Whatcha Cooking today?

[Tormato]

The plan is for Chicago Hot Dogs. Nathan’s were on sale for $2.47/package. The Hot dogs will be put into hot water to heat up. Brioche buns to be heated up. Tomato slices, not sure which one yet, dill pickle slices, sweet relish, chopped onions, mustard, celery salt. No pickled sport peppers available in the house, which evidently are serrano hot and may actually be a serrano, so we might forgo the peppers altogether or use a pickled pepperoncini.

Any old hot dog, here, can get the works, 'cept for mustard and anything hot tasting.

But Nathan's, they get a warmed to slightly toasted bun, and that's it.

I like the brioche buns because they are basically sliced down the middle, from what I've seen. I've looked at several different types and brands, and quality control no longer matters. Because of inflation, virtually everything gets shipped out the factory door. I've seen some hot dog buns where the slice is about 90% off-center. The top-load New England style, which previously were my favorite type, are the worst offenders.

And to compliment the hot dogs, it's almost time to dust off my Boston baked bean pots and get to making some home made, with lots of bacon, onion, molasses, brown sugar...

Low and slow in the oven, for several hours, with the temperature outside perfect for opening the kitchen windows, and letting a breeze come through the screens.

[karstopography]

@Tormato my wife called dinner time audible and we had chili dogs instead, wolf brand canned chili no beans, no less. We did use freshly grated Tillamook medium cheddar and freshly grated quality cheese beats the pre grated bagged stuff by a long shot. I actually like the wolf brand chili for a hot dog better than any homemade chili. Wolf brand is mostly sauce with tiny bits of meat and that’s what I want for a chili dog, not hunks of or coarse ground beef to distract from the hotdogs.

We have a navajo or hopi ceramic bean pot, I can’t remember which, it’s a decorative item in our home, but we aren’t opposed to using it for baked beans and my dad that gave the pot to us did use it for beans at one time. I don’t know if it would work for the boston baked beans.

We still had the sliced tomato, a Black Krim. I can now see how someone might be disappointed with a very good tomato like black krim as the flavor isn’t the same as the superb Pruden’s purple I had a day or two ago. That Pruden’s Purple was the best tomato I’ve ever eaten or certainly grown. I’ve got a SOTW and Polish getting close, I’ll see how they compare to Pruden’s. I hadn’t been all that impressed with pink tomatoes as I guess I grew the wrong ones. Gregori’s Altai was a perfectly good tomato, but nothing about the flavor was whole other level good. Mortgage Lifter was the same, maybe I had the wrong strain or it wasn’t a good year.

Pruden’s purple was on another level of flavor and I hope it doesn’t ruin other tomatoes for me.

[worth1]

Helpful hint.
To keep home grated cheese from clumping up toss a little corn starch with it.
Or don't but if it does then there you are.
Wolf brand chili is a real must for enchiladas and hotdogs if you like them that way.
I actually make so many types of chili and powders that I have one that's like Wolf brand.

The secret is the fluid to masa ratio.

[worth1]

After grinding up all the brisket and making hamburger patties and people talking about chili I had to make some with a pound of the brisket.
I used....
1 pound of ground brisket ran through a 3/8th grinding plate.
The flat part of the brisket.
1/2 Cup of fiesta brand chili powder.
2 tablespoons of ground cumin.
2 teaspoons hot smoked Spanish paprika..
1 tablespoon garlic powder.
1 tablespoon onion powder.
1 teaspoon of salt.
1 1/2 cups of water.
1 tablespoon of Mexican oregano.
About 1/3 cup of masa harina.
Put meat into hot 3 quart cast iron kettle.
Dump all the spices in except the oregano.
Mix.
Add water mix.
Dust top with masa harina.
Mix.
Put lid on and simmer..
Stir.
Simmer.
Stir.
After about 45 minutes add the oregano put lid on.
Stir and put on the lowest setting hotter than warm.
If there's too much oil after it's ready in about an hour or less skim it off or soak it up with crackers.
If you use a brand of chili powder that has salt in it then don't add salt until you've tasted it.
If you use cayenne pepper then a teaspoon may be too much.
Everything is adjusted to your taste and desired heat level but please don't add tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, ketchup, fresh onions, carrots, sausage, broccoli, beans and such.
It's chili con carne not vegetable soup.
And by all means don't put a giant sweet Hershey milk chocolate bar in it like I saw one guy do.

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[worth1]

6 pounds of chili meat and 4.5 pounds more or less of fatty hamburger patties.
I might add some lean meat in with them later but probably not.
They have to be cooked frozen on a hot griddle and eaten medium rare or they'll fall apart.
Right now I just wanted to get this stuff processed and in the freezer and will decide later.

