Category Archives: Food
On meat, and buying a calf (and a lamb)
The freezer is getting empty, so man must acquire meat to fill it!
Alas, I have been unable to get into the field to hunt so I must do what modern man does… and buy it. 
I visited my local butcher to ask for another side of beef. I was dismayed to discover he no longer sold sides! But I spoke with him about it, and I totally understand and support his reasons. In short, it no longer made sense for him, business-wise, to do it. Heck, I was the first person to ask him for one in 2 months. Alas…. Of course I can still get cuts from him, but there’s something cool about having the whole animal, fully done as you want it, and all the choices and selection just sitting in the freezer.
I lamented on Facebook, and friend Schnookiemuffin told me about her friends at Sand Creek Farm. She said they were about to take some calfs in.
OK, I emailed them.
Emails exchanged, and it looks like we’re going to get a calf, about 500# live weight or so (probably yield 200-225# of meat). This will be “fatted calf”, if you will. Fed on momma milk and grass, mom’s all grass fed, organic, etc.. Apparently the meat will be a little more pink than red, quite tender.
To my knowledge, I’ve never had calf before. This should be different, and kinda exciting.
I’ve sent in my deposit along with cut sheet. I’ve only bought a side a few times, so I’m not 100% versed on the best way to get it cut and prepped. But calf is also going to be a wee different, and she had things on there like “arm roast”, and while Google told me about arm roast vs. chuck roast, I really don’t know what the fundamental difference will be… so we just got arm roasts to be different and we’ll see how it goes.
Oh… and they mentioned lambs too. Wife thought it’d be cool to try, so we’re getting 1 lamb as well. The few times I’ve had lamb I haven’t liked it because it was dry or tough. I figure folks just haven’t cooked it right, so this might be worth trying.
We shall see.
I reckon it’ll be a couple weeks before it’s ready for pick up. But I’m really looking forward to it! Not just because the novelty of calf, but more about knowing where my food comes from. How it was raised, how it was cared for, all that went into it. Food is better the closer you can get to where it came from. Closer to how it came from the Earth. Done old school. The CSA box we get from Johnson’s Backyard Garden. Getting this sort of local meat. The wild game I take. This is food.
Like this:
Grilled NY Strip – new technique
Went to my local butcher today to order a side of beef.
I was dismayed to learn he stopped doing it. The cost was becoming way too much, not just in terms of money, but in terms of labor. He said it took about 6 hours to process it, and with so many other parts of the business booming — especially restaurants — it just didn’t make sense any more. He also said I was the first person in 2 months to ask for it. So, while I was bummed, it made total sense and I don’t blame him one bit for stopping it.
So I opted to drown my sorrows by buying 6 1.5″ thick Choice NY Strip steaks from him.
Thing is, I rarely cook steaks that thick. Usually 3/4″ or 1″ at most. I knew they would need a different approach being a somewhat leaner cut but also so thick. Don’t want to risk killing the meat, but it does need to get cooked. What to do?
Google to the rescue.
I saw enough places say to use indirect heat, which made a lot of sense. That will allow the steak to cook but not get burned on the outside while still raw on the inside. Then I read about this “rule of 3″ technique, which I liked. The technique is made for NY strip or ribeye, 1-1.5″ thick. Just what we have.
The steaks need to come to room temperature, and just a little salt and pepper on them.
Get the grill HOT. If gas, crank it up. If charcoal, get a lot. You’ll make 2 zones: a hot “direct” side and a cooler “indirect” side. The hot side should be so hot that you shouldn’t be able to hold your hand over the coals for 2 seconds… it must be hot!
Then, it goes like this:
3 minutes, side 1, direct heat
3 minutes, side 2, direct heat
3 minutes, side 1, indirect heat
3 minutes, side 2, indirect heat
Take them off, let them rest, let some butter melt over them, if you wish. Should turn out a medium or medium-rare steak.
The author says to never do more than 3 minutes on direct, tho you can do 4-5 minutes on indirect if you want a more medium to medium-well steak.
I will say, this technique worked out great! They turned out a nice medium-rare (almost medium) and were just delicious.
I think next time I need more heat, or I might try 4 minutes per side indirect. I thought more time, but when I think about the crust from direct it wasn’t quite as good as it could have been so yes… I think I need more heat next time. It was hot, could be hotter.
Anyways, thank you John for your technique. Solid!
