Sue_CT wrote: ↑Sat Aug 06, 2022 9:21 am I think you are the first person I have ever come across who actually hates Pizza.

Good pizza is to die for but they are scarce as hens teeth.
I like a thick layer of melting cheese with pepperoni and Italian sausage grease running off each slice and down each side of my mouth.
Vary thin crust New York style.

I love what you describe but I also love a wide variety of pizzas. There is a buffalo chicken pizza made from scratch at a local place that is really good. They make the buffalo chicken from scratch then use it to make the pizza with a Blue Cheese sauce. Then there is my own invention, Broccoli Rabe, Proscuitto and Goat Cheese. The Proscuitto goes on top of the cheese so it gets crispy or even a leathery but very intense from the heat, or you can add it when then pizza is done and it will be raw cured but very tender. Then there is my fresh garden tomato pizza, which has to be made on dough that has been brushed with a layer of flavored olive oil so it doesn't get soggy and cooked very quickly on a screaming hot pizza stone so the crust is still crispy. Rolled out thin, a large pizza fully cooks in 5 minutes. I could go on. I LOVE pizza, lol.

Not liking pizza is rare. I found out my daughter the nurse’s bf doesn’t like pizza and I too thought “who doesn’t like pizza”? Margherita pizza is one of my favorites. Virtually any thin crust pizza cooked quickly in a blazing hot wood fired brick oven is good by me.

The cheap eats plan for this evening is another rack of St. Louis cut Spare ribs on the BGE, same homemade paprika, brown sugar based rub I did last week. $1.77/# for the ribs. The 3.5# rack will feed the three of us. Side will be a pile of okra split, brushed with EVOO, seasoned and roasted in a hot oven. Star of David, Hill Country Red, Louisiana 14” long pod, Okinawan Pink, Jing Orange, they will all be represented. The skinny pod ones will get really crispy before the Star of David and Hill Country Red get ready, might have to pull those thin ones out for an appetizer.

Two dollars worth of lump mesquite charcoal. Maybe a quarter dollar on the hickory chunk. I think we’ll be under $10 total for dinner the three of us, all things considered.

Last night, it was a Caprese Salad, but I topped each tomato slice with a little bit of Prosciutto. Might have used $2.50 worth of the cured pork. Maybe the same on the fresh mozzarella. “Free” Paul Robeson tomatoes. Free Purple and Genovese Basil. Spanish Arbequina Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Aldi. 25 cents worth. Central Market super pricey extra aged balsamic vinegar. This stuff is thick, fruity and sweet. A few drops per slice is all that is needed. Call it $6.00 for the salad. Had a Lobster Mac and Cheese from Aldi as a side. I think that was 6 or 7 dollars.

I'll take liver and onions.

My other and biggest problem with pizza is bread product in every bite.
Not a huge fan of bread in many cases.

I'll have my flour in the form of pasta for the most part.

As for liver I didn't care for it growing up.
But was forced to eat it or get a whipping and starve.
So I would drown it in ketchup.
Then when I got away from home I learned to cook meat right including liver.
In the old days everyone over cooked everything including liver.
It was like eating old dried out boot leather.
To these people eating any meat that wasn't cooked to death was literally a sin.
One lady saw me eating rare steak and started crying thinking God was going the strike me down.
Possibly the whole area including her as collateral damage.
This is not some wild tail it really happened..

I can confirm these weird superstitions and odd beliefs about meat and the idea that it should be incinerated before consuming. I think these old country preachers created their own brand of a faith with all sorts of requirements and edicts, one being consuming meat with any blood in it was some sort of grave sin, probably some twisted reading and interpretation of Old Testament Leviticus that these semi-educated fire and brimstone shepherds took as current law. My family wasn’t of that ilk or the good book thumping bunch type of followers and so we didn’t eat that way, but I knew of plenty that did.

My son works with other college age kids and they all seem to order meat well done. Very few have eaten anything outside of very limited fast food offerings and maybe a few basic recipes handed down in the family. He’s like some sort of food wizard with strange and crazy ideas about what is and isn’t delicious food. Many hadn’t had shrimp inspite of living 10 miles from the gulf. One only eats chicken as a protein. It’s very strange what people won’t eat.

