TheTravelingZipperhead.com

I give my mom a hard time. A lot. About a lot of things, but mostly her cooking. Mostly because she HATES cooking. In her defense, she grew up in Wyoming and not anything against Wyoming, I love it there, in the summer, but when she was younger, it wasn’t like she could just go to the store and have any kind of fresh produce all year long. It wasn’t common or economical to have strawberries shipped up from South America, or avocados, or anything really. They were eating fresh, local, and in season before it was cool. Plus there were four kids my grandpa was raising, he wasn’t concerned with presentation, flavor profiles, and creativity, he wanted to get everyone fed, on a budget.

It’s not that my mom is a bad cook, she’s actually pretty good when she does it and is not overdosing us on cinnamon. That was her favorite spice and put it in everything. To this day, my brother won’t eat it, and I don’t do “gratuitous cinnamon”.

This kind of touches on what Winnie commented the other day about growing up on a farm and deciding to always go to the store instead. I completely understand not wanting the hassle of cooking. I was there. When my brother left for college, it was just my mom and I for a while. There were a lot of soup nights, popcorn, roll some cheese up in a tortilla, stick it in the microwave, and call it a cheese enchilada. I was also known to make cookie dough with friends and just eat it raw. When my mom met my step-dad, I learned that cooking could be….fun! You could create, play, and have a good time while preparing a meal! I should also note here that I was 120 lbs at this time, and now, well, I’m not, but I learned to like cooking. It was fun, but I never really came out of the closet as liking to cook until I was much older. Well, not MUCH, I’m still pretty young. I knew I would be misunderstood. No one would get my passion.

I rarely make the same thing twice. I have a few things I make in regular rotation, but for the most part, I try new things.

One of the things in my regular rotation is a recipe my mom used to make. It’s her three day brisket. I don’t know why she stopped making it. It’s delicious, and it’s not hard or time consuming at all.

You take a brisket, preferably from Burgundy:

On the first day you put some liquid smoke on it, wrap it up, and stick it back in the fridge over night.

The next day, you pull it out, rub salt, onion powder, and garlic powder all over it

And you stick it in the oven at 300 for about five hours or so.

Oh, put a cover on it.
When it’s done, let it cool and stick it back in the fridge.

The next day, pull it out and it’s going to look pretty gross

Looks like its in a cold bath of lard, and it is, basically. There is the lard on top, and meat Jell-O underneath

Mmmmm tasty. I won’t lie, I’ve thought about using the lard as a moisturizer. I’ve also wondered if I can gain weight that way, like absorbing the calories. I’ve also decided that I don’t need the dog licking me in my sleep and getting ideas.

Back to dinner. It’s time to make the sauce:
Melt butter and brown sugar in a pot

Then add liquid smoke, celery seed, mustard powder, Worcestershire,

And ketchup.

I don’t usually go the recipe route, I’m more of a trial and error girl. That’s backfired a time or ten when I make something good, and don’t know how I did it. I don’t mess around with this though, it’s good stuff. I mostly use the recipe….. Mostly.

Once the sauce is ready, slice up the brisket against the grain, and put it in the sauce.

Stir it up, let the sauce and meat warm up, and the sauce will permeate the meat too.

You can eat this as is, or put it on a bun. Either way, it’s delicious!

Plating note. I usually eat off the smaller salad plate, as a way of portion control, but tonight I thought this would look better on a big square, yellow plate. And yes, I are more than I should have.

I glazed over this day last week, but on the 8th, I celebrated my zipperversary. I wanted to celebrate by making this:

But I ended up waiting until last night. I used the meat I ground myself with my new favorite toy ever.
I saw this on the Chew the other day. It was the burger my imaginary boyfriend Michael Symon made and came in second place with at the South Beach Food and Wine festival.

I caramelized some onions to start out with

And made the cheese sauce, or the cheese gravy really. I just melted some butter and flour and the added cream (see, it’s like gravy) then added a couple handfuls of shredded cheddar

At this point I was counting up the dishes I was going to have to wash, but decided, go big, or go home, and got out another pan to cook my hamburger patties. Did I mention I ground that meat up all by myself?

I mixed flour, salt, thyme, and a little cayenne and then dusted the onion slices in to get them ready to fry up

After I fried up the onions, it was time to assemble.
By the way, all the flour and the bun used here are all gluten free. I get my buns from a place called Local Oven and they are awesome.

So have a toasted bun and caramelized onions

Then some lettuce (to make me feel better about eating this) the burger, and the cheese sauce.

Mmmmmmm melty cheese sauce, let’s take a moment and another look shall we?

The fried onions and thyme were next

I capped it off with a big slice of tomato, and the gluten free bun, and wondered how I would get my mouth around it. (No I didn’t, I knew I could I unhinge my jaw for that)

Did you ever bite into something and have that moment? That “oh heck yeah” moment where you know you’ve created something good? I was so proud of this burger. I couldn’t wait for the captain to get home so I could see his reaction, and he really liked it too.

Now, this is not an every day thing here. I felt like I had eaten a brick after I was done, but it was delicious.

