Dominion Farm’s Pork

So far, we’ve eaten a couple of the pork products of the meat sampler from Dominion Farm that we order from EatGreenDFW.com.  We tried the pork ribs and the smoked sausage.  I will say that cooking this variety of meat is much different from the pork you buy in the grocery store.  There is much less fat.  But, the flavor is very good.  Both of these items would usually have a very distinct fatty mouth-feel.  The grass-fed product does not.  You can tell when you’re eating it that you’re making a much healthier choice.  I think we could have done the ribs a little less on the grill and a little more sealed in foil in the oven.  I really have no complaint other than the fact that I need to learn a few things about cooking leaner meat.  Nothing wrong with that!

Our Fall Food Celebration

Every Fall my company encourages a celebration of food around the end of October.  Most departments pick some kind costume theme, as well.  Our department is dressing up as sports fans.  We’ll probably all wear jerseys and jeans.  (Sounds comfy, huh?)  We’re cooking chili and corn bread.  Someone is bringing Frito’s, in case anyone wants Frito pie.  Diced onions, sour cream, grated cheese… all that stuff will be on hand.  Two of us are cooking traditional chili.  I am making a white (chicken) chili.  Someone is bringing hotdogs and buns for chili dogs.  It should be pretty dang good.

The best part of the celebration is that all three floors of people are cooking.  Some will bring breakfast.  Some will bring desserts.  Tons will bring lunch fare.  I love this idea.  We all work so hard, barely looking up from our desks all day.  But, once a year we spend a lot of time cruising all the different departments and sampling primarily homemade goodies.  It really brings us together to talk and admire each other’s handy work.  Some teams really do it up big.  Some not so much.  Still, you see people that you barely ever see.  We chat.  We eat.  We rave about the food.  Whenever someone returns to their desk with a new delicious looking plate you have to ask where they found it and dash off yourself to be sure you don’t miss out.

We get our work done because we always do.  But, a couple of days a year we relax a little and enjoy each other.  Food is such the perfect way to unite us.  Like I always say, it’s the only thing we all have in common.  Everyone eats.

Good News, Bad News

First, the bad.  I was just stunned today when I heard that Bill Addison was leaving the Dallas Morning News and going to work for Atlanta magazine after the first of the year.  I’m going to miss him so much.  I’m happy for him for finding a career opportunity in a town he loves.  But, what now?  Who will takes his place?  Will they not only write great reviews but also be a nice person?  Who knows?  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.  I know he’s not gone yet.  But, I sure will miss him.  I wrote to my friends in Atlanta to let them know how lucky they were to be getting Bill.

Now, the good.  We had a great time at the Blogger’s Brunch on Saturday!  Unfortunately, Michelle and Brian from The Little Dish couldn’t make it.  Poor Michelle wasn’t feeling so hot.  (Hope you’re better, Michelle!) The attendees were Donna and her guy (Donna Cooks), Food Czar and his wife the Rock Star (FoodCzar), Classy&Sassy and FoodiePrincess (DallasEats) and me and Hubbard, of course.  It was really great sitting down and talking over some pretty dang good Mexican food and margaritas.  We were probably there a couple of hours or more and the conversation went all over the place.  Food Czar has suggested that we do it again sometime after the holiday madness has calmed down.  I think that’s an excellent idea.  Maybe even a few more people that I would love to meet could make it.  I sure had a nice time talking to everyone and the folks at Pepe’s y Mito’s were super accomodating.

Now, if I could just get over this thing about Bill Addison.  I think a glass of comfort Chardonnay is in order.  I never did like crying in my beer.

P.S.  Check out Food Czar and DallasEats for more info on the gathering.

Blogger’s Brunch Saturday at 11:00

Looking forward to seeing you guys tomorrow at Pepe’s & Mito’s!

Hub and I talked to one of the owners on Thursday and he said he’d have the guys pull together enough tables to seat 10, more if we need it.  They open at 11:00 straight up.  So, Hubbard and I will be the couple sitting at the table that’s way too big for us in the bar area.  There are three dining areas inside this restaurant.  The bar area is basically in the middle.  If someone happens to ask to seat you, tell them you’re with the Hubbard party.  I have shoulder length gray hair and Hubbard has basically none.  I’m going to be wearing this really loud multicolor (pink, orange, blue, etc.) shirt. 

This should be fun!  See you there!!

Sprinkles Cupcakes

I had my first Sprinkles today.  A girl in the office had a birthday and a dozen of their cupcakes were delivered.  Lucky for us, she shared.  I had a cinnamon and sugar cake.  Perfect for me.  I’m not a big sweet eater and this one was dusted in sugar and cinnamon instead of slathered with frosting.  Very nice.  I tasted a couple of others.  I’m not sure what the flavors were exactly… one was white with white frosting.  One was chocolate with chocolate frosting.  They were all fabulous.  Normally, I would pass up cake.  But, I had heard good things about these and what I heard was right.  The shop is in Preston Center or you can have them delivered.  Check ‘em out!

Chicken Fried Steak – Hubbard Style

Hubbard makes the best chicken fried steak!  He made some this weekend.  We used to make a gravy based on his stepdad’s recipe.  Now, we use one from Paul Prudhomme.  Very spicy and way good.  The meat is heavily seasoned and then goes into a milk and egg bath.  After that, dredged in seasoned flour just before he fries it up.  The traditional black iron skillet is the frying pan of choice.  After using a thermometer and trying to be ‘oh so careful’ about the frying temp, Hub finally decided to go back to the traditional ‘throw in a few drops of water’ temperature gauge.  If it crackles back at you, it’s ready to go.  After the frying, the meat goes on a rack and into a warm oven to wait for the other batches to be complete.

