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Food Thread: Meat And Potatoes: A Match Made In Heaven (But Aparently Not In Colorado)

Yup...Shepherds Pie! I had one last night, and it was delicious! Nothing particularly complicated, although the meat was beef short ribs, which worked very, very well. And best of all, the ratio of mash to meat was correct. I dislike foods that are completely out of proportion.

One of the nice things about Shepherds Pie is that it really is an easy dish to make, can be made ahead of time, and is satisfying in a basic way. How much more elemental than meat and potatoes can one get?

But if that isn't good enough for you, tarting it up with cheese and extra vegetables and fancy curlicues of potato is pretty straightforward.

Plopping it in a bowl and tossing a spoon at your guest works too!

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Colorado used to be the quintessential Western state. Oil and ranching and mining and all sorts of stuff that made it a fine place.

What the hell happened?

2024 ballot measures by animal activists to chase lambs out of Denver

Signatures on the “Prohibition of Slaughterhouses” initiative were filled earlier this week with the City and County of Denver Clerk & Recorder; that office has the job of determining if 8,940 valid signatures were submitted to qualify for Denver’s April 2024 municipal election ballot.

If adopted by voters, the ballot measure will ban any business where livestock are killed to produce human food. Livestock under Colorado law includes beef, lamb, pork, and poultry.

Influential and deep-pocket animal activists’ interests are behind the measure to kill the Denver lamb business. Pro-Animal Future, which wants to “end animal farming in Colorado,” and Owen Gunden, which advocates for “non-humans,” have put up $100,000 in start-up contributions.

This is so laughable that it is easy to dismiss, but we shouldn't ignore it. We need to push back...hard, otherwise in a few generations we won't even be able to eat the bugs!
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Commenter "Kathy" did some research about a particular kind of paring knife and a most peculiar way of using it...

In the 11/5/2023 Food Thread, some commenters reminisced about how their parents or grandparents "handled" a certain type of small paring knife -- by pressing food between the knife's blade and their thumb. I think some commenters even wished they could find such knives for themselves. So I did an internet search and found this RADA CUTLERY MANUFACTURING paring knife, which might be the type of knife AOS commenters had in mind:

Rada Cutlery Granny Paring Knife

The only downside seems to be that the Rada knives should be hand-washed (dishwasher cleaning will tarnish the aluminum handles).

Rada Cutlery offers a 10% discount (in-store and on-line) to U.S. Military and U.S. Military Veterans, as well as free shipping on orders above $100. More information about the company is presented in the 8-minute video below:

Rada Cutlery Celebrates 75 Years

Rada is a member of the MADE IN AMERICA store.

I don't cut that way. My mother didn't cut that way. But...I have a vague memory of my grandmother doing that.

But...am I the only one who is disturbed by the technique? I like sharp knives, and I have cut myself enough times, even without pulling the blade toward my thumb, that I would be very careful about trying this technique.

Although the paring knife looks nice, and you can't beat the price!

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Wild rice with gin? What the hell?

This is my original recipe. Well, sorta...Mom taught me about the gin. Maybe it'll strike your fancy.

That's commenter "creeper," and it is strangely tempting, even though I rarely use liquors other than brandy for cooking. Yes, that is a failure of vision on my part, because they are often intensely flavored and can add some interesting components to otherwise straightforward dishes.

But...gin?

[The link is to a downloadable PDF]

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It's that time of the year, when our thoughts wander about until they fall on...STUFFING! Not "dressing," which is a snooty affectation amongst Red Sox fans and other mental defectives.

I always make cornbread STUFFING for Thanksgiving, and I always make too much. Way...Way too much. So this year I am going to restrain my insane impulse to feed 37 people and try a different recipe that isn't scaled to feed the 101st Airborne.

As usual Misanthropic Humanitarian has been trolling me with all sorts of weird shit from "Epicurious," a website that I no longer link because of their insulting politics. But next to MisHum's last link to "Minced free-range Rat Pie With Quinoa and Organic Cherries" was a link to what sounds like a pretty solid and traditional STUFFING. White bread and corn bread and a bunch of nice herbs...and breakfast sausage! That's the big change for me...I usually use a mix of sweet and spicy Italian sausage. If I do try it, I'll be careful with the herbs...a lot of American breakfast sausage has too much sage.

I'll probably have to try the sausage first. With scrambled eggs. Just to be sure.

Anyway, do any of you have special STUFFING recipes handed down, or invented, or taken off the bag of croutons?

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Despite the nauseating mentions of two of the bigger assholes in the food world, this article makes a compelling case for spatchcocking your Thanksgiving turkey.

Spatchcocked Turkey: The Best Turkey Ever, in Record Time

Everything about the technique is superior to the traditional method. The only problem is, as the article points out, that it sure doesn't look like the Platonic ideal of a roast Thanksgiving turkey.

I'm going to agitate for a spatchcocked turkey this year.

What? No, of course not. I don't make the turkey. Turkey is boring.

I make the edible main course...Sous Vide bone-in pork rib roast.

[Hat Tip: Pete Bog]

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[Hat Tip: nurse ratched]

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The oyster imperative remains in effect, and send pork rib roasts with the pork belly attached, carrots that don't taste like stalky chalk (and speaking of vegetables; were all of our snap peas stolen by space aliens?), garlic...lots of garlic! (and basil! My basil did not do well this year!), well-marbled hanger steaks and elk chops to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

And don't think that the rest of you are off the hook with maple syrup and French Toast: so why don't you put maple syrup on your steaks and chops and chicken?

And yes, I used to demand fancy bourbon, but let's face it, $1,200 for a bottle of bourbon is just stupid, insulting, and a ghastly affront to most people's palates and wallets. I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.