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T R E 4 5 O N

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Afternoon Open Thread

Afternoon Open Thread

by | 66 Comments

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I just wanted to say that there are few things as satisfying as deciding you want spaghetti for dinner, going to the freezer in the basement and getting some of the ground beef you bought in bulk from your neighbor’s farm, picking up a jar of sauce you canned yourself, hitting the root container and picking up some garlic and onions you put up, and pulling the basil you grew and packed in olive oil out of the fridge and starting to cook a sauce. It’s pretty awesome.

Going to have some of my canned green beans with it, and for dessert some of the pears I canned with ginger.

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  7. 7.

    Kent

    I have 3 kids and a busy weekday* schedule so I do Insta-pot spaghetti and meatballs.  Easiest possible way to put spaghetti and meatballs on the table for your family.

    1.  Line the bottom of your instapot with a layer of frozen meatballs.   I use the Costco Kirkland Signature frozen meatballs.
    2. Pour a 1 lb box of pasta into the pot.  I usually use penne or ziti or spiral or bowtie pasta because it doesn’t stick together as much as traditional spaghetti.  But you can also break a 1lb bag of regular spaghetti in half and use that.
    3. Pour a large (24 or 32 oz) jar of your favorite pasta sauce into the pot
    4. Add another 3/4 jar of water
    5. Set to 1 minute pressure cook
    6. Manual release, stir, and serve
    7. Adjust the amount of water up or down in future versions depending if you like it more dry or more saucy

     

    *During the weekends I will do more complicated pasta recipes from scratch.

  8. 8.

    Marcopolo

    I know, I know, none of us need any more reason to throw Trump out of office in November but in case one of your friends, family members, colleagues, class mates, exes does:

    President Trump just announced that he is rolling back school lunch programs and initiatives implemented by Michelle Obama.The White House made the announcement on her birthday.— Travis | Text FIGHT to 24477 (@travisakers) January 17, 2020

    As we all know, with these folks there is no bottom, just an endless drop into the abyss.

  10. 10.

    MagdaInBlack

    Isnt it fantastic? I’m happy you find it as satisfying as I did when I was Earth Mother =-)

    Enjoy!

  13. 13.

    geg6

    Just the other night, we finished up all the sauerkraut you sent us home with, Cole.  It was absolutely delicious.

    ETA: Any word on the calendar?

  16. 16.

    JaySinWA

    @JPL:  It is one minute after pressurization. It will take 10-20 minutes to bring that much volume up to pressure, I believe.

    I have made a similar recipe scaled down. It was pretty meh, but it is hands off and relatively quick.

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    I managed to fuck up my back while I had the flu, so now I get to go purchase an air mattress in the desperate hope that it will be sufficiently supportive to get me through until we can buy a new mattress.

    Our current mattress is over 15 years old so, yeah, time for a new one already.

  21. 21.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    Going to have some of my canned green beans with it

    HOLY COW, that meal sounds wonderful – as long as you didn’t use Kate’s/Cathy’s recipe from East of Eden. And I’m still a little worried about your method of preserving the basil. Have you used some of it already?

  24. 24.

    Mnemosyne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Eh, what does Larry know?

    We were thinking about trying a Sleep Number bed, but there’s a different brand that has 3 airbags per person and has a showroom in Canoga Park, so we may look there as well.

  27. 27.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Mnemosyne: Mr Colette and I replaced our mattress last year after over 20 years of use. It was absurdly hard to get used to a new one that did not have a big ridge up the middle.

    /TMI

    Hope your back feels better quickly. Mattress buying is almost as much of a pain in the tuches as car buying.

  28. 28.

    JMG

    Sounds delicious! It’s the every other week Friday night we go out (the other one we get pizza) so we’re headed for raw local oysters and either baked cod or mussels Portuguese style.

  29. 29.

    Mary G

    That sounds delicious, John. I am stuck in the doldrums, but I have a cooked turkey breast I am going to break down, make some gravy, and freeze some portions, because I am sick of it after two days. I did use homegrown rosemary, sage, and lemon on it.

  31. 31.

