Whatcha Cooking today?

[worth1]

The Simi frozen baked chicken came out great.
Still juicy too but not raw.
Had it with okra and fresh not canned tomatoes.
It also what's waiting for me tonight.

[worth1]

I was doctoring up the concoction from yesterday that included the chicken but also the okra tomato corn sweet pea thing I made.
I put in some breakfast sausage that needed attention and cut up the chicken and put it in.
Sort of a gumbo thing going on.
Well after everything was mixed in I decided to add cumin.
That's when the shaker thing fell off and about half a cup of cumin found it's way into the soup.
In for a penny in for a pound I added a pile of chili powder as well.
And low and behold it's pretty darn good.
Naturally I had to add water.

[worth1]

Not Cajun gumbo but gumbo just the same.
Added some precooked shrimpies too.

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[Sue_CT]

That looks good.

[karstopography]

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Lots of grilled things.

[pepperhead212]

Nothing hot!

For that Thai chicken, I made some more of that Nahm Jeem Gratiem - basically a sweet and sour sugar syrup, with garlic and hot pepper flakes, with a little salt, cooked down about 20 minutes, and that's it! Delicious on spring rolls, and other similar dim sum, and this grilled chicken. Super simple - the original recipe is 2 tb minced garlic, 1 tb crushed red peppers (if using red pepper flakes, crush a little more, to get some powder), 1 tsp salt, 1 c sugar (not a diabetic friendly recipe!), 1/2 c white vinegar, and 1/2 c water. Combine all of the ingredients in a 1½ qt saucepan, bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then reduce to a simmer, and cook about 20 minutes. When the bubbles start foaming a little, the syrup is about the right consistency, and 20 minutes is almost always about right. Remove from heat, and cool some, before using. Refrigerates for a long time, getting very thick, but I just nuke it briefly, to use again.

This time I minced some scapes - a little more than 3 tb, in place of the garlic, and it worked out great.
Thai peppers, ready to crush for the Nahm Jeem Gratiem, about 1 tb. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

3 ingredients for the Nahm Jeem Gratiem - crushed peppers, salt, and minced scapes. (that black stuff is photo discoloration, not pepper!) by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The Nahm Jeem Gratiem almost finished. After adding 1 c sugar, and 1/2 c each of water and white vinegar, it is simmered about 20 minutes, until it just starts foaming. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Nahm Jeem Gratiem, cooled off, and ready to use. Had a weird color, with the green scapes, but it cooked off, and it almost looks and tastes just like using garlic. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I had a couple pieces of cold chicken with a little bit of this earlier. I had some more of those pickled thai vegetables, on the side. Later on, I went Mexican, with some guacamole, something I made 3 servings of to snack on. Still not enough tomatoes to add to it, but it's good, even without.
Another good thing to make for the hot days - guac! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

No real recipe but what I dream up.
I'm trying to make German chocolate muffins.
We shall see.
I can tell I might not have used enough baking powder not for sure.
Other odd ingredients include...
Vanilla extract and orange extract.
I had to make 2 batches because I ran out of batter for the last row.
So I made a half batch.

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[worth1]

Changed my mind it's almost a black forest muffin.
I made a buttercream frosting with...
8 ounces of Sweet butter.
8 ounces of cream cheese.
Powdered sugar.
Orange extract.
A handful of maraschino cherries and some juice.
I literally made a cooing mooing calf bawling sound when I tasted it.
It's my favorite frosting.

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[worth1]

Here they are ready to go in the refrigerator for a cooling.
This is what happens when you get a grown adult in the kitchen that never grew up.

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[JRinPA]

I really can't complain here.

I actually put some thought and effort into cucumbers this year so now I have plenty of cucumbers coming in on properly watered, yeast fertilized, and single stemmed plants. They actually taste okay raw but haven't cooked them. Same with kolhrabi, first time, and just eating them raw so far.

Picked through the maxibel bush beans once and have to freeze them but have been eating them every day. Usually start with chopped garlic scapes, then fry the beans over them. One blurry pic here.

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Had marinated deer loin for lunch, pear sauce marinade, and I had poked them good with one of those blue hong kong stickers before marinating. Can't buy something like that.

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That spiralizer from goodwill works for sweet potatoes. Of course didn't try it until today, when last night I canned 7 qts of last October's sweet potatoes. That was a bit of work, steaming then skinning...hot, very hot. So I cubed and canned them in syrup.

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Then there were 3 or so sweet potatoes left, so I looked at the spiralizer for the first time. It is not a very robust looking thing but it did work on sweet potatoes. And 1 min in the deep fryer makes some pretty amazing sweet potato curly fries. 2 minutes makes blackened ashes that actually taste pretty good too. 45 secs is a little short. That is all at a setting of 325f.

So...I don't think that I will have leftovers like this next year because they will probably be curly fried long before now. If this plastic fantastic can last until October harvest.

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edited to add deer steak pics from other camera

[worth1]

The spiralizer reminds me of the old turret lathes they used in production shops years ago.
Most of them are probably melted down by now.
Their replacement was the CNC.
But by darn they could spit out the parts and were partially responsible for the huge amount of equipment that helped win WW2.
The difference between the lathe and the spiralizer is we are eating the scraps from turning the stock instead of making a part.
They're basically a vegetable lathe.
This old cartoon is funny as all get out of you know what a turret lathe is.
Most people did back then.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... P_Gy7xesyp

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[worth1]

For close to 400 dollars you can get a curly fry cutter made of metal.
I saw another add on the net selling the same cutter for 55 dollars.
I bet it's a scam or something.
No way can there be that much difference.

