Tuesday evening Tiny E came from the kitchen and said to me, “Papa, we need to go shopping to fill up the fridge.” And I’m thinkin’, “I’d rather go shopping to fill up my tummy.” We did both.
One of my things is to start on the side of the grocery store where there’s no meat. This way I can weave my way through the store, ever building my expectations. Was hoping for the sale on the baby back porky ribs, nope. Guess what I spied with my meaty eye? Those large packages of beef with the little spice packet for to make the corned beef dinner! Sure if I was a real go gettem’ food blogger I’d spice my own. But it was Tuesday evening and wasn’t feeling it.

As you can see, this post is here because the pictures came out all pretty. Boiling meat for 2.5 hours with spice packet, then adding taters and cabbage doesn’t exactly count, in my book, as a recipe. It was a fricken’ great meal though. And the leftovers? I can hardly wait.
Oh, and this meal doubles as an air freshener.
xo, Biggles

Alright, so I was in Joya de Ceren, an El Salvadorian grorcery in Richmond, for pork chops last night. They had some really wicked little chops all riddled with juicy fat. Yoink. Just one row over I noticed they had some pork shoulder pieces. I love pork shoulder. I rarely see it cut like this, it was cut just a tad over 2″ thick. Kinda like a pork steak, only measured in pounds. Yeah, I bought it. That and two smaller chops, two sodas came to a whopping 8 bux. But how to prepare?

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Ya ever have a hard time frying a pork chop? Ever sit down to your meal and just shake your head and think maybe some day you’ll get it right? Well, we’re smarter now, huh. We have that dumb Cook’s Illustrated and we all know now that we need to brine or make sure we get a thick one. Blah, blah, blah. But what if you’re at the store doing some shopping and you get the urge for a nice pork chop dinner for tonight? No time for brining and finding a thick pork chop at the local grocery can be few and far between. Aroo?

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Meathenge is honored to have the very famous musician, artist & all around fun person, Amelia Ray step in for a little recipe action today. I haven’t seen her in quite a while, but it looks as though she’s doing just fine. And I have to say this recipe is pretty fricken cool. Just when you thought you’d had chicken every possible way, something like this rolls along. Let’s sit back and see what’s she’s gots.

Lemon Chicken (Ivory Coast Recipe)
Someone left an entire chicken in my freezer a couple of weeks ago. I don’t have an oven, so I searched around for a recipe for cooking a chicken in a pot on the stove. I found a dusty old Italian recipe book, and there, to my delight, was a lovely recipe for lemon chicken!

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Here we find a most excellent sirloin of beef roast. The sign said it was grass fed & had a range to roam around in or on. Let the little dear come to room temp first. Wash, dry, install the extra virgin. Fleur de sel straight from Paris. Laura gifted it to me a while back and have been using it sparingly. Anyone know where she went? I hope all is well. Okay, so we have the oil, salt, fresh rosemary & creamy white pepper corns from my good friend Rob over at Salt Traders. He’s got some seriously badass product over there for sure. Carefully lay 3 bacon rosettes on top, I had to use a toothpick to hold in place. The bacon is some of Fatted Calf’s finest and has a nice firm texture, hence the toothpicks.
Introduce your work of art in to a cast iron pan with a trivet below. This goes in a preheated 375 degree oven, on the bottom rack until about 130 degrees internal temp (kinda on the juicy rare side). Check temp at 40 minutes, just to see. Pull, let rest for about 10 minutes, slice as thin or thick as you wish. Mines is about 1/4″, dredge each slice in juices that flow from hunk. Serve with pride!
Oh, and since I only used 3 slices, I decided to cook up the rest to a medium rare.

Serve as Hors D’oeuvres, people will love you.
Ya know, the roast tasted like really good, mild beef. Not all grassy, must have been finished with a little corn, eh. Thank you! Not bad for a little Wednesday meal, eh?
xo, Biggles

My most excellent friend Kevin of Seriously Good, whom I spoke with today, informed me that his recent adventure was inspired by a meat photograph I took recently. He rambled his self down the Florentine road and came up with Pork Chops Florentine.
I’m impressed and wishing some of his creation was warm, and in front of me. Go have a gander and it could very well inspire something within you.
xo, Biggles

I’ve been accused more than a few times that some of what I do here isn’t reproducible in their kitchen. I feel kinda bad because most of what I do is quite simple, straight forward and doesn’t require rocket science. I think it was Shannon that tried this Pressed Chicken and the first time was a complete disaster. Meathead attempted the salt marinated chicken and ended up throwing it away, so sad.
What to do, what to do? Tinker and Tanker knew what to do, and they did it!

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This recipe was given to me by Gramma D’Alessio a handful of years ago. I was seeking something off the beaten path for my typical American ways of tomato based sauces. She hit the nail right on the head with this one. She’s been cooking for so long, you know damned well she doesn’t necessarily work from recipes. Spoonfuls of this, handfuls of that and if an ingredient doesn’t pass muster? Use something else or leave it out altogether. When is it done? When it’s done. This is why I didn’t probe for exact amounts. All I wanted was her story. What did she usually use? 1 or 2 pinches? What does she see, smell, taste and feel?
This is a simple love of ingredients that when fawned over will produce a warm, rich and inviting sauce. This will easily go right over ravioli, use as a poaching base for seafood or for a dressing around meats & veggies.
Wanna come see?