    Kelly

    I’m sitting here with a very clean kitten Martin in my lap. Yesterday he was checking out the water whilst my wife took a bath and fell in, head first. Levitated out of the tub and scattered a remarkable trail of water across the house. He’s exploring water for the last couple weeks. Likes us to leave a faucet trickling or a few inches of warm water in a bathroom sink. Played in the sink this morning so yesterday’s plunge didn’t discourage him.

  32. 32.

    Duane

    @Marcopolo: Speaking of people that need thrown out of office, Gov. Mike Parson (R-Mo) said that Missouri couldn’t afford Medicaid expansion and he would campaign against it. What a stupid, evil man. Republican venality in its purist form.

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    We rarely can things, but it is a pleasure to make dinner with stuff from the garden. Particularly since I don’t do the gardening! I did catch Badger weeing on the parsley today, so that’s put me off parsley for the foreseeable future. I mean, I wash everything thoroughly, and I know in theory there’s a good chance squirrels, birds, bugs, etc., have used our produce as a toilet. But theoretical knowledge and eye witness evidence are two different things!

  34. 34.

    Skepticat

    This makes me want to weep with envy. However, World Central Kitchen dropped off more oranges than the workers needed today, so I got a few, and a friend hard-boiled some eggs for me. Ambrosia!

    Enjoy your culinary delights, JC.

  35. 35.

    Kent

    @JPL: @Kent: One minute? I had no idea that it was that quick.

    It is 1-minute at full pressure. The instapot takes about 10-15 minutes to get up to pressure and the pasta is cooking all that time too. Thin pasta like angel hair probably gets overcooked with just 1 minute at pressure but the thicker shorter pastas do fine.

  36. 36.

    stinger

    John Cole, that is so fantastic! All your effort at various times over the summer is really paying off. Where I live a snowstorm is beginning that is putting the kibosh on any travel over this long weekend. I had to rush to the grocery store over lunch to be sure I could get through the next several days. All you had to do was go downstairs! How gratifying!

  37. 37.

    catclub

    @Kent: The instapot takes about 10-15 minutes to get up to pressure and the pasta is cooking all that time too.

     

    ah, not obvious from the first post. good to know.

  38. 38.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jacel:

    This is a fine old British trope. I’m reminded of a passage from Josephine Tey’s “Miss Pym Disposes,” in which several teachers at a girls’ physical training school are discussing the students, none too kindly.

    “They are as the beasts that perish,” said Miss Lux incisively. “They think that Botticelli is a variety of spaghetti.” She inspected with deep gloom the coffee that Miss Wragg handed to her. “If it comes to that, they don’t know what spaghetti is. It’s not long since Dakers stood up in the middle of a Dietetic lecture and accused me of destroying her illusions.”

    “It surprises me to know that anything about Miss Dakers is destructible,” observed Madame Lefevre, in her brown velvet drawl.

    “What illusion had you destroyed?” the young doctor asked from the window-seat.

    “I had just informed them that spaghetti and its relations were made from a paste of flour. That shattered forever, apparently, Dakers’ picture of Italy.”

    “How had she pictured it?”

    “Fields of waving macaroni, so she said.”

  39. 39.

    Roger Moore

    @catclub:

    Yeah, a lot of the claims for how quickly Instant Pot cooks stuff are really misleading because they tend to omit the time it takes to get up to temperature.  Also, you can’t open the pot while it’s under pressure, so you either have to wait for the temperature and pressure to drop or use the vent valve to release the pressure quickly.  Waiting for the pressure to drop obviously adds more time, and using the vent valve A) releases a big gout of steam and B) can cause problems for some dishes that are disrupted by the rapid pressure drop.  A pressure cooker can still be a lot faster than a regular pot, but the stuff about cooking for 1 minute doesn’t tell anything like the true story of how long it takes to cook.

  40. 40.

    Aleta

    @Roger Moore: 
    I think it was you, and I think it was marmalade — it’s been awhile since I came across it — but you posted some fantastic pictures w/ description of making marmalade on twitter. Loved them.
    Love good marmalade.

  41. 41.

    Roger Moore

    @Aleta:

    I did post pictures of making marmalade.  There’s a very good citrus farmer who sells at my local farmer’s market.  They have all kinds of citrus that you’ll rarely if ever see at a regular supermarket, and which I doubt you’ll find at even a specialty grocer: Seville oranges, finger limes, Buddha’s hand citrons, and the like.  I get Seville oranges from them every year around Christmas time and make a batch or two of marmalade.  In a good year, I can get enough that I have marmalade to have on my breakfast toast for the rest of the year and still have a few jars to give as presents.

