Things You Do Your Day Off (Tossed Beet Salad)

It's a good thing I has this recipe earmarked for a day off because the beets took almost all of Braveheart (which is not a short movie) to roast. Maybe I should have roasted them in the big oven, or cranked the heat higher, or just chopped them up into smaller pieces...  Basically not followed the the directions in the note on roasting them in the book. Eventually they did tenderize enough I declared them done.

Before Mixing, Pale

The beets in this recipe are tossed with an amazing collection of pale ingredients; fennel, jicama, red onion, Asian pear and then goat cheese. Before and after adding the beets is a dramatic color shift.

After Mixing, Pink

This combo gets you something healthy, and reasonably tasty (my dad, who is a bigger fan of beets than me, loved it).
Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? Probably; my dad loves beets and will likely talk me into repeating this at some point. Having gotten comfortable with the shredder on my food processor a recipe like this where so many of the ingredients need to be thinly sliced is less of a pain than it would be otherwise. It does make a nice change from green salad, and will go on the list for people who hate lettuce.

My First Oysters (Oyster Po-Boys)

One of the reasons I started this project was to get myself to try new things, and that's how I ended up searching for someone to sell me shucked oysters in Wisconsin. It only took me two stores to find the oysters, but they weren't cheap. These are definitely the most expensive sandwiches I've ever made. They're also a bit of work to make. Step one was making the coleslaw garnish from scratch, and step two is marinating and breading the oysters before deep frying them.

An oyster, soaked in spiced buttermilk, then breaded.

I hauled out a machine called the Fry Daddy for this, which had been gathering dust in my cabinet. It simplifies the frying step by having only two modes; on and off... It did the job.

Fry baby, fry.

There are some sub stores that hollow out the insides of their bread rolls to jam more filling into the subs; Alton recommends this technique for the Po'Boys as well. This sandwich is thoroughly stuffed. Was it worth it?

Somehow both high-end and downhome at the same time.

Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? Unlikely. My first taste of oysters didn't make me fall in love, and at $15 per lb, I need to be in love. I'm glad I tried them, but not feeling the need to make them again.

Just Shred It (Iceburg Slaw)

Mr. Brown describes this slaw as a "slaw for cabbage haters". It's paired in the book with the recipe for Oyster Po'Boys, which is what I made it for. I swear it took me longer to figure out how to properly set up the shredding attachment for my food processor (I had to watch a Youtube video) than it did to make the slaw.
One shredded head of iceburg lettuce later...

I'm never chopping a head of lettuce/cabbage by hand again. Viva la cuisinart! 

Mix up the dressing and let it marinate for 30 minutes. Voila. Actual work time is in the 5 minute range.

More slaw than the sandwiches will need.

Difficulty Level: Easy
Will It Get Made Again? I'm actually tempted to make this as a cabbage slaw (ironic given the description); I like the flavor, but I think it would benefit from a bit more crunch than iceburg lettuce produces. It does work as a solid sandwich garnish though.

Peach "Cobbles"

4lbs of peaches? In a skillet? No. Sometimes, when handed directions that will obviously lead to disaster, you just say no.

Don't Try To Fit This In A 12" Skillet. Just Don't.

I was hopeful for this one since southern chef + peach cobbler seems like it should be a no brainer. There were a few stumbling blocks though. Having made the decision not to spill peaches everywhere by piling all of them into a 12" skillet that was too small, I made this in my dutch oven. Since the dutch oven is a lot deeper than just the skillet (it held everything, yay!) the cooking times were off, and the biscuit topping was still pretty underbaked when they came out of the oven. This is fixable though, I sent it back to the oven for another 10 minutes to finish it.

Still Needs Time

The end result? It's fine...

Difficultly Level: Medium*
Will It Get Made Again? Nope, this one is not worth the trouble. The proportions are off, leading to a super bready topping over the massive mound of peaches. It's not that it tastes bad, but you can do better. I may hunt up another peach cobbler recipe that's actually designed for a skillet just for contrast.