Okay I went down the eat not to eat rabbit hole.
Talk about conflicting information.
One passage says no period.
A couple of thousand years later it says it's not what goes in your mouth that matters it's what comes out.

I'm going with the more modern version.

What people want to eat and won’t dare eat and the reasons why is interesting. I like trying some new to me foods because I don’t want to miss out on something tasty. I don’t have any religious hang ups on food, but I’m not sure I’d try dog or some of the other things some people call tasty victuals.

Give me two days without food and I'll eat a coyote.
No problem.

Totally Meatless.
My poor folks version of Ratatouille.
Sort of.
No eggplant and other odds and ends.
What is in there is yellow squash.
Zucchini squash.
Tomatoes.
Onion.
Pablano strips.
Mushrooms on top.
Tomato puree.
Garlic powder.
Black pepper.
Bread crumbs.
Cotija cheese.
In the oven at 350F.
Probably be a disaster.

Turned out really good.
Vegetables still crunchy after 50 minutes cooking time covered and uncovered.
No need for salt.
Cotija cheese salty enough.
Slightly spicy hot from poblanos.
Sauce is fabulous with just the water from the Vegetables.
Low fat.
GMO free.
No MSG.
Earth friendly.
No lead.

Salvage store ham and cheese sandwich for lunch today.

An old favorite in the south.
Country fried taters onions and cooked down pinto beans.

Back to my surplus soup.
This time warmed up.

Finally got the fridge drained and put back in running order, so I went shopping today for many groceries I was out of. Whole chicken was on special so the main meal tonight was roast chicken and potatoes. My own spuds are not quite ready to dig so I bought one more bag of potatoes before I get into the crop. Ground beef was also on special, and I had a mounting pile of 'less than perfect' tomatoes, so I put on a jumbo batch of pasta sauce while the chicken was cooking. Also had some apples that were starting to get soft, so I put together an apple crisp and stuck that in the oven when the chicken came out.

Party at Bower's house tonight!!!!!!

Like a true Texican I'm now making Frijoles Refritos with the rest of the beans.
AKA refried beans.
Nothing goes to waste you just repurpose it.
These will go great with the pollo al oregano I'm in the process of making.

Refried beans cheese potato and runny egg breakfast taco.
Topped with Valentina black label hot sauce.
Really good and not expensive in the least.

Day two of the cookathon. My dear son came by and we spent the afternoon together. DIL later joined us. $8 Chicken and potatoes have now made 4 adult meals. After they left I cut enough meat off the bird to make a salad, and broke up the remains for soup. Added some barley, bay leaves and generous sprigs of rosemary. I forgot to mention, the chicken was originally seasoned with a mix of evoo, fresh garlic, salt black pepper paprika and summer savory, smeared onto the skin, and onion cut into eighths throughout the pan. Since I didn't make gravy, I boiled the kettle and poured into the roaster to capture those pan drippings which I could scrub off with a spoon, which was added to the soup. Put to boil on the stove for 20 minutes since it's cool this evening, but the plan is to transfer that to to the slow cooker and let it cook on without steaming up the house, and add veggies that suit as it goes on. I have lots of tomatoes (sent my folks away with about 4 kilos and then picked almost as much before it rains outdoors). First kousa just picked, tons of parsely, snow peas, bok choy etc etc. Anything I want to be green or crisp will be added at the last hour, and if I freeze some of it (which is likely) the plan is to add those fresh veggies on the day it gets reheated and served.
Pasta sauce has been put to simmer off some liquid since the tomatoes made it a bit wet. I've discovered that noodles with sauce of any kind reheat easily from frozen so I may cook some noodles to eat tonight and put away some quick meals, as well as freezing some sauce as is.
Apple crisp is now down to one last portion, which is great! because I have enough slightly soft apples to make a second one in the coming days and put them all to bed. Crumb recipe is simple: 1 cup flour, 1 cup oats, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, then stirred in 1/2 cup light olive oil and one egg for a slightly sticky and nutritious crumb. Apples are randomly chopped and laid into the pan, a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon worked in, then the crumb on top for a 375 bake 35 minutes. Everyone loves this dessert.

Going here with this one.
Jambalaya as chef Paul woukd describe it.
Use what you have and be thankful for it