A year of veggies
I can’t believe it’s been about a year since we started doing the CSA veggie box from Johnson’s Backyard Garden. In fact, I just renewed for another year. They were running a special of a year subscription at 20% off, and I just couldn’t say no to such a heavy discount. Plus I know it helps them a lot to have some solid cash in the bank, and it’s great to be able to support what they do.
So what do I think about the first year?
The Good
The veggies, no doubt. Oh my gosh, it’s fantastic. First, that there’s so much variety. We get forced to try new things, different things. I had no idea what kohlrabi was until it came in the boxes, and I’m totally sold on it. I love all the greens. There’s no rut of just eating the same old thing that you get at the grocery store, because it’s shipped in from wherever all year round. There’s much to be said for eating what’s local and seasonal too.
The quality is high as well. I’m not a tomato person, but after eating theirs? I’m sold. As well, who knew carrots could have such deep flavor! But when they’re able to stay in the ground until they reach their peak, then picked and you eat it within days of coming out of the ground? You’re going to get better tasting food. Plus I can see the care the JBG group puts into seed and variety selection, to make it not only something that will grow and flourish here in our climate and soil, but also that’s just darn yummy.
The price is reasonable too. I was not going to sign up for it if it was going to be really expensive vs. the grocery store. But after pricing it out as best I could, I could see it works out fine. I have to say “as best I could” because I’ve never seen kohlrabi at the grocery store. Oh I’m sure Whole Foods has it (I don’t shop there, too expensive), but that means JBG will be an ever better deal. Furthermore, when buying in bulk, they offer these discounts and so that’s even better. Sure it’s a bunch of money up front, but it pans out over the long term.
And you know what’s fun? The box. The surprise of “what is in there this week?”, and getting excited when you see what’s coming. Oh geez… as I write this, I just remembered that pattypan/sunburst squash are going to soon be here…. another new thing from the box, that I just LOVE and can’t wait for. See what I mean? No you can’t see how truly silly excited this makes me… but it does. And that’s part of what’s cool, because you can read about what they’re planting, what they’re trying, and thus what you have to look forward to. It’s fun!
The Bad
The box policy annoys me. I totally understand why they have it, and I do respect it. But it sucks when responsible people have to be penalized for those who aren’t.
The pick up. Wife and I did pick-up until recently. We actually kinda enjoyed it, calling it our “Veggie Date” because just she and I would go to pick them up. A little time with my honey is good. But it kinda got old and sometimes we just didn’t want to drag out to do it because it didn’t fit the schedule. Or we’d have to schedule things around the pickup. So… we opted to change to home delivery. It’s $5 more per box, but frankly, it’s worth it. With the price of gas, when you account for the 30-60 minutes it takes (normally not 60 minutes, but if the truck is running late…), all that time and money adds up. The $5 for delivery ends up being worth it. And we don’t have to deal with the box issue. 
But the one downside is there’s no more trade box. The trade box was awesome and we took advantage of that a lot, not necessarily because we didn’t like something in the box (I think only arugula has ever been the flat out “no” to us), but because there might be something better or more fitting for us in there… like one time there was a HUGE bag of spinach in the trade box and that was a win! But in talking to the JBG folk, they are working hard towards having more “up front” box selection, which would be really cool. Either to be able to pick and choose your box contents would be neat, or to be able to buy more of something some week would be nice. They’re working on it, and I eagerly await that.
Happy Are We
All in all, we’re really happy with this. It works out well for the grocery bill. It makes life a bit easier at the grocery store. We’re getting high quality food. We get to support local business. We get to expand our palettes. What’s not to like?
Looking forward to the next year.
Like this:
I guess it’s working
I hate to say it, but the scale doesn’t lie.
Both scales.
I’ve been weighing my food before I eat it, to ensure I’m getting the right amount of macronutrients. That I get as much protein as I need in a day, but no more. That I don’t take in much carbohydrates, but some. I strive for about 50 grams of protein per “meal” (eating 5x day). The carbs are harder since by weight there’s a much larger variety of “carbs per ounce” depending what food you’re eating. But I’ll still try to keep things reasonable, maybe just 4 ounces or so? I don’t really weigh it THAT strictly due to the wide variance, just try to keep it small and reasonable. Then all the green leafies I can stomach. Heck, at dinner last night the kids were floored that about 3/4 of my plate was covered in a large mound of raw spinach leaves.
But it does seem to be working. I’m at about 228# now, down from my high of 240-ish. I struggled for a LONG time around 235, so the 7-ish pound drop is just from the past few weeks. You can see from this recent picture (scroll down towards the end, I’m the tall guy with the blue hat) that I’m far from fat/obese, just very tall and gaining muscle. I just have a muffin top, and I hate it. Interferes with my desire to try AIWB carry.
