Food and Drink!

[Tim]

And here's how my turkey came out!
It was delicious.

Looks great. My wife is a skin fanatic so suspect she would like this method. How was the white and dark meat?

Also using napkin rings - fancy.

[trinite]

Tim: all the meat turned out great. And yeah, I love skin more than anything.

[Tim]

Made a pretty good soup last night using the bones from the prime rib we had for new years eve. Our local market had a good price on beef shank so picked up a pound of that to up the beef-e-ness. Roasted the rib bones and shank for 30 minutes. Turned everything then added some carrots, celery, and onions then roasted for 20 more minutes. Put it all in a stock pot and let it simmer away. Still ended up a bit thin as I was rushed for time so could only let it simmer for 4 hours because of poor planing on my part.

One of our house guests is allergic to nightshades so I could not use potatoes. Went for medley of other roots, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, and carrots with some kale because I live in the Pacific Northwest and legally all meals must have kale but also to give it some greens. Finished it with some diced left over prime rib meat and people polished it off.

When I was making it I was thinking that soup made from left over holiday meals is one of my favorite things to make. Dead simple but it gives me an excuse to putter in the kitchen and people always think it was way harder than it was.

[trinite]

Nice touch with the kale, Tim. I hope you made sure your soup was gluten free; I've heard that all the gluten in the Pacific Northwest is highly toxic.

The gravy I made for the turkey was basically the same as a soup, just thickened. I took the giblets, the neck, and the back (which I cut out for the spatchcocking), browned them up a bit in a pan, then threw them in a pot with some onions and veggies, poured some chicken bouillon over them, and let them cook for about as long as the turkey took to roast. Then I added all the incredible drippings from the turkey (or as much of them as I could refrain from just scraping off the pan and eating directly), cooked for a few more minutes, salted and peppered it a bit, strained out the chunks of bone and giblet, then added a bit of roux to thicken it up and let it reduce for about 20 more minutes. I was more proud of the gravy than of the turkey, actually, since it took a lot more work.

[Tim]

Nice touch with the kale, Tim. I hope you made sure your soup was gluten free; I've heard that all the gluten in the Pacific Northwest is highly toxic.

The gravy I made for the turkey was basically the same as a soup, just thickened.

You don't even know. The gluten out here is hard core man. Will straight up cut you just for looking at it funny.

Gravy soup. My brain is saying 'YES' but by heart is saying 'oh god no please no more we barely are holding it together as is.'

[Morbid]

Haven't posted before, but I wanted to say thanks for the mention and the linked recipe on spatchcocking poultry.

I tried it with a chicken and while there was a little too much salt on the skin, the bird as a whole came out delicious and the leftover breast was a lot more tender than previous roast chickens I'd made.  The wings came out perfect though - brown and crispy, which gave me an idea.  After a small practice run for my usual gaming group, I am going to be salt-curing a bunch of chicken wings, then roasting them to crispy goodness and tossing them in buffalo sauce for the Super Bowl.

In the practice run, I just used some of the Serious Eats cure (kosher salt and baking powder) for a day, uncovered in the refrigerator, then baked them at 425 until they turned brown and crispy.  (I think it was about 35 minutes in my oven, but I expect that would vary.)  Much easier than frying a bunch of wings and still really, really delicious.

[trinite]

Haven't posted before, but I wanted to say thanks for the mention and the linked recipe on spatchcocking poultry.

I tried it with a chicken and while there was a little too much salt on the skin, the bird as a whole came out delicious and the leftover breast was a lot more tender than previous roast chickens I'd made.  The wings came out perfect though - brown and crispy, which gave me an idea.  After a small practice run for my usual gaming group, I am going to be salt-curing a bunch of chicken wings, then roasting them to crispy goodness and tossing them in buffalo sauce for the Super Bowl.

In the practice run, I just used some of the Serious Eats cure (kosher salt and baking powder) for a day, uncovered in the refrigerator, then baked them at 425 until they turned brown and crispy.  (I think it was about 35 minutes in my oven, but I expect that would vary.)  Much easier than frying a bunch of wings and still really, really delicious.

That sounds amazing. Crispy chicken wings are close to my favorite food in the world.

Glad the spatchcocking turned out well for you!

[Tim]

Tonight got a late start on ropa vieja, a cuban dish of braised beef from a recipe from Cooks Illustrated. Their magazine and cookbooks tend to be my go to because if you agree with their goals for a specific dish, which they clearly state, you tend to be able to produce. I have been with them long enough I am starting to see the cycles (how many more recipes do I need for the perfect BBQ chicken) but over all still good stuff.

What are other peoples go to cook books or cook book series.

I got a few other specialty ones I turn to but the cooks illustrated ones are the place I often start at.

[Teuthic]

*snip*
What are other peoples go to cook books or cook book series.

I got a few other specialty ones I turn to but the cooks illustrated ones are the place I often start at.

I poke around a lot on the internet, looking for fun things, but if we're talking cookbooks, my go-to is usually Open Range. It's by a family friend, and the book's focus is on simple hearty meals: very Americana food. I'm a major carnivore, so the book also caters to me that way.

