2021 January ~ A New Year ~ A New Day ~

From Lore:

"Small steak done in the oven with some onion soup as a sauce, baked potato, grilled vegetables done on my indoor grill. Onions, red and yellow peppers, zucchini, portobello mushrooms."

I was reading an article about different countries signature dishes. Some of them looked really good.

Here is one from Iceland that I can pass on:

Iceland: Hakarl
In Iceland, the best-known delicacy is hakarl, which is rotten shark. It is the meat of the Greenland shark, which is toxic if not fermented. It is said Hakarl was invented by original settlers about a thousand years ago in Iceland, where little grows in its volcanic soil, who learned to bury the meat for several months to break down its toxins. It has an unpleasant taste of urine because sharks lack a urinary system and release urine through their bloodstream and tissue.

Here is the link with pictures:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/recipes/signature-dishes-from-50-countries-around-the-world/ss-BB1cukfT?ocid=msedgdhp#image=1

WOW! I have said many times that I have never met a fish I didn't like. I think maybe Icelandic Hakari just might get that dubious honour! LOL

Some of those dishes sound really good. I wonder what blood sausage tastes
like?

I seem to have a problem seeing all the slides. Will try again, as it interests me to see what is popular in other counties.. Blood sausage is quite common in Germany. It's also common for breakfast in Britain. I have eaten it, many years ago. It is not (as I can remember) as disgusting as it sounds. It has to be very cold, and spicy, is often served with very finely chopped onions. It's not high on my list of priorities, and I'd have to be really hungry to eat it again. LOL

Bugster2 wrote:Some of those dishes sound really good. I wonder what blood sausage tastes
like?

Blood sausage, Polish duck blood sausage, is a 'black' sausage made with duck blood. It can be very tasty but I find it rather 'mineral-y' and much like most other offal/internal organ meats and such. I have friends who eat it regularly, made in the same way it's been done for hundreds of years.....

I'm using my new sous vide to cook pork chops. Going to see if they come out tender. I'm cooking them in the sous vide water circulator, cooked to a temperature of 145°. Just before supper I'll remove them from the zip bag, dry them, add a bit of oil and sear them on my grill pan.

I just love trying out new gadgets!

I love kitchen gadgets too..    Spent a lot of money on a spiralizer about three years ago, and have only used it I think three times.  But, it is also pretty well a food processor, slicer etc..  I don't have much counter space, so I think I need to re-organize things a little better, and give the spiralizer new space.  Problem of course is that normally I'm cooking for one, and how much can you spiralize????

I have an indoor grill on which I made a bunch of grilled vegetables yesterday, had some for supper, and there's lots for tomorrow and maybe a third day.  BUT, I realized last night that there is a lot of grease on the floor in front of my stove and I hate washing it.

I have two boneless pork chops in the oven with sauerkraut.  Broke a tooth a few days ago, got a dentist appt. today, and I threw that in before I left.  When I came home a few minutes ago, I threw some baby potatoes in on top of the Kraut.  Think I have to look at saving money on my food to pay for the broken tooth.  30 minutes in the dentist's chair $350.00 please!  

A friend of my son's is really into cooking and was talking about his sous vide in the summer, offered to let me borrow it to try it out, I said "No thanks, I do not need another gadget, nor do I want to learn another new method of cooking."

PS................... speaking of gadgets, I think I have at least 6 different garlic presses, and find that I can mince it better with my trusty knife.

OK ~ get ready to scroll past. I'm at it again with my photo journal. Sous Vide of bone-in pork chops this time:

Two pork chops seasoned well with s&p, put into a zip bag that had 1/2 tsp. of olive oil smushed to coat the bag. Air pushed out by inserting the bag into the water bath & sealing.



Pork chops cooked in water bath for 2 hours at 145°



Bag removed from the water bath & chops dried on paper towels ~ moisture from cooking in the bag.




Pale pork chops marked on a hot grill pan ~ brushed with a bit of fresh olive oil so they wouldn't stick to the cast iron pan.




Supper for two ~ first picking of green beans from the 3 plants we have in small pots out in the courtyard.




Tender and moist pork chop ~ surprisingly tender! Fried (steamed) cabbage & green beans:

Very nice tutorial. Dinner looks great, but I will not be tempted to get one of those gadgets. Have fun with it!

Cookin Lore wrote:Very nice tutorial.  Dinner looks great, but I will not be tempted to get one of those gadgets. Have fun with it!

Quite honestly, I would never have purchased one. But DD#1 has had her's for about 2 years and loves to make steak and other things. She's the one who decided I really needed one to play with. LOL

It doesn't actually take up all that much space. The water container isn't necessary (although she sent that, too) as you can easily use a Dutch oven pot or anything deep enough to hold about 6" of water and the food in a plastic bag or 'food saver' bag (which I also happen to have ~ gifted it to DD#1 and she thought it was easier to use zip bags so she gave it back to me to use when I was blanching & freezing vegetables from the garden).

I, too, have a recently purchased spiralizer. I've used it about 3 times to make zucchini / carrot threads. One of these days I'm going to use it to make wafer thin strips of raw red beet & carrot to have with an orange salad. At less than $25 it seemed like a fun toy. When not used I keep it in it's original box in a storage cabinet out in the garage.

Oh Lordy! My spiralizer was $285.00 LOL Now that was Canadian $$$ so in your REAL money abut $200.  LOL I had one of the hand crank ones first, and liked the end result, thought I'd use the electric one more.

This is the one I have.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mX1QnevzpA

I think I couldn't sleep one night and got roped in with that infomercial. It really works great. Maybe my daughter-in-law would like it and use it more.

This OXO one is the one I have ~ hand crank and 3 blades with storage container for blades.

I got it at Bed, Bath & Beyond with a 50% off coupon (had to be used or lose it.....) Retailed for $41.99, got for $21.....

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/s/oxo-spiralizer?ta=typeahead

I have the spiralizer attachment for my KA mixer. It also peels apples. It works really good but I never use it. It just sits in its box collecting dust.

Yes, I found out that there is an attachment available for spiralizing. for my KA> Sigh. Found that out after I bought the one I have.

I considered the Kitchenaid attachment but decided it was too expensive a toy at $100 (not available with my 50% off coupon) so I went with the cheaper one........because I'm a real 'tight-wad' at heart! LOL

I got mine for $65 during a sale somewhere. I too am a bargain hunter.

I studied at the school of hard knocks! LOL

What a hot mess in DC! Disgraceful! It makes our security look so bad. Anyone can breach the capitol.

I have a half turkey breast in the oven. I made a half batch of slow cooker dressing. I didn't have any potatoes so I am making instant mashed. Fortunately I had a container of leftover turkey gravy. It should be good.

Bugster2 wrote:Some of those dishes sound really good. I wonder what blood sausage tastes
like?

When we had our restaurant, a couple of the men and I went to a butcher and got some pig blood and made a Korean blood sausage. It was many years ago, but as I recall, it reminded me of liver.

I would think that it would taste something like that.

Things got busy around here last night....

Just realized I didn't post. Don't know where my head was!

I did sheet pan roasted supper: Asian Glazed Chicken Thighs & Roasted Cauliflower with a sweet potato baked along side.

I was stuck in last year. LOL

Catching up on events and posts. Last night was beef stew that Tina made.

Leftovers for me today. Meatloaf from last night, rice and grilled veggies from a couple of days ago.

Thursday was golf scrambles day.....went out for Mexican (and a margarita)......no cooking for us!