NGC- It's all about context

[cliffrod]

How do you beat a great but simple meal served family style in front of the fire on a cold Nov night?

Rosemary Prime rib with king crab, rigatoni with olives and garlic Parmesan bread crumbs, steamed asparagus, fresh bread and a fantastic jar of last year's Muscadine wine that Elsmore made at the motel with my grapes-




You share the meal with the amazing woman that married you 20 yrs ago today.  She's a true blessing who only suffers this one fool when & if she feels like it.  She made that perfectly clear to me just before we said our vows-





"Surely you jest" says the peanut gallery..  Nope.  Her name isn't Shirley.  And after the vows were exchanged at our period 1800 reenactment ceremony, we didn't light a unity candle.  We fired that cannon-





Life has been a lot worse.  I wish everyone else in the WG world is as happy as we are.  Thanks for reading.

[Tom H]

Cool

Tom

[jbell]

Damn, that dinner sounds good.   

[Guzzistajohn]

Sounds REALLY good, but I wouldn't call that a "simple meal" simple is like.........hambur ger helper 

[cliffrod]

Sounds REALLY good, but I wouldn't call that a "simple meal" simple is like.........hambur ger helper 

Well, if you marry a hippy, hamburger helper kinda things mean a 100% non-recyclable plastic/foil/paper bag and it's game over...   The only time that easily flies here is when I have my beloved Stove Top Stuffing.  I have to choose my battles.  I grew up on hamburger helper and love it.  Now if I have it, I make it from scratch and all is well.

Simple here means only 2 pans on the stove (could have gotten by with one if I wasn't rushing), 1 sheet pan for the bread and 1 pot for boiling pasta after steaming the crab & Asparagus over the same water. only used kosher salt, pepper, olive oil and a little rosemary (beef) & parsley (pasta) from the garden. No sauce work, reductions, complex prep, nothing.  Crab in drawn butter is good.  Crab in nice red salted rare beef jus is so much better.  Simple.

Crab was the broken bits & pieces so was $2/lb cheaper, but it still cost so much I'm not sure I can claim the savings as Guzzi content..... 

[Lannis]

"Simple" is what we're having tonight, it's bubbling on the stove as I type.

A cabbage cut up, an onion cut up, a tablespoon of bacon grease in the pan, about 3 ounces of country ham pieces, season with fennel seed, Accent, basil, salt, and black pepper and cook until the water's gone and the consistency is right, sprinkle with a little brown sugar and red-wine vinegar and done.   

About 300 calories each and pretty good for you.  Cheap and filling, too.

Lannis

[pebra]

Congratulations, cliffrod and - and - - - not Shirley! 

Here's to 20 more! 

[cliffrod]

Thanks guys.  Her name is Beth.

"Simple" is what we're having tonight, it's bubbling on the stove as I type.

A cabbage cut up, an onion cut up, a tablespoon of bacon grease in the pan, about 3 ounces of country ham pieces, season with fennel seed, Accent, basil, salt, and black pepper and cook until the water's gone and the consistency is right, sprinkle with a little brown sugar and red-wine vinegar and done.   

About 300 calories each and pretty good for you.  Cheap and filling, too.

Lannis

Sounds good, Lannis.  I made cabbage & potatoes, fried with some chopped bacon pieces and eggs stirred in at the end for breakfast.  Usually do it at least once a week.  We eat a lot of cabbage.  I like 1-2 stalks of celery cut up with the cabbage when it's cooked wet.  It largely disappears in terms of distinct flavor and texture but indistinctly compliments the cabbage very well.  Tonight was our Fri pm regular meal of sausages and sauerkraut.

Fresh Fennel and fennel seed, man I love them both.

[F-Fred]

Congrats Clint!  Many more to you and your bride.

[Sasquatch Jim]

What! No red salmon filets?

[cliffrod]

Congrats Clint!  Many more to you and your bride.

 

Thanks, Fred!

What! No red salmon filets?

We don't do a lot of salmon. I cut a lot of fish as a fishmonger shortly after high school.  I like good fish but it's another environmental impact, farming vs wild, etc  thing.  Most likely to make gravlax with quality salmon when we get it.  but then I have to make real bagels to go with it because no one local makes real kettled bagels.  Good but Not quick or simple.

More likely to buy local rainbow trout to cook.

[rtbickel]

And she knows how to fire off a cannon?  Now that's a keeper for sure!

[cliffrod]

And she knows how to fire off a cannon?  Now that's a keeper for sure!

Just showed her your post- She just asked if I mentioned that I had to domesticate her first, that she had been & was living in a tent for years, that many people came simply to see her in a dress and actual shoes or to see the person who was marrying her.  The day we met there at the fort she was demonstrating several period 1800 skills including fire starting, knapping tools and throwing axes.    All I was doing was cooking over the fire.  We were part of the Fort Southwest Point (Kingston TN) bicentennial event.

The cool trivia about that cannon.  That 4" for the Fort and several period-correct other cannons of similar size was built by a local enthusiast. He said he probably would not be able to build any more of them like at.  The issue was finding properly seasoned sound pieces of oak in suitable dimensions to produce the wheel hubs.   Newer growth (20th century) trees tended to grow faster in more open setting.  The wood was not as stable and his sources for older sound hub blanks was exhausted.  He said smaller blanks for wheels for smaller cannons weren't a problem.  Correct big pieces were the deal breaker.