Whatcha Cooking today?

[worth1]

Almost identical to the shortbread I used to make, when making all those cookies as Christmas gifts years ago! One of my favorites, as well as others. A variation of it has light brown sugar as the sugar. Still another variety has 1/2 c powdered sugar, as the sugar, giving it a very fine texture.

I actually used 50% powdered sugar and 50% regular granulated sugar.
Not out of plan but I ran out of granulated and just used powdered.
I simply didn't want to open another bag at the moment.
And I'm not making castor sugar.

[worth1]

(((Not))) pizza delivery.
This was honestly just about as easy as a frozen pizza and one heck of a lot better.
1 cup of flour.
1/2 teaspoon of yeast.
Pinch of sugar and salt.
Dash of olive oil.
Mix and knead by hand.
Place in bowl covered and wait all day until you're ready to eat.
Spread out add stuff and cook.
I ate half of it and took the other half to my neighbor.
His reaction was oh man wow, this is the best pizza I've ever had in my life.

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[worth1]

I finished off the lasagna.

[worth1]

Lima beans got a face lift.
Made a chili sauce with 7 toasted and hydrated guajillo and one ancho chilies.
Plus about 2 tablespoons of toasted and ground fresh cumin seeds.
This put the beans where they needed to be flavor wise.
The beans have been in a super cold refrigerator under a layer of fat.

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[worth1]

I've got phase II of the shortbread cookie thing going on.
Calculated about how much it would take to completely fill up the 6"X1/2" ring mould twice level to the top.
Another historical ingredient is caraway seeds of all things.
So I mixed in about a heaping tablespoon of them as well.
The sugar is light brown sugar not regular sugar.
This is the same mould I use for the 6 inch hamburger patties I make.
I did the majority of the work one handed because I was on the phone with the other.

[worth1]

Shortbread cookies with brown sugar and caraway seeds.

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[worth1]

Nice thick pork loin.
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Yes I use kosher salt but not to dissolve in water.

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[Rockporter]

Tonight we had some stuffed bell peppers for dinner, this time I used hamburger but the last time I made them I used deer sausage. Both times they turned out fantastic.

[Tormato]

More BLTs and BLATs this week, ordered plenty of bacon. Also going to make a recipe I saw online from a bento box lady, ground meat in pepper rings, the peppers are cooked in rounds on top of the stove, instead of whole stuffed peppers in the oven and the seasoning sounds good ( and we have those seasonings too).

If the A in BLAT stands for the trendy man bun, soul patch avocado, I don't want to hear it.

And if necessary, I apologize in advance.

It sounds just a bit tricky to remove the stuffed pepper rings from the cooking surface.

[worth1]

More BLTs and BLATs this week, ordered plenty of bacon. Also going to make a recipe I saw online from a bento box lady, ground meat in pepper rings, the peppers are cooked in rounds on top of the stove, instead of whole stuffed peppers in the oven and the seasoning sounds good ( and we have those seasonings too).

If the A in BLAT stands for the trendy man bun, soul patch avocado, I don't want to hear it.

And if necessary, I apologize in advance.

It sounds just a bit tricky to remove the stuffed pepper rings from the cooking surface.

Gotta have the skinny jeans too.

[Rockporter]

Tonight was easy dinner because I slept a long time today. I pulled a quart of chicken broth and a pint of chicken chunks from the pantry that I canned about 2 years ago. I used the chicken broth to make mashed taters and gravy. I steamed some green beans from the garden and opened a can of corn. We have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I like fast dinners, lol.

[worth1]

The PET sandwich.
Pancetta egg and tomato.
Has strawberry preserves too.

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[pepperhead212]

I made a one dish meal tonight, using that chole masala powder I made a little while back. I used about 1¼ c of the hara chana, a.k.a. green chickpeas, which take a long time to cook, like brown chickpeas. I pressure cooked them in the Instant Pot with some soda and salt, for 70 minutes, then after the pressure released about 20 minutes, I drained it, and put it back in the IP, with a little less than a cup of spelt (just emptied the two jars of these ingredients), a cup of dried long beans (cut about 1" long, before dehydrating), 4 c of water, salt to taste (about 2 tsp), a tb of that chole masala powder, and let it pressure cook another 25 min, then released the pressure after 10 min.

