What did I cook this weekend.....

[troy2000]

I'm very narrow minded where certain things are concerned I freely admit this to be true . Beer i'm very snobby, Mexican food forget about it, I won't even go to a "mexican" restaurant near me And a really good steak should be done simply with salt and pepper unless its a tougher cut then do what you must to it braise it smother it in cheese etc. These are my opinions. shortsighted? Yes. Unapologetically so.


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I've been to so-called "Mexican' restaurants in the Midwest, and I don't blame you for giving them a pass. Nor would I hang out at Chinese restaurants there, unless they've changed a lot in the last thirty years. But you're missing out on one of the world's great cuisines if you think Mexican food is refried beans and rice, grease, hot peppers and tortillas.

I can understand someone being narrow minded; it's common. But I don't really understand someone taking pride in being that way....

 

[gratus fermentatio]

This past weekend I made pork L'orange, sort of. Pork steak marinated in an orange sauce for 4 hours, then grilled over charcoal & basted with more orange sauce as it cooked. Sides were kale sauteed in olive oil with crimini mushrooms, garlic & tarragon; and sweet potato fries, with sea salt and an orange wedge garnish. Paired with a tasty brown ale. I honestly think this was the best pork steak I've ever eaten.
Regards, GF.

 

[mattmmille]

I've been to so-called "Mexican' restaurants in the Midwest, and I don't blame you for giving them a pass. Nor would I hang out at Chinese restaurants there, unless they've changed a lot in the last thirty years. But you're missing out on one of the world's great cuisines if you think Mexican food is refried beans and rice, grease, hot peppers and tortillas.

I can understand someone being narrow minded; it's common. But I don't really understand someone taking pride in being that way....

I think "narrow minded" was an unfortunate choice of words. It's more like a confidence in opinion. I'm comfortable with the knowledge that I have experienced a wide range of options in my life and have weeded out the ones I know I don't like. I like bleu cheese. I've tried it on steak and I think it overpowers the flavor of the steak. Tried it. Eliminated it.

At my age, 51, I have had a lot of experience with food, including quite a bit of professional experience. I don't have a culinary degree, but I'm confident in my experiences and education. I have only recently begun brewing and expanding my palate beyond the mundane. I'm still experiencing and not as confident in my own palate yet. So I don't think it's about narrow vs. open minded. It's experienced confidence of opinion vs. same, but with opposing opinion. Neither is "wrong". (I'm just more right than anyone else!)

 

[jeffjm]

I have one of those smoker controllers, which I LOVE.

What controller do you use? Been thinking of getting one myself.

 

[passedpawn]

What controller do you use? Been thinking of getting one myself.

Auber makes one that is less expensive than others and, from what I can see, offers the same functionality. Works great on my Weber Smokey Mountain.

 

[headbanger]

Auber makes one that is less expensive than others and, from what I can see, offers the same functionality. Works great on my Weber Smokey Mountain.

Did you have to buy an adapter separately to mount it up to your WSM?

 

[CreamyGoodness]

This past weekend I made pork L'orange, sort of. Pork steak marinated in an orange sauce for 4 hours, then grilled over charcoal & basted with more orange sauce as it cooked. Sides were kale sauteed in olive oil with crimini mushrooms, garlic & tarragon; and sweet potato fries, with sea salt and an orange wedge garnish. Paired with a tasty brown ale. I honestly think this was the best pork steak I've ever eaten.
Regards, GF.

Can I just confess that my ignorance of Montana was such that I thought ingredients such as criminis, sweet potatoes, kale and to a lesser extent, oranges would be hard to find or expensive as they dont grow near there.

Mind=Blown

 

[BUCKNUTS]

I can understand someone being narrow minded; it's common. But I don't really understand someone taking pride in being that way....

I'm not sure that it's a point of pride but rather an acceptance of who I am. These are matters of personal taste and nothing more. Where certain things are concerned I do not compromise at all.


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[Goofynewfie]

Horse meat is illegal (back and forth) in the US because the US mentality is an extension of the British mentality, with slight divergences here and there that haven't evolved much over 250 years time. As is Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. It was a British cultural thing to stigmatise the consumption of horse meat, nothing more nothing less.

