frets24

My Feedback: (15)

No doubt!

It's a wonder I'm not the size of an elephant because I LOVE food. I love everything about it, especially the taste experience and like to try new stuff as often as possible. There is not much that I won't at least try and lots of things that I'll keep going on until it's gone or everyone has abandon me at the table. My kids joke about how I'm the only person they know who's actually been invited to leave an all you can eat chinese buffet[X(] They all refer to me as the garbage disposer 'cause if the host/hostess would rather not have any left overs they shovel it my way and I'm happy to oblige! Good thing my job is very active and I seem to have a really high metabolism!!

I couldn't imagine going without food for months.

Tonight's dinner is going to be great; potluck buffet Christmas party!! Oh yeah!

I drew an appetizer card so it's baby onions wrapped with roast beef and cream cheese. (there's 2 plates like this...there were more but we had...um...some casualties[8D]

FahrtAutoRC

Grease and gravy are both great We keep several gravy mixes around, We also have thing full of bacon grease, a giant tub of Crisco, and always some sno cap lard!

Smiff 24

I like bacon grease in my green beans and in my cornbread mix.

jessiej

I haven't tried bacon grease on ice cream yet, but it makes just about everything else better.

I always enjoyed food, but first became interested in cooking some years ago when my hunting club maintained a rather primitive sleep-on-the-ground deer camp. Despite the otherwise spartan facilities we always had a couple of coleman camp stoves, charcoal grills, and dutch ovens used over the coals of the fire. A couple of the guys were great chefs and we had some fine meals. I can now do a Venison Marsala that would make a convert out of the poor guy who doesn't like food.

jess

tommygun32

I like to wrap things in bacon for added flavor, especially for Christmas dinner. Things like string beans, asparagus or chipolata sausages. And of course my sage & onion stuffing gets a good helping of chopped bacon as do the brussel sprouts.

HA! Bacon flavored ice cream, I've seen that on Diners Drive Ins and Dives. We interviewed a specialist Italian Gelato maker who was in Dubai with a famous chain of big name hotels. They were doing a month long ice cream promotion and brought him out for this. Before he came to the station, he'd challenged us to come up with the wildest thing we could think of. The final choice was fish and chips flavored ice cream. He actually made and brought it for us to try. It tasted exactly like frozen, smooth fish and chips....grease and all. One of the grossest things I've ever tried. He nailed the flavor, but it was nasty [:'(].

I love camp cooking, especially if what's being cooked has just been caught / harvested. Like wild stream trout in an iron skillet with butter...wrapped in bacon. Done!

frets24

My Feedback: (15)

Gee wiz, ANYTHING cooked in butter in an iron skillet wrapped in bacon is gonna be GREAT!!! Especially over a campfire

(maybe not fish-n-chips ice cream though....[:'(])


Merry Christmas all!!! Out, AFK, till next year. Eat hearty!

tommygun32

Merry Christmas to you too frets.

I've been diving into this lovely Xmas specialty from my wife's side of the family.

Don't know if any of you will know it, maybe Sheo has some experience with it.

It's called Sorpatel.

Origins stem from Portugal and refined in Goa, India. Finely cut up pork meat, pork liver and pork heart. This is first simmered for about 20 minutes or so in seperate pots. Drained (save the stock from the meat, not the organs), then added to one big pot and fried off, then a bunch of spices and vinegar get added and cooked for a couple of hours. The thing about it though is that you let it cool down and leave it on the stove top, then re-heat a couple of times a day for a couple of days. Then eat it. Usually served with Pulao rice or soft Portugese rolls for soaking up all that extremely tangy and spicy sauce.

tommygun32

Dinner last night in a whicked restaurant in Pisa, Italy started with an Anti Pasti of cold cuts, cheese & honey and toasts, followed by wild boar stew cooked in red wine, tomatoes and olives, served with a polenta cake and beans toscano on the side. All washed down with a half carafe of stunning house red. This Rocked!!!

tommygun32

Lunch today we went for a Tuscan cooking class.

"traditional" bolognese sauce, hand made pasta and tiramisu......[&:][:-].

I hate to say how wrong I've been doing it for so many years...[&o] Now I know.

tommygun32

Dinner tonight....there are about 27 Pizzarias within 2 square blocks from my hotel....so.....

