Text 35911, 115 rader
Skriven 2013-04-09 08:09:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: beef-a-rama 399
=======================
There was this 90/10 ground beef lying around. I'd forgotten
to mention this yesterday. Annie had presented me with this
stuff, which she had bought ($4.19/lb!) under the impression
that it was 80/20 on special for half that. Ok, whatever.
She provided 2 slices of Kraft American cheese analogue, and
I made her a burger, medium, which she pronounced perfect.
My own I cooked in butter and tucked more butter in a
crevasse in the patty, which brought it an acceptable degree
of fattiness. No cheese for me, of course. I did taste a
taste of the slopover from her burger, though, and it did
bring me back a powerful - and mostly good - memory of
childhood. Anyhow, it's 5 am as I type, and I just had an
urge, so I took the rest of the beef, put a tablespoon of
butter in it, formed a patty around the butter, and cooked
it maybe a notch more than I normally cook burgers. The
outside turned crusty, almost tough, the inside nice and
red - the cold butter gradually melted and took the brunt of
that heat, and the beef, fat-starved, gradually assimilated
the butter. When I cut into it, burger Kiev. It was really
pretty fun, with the just-melted butter spurting out in
that primitively exciting way. Good burger, though a little
salty: perhaps I should have used sweet butter, though I
doubt there is any of it in the house.

Annie wanted to breakfast on more scrapple, go back to the
Crippled Bear for lunch, and then go over to Mike and Jill's
for dinner. I nixed the Crippled Bear - actually, I said
$2.19 for scrapple or $30 for eating out, your choice, but
no way can we eat three big meals in a day. Rapa is perfectly
fine scrapple, maybe a tad salty, but as good as what the
fancy boutique nose-to-tail people make. We polished off a
pound of it and then ran our respective errands and had our
naps and so on. I set my alarm for 4:20 and rattled about
until Annie returned to the planet. We were supposed to be
across the river at 5, and she went I had no idea it was this
late, to which I rolled my eyes. We showed up at 5:10; I had
a glass of Pottsville Porter ready for me; Annie brought a
six-pack of Yuengling Light, because she doesn't like what
they serve over there. It was all gone by the time dinner was
over, 5 to her and 1 to me, but I also had a Lord Chesterfield
Ale (another Yuengling product, rather hoppy and pretty decent).

Annie had complained about the waspiness of the Boalsburg Inn
menu, and Jill retorted that we were going to have a really
waspy meal this day, and we did. Most of my friends are pretty
good cooks, some in plainer modes, some fancier. This was
indeed a waspy dinner, one the like of which I can eat once in
a while only.

We started with crabbies, which are English muffins spread with
a mixture of canned crab, Cheez Whiz, garlic powder, and I
believe mayo, and broiled briefly. My favorite, ugh! the garlic
I believe being an adventurous variation.

Ham salad on crackers - Underwood deviled ham, a bit more mayo,
and sweet pickle relish.

An unwaspy thing - chorizo, of which I ate a bunch, as nobody
else would try a luridly red sausage shot full of fat.

The main course was prime rib that Mike was up checking every
time any of his myriad alarms rang. He took it out at about
140F, which meant that it was about 155F when it came to the
table. On the side, Cope's corn, steamed asparagus, roast
new potatoes, "au jus sauce," Yorkshire pudding. The corn had
sweetness and texture but was kind of strange: it's parched
sweet corn kernels harvested ripe and cut messily off the cob,
available dried or reconstituted in a can. We'd brought the
asparagus - it was sitting around in the fridge, and as I was
leaving, Annie wouldn't have any use for it; it turned out
being cooked very soft and essentially indistinguishable from
green beans except by texture. The gravy stuff was right out of
an envelope. Annie's Yorkshire, which I guess she taught Mike, 
loses something in translation. It was truly a waspy meal, and
we ate copiously but not too well. 

Just as we were finishing, Mike jumped up and said, we forgot
the oysters. And so we had. These were scallopped oysters but
perhaps in honor of me made with soy sauce instead of cream.
They were fine if a bit overcooked (they had been meant as an
appetizer) and rather salty as a result.

Dr. Frank's Cabernet Franc 10 was pretty acid and a little too
flavorful for dinner.

Annie provided dessert, a chocolate torte from Wegmans. I
passed, having more beer instead.

Dried corn casserole
categories: side, Penn Dutch
Yield: 8 servings

1 pk (7 1/2 oz) Cope's Toasted Dried Sweet Corn
5 c milk
3 1/2 Tb melted butter
1 ts salt or to taste
1 Tb sugar
4 eggs, beaten until well blended

Preheat oven to 375F. Using a blender or food processor, chop 
the dried corn until finely ground.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground corn, milk, butter, 
salt, sugar, and eggs. Mix well.

Butter a shallow 2-qt baking dish. Pour in the corn mixture. 
Bake until set and golden brown on top, about 1 hr. Serve hot.

M's note: I've heard good things about a dish using these
ingredients (minus the eggs) but cooked on top of the stove
risotto-style, the milk added by ladlefuls.

wegottaeat.com
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