On a cooking note, I've made Julia Child's braised cucumbers a few times recently and they are quite delicious...last night I mixed it up and used cilantro and limed juice instead of mint and lemon and ole! a new taco topping is born.

The Italian one is the same, but with 10x harder to find ingredients. Strangely, the Italian Restaurant isn't nearly as good as the flagship.

I am sure we could concoct some excuse to go to Highlands. Perhaps snuffing a Portugeuse photographer named Lacerda?

Damn. That sounds awesome. Report back.

There is a local high end place here doing a beer and cheese pairing on Thursday that I'm debating on going to.

They have their own cheesemonger doing the pairings.

Peppered jizz with Coors Heavy.

Need this.

Well, a few things were changed around. They served the cheese first, which made sense, and was a nice way to get started. They also served it with whipped honey from the bees the chef keeps in his back yard, which was a nice touch. The Orval was probably my second favorite beer of the night and the one I wold be most likely to get to actually drink more than one of. Honestly, they could have served me four of these with four of the cheese plates and I'd have gone home happy.

The pork was fantastic and cooked just right with a hint of pink, served over a tart cranberry chutney that was really good. It went well with the Chimay, but really that was my least favorite beer of the night. Not at all bad, just not as good as what else they had for my tastes.

They replaced the short ribs with Halibut, which was a bit of a disappointment comparatively for me, but it was really well seared with a light breading of spices. Overall dish was a bit bland for me and I'd have preferred the spare ribs, but not bad. I'm a fan of the Saison DePont in general so I enjoyed that. Not having tried the other three beers, something familiar was nice. I grab bottle of this fairly often in the summer.

The dessert was excellent and served in a creme anglaise. with spun sugar shards and cilantro. This was my favorite beer of the night if for no other reason than it stood out with its uniqueness. Really rich tasting, 11% alcohol and paired well with dessert. But really, I can't see myself ever wanting more than one of these at a sitting.

Overall one of the better meals I've had out for quite some time. They are talking abotu making it a monthly event s I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open for the upcomming menus.

last night I had apple cinnamon bratwurst with apple mayo pizza. It was fucking awesome

Split a syphon with a friend this weekend. It was astoundingly good.

I buy all my beans from them (Intelligentsia)

I've been out of town the last few weekends and busy during weeks. Yesterday was my first chance to hit up the farmer's market in almost a month and I went a little nuts.

Bought:

4lb Rabbit
4lbs of Mussels
1.5lbs of Organic, Grass feed, Grass finished Ground Beef
1 lb of Chicken Chorizo
1/2 lb of Lamb Marguez Sausage
2 Duck Sausages
1 Boar Bratwurst
1 Bratwurst
a Jar of Pickled Hot Peppers
A Bag of Blood Oranges
A Big Bag of Tangelos
Almost $50 worth of Blueberries, Strawberries, and Raspberries
A Bag of Haas Avocados
A whole bunch of Fresh Herbs
and a few vegetables

I'm gonna be eating well this week.

It doesn't make much sense I can't buy rabbit around here.

I made some serious pork loin last night - marinated in ponzu, cilantro, srirachi, a little brown sugar, and a little blood orange infused olive oil.

If rabbit season hadn't just ended, I'd tell you to go out with your MCC friends and shoot a couple

For something extremely delicious and yet simple as hell to make, I've been getting into savory bread puddings lately. Made one this weekend with sauteed Swiss chard, leeks and assorted mushrooms along with Emmentaler cheese and fresh thyme. Just mix whatever vegetables, cheese and/or meat you'd like together and toss it into a pan with a cubed and toasted loaf of bread and pour over half a dozen eggs and about a cup and a half of half & half and bake for 40-50 minutes. Let it set for a second after you take it out and dig in.

Can you at least find it frozen? Or just not at all?

This is where I'm at today. Wife and kid left at 11 yesterday and I was immediately aimless. Got fully loaded yesterday and gorged on carnitas that I made in the crock pot yesterday as that thing's maiden voyage (I braised, I guess, a piece of shit pork shoulder in guinness for ten hours- necessary? not really). Now I really need to be back in bed but I'm making chili, eating leftovers, drinking coffee and trying to not start drinking until tipoff.

Best thing I've ever made in a crock-pot was quail (wild, of course) in cream of mushroom with rice. Haven't made it since freshman year at UGA back when I sported a Ducks Unlimited cap on the reg.

WINNING

Went to a Vietnamese non-Bun, non-banh mi, non-pho place in a dirtmall strip the other day. I had a delicious grilled pork with slaw dish, and The Broad had shaken beef, which came with this small dish of sauce that was badass. It was slightly acidic and heavy on finely ground black pepper. Like McCormick in the can pepper dust. When we paid the bill, the woman told is what it was: equal parts sugar, salt & pepper, shake it up in a Ziploc bag to mix it all up real good. Squeeze lemon juice into it. I made it at home that night with a tsp. of the dry ingredients to half a lemon, tossed it with sauteed chard and served salmon on top. So stoopidly simple, and really good.

Other highlights of the menu that will make me go back to just try shit:
+ All sorts of Vietnamese crepes and seafood dishes
+ The hot & sour soup was pineapple-y sweet, with sprouts and chunks of pineapple and tomato. Nothing like Fortune Cookie American Chinese hot & sour.
+ They had a page of all sorts of shenanigans, including Goat Soup and boar grilled at your table.

PLUG!!

Hey all,

I know I don't speak much of my wife and her health problems, but to jump to the good stuff, she's turned a 180 and pretty much changed our lives by going gluten-free.

here's her blog that she does every once in a while.

http://inthekitchenwithjustjessie.blogspot.com/

That's awesome, bort.

That's great to hear, Mark!
Hope that she continues to feel better.

I never knew how easy it is to make creme fraiche. 1 tbl spoon of buttermilk mixed with 1/2 pint of heavy cream. Leave it out on the counter in a closed container for 12 hours. Refrigerate. Last about 2 weeks.

Crème fraiche - http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/3 ... hould-talk

Last night I made a butter tikka masala from scratch, with paneer and spinach.
First time I ever tried making it.
It was yum.

I bought a mandolin slicer a couple of months ago and recently discovered a spice store in my neighborhood that makes a lot of different spice blends. I'm on a big kick of making homemade potato chips with different flavorings. I had a bunch of old bay flavored chips with some crab quiche last week and some other spicy ones with a couple of wild boar bratwursts over the weekend.

I finally got around to trying dem pork steaks bloor was talking about a long time ago. Pretty good.

I also bought a Goat leg at the farmer's market last weekend and am planning to cook it in a big batch of seco de chivo soon.