Kiddos and Wife have noticed that I don’t have as much muffin hanging over my belt as I used to. And the bathroom scale (scale #2) doesn’t lie. But, it’s only telling part of the story: pure weight. With the lifting I’m doing, there’s gain of muscle. So weight doesn’t really tell the whole story. I need to do some body fat measurement, and while I have a pair of calipers it’s tough to get consistent measurement.
But it doesn’t matter much, so long as I can tell fat is shedding and eventually I’ll have a slim enough stomach for AIWB.
One thing that I’ve heard a lot about is carb back-loading. Supposedly it really works. I’m not ready to buy into it just yet, but I have noticed that I have already been following a rough notion of it, in that almost all the carb intake I have been getting, since I’ve been measuring, has been in the morning after workouts, tapering off as the day goes on. I want to keep reading on this topic. It’s interesting.
And ZMA I’m sure contributes here some, because after supper there’s ZERO eating. So last meal is maybe 6 PM? nothing again until I wake up around 4-5 AM. And yes, ZMA gives me some wicked strange dreams. Kinda cool.
I have wondered if this is affecting my strength work, and it probably is. While my current lifting routine doesn’t have me work for new rep-maxes, I don’t even know if I could. I’ve noticed this past week when I hit the 5th rep I feel that’s it, or maybe I could perhaps get 1 more if I really pushed it. Not ideal, but it’s OK. I know I’m walking a fine line here in what I’m doing and mixing things that probably shouldn’t. But if it means I can’t get full reps, then that’s alright. If it gets bad enough, I’ll reset and continue forward on this same basic path. No big deal.
Like this:
Sunday coda
The brisket spent 11 hours in the smoker. A few more hours would have been good, but this was fine. We were hungry.
It turned out alright. Good flavor. Good texture. The Dillo Dust? Too much sugar for our tastes. Made things very sweet. Wife reminded me how good it tasted on roasted winter squash (acorn, butternut). But here? A little too sweet and not enough savory nor salty. Still, overall not bad. Oh, after about 3.5 hours I basted it with some Moose Drool beer and chopped onions (the onion juice is key), then loosely wrapped in foil.
Wife made some pinto beans, and a new cream spinach recipe. She also reports the brisket tasted great with her Becker Vineyard cabernet.
Good food. The laughter of my family. A fine end to the weekend.
Sunday
Brisket. Check.
Dillo Dust. Check.
Oak wood. Check.
Smoker. Check.
Time to wait? Check.
We’ve had a brisket in the deep freeze for some months now, bought with the side of beef we previously ordered. Alas, with the severe drought and fire risk, I’ve not smoked nor grilled anything in a long time. *sigh* But with all the recent rains and greening up, I’m happy to get outside and do some cooking… at least, while there’s the ability to. I reckon this coming summer will be more of the same as last summer, so might as well smoke and grill while I can.
I got some Dillo Dust in a package of stuff I ordered from Larue Tactical. No, you can’t buy it. I’ve tried it on a few things, like a seasoning salt, and I don’t like it — too much sugar. However, as a rub? Potential. It might work, it might not, I don’t know, but I figure why not give it a try. If it sucks that bad, the dog will be very happy for a few days.
The brisket had been defrosting in the fridge for a couple days, but by Friday evening wasn’t fully defrosted (due to having been foled in half by the butcher). But it was close enough and I couldn’t wait any longer, so I rubbed it down with what was left of the dust (about 3/4 bottle) and put it back in the fridge. So it’s been sitting with the rub on for about 36 hours.
Woke up early this morning, got the smoker fired up. Extra nice too because well… remember all that xeriscaping we had done? There was a bunch of flagstone left over. Couple years ago, we had our friends at Fertile Ground Organic Gardens come and do a bunch of stuff in the backyard, and they used some leftover stone there to make what Wife calls the “Man Meat Pit” — just an area for me to put my grill. Well, it was fine with the little grill, but once I got the offset box smoker, it was too small. We had more stone left over from the front-yard xeriscape, so a few days ago Fertile Ground came back out and used the remaining stone and enlarged the pit area. Very roomy now! Once the cold weather breaks and the rest of the planting gets done, yes I’ll finally post some pictures of the xeriscaping.
As of this writing, the brisket’s been in the smoker about 3 hours. Keeping it around 250-ish degrees, burning nothing but oak logs. It’s sitting naked right now in the smoker, but next time I go check it I’ll be wrapping it up in some foil. If Wife has any apple cider vinegar in the pantry, I’ll probably baste it with that too. Else I’ll use some beer.
