NNNNNIIII!!! NI! NI!

Dankinator-approved! This is excellent!!!! "We want a...........", that had me laughing. Nicely done!

There is still 2 days after today and you can submit two pomegranate-related memes per day - for a total of 6 pomegranate-related memes for this quest. Who is most creative when it comes to pomegranates? Only time will tell!

PS - this was my favorite individual meme for Quest #1. I wish you got more upvotes and made the podium.

I liked it too, but the mob is fickle brother, lol

This is mah fave Pommie meme. I suggest Dank gives you da award

Yo, thparky!

I hope you're eating well, as usual! The steak dinner from the other night was killer. Went really simply and did prime filets, asparagus, pan-fried fingerlings with onion, garlic, fresh rosemary, and fresh thyme...also did a Caprese salad...guests brought pasta salad and a massive amount of guacamole and tortilla chips...it was quite the feast, albeit very simple.

Quest #3 has begun. Here's the link:

imgflip.com/i/48lfes

I hope you participate. It is a doozy of a quest, but I know you folks can handle it. Rules are in the comments. Take care!!!!

Cheers!

Hey, going simple with mignon is class, you handled it well. Sounds like yall had a great meal! Wife is sick right now (not covid) so we've been eating a lot of soup, but it's been the good stuff at least.

I'll have to wait till monday to post something, I've done multi panel memes on my phone before but it sucks. Once I can get in from of my work computer I'll pull something together.

Yeah, I think sauteed veggies with filet is classy. The potatoes Romanoff is too though...it's the fancy version of twice baked potatoes!

Are you sure it's not C19 (was she tested)? Anyhow, hope she gets better soon. Soup is one of my favorite foods. I make a crazy good wild leek (ramps - I'm guessing you know this), morel, asparagus soup....a creamy broth....and then I add chile miso right at the end...the miso makes an already great soup into the best soup I've ever had.

Sorry for the picture....it's hot as hell in my house already today and I pretty much just lounge around in boxers all day lol!

Do you forage at all? If so, what do you like to forage for? If not, do you have access to ramps and morels ever?

The soup I made the other night was one of the best I've tried in quite a while, borderline stew actually. Hungarian sausage and potato soup. Had onions, cabbage, potatoes, and I crumbled up a bunch of kielbasa in it for the sausage. Polish was as close as I could get for regional sausage and it worked great. Lots of paprika too, gotta be for a Hungarian recipe right? Sopped it all up with a chunk of crusty bread, delicious. She skipped the bread mostly for her throat but let it soak in the liquid to get nice and soft.

That does sound like a great soup. I make a couple pretty similar versions. I have one that I call AK47 and it is andouille (A), kielbasa (K), 4 vegetables (onion, carrot, celery, potato), and 7 herbs and spices (salt, pepper, smoked paprika, fresh thyme, garlic, nutmeg, and onion salt). Of course, there is some stock in there, too. Nice of you to make soup for the sick wife!

AK47, I like it! I love some good andouille, I make that sometimes and serve it over grits sort of like you would see shrimp and grits served, spicy sausage and creamy grits are made to go together. Went with an italian sausage and chicken orzo last night, turned out really nice.

Spent the 2 quiet hours of child and wife napping to sit on the couch and research ramp and morel foraging, lol. You've got me wanting to try that soup :)

Oh, I forgot to specify that I make perfect little meatballs with the two sausages...I mix them together, so they are combo meatballs. I absolutely love soup with sausage meatballs in it.

I love me some shrimp and grits. Also, have had sausage on grits before. It was actually mixed with shrimp. It was so good. I've never had orzo! It sounds good, just never tried it.

You've only got about 10 months to wait for the next morel season, in the USA, anyway. Only 8 or 9 months for the next ramp season.

Yes, meatballs in soup are da bomb...orzo is a very subtle pasta, small grains and they soak up flavor sort of like arborio rice in a risotto, only no where near as needy to cook. It's a good addition to a soup if you want some noodles or starch but dont want to make it into a noodle soup per se.

Yeah I was checking the seasons, looks like I'll be waiting a while, but oh well!

The results of Quest #2 are in!

imgflip.com/i/48yhx2?lerp=1595347459032

Gives you more time to become an expert at foraging strategies for these two culinary treasures! It's crazy how expensive these two ingredients are when bought at a farmer's market or online...I know of a lot of large stands of ramps, and could easily ransack all of them and sell them for thousands of dollars...but it's not right and it's not worth it! A ramp stand that took 7 years to reach maturity can be wiped out in one seasons by a careless idiot.

Happens more often than it should unfortunately. I'm actually hesitant to buy them at farmers markets for that reason, never know where they came from unless you know the seller or the source. It's become a problem down here in the Appalachians, overharvesting ramps and apparently ginseng poaching is also a thing. They even made a TV show about it a while back.

The ones I've had have been at a friend or family members house, or at a farm to table restaurant or something like that. A lady I know made a casserole with them once and was delicious, or sauteed in toasted butter alongside some good mashed potatoes. I think my favorite was trying them pickled, that was a treasure, but as you say had to have the whole plant for that and the guy didnt want to harvest many so he only had one jar to share, those were awesome though.

