La Nouvelle Cuisine Thread

[ihavemyreasons]

Most of the Mexican restaurants around here are owned by the same family and the food at each is all very similar. We had one that was not owned by the same family and it was different and was my favorite, but it closed after the owner got sentenced to 25 years in prison last year for selling cocaine. Have been craving tamales and none of the family owned restaurants make them. Found a grocery store on the other side of town with a wide assortment of frozen tamales. Didn't realize the way to make them was to put them in a steam pot. Thought of improving something, but just went ahead and bought a cheap steam pot instead. Good decision. Not the best tamales I've ever had, but pretty damned good for frozen.

[RVR II]

My late wife's cousin works with me at our local post office and sometimes he brings in Tamales his aunt and uncle make and sell from their taco truck. They were $2 per tamale now they're $3 per tamale because of the rising fuel costs. They're pretty big like the size of a hotdog with bun so honestly I think the price is still fair.
I will usually get either the green tamales (tamale-verde) or sweet tamales (tamale-dulce) because the red tamales (tamale-rojo) tear my stomach up from the red sauce..

[ihavemyreasons]

 Made my own slightly healthier tamales today. Used almost flour, flax seeds, and sweet corn extract in place of the corn masa. Ground beef, refried beans, and chipotle peppers for the filling. Turned out great. Made 16 and will be freezing half.

[ihavemyreasons]

Freezer burnt grilled chicken wings for dinner tonight. Had been in the freezer awhile. Last couple of times I had chicken wings out they were freezer burnt as well and despite my home wings being freezer burnt they ended up better than those restaurant freezer burnt wings. So not the greatest, but not terrible and we're at a point where food costs being what they are I'm not throwing anything out unless it's at the point of being unsafe to eat.

[ihavemyreasons]

We have a Dominoes Pizza less than a mile away. Haven't ordered from there in years. Ordered a carry out pizza yesterday because of the "everything half off" deal they had going on and them being close and delivery fees being ridiculous. Spent $9 on a disk of salty over cooked garbage. Frozen pizza from convenience store next to Dominoes would have been better.

[ihavemyreasons]

Made my first batch of homemade sugar free ice cream of the year last weekend. Ran into the same problem I always run into when making homemade ice cream. It's great right out of the mixer but becomes hard as a rock and is never the same after a day in the freezer. Tried a trick I read about and it worked. Thawed it, added 4 tablespoons of whiskey (recommendation called for vodka, but I had whiskey on hand and it paired well with the vanilla) and then refroze. Alcohol kept it from refreezing into a rock. Will add the whiskey to the ice cream mixer for next batch.

[ihavemyreasons]

We used to go out to eat once a week, but with restaurants prices going up like everything else we've cut back to once a month.
2 things I miss about living down south are good Mexican food and BBQ. Admittedly my tastes in Mexican food are more tex mex vs authentic.
Hit the new Mexican restaurant last week that opened about a mile away from our house and it was more of the same - not bad really, but bland and exactly like all the other Mexican restaurants here.
Have higher hopes for the new BBQ restaurant that opened nearby this week. Have had some good BBQ places here over the years, but none have made it more than a year or two. Gonna splurge and pick up a to go platter there this weekend. Expensive, but not god awful expensive compared to grocery store meat prices right now

[ihavemyreasons]

Needed to go to Aldi Foods for a few things and they had beef brisket for $5 a pound. Bought a 2.5 pound one so will have to try the BBQ restaurant later.
I've never had much luck smoking small briskets. Any brisket less than 6 lbs I've ever tried to smoke has turned out dry and tough. So smoked this small one for an hour, stuck it in the crockpot with some beef broth and carrots and onions for 7 hours, then covered it in sauce and broiled it for 5 minutes. Turned out tender and great. Maybe not as good as a large one smoked for a long time, but still pretty great.

[ihavemyreasons]

Decided to grill a frozen pizza today just because I've never done it. Charcoal grill, after charcoal ready spread brickets to create a ring around the edges. Thin crust sausage and mushroom. I added some feta. Holy crap. Only time I think I've had a frozen pizza turn out with crust crispy like you get at a pizza place. Took 30 minutes on grill, but charcoal spread out enough that it didn't turn out burnt like some of the pics you see of grilled pizza on net. Defintely how I'll cook frozen pizza going forward.

[ihavemyreasons]

Growing up in the south the quick way to make cheese dip was always to melt Velveeta with a can of Rotel. I always add other things, but that was always the base I used. But Velveeta has gotten expensive and the off brands all suck. Perfect substitute for the the Velveeta that is cheaper and better - package of cream cheese and 2 cups shredded cheddar.

[ihavemyreasons]

Never been a big fan of chicken legs just because all the fat makes them tough to grill without them ending up burnt or greasy. But @ $1:a pound, couldn't pass them up. Decided to cook them like chicken wings (chicken wings that I can no longer afford). Were still partially frozen, so smoked at 225 for 2 hours which cooked off much of the fat/grease, covered in sauce, then grilled. Pretty great - maybe not wings great, but close. Served with grilled fresh green beans that were marinated in olive oil and lemon juice with a little salt and pepper.

[ihavemyreasons]

Wife always works Xmas eve. Will be our 30th Xmas together. For probably 25 of those 30 years I've made a prime rib roast on Xmas eve. Couldn't find one anywhere close to reasonably priced this year and too cold/windy to grill almost as expensive ribeye steaks, but found a decently priced spiral cut ham. So ham and homemade scalloped potatoes for Xmas eve this year and ham sandwiches and homemade cheese dip for Xmas and next few days. Then ham and beans with ham bone for New Years.

[ihavemyreasons]

Price of a dozen eggs has been sitting at around $6 for last month here. Bought what I thought was a carton of pastured liquid eggs that were on sale for $2 instead of a dozen eggs. Turns out it was egg substitute - egg whites with some beta carotene concoction to mimic yolks. Not inedible but can defintely tell difference. Will finish but not buy again. Guessing difference would probably be less noticeable if used in baking vs the omelet I made.

[ihavemyreasons]

$100 electric smoker bought 5 yeara has been one of best purchases as far as unnecessary appliances go. Doesn't work any faster than smoking on my barrel grill, but far less work. Set temp and time and feed wood every 2 to 3 hours. Pretty fool proof.
Smoker usually doesn't get much use in winter, but ribs were on sale. Smoked rack of $1.99 a pound ribs today for tomorrow, 2 inch thick cheap sirloin steak that we had for sandwiches tonight (never seen that thick of sirloin before) and smoked a smoked sausage (smoked sausage technically already smoked, but smoking for an hour greatly improves its flavor,).

[ihavemyreasons]

Spulurged on some ribeyes for dinner. Still cheaper than eating out anywhere but maybe fast food. And tried a new cheese dip receipe. Montery jack, cream cheese, italian sausage, some milk, rotel, and green chilis. Not at all like my usual texmex receipe but pretty great