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[Sue_CT]

Worth, that looks more like 20/80 hamburg than 80/20, lol!

[worth1]

Worth, that looks more like 20/80 hamburg than 80/20, lol!

It's probably 50/50.
But I ate a frozen test patty cooked on a screaming hot skillet cooked blue rare.
It was delicious and I'll probably die.
Poor man's A5 wagyu.
It was one of the cleanest freshest looking briskets I ever saw in my life.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

The lovely and long suffering Mrs. Gotch (whose grown-up name is Sue) compiled some KILLER Mushroom Soup AND her signature OKAYSUEDILLAS.

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And they say I didn't marry her for her cookin'...

The Gotch

[Sue_CT]

Well I decided to start a new recipe of corn tortillas. I might need to apologise to the traditionalists, lol. Its from the NY times and it is basically the same recipe you see everywhere except smaller amount AND they add fat to it. They recommended oil, lard or butter. Well I am a sucker for the taste of butter. Spread enough butter on a piece of cardboard and I would probably eat it, lol. Plus butter and corn go together like nothing else. Can't hurt to try. Its a little late to start this but what the heck, I don't have to worry about work and went to the Dr yesterday 'cause I was getting bad muscle spasms from HE said over doing it too fast. Does HE have a garden that needs to go in? Anyway, fixed me up with a muscle relaxant so I won't be in pain and can sleep even if I over so it a bit. Its hard to judge, you don't know if something is going to be too much until you try it! Anyway, lol, this time I also used 190 degree water in the Masa Harina, and melted the butter. They did not specify if you should or not but since the other fats were liquid I decided to try that first. This was the softest most pliable dough I have kneaded for corn tortillas yet, it need very little kneading to make it nice and smooth and it was a pleasure to knead, I needed no flour at all on the board because even though it was very soft and pliable, it didn't stick! So we will see what happens. Will keep you posted. I have only gotten little puff ups on my corn tortillas in the past, never a nice big one like I was able to get on the flour tortillas, so that is what I am training for. Also I am going to let it hydrate for an hour instead of just 30 minutes, and it says you can rest it up to a couple of hours. It can only help hydrate the flour even more, but its a little late for that now. I need to get back to doing some of the fun stuff that brings me joy. 2 days ago I put down two bags of mulch and that was what sent to his office. But boy is it satisfying to look out at that garden now, all neat with most of the hostas gone, 6 new hydrangeas planted and fresh mulch!

[worth1]

@Sue_CT
If you continue to stick to authentic and tradition it's what my mom called stuck in a rut.
One must always explore new avenues.
But I will always protest beans in chili con carne.
Always.
One Mexican American lady I know of on YouTube puts Wolf brand chili on her enchiladas and it's good.
It's been a family tradition for her family for years, you can't argue with that.
My Mom made tacos by putting corn tortillas in hot butter and they were soft.
She used to host taco parties and was known throughout the land for them up north.
I didn't have a crunchy corn tortilla taco until I went to California.

[Sue_CT]

My previous corn tortillas also were too fragile and fell apart a little too easily which made them more difficult to eat. So a more usable, flexable tortilla would be nice, too.

[worth1]

My previous corn tortillas also were too fragile and fell apart a little too easily which made them more difficult to eat. So a more usable, flexable tortilla would be nice, too.

It's pretty darn hard to write or explain how to do these things.
One must practice and take mental notes and not keep doing the exact same thing over and over thinking something different will happen.
Because it isn't going to happen.
These women doing these tortillas have been doing it since they were little girls.
It's part of their heritage and must be respected.
For them to take the time to share with us this art is a great gift of their willingness to pass on this talent in my opinion.

[karstopography]

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Shrimp Scampi. Putting some of the garlic I grew to good use. Gulf of Mexico white shrimp on sale here, extra large for $6.97/#. So was the italian made armando bowtie pasta for 99 cents/#. The french bread was still hot from the oven when I bought it.

[Tormato]

@Tormato my wife called dinner time audible and we had chili dogs instead, wolf brand canned chili no beans, no less. We did use freshly grated Tillamook medium cheddar and freshly grated quality cheese beats the pre grated bagged stuff by a long shot. I actually like the wolf brand chili for a hot dog better than any homemade chili. Wolf brand is mostly sauce with tiny bits of meat and that’s what I want for a chili dog, not hunks of or coarse ground beef to distract from the hotdogs.

We have a navajo or hopi ceramic bean pot, I can’t remember which, it’s a decorative item in our home, but we aren’t opposed to using it for baked beans and my dad that gave the pot to us did use it for beans at one time. I don’t know if it would work for the boston baked beans.

