Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

Doing a braised corned beef today.

Potatoes, parsnips, and turnips as sides.

And carrots.

 

They predict 33 F in Gainesville, but I am always three or four degrees warmer.

 

When I was a kid growing up on the Southside of Chicago we used to shovel the snow off of the school yard basketball court so that we could play.

 

I have two chickens smoking and stuffed with Meyer lemons that I picked from just before the freeze we had awhile back. It got to just below freezing in my yard in places, but not everywhere. My pinwheel jasmine (not really a jasmine, but Tabernaemontana divaricata and I also have the double petalled variety as well) was barely touched. My cymbidium orchids loved it. I have to douse them with cold water on occasion in the fall so that they bloom this time of year. If I don't they won't bloom.

Sorry for the gardening talk for those that just want food talk.

My elephant ears got sindged a bit with the freeze and the root (taro) is essential in Hawaiian cooking.

Hah, I got gardening and food together coherently!

 

We used to haul my sensitive plants into our dining room on really cold nights. Now we have a garage and storage room as part of the living space we built for my MIL so it is much easier.

Now I want to get a kaffir lime tree so that I have a ready source of kaffir lime leaves. It is a unique ingredient in Thai cooking that is hard to fake with something else. I have a friend with a tree, but I would like to have my own.

I cook a lot of Mexican, Italian, and French dishes and I love them. But I mostly like cooking with local ingredients. My favorite protein source is grouper caught out of Cedar Key. My favorite source of sweetness is tupelo honey.

I loved Cedar Key oysters, but that is something that needs to be renewed. Cedar Key clams, however, are a wonder and I use them a lot. It is time to take a drive out there to get some more.

And local scallops are to die for.

 

Chickens are almost done and the Bears look like losers.

Well, half of today was OK.

 

Leftover smoked chicken, salad, and black beans and rice. The rice was like Chipotle lime and cilantro rice, but with the addition of butter, sea salt and datil peppers.

 

Making a creamy sauce based on sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil and roasted red peppers with garlic, red pepper flakes, and basil to serve with penne and shrimp.

A simple salad will accompany.

Then going to a friend's house for his birthday and dessert. Socially distanced, of course. Bringing two bottles of Moet Brut to be shared with the revelers and a bottle of Don Julio blanco as a birthday present.

If the Don Julio is cracked I think that Uber or Lyft will be in our future.

But I doubt that will happen. We will want to get home in time for tip-off.