Tomorrow I get the whole day off!!

No real job.

No shops.

No reports.

Nothing! I'm free until my Wednesday morning breakfast shop!!

You don't have to learn to love those. Those are excellent days. "Days off."

Yes, those are definitely the days to catch up on housekeeping and laundry, watch the job boards to fill future days, do meal planning and generally catch up in addition to studying new upcoming jobs. Today I have nothing until 4PM so two loads of laundry are done and put away, dinner is in the crock pot, a roast is in the oven for roast beef for lunch sandwiches for the week, the breadmaker is about done with a hearty bread to go with dinner and leftovers for sandwiches, the dishes are washed and next is mopping the kitchen floor.

Can I come eat at your house?

Yeah. Set the table with TWO extra spots!!

Indeed Dinner tonight is corned beef that I ran into brisket on sale when I was doing a grocery shop about 6 weeks ago. The freezer was full, so I did the salt and spices, sealed it up in a zip lock and it has been weighted down in the bottom of the fridge since then 'developing'. It is smelling outrageously good cooking and when it comes out of the crock to set, cabbage wedges will be dumped into the broth for a half hour simmer to make a yum yum dinner.

A side benefit of doing many grocery shops each month is finding deals - reduced for quick sale meat and seafood fill my freezer. Corning a brisket yourself - I'm impressed, Flash, with your ingenuity! I wonder if it will taste the same or better than 'store bought'.

We love them. This is not the first time I've done them. I don't bother buying the chemicals to keep them the red color that folks associate with corned beef, but I can adjust the spices more to our taste. I generally like more bay leaf and allspice than the commercial corned beef guys use. And yes, reduced for quick sale works when you are doing morning shops but generally those buys are gone if you need to shop late afternoon.

The quick buys for me vary time of day by store. For one store, if you don't get there by 8am, they are gone. For others, I can shop in the evening and the mark downs are there. I haven't had corned beef since I was a kid, and I have no idea what you do to one or even how to cook a brisket any other way.

Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We love them. This is not the first time I've
> done them. I don't bother buying the chemicals to
> keep them the red color that folks associate with
> corned beef, but I can adjust the spices more to
> our taste. I generally like more bay leaf and
> allspice than the commercial corned beef guys use.
> And yes, reduced for quick sale works when you
> are doing morning shops but generally those buys
> are gone if you need to shop late afternoon.


I've relatives in Texas who do brisket - smoked, with cola, or bbq. Care to share your recipe? Here, or PM me? I have a cat named Reuben, after corned beef Danke, claddagh, thank you!

Just did a search of the internet for my original source and it was [www.thecookinginn.com] I almost double the allspice called for, pick over my thyme plant so I probably use a dozen to 18 sprigs because I usually trim out the older sprigs that are a little less pungent, and I double the bay leaves. Bert has asked for more garlic this batch, so I will probably double that as well next time. I use kosher salt or pickling salt if I have it handy. I haven't tried pork because I have no source of fresh juniper berries. I keep the bags in the bottom of the refrigerator (where it is coldest) and weigh them down with a 12 pack of sodas. As I am putting together dinner I turn the bags. I use the freezer style gallon size zip locks because they are tough enough they are unlikely to break. The first few days you will have very little fluid, but later there will be enough to really keep the meat well bathed.

Tonight was the last one of this bunch and it did take quite a lot of soaking to get the saltiness within acceptable limits. My preference is to cook them in a crock pot during the summer rather than heat up the kitchen with boiling on the stove. I throw them in the crock at high heat late morning, after an hour or so I turn it down and just let it simmer until about half an hour before serving, when I pull it out and throw the cabbage in and kick the heat back up to high.

The first time I made them I decided to trim off all the fat from the meat so I wouldn't be having to clear it once the corned beef was done. I lost a lot of flavor by not having the fat present, so subsequently I have left the fat in place and just scraped it once the meat was cooked.

