What's for Dinner?

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Last night's dinner was very simple -- grilled trout, fresh bread, and leftover spaghetti squash. [Every few weeks we buy a relatively large spaghetti squash, and eat it every other meal for ~3 meals. It's a time saver, and we like it.]

One of our favorite recipes for trout or salmon is really tough to make -- it takes 2 ingredients -- fish & pesto. This can be baked or grilled, although we prefer grilled.

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Preheat the grill (ours is gas), turn all burners to low, put the fish-on-foil on the grill and leave (covered) it for 20 minutes. If a piece of salmon is thicker, increase time to 25 minutes.

If doing this in the oven, bake at 350 F for the same times.

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The pesto releases a fair amount of oil, so turn the edges of the foil up, so the oil doesn't drop and burn the fish.

The skin burns to the foil, and I use a large grill spatula to carefully separate the meat from the skin. After the grill cools, the oil appears to be absorbed into the skin. Cleanup is easy.

If baking in the oven, line the pan with foil, else you'll be scraping that pan for a while.

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A bit of pesto on the bread went well.

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Pork shoulder steak, braised with two wines (cheap sherry, and ho-made Syrah) and tomatoes, with mushrooms, onions, garlic, sage; Romanesco broccoli with preserved lemon/butter/garlic/capers; polenta with gorgonzola; baked mukimame beans with soy sauce and olives.

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So it turned out to be not fast at all! It did torn out fantastic though.

I wrapped in the pink butcher paper and it hit the stall and sat at 165 for like 3 hours and I even cranked the Kamado up to 300. Finally around 5PM or so my fire was starting to die so I moved it to the oven. Placed it on a baking pan and had the oven set to 325 and it didn't hit 200 until around 730PM or so. I put it on at 10AM and it should have been done in 6-7 hours max. It was a good thing I wasn't planning on eating it on Saturday night! Once it hit 200 I pulled it out wrapped in a towel and placed in a heavy insulated styrofoam cooler out on the patio overnight. We got down to 25 that night. On Sunday morning I got up and transferred the brisket to the refrigerator where it sat until 4PM.

At 4PM I pulled it out of the fridge and stuck it back in the oven (still wrapped in paper and some HD AL foil and stuck one of my Inkbird probes in it and it was still 73F ! Heated it back up in the oven at 325 until it hit 150 or so and then pulled it and sliced it. Very moist and very tender. I did a rack of baby backs on Sunday as well as a link of my Ho-made German sausage. We had our BFF's down for a nice socially distanced meal on the patio but needed to fire up the patio heaters as well as the Chiminea to stay warm until the party was over around 10PM or so. Was good to get together and socialize once again. No vaccine yet still for Mrs IB but hopefully in the next few weeks.

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How did it come out Mike?

I saw corn brisket at Costco, which I never cooked before, will be checking friend Google for details..
 
Picked up a large bag of sockeye salmon on the last Costco run. Perfectly sized, individually wrapped pieces. I seasoned a couple up with a rub and threw them on a cedar plank. Just prior to that, did a few BSB's that I marinated in a Greek dressing. Spaghetti that was tossed in some EVOO and oregano sautéed cherry tomatoes and Kalamata olives. Simple salad with the aforementioned Greek dressing.

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Picked up a large bag of sockeye salmon on the last Costco run. Perfectly sized, individually wrapped pieces. I seasoned a couple up with a rub and threw them on a cedar plank. Just prior to that, did a few BSB's that I marinated in a Greek dressing. Spaghetti that was tossed in some EVOO and oregano sautéed cherry tomatoes and Kalamata olives. Simple salad with the aforementioned Greek dressing.

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Salmon looks great! Why is your salad and spaghetti fuzzy? 🤣
 
Well, Varis @geek will be happy. I finally once-again scored some of those lamb-shoulder-chops-that-are-practically-rib-chops. Dry-brined 'em, seared 'em, and seasoned 'em with coriander and ground fennel. Also roasted mushrooms (soy, EVOO); roasted fennel (S&P, Parmigianno-Reggiano, EVOO); romano beans braised with sauteed onions and tomatoes (garlic, marjoram, herbes de Provence); and roasted potato wedges (seasoned with smoked paprika, garlic powder, and S&P).

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Dinner is going to be pizza tonight, a local pizzeria that is both great tasting and pricey.

I'm OT, but some might find this useful:

Yesterday afternoon our 9 yo refrigerator crapped out. The freezer was warm enough that ice was melting and puddled on the floor (which is how we realized it). A lot of stuff in the fridge was warm and stuff at the top of the freezer was defrosted.

We unloaded everything, moving frozen stuff that we judged ok to a full-size freezer, moving fridge items we judged were ok to coolers with ice, and junking a lot of formerly good stuff. Bought a 7.5 cf fridge last night, to tide us over until we get a replacement. Once we get a replacement for the full-size fridge, this is gonna be my wine fridge ... making the best of an unhappy situation!
:db

Buying a new fridge in the USA today is a challenge. We checked Consumer Reports for ratings (understanding that not all models are rated and it's best to take the ratings with a grain of salt), then started checking the major retailer sites for what's available. In general, 2/3 of the listed units are out of stock or otherwise unavailable. Many of the ones in stock have projected delivery dates in late April or May.

We found a unit we like and the delivery date is Friday (tomorrow)! So we ordered it!

When the confirmation email arrived, at the top was a message stating that due to current circumstances, delivery may be delayed ...

Oh, well, we'll muddle through.
 
We found much the same problem looking to purchase a new range to replace our POS LG. After months of pouring over reviews from all the big box stores and even making an excel spreadsheet that contained a breakdown for each one with as far as % recommend and then breakdown by 5 Star down to 1 Star we decided to pull the trigger on a GE Cafe' Range (gas). Purchasing from Costco as they will double the 1 year warranty plus take it back if we are not happy 30 days after purchase. It was on sale and nicely discounted as well. The big box stores say they are NOT RETURNABLE.......

Many models were OOS as well for extended periods of time. I suspect they are sitting on a freighter off the coast of CA waiting to be unloaded for weeks on end.

Hoping to have better luck this time with a different brand. I feel CR really lead us astray the last time.......

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