If You Can't Stand the Heat - Carnage du Jour - 22 May 2021 - Plague Journal Day 436

Micah 6:8
Daniel 1:11-16
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

If you can't stand the heat, that's just too bad.

Oh, that's not really the saying, is it? It's something about getting out of the kitchen, but that's precisely where I was on Thursday nonetheless. We were having a friend over for dinner and my original plan had been to do my ratatouille on the grill and a piece of fish to go along with it. However, time got away and I ended up doing an inside ratatouille with honey mustard roasted Arctic Char. I don't know that I've ever cooked this inside before, but it turned out quite nicely.

Two baby eggplants, two yellow summer squash, two zucchini, a tub of multi-colored grape tomatoes, and some diced onions were all we needed. I sliced and marinated the vegetables with some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and herbes de Provence.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Vegage du Jour - 22 July 2019

Ratatouille.
No, not the movie, the dish.

Sure, people make this nice blend of tomatoes, eggplant (or aubergine if you prefer), onions, squash, and all that all the time, so why bother posting about it here?

Ah - simply because it was all done on the grill!

Over varying amounts of direct heat I cooked a whole Japanese eggplant (from the garden), a zucchini (likewise), a yellow squash (ditto), two halves of an onion, and a passle of grape tomatoes (both of these last were store-bought, more's the pity). All had been coated with a bit of canola oil and a dusting of lemon zest before they hit the grill, and as with the tenderloin of a week or so prior, there was a tray with some hickory chips to add a subtle smokiness.

Once each had cooked and been removed from the grill (each at its own time, of course), the eggplant, zucchini, squash, and onion were sliced fairly thinly and uniformly, mixed with the tomatoes (which had collapsed into a near-sauce under the relentless heat) along with a bit of garlic salt and a dash of white balsamic vinegar.

The results were beyond adequate - this was a delicious dish, and one that will be repeated as the garden provides her bounty through these coming weeks and months.

Highly recommended.

Enjoy!

Carnage du Jour - 01 November 2016

"Do we have anything we can do on the grill? It's a beautiful night."

I love being asked questions like that.

The answer was that we had smoked sausage, hot dogs, and half of a beef tenderloin.
I also got to use my new chimney-type charcoal starter, so double bonus!

The sausage and hot dogs were just the normal "put them on and cook them, smearing mustard (Nance's) on the smoked sausage as it cooks" kind of thing, but what you really want to know about is the beef tenderloin.

I made a rub of dry mustard, rubbed thyme, onion powder, and a touch of salt. I rubbed that on the beef and let it sit a bit before taking it to the grill.
The beef got cooked over semi-indirect heat (semi- because I wanted a bit of a crust on it, but not too much) while we also grilled some rainbow carrots and golden beets.
(There was also a pot of yellow rice going inside with a half can of Red Gold diced tomatoes with chipotle added toward the end of the cooking.)

Once everything was done, the beef rested briefly and then sliced, Heidi took her plate to the table while I finished filling my own. Before I could join her, she came back and told me the extra little piece I had dropped on her plate was the best piece of meat she had ever put in her mouth.
I'm not sure I'd go quite that far, but oh my was that a delicious tenderloin.

Highly recommended.

RIP - Stompin Tom Connors

Yes, the singer of that good old hockey game song and the one about tomatoes from Leamington has passed on to the great stage in the sky.

Stompin Tom was one of a kind; he will be missed, but now he's really been everywhere, man.