I got some of the best BOGO meats this week at QFC ( I visited 3 of them) so when I got home with me 6 shops today I made BBQ Wild Coho (sale), and chilled dungeness crab (sale) and some pasta primavera with browned butter and myzithra. A decent bottle of South African Pinotage from the bargain bin and I said THANK YOU to my mom and hubby for watching the kids all day! Take that Rachel Ray!

Wow. Now I have to map a route...start at your house for dinner, then fly to flash's...now I would just need to shop a couple of airlines and rental cars and do all the airport shops to make it a route! :-)

I made fresh cherry jam and slow roasted tomatoes today, but no meals.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2009 06:30AM by dee shops.

Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just did a search of the internet for my original
> source and it was
> [www.thecookinginn.com] I
> almost double the allspice called for, pick over
> my thyme plant so I probably use a dozen to 18
> sprigs because I usually trim out the older sprigs
> that are a little less pungent, and I double the
> bay leaves. Bert has asked for more garlic this
> batch, so I will probably double that as well next
> time. I use kosher salt or pickling salt if I
> have it handy. I haven't tried pork because I
> have no source of fresh juniper berries. I keep
> the bags in the bottom of the refrigerator (where
> it is coldest) and weigh them down with a 12 pack
> of sodas. As I am putting together dinner I turn
> the bags. I use the freezer style gallon size zip
> locks because they are tough enough they are
> unlikely to break. The first few days you will
> have very little fluid, but later there will be
> enough to really keep the meat well bathed.
>
> Tonight was the last one of this bunch and it did
> take quite a lot of soaking to get the saltiness
> within acceptable limits. My preference is to
> cook them in a crock pot during the summer rather
> than heat up the kitchen with boiling on the
> stove. I throw them in the crock at high heat
> late morning, after an hour or so I turn it down
> and just let it simmer until about half an hour
> before serving, when I pull it out and throw the
> cabbage in and kick the heat back up to high.
>
> The first time I made them I decided to trim off
> all the fat from the meat so I wouldn't be having
> to clear it once the corned beef was done. I lost
> a lot of flavor by not having the fat present, so
> subsequently I have left the fat in place and just
> scraped it once the meat was cooked.


I haven't had this in so long I can't remember-re the saltiness comment-what do you mean about getting the saltiness in limits-does that mean you are trying to make it more so, or less so? Why?

Not dumb just nevah did dat befoah...

You are coating the meat in salt to preserve it so it will have a lot of saltiness. The longer the meat stays in the salt, the more the salt will penetrate it. If you have corned the meat for only 2-3 weeks you don't have a deep penetration of salt or flavors so several cold water rinses will begin to leach the little bit of salt out of it. This last one was corned for 6 weeks and so was pretty stiff coming out of the ziplock and the salt and flavors had penetrated pretty deeply. It got several cold water rinses and then sat in cold water in the fridge overnight with a change of water before I went to bed and one when I got up. There was relatively little saltiness left--definitely not an objectionable level. With commercial corned beef they are using a chemical treatment to preserve the meat, so generally there is a lot less salt involved in the first place. Thus there is no reason to soak the stuff that comes out of the commercial bag and in fact they usually suggest that you put the liquid from the bag in with the meat to cook.

Two days with no shops. I'm fostering a litter of kittens. They're unbelievably cute but so demanding. In a few days, I'll offer them solid food and start weaning from the bottle. Then, they get to go back to the humane society for adoption.

Two different nearby grocery stores are offering super double coupons and triple coupons. For years my personal goal has been to save at least 50% at checkout, and it takes time. In 4 visits to two stores the past 2 days - due to daily limits on number of coupons used - I've spent $83.15 and saved $203.89.

Today, I did 3 loads of laundry. Homemade croissants that filled the kitchen with a wonderful aroma, to go with fruit salad and a cheese plate.

I guess I will be modifying that route to iclude breakfast at your house, Mert!

