Not eating out; Cooking In!!!

Wow! could this economy be any more trying? I really love to eat out and try new foods and yet we're stuck at home relying on our own resources for tasty food product.

Not really such a bad thing... I'm a fairly experienced cook and adventuresome cook and we are trying to eat our way though our freezer and pantry. Of course our pantry is a little weirder than most.
For example I took an inventory of the pasta department....seven different kinds of spaghetinni including brown rice and spinach...five different kinds of spaghetti... four kinds of fettuccine including squid ink and hot pepper/tomato (Who bought those?)....numerous boxes of shaped paste including orchiette (little ears), cortuna (trumpets and my favorite radiotorri (radiators).
We could eat past from now till the end of the year and still not eat it all.
Pickles: Green tomato pickles in four varieties, pickled vegetables including Brussels sprouts, artichoke hearts and garlic. Pickled peppers and pepper relish and plain old dill and sweet pickles.

Stock: I make all my own stocks because I really DO NOT like the amount of salt in most stocks. Lamb stock, Duck Stock, BBQ Beef Stock, Beef Stock, Rich Stock (includes potatoes) and Chicken Stock. It is not hard to make stock, you just simmer veges oar meats until they give up all their flavor. Preserving it is harder. I do not like to take up freezer space so I pressure can all my low acid foods. I bought a 20 quart canner at Orchard hardware for about $90.00 five ore six years ago and it's still going strong. I look for jars at thrift stores adn yard sales. I mainly buy new rings and lids.

Spices: Everyone loves to open my pantry and just inhale. I only keep an ounce or two of spices out on the cooking shelf so all the extras live in the pantry. Vietnamese Cinnamon, Dried mushrooms, Several kinds of dried pepper, Dried chiles and the Catnip I hide from the cat. It all smells amazing.

The usual vegetables and canned goods (although some one went a little crazy on anchovies). We keep about ten or so different cans of cooked beans of different kinds to use for soups, dips, etc.

Dried beans and peas make soups and salads.

There is the baking shelf with five kinds of flour, several kinds of baking mix, vanilla, brown and white sugar. Molasses, honey, light and dark corn syrup.

There is an entire box dedicated to Asian foods. Hoisin sauce, different canned coconut items, nori, dried noodles, fish sauce, chili paste, bean paste, and other spices.

The freezer is a weirder mix. I am trying up all the recipes I can find for dried cod. Somehow I have four different batches bought in different areas. I will take some photos of the next batch of attempts.

I have two gallons of duck fat and one quart of foie gras fat. I think we have eaten too much duck and now I need to buy more duck to use up the fat "confiting" it. You simmer or bake cut up duck in duck fat till it is done. It gets creamy and tender and amazing tasting. So not lo cal.

I also have a quart jar of bacon fat. More normal but I am saving it for a cookie recipe that uses bacon fat as the fat in a gingersnap. Tastes so good and you cannot figure out why.

We somehow we bought twenty pounds of chicken breasts and they are frozen. We've tried to use them up but I think they are multiplying in the freezer. The problem is we really don't like chicken breast; we like leg meat. I've made chicken curry, chicken enchiladas, chicken tamales and chicken soup... any other suggestions?

We have two large tri-tips that we will BBQ this weekend. They end up good for all kinds of things.

There is two pounds of chestnut meat, several boxes of phyllo dough and about six pound of smoked fish.

Some times it gets a little overwhelming and confusing to try to do something with all these varied ingredients.

Barbeque ribs and other smokey things

This is a topic dear to my heart. I love good smokey barbecued ribs. Baby back ribs especially. I'm not talking about those nasty grey soggy ribs when people par-boil the rib racks then attempt to grill or smoke or oven BBQ them. I mean a full rack of tender ribs that the meat breaks off the bone when you pick up the rack. This has slightly crunchy edges where the fat has rendered out of the meat and an overall toasty and slightly crisp texture to the meat. The meat should be thick enough on the bone to have some tooth but not country rib thick. I like a little smoke ring on the meat but not overly smokey. This is all very difficult to achieve. I like to eat ribs with a little sauce on the side just for dipping. Not a vinegar sauce and absolutely no smoke flavoring in the sauce. I like a rich smokey yet tomatoey sauce with a bite.

Bad Ones:
Locally I tried all the permutations that set up shop at the driving range in Valley Springs and they were all uniformly terrible. Porky's, Lee's Pig Out and what ever the last one was called. Sad attempts at BBQ. Too tough of a cut of meat and too vinegary a BBQ sauce. Their beef ribs were particularly greasy.

Good ones:
Doc's Texas BBQ & Burger : 636 W. Stockton Street, Sonora 209 536 1362
This roadhouse BBQ joint serves authentic Texas BBQ. When you eat in, the food is served on butcher paper with a dill pickle and silverware. The portions are hearty (read that to mean Texas-sized) and will fill you up in a hurry. The side dishes are nothing to write home about but that is not why you are here. The BBQ is smoked and very flavorful. The brisket is tender and juicy. The ribs practically fell off the bone. The sausage was okay, I was expecting something more. However, Doc did urge me to get the jalapeno flavored sausage and I elected to get the hickory smoked sausage instead. Lesson learned. The walls are adorned with Texas license plates. The barbecue sauce sits on the table in an unmarked bottle. Love it.

Incahoots BBQ - Pizza- Grill & Catering
9486 Main Street, Plymouth 209 245 5544 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM
and at Davis Ranch, 13211 Jackson Highway, Sloughhouse 11:00 AM till Sunset
Bright yellow in downtown Plymouth. This place is kinda unfocused but rally good. We were there when there was an extremely larger group of motorcyclists and everyone got served fairly quickly. When one order got messed up the staff quickly made it right. The beer comes in frozen mugs. Sooo refreshing. There are racks of paper towels on the tables so you have all the napkins you need. The decor is farmhousey and everything is screwed or nailed to the wall to prevent theft. The bench booths are the most comfortable.

The menu has evolved from its original focus on Santa Maria tri-tip, but Incahoots still uses the signature red oak, the huge open pit and its own spice rub. Their sauce is not too vinegary and not too tomatoey and not too hot.

Totally succulent baby back ribs, steak, carnitas, pulled pork, beef ribs, chicken, links, chicken wings and tri-tip. Mexican food and sandwiches and burgers and pizzas.

Sides: Housemade coleslaw, potato salad, pasta salad, green-leaf salad, chili and poquito beans

Eat your dinner and you get a Tootsie Roll