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We don’t eat much beef steak or fancy beef roasts around these parts (Meathenge Labs). Why? For several reasons. One of which being it costs too much. The other is that I find beef is really quite quirky as to its cooking times. One minute you have perfection and in five? A stinky ol’ boot. While this isn’t a problem for skilled meat craftsman, I’ve got 2 small boys and their neighborhood friends about my feet at most times. I need a meat that will give me a few minutes of leeway.
That being said, I had my Highland Hills Farm Chateaubriand from the farmer’s market last Saturday and Monday night seemed a perfect moment for me and my meat.
Today I’d like to offer up a few pictures and meat technology that might help some of you getting a good steak from your range in your kitchen. I didn’t have time for the grill and I hate my broiler. So, off we go!

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No, this isn’t a close-up. Look to the right and you’ll see my stove, and there in front? A large bread knife.
Where did it come from? What would one possibly do with such a beast? Got any ideas?

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Today’s entry is brought to you by Nikon’s latest and most recent release, the 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor with Nano Crystal technology. Man this lens is fricken amazing. You can shoot 4 stops slower, hand-held.

You shuddup. No, you shuddup. No, you shuddup. You shuddup. No. You shuddup. Purely having fun today, nothing more, nothing less. I’ve been in an odd mood with regards to food over the last week. At weird times of the day I’ve been lusting after those old traditional American casseroles. Something way too rich, creamy and/or cheesey. A dish made with frozen vegetables and a crunchy topping of some kind. A dish that Gramma would carry in with a huge smile during the holidays, warbling something about someone’s favorite casserole. That’s what I wanted, but wasn’t sure how to go about it. Then, I was also interested in cooking chicken another way, other than roasting. It wasn’t until yesterday when I was digging through Meathead’s discarded cookbooks that I sawr my prey, Tater Coated Chicken.

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Oh man oh man, oh man. The weather here is bright, warm and clear with a finish of crispy clean. The family and I recently returned from a fine 2 day getaway and are doing well. I come here today with a recipe I sorta followed from a newly translated cookbook, La Bonne Cuisine by Madame E. Saint-Ange. This revered tomb was lovingly translated by an amazing man by the name of Paul Aratow. Why am I so googly over such a cookbook? It was originally published in 1929 and has probably been a bible of sorts for many French Chefs since then, such as our beloved Julia Child. And today, I find it such a great big fat hairy deal because only last year was it released in English!
At first I considered the recipes a little long winded, mostly because for the 1 recipe I was interested in for that moment, I already knew most of the ins and outs. But then I realized, if someone didn’t know how to deal with wild game (a rabbit), this book lays it down so you know what to look for and how to judge. This book is a walk-through guide to French cooking and a glimpse in to the past. Some times it’s this good to be alive.
Before we dive in I would like to give a warm congratulations to Ten Speed Press of Berkeley for landing the opportunity to publlish this book. This most surely is a chesire moment for ya’ll. Okay then …
I have a whole fresh rabbit, a fancy cookbook and a little time. Interested to see how it all came together?

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I can’t believe I’m sitting here thinking that this is the first time I’ve had bacon as a main course for dinner. Sure we’ve all had bacon with dinner. Or bacon as dinner, at least some of us anyway. But this is the first time I’ve served bacon as the main course in dinner.
Last weekend I received an email from Chilebrown, he was starting up another load of his homemade bacon. Each batch varies a little, smoking temps, cuts of meat and cure times. I’ve been pleading for a bacon with more smoky flavors. And brother, or sister, he came through in flying colors.
I enjoyed this batch a lot. It had great pork flavor and was matched by an applewood smoke that left you smacking yer lips. Both Mama and agreed it was on the salty side, but it seemed to go over fine because everyone’s plates were clean.
Saturday’s supper was easy, fast and a topnotch way to end a nice afternoon.
Meathenge recommends you try having bacon as your main course for your next Saturday Supper.
Xo Xo

Barrett from Too Many Chefs has inspired me a handful of times over the last year or so to try some vegetarian dishes. This isn’t easy to do, maybe I’ve changed my wily ways? Probably not, but Barrett puts forth his recipes in a way that doesn’t attack me for being a meateater. Or, mentioning in the prose some place how meateaters like it and they never miss the meat! That crap blows my stack. Anyone who tells me I won’t miss the bacon or I won’t miss the pork roast is off their rocker. Barrett doesn’t take that route and it’s pleasing to cook from his stash.
Today we have Biggles’ version of Barrett’s Poppyseed Cabbage and Egg Noodles.

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Do you see the froggy relaxing?
Most everyone was in attendance, poor Babs wasn’t able to come down to enjoy. Let’s give a large raspberry to Allstate for being such pigs. The day’s weather started a little gloomy, but cleared up soon enough for everyone to enjoy. Meathenge Labs goes traditional for Thanksgiving (Gravy Day). I figure we have all year to play with food, don’t mess with my roasted turkey and gravy, don’t mess. Today’s post is just a little sharing of what went on in and around the stove and table. Wanna see?

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