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    @Kent

    I use a slight variation of that method. The frozen Costco meatballs go on top. After breaking the spaghetti in half, when layering it in the pot, put each alternating layer 90 degrees turned from the layer(s) below and above . Pour some sauce into the bottom of the pot first to help prevent scorching, then pour some more onto each layer as you go. Add water sufficient to barely cover the top strands of spaghetti,and place the frozen meatballs on top of that. Set high pressure timer for half the recommended time on the package (round up if that is not a whole number). Quick release at the ‘done’ beep. Stirring for a few minutes after removing the lid will thicken everything up.

  43. 43.

    Another Scott

    About that ERA vote in Virginia, etc., GovExec:

    The Civil Servant Who Changes the Constitution

    One federal employee will determine whether the ERA gets added to America’s founding document—the question is which authority he’ll turn to for guidance.

    […]

    Congress has already begun this process. The House bill to lift the deadline, House Joint Resolution 79, has won widespread Democratic support and the 218 co-sponsors required for passage. Assuming Senate Democrats also uniformly support the matching Senate Joint Resolution 6, Senate passage would require only four Republicans to cross party lines. The Senate resolution already has two Republican backers, senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who recently announced they believe that their resolution would override the Justice Department opinion. And even if an initial Senate vote fails, leaving the deadline in place, a later, successful vote could lift the deadline and affirm the amendment; again, thanks to Dillon and Coleman, Congress sets the rules on modifying deadlines, and so can take additional shots at repeal. On passage, the resolutions will make the ERA “valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution.”

    If Congress votes to affirm the ERA’s ratification, the archivist ought to be bound to certify the ERA. The Constitution does not mention certification; rather, a 1984 congressional statute delegates Congress’s certification power to the archivist, who certifies on behalf of Congress. The archivist does not have independent authority to defy Congress’s vote, and therefore must certify once both houses of Congress vote to approve the deadline adjustment. As the Supreme Court explained, Article V places “ultimate authority in the Congress in the exercise of its control over the promulgation of the adoption of the amendment.”

    Historical precedent affirms that final authority over certification lies with Congress. Congress held this power long before creating the office of the archivist, first exercising it in 1868, when Congress certified the Fourteenth Amendment despite New Jersey’s and Ohio’s votes to rescind their ratification. Congress again exercised final authority over certification in rejecting states’ attempts to rescind their ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 and of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Congress thus can also reject five states’ attempts to rescind ERA ratification, as noted in a Congressional Research Service report.

    […]

    Very interesting. If this is correct, we could have a new amendment to the Constitution very soon.

    Read the whole thing.

    ERA Yes!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  44. 44.

    CarolPW

    Not a fan of tomato-based pasta sauces or meatballs (prefer Alfredo and shellfish). I eat it like a good guest at hosted dinners, but this sounds like one I could eat with a great deal of enjoyment.

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    @CarolPW

    Just in case, would NOT recommend trying the same thing with an alfredo sauce. The Instant Pot (when pressure cooking) doesn’t play well with milk or cream; best practice is to add that after the pressure cooking is done.

    Sometimes I use the method above and then before stirring add ingredients to the cooked tomato sauce and pasta to make a vodka sauce (vodka, milk or cream), then stir. Works beautifully that way.

  46. 46.

    Kent

    @Roger Moore: That’s true.  Especially if you are reading recipe and not an instapot user.

    When you turn on the instapot and set it to pressure cook you enter the number of minutes per the recipe.  The digital display just shows “on” while the pot is heating up and pressurizing and the digital count-down doesn’t start until it reaches full pressure and you hear a single beep.

    After the time has expired it beeps several times and you can manually release the pressure or it will slowly release on its own while the pot stays on warm setting.  These things sometimes tend to spatter when you do the manual pressure release of the valve, especially if all the way full, so I always toss a kitchen towel over the pot before releasing the pressure to contain any spatter coming out with the steam.

    But yes, a 1 minute pressure cycle is really going to be 15-20 minutes total cook time depending on how full the pot is, whether the ingredients are frozen, and how long it takes to heat up and reach full pressure.

