apricot-raisin chutney and watermelon 😊.

I thought that sounded good, too, so bereft of ideas here, I checked and found I have this collection of dried heritage beans from Whole Foods. I have them soaking now and will cook them in the pressure cooker. As far as the rice goes, the RG left me with a couple ready-made rice bowls from Trader's. He also left me with some red curry paste from Whole Foods.

I have the watermelon, too! All chilled 'n everything.

I am lacking the apricot raisin chutney, but I do have mangoes, so I am thinking how I can make something comparable with them. My last attempt at mango-chutney didn't turn out so well, so maybe I will just make the mango salad I liked so much a few weeks ago.



Cher

with just S&P and garlic. Summer slaw, and alfredo noodles with broccoli.

yumm

And after 15 years of making roasts wrong and choking down dried out meat, I've finally learned how not to ruin a roast, thanks to Cook's Illustrated.

Well, the only time I tried one in the oven in the past, I think (although it's been a while, so I'm hazy on it) I tried 'basting' it with oil, which immediately then dropped off onto the hot roasting pan and created a large cloud of oil aerosol which permanently coated the inside of my oven with a cleaner-resistant film of baked on crud.

But mostly I basically boiled them in beef broth in crockpots. Long enough so they were fall apart tender, but dried out like roadkill.

Then I finally bought the Cook's Illustrated special issue magazine on meats, learned that even if I'm going to crock-pot roasts, I should put them on top of a bed of other things to keep them above the liquid, so that they're essentially steamed rather than boiled, which eliminates the dryness issue. Also learned to coat the roast in salt then wrap in plastic in the frig for a day first, to tenderize, then unwrap and dry off, then salt and pepper, sear the outside, then roast in the oven low and slow for a long time. We still like it more done than the CI folks like, so I do then pop the temp up for a while at the end to get rid of the 'pink' inside.

chemical smell to any use of the oven for the next dozen or so uses. I just wish I could find a cleaner that really cleans it.

I can't begin to imagine why anyone might want to baste a roast in oil, but heck, if no one ever experimented with new cooking techniques, we'd all be snatching half cooked meat off the coals with our bare fingers!

So glad you've improved your cooking techniques.

grilled veggies (onion, red pepper, zucchini, carrot, and sugar peas), Rice-A-Roni rice pilaf.

Amazing. There's more catfish (one more serving), as well as Grecian chicken from a while back in the freezer. Oh, and some teriyaki pork. I have meals for almost a week.

Here's how I do the veggies: half an onion, half a red pepper, half a zucchini, all slices appropriately. One carrot, sliced on the diagonal. A handful of sugar peas. I stir fry in olive oil, with ground pepper and kosher salt as seasoning. I grill up one serving at a time.

Some wine, and life is good.

and sliced homegrown tomatoes.

got home from work about an hour ago and i went right for a beer. i'm wiped out and don't feel like cooking, so i will commit a culinary atrocity tonight and have some ramen.