Where ya been Dishes? Well guys, I know I may have mentioned (i.e. bitched about) this before, but blogging is hard. I simply can’t get inspired every damn day to create some fantastic, blog-worthy recipe, or try out some complicated new technique. And sometimes you just want the same-old same-old thing, even if it’s just chili-mac, or taco night.
But I’ve been cooking! Just nothing really interesting. I spent the last two weekends standing on the deck, feeding mosquitoes, and tending a tiny fire while I smoked pork and chicken just to get the technique down. Yes it was complicated and time-consuming, but nothing to really talk about. I got up early, started my tiny fire, and smoked pork. All day long. For two weekends. I added more charcoal, I added more wood chips. I got pretty good at it, especially having no smoker – just a Weber kettle grill. Bored with pork, I threw a chicken on the second weekend, which is one of the best looking things I’ve ever made.
I made a kick-ass cheese and meat platter for my lovely friends.
I’m trying to get into contesting more – Food52 just closed Your Best Vegan Recipe contest, which I actually entered! I predict great things for my Zuccheroni someday and need to get it out there. Sadly I just missed the cut off for Your Best Zucchini Recipe, which was a red-rage kind of moment. But Zuccheroni is vegan (like the only vegan thing I make), so why not give it a try? There are 319 entries and I still have to wait two more weeks to see if I made the playoffs. Somewhere around 25 recipes will be selected for testing, then voting. While I’m not expecting a win my second time out, I’d love to get to the next round at least. I’ll keep you posted. That entry included a couple hours of trying to make slimy orange zucchini slices look appealing for the contest photos. I did okay.
Incidentally, it’s next to impossible to photograph zucchini without inviting phallic comparisons. I had to discard several shots that I deemed “too penis-y”.
Mr. Dishes and I have become beef jerky people, after discovering Mingua Brothers. We’ve now tried four different flavors, are debating the merits of their shredded, chaw-like product, and can barely carry on a conversation anymore over all the chewing. So of course I had to try that. It wasn’t terrible, but the mysterious ways of the jerky-makers will take a lot more practice. And it’s impossible to get a good picture of beef jerky.
Yesterday I made a boule, which was fun. I followed Michael Ruhlman’s recipe in the excellent Ratio, and while it turned out great, it would have meant twelve more pictures of flour and dough before I came up with this. (Oh, and also nineteen rambling paragraphs about my cat, husband, fantasy football, HBO’s “Looking”, laundry, work, etc.)
We’ll have the boule tonight with spaghetti pomodoro and Sam’s Club rotisserie chicken. I look for any opportunity to practice my garlic chopping technique. Seriously – if you like food porn at all, look up Jacques Pepin chopping garlic on YouTube. I’ve watched approximately fifty times and despair whenever I get a knife in my clumsy mitts.
That’s it for today guys. Sorry to not be more entertaining, but I haven’t had any grand adventures to write about. I’m still reading Marcella, but she’s so devastatingly eloquent that I want to throw her books away, or put them in the freezer to hide from them.
I still have nothing interesting to say about zucchini soup.
illdothedisheslater 