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GHS vs. Wausau West, first 20 minutes.

With a call from Pete.

GHS vs. Merrill

Senior Band only, Dec. 3, 1976 (?)

Enjoy!

-R

Now at 13 months, the last eight in the fridge . . . see https://tiabr.com/re-i-rub-mine-every-day/ .

To start, just showing off the cheese drawer in my fridge. Many of these are about a year old now:

You do have a cheese drawer, don’t you?

🙂

Luckily, the small bit of blue that insinuated its way in doesn’t seem to have spread.

But, you ask, how does it taste now?

Despite the waxing, the paste is denser. Far from a grating cheese, though, so I suspect that’s just the natural evolution, and it’s still a cracker cheese. Surprised to find that it has become a bit gritty, I assume because of tyrosine crystals.

But wait, how does it taste?

Excellent. The herb mix seems to have penetrated and equalized throughout the cheese, so each bite is consistent with the next. Unsurprised that it’s a bit less mild than earlier, and now seems to have a slightly sourer finish, but the herby-liciousness far outweighs that.

And certainly no vodka taste, so I’m having a vodka tonic to accompany my tasting 🙂

-R

I won’t be so presumptuous as to give anyone advice on how to boil a hot dog 🙂

I lost the link to my favourite onion ring recipe, so tried a new one. Not as good, but close.

Ingredients:

• 2 large onions, peeled and sliced into 1/4 to 1/2″ rings. (You can use any kind — Vidalias are sweet, red onions mild, but I like yer plain old yellow/white onions for their sharper flavor)
• 1-1/4 C. flour, divided
• 1/4 C. cornstarch
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne
• 1/2 tsp. grated lime jest (optional)
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 C. milk
• 1 C. beer (substitute: club soda)
• 1 egg
• Vegetable oil for deep frying

Method:

Separate the onions into rings, then sprinkle over 1/4 C. of the flour, and mix well to coat.

Whisk together the dry ingredients for the batter:

Then whisk in the liquid ingredients and the egg. I got a bit inspired and replaced my original beer choice with this!

By now you should have heated up the oil to 365 degrees F. (Oops, forgot to mention that.) Put a teaspoon of batter into the oil and cook it until crisp, remove and when it’s cool(ish, don’t burn your mouth), taste and adjust the batter seasoning.

Working in four or five batches, mix the rings into the batter, then remove and shake off excess batter. Cook them in the oil for 3-5 minutes, turning (as best you can) once, or until crispy.

Drain on paper towels:

Pick some of the prettier ones for their internet star turn. The rest will keep for several days in the fridge, but are best reheated in the oven to return some of their crispiness.

Oh dear! My last dillies, canned about a year ago. The last jar I opened was pretty much mush, and went into the bin. These, in a quart jar, were reasonably crispy (perhaps the previous ones, in a pint, were overcooked). Nicely mild and similar to a kosher dill, my fave.

Don’t forget to toast the weiner buns!

I prefer my hot dogs pretty simple, just some mayo, a bit of chopped onion, and mustard (has to be French’s, though!).

Hot Dogs and Onion Rings with a Scallion Sour Cream Dipping Sauce, House Dill:

(accompanied by a glass of Guinness Extra Stout, but forgot that in the picture)

Yum!

-R

Or in other words, Chili-Garlic Sauce for Fish.

To me, this is very reminiscent of nuoc cham, the dipping sauce for Thai spring rolls, but a bit different, and likewise a doddle to make. The recipe says it’s good on any type of cooked (baked/grilled/steamed) seafood, so I tried it on some steamed tilapia.

(that’s the “before” picture!)

Ingredients (for 1 lb. seafood):

• 2-1/2 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1 Tbsp. palm sugar (substitute: brown sugar)
• 1-1/2 Tbsp. lime juice
• 1-1/2 tsp. finely minced garlic
• 1-1/2 tsp. finely chopped scallion
• 1 tsp. ground red chili

Method:

Heat the fish sauce, water, and sugar in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat.

Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Taste and adjust the balance to your liking.

This was delicious. As I was going about my other kitchen tasks, kept returning for a forkful until only about half was left by dinnertime.

I’m less concerned now about keeping meals “ethnicity consistent,” just more about what tastes good.

Cream of Green Pepper and Celery Soup, Steamed Tilapia with Chili-Garlic Sauce, Dhal:

Yum!

-R

I am a big fan of Maesri’s canned curry pastes from Thailand. Mostly very good, and handy when you don’t want to start from scratch. The one I wouldn’t recommend is the noodle dipping sauce, which is bland, and you can make a much better version in about five minutes.

I don’t think I’d tried this one, for a vegetable curry.

The instructions couldn’t be simpler: (1) Boil the curry paste with four cans of water, (2) boil some vegetables in it until they’re done.

That seemed a bit uninteresting, so I complicated it up and made it more like like a fave Indian vegetable curry, also simple but delicious (https://tiabr.com/aviyal-basic-vegetable-curry/.

No need to list the ingredients!

Method:

Cook the chopped onions and minced ginger in a bit of oil over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, or until the onions wilt. Add the minced garlic and stir continuously for a minute or until fragrant.

Stir in the coconut cream from one can of coconut milk.

Here I have to take a slight detour. I used this:

. . . which is cheap but terrible. With most canned coconut, you get a nice layer of cream on the top, like this:

With Top Coco, you get a nasty, congealed layer of what I assume is coconut oil, so dense that I bent my spoon trying to get it out of the can:

So, you ask, why did I use it? (1) I thought that maybe because the original recipe was basically just spicy water, the oil might add some richness to the final dish, and (2) I’m cheap and didn’t want to waste it.

Anyways, add the coconut cream to the pan and stir to melt:

Too much oil, and removed about half of it:

Now stir in the curry paste for a couple of minutes until well-incorporated and fragrant:

Add the water (you will need more than the four cans, depending on the quantity of the vegetables) and bring to the boil. Add the vegetables, starting with the longest-cooking ones, until done to desired doneness.

Serve with rice or whatever you’d like.

But, you ask, after all that drama, how did it taste?

Not bad. The “curry” flavor was, expected, pretty mild. The coconut milk didn’t bring much to the final flavor, although thankfully neither did the excess oil ruin it. So, okay, mostly because nothing overwhelmed the taste of the individual vegetables. Won’t make it again, though!

-R

Honestly, a recipe for a chicken salad sandwich? Isn’t that just

Yep. Some cooked chicken, some mayo, a bit of chopped celery and salt. On bread.

I can’t think of anything more delicious, even if my tastes usually run to more spicy dishes.

But it can be made even better, so here is my version:

1. Boil some chicken (prefer dark meat to white breasts) for about 45 minutes. Remove the chicken from the water and allow it to cool. Take the chicken off the bone, reserving the skin if you’d like (https://tiabr.com/crispy-chicken-skin/ )
2. Meanwhile, boil the remaining water/would-be stock down until it tastes delicious, then remove it from the heat and allow it to cool, then put in the fridge, so tomorrow you’ll have not only chicken stock but also some schmaltz, which makes anything fried taste better.

Now it’s all up to you. I like to add some of

I always add sour cream, in about a 1:3 ratio to the mayo, which adds a certain tanginess. Also, a bit of Dijon mustard adds a bit of a kick, and I love tahini. The rest? As is your wont.

The lettuce adds a nice crunchiness. The usual tasteless supermarket tomatoes don’t add anything except bulk and some visual appeal.

After mixing, taste and correct seasoning. It always seems to need more salt than I expect.

Serve on toasted white bread, with potato chips (with a turn of pepper if you’re feeling adventurous) and a glass of milk.

Yummmmm!

-R