What's Cooking

[Cheese]

Those tomatoes look fantastic.  Did you grow them yourself or did you get them at a farmer's market?

It's not bad, but  my favorite hot sauces are still Sriracha, Tabasco, and Texas Pete.

The tomatoes were from a local farmers market and grown locally and not in a hot house...they were absolutely delicious. At the same farmers market I also purchased locally grown corn on the cob. I had to ask if it was local because I was surprised that it was already available. Minnesota sweet corn is usually harvested in mid August. The old saying is "Knee high by 4th of July".

The two of us ate all 6 ears... [eek]...delicious.

I'd echo your hot sauce choices except I'd substitute Franks for the Texas Pete.

The pasta salad looks great and I really like the idea of putting the dressing ingredients in a microwave to help develop the flavors.

I make a very similar pasta salad but I substitute grilled artichoke hearts for the pepperoncini.

 

[GoingMyWay]

I had been craving raw oysters so I picked up 2 different varieties of oysters.  1 were local from Maryland and the other were from Long Island.  The local oysters were bigger and juicier. 

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A couple of the oysters had a pea crab inside, which is supposed to be a delicacy.  I didn't eat any, but my brother in law ate one.

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This was my first time ever shucking an oyster.  It wasn't too bad once I got into a bit of a rhythm.  I think I like West Coast Kumamoto oysters better.  There are only so many raw oysters that one can eat so I shucked a bunch of the oysters and we made a Taiwainese oyster pancake and oyster congee.

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Made some brown sugar cream cookies.  The cookies look really nice, but the texture is far too cake-like.  I was hoping/expecting them to be more a chewy texture.

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[GoingMyWay]

I bought the Philips Avance air fryer.  I have forever been opposed to getting one because I'd always held the position that it's just a mini convection oven and we already have a convection wall oven, but I hardly ever use the convection setting.  I can now report that I may have been wrong in my original assessment.  The air fryer did an absolutely beautiful job reheating leftover fries and yuca.  We've never had good results reheating leftover fries, even baking in the oven.  These came out hot and pretty crispy in just 4 minutes at 350F. 

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I made some frozen buffalo wings in there and they were hot and crispy in 15 minutes at 400F.  I think 12 minutes would have been even better.

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Made an "authentic" seafood paella - I bought the paella pan from Restaurant Depot and ordered Bomba rice from Amazon.  I had made paella once before a very long time ago and used Arborio rice.  Something just didn't seem right about using an Italian rice to make Spanish paella.  I think the fire was a little too high and the water boiled away a little faster than it should have.  It definitely takes some practice/experience to get the burner setting just right so the rice cooks, but not too quickly.  We also should have put the seafood in a little earlier rather than at the very last 5 minutes.  The rice had a nice flavor and turned out well for a first (or kinda second) attempt at making paella.

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I also pulled the trigger on the Philips Avance pasta maker from Costco.  My wife said she wanted it to make rice noodles with it.  We tried making spaghetti with it the other night using just all purpose flour.  The spaghetti noodle was thinner than I was expecting.  The pasta was just ok.  I think using different flour would have yielded a better noodle.

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[MikeGE]

I had been craving raw oysters so I picked up 2 different varieties of oysters.  1 were local from Maryland and the other were from Long Island.  The local oysters were bigger and juicier.

I like raw oysters, but fried oysters are my favorite.  Every time I'm back in Virginia, I go to Blue Ridge Seafood on Rt. 28 near Gainesville and get my fill of fried oysters, soft shell crabs, and fried scallops.  [big grin]

 

[GoingMyWay]

That sounds good!  We got steamed crabs and a soft shell crab sandwich from Captain Pell's for the 4th of the July.  The softshell crab was really tasty - it's a real treat.

 

[rvieceli]

If you like raw you might want to try this recipe for grilled oysters. Yummy. Also drench the results in your favorite hot sauce.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/official-dragos-charbroiled-oysters-recipe-1135643

Ron

 

[DynaGlide]

 

[Cheese]

The ribs look real good...in the first photo are those peaches off to the side?

 

[DynaGlide]

The ribs look real good...in the first photo are those peaches off to the side?

Thanks [member=44099]Cheese[/member] . Yes they are. If you've never had grilled peaches with rotisserie chicken it's really something else. Get a little bit of both on your fork and it's a flavor bomb.

Matt

 

[GoingMyWay]

If you like raw you might want to try this recipe for grilled oysters. Yummy. Also drench the results in your favorite hot sauce.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/official-dragos-charbroiled-oysters-recipe-1135643

Ron

Grilled oysters sound good too!  I should have tried grilling a few.

[member=65062]DynaGlide[/member] The rotisserie spit attachment is the best!

Last night I made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. They were much better than the brown sugar cream cookies. I've never had them before, but these cookies are supposed to be a copy cat of Potbelly's chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.  I substituted bittersweet chips for the more traditional semi sweet chips.   

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[GoingMyWay]

Made some sous vide shrimp cocktail.  I tried unpeeled and peeled shrimp cooked at 137F for 30 minutes.  The unpeeled shrimp turned out slightly better.

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We're really getting good use out of the air fryer:

I tried making a baked potato in there and fries.  The baked potato turned out pretty good, but took almost 1 hour for just 1 potato. 

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The plain fries turned out overcooked using the recipe that I found.

