Your Food Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Weber kettles are awesome. They are great cookers. I have a natural gas Weber for ordinary grilling of steaks, chops, burgers, etc. You can't have too many grills, IMO.

I've never had a gas grill, and rarely have I grilled on one. I'll hold out for an outdoor kitchen someday.
 
Nix the chai tea, I looked for star anise at the store and they don't even sell it. :(

Summit Tea and Spice (when in my town)

A lot of Safeway stores have a Mexican food aisle. On that aisle at Safeways here, they sell whole spices in small cellophane bags. If your Safeway has that aisle, most likely they will stock the anise. Why they don't put those spices over on the baking aisle, I have no idea.

Or, if you have a Mexican grocer near you, you can find a good assortment of whole spices and most likely they will have whole star anise.

Some of the oriental groceries have great spices, too.
 
A lot of Safeway stores have a Mexican food aisle. On that aisle at Safeways here, they sell whole spices in small cellophane bags. If your Safeway has that aisle, most likely they will stock the anise. Why they don't put those spices over on the baking aisle, I have no idea.

Or, if you have a Mexican grocer near you, you can find a good assortment of whole spices and most likely they will have whole star anise.

Yes, there is a Mexican aisle, I am going to look. Thanks!
Summit Tea and Spice (when in my town)



Some of the oriental groceries have great spices, too.

Here, too!
 
The gas is convenient. Very convenient.

I get that. I have a gas fireplace here. One flick of a switch and voilà. It's not my preference though.

I've had a reinforced slab poured out there fairly recently. The outlets and audio have been out there for much longer. I haven't looked into a gas line yet. I've never had one done. It's a start.
 
I get that. I have a gas fireplace here. One flick of a switch and voilà. It's not my preference though.

I've had a reinforced slab poured out there fairly recently. The outlets and audio have been out there for much longer. I haven't looked into a gas line yet. I've never had one done. It's a start.

I just have a cooking deck right off the kitchen. It's about 12 x 14 and is generally leeward of the prevailing winds. Outdoor kitchens here with water and a sink are way too much to deal with, IMO. I'm still lusting after an outdoor wood fired oven.
 
I just have a cooking deck right off the kitchen. It's about 12 x 14 and is generally leeward of the prevailing winds. Outdoor kitchens here with water and a sink are way too much to deal with, IMO. I'm still lusting after an outdoor wood fired oven.

I already have water run everywhere. The only thing the woman did that owned this house before us was garden. Right off of the kitchen would be convenient, but I like the slab is set back in the gardens. I think I would be just as happy with a wood burning oven.
 
I already have water run everywhere. The only thing the woman did that owned this house before us was garden. Right off of the kitchen would be convenient, but I like the slab is set back in the gardens. I think I would be just as happy with a wood burning oven.

Here, that water would be freezing and busting the pipes. Global warming or not. Maybe I'll build a wood oven at the cabin after some of the other major stuff gets completed.
 
Here, that water would be freezing and busting the pipes. Global warming or not. Maybe I'll build a wood oven at the cabin after some of the other major stuff gets completed.


Here as well if they're not drained. We're expecting wind chills as low as -30 this evening.
 
A lot of Safeway stores have a Mexican food aisle. On that aisle at Safeways here, they sell whole spices in small cellophane bags. If your Safeway has that aisle, most likely they will stock the anise. Why they don't put those spices over on the baking aisle, I have no idea.

Or, if you have a Mexican grocer near you, you can find a good assortment of whole spices and most likely they will have whole star anise.

Try a Chinese foods shop too. I can get them very easily here.
 
I bought a Weber Bullet smoker about 15 years ago. Ribs and chicken are killer, but my favorite is smoking a pork butt overnight for 16 hours...pulled pork heaven.

I really don't think you can go wrong with Weber products.
 
Didn't even need sauce. They were killer.



It's a cheap AKORN from Chargriller. I use lump charcoal and I can cook down below zero with no problem. I bought an IQ 110 controller for it and it's awesome for holding temperature. I never had to touch the controls after I got the fire going.

Good to know. We will have to give it a try. For our gas, we have a Vermont Castings, for charcoal and the smoker, we have Webers. They last forever.
 
Miles, if you are sill reading, Aldi actually launched a whole line of GF baking mixes, cereals, granola bars, frozen foods, and pizza dough last year. The reception was really good, a lot of people are enjoying the products so they have decided to keep them. They are also way cheaper than much of the GF stuff in regular grocery stores.

My friend is pretty strict on his GF diet and I recently bought 1 of every mix, cookie, or cereal bar to send to him and he's been thrilled with everything so far. He said the corn muffin mix was the best GF treat he's had and the closest to the "normal" sweets he used to eat that weren't GF. They also have cupcake and pancake mixes, etc. I'm not sure if you live near an Aldi but it might be worth checking out. :)
He also told me that there is more product in each package than the products he buys at the regular grocery store. So more bang for your buck.

https://blog.aldi.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ALDI_blog_cover_05_GlutenFree-670x300.jpg


Also, I have made this recipe for banana bread donuts with dark chocolate frosting several times as GF. I just subbed rice flour for the all-purpose (be sure to read the equivalencies on the rice flour packaging before doing a 1:1 swap, rice flour is more dense than AP and you don't need as much). I have two GF people in my office who had no issues with my substitutions and they loved the donuts.

EDIT: If you don't have or want to get a donut pan (they are about $8-$10 at places like Target), you could probably just make this a bar recipe and use an 8x8 pan.

I can't say enough good things about Tastespotting, either. It's a great go-to site for me when I'm looking for just about anything, they post non-GF recipes along with GF, vegan, vegetarian and every other type of recipe you could think of. If you use the search function it will narrow the results. I like it because most of the people who submit blog posts are serious foodies who have a good amount of cooking and baking experience. It sifts out a lot of flyaway recipes that are a dime a dozen.

Good luck!
 
Last edited:
The langoustines were doomed again. I didn't like their smell. :( I got six prawns/ shrimp from the freezer instead.

I am sorry the photo is very poor. The room is dark and I asked G to take a photo of his meal and for some reason he focused his torch on the salad! ( instead of lighting more candles!)


The meal is adapted from a book we bought in December, and the mashed vegetable is swede with tahini, lime juice,( my sub for lemon as we are out of lemons) cumin, garlic. The prawns ( which should be langoustine are finished in a butter of saffron, vermouth, orange and lemon oil, chives, garlic, sumac and more cumin.

It was really good, and while the phot doesn't do much justice it did look nice too. There is lots of butter left over which will be lovely on toast and vegetables, and also the delicious swede, enough for a portion for me midweek, or to make with other things into a middle eastern vegetable soup.

G loved this, so we will definitely have it again.


http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/gg491/onceuponatimetherewasapicture/private/0eb80385c5ff9d28dc36a9de313d6ac2_zpsxqxifcyp.jpg


Nice!
 
I bought this stove because it has a power burner you can flip over to cradle a wok. BBQ pork and veggies for dinner.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top