What did I cook this weekend.....

[troy2000]

My wife used to work for a very well-known and well-regarded cake designer. She used to use box cake mix with a little bit of secret ingredient added. Never seemed to impact her business!

I think the idea was that sure, she could make it from scratch. But the decoration was the most important part of these cakes, so why spend time making the mix from scratch when it might be at most barely better than what comes from the box plus her secret ingredient?

I made the filling for a cherry pie from scratch one time. It wasn't shockingly better than a canned filling, and it cost several times as much. Since then, I've focused on making nice lattice-work top crusts instead...

 

[passedpawn]

Just made a monster batch of tomatilla salsa. Man, I am going to get that food processor this weekend. The Magic Bullet isn't cutting it. We used to have a decent machine, but (my wife tells me) I broke it a while back.

 

[finsfan]

I just made tortilla chips for nachos, does that count?

 

[ChefRex]

I just made tortilla chips for nachos, does that count?

If you ground the corn it does!

 

[ChefRex]

Just made a monster batch of tomatilla salsa. Man, I am going to get that food processor this weekend. The Magic Bullet isn't cutting it. We used to have a decent machine, but (my wife tells me) I broke it a while back.

I love tomatillas, I have a 11 cup Cuisinart also, it's been put through it's paces and still going strong.

 

[finsfan]

If you ground the corn it does!

It doesnt count then haha

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

OK, so if your wife USED to work for this person - she can tell US what the secret ingredient is, right? We won't tell anyone else!

I just asked, and I guess it wasn't one secret ingredient. Sometimes she'd add things like cream cheese or flavorings, sometimes she'd adjust the ratios of oil and eggs, etc.

I suppose it's not unlike what many brewers do... Buy a recipe kit, tweak a bit here or there on specialty grains, or hop schedule, etc.

She used the cake mix like we'd use extract, and build the rest around it to get what she wanted.

 

[Temptd2]

Sounds like the way I cook!

I've never met a recipe I didn't think I could improve with a little tweak here or there. Or everywhere.

 

[mcbaumannerb]

I just made tortilla chips for nachos, does that count?

Sadly there is no pic so no, it doesn't count!

 

[Temptd2]

KOTC and I just made 7.5 pounds of ground beef from some nice bone-in chuck roasts I got on sale. The bones and scraps, along with some baby carrots and an onion cut into 6ths, are roasting in the oven; then they'll go into the pressure cooker with some seasonings and some homebrew and some water to make a lovely beef stock, which I'll refrigerate overnight to skim off some of the fat, then we'll pressure can it tomorrow or the next day.

That extra half pound of ground beef went into a very tasty Joe's Scramble (onions, garlic, chopped fresh spinach, a small can diced Ortega chiles, eggs, cheese) for lunch.

 

[dan6310]

Pizza night
I had some left over leaven from a Tartine bread I'm making and my SWMBO asked if I could make some pizza dough for pizza tonight.
I made an oven baked mushroom pizza and a grilled caramelized onion/ green pepper pizza. Both turned out great.


Dan6310

 

[passedpawn]

Tri-tip, asparagus, taters off the grill. Cooked the steak more than I wanted, but it was tasty nonetheless.

 

[passedpawn]

The asparagus was grilled in a pan with pastrami chunks, olive oil, and lime zest/juice.

 

[passedpawn]

 

[bob1852]

Made some habanero blackberry salsa.

 

[passedpawn]

Made some habanero blackberry salsa.

I need to taste that! Nice presentation, too, nothing less than I'd expect from you.

 

[Melana]

Made some habanero blackberry salsa.

Yum!

 

[bob1852]

Recipe:

14oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained
1/3 c. diced white onion
1 finely diced habanero
1/8 c. chopped pineapple
3oz diced blackberries
2 tsp. diced garlic
1 tsp. lime juice
1 tsp. honey
1 big handful cilantro
Salt, pepper, and cumin to taste

Give it all a spin in the food processor until you get the consistency you like.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

"Star Ranch Angus" tri-tip seasoned and coming up to room temp before going on the grill for lunch.

My wife is sick of tri-tip, so I don't have to sous vide this one too make it ultra-tender. First time trying this brand of meat, so I want to see how tender it is with traditional cooking methods.