Now to ensure that I don’t eat like this all the time, I took a picture of the dishes I had to wash after. It was my cardio.

Totally worth it………. Once in a while.
😉

First, I want to say, to my one and only reader: Winnie, I will make you stew, or anything you want next time I see you, and I won’t use this piece

You may see a phone contaminated by raw meat, I see meat contaminated by a germy phone.

I had a fun day today. The Captain had to work as usual, but I got to play. I’m on spring break this week, and instead of flashing someone in Daytona, I went another way.

I got a primal cut of meat from Burgundy Beef. I love these guys. The meat is fantastic, it’s local, and they deliver. I’m big on the farm to table thing. I like the idea of having a relationship or at least knowing the name of the person who produced my food. I go to the farmers market and talk to the farmers. I can’t tell you how many recipes I’ve gotten from them. The way I look at it, they are the experts, they’ve grown this, their livelihood comes from this product, be it beef, lettuce, or kohlrabi, they’ve probably tried it a few different ways, and I’m going to take notes. It’s also about respect. You can’t appreciate a farmer when you buy your onions at Walmart, and you barely look at the country of origin, let alone know who grew it. That’s where you start to waste food. When you buy produce, and shake the hand of the man or woman who planted it, cared for it, and still has dirt under their nails from when they pulled it out of the ground that morning…. You are less likely to let it spoil. Ya want to know a secret? When you make an effort too, some of these guys will appreciate it, and make sure you get the better stuff.

I had my meat fabrication class two weeks ago and I really enjoyed it. Chef asked us how many of us knew where our meat came from, and I was the only one who raised my hand, and I told him too! The name of the company, the owner’s names, and where exactly it was. I like meat, I’m a big fan. I know I’m supposed to eat it in moderation, so I do, I alternate it with pork. What? Isn’t it the “other” white meat? Anyway, I’m all excited, I’m going to start doing this! I bought a meat grinder, which BTW, is life changing. I’m going to use it on everything now. I am going to make my own sausage now too!

This was a lot of fun and even the little guy got in on it.
Before that, let me go back, I called Burgundy and talked to Iva, I don’t know if she remembered me or not, but she was more than willing to answer my questions and tell me not only what to do, but what was more cost effective, and this is not the first time she’s done this. I have questions a lot. Sometimes really odd or random ones, and she is patient and informative. I’ve also gotten (I don’t like that word by the way, it just doesn’t sit right, but received seems awful pretentious to use all the time) a few recipes from them too. I’m pretty sure no one will know how to cook beef like a cattle rancher.

I got the sirloin primal cut, and was like a little kid when it showed up.

It sat in my fridge for a day trying to intimidate me, but I went for it today. I had no earthly idea what I was doing, but I figured if worse came to worse, I could just grind the whole thing up.
Tell me how I did?

I looked up on the Internet how to do it, but still couldn’t quite figure it out. I need to see it done in front of me I think.

I wonder if the Taggerts would let me come hang out for a day and tech the whole process from start to finish. Is that morbid? I don’t think so, I think it still comes back to the respect thing. These guys are raising and butchering this meat for us to eat and feed our families. These animals gave their lives so we could eat, the least I could do, is do my best to understand how to cut it up and make it delicious.

I’m fixing to (yes, fixing to) start fighting a losing battle. I look around at society and I am appalled. No one has any manners anymore, and we have distanced ourselves further and further from people to a point where there really is not connection beyond Facebook or texting. It’s no wonder we are a nation filled with those with no value for human life. Why we are full of people who think that getting their own point across is more important than your safety. It’s not violent video games that teach children to shoot people, it’s the actual playing of any video game itself. You don’t connect with people when you can’t see their face, and you can’t see their face when you are logged in playing some stupid game. Yes, you can play a perfectly harmless racing game against someone in Japan and a third grader from Minnesota, but does that really give you the connection that riding your bike with the kid down the street gives you? I’m going to take a stand right here and now: NO, it does not.
I blame technology. Think about this, when you were younger and you first got call waiting, it was cool right? You could be talking on the phone and if someone else called you, you could answer it and talk to them! Now look again, you are on the phone, someone ‘clicks in’ and you basically tell the person you are deep in conversation with to hang on while I see if this person is more important than you or has something better to say. You are telling the new caller that don’t have to be patient, and wait their turn to talk, they can just interrupt your other conversation to say your own thing. Cut to twenty years later (ok thirty whatever) and we don’t even bother to have an actual conversation with people. We text, and can have two or three “conversations” at once or we get on facebook and post what we are thinking and feeling. That’s basically saying, ‘I don’t care what’s going on in your life, here’s what’s on my mind though’. Ironically, all this written communication as also lost the art of grammar and spelling. Drives me crazy.
So here is my battle, I want to keep my children in touch with humanity. I may be alone here, but it is unacceptable to me to raise children who can program a VCR (or whatever, I know I’m showing my age with that reference) but don’t know the rules of your basic board games. They will not sit next to each other on the sofa and play a game on their phones with each other or anyone else (I’ve seen people do this) when they can have a conversation face to face, break out a deck of cards, or even a monopoly board.
I want to go back to a time when schools were not dangerous places, you didn’t have to worry when you were in public that some nut job who wanted to get a point across was going to come in and shoot the place up. It’s a vicious cycle. These people are not being heard and have no connection to others, and thus no connection to reality, which forces us to constantly look over our shoulders and withdraw more so ourselves. I see this with myself. I’m not a shy person. Never once has someone told me to come out of my shell, but I am becoming more and more anti social because I don’t like people anymore. I did once, before they became a group of whiny, self-centered, narcissists.
Look, I run a blog, not well, but I do. I am the worst kind here. I have to get my opinions out there, but I encourage a conversation. I like feed back and posts on here. I want to know what others think, not for self validation, but for my own growth. If you agree or disagree, let me here it.
In the meantime, you might take a second and think of my poor kids who will be pushed into a life of minimal time spent on electronics, they will not use the self check out at the store, and they will know how to bond with others. It is not just important to teach my kids self respect, but to respect others. It is not just their opinions and feelings that matter, and they will not spend all day on line ever.
I’m on Facebook and instagram too, mostly for smarty pants posts, or I’m in the chiari groups, but even those I don’t do much anymore. People complain too much or feel like because they have a keyboard and an opinion, they are above everyone else, thus proving my points even more.
I will quite my 4am ramblings here and try to go back to sleep, but no matter what time of day it is, I will feel the same. I’ve kept this in for a while now, but I’m going to fight against technology and make my children go back to the values of the 80s, when Madonna rolling around on stage was risqué, and she didn’t have to kiss Brittany just to get people talking. We have always been inundated with images of sex and violence, but in pathetic attempts to be seen and heard, we push farther and farther into an area that no one wants. Everyone wants to be famous so they can be heard. Maybe we should start trying to better ourselves and set good examples for our children. That is a fresh and new idea no one’s heard. And maybe stop clicking over when someone calls, and let the person you’re talking to finish a sentence once in a while.

