What's Cooking

[Cheese]

Well it's that time of year...and what time is that?...tomato time.

We're harvesting about 1 to 2 ripe tomatoes everyday from the Cherokee Purple tomato plants. They're perfect for BLT's.

In the first photo from top to bottom:
Fresh basil chiffonade from the garden
Kowalski's Applewood smoked, thick-cut bacon
Red leaf lettuce
Cherokee Purple tomato, those 3 slices are from one tomato. Each slice is about 3/4" thick
Kowalski's fresh mozzarella made in the store while you watch
Kowalski's home baked parmesan-herb bread for toast

My wife likes Stonewall Kitchen Farmhouse mayo on her BLT while I prefer good old-fashioned Miracle Whip.

https://www.kowalskis.com/signature-products/signature-specialty-cheese/fresh-mozzarella

https://www.kowalskis.com/signature-products/signature-bakery/artisan-bread

 

[Mike Goetzke]

Went to a cabin for vacation last week. I brought my Weber Traveler with. Couple weeks ago I saw this accessory to allow the use of a rotisserie and enable pizza oven cooking. This thing worked like a champ!

We cooked two chickens on the rotisserie and fit 8 ears of corn. We also cooked three 8" in the pizza oven.

 

[tjbnwi]

Being from Chicago…….

Maxwell Street bone in pork chop sandwich. They are very simple to make. Fried these chops on the Weber Slate griddle.

Season pork chop with salt, pepper, a little garlic salt or granulated garlic. Heated the griddle to medium hot, put down a little butter and placed the chop, Cooked 5ish minutes, flipped, cooked 5ish minutes, flip, about 3.5 minutes, flip, about 3.5 minutes. As these were cooking I grilled some onion (should have done 2 slices). Didn’t have proper size role so I toasted the bread on the griddle.

Place chop on bread, dress with onions and mustard. Some add sport peppers, I do not.

The bone is in, a little care is needed when eating.

Also fried some spuds, placed finished spuds in cast iron pan, topped with cheddar, used a dome to melt the cheese.

Griddled to perfection, very tender, easy to bite.



Tom

 

[Cheese]

So, in addition to the individual tomatoes used for BLT's, Roma tomatoes are also at their peak and they're just a lovely crop to can for use over the winter months. It's really NOT a cost saving method but rather a more luxurious way to savor tomato based sauces throughout the winter months. I prefer to use a mix of Farmers Market purchased Roma tomatoes along with a large dose of home grown Cherokee Purple tomatoes. The Cherokee Purple have more flavor and more liquid while the Roma's have more pulp and more body.
I use a Kitchen Aid mixer with a food mill attachment to process the tomatoes. The skins and seeds of the tomatoes are captured while the rest of the goodness is released into the pot for further processing.
Reduction of the tomato mixture/puree is mandatory to increase the flavor of the tomato sauce.

Here's a scene from the beginning of last year's sauce reduction along with a photo of this year's final sauce production.

Interestingly enough...this years sauce production dated 10/3/25 mirrored last year's sauce production dated 10/3/24...how does that happen in this world?

 

[tjbnwi]

Simple one tonight, oxtail stew. The wife said she does not like oxtails, I have no clue how this is possible.

Tom

 

[tjbnwi]

Ashley’s birthday is tomorrow. She could not decided between a cheese cake or eclairs. Why not both?

I forgot to take a picture of the cheese cake base, it’s my standard cheese cake cutting the recipe in half. Puff pastry was used instead of Choux pastry. On the puff pastry I placed pastry crème I would use in eclairs, added another layer of puff pastry, top with ganache.

What I learned…..the puff pastry shrinks a lot.

Tom

 

[tjbnwi]

Jamie’s birthday is Friday, banana cream cheese cake with banana pudding topping, garnished with agar agar stabilized whipped cream, crushed Vanilla Wafer crust.

Tom

 

[luvmytoolz]

Jamie’s birthday is Friday, banana cream cheese cake with banana pudding topping, garnished with agar agar stabilized whipped cream, crushed Vanilla Wafer crust.

Tom

Man that looks good!

 

[tjbnwi]

Man that looks good!

They claim it was, lasted about 5 minutes.

Tom

 

[GoingMyWay]

A while back we made chicken and sausage gumbo.





Another meatloaf, but this time we used the loaf pan as a mold.





I heard about Grace's Strong Blend being very close to what the original KFC tasted like so I ordered some to try. I had to buy 11KG, but it's very tasty!








I also made some potato wedges with the Grace's Strong Blend. I recently found out that these are referred to as Jo Jo potatoes in the Midwest.

 

[luvmytoolz]

Just finished another batch of chicken jerky. I do about 6-8kg at a time in the dehydrator and while it's supposed to be for our dogs, they are really tasty so we often steal some.

Our dogs go absolutely nuts for these, they make a fantastic treat. Getting a dehydrator has been absolutely fantastic for doing so many things.

 

[tjbnwi]

Beef Stroganoff

 

[GoingMyWay]

@Vondawg A few weeks ago we made a roast chicken. This time we used Darren McGrady (former Royal Chef)'s recipe. It was super easy because all it called for was kosher salt and a chicken. Best of all, it was very tasty. It may very well be the best roast chicken we've made. I don't know if it's because we used a fancy air chilled chicken or because we used Morton Kosher Salt instead of Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt (thanks @Cheese for teaching me about the difference between kosher salts) or maybe the combination of both.






Previously we tried Thomas Keller's Roast Chicken and that was rather complicated and time consuming and not very tasty.

 

[Cheese]

It may very well be the best roast chicken we've made. I don't know if it's because we used a fancy air chilled chicken or because we used Morton Kosher Salt instead of Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt (thanks @Cheese for teaching me about the difference between kosher salts) or maybe the combination of both.


View attachment 380898

Previously we tried Thomas Keller's Roast Chicken and that was rather complicated and time consuming and not very tasty.

Now that chicken looks delicious...congrats on the photography skills. It's moist and roasted a nice golden brown. It's very appetizing looking and that's what this thread is all about.
If it doesn't look good enough to eat...well then why would you?

In keeping with the roast chicken theme, I've lately been baking bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. The crisp chicken skin is absolutely the best...it's such an indulgence. And then I shred the chicken meat to use in chimichangas for the next day.

So, a martini highlighted with crisp chicken skin and the next evening a beer with a chimichanga...wow what's better than that?

Here's a look at baking 4 chicken breasts in a convection oven simultaneously @ 425º while using ThermoWorks probes. The probes allow you to monitor the temperature of the various sized chicken breasts so that you will be able to remove each breast at the proper temperature. These probes are sweet...but the roasted chicken skin is even sweeter.

 

[peter halle]

I must admit that I was glad to see new posts here. I had begun to think that we weren't eating anymore. Great looking chicken!

Peter

 

[tjbnwi]

Maple Pecan Sticky Buns





Tom

 

[guybo]

glaze of glory cause you're second to bun