Making Speghetti

I love pasta and found this cheap pasta machine at TJ Max for half price so I thought - why not. It seems to do a good job but this first trial did not go very well due to not mixing up the dough correctly and / or not letting it rest before starting. It was really good and tasted fresh and by the time I added a Shrimp and Homemade Summer Sausage with onion and garlic to some Homemade Bachamel Sauce it was pretty stellar.

Italian Spaghetti and French Bread

I made this spaghetti using a pack of Johnsonville Hot Italian Sausage links and a handful of smokey Canadian Bacon I made and the smokey bacon really made the dish special. It also had the benefit of home grown canned tomatoes, and some fresh basil and was cooked real slow, man it was good. I made the pasta from scratch and that was a first for me but definitely won't be the last. Making it was easy except for cutting it out and I did a poor job of that and got them too big. We finally convinced ourselves that we needed a stand mixer enough to actually go ahead and buy one yesterday and I think that's the best purchase I've made in a long time. Think about it, baking bread makes your house smell soooo good, fresh baked bread is one of the pleasures of life especially for a bread lover, and it should pay for itself as high as bread is getting these days.

Homemade Summer Sausage

Sooner or later people will start to know and appreciate the Traeger Pellet Grills. I have cooked with many different types of smoker grills and the one thing that stands out with this cooker is the EASE OF USE. Even with an experienced cook like me that never has a problem with operating various cookers, the EASE OF USE factor will definitely result in cooking more than you would without this pellet cooker. I did a double grind on 12 lbs of top round and 3 lbs of lean pork using the fine grind on the second pass. This meat was in steak form and thin so it was easy to cut into small cubes and I like putting the cure / seasoning on before grinding. Packed as tight as I could and smoked until an internal of 152. The taste test this morning says this is well worth the effort and I sure wish I could have got this done before Christmas for presents like I planned but I doubt the recipients will complain on getting theirs late.

Happy New Year

Moo and Oink meet in the cooker at the same time. It's a little unusual to find bone in Chuck cut this way let alone finding a bone in Butt cut the same way on the same day. I knew what I was going to do as soon as I found that Butt the same thickness as the Chuck I already had and that was make two roast with them adding onions, potatoes, and carrots just like my Granny use to make. Yesterday's traditional New Years Peas and Greens were the best I have ever had and that's saying a lot! We took a plate to Aunt Mary Lou at the rest home and she ate like she was starved to death and when they brought her tray I could see why. Here's wishing everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

CHUCK ON LEFT - PORK ON RIGHT



PORK




BEEF





SO GOOD.....

Fish Sandwich w/a Twist

Battered and deep fried Flounder Fillets served on a nice roll with dill pickles, mayo, tomatoes, avocado, and Tapatio hot sauce. At least a 9!

Simply The Best Beef For A Crowd

What would your choice of beef be if you were cooking for a crowd? The BEEF CHUCK SHOULDER CLOD is always what works for me and the good news is it usually only cost a couple bucks a pound and weighs in at around 20 lbs (38 bucks for this one). You just can't beat fork tender ROAST BEEF and plenty of it. Here's a step by step including times (I hardly ever succeed in making myself keep notes but this time I managed to jot it down on the "things we're out of" list on the fridge. I cook this just like a brisket and injected it with Kosmos beef marinade and rubbed it with Traeger Prime Rib Rub just before starting the cook. At 10:00am Christmas Eve I put it on the Traeger after a 30 min hot sear on the grill I have called the Portable Kitchen. The searing was just something I wanted to try and although this beef was the best so far I'm still not really sure if that sear is necessary. The cooker was set to 225 and I waited till 12:30 to insert the remote probe, the meat was at 104 at that time. The cooker cruised right around it's set temp until 6:45pm when it finally reached 165. I see no reason to burn pellets, charcoal, or wood when finishing meat wrapped in foil when I'm a few steps from them kitchen so after adding a couple of cups of beef broth and foiling it was into the oven to continue cooking at 225 until it reached 185 at 10:00pm. Rested for 3 hrs while I napped and then I separated it into parts that I thought would make nice slices and let it cool a little more before slicing. Btw the only thing I have found to worry about when slicing this is the flat iron which you can see on the left front of the first pic which needs to be separated once the roast is cooked and sliced cross wise. After getting it sliced and into a serving pan I strained the broth into a container and put that and the meat into the fridge till morning. A couple of hours before time to serve I skimmed the fat off the Au Jus and added worchester sauce and black pepper while heating, then drizzeled about a qtr cup over the meat reserving the rest for the table, re-covered the meat and heated at 275 till warm. In addition to the Au Jus I made some FLUFFY HORSERADDISH SAUCE with heavy whipping cream. The meat was so fork tender and beefy good you just did not want to stop eating it. I asked at the table if anyone would rather have it cooked more rare and it was unanimous that they preferred it just like it was.

Lamb & Shrimp Kabobs w/Cilantro Gremolata

This is one of the very few times that I made something and didn't like it. I didn't like the Kabobs or the Gremolata. The lamb was a couple of thin shoulder steaks and that didn't lend well to cooking it rare and that's the way I like lamb. I like wrapping Pork Loins and Tenderloins in bacon but will never wrap Kabobs with bacon again, shrimp or lamb. Thankfully I only wrapped a portion of the lamb and shrimp. I think I could get into Gremolata but it would have to be with Parsley and not Cilantro as this just didn't do anything for me at all. I also rushed it off the grill and that did not help things either.

Homemade Speagetti Sauce

I made this from home grown and canned tomatoes and I plan to try to remember during the hieght of tomato season next year to make large batches to cold pack. I had forgotten how easy making your own can be and how much better it is than store bought. We used some of the fantastic Benton's smoked bacon and several anchovie fillets. With fresh from the garden tomatoes and fresh rather than dried herbs, plenty of onion and garlic it should be so good you could put some on a piece of bread and be happy. OBTW ths brussel sprouts are fresh from the garden and we just added them to the pasta pot - just didn't want them to go bad.

New To Me Fish Sandwich

I'm always looking for something easy to fix for supper that I have not tried and this certainly fit the bill and it was real tasty. I don't know why but just having fish at home anytime is unusual for us, and a fish sandwich even more so, and a baked fish sandwich even more so still. I can blame the Haystack Onions for all this because a few days ago I saw some kind of sandwich served with those on top and I knew I would be fixing some kind of sandwich with those on top but never thought it would be fish. Home made tarter sauce with sweet pickle, onion, capers, and lemon and those addictive onions made this sandwich kinda special.


Now I want another one. Click the pic for full screen view.


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