Read about the mini pommes anna over on buns in my oven. They looked really good. While watching Worst cooks in America this weekend, Chef Ann’s team made pomme Anna and it looked pretty good. We decided to make them for dinner Monday night.

Pretty simple to make. Thin sliced potatoes, butter, salt, and pepper. Of course we decided to make 3 versions and tweak the recipe a little. I used the stitchgiver mandoline set on 2 thickness to slice the spuds. Melted some salted butter and coated each slice in the bowl.

Did you know this a thing you can do? You can make it yourself! I thought it was just a nebulous thing that exists in the universe on its own and is impossible to make at home, like ranch dressing or televisions. Now you can get out from under the tyranny of the Rose’s Corporation, finally!

First, you want to get yourself some pomegranates. Since this was an experiment in the name of science, (i.e. a very slow night at work), we only bought one, to see what the world of home grenadine production is like. We obtained about 7.5 ounces of juice from our one pomegranate, so use that as a baseline to determine how much of the rich red stuff you need.

Wash off the outside and cut that fucker in two!

You can use a hand juicer, but we opted for a more efficient muddling method, using a fine mesh strainer to filter out the seeds and pulp and such. Some good muddling and straining later, we had our nearly half a pint of fresh pomegranate juice.

Note that this will make your kitchen look like a crime scene. I would recommend against wearing white.

Now you’ve got all this juice. What to do, what to do? Why, take an equal amount of sugar and mix it in! Use superfine sugar, but not powdered or confectioner’s sugar. Regular sugar’s granules are too large and won’t dissolve properly into the mix, and powdered sugar has cornstarch which makes the grenadine a bit wonky. I recommend the old fashion Boston shaker method of mixing, but I’m old school. You can probably just use a blender or a food processor or whatever.

Once it’s nicely mixed, you’ve got your own grenadine! Pour it into an appropriate vessel (I like to keep old, washed small wine bottles at home, for just this purpose), and get ready to serve it up.

This concoction should last in the fridge about a week. If you’ve made a larger batch, or don’t guzzle down Shirley Temples like an eight year old at a wedding with an open bar, you can add in a half ounce of vodka per 8 ounces of grenadine, to act as a preservative. (Note that this makes it less kid-friendly). And now you’re ready to go! Find yourself some drinks that use grenadine and mix away!

How does it taste? Well, it’s sweet. Obviously. It’s a little more syrupy than store bought grenadine, but the fresh flavor does give it a bit of a better taste. We squoze in a bit of fresh orange to give it a nice citrusy tang too. Tasting it side by side with the Rose’s grenadine, it made me realize that there is a fair bit of pomegranate flavor in the store-bought that I didn’t recognize before. While it may cost a bit more than grenadine off the shelf, having freshly made stuff is tastier and gives your cocktails a bit of cachet value when mixing for friends. Mmmm good.

codezer0 asked me to make a clip on how I make my chips.

Theresa has made these a few times and they are a huge hit. A peanut butter bar with peanut butter frosting and chocolate chips. So drool worthy and easy to make.

Recipe from cake spy.

^ before the frosting ^

Staring at two lonely eggs in the fridge this morning, I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull breakfast for el Jefe and I out of that.  Started scavenging around the kitchen and lo and behold…the Spam with Bacon I bought a few months ago when I was making musubi.

So, scrambled the eggs with the two tablespoons or so of sour cream left in a tub, plus a little water and s/p.  Sliced the Spam really thin and fried it up crispy golden brown in a pan.  Found a bag in the freezer with about 20 tater tots at the bottom.  Nuked them for a minute to thaw, chopped them into rough quarters, and fried them up in some butter.  Grated some cojack over them when they were done.  Last few slices of rye bread toasted up…ta da!  Peeled up a Cutie fruit that I was given at work yesterday in lieu of juice and it was time to break our fast.

Eggs, ham/bacon, cheesy hashbrowns, toast and fruit.  Not too shabby for scrounging up a meal on a holiday!

voodoo chicken and skillet fries from beerorkid on Vimeo.

Prob one of my better vids.

We have been looking for new ways to do pork chops and a breaded version seemed cool. The skillet potatoes have shallots, bacon, red pepper, and were awesome. More pics below and some info.

I love family items – heirlooms.  I get a kick out of knowing that my great, great so-and-so sat here, or cooked with this, or read that.  I like the passing of objects from hand to hand and treat those items with great affection – I take care of them, and protect them.  But, I believe in using them.  Life is too short to stick “the good dishes” into a cupboard for the rare holiday meal, when they can be loved, admired, and put to the use for which they were intended on a far more frequent basis.  The chance that a goblet might have the stem snapped off while drying, or that a side plate will slip out of soapy hands and do a header into the sink, is not great enough for me that it outweighs the memories to be made by breaking out the fanschy stuff for an ordinary meal.  Things are just things and can be replaced.  I’d be sad, sure, but I’d be more sad to look back at the end of my life and think about how much beauty I’d missed by treating objects more preciously than moments with loved ones.

So, in that spirit, sometimes I break out the china and crystal and all that jazz on the spur of the moment for a dinner that was previously just some food.  Hopefully good food, but not an “occasion” per se.  Last night was just such a night.  While Jefe was working his tail off in the yard, and trimming up the back patio area so that we could enjoy the coming cool evenings out there, I set the table, whipped up our dinner, and lit the candles.  It was a great meal and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

(chicken recipe tomorrow?)

More from Meta Given’s “Modern Endyclopedia of Cooking: Vol. II” (1949)

(click on images to pop out for larger format)

I picked up a 1949 copy of Meta Given’s “Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking – Vol. 2″ at a thrift store a while back, but began paging through it only recently.  Wow.  I plan on scanning some recipes and certainly some of the illustrations to share here, so here is the first of what I hope will be many.  I give you:

Eggs – Retail Grades and Uses

(click to pop-out and enlarge, you can read all of the text.)

Really, I had no idea that there were eggs graded to be baked with or cooked, but not eaten as-is.  Hunh.