Alas, I haven’t drank any beer. Yes, cooking over fire requires a beer, but I’m trying to be a good boy about sucking down useless calories.
All the kiddos have expressed happiness and are looking forward to the brisket. It’s been too long since Dad smoked one.
We’ll see how this turns out. Supper should be good.
Like this:
Carbs are killing you
We were told fat was evil. Carbs good.
Then everyone got fat.
More and more evidence is coming to light, that while you shouldn’t go around drinking vats of lard, it’s really the carbs that are killing us.
Here’s a good infographic to explain it all. (h/t dustbag)
Basically, it’s all about insulin. Carbs make insulin go up, thus fat gets stored and not used as fuel.
This is what I struggle with, finding the balance of taking in enough carbs to keep me fueled, but not too many as to spike my insulin and store fat. I’ve improved in my habits, but still have room to go further.
I take my box home — but always bring it back.
I understand why they say “don’t take the box home”, but it bugs me.
Let’s back up.
We’ve been doing the CSA veggie box from Johnson’s Backyard Garden for some time now. We love it. In fact, we love it so much we bought a 1-year long subscription; not just because it meant a discount for us, but because it helped them get up-front money to develop their new 146-acre property. We like JBG, we like supporting them. We want to see them grow and succeed.
A few months ago I commented on an inefficiency in the process. The box is delivered to a drop-off point. We pick it up there. We see everyone bringing cloth bags to take their veggies home. I find this inefficient. From box, to bag, to home storage. If I take the box home, it’s just from box to home storage.
It’s not just number of containers. It takes time to move everything around. So now I’m moving more, and spending more time doing it.
Then there’s the bag. Proper thing is of course to use a cloth reusable bag. But then those get dirty, news stories about them being bacteria breeding grounds. So you now have to wash the bag. That’s going to require more time. Also water, detergent, and that’s just going to create more environmental impact, now isn’t it?
So from my perspective, it makes far more sense to just take the box home.
But by the same token, for this to work, I have to bring the box back. And that I do. I missed one week, but I just brought back 2 boxes the next week. We always bring our boxes back.
Why? They’re expensive! They are thick, sturdy, wax-coated boxes. It’s obvious they are not cheap, it’s obvious they reuse them. I read they use them 10 times or so, and I think I read they cost $2/box. That is expensive and that cost will add up over lots of boxes.
Last week or two, a sticker showed up on the boxes demanding we do not take the boxes home but instead use a bag and follow the above inefficient process. My guess? Lots of people take the boxes, then throw the boxes away. This of course will affect JBG’s bottom line.
They could raise prices, of course. If it’s $2/box, just jack up the cost of every box by $2. But that has a greater impact as well, because the manufacture of all those boxes will have a large environmental impact. Really, reusing the boxes until they can’t be reused is the best option.
So from JBG’s perspective, the best thing THEY can do is tell everyone to not take the boxes home. I understand where they’re coming from. They will have to accept some level of loss, but I reckon the level they’re experiencing is greater than they desire.
That said, I still will take my box home. I will always return it. If I fail for some reason, I’ll reimburse them. Scout’s honor — I’m saying so right here in public and you can hold me to it. The worst I’ll have to endure is the condescending looks I get from other people when I come to pick up my box… but that’s another topic for another time (or you can just go watch the South Park “Smug” episode).
To JBG I say: I hope it’s evident I support you guys. I have voted with my wallet and continue to do so. Know that I am doing what I can to not adversely affect your bottom line, because I know in the end it only comes back to hurt me. I don’t care if the other people picking up their boxes give me condescending looks, because they don’t understand nor obviously care to. I’m trying to do what’s most efficient and right for me, for you, for the environment, however you want to look at it. If there’s something I’m overlooking — and I’m sure I am somewhere — please let me know.
Like this:
So apparently I like Ethiopian food
I don’t know how I initially got the yen to try Ethiopian food, but I did… some long time ago.
I heard about this one restaurant, Taste of Ethiopia. It’s not in Austin, it’s in Pflugerville, which is just outside of Austin, and a schelp relative to where I live. I’ve been told it’s the best Ethiopian restaurant in the area, so I’ve been trying to go there for a while. But, it’s difficult to justify the long drive merely for a meal. However, today we had to do something up that way, so I figured we could finally try it. Yes, took the whole family. I figured they would be game to try something new and different, and given they liked Indian food, I figured I had a shot here.