So I haven’t talked about it on here, yet, but I went back to school. I enrolled in culinary school and it’s haaaarrrrd. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun and I enjoy it, but it’s a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. All my life I’ve skated by on doing the minimum to get by. This didn’t work out that well in college, but it did to an extent. I can’t help it really, it’s genetic. It’s really not my fault. I remember a day in calculus my junior year of high school, my teacher came up and put her hand on my book during a lecture. After class she told me I would probably get an ‘A’ in the class if I would just take my book out of the trunk of the car at night. My book was cold, and I had Calc first thing in the morning so it didn’t have time to come to room temperature. Anyway, I told her I was ok with the ‘C’ I was making. At the time I thought I was awful funny. In fact I still kinda do, and that’s my problem. Then, it was ok to skate by without putting in effort, if putting in no effort will suffice, especially when it comes to academics. Now, the reading, the homework, and the actual lecture part is a small part of class, I have to DO it. They don’t care if I’m smart enough to regurgitate info in a book. I have to sear a pork chop and make sure the temp of the pan is right. I have to cook foods that I’m allergic to and I can’t taste them to check if they are done, I just have to know. I know it doesn’t sound that hard, I mean, everyone can cook right? It’s not hard to boil water and throw a book of Mac n cheese in, or ground some beef to make tacos, but there is a science to it, which I love. There is no doubt that there is a difference between what you cook at home, and what you get at a restaurant. That difference is science mixed with training. That being said: I love it. I’m learning so much, things I have been doing wrong, things that I was doing right by sheer dumb luck, and things my imaginary boyfriend Michael Symon hasn’t had a chance to teach me yet. The only thing I do not love is some of the people. I don’t like lazy people. If you know what needs to be done, then do it. I hate when people hijack my time, and if you are sitting around on your thumbs, that means its going to take longer to get out of there. Don’t pretend to be confused to get out of moping the floor. I INVENTED that. Along with the doing a bad job, just to get out of having to do it again thing. Other than that, I am loving school.
I’ve been to three classes and a lab now. I’ve learned knife skills and I didn’t even cut myself! We learned stocks the second class and I may or may not have stabbed myself,(I did) and today we learned major cooking techniques and I stabbed myself again. Not really stabbed, more like poked, whatever…. Anyway, then I had a lab. I have to do three of them this semester, I it is a lot of work. You get there at 7:00 am to do the prep, and this last time I waited tables which I had not done in a loooong time. It was really fun, and I ran my tail off. I came home beat down, wore out, and on a high from a job that thought I did pretty well at, only to have my mother point out that my fly had been undone. All day mind you.i didn’t even know these pants HAD a zipper. I don’t know why they would, they have an elastic waist, they confuse me.

So here is some chicken and rice soup I made the other day.

It was delicious if I do say so myself..

I practiced cutting up the mirepoix

Poached the chicken

After sweating the veggies, I added some chicken stock, cut up the chicken, added it along with some of the strained water I poached the chicken in and then added some rice in after that had come together for a while. It was pretty darn good.
I made a beef stew in a similar fashion a few nights before that

I used beef instead of chicken, beef stock instead of chicken, and diced potatoes instead of rice

This one was my favorite.
I wonder what I will make tomorrow?
Good night!