I used to watch that fake-ass "reality" show about 'seng diggers. It was beyond staged, but it truly reflected what goes on in the woods of the Appalachians, with regard to 'seng. People do get very protective about wild mushroom and ramp stands, but not to the extent that it happens with 'seng. People are killed every year over 'seng. Sure, some of those murders are because people stumbled upon someone's still, but plenty are straight-up 'seng murders. Ginseng farms in norther WI are a very common sight along the freeways. You know it's 'seng when you see a huge field with a black tarp over the ground, about 4' in the air...it mimics the conditions in the woods, which allows the plants to thrive even thought hey aren't truly in their native environment.

I love them simply sauteed. Having 2/3 leaves and 1/3 roots/shoots is perfect. They go great alongside any protein and potatoes is a nice compliment. I have yet to try them pickled. I plan to pickle some as soon as my crop is substantial enough to do so. I love plants and I love food, so why in the hell would I NOT grow ramps! If only I could figure out how to grow morels, chanterelles, etc...it can be done with morels, but it is very difficult and is never, ever a sure thing.

She wasnt recommended for testing based on symptoms, no fever or anything, just very painful throat, thinking Strep and that's in line with the antibiotics actually working. If it was C19 its viral which antibiotics do nothing for. I think we're clear.

That recipe sounds great, I'll have to give it a try. I've had leek and potato soup before, but this sounds even better. I like the miso addition, that's a great touch. I love ramps but unfortunately the land I have access to doesnt have any natural growths of it even though it's perfect for growing them, low light hardwood forest, lots of moisture, and decomposed leaves, etc. I love foraging but I dont have much time for it. My dad actually came across a patch of wild chanterelles last year, those things are amazing just sauteed in some butter and white wine. No morels though. Or maybe just haven't found them yet! Shrooms are always iffy too, dont want to pick the wrong ones!

That's good. Although, I'm not seriously afraid of C19, and probably already had it, it can kill or cause permanent damage. Best not to get it.

It's soooooo much better than leek and potato soup. 10X better! Chanterelles are one of my favorite mushrooms. Fortunately, I have a brother who does wildlife restoration for his full-time job and he has dozens of hot spots for all kinds of foragables. It's pretty nice. I also have a stand of ramps in my yard, that I transplanted and also planted from the seeds I got every year. I hope to have it big enough where I will feel comfortable harvesting some of the plants, or just the leaves, within the next three years. It's a long game with ramps!

That's good that you have that available through your brother. What is it, 7 years or so till ramps become sustainable? I've thought about doing the same thing, but I dont think we'll be in this house long enough to make it worthwhile, lol

They say 5-7 years until a ramp plant reaches full maturity. You can sustainably harvest small amounts well before then, though. Only the leaves, though. Ramp greens are my favorite part of the plant, and many are of the same opinion, so it's not that difficult for me to get to the point where I can harvest sustainably. I mayb already be there, actually. I did harvest about one serving's worth of greens this year! This was just before the plants went to flowering and they let their leaves die. At that point, you're actually doing the plant a favor by ending the leaves' lives in an instant. I have like 3 "mother plants" right now that are spreading via rhizome, and they are technically ready to have their roots/shoots harvested, albeit partialy for each plant. You take some of the roots/shoots, and replant the rest. Mother plants are hardy enough to take that kind of damage and then bounce back before winter. It can prevent a plant from flowering, though, so you have to be careful. If you're not gonna be somewhere long enough to reap all the benefits of a ramp-labor-effort, it can still be well worth it. Why you aks? Because you can TAKE ALL OF THEM WITH YOU wherever you go, lol! Seriously, though, you can do that. People fill up full pickup truck beds with their prized ramp stock when they move from one house to another, and then drive to the new house and transplant everything or nearly everything (the latter for if you are a nice person and you think the new owners will have a chance at keeping them going). Ramps are hands-down my favorite ingredient. Miso is also in the top 25. Same with morels. Asparagus, top 50. Cheers!

PS - I got some baby back ribs that I am smoking on the Weber today. I am gonna send you some pictures later.

Good deal man, thanks for the info! I never thought about transplanting a patch but that makes sense. How did the ribs turn out? I've gotten to where I actually like spare ribs better than baby backs, especially St. Louis cut. They (typically) have less meat but more marbling and are more forgiving that back ribs. That said, I've done baby backs the last 4-5 times I've smoked any. That's really just because they were on sale though, lol.

I bought the baby back ribs because...they were on sale! $10/rack...about 4.5 lbs. each. Can't go wrong there. They turned out well. Really tasty, nice smoke flavor, and just the right amount of seasoning. Here's a picture of them after being on the Weber for about 2 hours. This was super low temp smoke. Barely used any charcoal.

When I hardcore into smoking, I decided I liked spare ribs better than baby back ribs. They are both great, but the meat on the spare ribs seemed to be slightly "better"...I agree that they are easier to smoke/cook, too.

I also made a really tasty mac'n'cheese to go with the ribs. Finished everything at about midnight, so I woke up with a lactose hangover, on top of an alcohol hangover...not good. Feeling much better now, though!