Its not common but horse meat is legal in canada, you can buy it St a store down the road from me

 

[bob1852]

Can I just confess that my ignorance of Montana was such that I thought ingredients such as criminis, sweet potatoes, kale and to a lesser extent, oranges would be hard to find or expensive as they dont grow near there.

Mind=Blown

Y U so narrow minded and short sided?

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Back on track...

We visited with my mom and her husband this weekend and they cooked one of the best meals I've had in a long time over an open fire. Some HUGE cast iron pans, a grill, and a nice hot fire and we were set.
Venison, grilled onions and peppers, sausages, and potatoes. The meal alone was enough to convince wife that we need to go camping sometime in the near future

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Y U so narrow minded and short sided?

Hehehhe, I've mentioned this to gratus a couple times in the past, but Im sure the picture in my mind of Montana and the reality are most likely very different (Ive never been there).

Wide expanses of undeveloped land. Wild Horses. Snow. Rocks. Small pockets of built-up areas surrounded by more of said mountains, snow, and rocks (or perhaps a huge cliff).

Oh, and raucus college towns...

Nary a fruit tree, and no sushi.

Probably completely and utterly incorrect to the point of being mildly offensive.

 

[troy2000]

Back on track...

We visited with my mom and her husband this weekend and they cooked one of the best meals I've had in a long time over an open fire. Some HUGE cast iron pans, a grill, and a nice hot fire and we were set.
Venison, grilled onions and peppers, sausages, and potatoes. The meal alone was enough to convince wife that we need to go camping sometime in the near future

Oh yeah... I'm seriously impressed by those pans. And envious, too. What they're filled with is also pretty impressive, especially the venison.

Definitely gonna start hunting again when I retire. If mama doesn't want to eat Bambi and Thumper, she'll just have to clear out of the kitchen now and then.

 

[cheezydemon3]

HOLD IT!!!! HOLD IT!

Evidently Homer doesn't have a smartphone, but could we at least set up a fund to get him a digital camera?

Grilled bacon wrapped shrimp with BBQ sauce, Texas Caviar (Southwest corn and bean salsa kind of thing), guac and tomatoe salsa, and pulled pork this weekend. (NO PICS)

I found a video on Youtube by a guy who does pork and I love that mop sauce he makes. I rubbed with mustard and some Jack Daniels rub (out of homemade stuff) and mopped a couple of times. I expected the butt to require a few more hours in the morning, but it finished by the time I got up from bed so I didn't get to mop it as much as I wanted but everyone said it was the best I've done yet.(NO LINK)

Picked up a smoked cheddar yesterday in Petosky in one of them fancy gourmay stores. and we found a pear jam and sliced some pears to go with the cheese and the ladies bought a fancy fruit wine.
(NO PICS)

 

[cheezydemon3]

Herbed red potatoes stole the show!
Herbed chicken and caramelized onion kale.

 

[BUCKNUTS]

Herbed red potatoes stole the show!
Herbed chicken and caramelized onion kale.

Looks good i love roasted chicken and potatoes. I havent cooked in a while time to get in the kitchen because now I'm hungry


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[troy2000]

I'm not sure that it's a point of pride but rather an acceptance of who I am. These are matters of personal taste and nothing more. Where certain things are concerned I do not compromise at all.


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I don't look at expanding my horizons as 'compromising.' The older I get the more I stretch, and the more things I find that I like. I like some more than others, of course - but life would get boring if I just stuck to my favorite food, drink, clothing, music, furniture, architecture, vehicles, women (before I got married, anyway), or whatever.

 

[passedpawn]

Did you have to buy an adapter separately to mount it up to your WSM?

No, the fan that comes with it (get the right one!) has little springy clips that fit into one of the holes on the bottom vent of the WSM. The only thing I did was use metal tape to better seal all the other vents.

 

[troy2000]

Looks good i love roasted chicken and potatoes. I havent cooked in a while time to get in the kitchen because now I'm hungry


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I think it looks good, too. Who would've thought a simple photo of fried potatoes in the pan could make me almost taste them? My compliments to the photographer; maybe he should pursue a career in food photography.