I asked my son (6 1/2) if he wanted "steak" for lunch, and he said "Every time you say 'steak', daddy, I think 'yes'."

I've taught him well.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

D'oh! Forgot pic!

 

[bob1852]

You are the king of tri-trip.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

You are the king of tri-trip.

I'm trying

Wyatt and Natalie seem to enjoy it!

But as I continue doing tri-tip, I think the answer is going to be 6-12 hours in the sous vide at 129, then a HARD sear on the grill to get the temp closer to 135-140 and blacken the outside heavier than I get from a torch. My biggest problem is still even cooking, and I think relying on the sous vide for that will improve the final result...

 

[ChefRex]

I'm trying

Wyatt and Natalie seem to enjoy it!

But as I continue doing tri-tip, I think the answer is going to be 6-12 hours in the sous vide at 129, then a HARD sear on the grill to get the temp closer to 135-140 and blacken the outside heavier than I get from a torch. My biggest problem is still even cooking, and I think relying on the sous vide for that will improve the final result...

You should teach your kids not to pick their nose on camera.

 

[KIRBREW]

Maiden voyage of my paella pan happened this weekend.

That looks delicious! Did you cook on a grill. That's about the only cooking surface I have larger enough to evenly cook pallea.

 

[banesong]

I'm trying

Wyatt and Natalie seem to enjoy it!

But as I continue doing tri-tip, I think the answer is going to be 6-12 hours in the sous vide at 129, then a HARD sear on the grill to get the temp closer to 135-140 and blacken the outside heavier than I get from a torch. My biggest problem is still even cooking, and I think relying on the sous vide for that will improve the final result...

What temp for your sous vide?

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

What temp for your sous vide?

As said earlier, I didn't sous vide this one, just grill. I got it to 130 in the thick part, but other areas of this tri-tip were overdone. (Still tasty as hell though).

I've done tri-tip in the sous vide a few times. The best so far was actually 135, followed by a light sear on the grill. The most recent was 130, with just a sear with blowtorch, but it wasn't really done enough.

But I really like to get the outer portion of the meat nice and warm, which is why I think 129 followed by a hard sear to continue cooking a little on the grill will be the best of both worlds.

 

[Temptd2]

I think I have a tri-tip in the freezer - need to dig that sucka out, because you made my mouth water with those pics!

KOTC and I just finished canning 7 pints of homemade beef stock and 3 pints of lamb vindaloo. I'm going to start making larger batches of stuff, then put whatever we don't eat in pint jars and freeze til there is enough to fill the pressure canner (holds 8 pints) - let defrost in the fridge then run a batch, or two. I love seeing that stuff in the pantry! Knowing where it came from and what it's made of is kind of nice.

 

[banesong]

As said earlier, I didn't sous vide this one, just grill. I got it to 130 in the thick part, but other areas of this tri-tip were overdone. (Still tasty as hell though).

I've done tri-tip in the sous vide a few times. The best so far was actually 135, followed by a light sear on the grill. The most recent was 130, with just a sear with blowtorch, but it wasn't really done enough.

But I really like to get the outer portion of the meat nice and warm, which is why I think 129 followed by a hard sear to continue cooking a little on the grill will be the best of both worlds.

I totally missed 129 in your post. Sigh. I have a great Mercado near me. Trip tip will be in my bath soon.... And the sous vide too!

 

[ChefRex]

Brined and smoked a chicken on the grill, rubbed a head of cauliflower with olive oil, garlic and capers but the smoke didn't work with it that well and baked potatoes.

 

[Homercidal]

Had paella at the Lansing beer festival last weekend. Pretty good, but not as good as I expected based on the huge line that formed for it. The pulled pork booth was pretty good though.

I actually started a Powerpoint CookBook for recipes from here, but haven't had much time to add to it since I migrated out ERP software and then installed an in-house email server. Still cleaning up after that. I checked out some online cookbook sites, but nothing really did it for me. I wanted something that looked good, was easy to read, and could be downloaded to a portable device like a phone or tablet. Not sure if I could make it do categories, but that would be nice. Powerpoint should allow for a clickable index or TOC too I think.