Poached egg with spinach, beef mixture

This is the kind of beach that hurts when you walk on it barefooted. 

The second half of the rib-eye steak seared earlier here.

Frozen spinach rid of excess moisture which turns out to be a lot. Ricotta to lighten the spinach. Onion and garlic and spices to flavor all that. Sour cream instead of regular cream to loosen further and to introduce a trace of acid, otherwise, lemon or a sprinkle of vinegar.

The egg is a double-yolk egg and that is like winning the egg lottery and you can only win the egg lottery if you play the jumbo eggs.

The poaching water contains generous but cheap vinegar and it never boiled, plus it never boiled at Denver which is 10 degrees lower in  Farenheight Farenheit F degrees than at sea level, so about 180℉.

The poached egg was cleared of goofy loose albumen while still in the pot. The yolks were lifted with a regular serving spoon and the remaining goofy extra albumen trimmed by running the edge of the spoon across the inside of the pot all the way around until the spoon is trimmed 360º, or nearly, the spoon handle interferes with complete spoon edge trimming.

Manipulating eggs this way by controlling the temperature of the poaching liquid and not being carried off with the idea that the water must be simmering shows confidence of understanding the ranges within which egg albumens and egg yolks denature and the whole trimming off of the extra freeform albumen is terribly elegant. Look at the way it spills out, it is a little yolk bladder that can be placed on anything to provide a wonderful perfectly thick sauce.  

Ice cream sandwich

Do not think of trying this hazardous combination using commercial products, the result might explode. 

Chocolate ice cream with coffee in its own window here.

Vanilla wafers in its own window here.  

Best to use your own ice cream and your own biscuits, that way you can be confident the two elements do not contain any explosive precursors. 

Vanilla wafers

I loved vanilla wafers when I was a kid. I think because they are bland. 

Plus, they go with banana pudding that has banana slices in it. Banana slices and these cookies in the banana pudding inside a pie shell. Bland with bland in bland in bland somehow makes for an exciting pie. This is how I regarded these things as a child. 

* butter

* twice as much sugar as butter

* twice as much flour as  the above

* salt sufficient for all the above
* vanilla equal to 1 tablespoon per cup of flour, this is quite a lot. 

* baking powder equivalent to 1 teaspoon per cup of flour used

That's it.

But now I cannot leave well enough alone, and why should I? 

* powdered ginger

* cinnamon

* mace

Method: I don't know if this is useful or not. What the heck. 

* whip the butter with the sugar until it becomes a little creamy.

* add egg and whip more.

* sift dry ingredients together and mix in thirds by hand. Avoid developing the gluten. 

* use teaspoon to spoon onto prepared baking sheet. I use Silpat, sometimes parchment, or spray aluminum foil. 

400 ℉ for 10 minutes mid upper rack. 

Rib-eye steak, white rice

The same thing shown again.

You could say, well that's all very well and good, Chip, but what spices are those? 

And because I'm tired of saying the same thing all the time, by impulse I'd say, what difference does it make? A question that doesn't answer the question and declaratives phrased as interrogatives are rude, plus the non smarty-pants answer is as easy anyway,

* rosemary

* sea salt

* black pepper

* mace

All ground up in a stone smasher.

The rice is spiced up too. Typical things with honey this time, and butter. 

* coriander seeds ground up

* chile pepper flakes

* cayenne peper

* white pepper

* sea salt

Bean soup

Caution: bean soup causes amnesia.

The photo set for this was on the card left in the camera. I found it having forgotten about it last night. 

There were ingredients in this but I forgot what they are and I forgot what I did to them. It had something to do with a pork roast because that's gone, and something to do with a pressure cooker because that's been left filled with soapy water. 

It must have been delicious because it's gone. Maybe we shouldn't make bean soup anymore because it appears to be dangerous.