I outdid myself making tonight's gravy. I thought the remaining duck meat ought to be heated, since it has been thawed a few days, so I resolved that I'd make a big batch of gravy and put all of it in even though several meals haven't used up half of it.
I hadn't picked asparagus for a few days, so first I went out and gathered a handful of short spears. Weather Underground says it's going to get much warmer soon, so I may yet have to start freezing it.
I sliced the tough ends of the spears very thinly until all were short enough to put into a sandwich bag. Fried asparagus for supper tomorrow -- I should have held out a little duck meat to fry with it.
I put the spoonfull of asparagus slices into my second-biggest skillet with half a stick of butter, a quarter cup of red-wheat flour, and a boullion cube. Stirred all that over high heat for a while, then gradually stirred in a pint of milk. After a while I added a slice I'd taken off the end of a bar of extra-sharp chedder. When that disappeared, I tasted the gravy and added half a teaspoon of salt. Then the boullion cube dissolved! Dave loved it. It wasn't *too* much salt.
Added the duck meat, which expanded enormously when I broke it into separate chunks, and kept it over low heat until I'd made a salad and zapped some potatoes.
Back to the table of contents
Finally got to use my candle warmer that I've had for years and years. There was barely enough cheese dip left to put in the fridge, so I'd better write down the recipe.
One cup of milk; I scanted the measure a little, and thought that I should have scanted it more, as the dip came out runny, but it thickened a tad as the temperature dropped.
Shaken up with a coffee measure (one ounce, two tablespoons) of whole-grain white-wheat flour, a quarter teaspoon of salt, and an eighth of a teaspoon of Aldi's chili powder, which has a detectable amount of cinnamon in it.
Brought to a boil in my smallest cast-iron saucepan, which I had greased with at least a tablespoon of butter.
Then dumped in chunks of extra-sharp cheddar cheese. I should have cut the chunks smaller; took a while to stir them in. I used about half of what remained of a one-pound block after making macaroni and cheese that called for eight ounces, but it looked like more than four ounces. [I later realized that I'd made half a recipe of the macaroni and cheese.]
Then stuck in a spoon and lit the candle in the warmer. All that partying, and there were only two serving spoons and a stirring spatula to wash. Well, I had to clean the saucepan after putting the little bit of cheese sauce away.
But the garlic-chive dip went languishing. Next year, I'll make only one quart of yogurt into dip.
I'm making chili sauce to warm up some big hot dogs in: four ounces of hamburger, a minced celery stalk, a chopped chunk of serrano pepper, a chopped mini-sweet pepper, half an onion, a fifteen-ounce can of Red Gold tomato sauce, three pickled tobasco peppers, a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of chili powder, and a quarter teaspoon of salt.
Brown the meat, stir the celery and hot pepper around until greasy, adding pure olive oil if required, cover tightly, steam at least ten minutes, fry pepper and onion, add remaining ingredients, and simmer the hot dogs for at least half an hour.