Lurk....per your comment about Bourdain.....I totally get what you're saying. FWIW (and maybe my age has something to do with it) I try not to get caught up in someone's personal life so much - especially someone as gifted as Bourdain was. That show as incredible! He really was a fantastic ambassador for America and I'm sorry he left us so soon. On the same theme...I had mentioned Steve Sarkasian over in the football forum and someone posted a really lame joke about his drinking problem. That's really ignorant and essentially just small minded thinking - especially after watching how well Alabama's offense performed this year. Now maybe that forum member was just trying to make a joke - I don't know. But if that's the takeaway some people have on a coach that great - then that's on them. Thanks for the books and TV show mentions in your post. Enjoy your chickens!
So busy enjoying Ms. Jan’s cooking for supper I forgot to post it. We had her pot roast and gravy with homemade whipped potatoes, fresh green cabbage, and crowder peas. That’s right—it hit the spot. Pretty chilly this afternoon/evening (40*/wind chill 36*) thanks to a persistent north wind, so one tumbler of 1792 did the trick today. Life is good in Gator Nation!
Not to just flat out brag on Ms. Jan’s cooking, but that pot roast and gravy was so good last night we are going to honor it by making our supper tonight ol’school open face roast beef sandwiches. The weather folks weren’t wrong here today—our high was 48* and our expected low tonight continues to be 28*........ The col’beers get another rest as a bourbon drink will be the flavor of the day. Ms. Jan will hold steady with her wine. Life is good in Gator Nation!
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!
@GatorLurker — Ms. Jan has several fruit bearing trees that we wrap for any chance of freezing temperature nights. Also a cover to go over the regular cover of our pool table that she will bring her “special plants” inside on freeze nights—(I just have to not be in the mood to shoot pool those nights).
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.
Simple Sunday today— Grilling cheeseburgers with home fries. Ice cold longnecks and chilled wine is available. Life is good in Gator Nation!
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.
