Friday Linky Love and more beets

So this week I decided to make some more beets.   I want to finish the chapter, in fact,  from now on I will be trying to complete chapters to finish the book sooner.  I made three recipes, one of which, I had to really change because I did not have any beet greens.  Which means,  I can share a recipe... but I cannot promise you will like it.

   The rough part of all the beets is,  I like them,  I need to still get used to them.  Beets roasted are so sweet,  not sweet like candy,  but sweet like a sweet potato.   I think it is all just a mental thing.  I grew up eating your standard veggies,  like carrots, celery, and potatoes.   Although, back in the day,  I think everyone liked beets.  Somehow when my generation came around,  beets seemed to take the backseat with brussel sprouts.




Linky Love!
1) A unique way to peel a beets.
2) Different ways to peel beets.
3) One Mama shares her experience on cooking beets.

Friday Linky Love and some Jicama

My little collection of homemade canned goods.

 Well, here's to another week.  I only made one dish out of the cookbook.  Now I really have to have a cooking marathon to make sure I get through this in a year!  Anyways.  First up,  my newest canning adventure.  We have some satsumas growing in our backyard.  I picked a whole bunch of them and made some satsuma marmalade.  My Beloved loves it! :D  I almost started crying after I made it because he loves orange marmalade,  and it just felt to good to harvest my own 'oranges' and then make (and can) by hand my own marmalade,  just for him!  Chef Turbo seems to love it too.

     I only made one dish out of Mr. Bishops book this week.  The star ingredient was a Jicama.  Very interesting,  and I can now proudly say I can use this vegetable if I were ever challenged to cook with it.   It tasted good,  but I wish that it did not have the scallions in it.  They seemed a little over powering.  Oh, BTW,  there were no oranges,  I just added that for extra decoration,  otherwise it would just look like a boring bowl of jicama and carrots.

Jicama and Carrot Salad pp. 183

   I also thought, for photography reasons,  that adding some sesame to it would look more interesting.  It did not add or subtract from the taste.   It just made it look more appealing.  

LINKY LOVE!

1) I read this article the same day I am going to cook a whole chicken!  What wonderful planning!

All about Brining
2) I love Alton Brown,  I also love to brine my turkeys.  Try it this year!  It's so good!
3)  I am going to try and use these this year with these bags I bought at the Williams Sonoma store.

More Plantains... and corn... and a link

So,  tonight I tried to count all the recipes I have made.  I think I got around 96.  Kinda depressing since there are 350 recipes left.  Sigh.  I need to really get cracking!

  This week I wanted to finish plantains (which I did) and I fell in love with that produce even more!  I also made one dish of corn.

  In the video, I start it off with rain.  Why? Because, it finally rained this week,  and we got tons of it.  I also got a new dishwasher.  The old one (which was possibly around 12 years old) was falling apart.  I love my new dishwasher!  I can fit so many more dishes and organize my silverware.  Yes,  I almost organize my dishes too.  It's to help put them away faster.



Linky Love.

I think I failed you all with love for linkys.  I did not do as much research this week.  But I have one link!
How to render chicken fat!  Almost for free!! :D
http://www.pennilessparenting.com/2010/10/rendering-chicken-fat.html#more

Marx Foods "Iron Foodie" Contest

                                   
(So sorry,  I am not sure why the badge is looking weird.)

These are some question I need to answer.  My dearest readers... let me just say... here is another side of me,  if you haven't caught this side yet...

Why do you want to compete in this challenge?
    I love to cook and I also love a good challenge for my culinary skills.  I love to cook so much,  that I have books in my cookbook shelf on the science of food and cooking.  Like Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" and Russ Parsons "How to Read a French Fry".  I am just crazy about food and inventing new and fun things for my family to eat!

Limitations of time/space notwithstanding, whose kitchen would you like to spend the day in & why? 
     I would love to cook with Alton Brown.  Again,  this comes back to not just food,  but the science of food. Mr. Brown also brings history into it all... which makes the normal everyday recipe more fun!  He is really my inspiration on why I love the science behind cooking!

What morsel are you most likely to swipe from family & friends’ plates when they aren’t looking?
      Chocolate.  It's my Achilles Heal.  Ask my husband.  Got chocolate cake?  I'll eat the whole thing before anyone notices...

Sum your childhood up in one meal.
     Chicken Catcha Tori... or that is what we called it.  I think we had the right to change the name,  because with how picky my siblings and I were,  my mom had to change a few of the ingredients (like no onions... see below).  Most of us asked for this dish for our birthdays and other special events.  Another tid-bit into the made up name,  we have a sister we call 'Toria'.  She hates spaghetti to this day.

The one mainstream food you can’t stand?
     I cannot stand onions.  Never have.  In fact I have memories of my mom forcing me to eat a McDonald's hamburger with the little dehydrated onions.  I gagged the whole time.  But, this year I made a commitment to learn to embrace the food I despise so much.  I can handle shallots now,  if it is boiled for a long time.  That's progress... right?