Lovely thighs! Which type of smoker do you use? What’s your opinion on it? We are now thinking maybe to get a smoker.
My smoker is an old electric Masterbuilt smoker that won’t die.
One of the best of the electrics is the Cookshack of which there are cheaper clones. Very well built and uses only a small amount of wood
Pellet grill/smokers are getting a lot of interest these days. They seem to be good multi taskers
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I have found the hardest thing in a home oven or outdoor grill is to get direct heat from above. Modern gas stoves dont turn on the broiler if the oven is past a certain temperature.
The resources I have used to most are the PizzaMaking.com forums and the book entitled “The Pizza Bible”. The latter even has a full online community.
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Yes, that is a great recipe! Now that I have found good anchovies thanks to this board, I need to try that recipe again with the optional anchovies.
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ooh, not optional - they make the sauce, for me! and yes, i’ve got a giant can of those salted anchovies in the fridge - they keep forever in their salt.
Exactly! For the outdoor grill, we have tried indirect cooking which was much better than direct heating from below, which has a tendency to burn the below of the pizza due to overheating. The next step will be testing with different charcoals / woods.
Thanks for the information, I will pass that to my pizza chef. 
What brand of anchovies do you use? Thanks.
These are the best affordable brand I found. They are way better than Cento and discernibly better than Restautant Depot’s brand.
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Yellow split pea soup. Sauteed onions, carrot, garlic. Bay leaf, dried marjoram, caraway, crushed red pepper, and black pepper for seasoning. Threw in a pound of chicken necks for broth.
First meal in my new pressure cooker. Never cooked with one by myself before. I wanted to not like it because I usually don’t like pressure cooked food, but it was good. So good, it did not need the extras. I am learning: Not everything needs acid or fresh herbs.
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Earlier this week, Chiang Mai chicken with Chile-Lime dipping sauce from the Milk Street Cookbook. Great recipe, but we grilled over charcoal. The recipe instructed to bake at high heat on a rack fitted in a sheet pan. I’ve done the rack thing many times before and it’s impossible to clean the rack.
We made lettuce wraps out of it. I didn’t think to take a pic until it was almost all gone.
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I love any meal with lettuce wraps! Something about the raw crunchy fresh layer really does it for me.
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Breakfasty dinner, classic veggie tofu scramble with a side of cantaloupe (i got a good one!!) and new batch lemon ginger tumeric black pepper kombucha. I have used isa’s basic tofu scramble since forever, only i also add a tiny tiny pinch of black salt. (The nutritional yeast is key)
Today included mushrooms, some red onion, an absolute crapton of spinach (long story short: my friend and neighbor belongs to sam’s club and asked if i wanted anything, and for like $6 i now have an absolute shitton of spinach! Ha!!) and some red bell pepper.
Maybe i’ll have the leftovers for breakfast!
https://www.isachandra.com/2009/10/tof-u-and-tof-me-scrambled-tofu-revisited/
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Finally back in the good old USA! Over my jetlag (mostly) and back in the kitchen tonight. I have a few patches of ramps in my garden and they are almost past their prime, but I was able to harvest enough leaves to make some excellent pesto for dinner tonight. Served it as a condiment for grilled flap steak, with a side of Brussels sprouts roasted with cumin. SO good to be home!
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welcome back! how long were you actually gone? seems like months!
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Dinner was defrosted carnitas i made a couple weeks ago, and Rancho Gordo’s Eye of the Goat beans I made on Sunday. I added as little to the beans as possible - half an onion in the water, salt, a bay leaf, and then some chopped Cochon bacon, because it was the last of it I had. DELISH! so tonight I made a bean and carnitas soup - just bean broth, beans, carnitas. Topped with cilantro, scallions, serranos, and queso fresco. Little hot sauce at the table. SO GOOD.
the only bummer was i went to a local mexicatessan to buy fresh-masa-made corn tortillas (instead of those made with masa harina) and accidentally picked up two packs of flour tortillas. i can’t stand flour tortillas! they’ll go to my sister’s. We resorted to TJ’s corn torillas, which we both deemed better than the flour.
I did, however, find out i can buy their fresh masa and make my own corn tortillas next time.
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Shami Kabobs tonight, classic Ramadan food. My second use of our new pressure cooker. I’m fortunate to have someone as obsessed with food as I am. We made these as a team, which gave us the time luxury to use a mortar and pestle the old fashioned way. Still took about 5 hours total, but now we have enough for at least half of Ramadan.
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I imagine you’ll be very happy having these available over the coming weeks. Wishing you and yours a wonderful Ramadan.
(Not sure what the proper well wish is but hope this captures an essence of it.)
Perhaps it’s just the angle of the photo but the mortar and pestle look huge!
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I and millions of Americans thank and salute you
My husband suffered from MDS, eventually transfused 2-3 times a week before failed stem cell transplant
One of my best friend is now one her way to Florida to visit her brother, diagnosed just recently with MDS
For everyone in America, I thank you
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