Got home after almost a week away and decided to dig up one of my Red Norland potato plants. Got ten nice potatoes for dinner. First potato harvest of 2025

More pork chops yesterday.

Outstanding dinner. The taste of the snap peas encourages me to try again to nail down the timing.

The garlic scapes roasted with the peas completed this dish.

I just finished roasting a 25 pound turkey. No gravy, no stuffing, nothing but the turkey. I see that I need bread, lettuce, tomato and sliced cheese. Maybe a can of cranberry sauce, if I don't find one in the pantry, for a cran/mayo condiment.

Tomorrow, the cats are going to be happy, as they've gone the past two days with only dry food. Both days, they've rushed to their food, stopped, and turned around to look at me, disappointedly.

Purple Majesty mashed potatoes. Strange color, but really nice flavor.

Braised short ribs, good with mashed potatoes.

Interesting color change on the Purple Majesty. As long as they're tasty, I could get used to the cafe-au-lait palette alright.
It's always a shock to the senses though when you have something antho that loses the color on cooking.
There are a few spuds out there that are said to retain their color. As with peas and beans, mostly they don't I guess.

Edited to add: I checked online, @karstopography , and the suggestion is to steam, roast, or microwave a blue or purple spud instead of boiling, to retain more color. You might want to try that too. But I believe some varieties still keep the color better than others.

I had a pile of bacon and 3 eggs in the middle of the night watching an old movie.

I'm thawing out my BBQ pork ribs from the other weekend.

I made a fast potato salad and it's in the garage cooling off even more.
Potatoes were old russets that needed attention.
Ingredients are.
Potatoes.
Mayonnaise.
Yellow mustard.
Turmeric powder.
Pickle relish sweet and dill.
Lime juice for flavor acidity and extra protection from food poisoning.
Nothing fancy or special or any egg.
I never use egg in potato salad.

sorted out the freezer part way yesterday, and rediscovered a few items.
made a cabbage concoction to bring to church tomorrow for meal after
the service. y'all are welcome. usually enough to go around.

so, cabbage, burger from the freezer, onion, chopped peppers from the
garden that were in the freezer, still looked good. rice, crushed tomatoes,
rice, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, basil, and oregano, hot pepper flakes.
this is one of those dishes, you can tweak however you like.

also made bone broth with some beef bones that were rediscovered in the freezer
way at the bottom. the broth will be used for good hamburger soup, chili, or something else.
cut all the connective tissue of the bones, and got the marrow out. pampered pooch will get
a special treat. the connective tissue is full of collagen which is good for the joints.

Fried chicken thighs if I can get off my lazy butt to do it.
Lifes been pretty hard lately getting up at 4 am driving 100 miles and getting home at 7 pm after driving 100 miles home.
Got about 2 hours of my personal life then off to bed
That's not living but paying bills.

Bacon ends and pieces.
Onions and five sunny side up eggs.
A meal fit for a king.

Yesterday, Birria tacos using dried Guajillo and Ancho peppers from 2024. Super delicious.

Today, Sous Vide @129° choice NY Strip with roasted yellow squash, Rugosa Friulana and Tempest. Wife and I both agree we liked the Rugosa Fruilana better than Tempest, both were good, Tempest was more moist, typically yellow squash flavor, and tangy, Rugosa drier, in a good way, and very nutty.

Steak got Sous Vide with Rosemary sprigs and crushed garlic. Seared on hot cast iron with Uncle Chris’ seasoning.

Tonight it's a can of Campbell's chunky clam chowder with added cumin and too much hot chili powder from India on spaghetti.
The darned stuff is screaming hot but in a good way.

Wife and me had breakfast for dinner today which is rare for us. But anyways..

The salvage store had 2 pallets of Canadian maple syrup for what seemed like a good price so I bought a couple of bottles.

The use by date was like November '26, so I was intrigued and asked the cashier at checkout what the deal was with all of the maple syrup for sale. She said it wasn't moving in the big retail chains because Americans across the US were boycotting it.

Win win win for me! It was sure some delicious stuff over pancakes and sausage! I think I'll buy a whole case to help support our fantastic neighbors to the North!

i paid a local farmer in chassel, mi $32.00 i think it was for a half gallon of
maple syrup. i bought two. one is nearly gone. no issues with buying canadian,
but i like to buy local from people we know. gallon size jug takes up too much space,
in the fridge and gets moldy after awhile. you can get rid of the mold by heating it up.
i don't want mold so i get the smaller jug.
i grew up on log cabin maple syrup. thats what my dad brought home from the store.
it was something like 2% maple syrup. mighty hard to beat the flavor of pure maple syrup.

dinner was the big a$$ salad. 12 different ingredients. sometimes more, sometimes less.


keith

No comparison between the real deal maple syrup and simple syrup or corn syrup flavored to mimic maple syrup. I won’t willingly or without protest (perhaps silent, perhaps not) eat the fake stuff, but real maple syrup is a treat.

My kids were pancake eating machines way back when. I always got the real deal maple syrup. Sometimes, to mix it up I’d get grade B, the darker amber version. Grade B was later in the season maple syrup if I remember it right. Grade A lighter or grade B darker, I’d try to discretely be in charge of pouring the syrup over the pancakes. The kids might dump $5 of syrup on their pancakes and then waste $4 of it. The art was to pour just enough syrup to not elicit protest from the kids but not use up 1/2 the bottle.

Exactly @karstopography there's no comparison. I could have put my plate back up in the cupboard without washing it after dinner. It was that clean!

I'm eating another can of clam chowder and spaghetti.
I drove from Bastrop to fort Hood Texas picked up parts and drove to Caldwell Texas put them in and then back to Bastrop Texas.
Lots of driving.
The job was at the Burleson county sheriff's office and jail.
I basically spent the day in jail.
The darned county sheriff actually patted me on the back.