but red is what I had. Topped with sour cream then black caviar. It was amazing.

Not sure about dinner. Had Pumpernickel and Egg bagels with cream cheese for brunch. Also had grapefruit juice and coffee to drink.

No prob. Thanks for the pot and the flatware. Latkes are supposed to be hand grated; food processor mushes the texture.

You are right JB. Do you prefer applesauce or sour cream with latkes?

Best thing I've made recently with a food processor is brussels spouts. You slice them all up in the food processor. Then you dice up about 6 slices of bacon and get that crispy in a pan and add the brussels sprouts and saute them with the bacon & fat. I watched Jacques Pepin do this and won't cook them any other way now.

That goes directly to the texture thing, and I'm going to try that soon.

@Ivor, Whichever's around, but why not both? Truth be told, I haven't made 'em in a bunch of years, but my Lithuanian Grandfather made 'em all the time and taught me how.

http://www.theboredvegetarian.com/2013/11/vegan-crispy-brussels-sprouts-with-smoked-paprika/

This vegetarian (non-bacon) looks delicious and easy. Pro tip: The paprika mimics a bacon flavor.

Always applesauce, hate sour cream!