What's cooking? part 4

It was maybe the best dish I have cooked! The fat tasted like butter and would dissolve on your tongue, underneath the crispy cracklin like top. The meat was super tender and full of the flavor. I don't think I can eat this again for a year, but it was worth the time it took to cook. We have a few pieces left over that I'm going to chop and make a sort of pulled pork with tomorrow.

I'm throwing a BBQ tomorrow! Any excellent side dishes? I am thinking:

Hamburgers with various condiments
Wheatberry & bean curry salad
Chips
Potato salad & macaroni salad? (<--I am lame, will probably just buy these things because I like the store brand a lot)
Tomato & bocconcini salad with basil, balsamic & olive oil

I feel like this is standard, but also not enough? I will make a cracker & cheese & grapes plate.

Tempted to attempt devilled eggs! Are those hard?

They're really easy! And flavorwise they're kind of a blank canvas that encourages you to try all kinds of things.

I just looked up a recipe. I think I could do this! I've never peeled a hard boiled egg before, hah. Will report back!

Pro tip: fresher eggs are harder to peel.

it's tedious but not a big deal

hmm, I've got 6 or 8 eggs in the fridge that are a week old, at least. I'm good a tedious; skill is where it all falls apart for ole Lex.

Deviled eggs are great but peeling the eggs is one of the most maddening things ever - if I do one of course the shell slips right off but if I need a dozen they never seem to come off until all the eggs are destroyed.

Hahaha. Well I forgot to buy more & we'll need some for breakfasts so I shall try another time.

Bought a watermelon so that I can make a gigantic Fruitbasket out of it!

"Potato salad & macaroni salad?"

I would not do both, eliminating the mac salad as it's one food that seems to have no reason to exist.

Maybe some grilled corn on the cob?

Man I love both potato & macaroni salads! Hate corn IMO. plus our BBQ is small, couldn't fit anything but burgers really..

Most store-bought mac salads have very little flavor but lots of calories, so I never eat them. I have found that adding a little good vinegar makes them more edible.

You guys don't really have halloumi as a staple in the US, right? But halloumi & veg kebabs on the grill are amazing. Although every kebab type thing I make always breaks off the skewer. So maybe big halloumi slices.

Oh yeah BBQ haloumi is the BEST. So squeaky and salty. Firm tofu and veg kebabs are also a go-to for me (lotta vege friends)

Made this tonight, not bad, and only about 25 minutes of work.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/nickn/smpizza.jpg

Fresh and Easy dough, chorizo (the Spanish sausage, not the Mexican type), herbed goat cheese, mushrooms, dry-cured olives, roasted red peppers.

Oh nice!

roasting some new potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, and many many cloves of garlic and gonna make a salad of them with goat cheese and lettuce and try to make dressing out of the roasted garlic and some mustard and honey

that sounds delicious. I did a frittata with eggs from my hippie coworker with roasted red and banana pepper, onion, garlic, and new red potatoes; oregano and smoked paprika to season. Looks and smells good; hope it tastes that way!

the dressing was pretty good. i mashed about 4 of the roasted garlic cloves and added dry mustard, a tablespoon (or more? it was a tiny bit too sweet), red vinegar, and olive oil

cooking bison burgers with merlot gazed onions and roasted garlic mustard!

my new favorite salad is assorted roasted vegetables + lettuce + a cheese. i am eating the leftovers from yesterday with feta instead of goat cheese and a handful of dill and roasting some different vegetables with lemon juice, olive oil, dill, and plenty of salt. asparagus, zucchini, and red peppers.

I made my first brisket yesterday! It was rubbed with spices, seared, then cooked in a sauce of puréed tomato, apricot jam and horseradish. It was so good! And today I made my first strawberry rhubarb pie :) sadly our a/c seems to be broken again, as it was the first time we tried to use it last summer, so cooking means a very hot apartment and a very exasperated me :(

I made some green chile enchiladas today. They're really just a green chile delivery device. Layers of torn-up corn tortillas alternated w/layers of ground-up green chile (with a little milk added in) and cheddar cheese on top, casserole style. I swear green chiles give me some kind of high, the heat plus some crazy x factor. They make my face feel the same way it does when I smoke weed. The chile from Hatch is god's greatest creation.

