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Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

Discussion in 'Diamond Gators' started by GatorLurker, Jul 28, 2016.

  1. Bazza

    Bazza Moderator

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    Made a nice simplistic salad tonight. Chopped lettuce, black olives, and feta cheese. Topped off with Good Seasons dressing. I always used balsamic vinegar to make it. I remember a long time ago I use to use white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar but just love the balsamic so much am sticking with it for now.

    I had to get a blood test this morning in advance of my bi-annual checkup next week. I use Quest and things always go very smoothly. My tech today was the same one we had when I brought Mom in last time. She's super nice. I always leave a very complimentary review afterwards.

    That appointment was at 10:45am, and I had fasted beforehand, so brought and consumed a banana afterwards that was wonderful...lol.

    Then I ran up to my fav. wholesale flower nursery and picked up 110 (6") Sunpatiens for my monthly accounts, my place, and Mom's. I will also give some away to friends.

    As an afterthought - and along the thoughts of gift giving - I also grabbed 7 spider plant baskets. They will also be given away as gifts. And I bought a young 3 gallon Thatch Palm to add to my collection. This place does mostly flowers but they also dabble in some woodys and misc. tropicals. The owner is a Gator and we always have a chit chat about sports while I'm there. Of course today it was mostly about last Saturday's debacle.

    I also ran by Site One and grabbed a couple bags of fertilizer. One was a 24-5-11 for turf and the other a 14-14-14 all slow release for ornamentals.

    Then I came home, ate the leftover Filet from last night, and ran back out and planted 40 of the sunpatiens at 4 different properties. Tomorrow I will plant another 20 at Mom's. Then chase back here to plant some at my place. I got 6 different varieties so I could put certain colors at certain properties according to needs.

    It's a little late to plant these but on the other hand if they don't get melted by a hard freeze they will look incredible come late Winter/Early Spring.

    There was a guy at Quest this morning saying it was getting down to 32 tonight. I knew he was wrong but elected to refrain from debate. I don't think it will get below 40 here. Maybe not even that cold. I wore shorts today until I went back out to plant. Was getting chilly by then so slid on some sweats.

    Tempted to ask Mom if it's OK we just have pizza for Christmas dinner, but she's super traditional so I will forge ahead with the ham, etc.

    I also made the decision today to stay off the talk forums before the game Saturday. I've already said my peace. I might take a peek or two but mostly am not in the mood to get into any big discussion stuff. Working in my gardens will be a lot more gratifying, for sure.

    I do hope we win the game though and know that's asking for a lot but you never know.....

    Go Gators! :)
     
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  2. BA69MA72

    BA69MA72 GC Legend

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    Bazza, I had to take a nap after reading about your day!
     
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  3. Bazza

    Bazza Moderator

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    That was the short version...... :)
     
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  4. GatorLurker

    GatorLurker GC Hall of Fame

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    Tonight is farfalle (bowtie) pasta with homemade pesto and brie slavered over cut pears.

    Tomorrow is braised short ribs and veggies (pearl onions, carrots, San Marzano tomatoes) served over wide egg noodles.
     
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  5. GatorLurker

    GatorLurker GC Hall of Fame

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    I saw an ad in my local rag (The Sun and not The Alligator) that the "value pack" at Winn-Dixie has NY Strip steaks at $3.99 a pound. I will have to check that out. Almost as good as pork shoulder at $0.99 a pound and limit two.

    My Christmas dinner plan was rib-eyes and this might be a small change in plans
     
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  6. 74nole

    74nole GC Hall of Fame

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    Lurk—

    Check the label on the packaging. If it’s the small yellow tag, that’s beef from Mexico and I would advise you to leave it with them. IMHO you won’t be happy with it. If it’s the regular W/D sticker then buy whatever they’ll let you have.
     
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  7. Bazza

    Bazza Moderator

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    Anyone Activia yogurt fans here?

    The Black Cherry flavour is insane good!
     
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  8. 74nole

    74nole GC Hall of Fame

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    Baz—

    Can’t help you with this one but I will add that when my Mama was still alive we were required to keep her freezer stocked up with Publix brand frozen yogurt (most any flavor) but amongst her favorites was their Black Cherry. I will have to say that, well, it ate better out of a big cereal bowl rather than a desert bowl....;)
     
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  9. Bazza

    Bazza Moderator

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    Good stuff, Bill! :)

    Your Mom sounds like a great lady.

    And you are proof of that, indeed!
     
