What's cooking ?

OK, since I started the thread I go first. BTW, without pix it didn’t happen, and I’m the absolute worst violator of that. I just thought you should know that going in. I’m a mod’ on a BBQ forum and I almost never post pix there. Why would you want to post pix? It makes everyone drool on their keyboards. It also gives us a “taste” of what this international community eats. Want to know people? Sit down for a meal.

I eat 2 meals per day generally. I have a good breakfast, then a better supper. This thread can include any meal. I’d just prefer to not hear about someones buttered toast or oat meal porridge for breakfast. But if that’s your big meal, go right ahead.

Tonight’s meal will be pork fried rice. I have some left over pork medallions in the refrigerator, I picked some yellow banana peppers and I’ll slice up an onion and throw in whatever else I can find in the refrigerator that’ll work in it (peas and whatever else). To support the stir fry I rendered out some backfat from my neighbors 2 pigs from last year. That’ll give an additional meaty flavor. I don’t have enough pork, so I’ll add at least one scrambled and stir fried egg. It’ll be delicious. I love my fried rice dishes. Since the wife doesn’t like eggs I’m cooking it for one and I can add anything that I like. I’m betting she’ll have a Taylor Pork Roll sandwich (just google it - it’s a very regional product and not even well known in the USA unless one is from one specific area) of some sort since I sliced up a 3 pounder the other day. She’ll be on her own tonight. (She’s a lousy cook, makes just one dish but that’s pretty good. She’s great at doing dishes though. :slight_smile: The person who does the cooking DOES NOT do the dishes. )

BTW, it’s near dinner time, I have one adult beverage in me, and I’m salivating at proof reading the above paragraph.

I do also have a future meal in the making as I write. I opened up 2 slabs of boneless beef short ribs yesterday (or was it Tuesday? makes no difference) made a marinade* (see below) , and after 2 days they’ll be ready for the southern BBQ treatment. A slab of these ribs weigh possibly 4 pounds (2kg) so I’ll have plenty of leftovers. In this case southern BBQ means 3-4 hours at 250°F (indirect heat) with plenty of cherry wood smoke. The marinade is spicy and tasty and plays nicely with the smoke. That’ll probably happen on Saturday and that’s why I don’t remember when I put them in the marinade. I just remember the target day. But if it doesn’t happen then it’s a refrigerator that hovers near 32°F so they’ll be very happy there for quite some time. Being in that marinade for an extended time hurts nothing. I’ve had short ribs in the marinade for a month in that refrigerator. I’ll post that supper after the fact and probably with pix. I absolutely love short ribs. I think I can OD on them though I never tried.

So what’s cooking for your meals? Have at it folks!

(You don’t need to supply recipes, but if you don’t a picture would work wonders so that we don’t need to guess. )


  • the marinade:
    2: hot Hungarian paprika (dry)
    2: granulated garlic (dry)
    1: vege-sal (substitute 1/2: salt if you can’t find vege-sal)
    enough Worcestershire sauce to make for a thickness similar to heavy cream, give the dry items time to soak it up

I wind up using 1/2 cup for the 2 part measures and 1/4 cup for the vege-sal, the W’ sauce winds up being a full 18 fluid ounce bottle, but that flavors many pound of meat. Adjust the amounts for what you have, but the meat should be swimming in the marinade. I put the meat in a poly bag and put the poly bag into a pot just in case it leaks. That happened once and the pot saved me a huge refrigerator cleanup. A double bag would also work if one is gentle with them; I’ve done that.

Ha, Taylor Pork roll. I knew from that you were NE. I didn’t have to Google it. I have had it many times but not something I stock in the fridge.
I cook for myself, Yesterday was Pork BBQ sandwiches.
Today?
Think today will be Easy one too, a double batch of Shells and Cheese, with some spiced up burger and fresh Broccoli (cooked w/ the shells) mixed in. May throw in a can of petite diced tomatoes w/ Jalapenos in the burger after it browned. HMM, got fresh garden tomatoes… Skip the Can… OOH, and a Jalapeno from last weeks Chili. Perfect.
Tomorrow?
Leftovers from today.

May get a Pic of the Slop later.

MMMM, Slop.

Good lookin’ slop! I’d take a bowl of it.

VW, right now we’re eating factory Taylor ham because we had family bring us 5 3 pounders, but we far prefer our own homemade because we can make it just as sour as we want by letting it culture longer.

Here’s the link.

It may appear daunting, but it’s no more difficult than any other sausage. It might be difficult if it was all done on one day, but it’s not.

Edit: We’ve met a number of NJ/NY/PA transplants up here and pretty much all of them miss Taylor Ham (aka Taylor pork roll). It’s not easy to find here and when it is found it’s a tiny package with just a few slices. Enough to get rid of the shakes of withdrawal, but not enough for real satiation. That’s why I just had to begin making our own. Family never came up often enough or with enough room in the cooler to bring up a years supply.

I thnke too - lookin’ slop… I love New Jersey Pork Roll… I want eat them all the time, on breakfast or lunch - only New Jersey Pork Roll… I use in the kitchen Calphalon Knife Set, look here jonsguide :sushi: When it comes to slicing and dicing, a Calphalon Knife saves you trouble and time.

Yesterday the weather wasn’t perfect for baking but I’ve waited long enough for “real bread” so I made 3 loaves of no knead bread in sandwich loaf form.

