Things we made this weekend & I forgot to take pictures of.

I make myself really busy sometimes. So much so that I forget how nice it is to just be at home. Which means that, when I finally am home, I end up doing one or both of two things. Most likely, I stop and do a lot of quiet hanging out with Bill and a lot of reading. Or I cook a lot.

This weekend was a long one for Bill, and a quiet one. We ran just a few errands, had a very nice meal out, learned about a bocce ball league, had a guest over, and I read a lot. And then I cooked everything. We also played a bunch of games.

It wasn’t really intentional to cook everything. It happened because it was a really nice weekend and because we had a lot of time and because we ran errands. No joke.

See, errands took us to Butcher and Larder. Where I knew I wanted some sausage, but that’s about it. Instead, we left with sausage, a pork shoulder, a chicken, bacon, and two small flat iron steaks. As I’m writing this, the only thing we haven’t cooked is the bacon.

You know what’s worse about the failure to take pictures? The fact that most of this is at some level of experimentation. BLOG FODDER.

Oops.

So, in no particular order, I’m going to remind myself how I am a forgetful food blogger, let you know, and also make some promises about what you’ll read about in the next month. Though, to be clear, these aren’t the ONLY things you’ll read about in the next month.

Bill and I cooked/prepared the following this weekend:

1) Flat iron steaks. We were going to grill them, but then it started pouring rain, so we made them inside. If you want a post on this, you’ll need to talk Bill into it. I’ll tell you what, though, they were amazing.

2) Smoked hard boiled eggs. You’ll get a post on this, and as soon as I can get you one, because I want to experiment more with this process. But, frankly, I hate peeling hard-boiled eggs. Partially because we never, ever manage to have “old” eggs on hand. So I can’t promise whatever photos we have will be pretty. But I do promise I won’t cheat and buy pre-boiled eggs. If only because I want to practice my boiling methods.

3) Smoked almonds. This is my next planned post. But a science post may swoop in and go up first.

4) Smoked chicken. That Bill then grilled. This was tasty, tasty goodness, but not anywhere near perfect yet.

5) Smoked sausages. Well, see, we were smoking and grilling some chicken anyway, so why not experiment on the sausages too?

6) Yogurt. A post on this is forthcoming as well. Because it is delicious and easy. All you need is milk and some yogurt. Yes, it’s kind of recursive. That’s ok. Sometimes life is.

7) Carne adovada. I am pulling my hair out on this one. Sometimes it’s delicious and perfect. Sometimes it’s delicious but nowhere near perfect. This is more of the latter. It again seems to be a fat issue, though less bad. I could scream.

8) Red Chile Lard. This was intentional. I cut off a bunch of the excess fat from the shoulder, trying to avoid the problem in the previous link. Then I rendered it down with 2 tbsp red chile sauce. I haven’t tried it yet, but it smells lovely. Following the advice of Chef Mary Beth over on twitter, I’m going to attempt to make biscuits with it. I didn’t get quite a full cup of lard.

9) French toast. Basic, boring french toast. Nothing special.

10) Chicken stock. I’ve told you about this. I won’t bore you with it again, unless someone asks. I did add the smoked chicken bones to it. We’ll see how that comes out.

11) Bread, but Bill made that. I’m unsure if that counts. I guess if the flat iron steaks do, so does the bread.

12) Pasta salad with spinach pesto. From this post on The Kitchn. It was fabulous day of. Not so much after, despite the promises on the site. But I’ll make it again.

13) Rye whiskey cocktail with JoSnowSyrups. I’d tell you more, but then you’ll steal my recipe when she next runs a recipe contest. Because it’s that good.

14) Pear cocktails. Which Bill and I make a lot, never remembering exactly the proportions in them. We said we were going to write it down this time. I don’t think we did. If ever we do, this will be a recipe on this site. Because they are amazing. Also to prove to Tatiana that I am regularly using the beautiful martini glasses she gave me.

15) Fairly sure some other things, but I can’t remember what.

2 thoughts on “Things we made this weekend & I forgot to take pictures of.

  1. Whoa. When you say you cooked a lot, you really mean it. Looking forward to hearing about the yogurt (because, microbiology!) and more adventures in smoking (food, that is).

    • You shall hear all about it all! Though, given something I saw on Twitter, a beer post may also swoop in before the almonds post.

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