 

Yes, it’s a messy undertaking.  The kitchen is covered with flour by the time it’s done.  But, it’s well worth it.  Where else can you get a chicken fried steak like this?  Does the crust stay on?  Hell, yes, the crust stays on.  Is it fork tender?  Are you kidding?  OK, it’s not in little perfectly round steak pieces.  The super tenderized meat tends to break apart a little with all the dipping and dredging. But who cares?  Some of the best bites are those smaller babies sporting a little extra crust per bite.  Yum.  

I usually make the gravy.  In this picture the mashed potatoes are covered with gravy.  But, his stepdad would take a big spoonful of beans and put them in the well of his potatoes.  It’s good that way.  I love the gravy so much that I prefer to basically drown everything in gravy.  I mean, while your working on your heart attack, you might as well work hard, right?  A salad would be nice and some kind of green vegetable.  But, when it’s just us, we usually just save room for the good stuff and maybe a margarita to go with. 

I should add that this batch was particularly small.  Hubbard usually makes so much that we’re eating this for days.  It nukes well.

Our dessert of choice?  Bluebell ice cream sandwiches really hit the spot.  Then a nap maybe.  What’s that quote from Benjamin Franklin?  “Chicken fried steak is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” 

No, wait.  Maybe that was beer.

Either way.

Blogger’s Brunch

Good news!  Looks like The Little Dish site will be well represented on Saturday.  Very excited about meeting Michelle and Brian.  Here’s who we’ve heard “We’ll be there” from…

FoodCzar and his lovely wife
Michelle & Brian from The Little Dish
Lisa & Robin from DallasEats
Marci (Do you have a site Marci?)
Alfonso from On the Wine Trail in Italy

“Maybe” from…

Donna of DonnaCooks
The Brad from The Brad’s Adventures in Food

Still a lot of people out there we haven’t hear from!  What about you Gammypie?  Liz?  No pressure, but I bet it’ll be fun.  Feel free to just show up.  I know they’ll push together extra tables for us.  Remember, it’s this coming Saturday at Pepe’s & Mito’s at 11:00. 

So, do I need to pick up some name tags?  We may lose track of who’s who!

The Problem with Cook’s Illustrated

The idea for split pea soup was a good one.  And I generally love every recipe I use from one of their publications.  But, is any split pea soup really worth over 3 1/2 hours of labor?  I didn’t have a tear in my eye when I took my first bite.  It’s only split pea soup, after all.  As much as I adore Cook’s Illustrated, I’m sure I would have been just as happy with a 45 minute to an hour soup.  I mean how good can split pea soup be?!  Sometimes achieving ”the best” doesn’t justify the amount of effort that goes into their recipes. 

Climbs down off soap box and goes away to warm up the gallon of leftover split pea soup.

Look What EatGreenDFW.com Just Sent!

I know that packaged, frozen meat isn’t that pretty.  But, I was so excited to come home on Wednesday to find that my order from EatGreenDFW had arrived.  I think this was a real deal.  First of all, delivery was less than $18.  I looked into ordering some ramps once (not from EatGreenDFW) and that place was going to charge over $30 to deliver them.  Hello?  Ramps are just vegetables.  This meat from Dominion Farms was shipped with dry ice in a styrofoam cooler packed inside another box full of packing peanuts.  (Which I quickly harvested and stored for holiday gift packing.  Hey, re-use is a good thing!)

I can’t believe how much stuff I got for a tad over $91 including the shipping.  2 big pork chops, pork ribs, hamburger, breakfast sausage, a steak, smoked sausage, two thick steak burger patties, a whole chicken, a bunch of wings and some leg quarters.  If I were to go to Central Market and buy organic meat in that quantity I can guarantee you it would cost me more than $91 and I’d have to drive to go get it.

Hub was excited to see that the farm is in Denison and wants to take a little drive to visit them next time.  Check out the handwritten letter from the Taylor Cooper, a partner at Dominion Farms, explaining the difference between your regular grocery store stuff and grass fed meats.  I’m so ready to start cooking and finding out the difference between what Tom Thumb provides and a real farm. 

I’m definitely impressed with the ease of delivery and ordering on the EatGreenDFW website.  Generally, ordering food online is extremely expensive and this just was not.  This sampler pack is perfect for two, the kind of quantities I would usually buy.  You really should check out the website.  They have bigger and smaller sampler packages to offer from this farm and others. 

Gotta go thaw something!  Talk to you soon!

Shiro Maguro

So, last night we went to Sushi Axiom for a little birthday sushi.  We tried a couple of new things… the beef tataki and the shiro maguro (white tuna).  I totally fell in love with both.  The beef was lightly seared with a little ponzu drizzled over it.  But, that tuna…  snowy white and almost buttery.  We had it as sashimi.  Again, there was soy or ponzu drizzled over it (such a small amount I wasn’t sure which) and red and black caviar.  I could have eaten all eigh pieces myself.  I shared, though.  I could go back every night for a week and not get tired of that stuff.

On another note, has anyone tried the tempura at Sushi Axiom?  Our waiter basically talked us out of it because he said the serving was to large.  Today I kept thinking, “Why on earth would I let that stop me?”.

Any other sushi recommendations here within the loop?