What's for Dinner?

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Baseball tonight means a quick and early dinner. I took these out of the freezer Sunday night, thinking I’d cook them last night. But I forgot I had plans last night. So they’ll be consumed for lunch today. EVOO, S&P, dried oregano and rosemary; and of course, a healthy dose of vitamin G.

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Not a bad lunch. Been so long since I've cooked lamb chops, they came out somewhat rare. I had a couple, and one son had one. I'm going to vac seal the rest to reheat sous vide for easy meals the next couple days.

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Wasn't too sure if some T-storms would pop up, at the last minute I started up the kettle grill with some lump charcoal and did a marinated top round. Not the thickest one I ever bought, but looked good and figured if I didn't overdo the slab it would be tender enough to eat. Checked the temperature when I thought it "looked" like the low 120's and it was pushing 140. Pulled it immediately and rested it for 20 minutes. Fortunately my wife prefers well done, I did see some hues of pink in it. Served with some broccoli flavored rice and a salad, topped with blue cheese of course. Was still pretty tender and very flavorful.

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Is that salad I see under that Blue Cheese Dressing? 🤣
You have to have something with your blue cheese dressing. Hadn't had it for a week, I needed my fix.

I can't thank NM Mike (ibglowin) enough for giving me that recipe, although he was trying to get me to stop losing weight, LOL. He gave me one for greek dressing as well, I alternate them, both are very good.
 
I found soon-to-expire lamb shoulder chops (a Woo-Hoo special to Mike) for about half off, marinated them in garlic, fresh rosemary, and olive oil, and grilled them low and slow. I then pulled those off and wrapped them, while I cranked the grill up to 500F to make a loaf of bread detailed elsewhere. Meanwhile, I made an artichoke salad with olives, garlic, onion, basil, tomatoes, and EVOO, from this lovely recipe: Artichoke Olive Salsa | Oldways . Also made tabouleh* with scallions, red onions, tomatoes, lemon juice, and obviously lots of parsley. After I pulled the bread off the grill, I grilled some broccoli, and then slathered it with a sauce of lemon/butter/capers/garlic.

Just as I was nearing completion of the broccoli, the skies opened, and it started raining torrentially. I just made it!! Broccoli was a little underdone, even.

*pro-tip on summertime tabouleh/cous-cous. Commercial cous-cous is already cooked. You do not need to boil it; just rehydrate at room temperature in water and lemon juice; it takes ~1/2 hour. Then add your alliums, herbs, tomatoes, etc.


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Found it on Etsy used for sale. Looks like it was made around ~1980 which would have been my 1st as well. LOL
 
So here's my woeful tale of a second attempt at pizza on my KettlePizza while still on a high after my first attempt went so simply perfect. I'd defrosted the frozen dough and sauce halves saved from my first batch (so far so good). Chopped my ingredients and fired up the Kettle. In the mean time shaped the dough and stretched out and rolled the edges slightly on the peel (First Mistake). The coals were getting close so I went ahead perfed the crust with a fork and spritzed it with Olive Oil (Second Mistake based on reliable info I had gleaned on the Web). I dumped the coals, threw on a couple of pieces of hardwood and sat the stone in place to heat up. In the meantime I sauced the pizza with the defrosted sauce that while thick originally was now more watery and separated (Third Mistake). Onto the toppings, maybe a bit heavy handed but I'll never know for sure, at least from this go-round. Now, Pizza in hand, on peel, out to the deck I head when the wife stops me to suggest I push the toppings down a bit (Forth Mistake but who's counting by now). With the confidence gained from all of my previous experience I step up to the mouth of the KP, peel in hand, with the swagger of Casey at bat, slide the pizza peel into the oven and give it a shake....... nothing moves except some to the toppings. The dough has become a vinyl pizza sticker. After futzing with it for a bit my only solution is to pull the stone out, scrape the best I can, the pizza up and place it on the pizza pan. I throw it back into the Kettle to get what's left of the intact crust to firm up then eventually get that back onto the stone for the last few minutes.

I'm hoping that this "teaching opportunity" means instead of making a bunch of mistakes on a bunch of pizzas I've gotten it all out of my system in one brilliant fiasco. Exhibits B - Before and A - After presented for your amusement. It still tasted pretty good in spite of all this nonsense.

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I feel your pain and have done quite a few of those. A few things I've picked up (most or all of which you already know):

1) waste no time assembling that pie and getting it into the cooker. A bored pizza sitting around likes to get sticky.
2) Semolina works better in my experience than flour as an 'anti-stick' agent. (not sure which you are using)
3) A metal peel, while not as attractive, works much better than a wooden peel. Dough seems to like to 'sink into' the wood
4) When ready to put the pizza in the cooker, give it a quick back and forth shake to be sure the pizza moves. If it doesn't, add more flour or semolina.
5) This one comes with some degree of risk. Never let your wife stop you en route to the pizza cooker. Don't even slow down. :p
 
We have all been there!

Like Jim said semolina is your friend. Use it liberally on the stone and peel. Get it off ASAP. If you want to know what I may try next time that I have never tried before I am thinking parchment paper. Should slide right off the peel onto the stone and remain slippery. The back may burn (paper) but the pie should protect the rest of it until the dough is cooked. Should be easy to turn as well.
 

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