Saturday, February 27, 2010

Back up & around







Been a bit under the weather the last few days with a virus of some kind, very unusual for me, so a delay in posting. Happily I'm much better today. Your health is really the all important thing it appears.



The weather has gone chilly & rainy here - again - climate change a-coming? And, once again, not complaining as the northeast has been slammed with snow again. There'll be lots of dancing when spring finally hits I think.



As I didn't have much energy to venture out, caught this egret wandering our neighborhood looking for food. I think they're so graceful &r regal looking,but wouldn't want to be a frog or lizard close by...



Finished book #16 Family Album by Penelope Lively. I've read every one of hers over time and love her style. She's a british author who specializes in writing about families and the intricacies therein.



We have an experiment going on in the kitchen. We are trying to dry age beef ourselves. Our latest Cook's magazine issue gave instructions (a great magazine published 6 times a yr if you're not familiar) so we will see. Most beef in grocery stores & restaurants are all wet-aged (packed in vacuum packaging) - the cost is substantially less. Dry aging is done in commercial frigs for least 7 to 21 days. It loses 20% weight by this method and then has to have extra trimming done, so profit wise, it doesn't make sense for most to do it. Dry aged is more flavorful and tender than wet, so we thought we'd try. I do not want to pay the ridiculous price for dry aged beef in the store even if I could find it! You just wrap the steak in cheesecloth, put it on a rack and shove it in the back of the frig for 4 days. Doesn't look like anything special, right? I'll let you know...

1 comment:

  1. Will be so interested to hear about the dry aging experiment! I read about something similar, but using an expensive dry aging kit. In the Q&A at the end, she says there was no difference between her home method and the kit. http://steamykitchen.com/6626-review-how-to-dry-age-steaks-with-drybag.html

    Also, please change your comment settings so people without profiles can comment... since I changed to the other blog, I can't post with my new settings.

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