What did I cook this weekend.....

Braised an Asian inspired pork shoulder, fried rice and stirfried ginger/garlic broccoli, everyone was happy, so happy I forgot the pictures

 

I made up a big pot of chile verde with 4 pounds of pork shoulder cubes. Cooked it in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes, which yielded luscious tender pork and a nice sauce. I made a little slurry of maseca and water and stirred that into the bubbling liquid to thicken it up just a bit. Now it sits til Cinco de Mayo - it's so much better when it's had 24 to 48 hours to meld all the flavors!

Tonight we had taco salads with homefried tortilla chips. We also made 7 quarts of BBQ potato chips today.

 

Wife finally made her homemade lasagna yesterday. Washed it down with a SN summerfest lager.

 

Boring weekend. (Cooking wise).

Wife grilled brats yesterday. I cut a a couple of different brats/sausage dogs and grilled on a skewer and slathered in BBQ sauce.

The cheese sausage dogs were ok, but the plain brats were really good. Looking for a nice, simple, meat-on-a-stick thing to make for camping/brewing.

 

That is a beautiful granite slab. I really like the pattern.

Looks like the outlet is on the side of the island. Gives you more working space for temporary appliances like a good stand mixer or maybe a meat slicer.


This weekend I continued reaccustoming myself to the charcoal side of my grill (a cheapish $200 Brinkman gas on the left, charcoal on the right, bought it a couple years ago and its holding up great). I grilled bratwurst on Friday night, some hot italian sausages for lunch on Saturday. Then I decided I had not had enough animal proteins and fats and lit up my smoker and threw about 13 pounds of pork shoulder/butt on the WSM at about 10pm Saturday night. Pulled it off at 2pm and had some amazing pulled pork for dinner. Quickest butt smoke yet, usually they go for 20 hours. My coworkers are going to hate me because the office is going to smell like leftover pulled pork sammiches all week.

 

I managed to get nothing cooked this weekend... BigJohn did grill some beautiful steaks.

The island has outlets so I can use my mixer, etc.
The island overhangs for seating ability.
Kraus Made my kitchen sink.
The range is a GE profile and i'm running it on propane because there is no natural gas lines on my street.
I am working with the existing light oak cabinets that were there when i bought the house. They are solid wood cabinets and in no way chip board or the like. By using half of the existing kitchen i am saving more than $10K on the remodel.
The granite is 'White Wave' and it's from Brazil.
I have been waiting on the backsplash to see what goes best with the granite.

I think i answered most of the questions?

 

thanks Melana and sorry for dissing your style. hope you are cooking soon.

 

Simple but delicious: homemade pimento cheese on toasted whole wheat bread with thin sliced and salted tomatoes.

 

Hey podz. Sorry if I was out of line with the America thing .I guess Az and I were over the line .I know we were off topic but it was all in good fun ergo the winkie icon .I'll be hanging out ,and reading .Love this thread.

 

Smoked a couple chickens yesterday, and they turned out great.

Friday, SWMBO made the "Grown Up Grilled Cheese" recipe from America's Test Kitchen. It uses a blend of shredded aged white cheddar, brie, and shallots on crusty bread, and then some dry mustard mixed into the butter on the outside. It was pretty freakin' fabulous.

 

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJd1RktjYTU[/ame]

 

Whole leg of lamb on the open fire rotisserie.

 

So, SessionableGoodness has been told by the pediatrician to get more protein in his diet. He made it pretty clear that he no longer wants chicken liver, and the idea of "meat puree" doesn't sound very appetizing... so I looked to tofu.

I made a carrot, ginger and tofu soup with curry powder (maybe the second time Ive cooked with curry powder), and ran the whole thing through the Cuisinart until it was nice and creamy-smooth. My son ate an adult-sized portion, and tried to eat more even though he was full. Success I think!

Best part is the corresponding diaper should be coming while I am at work. Poor nanny is making her wages today...

 

Ugh... There was a period when all my eldest would eat was blueberries. The diapers were darker than my soul.

 

That is just too awesome. I am in the planning stages now of building a brick grill and rotisserie that is able to cook an entire lamb in one piece. I've got a pile of bricks in the back yard and just picked up an old Hoover mangle for the purpose of using it's electric motor.

 

That is truly a thing of beauty!
Regards, GF.

 

You're either brave or vindictive to feed a baby curry. Though I think it's pretty cool that he liked it so much. Hopefully he won't be a picky eater & will enjoy culinary diversity. How long till he's eating fully solid food?
Regards, GF.

 

Cool! When mine was little the first meat product we let her gum was pulled pork and she loved it.