    It is still easier than doing anything over the stove because no stirring or any tending is necessary.  You just set it and return when the thing beeps.  I usually have to fuss around with the recipe times until I get it right to my satisfaction.  Not all the published recipes have correct times for pressure cooking.

    NOTE:  I also only use the instapot as a pressure cooker.  I already have a crock pot and rice cooker.  And I find sauteing easier on the stove.

  47. 47.

    Aleta

    @Roger Moore:

    very good citrus farmer who sells at my local farmer’s market

    This I envy.  Along with  the Seville orange marmalade on hot buttered toast.

  48. 48.

    CarolPW

    @NotMax:  Don’t own an instantpot, so no risk. Besides the shellfish would be trash after that. But John’s collection of ingredients sounds much superior to the spaghetti I am usually subjected to.

  50. 50.

    NCSteve

    So now I’m kicking myself for not ever thinking about harvesting my basil and just packing it in olive oil rather than the slightly more painful process of drying it. But not for the reason you think.

    See, I have this birdfeeder I got as Cat TV. Then that led to me getting an online field guide and that led to me keeping a list of birds that have come to it. I’m still getting new varieties, four years later. But though they’re relatively common in NC, I’ve been a bit sad that I haven’t gotten any goldfinches.

    This year, I was so desperately busy over the summer, I didn’t manage to any of the potted basil in before it flowered, went to seed and died. I promised that wouldn’t happen next summer. Then, one day in November, I looked out and there are two goldfinches in their winter suits in the two dead basil plants just methodically going to town on those bizarre basil seed pods. I mean, they took their time and methodically cleaned them out like grad students at a free buffet. It was a delight to watch.

    And so now, I’m doubting I’ll ever be able to harvest all my basil and bring it in again. Especially not after I saw a hummingbird hitting the flowers.

  51. 51.

    Dan B

    @CarolPW: I understand the dislike of tomato sauce for spaghetti.  But I discovered a brand of San Marzano crushed tomatoes, SMT, that tastes like vine ripened tomatoes – no bitterness!  I add a few capers, some fennel seed, and a dash or four of Red Boat fish sauce, another “find”. Fresh grated 12 month Manchego or Pecorino Romano with truffles, wow!

  53. 53.

    CarolPW

    @NCSteve: Last year eastern Washington State had an enormous snowfall, and I had drifts in my yard 6 feet high. I usually have tons of birds eating the weed seeds in my yard, but none of them were accessible for weeks. I saw some eating seeds from the seed heads of my sage, something I had never seen before. They also scavenged all the weed seeds in my carport. There were new little birdie footprints in the carport snow dusting every morning. I had no birdseed or even serviseable alternatives (like sesame or poppy seeds) at home, and could not get my car out of the carport for 3 weeks, so there wasn’t a lot I could do to help them.

  54. 54.

    CarolPW

    @Dan B: I have a favored brand of canned San Marzano tomatoes, but I only use them for chicken paprika. Since the chicken recipe includes a good amount of sour cream it makes a real difference. I think the acidity of non-neutralized tomato sauces is the main problem, both for the taste and the impacts on my digestion.

  60. 60.

    Another Scott

    @NCSteve: I get gold finches (and red finches) quite often here at my feeders (in NoVA), along with woodpeckers, black capped chickadees, cardinals, etc., and mourning doves on the ground.  I only put Cole’s Hot Meats Feed in the feeders.

    I used to use black oil sunflower seeds with the husks, but got tired of the mess.

    The habanero chilies discourage the squirrels, mice, and other varmits.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott:

    The habanero chilies discourage the squirrels, mice, and other varmits.

    I wonder if I put that on the ground in my garden in the fall if it would discourage voles.

  63. 63.

    emjayay

    Pasta Alfredo is made with a lot of butter, cream, and cheese. It typically runs around 1000 calories, 60 grams of fat, and 600 mg salt per serving.

  65. 65.

    TomatoQueen

    @WaterGirl: Gardener’s Supply or some other overpriced vendor sold me an anti-critter wax spray with pepper in it. Tallish spray can, lifetime supply, to keep the whatevers away from the foxglove. Sprayed as soon as the stuff arrived,  and no further nibbling predations on the foxglove. Was too late for the campanula, but that may’ve been a tastier plant.

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