It's also good to know I'm not the only one who doesn't peel potatoes before frying them. I gave that up years ago, even on thick-skinned spuds like Russet Burbanks. Instead I just give them a quick scrub under tap water, and carve out any dubious looking parts.

My mother was a good cook, who spent years feeding eight kids and a hardworking husband. But I was talking to her about cooking one day towards the end of her life, and she mentioned two things she wished she had figured out fifty or sixty years earlier.

One was that she was wasting both her time and good nutrition, during the countless hours she used up peeling potatoes. The other was that she didn't need to cook vegetables to death the way her mother taught her; in fact a lot of them are delicious and healthy eaten raw. She said if she had it to do over she'd have fed us a lot more raw salads, with everything from mushrooms to broccoli in them.

 

[cheezydemon3]

I think it looks good, too. Who would've thought a simple photo of fried potatoes in the pan could make me almost taste them? My compliments to the photographer; maybe he should pursue a career in food photography. .

*bows, ponders the future....*

It's also good to know I'm not the only one who doesn't peel potatoes before frying them. I gave that up years ago, even on thick-skinned spuds like Russet Burbanks. Instead I just give them a quick scrub under tap water, and carve out any dubious looking parts.

My mother was a good cook, who spent years feeding eight kids and a hardworking husband. But I was talking to her about cooking one day towards the end of her life, and she mentioned two things she wished she had figured out fifty or sixty years earlier.

One was that she was wasting both her time and good nutrition, during the countless hours she used up peeling potatoes. The other was that she didn't need to cook vegetables to death the way her mother taught her; in fact a lot of them are delicious and healthy eaten raw. She said if she had it to do over she'd have fed us a lot more raw salads, with everything from mushrooms to broccoli in them.

So true.

I typically get a quick sear on veggies, add a tiny amount of water for a short steam and serve.

Raw is great too. Broccoli, red bell, cucumber, cauliflower and a little ranch can make a meal. I can't stand overcooked veggies.

Potatos MUST have peel.

 

[bob1852]

A lot of times when I make stir fry I end up eating over half of the raw veggies before I even cook them.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

You could of course use your veggies to make wine and mead...

 

[Homercidal]

I prefer soft veggies. I like steamed, but if they got a little crunch I'd still eat it. I do eat raw veggies just fine, but between frozen and canned, canned wins.

 

[headbanger]

Raw is great too. Broccoli, red bell, cucumber, cauliflower and a little ranch can make a meal. I can't stand overcooked veggies.

I seriously thought I OD'd on green olives one day recently while making a pizza, thanks for that.

 

[bob1852]

Speaking of stir fry, here's some I made last night (with snow peas from the garden). Sauce was chicken broth, soy, oyster, hoisin, sambal, garlic, white pepper, rice vinegar, and chili oil. Delicious.

 

[passedpawn]

Speaking of stir fry, here's some I made last night (with snow peas from the garden). Sauce was chicken broth, soy, oyster, hoisin, sambal, garlic, white pepper, rice vinegar, and chili oil. Delicious.

That looks great. I need to make more chinese.

 

[cheezydemon3]

I seriously thought I OD'd on green olives one day recently while making a pizza, thanks for that.

You are welcome!

I love olives. A nice antipasti platter, a good pizza (green olives can stand alone with sauce and cheese) or a nice olive tepenade (finely diced olives) are all beautiful things!

And they are SO EFFING GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!!

 

[bob1852]

That looks great. I need to make more chinese.

The key to good Chinese is a massive heat source (my brewing SQ-14 burner works great!) and a good wok (mine is ~40 years old, straight from mainland China).

 

[cheezydemon3]

You could of course use your veggies to make wine and mead...

I wonder how much "nutrition" is left after fermentation......

 

[passedpawn]

The key to good Chinese is a massive heat source (my brewing SQ-14 burner works great!) and a good wok (mine is ~40 years old, straight from mainland China).

Hmmm, I gave away my burner. Never even thought about putting a wok on it. And my grill is coal.

I have a fairly nice electric, but it's not a comparison to a seasoned cast iron wok over gas. We had a big one that my mother used a lot when I was growing up.