While those were cooking, I cleaned and cut up about 5 or 6 c of kale, from the hydroponics, and chopped up 1 onion, and minced about a tb each of ginger and garlic. In a sauté pan I cooked the chopped onion in 2 tb ghee, about 3 minutes over medium heat, then added the garlic and ginger, along with another 2 tb of the chole masala powder, and stirred a minute, then added the wet kale, and stirred until wilted. Then I reduced to low, covered, and went to the IP, and added a butternut squash I had cut up (about 2 cups), the seasoned kale, covered the IP, and set to cook for 5 min., then released pressure after 10 minutes. Then I stirred in 1 tsp. garam masala, and let rest while I made the tarka, starting with 2 tsp ghee and 3/4 tsp each mustard seed and cumin seed (I usually add whole Thai peppers here, but I'll be sharing this with someone who doesn't have much heat tolerance), over med-low heat. When the mustard seed started crackling, I added about a dozen curry leaves and 3/4 tsp asafoetida, and stirred about 10 sec, then scraped the tempering into the pot, and stirred it into the dish. Then I stirred about 1/4 c chopped cilantro into the dish.
Onion, ginger, and garlic, cooked in oil, with the chole masala powder added briefly, before adding kale. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

About 5 c of chopped kale, added to be cooked down. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Cooked down kale and seasonings, ready to be added to the cooked chick peas and spelt, when finished by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Butternut squash, cut up and added for the last cooking. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Getting ready to stir the tarka in, made with some mustard seed, cumin seed, curry leaves, and asafoetida. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished dish, topped with some cilantro. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[karstopography]

Burgers, we made burgers on the BGE. I was completely out of the bagged unused lump charcoal, but there was enough residual charcoal in the BGE to get a fire going using the electric fire starter. However, there wasn’t near enough charcoal for the kind of fire that is necessary to successfully cook a hamburger patty. No worries, that’s what big chunks of mesquite and post oak are for. My wife was somewhat dubious about this wood fired grill effort especially when the wood chunks were just catching fire sending enormous clouds of smelly smoke all around the yard, but I told her to just wait and see. Sure enough, the wood chunks burned down and the clouds of smoke disappeared. All that remained was a clean hot fire that was ideal for grilling 85/15 grass fed hamburger patties.

Toasted brioche buns, mayonnaise, a sliced Dester tomato, the hamburger patty done to medium. That was dinner. I whipped up some heavy cream with a touch of sugar and vanilla extract and dunked fresh strawberries in that. That was dessert.

[worth1]

How do you get from fried fish to a roulade?
Well I had a small piece of the frozen loin in the refrigerator that needed attention.
So I figured I'll make schnitzel.
Ounce I had it pounded out I remembered I had packages of my pecan mushroom dressing in the freezer leftover from the holidays.
So it ended up being roulade.
An ever changing menu and mind around here.
It'll get browned in the skillet with olive oil and put back to get cold.
Then flash roasted to my doneness which ain't much.
Seasoning is table salt and freshly ground black pepper.

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[LindaJean]

It's impressive the way some of you cook.
I tried to post a video of the Bear stealing 60 bakery cupcakes and coconut cake yesterday but couldn't get the link to work.
This morning I made buttermilk french toast ; I add a tiny bit of real vanilla to the egg mixture. Real butter and real maple syrup is worth it.
My neighbors make jokes about my organic diet but I'm almost 70 and the only one in our retirement community that isn't on any prescription medication. Is it the tomatoes ?

[Rockporter]

It's impressive the way some of you cook.
I tried to post a video of the Bear stealing 60 bakery cupcakes and coconut cake yesterday but couldn't get the link to work.
This morning I made buttermilk french toast ; I add a tiny bit of real vanilla to the egg mixture. Real butter and real maple syrup is worth it.
My neighbors make jokes about my organic diet but I'm almost 70 and the only one in our retirement community that isn't on any prescription medication. Is it the tomatoes ?

Oh boy at least the bear was happy, hahahaha. That is great your health is so good, I too have folk who think I am crazy about growing organic and trying to do as much as I can organic. I though have many medical issues and am on medications but I am doing my best not to take anything if I don't have to.

[worth1]

Batter dipped fish and chips.
Beer batter.
Flour.
Salt.
Corn starch.
Pinch of baking powder.
Beer.
I just divided up the flour mix and used part to dredge fish in before I put it in the batter.
No fancy spices herbs or seasonings.
Tater sauce.
Drained plain yogurt.
Not much mayonnaise.
Dill pickle relish.
Worcestershire sauce.
Lime juice.

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[Danny]

Another BLAT tonight. Avocados are just right for slicing today.

[worth1]

Made a sweet onion tomato maceration with sugar black pepper and a little kosher salt.
It'll be ready this evening.
At that point I'll put some extra virgin olive oil on them as well.

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