What's for Dinner?

My eyes are tearing up just looking at those pics! LOL

GreginND said:

First batch of jalapeños have fermented since August and I made 2.5 gallons of hot sauce.

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My second harvest was even bigger. The lacto-beasties are going to town on three gallon jars of peppers.

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Nice pics Greg [emoji106]

GreginND said:

First batch of jalapeños have fermented since August and I made 2.5 gallons of hot sauce.

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Nice, Greg!

As you may recall, you inspired me to start a couple of one-quart batches shortly after you. One was pure Jalapeno, and the other incorporated a bunch of habeneros for a bit more punch. I am about to puree them into sauce, and I wanted to ask you how much vinegar you decided to use? I may just copy you rather than test and tweak.

JohnT said:

I just came into possession of a dozen cleaned quail. Anybody have any recommendations on how to cook them or what to serve them with.

I normally just wrap them in bacon and slow roast them on the bbq, but I am open to better ideas.

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Lightly flour them, fry, then simmer in gravy.

Quail Stew

JohnT said:

I just came into possession of a dozen cleaned quail. Anybody have any recommendations on how to cook them or what to serve them with.

I normally just wrap them in bacon and slow roast them on the bbq, but I am open to better ideas.

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Friday night......

Tried out some new pizza dough. Turned out pretty good for fresh store bought. Made one BBQ (pulled pork) with red onion, fresh jalapeño, and cilantro. One spicy italian sausage, pepperoni red onion and fresh mutz with fresh basil. Washed it down with an EFESTE 2011' Ceidleigh Red Mountain Syrah.

I had a bit of a backlog while figuring out how to post pix. So here is from a day or two ago. Lamb shoulder chops (tough, but tasty!); dry-brined and seared, seasoned with coriander, fennel and thyme. I made some herbed cannellini beans with a little Liquid Smoke as the secret ingredient. Finally, I halved/quartered some baby pak choy, seared and carmelized, with garlic, then braised in ho-made chicken stock and lemon juice.

A really nice day for October around these parts. 80*F but with a strong breese varying in direction. Started up the weber and put a 6 lb chicken on a Sprite can filled with vinegar/water and fajita rub. Was planning on eating around 6 pm until my wife informed me that my youngest has cheer practice (I guess it isn't cheer leading anymore since I get corrected all the time) at 6 pm, so opened up all the vents and I am trying to get above 300*F to shorten the cooking time (the wind helps, then sometimes hurts). Plan on serving with a potato of choice done by my wife (have 10 lbs of potatoes to get through before they start sprouting) and hopefully a salad so I can use some of the last ripe tomatoes from the garden. Here's an image an hour or so into the process. I put it lower just above the water pan as it should be less susceptible to temperature variations caused by the wind (we'll see soon enough if it helped).

Edit: the wood of the day is "pecan"

The finished product was quite good. Most had it with thick cut fries and my wife made mixed veges. I made a salad with some sliced chicken and ranch dressing. Moist and tender as most "beer can" chickens tend to be. Was very yummy and worth the added effort to cook on the weber, as it usually is!

No pictures but I smoked a turkey today, used a mixture of 1/2 pecan, 1/4 apple, and 1/4 cherry wood mixture. OMG it was fantastic.

Whooped up a little Hurricane Nate fare for the fam this evening. Prime filet, potato casserole, creamed spinach,steamed green beans, yeast rolls, and one of my best bottles of wine - 100 point 2013 Hall Rainin, Love when my girls are home from LSU.

Dang that looks good! Having the girls home is one of the best things in life. We have 3 that have flown the coop for some time now. Also looks like you have the Hall down at your end of the table for "safe keeping"....... LOL

Johnd said:

Whooped up a little Hurricane Nate fare for the fam this evening. Prime filet, potato casserole, creamed spinach,steamed green beans, yeast rolls, and one of my best bottles of wine - 100 point 2013 Hall Rainin, Love when my girls are home from LSU.

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We went "vegan" tonight.... Costco had 6 packs of Avacado's last weekend for $6.50. Hard as a rock but they were nice and ripe by yesterday. Local grocery store has them for $2.39 each and they look like crap. Nobody will buy them. A few Margarita's may have been downed with this stuff. Can't recall really.....

ibglowin said:

Dang that looks good! Having the girls home is one of the best things in life. We have 3 that have flown the coop for some time now. Also looks like you have the Hall down at your end of the table for "safe keeping"....... LOL

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So rare to have them both around, after 20 years of constant occupation, good stuff for sure.

Yep, didn’t let the RAIN to far out of reach, first 100 I’ve had. So smooth I really can’t describe it, so voluminous, integrated and rich, no rough edges. Unreal.

Johnd said:

Whooped up a little Hurricane Nate fare for the fam this evening. Prime filet, potato casserole, creamed spinach,steamed green beans, yeast rolls, and one of my best bottles of wine - 100 point 2013 Hall Rainin, Love when my girls are home from LSU.

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So that's how you "rough it" through a storm (I need a few storms to come my way). I think I can smell that filet from here!

@ceeaton took the words out of my mouth, I think I need to "rough it" once in a while.

Holiday tomorrow so took advantage of the beautiful Fall weather and put a couple racks of Baby Backs on the Pit Boss as well as a few links of my Ho-Made Snausage.

I did the 2-2-1 method of the BB's and they are falling off the bone tender.

I opened a bottle of my 2012 Machete' Cab Sauv Syrah blend for a pre dinner drink. Dayuum........ Have not opened one in awhile and this stuff has gone to a whole other level of goodness. Tannins are now really settled and softened. Was gonna open a bottle of Gorman Red Mountain Syrah Cabernet blend that scored 93 pts WS but I may just put it back in the cellar. LOL

Holly Molly, that looks good Mike!!

A ribeye steak, dry-brined and seared hard. Some smashed 'taters (simmered, smashed, then fried), and green beans and onions, braised with ho-made chicken stock. The nicest part, perhaps, was the mushroom wine reduction sauce. I used an entire bottle of my WE LE Super Tuscan, reduced in volume by about 2/3, and lots of sauteed mushrooms, shallots, garlic, thyme, and butter, plus the fond from the steak and some (not ho-made) beef stock. Oh, and some fresh bread with truffle butter. Washed down with a WE Eclipse Stag's Leap Merlot.

To kick off wine-press weekend, a bunch of us went out to this wonderful oyster bar for dinner on Friday night. The Oysters were very fresh and delicious. We ended up eating through 6 dozen of them between all of us.

To go with the oysters, I had two martinis (dirty with extra olives). Drinking the hard stuff is unusual for me, but martinis go so well with oysters!

Dor dinner, I had a ricotta gnocci with a veal ragu for dinner and a nice Chianti that was about as overpriced as was humanly possible. No matter, good times!