I want to cook a brisket soon, but I really want to meat to be super tender, almost falling apart. Does this depend on the quality of the cut of meat, fat to meat ratio, or the cooking process, ei cooking in a stove or a outdoor grill or pit?

marbling and amount of fat is important, but keeping the temperature of the meat low (like never over 155 F) for a long time (think 1 hour/lb) will give you a super tender but also moist result.

Mine was pretty well trimmed and took 3 hours at 300 for 2.15 lbs. it was good and tender but if we'd had more patience and the house wasn't insanely hot I'd probably have given it a bit longer!

Have you got a slow cooker tza? They help so much in not making your house a blast furnace.

Nope, but probably worth the investment!

You can get one brand new from target for about $30

I'm making pearl couscous tonight, for the first time

I know I look at that them all the time, but then I think about how we have no space left for anything in this apartment :(. xpost

Pearl couscous is awesome

there are a lot of things that would help me that i just can't get because i want no more things with plugs clogging my kitchen that only has two outlets and minimal cabinet space :(

well i guess it has 4 but one is hard to reach and one must be where the refrigerator is plugged in. and one has the coffee maker and nothing else because it's also in a pretty awkward spot.

we went to an open home the other weekend, and the kitchen was AMAZING!!! the house belongs to a cookbook writer, so there was a shit ton of counter space, including a huuuuuge island, a SIX-RING cook top and TWO ovens!!! plus a huge window over a 1/3 of the counter space. i wanted to buy the house on the spot.

Daaaamn.

I would seriously live in that kitchen even if it came with no house attached tbh.

^^^

yeah that's pretty much how i felt xp

the rest of the house was also completely awesome btw

man this time of year makes me hate apartment living. want to grill in the worst way. jacob's bison burgers sound perfect.

leftovers today of chicken and bamboo shoots in oyster sauce w/ garlic, ginger, chilies, heavy on the cashews, heavy on the basil. now sipping thai iced tea in bed.

i have a wedding this weekend but i think next week i'm gonna try some kind of roast duck. hmm.

Our community has some of those park style flat grills over I. A yard near the pool,some bought some charcoal and I am definitely going to try my hand at grilling this weekend! Kind of a pain bc it's not attached to my kitchen but oh well.

^^^^ I did this for a lot of apartment-living years; always referred to them as "ghetto grills" because they are the kind of thing you see in very sad city parks. But they work just fine, and after a couple of outings I got good at packing up a cooler with everything I could possibly need for a couple hours of relaxing around the grill (blanket, bug spray, lots of paper towels, etc.) so I did not have to go in and out and in and out of the apartment.

i'm making salmon with capers and vinegar from marcella hazan, warm potato mustard rosemary salad from tender, and asparagus with butter and parm from tender. i have had tender for 5 months and this is the first time i've used anything from it! i only have 9 new potatoes left though so i'm gonna be mad there's not enough.

also i got a huge bottle of cheap rosé

I have made three batches of sausages for a friend's barbecue next weekend - pork and piccalilli; pork, prune and armagnac; and an attempt at an all-in chile con carne which I think will work as a completa.

I won't find out until Tuesday which will be the first day they can be cooked.

Raw garlic in guacamole is superb! Who knew?!

yeah it is but it sticks with me worse than onions even so i go with onions
gonna try to poach the salmon i have left over and make a caprese salad and some beet greens w/ balsamic or something

I'm cooking a roasted red bell pepper relish to top on a take on chicago style hot dogs, that I'm using spicy italian sausage, sliced tomatoes, sliced jalapeños and dill pickle. Only part I don't have is a poppy seed bun.

And an actual hotdog. That sounds like a delicious sausage but that ain't no Chicago dog :)

That reminds me tangentially, is Hot Doug's a place with a line all day, or is that just near mealtimes?

I have:
beef stew chunks
lots of frozen hot peppers adobo in sauce
beer
corn tortillas and queso fresco, toppings, blah

And a slow-cooker. And it's going to be almost 90 degrees today. What should I do?