Finding the place was no problem. It was a small but reasonable place. I saw they had a lunch buffet. We did tell the waitress we’d never had Ethiopian food before, so she explained a few things to us. She suggested we could try ordering off the menu and eating in the traditional family style. That style of eating is quite natural to me, either from Wife’s home-cookin’ roots or my Korean heritage. After thinking about it, we opted to do the buffet as the best way to survey a wide range of food. However, Oldest didn’t want the buffet; he saw this thing on the menu - Kitfo, and ordered it.
Let’s see if I can remember what was in the buffet. There was a lentil soup. Of course, the injera (which I’ll talk more about shortly). Doro Wot. A zucchini wot. I think ater kik. Some rice. Collards. Something with green beans and carrots. Another that was potato and cabbage (and turmeric). A few other things that I can’t remember.
But I tasted it all.
Oh my.
It was wonderful!
I love the seasoning. That berbere was just fantastic. I did love the way to eat it all too, with the injera – just tear some off and use it to pick up the food. The injera texture and flavor was really neat, very different. I’m not really a bread guy and by itself I doubt I’d eat it, but given its role in the meal it was really nice. I will say that I had to stop eating it and just use a fork, because I’m trying to keep the excessive bread/carb intake minimize, but boy it was hard today.
I am surprised to say I liked the zucchini wot the best! The doro wot was good, but it was chunks of white meat chicken; I think legs or thighs would have tasted better. They had a goat-meat dish on the menu, and if it’s a “goat wot” I bet that’d be good. This is just personal preference. I think something a little “greasier” would work well.
But what really got me? The Kitfo. Oh my. That was amazing. The seasoning was just so wonderful. The texture too was so velvety. There was just the right texture, the right seasonings, the right fat (I read now that there’s butter put on it). Oh, it was so damn good. My mouth just loved it in every way.
I see on the menu this chefuye, which could tempt me next time.
Gee. I really really liked this, far more than I expected I would. The kids liked it too. Oldest isn’t a big fan of hot-spicy food, but he couldn’t stop eating the Kitfo… it just draws you back, you just want to keep eating it.
I wish it wasn’t so far away.
I can’t wait to go back. I think next time we’ll order a few dishes, continue to try dishes we haven’t yet tried, and eat them family style. Wife also wants to try the honey wine… not sure she’ll like it (she wasn’t a fan of mead), but it could be prepared differently and/or complement the food just right.
Just before we left, the owner, Woinee Mariam, came out and we spoke with her. She was impressed with Oldest bucking the trend and ordering a traditional dish. She was so kind, so sweet; she made us feel right at home. I love businesses like this, as you just want to keep supporting good people doing good things like this.
Can’t wait to go back.
Venison consumed
And venison was consumed.
We pulled out a sika deer tenderloin and a fallow deer tenderloin. I sliced them up, no more than 1/2″ thick. Threw them in the pan with just a bit of canola oil to mitigate sticking. Otherwise, no seasonings, nothing. Let’s see what the actual meat tastes like.
In a wonderful bit of serendipity (because we didn’t expect to get the deer back today), Wife had started a whitetail deer roast (from the whitetail does I shot last year; all hail the FoodSaver!). So, now we had 3 types of venison to try side-by-side, tho of course the whitetail would be a little seasoned.
Verdict?
We all like. A lot.
Using whitetail as our baseline, we all agreed that both the fallow and the sika are similar in taste to the whitetail — it’s all deer meat, they’re all in the same ballpark, no radical difference (e.g. the vast difference between beef and chicken). The sika seemed a bit milder than the whitetail, maybe a bit smoother texture — Daughter said “buttery” in regards to the texture. I’m not sure I’d go there, but I know what she meant: it was certainly “softer”. Very nice. The fallow had a slightly stronger flavor. None of us could come up with a way to describe it, but it was something with the overtones, a hint of something more, a little bolder flavor but subtle. Texture was also quite nice.
And in some weird way… the whitetail seemed to pale in comparison. Still good, just somehow the sika and fallow tasted a little better. Between the 3 types of venison, there was no grand consensus. Some liked sika more, some liked fallow more. Me, I think I liked the fallow more, but more research is needed. 
In the past we were always sparing with our use of venison because you shot what you shot during whitetail season and it had to last until next year. But now? Gee. Just use the venison at will. It’s no trouble getting an exotic, cost isn’t horrendous, and if that means better, leaner, tastier meat all year ’round? Heck, how can I say no? Well… I still love me some beef, but gee… I’m itching to get through all this meat because next I want to try red deer and axis.