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We even tried air frying a steak.  It didn't get a good sear, but the steak surprisingly came out a nice medium rare.

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We also made crispy pork belly.

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[GoingMyWay]

Made some soba noodles with buckwheat flour using the Philips pasta maker.  This turned out surprisingly good.

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Made some oatmeal in the Instant Pot.  I think this is the first time I've made regular oatmeal versus instant oatmeal where you just add hot water.

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[GoingMyWay]

We're still making good use of the air fryer.  I made some spicy dry rub wings and some plain wings.  The dry rubbed wings weren't bad, but the first batch had a bit too much rub on the exterior.  That yielded a salty crust. 

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We scraped most of the rub off of the second batch and that turned out much better.

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The final batch were plain wings. I really liked them just sprinkled with some salt.

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Tonight, I made some air fryer tandoori chicken.  Half was with a homemade marinade and the other half was with a store bought jarred marinade.  It was easier and more convenient to buy the pre-made bottle, but the homemade tasted better, though it was missing the traditional red food coloring.

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[six-point socket II]

This one we didn't cook/bake, but picked up at the local patisserie.

Then we've been baking a lot lately.

Today it was baguettes from original French T65 flour with wheat from Limagne/Auvergne region.

And tonight we will feast on that baguette, garlic butter, scampi and some salmon.

to be continued.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket II]

Salmon being "cooked". We decided to eat it tomorrow - cold.

Roasting those scampi with some garlic.

Starter. Asparagus soup we made back in spring and freezed it.

And the main course.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[deepcreek]

I don't know if I've ever posted to this thread before but tonight's dinner turned out so well that I wanted to share.

Grilled venison backstrap (Texas whitetail) with green beans and roasted potatoes.

Enjoy!

Joe

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[GoingMyWay]

[member=61712]six-point socket II[/member] your shrimp always looks so good!

[member=6237]deepcreek[/member] that is a very fine looking meal.  It looks just like something you'd get at a fancy restaurant.  The potatoes look especially good!  How did you cook the venison?  It's cooked to a perfect medium rare.

 

[deepcreek]

[member=6237]deepcreek[/member] that is a very fine looking meal.  It looks just like something you'd get at a fancy restaurant.  The potatoes look especially good!  How did you cook the venison?  It's cooked to a perfect medium rare.

The venison was pre-seasoned with Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper which was pressed into the meat before lightly drizzling with olive oil.  I do this right before cooking so the salt doesn't draw out precious moisture.  I am not a believer in bringing red meat up to room temperature before cooking.  It was grilled on a Weber Genesis (taste the meat not the heat) for five minutes a side at 450 degrees to an internal temp of 125 degrees.  I highly recommend using a Thermapen instant read thermometer for accuracy.

My trick on the roasted potatoes is to use Yukon Golds.  I've always used them for mashed potatoes but they are great roasted, too.  Washed, dried, diced, drizzled in olive oil and seasoned to preference.  I used Kosher salt, onion powder, and garlic powder.  They were baked for 30-40 minutes at 425 degrees in a convection oven on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

The green beans were steamed for seven minutes with a little water, a pat of butter and some real bacon bits.  No added seasoning.

 

[hdv]

We had pasta. Nothing special. However, we tried a new ketchup to go with it and that was a real good find. If anyone sees it in their store, then do yourself a favour and don't hesitate to buy it! We found this the best ketchup we've had to date. Real good stuff!

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[GoingMyWay]

[member=6237]deepcreek[/member] that is a very fine looking meal.  It looks just like something you'd get at a fancy restaurant.  The potatoes look especially good!  How did you cook the venison?  It's cooked to a perfect medium rare.

The venison was pre-seasoned with Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper which was pressed into the meat before lightly drizzling with olive oil.  I do this right before cooking so the salt doesn't draw out precious moisture.  I am not a believer in bringing red meat up to room temperature before cooking.  It was grilled on a Weber Genesis (taste the meat not the heat) for five minutes a side at 450 degrees to an internal temp of 125 degrees.  I highly recommend using a Thermapen instant read thermometer for accuracy.

My trick on the roasted potatoes is to use Yukon Golds.  I've always used them for mashed potatoes but they are great roasted, too.  Washed, dried, diced, drizzled in olive oil and seasoned to preference.  I used Kosher salt, onion powder, and garlic powder.  They were baked for 30-40 minutes at 425 degrees in a convection oven on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

The green beans were steamed for seven minutes with a little water, a pat of butter and some real bacon bits.  No added seasoning.

Thanks for the detailed instructions!

I recently got a Thermapen thermometer.  It is really great!  I used to and in fact still use a plug-in probe thermometer occasionally so I can know the internal temperature in real time.  I don't think the probe thermometer is nearly as accurate or as fast as the Thermapen though. 

I've never tried to make roasted potatoes like that, but they look really good.  I'm gonna have to give that a try!  I think they might turn out pretty good in the air fryer also.

We had pasta. Nothing special. However, we tried a new ketchup to go with it and that was a real good find. If anyone sees it in their store, then do yourself a favour and don't hesitate to buy it! We found this the best ketchup we've had to date. Real good stuff!

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How does it compare to Heinz ketchup?  It looks like Wegman's might sell the Country Ketchup.  I think I'm gonna check to see if I can find it tomorrow.