Foodies BS Thread.

Throw it right on the grill....

 

Making some steaks tonight.

 

Mmm...those looks yummy Dennis! ^^^

 

I have a t-bone in the fridge awaiting me hehe...since I didn't do my proper mother's day dinner for myself yesterday.

 

Gonna pan roast these puppies and having some roasted potatoes.

 

That look awesome and they look even better cooked!!!!!

 

Nice!!

 

^^^
What he said!

My grill was about 450(+)F very quickly after the dough hit the grill it firms up. It's amazing really....3 minutes or so then you flip it over, toss on your marinara/pizza sauce then go to town with the rest of your faves!

Chicka Woot! Pizza on the grill....FTW!!!

 

Happy Belated Mother's Day toooooo me...

 

Lasagna for the family tonight.

 

So, the wife catches me off-guard this morning, and says she wants something 'homestyle' for dinner.

I asked her..."Well, isn't everything I cook technically home-style, since this IS home?"

Nonplussed by my non-answer (or, non-correct answer, same thing really), she changed it up a bit and said she wanted something old-school. Gramda food. Comfort food.

I groaned aloud at this part, usually it involves crying, apologies on my part, and a quart of ice cream.

Still, she said she would bring something home for me to make whatever out of. Which, on one hand, is quite nice: It means no prep on my part, and since she won't be home until like 530, I'm either down beaten and destroyed by around 8PM or riding high as King Kitchen Bitch. Plus, it can't be anything too drawn out and complicated...not if she isn't bringing home the critter in question till past 5, and wants to eat at a reasonable hour.

So, right on time, she comes a kickin' in the door, growling about the traffic. She slaps 3.5 pounds of THICK cut pork shoulder chops on the counter and says, "Get cookin, ace. I'm hungry!"

Here we are. Lets do this!

First off, these are thick bastard shoulder chops. Plus they have a nice split of white meat and dark. Ok, think!

BANG. We're havin' smothered chops!

Take a big baking dish. Dump in a package of that Lipton soup mix stuff. Yea, I know its a lot of sodium, but we aren't eating the soup, we're using it as a cooking medium. Add a can of that condensed Cream o' Mushroom soup. Yea, I know, trust me on this. Add in about half a cup of milk and stir the whole mess. This won't be a stew or a soup either. We just want a flavorful liquid to transfer heat and moisture.



Get out one big honkin' steel pan. Grab the peanut oil (I've really come to love its lack of flavor and high smoke point) and dump about a tablespoon in the pan. Get it heatin' while you dry the chops with paper towels, and salt & pepper liberally.

Once the pan and oil are both HOT, get what you can into the thing. I went with two batches of two chops each, so we're looking about 4-5 minutes per side, per batch. 20-22ish minutes total to sear up.



When cooks on TV talk about crust on a steak or chop, THIS is what they mean. Take a look!



This is also what they mean by 'fond'. That's the brown bits of protein stuck to the pan. Don't ever overlook these. These are the base of all the bestest sauces in the history of pretty much ever.

So, once you've got your four mammoth chops nicely browned, into the aforementioned baking dish. Slap some foil on it and turn your attention back to the pan you just set down empty.

So, now you have this gorgeous layer of brown yummy fond. Take about a 2/3rds cup of chicken broth and use that to deglaze the pan. Let the liquid simmer down to about half its volume (around 4-5 minutes) while you use a wooden spoon to stir up all that awesome goodness from the pan bottom and get it dissolving.





As it reduces, it'll start getting darker and thicker.

Once you've stirred, reduced, dissolved, and gotten it where you want it to be, it'll look like this here. This was about 6 minutes for me. Notice how much more nummy this looks than the last two pics.



If you taste this, it'll pretty much knock your socks off. WAY too strong for a standalone sauce....extremely rich and VERY meaty. But, if we were to add this INTO the baking dish with the chops....

Cover the baking dish and bake at a relatively pedestrian 300ish for about 20 minutes. Thicker chops, add a bit more time. Thinner, go a little less.

Add on some fresh veggies or a rice side of your choice...



Aaaand I'll be doing an extra four miles or so tomorrow to make up for THIS plate....*grumble*....

 

^^^ Looks good!

 

The biggest PITA about cooking like this:

Cleaning up. Look at this. Even with the splatter screen!

 

Day 3 of a modified paleo diet the wife got from her doctor. I'm in for moral support and I could stand to lose a chunk of weight anyway. Not convinced it's a miracle diet but with the focus on avoiding processed foods and sugar, it has to be pretty good for you.

Lunch: Brisket, snap peas and carrots.


Dinner: half a roasted sweet potato and half an avocado (I ate the other half of the avocado too, not like it would keep).



Anyone else tried paleo?

 

45 pounds down since Feb on it.

 

We don't do any named diet, but we eat very little processed stuff any more. I try to have fresh veggies and meats whenever possible.

That said, we have some addiction issues with pasta and italian sausage, so...its like a work in progress

I have managed to get the family on board with avoiding excess sodium and and much HFCS as is humanly possible. We basically gave up on sodas and drinks like that.

But, cheese is too much to give up. Like ever. And bacon.

Lets stop there. I'd give up blowjobs and beer before I gave up bacon and cheese.

Thankfully, I don't plan on giving any of those up any time soon, so...