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  10. BA69MA72

    BA69MA72 GC Legend

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    My wife loves the black cherry and also French vanilla. I’m not much on desserts
     
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  11. 74nole

    74nole GC Hall of Fame

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    We are going with a known good dish around here hoping it shares some good luck tonight in ‘lanta..........

    We are having fresh fried catfish, cheese grits, homemade coleslaw, hush puppies, and Ms. Jan’s sweet pickles.

    A beautiful day as it has warmed up to mild temps. Back porch ice cold longnecks and chilled wine are in play for the afternoon/evening.

    Life is good in Gator Nation!
     
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  12. GatorLurker

    GatorLurker GC Hall of Fame

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    I like your positive attitude about the game.

    I think that our best hope for winning the football game is that the Bama team gets food poisoning from their pregame meal. They look like a REALLY good college team.

    Short ribs are braising at 250 F. I had to fake the veal stock for the braising liquid with a 2 to 1 mix of beef stock and chicken stock. That is close and a lot cheaper. Also cheap red wine (Yellowtail is good for something) and pureed San Marzano tomatoes in the liquid with finely chopped carrots, onion and garlic. And some red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar as well as fresh thyme for flavor.

    Braising is the French version of low and slow. I like cooking that low and slow both in the kitchen and outdoors. This dish takes almost as long as smoking a small pork shoulder and it is only a bit more than two pounds of short ribs!

    Pearl onions, carrots, egg noodles and mushrooms will accompany the short ribs. The braising liquid will be reduced to a sauce after filtering out the thyme, carrots, garlic and onion solids.
     
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  13. Bazza

    Bazza Moderator

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    French toast this morning w/thick sliced maplewood bacon! YUM!

    Helluva game last night.

    Great weather for gardening today so will be at it until the showers move in later.

    Have a super Sunday everyone!

    GO Gators!
     
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  14. GatorLurker

    GatorLurker GC Hall of Fame

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    Smoking two chickens today. We don't need two chickens for dinner, but smoking one and smoking two is pretty much the same amount of work so why not.

    And cold smoked chicken has a lot of uses. Great sandwiches and even better as enchilada filling.

    I have some rabe (rapini) that I need to use so I will sauté that after a quick blanch for a side. Also some mashed potatoes for my son that avoids most things green.

    And hats off to the Gator footballers yesterday. They gave Bama a game. Too bad they couldn't quite pull it off. Penalties and turnovers hurt.
     
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  15. GatorLurker

    GatorLurker GC Hall of Fame

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    Chicken enchiladas tonight with margaritas. We have a lot of juicy and tasty chicken to use up. I know that there is no reason why you have to cook a chicken low and slow with smoke, unlike pork shoulder and beef brisket and other tough meats, but it just tastes better being a little bit juicy and smoky. Chicken cooked faster is also tasty and has a crispier skin, but usually ends up not quite as juicy. I did pat the skin bone dry before starting the smoke so the skin has a bit of crispness but not like a higher temp cook.

    While I can make homemade enchilada sauce the El Pato (the duck) red sauce is really good and it comes canned at our local Latin market. Why work hard when you can just open a can of something almost as good?

    Actually it wasn't available last time at our local Latin market so we ordered it on line from San Diego and we now have lots.
     
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  16. Bazza

    Bazza Moderator

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    How about the little candy canes next to our profile pics?

    I admit, I'm not much in the Christmas spirit this year. Feels like I'm just going through the motions.

    The little candy cane is a nice reminder that this is the season.

    I sent a Christmas card to an old flame too. She's still single as am I. She actually called me and told me it really boosted her spirits. You never know - but regardless it's nice to send a card out to someone you care for whether just a friend or otherwise.
     
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  17. Bazza

    Bazza Moderator

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    Back on topic......I just made Fudge Brownies! And Winkipop got to lick the bowl! :emoji_wink:

    Great weather today!!!!!!!!
     
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  18. GatorLurker

    GatorLurker GC Hall of Fame

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    But we didn't have enchiladas last night. We had Thai take-out instead even though I made the mole. Sometimes plans change.

    Tonight is chicken enchiladas. I spent an hour shredding 1.5 smoked chickens (one whole one and another missing all of the dark meat and some of the breast) and even though I have washed my hands several times my fingers still smell like apple wood smoke.
     
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  19. Bazza

    Bazza Moderator

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    Picked up the green bean casserole ingredients today. Going with the French cut beans!

    [​IMG]
     
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  20. BA69MA72

    BA69MA72 GC Legend

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    Have to be French cut. Went to 2 Publix in the last several days—completely out of regular mushroom soup. Only low-fat and heart healthy. Went with h-h but going to have to add seasoning
     
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