“Let me try this way to ”post pix… But it will disappear when I need the space. Click here.

So the question remains. Did you really need it? :wink:

I’ll trade you some Peanut Brittle I made the other day for some of that Bread.

It’s really cool to see a thread like this come up here. I’m big into smoking, and belong to a couple of BBQ forums. I’ve got a UDS, that is my goto smoker for meat. That thing will run all day without much input. I’ve got a cheap BGE wannabe, that I use mostly for steaks, pizza, etc. I’ve also got a cabinet smoker that nowadays, I just use for like bacon, or cheese.
Yesterday, I made 15lbs of breakfast sausage, cooked some nice ribeyes, and a couple of chicken kabobs.
Tonight, I’m just having sloppy joes, lol.

Hunting season is on, so I’m looking forward to restocking my depleted venison summer sausage.

Thanks gents! I’ve been in “bread withdrawal” for months, so no way! But I do appreciate the concern regarding the overage (in the freezer) and the trade. I understand that you’re only thinking of us and our surplus that needs to be cared for.

I really love fresh bread, as does the wife. The first loaf will be finished tomorrow morning. It makes fantastic toast and that’s all I had today for breakfast to help be rid of it… OK, and a few slices of the real Spanish dry choriso (domestic but just fabulous).

If you have an interest I can post the recipe. It’s dead simple. If one can turn on an oven one can bake this bread. Trust me on that.

I have a fancy mixer and since discovering this bread I’ve used it very little.

I would be interested in the recipe for the Easy Bake Bread.

Note that I am NOT the author of this bread. I’m only passing it on from the gent who put it into the public domain. Gents, I’ve posted this on shaving forums and gents there have made it who can’t cook anything and they loved it and were successful. Yes, YOU can make fantastic artisan bread. If you don’t have a dutch oven use what you have that is oven safe. It’ll still work.

Artisan no-knead Crusty Bread

This is an exceptionally easy to make, minimal equipment required, recipe that yields a fantastic loaf. It trades time for a mixer.

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/2 cups water (if you need to proof yeast use part of this)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.

Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms. It won’t be pretty, just mix it, no kneading!

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours. Overnight works great.

Heat oven to 450 degrees. When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface (a silicone mat insures no sticking) and shape into a general ball shape. Just relax, it won’t hold the shape, so don’t sweat it. You tried. Flour the upper surface of the dough also. Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating. Reshape the dough again (final shaping). Remove hot pot from the oven and drop the dough in. Everything you turned under to make a nice smooth ball should be next to the bottom of the pot. DO NOT grease or oil the pot in any way (SMOKE!). Have no fear, as long as you preheat the pot your loaf won’t stick. If you have a dedicated water sprayer (for food) give the loaf a few spritzes, but it’s no big deal if you don’t.

Cover and return to oven to bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes. Bread should be browned and the interior 200°F - 206°F. Remove bread from oven, remove from vessel, and place on a cooling rack to cool. Internal temp’ is important regardless of the exterior. A dark brown crust is even better if you can manage to do both.

If someone wants to use parchment fold a piece of parchment multiple times, until you can’t fold anymore, then measure off the radius of your cooking vessel from the apex of the parchment and snip with kitchen shears. To do this return to your childhood and the way you folded paper to cut out a snowflake… same technique. (Note: I used parchment once, but it simply isn’t needed. I’ve had to nudge only one loaf out of the dutch oven with a metal spatula. )

Note: since I wrote the above paragraph I had a loaf stick bigtime. It stuck so much that I couldn’t get it out without destroying the loaf. I suspect flour sprinkled into the dutch oven would help make it not stick, as would cornmeal or semolina, or even the parchment paper technique. Too, make this recipe and put it into a buttered loaf pan for use as sandwich bread. Give it some time to rise, covered, after putting it into the pan. It should rise to about equal to the top of the pan.

Dusty, I do Southern BBQ too. I have a Primo that I do cold smoke in and of course hot smoked items. I’m limited to about 10# of cheese when I decide to do a batch. Any more than that and the smoke doesn’t get around the blocks for full coverage. And cold smoked gravlox is to kill for. It’s one of my favorites.

Last night a friend came over and we had planned to make Chicken Cordon Blue Lasagne accompanied by a green salad. Super easy to make and delicious. It was cool yesterday so turning the oven on for an hour was welcome.

We almost thought we were going to be forced to cancel. At 0930 the wife came back to the computer and informed me that the drain at the sink wasn’t draining. So I tore into it and where I thought I would find the plug was totally open. Not good news. That meant that it was plugged somewhere in the long pipe run. I almost ran a electrical fish tape into the line, then thought of another way that might work. So I built a part that allowed me to put compressed air into the line. Very gingerly I fed it the air. Then I checked the clean out and the water had gone down. So I added more water and fed it more air. In a few seconds the pressure no longer wanted to come out the sink drains and I knew the line was open. Whew! I was also thinking of calling a plumber and that wouldn’t have been cheap on a Saturday. My biggest fears with the use of air was blowing the line apart and/or compacting the plug.

Peanut Brittle and no Peanuts?
Tried with Peanut Butter. I think I am on to something here. Darn GOOD.
Lil bit of baking soda for some fluff and the center really melts in your mouth.
Not pretty but that just ads to the homemade touch.

Chicken Korma