But I can say right now it isn't worth the 380 some odd dollars they are asking.
Plus the half nut is made out of plastic which could break really easy.
My review and comments in the kitchen gadget section.
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/nemco- ... 050AN.html

[JRinPA]

I used a lathe, basically like this, to cut bolt threads (into) steel rod. It was a little heavier duty. The rods were long and I'd thread both ends. For butcher block table tops.

These taste better.

There is a lot of scrap though, the ends have to be cut square, and the core. I'll cook it for the dogs but it might be 15% in waste.

[worth1]

I used a lathe, basically like this, to cut bolt threads (into) steel rod. It was a little heavier duty. The rods were long and I'd thread both ends. For butcher block table tops.

These taste better.

There is a lot of scrap though, the ends have to be cut square, and the core. I'll cook it for the dogs but it might be 15% in waste.

I think Ridgid makes bolt thread cutting dies for their 300 and 535 and other pipe threading machines.
But really expensive but less than a machine by all means.
But I don't need one.

The
I noticed the waste involved with the trimming and setup of the machine as well.
I guess one could make a vegetable soup with the waste.

I fry my potato skins.

[worth1]

I bought a bag of King size potatoes and pre fried some of them.
They are now in the freezer getting cold for later on.

[JRinPA]

It was a ridgid I think, was going to mention that, but wasn't 100% sure. This was back in mid 90s. I don't know the exact tool name, but used continuous flow of cutting oil. It was sort of a make work, slow time job. I think I did it too quickly, was supposed to milk it more. I was never much for that.

The dogs have been getting those skins that are cooked from the canning. They love them... I got those ends sweet potato ends steaming, beans for chili soaking, scrapple thawing, ground venison defrosted for frying off in tallow for the chili.

I bought a bunch of lunchmeat and cheese for strombolis last week, hard salami was on sale, split it into 10 stromboli cooks (3 each so 30 strombolis worth), then vacuum sealed and froze them. One set is still in the fridge, but haven't made dough yet. Three meats and three cheeses in one cook packs, each time will just need to make dough and thaw out a pack, will be awesome for cooler weather.

[worth1]

I've got a 20 ounce poor man's ribeye in the freezer cooling down.
Another name for a hamburger steak.
It's got...
Pork Panko about a half cup or more.
1 teaspoon of Knorr beef bullion powder.
1 teaspoon of granulated garlic.
2 teaspoons of freshly ground black pepper.
Mixed up formed into a steak and put away.
I don't normally spice up this dish but I decided to today.

[JRinPA]

Holy cow this chili came out awesome.\
Found a 5 gal bucket about 1/3 full with Fortex picked late last year, still in shells. So last night I peeled them and soaked, maybe 2 cups, not a lot.
Put them in the pot covered with water. Added some spices, cayenne, garlic powder, smoked paprika, cumin, dark chili powder. And some rice maybe a cup of white rice from...back of a cabinet, the label is 2012Copyright, Mahatma? I was shocked to find white rice in this house. Chopped in two med Granex onions. Some scapes. 3 cloves of last year's garlic. A cup of last year's frozen chopped romani peppers.
Defrosted a lb+ of fine grind deer meat, lots of 4 pepper and some salt and browned that good in tallow. Mixed that in and added 2 pints of salsa.

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[worth1]

@JRinPA
If you call it chili it's chill.

I've got a potato of mammoth proportions baking in the oven.
It was scored washed dried oiled an sprinkled with salt.
I have a thermometer stuck in it set on 110F.
There's also an onion roasting in there as well.
Salt black pepper garlic powder and olive oil.
The giant 20 ounce meat patty/poor man's ribeye is getting thawed a little and flattened out so it sets on the pre heated 12 inch Lodge cast iron skillet evenly.

[pepperhead212]

Yesterday I made something to go with some of that leftover Thai chicken. After looking at that nahm jeem gratiem, and how dark it was, compared to the usual, because I made it with garlic scapes, in place of the garlic. I thought how it almost looks like I had put nam prik pao in it, and thought, hey - I bet that would be good! And easy! It was different, and both were good, just different, and the nam prik pao version was milder, because I make that with a milder pepper, so I can use more of it in dishes (if made with the same Thai peppers, not enough can be added to many dishes, to get that flavor of the toasted garlic and shallots. And one thing that I discovered, after refrigerating it, was that it was very thick, and I had to stir a little water into it, to give it the same consistency. I figure it's because the NPP has no moisture, while the fresh garlic has moisture, so next time I'll simmer it 18 minutes, instead of the 20 minutes, which works for the regular.

Here's that version of Nahm Jeem Gratiem I made, using 3 tb of the Nam Prik Pao, in place of the garlic and dried peppers. by pepperhead212, on Flickr



Here is that sauce, with the sugar dissolved, and starting the 20 minute simmer. by pepperhead212, on Flickr



Here is the foaming, after the 20 minutes, just like the regular Nahm Jeem Gratiem. by pepperhead212, on Flickr



Finished Nahm Jeem Gratiem, with the Nam Prik Pao, as the seasoning. by pepperhead212, on Flickr



The two Nahm Jeem Gratiem batches, Nam Prik Pao version on L. a little too thick, so next time I'll simmer 18 minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr



A friend stopped by, and sampled the two of them, with the chicken, and couldn't really pick a favorite, sort of like me. But that Nam Prik Pao version was easier to make, but then, I always have NPP on hand.