Lunchboxer

Pizza in Italy?! Very creative.. (joke, Tommy..) ha.. jealous...

tommygun32

Ya, I hear ya bro....but these pizzas are just indescribable compared to what is available to me in Dubai or what I've had in the States....[&:]

frets24

My Feedback: (15)

I have been well fed by relatives and friends over the past week or so and am quite happy to have returned to my own kitchen and bed....everything was great while away but, there's no place like home.

Greg, you are seriously taking this to the next level posting Italian dinners cooked in an Italian cooking class in ITALY!!! That's just too cool.

Ran over to the grocer and picked up some thick sliced corned beef from the deli, cut a bit of moldy crust from the rye bread that I forgot to toss in the freezer before we left and whipped up a couple of Rueben sandwiches for me and a small pot of (nasty prepackaged swill) Ragu spaghetti sauce and some angel hair pasta for everyone else. It works....they hate rye and sauerkraut and I'm no fan of the off the shelf sauces that they will happily consume

tommygun32

Just walked through the door about 1 & 1/2 hours ago. Blehhh...back in Dubai.

I've signed an agreement to SHARE the recipes I learned in Florence and will do that tomorrow....right now it's 2 am, I've been in airports and on planes since 7 am this morning and now I'm able to watch Deadliest Catch in English, ha!

tommygun32

Here's the 'ragu' sauce I learned in the class.

1 small carrot - chopped finely
1 celery stalk - chopped finely
1/2 large red onion - chopped finely
1 can of plum tomatoes crushed by hand in a bowl
1 lb minced beef
1 lb quality Italian sausage (or use ground pork if you can't get the sausage) casings removed
1 cup decent red wine
1 tsp salt
crushed red pepper flakes to taste (1/2 tsp up to 1 Tbs)
About 4 or 5 Tbs olive oil

In the largest pan you have (not a pot) on medium hot temp add the olive oil and saute the onion, celery and carrot. They should all be chopped about the same size and you should have about the same amount of each once chopped. Sprinkle some salt to help it get along and to start the flavors.

Once sauted, add the meat and break it up with a fork. Cook until colored. Now sprinkle a bit more salt and chili flakes. Now add the tomatoes and wine and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add some water if it's not wet enough.

Add your pasta to the sauce....never the sauce to the pasta. Sprinkle with parmesian or pecorino. Done.

suburban_hooligan

just ate me some taco salad

tommygun32

Hmmm...Taco Salad...[&:] Nice.

Don't think I've worked the Italian bug out of my system yet...hehe.

Tuscan Bean Stew with hearty sausages (these were Tolouse sausages as good Italian sausages aren't really available here[&o]), drizzled with EVOO and Pecorino, served with crusty bread and a dip of EVOO & Balsalmic and a couple of pepperoncinos.

Simple Caprici salad. And a few items brought back from Florence.

frets24

My Feedback: (15)

Gee whiz! Why would you want too? Just sit back and enjoy the ride! If I had the experience that you just had I'd glean every last drop of enjoyment out of it possible.

I posted the other night that I was going to use your recipe' for Satuday night's dinner but it apparently didn't post...
Anyway...we had it and it was great! Thanks! (as I am vicariously and gastronomically enjoying YOUR trip![&:])

P.S. How 'bout a few pics of Florence? (to expand the vicarious experience of course!)

tommygun32

Ha! Fair 'nuff frets. Here ya go.

tommygun32

Hmmm...having trouble uploading more than 2 pics per post...

tommygun32

A couple more....

tommygun32

And finally....

tommygun32

Glad to hear you and your family liked the recipe frets. Were you able to get ahold of some decent Italian sausages or did you use minced pork?

Tonight I'm starting tomorrow's dinner of braised lamb shanks in tomato and balsalmic with cannalini beans. It's currently braising in the oven at 170c for 5 hours.

Pics tomorrow

FrostByte25

Well by the time i get home i dont want to cook dinner...because.... I have most likely cooked all night at a Cajun Seafood Kitchen called Pappadeux..

tommygun32

HA!! Nice one FrostByte. Dinner to go from work, sweet. I'll take mine medium rare please .