We still had the sliced tomato, a Black Krim. I can now see how someone might be disappointed with a very good tomato like black krim as the flavor isn’t the same as the superb Pruden’s purple I had a day or two ago. That Pruden’s Purple was the best tomato I’ve ever eaten or certainly grown. I’ve got a SOTW and Polish getting close, I’ll see how they compare to Pruden’s. I hadn’t been all that impressed with pink tomatoes as I guess I grew the wrong ones. Gregori’s Altai was a perfectly good tomato, but nothing about the flavor was whole other level good. Mortgage Lifter was the same, maybe I had the wrong strain or it wasn’t a good year.

Pruden’s purple was on another level of flavor and I hope it doesn’t ruin other tomatoes for me.

Prudence (Pruden's) Purple is about 5th in my all-time list of favorites, out of perhaps close to 2,000 varieties trialed. I've given up counting, at this point. And, I'm the ONLY one that still calls it Prudence, a long story that goes back to Carolyn.

#1 is Aunt Ginny's Purple, #2 is SOTW, #3 is the ever finicky Brandywine Sudduth (4 out of 5 years not being much at all, the 5th year being the most overpowering tomato on earth), then SunGold.

Another handful are in the 9+ superb category, for me; PP, Rose, Marianna's Peace, Seek-No-Further Love Apple, Dester, and maybe a couple more (in their good years). All are pink beefsteaks, with the exception of SunGold. None of them go in a sandwich, unless I'm simply overwhelmed with a harvest for a short time during the season. I will sometimes put them in macaroni salad, but only after the macaroni salad comes out of the fridge. Those tomatoes never go in the fridge. They do get cooled down to inside house temps first though.

Almost any ceramic bean pot will work, and is easily cleaned if it has an all important smooth glazing inside and out. Low temps and long cooking time makes the best beans. At some point, the lid must come off, and the liquid starts evaporating. The beauty of the Boston bean pot design is the narrow neck, for lower evaporation. A wide neck means adding water more often.

[Sue_CT]

SUCCESS!!! Sorry they are so large, but I had a hard enough time trying to post them without trying to decrease the size on a video. I don't have video editing software and not sure I even have the ability to do that. But the PUFF made all the difference again! They were soft, flexable, did not fall apart when I was eating them, EXACTLY what I was looking for! I tried them in the cast iron skillet and the nonstick. Didn't really make a difference. Ate two with chicken, salsa and sour cream because that is what I had already cooked in the fridge. I think there are breakfsast tacos in my future! I know I should probably get a life, but his stuff makes me happy.

[bower]

Wow those are some noisy tortillas!! Lovin it, @Sue_CT . Things that give you joy and... no pain! Take it easy on the gardening, please. Don't let a painkiller mask the true state of affairs, it's better to know what part needs more gentle TLC than to shove it under the radar.
My Mom has been two weeks now with the injury she gave herself by overdoing it. Not good. I had to say it.
Cooking great food OTOH is about the best thing to get joy from while recuperating.

Okay I admit I had a little string of great gardening days this week. A little creaky but keeping it in hand. I couldn't waste any of that sunshine cooking so I've been alternating the two things left in the freezer: pork gulyas, and roasted chicken legs for sheet pan dinner. Today it rained, I could've cooked but... I had a double portion of beef and mushroom stew I tucked away for a quick meal with a guest, that didn't happen so now I have thawed the lot. I thought about making a crust (it is tender, wine flavored and worthy) but the will was weaker than the laziness. And only enough for a half or maybe a quarter recipe of crust? Just couldn't get my head around it so plain old stew, it is.

[worth1]

Bacon weave from some odd shaped bacon.
9.6 ounce meat patty cooking on the skillet.
Meat patty has beef bullion powder and an egg mixed in and put on the skillet frozen.
Don't normally do this mix thing but I'm experimenting.

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And the rest of the burger.

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[bower]

Little sliced tomatoes - not a thing wrong with that!
Wrapped for ease of handling? And peppers on top for the hungry pepper eater. Pepper hungry eater?
Bet it's delicious.

[worth1]

Little sliced tomatoes - not a thing wrong with that!
Wrapped for ease of handling? And peppers on top for the hungry pepper eater. Pepper hungry eater?
Bet it's delicious.

First tomatoes I've been able to taste on a burger in years.
The patty was nice flavorful and juicy too cooked to 145°F.

[Sue_CT]

Bower, Sorry I should have muted it, lol. Just turn the sound off. I think what you are hearing is me making the next one on the toritilla press.