Peach, basil, spaghetti, shrimp, pean salad

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/8 cup rice vinegar

1/8 cup honey

1/4 cup peanut butter

* chile flakes

* garlic

* ginger

* black pepper

* fish sauce

* sesame oil

* black pepper

The idea was to combine peaches and avocado but I forgot the avocado.

The second idea was to use more basil than lettuce along with something else like cilantro. Mint would work too. 

The third idea is cold noodles marinated in Asian dressing.

How to poach an egg

Water is brought to a boil with a few tablespoons of regular vinegar. The vinegar causes the egg albumen to tighten into itself. Egg white tends to spread throughout the water without the vinegar. 

The water is off the heat. No longer boiling. At sea level that is 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than where I am at in  Denver. But not to worry. 

Egg whites denature between 144-149℉ 62-65℃

Egg yolks denature between 149-158℉  65-70℃

And that is much lower than boiling in any case.

Water can be lifted to the top of the egg to distribute the heat.

The yolk is lifted out of the water. Surplus egg white globs over the edge of the spoon.

The edge of the spoon is used to trim the egg white by scrapping it against the side of the pot or trimming with a knife. The size of the spoon determines the amount of egg white retained.

Egg white left in the pot. Cleared out. The water is used again to reheat the poached egg later. 

The poached egg is transferred to cold water which halts cooking action. The egg can be held for hours then reheated in the same water that cooked it.

The whole point is to deliver a bladder of egg yolk sauce to an awaiting pile of starch or protein or vegetable, in this case leftover macaroni and cheese with crab.

You can do the same thing with a fried egg. 

French fries

Quick, mix cayenne into catsup.

Oh! Already did that. Determined a long time ago to not have regular catsup around. It's all been adapted. The whole thing. A jug. A Sam's Club jug. A Flintstone's jug. 

I used to have six I'm Perfect cups. Got them for perfect attendance for a year. They give you cup and then you feel like a schmuck for not taking more time off. You know, work the system. Then one by one my cups were stolen from my office. 

By people who were less perfect. 

Or really needed a cup.

They took four umbrellas too, over time, they were so careless with other people's things. 

Steak and peach

The steak is 8oz of top sirloin, sliced, seasoned and fried in butter.

Rather than frying as a steak, resting, seasoning, then slicing which would retain a rare interior.

So a little bit backwards, and overcooked for a steak.

A whole delicious fully ripe sliced peach is rolled around the pan to pick up spiced butter but it is not cooked. Not even for a minute.

Mint would be better than basil but two caterpillars destroyed the mint plants.  

Peach

Where I live, for one week a year, but only one week, you can get excellent peaches.

And that is strange because peaches are grown here.

It's frustrating. Takes some guesswork and a willingness to be wrong. 

Is this the week for excellent peaches? I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope. 

Conclusion: Yes!

Mac and cheese with crab

I can actually distinguish the crab as crab and not just some generic seafood. 

The crabs we get in Denver are all imported, they are not as good as crab you get in exotic places like Baltimore and Boston and Key West and Anchorage, it is the same thing, actually, but the worst of the same thing. Whereas they get the best right off the boat, we get the worst of the bits that are left over when the processing place cleans up. They put the factory floor room sweepings in little envelopes and send them to us. It's an act of kindness. Pathetic, really. The best that can be done given circumstances. Similar to CARE packages except a lot more expensive.

And every morsel is delicious.

Hashed browned potato

Shredded potato hashed with onion and browned in vegetable oil flavored with butter.

Dolled up with flavored cream cheese and seasoned tomato.

And chive.

So onion and chive. Two alliums. Together in one place. In complementary harmony. I just made that up. It's really for green dots. It's silly. The green dots could have been cilantro or basil or mint or something that's not another allium, but there you go.