Comfort Food

I finally touched bases with SturgeUrge tonight. We (I should say he) barbequed dinner tonight.

Recently SturgeUrge was the lucky recipient of an antique Komodo Kamado BBQ. This Japanese BBQ was the model for the more widely known "Big Green Egg" BBQ. Urge thinks this one is 50-60 years old.

It does a great job making juicy treats of everyday meat and poultry. (SturgeUrge hasn't cooked any seafood in it yet)

Urge cooked excellent pork loin chops, and some chicken breasts that I had in stock. They needed to be cooked because they've been hanging in the reefer since last Friday! I used half of the tray Monday in stir-fry, and the family has been chowing on leftovers all week!

While SturgeUrge handled the flesh cooking, I made the vegetable course. I made Garlic-ey Baby Bok Choi with Shitake  Mushrooms.

On my way across the Big Valley Monday, I stopped in Vacaville at my favorite Asian market, Country Square Market. It's the last of (I think) three stores. Last summer the store two towns away from the Ancestral Digs closed their doors when their landlord doubled the rent with 30 days notice...I stocked up at close-out prices, but their produce and seafood offerings are sorely missed. None of the remaining Asian markets in the Inland Valley have baby bok choi as "baby" as Country Square...try three timed taller! These little babies are just an inch and a half tall...two inches tops! I end up cutting barely half of a tray in half before cooking!

Dinner was a hit! The Kamodo pork chops were perfect, and my bok choi was awesome too!

The main course was planning our next dungeness crab trip. The tide calendar says not this week...next week SturgeUrge is spending his week at Tahoe. We're hoping to get a day of ice fishing in, but there better be a cold snap first.

I reconnoitered Boca Reservoir before I came off the hill, and the ice is too rotten and thin to fish through. The forecast isn't promising either.

I will be grabbing some more baby bok choi on my way back up the hill...ice fishing my have to wait...Ocean Salmon is still two months away...

Another crab trip is definitely in order!