I'm also a huge fan of the Food FFS Tumblr just for the sheer variety of it: new recipe every hour, in all sorts of crazy directions. It gave me the inspiration to cook french onion soup, beef wellington, and homemade salted caramel mousse for my wife for Valentine's day. Also, gave me an awesome recipe for spicy pulled pork that always makes me look like a fancy cooking god, but is drop-dead simple.

[Tim]

I poke around a lot on the internet, looking for fun things, but if we're talking cookbooks, my go-to is usually Open Range. It's by a family friend, and the book's focus is on simple hearty meals: very Americana food. I'm a major carnivore, so the book also caters to me that way.

I will have to check out Open Range.

For some reason I don't tend to use a lot of recipes from the web. I read a bit of Serious Eats but I am almost never compelled to make anything from it. Guess I am a stick in the mud. I have been tempted to rig up an ipad stand and try to cook from that as I understand many people do it but my hands always seem to be covered in something so wonder if it will just become filthy.

[Morbid]

I made the spatchcocked turkey myself last week.  So good.  Nobody was really hungry enough to eat turkey when we made it, so we just stood in the kitchen eating the skin.  Now I'm wondering about doing a spatchcocked turkey on the grill, or smoking it...

I really like Serious Eats and their articles, but a lot of them fall in the same category as Alton Brown's recipes used to.  That is, very fiddly and precise meals that will be amazing, but take a lot more time than a simpler version of the same dish.  Though some of their articles are just generally helpful, like the one on how to get your hard and soft-boiled eggs just how you want.

I also really like the Mind of a Chef show on Netflix.  First season is all kinds of stuff but keeps coming back to ramen.  The thick, fatty soup, not Instant Noodles.  Season 2 is mostly about old-fashioned Southern US cooking - I've learned a huge amount from it so far, including a really simple and tasty way to make chicken and buttermilk dumplings.

[Mr. Purple]

So in the spirit of sharing quick, easy, delicious dishes I have to share tonight's meal.

Meatloaf consisting of 1lb ground beef, 1lb pork sausage, 3/4 cup of crushed-to-crumbs Ritz crackers, 3/4 cup water, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup ketchup, and garlic, onion, & paprika for flavor.  Threw all that in that order into my Kitchenaid mixer, then it went into the meatloaf pan on top of 2 pieces of Texas toast (it absorbs the grease while it cooks)

Lipton Onion Soup potatoes (recipe on the box) and microwaved corn with a little butter to go with it.  Prep time 15 minutes, cook time 1 hour. 

[trinite]

So in the spirit of sharing quick, easy, delicious dishes I have to share tonight's meal.

Meatloaf consisting of 1lb ground beef, 1lb pork sausage, 3/4 cup of crushed-to-crumbs Ritz crackers, 3/4 cup water, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup ketchup, and garlic, onion, & paprika for flavor.  Threw all that in that order into my Kitchenaid mixer, then it went into the meatloaf pan on top of 2 pieces of Texas toast (it absorbs the grease while it cooks)

Lipton Onion Soup potatoes (recipe on the box) and microwaved corn with a little butter to go with it.  Prep time 15 minutes, cook time 1 hour.

Sounds delicious! My wife makes a good meatloaf with a similarly simple recipe, but also with a whole bunch of chopped mushrooms. Plus she sticks a few whole mushrooms into the middle of the loaf, for a "surprise"!

[Tim]

So in the spirit of sharing quick, easy, delicious dishes I have to share tonight's meal.

Meatloaf consisting of 1lb ground beef, 1lb pork sausage, 3/4 cup of crushed-to-crumbs Ritz crackers, 3/4 cup water, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup ketchup, and garlic, onion, & paprika for flavor.  Threw all that in that order into my Kitchenaid mixer, then it went into the meatloaf pan on top of 2 pieces of Texas toast (it absorbs the grease while it cooks)

Sounds delicious! My wife makes a good meatloaf with a similarly simple recipe, but also with a whole bunch of chopped mushrooms. Plus she sticks a few whole mushrooms into the middle of the loaf, for a "surprise"!

I am a bit of a meatloaf snob I fear. Plenty of food I am fine with making simple or easy but with meatloaf I can get a little crazy. It is a sickness ok, like a legitimate condition.

The thing I almost always do is cook outside a loaf pan. I use a wire rack on a rimmed baking sheet. The Texas Toast idea is intriguing and I might have to try that at some point.

One simple thing my wife likes to make is a sausage in sauerkraut where the sauerkraut is cooked in the pan with diced apples and bacon. Dead easy and very tasty.

[Teuthic]

If we're looking at quick and easy recipes, my go-to is orange miso chicken cutlets. just mix miso paste and orange marmalade together in equal parts, tenderize the cutlets, then rub the glaze on the chicken. Let them sit for half an hour, then saute on medium-high until they're cooked through. Super simple, great on an asian-style salad dressing.

I made beer braised pork belly last night, which was great, and just put the finishing touches on an oxtail soup that's been cooking overnight: it's so nice to wake up to a hearty soup.