 

I used to toss a leg of lamb & a ham in the pit for Easter dinner. Dry-rubbed barky goodness! Yesterday, I used this new kind of center-cut bacon Giant Eagle has to wrap some hot dogs & broiled them, since it was raining on & off. It was the kind of up-scale bacon they gave a free pound of when you bought a gallon of orange juice & king-size loaf of bread. The bacon itself had 4 strips of meat running through a little fat. But upon tasting the wrapped dogs, I'd swear they brined the slabs, but didn't smoke'em or anything?! They tasted like a butcher shop smells, like clean, fresh meat.

 

He started eating things like pureed squash at 4 months. 6 months later and he's been a little eating machine. We have videos of him eating miso soup, my spaghetti sauce, veggie and fruit purees, mashed potatoes, cheerios (1 at a time) and on and on and he slaps the tray table of his high chair and makes "mmmm mmm mmm!" noises. His weird new thing is eating with one foot up... sometimes getting blueberries on his toes.

 

That right there is pure awesome.

 

This reminds me of when our children were babies. I remember my older sis telling me about pureeing things like fruits & veggies in the blender (cooked in case of veggies), then straining it to feed them. They're all taller than me now, save for my daughter. Mashed potatoes & gravy were also enjoyed by ours. So properly done, it's fine to feed them. But we did watch the seasonings.

 

Sauerkraut started on 3/11/15. Decided to got ahead and put it in jars today. I'll keep it in the fridge to maintain its freshness and probiotics, rather than heat processing it in my canner. But then, I may wind up cooking it under a pork roast or Kielbasa....

 

own sauerkraut is the best, i just store it in the cellar, there is no need to heat it, it is naturally safe to eat
I drop some sliced carrot inbetween for flavouring, other wise just cabbage, salt and a lot of elbowgrease.

 

Really simple but tasty (and I'd guess low-cal) shrimp tacos. I sauteed some shrimp with some salt and nothing-fancy taco spice, warmed up a can of sweet corn, and put it all in tortillas with avocado, onion, garlic and tomato. Damn tasty.

 

There's absolutely no need to jar it and there is nothing to keep fresh - it's fermented and pickled. Sauerkraut has been kept for many centuries in stone crocks with some rocks on the inside that keep the kraut underwater. It stays good like forever. Pickles are made exactly the same way.

The crock is called a Gärtopf, and you can even buy them from Amazon.

 

I can just picture him with berries between his toes & eating something messy by the fist full; making his happy eating noises. Thanks for that little mental pic Creamy, it's a good way to start my day.
Regards, GF.

 

It's been a while since I've posted any food pics, so they've been building up. Here's something I threw together recently. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs stir-fried in a bit of olive oil with a couple cloves of garlic, a pinch of sage & a couple shakes of soy sauce.

Veggies were orange & yellow carrots, snap peas, water chestnuts, mushrooms & bean sprouts, all quickly stir-fried in a bit of olive oil. Served it all up on a bed of baked spaghetti squash instead of rice. I baked the squash whole & uncut, which sort of steamed it on the inside; gave it a much softer texture.
Regards, GF.

 

Interesting! A little pricier than my little fermentation bucket, airlock, plate, and jar of water. But my set-up is a bit of a pain to open and get to the kraut once it's ready, so I put it in a jar. At that point, with no ability for it to off-gas, I pop it in the fridge just to slow things down. It's kind of like wearing a belt AND suspenders...the belt is sufficient, but the suspenders are just a little added peace of mind.

 

You notice that the gärtopf is also a fermenter. You put water in the outside top ring and the lid sits in that to form a water-seal but the lid does not touch the bottom of the ring. This allows off-gassing like forever.

 

Yeah...looks like it would be easier to get into to, but I'm just not ready to put over $100 into a fermentation crock. (Though it IS more attractive than my set-up!)

 

I just make the saurkraut in a food safe bucket, then drop a plate on top that's the right size, couple of rocks in a plastic bag and lid on top....

works fine and cost me 2 euro's , one for the bucket, one for the plate, both from a sale at the local foodcollege.

 

Help me i now have crock envy.

 

That would look nice on your new countertop!

 

And you, crock envier, you're next!

Huh, drunk kraut maker... You're so drunk you can't make kraut. In fact, you're probably makin' pickles.

I have two crocks, one for each of ya!

.

 

No, no kraut for this girl... i'm into the pickles.

 

I found an episode of Smoky Ribs on youtube just now That looks really OMG! good...

I thought y'all might like this one. Nice warm weather meal!

 

I guess that sammie should be called a BOLT! Looks great. He cooked is bacon at too high a temp and burned it, though.

Cuban bread would probably work well with that. Like a Po Boy with bacon. Used Duke's mayo...like a good Southerner should!

 

Not fancy, but tasty; steak & seasoned fries with a side of tomatoes & okra.

 

That's what she said???