Mert, try bowl training your kittens. So much easier and more sanitary than bottles. I do it with the goat kids as early as newborns and have done it with a calf whose mother was impacted and wouldn't let her nurse. In a very shallow container (for little ones I start with the screw on lid from a quart jar) with just a little bit of milk in it. Put it near the little one's nose to let them smell it, then move it away. After 3-4 passes near the nose I either spash a little on the nose or drip a drop off my finger on the nose. Reflex will have the baby lick it off. Repeat a couple of times and then gently push the face down for the nose to just break the surface. After they have licked off I just keep the bowl close enough to the face that usually they dive in with a fair amount of snorting and sputtering. They may need to go through 2-3 training sessions before they dive in as soon as the bowl is presented and then you can go to a full portion bowl, adding more as they finish it. Also makes it possible to feed a bunch of them at the same time, which makes it feasible to offer more feedings per day without spending your whole day feeding and sterilizing bottles.

Up until 4 or 5 days ago, they would have been too wobbly and klutzy. They're now steadier on their feet and ravenous, so I'm figuring they'll dive in, maybe literally. And when the ringleader starts scarfing, others will follow. Should be a sight!

Even wobbly and klutzy will manage if you make the bowl their first option when hungry and while watching them for success, don't be toooo forgiving about taking them back to the bottle if they don't have quick success. Because their intake at first from the bowl won't be really competent, offer them the bowl more often than you would bottle feed them the first few successful encounters with it. With multiples in the bowl a less competent I will move to their own bowl so the star pupils don't drink it all and leave little/none for the already smaller and less competent one(s).

My 'No Shop' days these days are being used to slowly clear up my garage. I can only say of my garage that it is a haven of good intentions--all those things I was going to get around to and haven't.

On the days I do not shop I am either trying to finish getting moved or at the house playing computer games with my great grand son. He is three and 1/2 and is language delayed and has problems with fine motor skills. He has picked up a lot of language skills playing with me and the best part is he does not realize it. His fine motor skills have improved also and I am really pleased with him. Now all he wants to do is play games.

I had forgotten how good it felt to watch a child learn to do something they did not know how to do. Besides since I live with family they do all the cooking.

My son went on my computer at 6 months of age using Jump Start Baby. He is more fluent than my hubby now. :-)

Uh, I went to the pool yesterday (sunny) and the movies today (raining) withe the kids... And oh yeah, I made pasta for dinner today and had take-out yesterday. No shops. I feel like a loser! LOL

I think I'd rather be at your house. :-)

I spent my day, besides doing never-ending housework, to build my own database of shops/MSPs as Flash suggested. I had the information in various places, but making an alphabetized list is a sight 7 pages! Still a few unknowns to me, will have to keep reading here. And I did read here, current and past - Man, the help is here for the taking. I also visited 87 MSP sites to update and save my profile so they'll know I'm still interested. I 'fixed' grape tomatoes, cheese and crackers.

Tomorrow - going to reorganize my bookmarks into daily, bi-weekly and bi-monthly? Not quite decided. In Firefox, how many tabs can you open at once without side effects or slow-downs?

It depends on how much memory and other junk you have running My 'daily check' bookmark has 31 companies at the moment. I have been known to open it in one window and my 'new to me' bookmark (that currently still has 28 companies) in another window at the same time. These I open on my laptop that has only about 1 G of RAM and is running XP. Other windows simultaneously open include Excel, 2 browser windows and sometimes other things as well. It slows the machine down a great deal but it works. One of my issues is that I don't like more than about 30 per bookmark because it begins being hard to quickly scan through the list.

My 8 year old desktop died today. Been reading reviews, shopping and pricing. Bummed

The hard drive or the motherboard? If all else fails . . .

[www.buy.com] looks pretty sweet.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2009 01:20AM by Flash.

Motherboard went and she took the power supply with her. Thanks for the link. Similar to what hubby linked me to, which is 4gb instead of 6. CNET likes it. What do you think? [www.bestbuy.com]