I’ve considered it, but currently don’t have the pantry space for 16 bags of chips…
I have this same issue with Fiestada pizzas. Swans won’t sell anything less than a full box of (I think) 72, and my one bedroom apartment sized freezer ain’t gonna cut it :(
That looks amazing. I think I know what we’re cookin’ this weekend!
We made Tikka Masala on Saturday and have been nomming on it for days since. So good.
The difference is that chips can just go in any old part of your house unless you have critters that might get into them. I don’t even have a pantry. I just stuck the Zapp’s box in my bedroom and snagged a bag to take out into the living part of my apartment whenever I was in the mood. Whereas frozen stuff…yeah. You need a chest freezer if you’re gonna be doing bulk.
Picked up an Instapot in a sale and cooked up a red lentil bacon/chicken stew the other night. Kind of failed on the flavor, but the texture was almost right and the cooking process was ridiculously quick and simple. Lentil stew using dry lentils in under 30 minutes start to finish? Wow.
Going to give it another go and if successful, going to attempt to make decent ramen (maybe this or this).
Pressure cooking is awesome. I’m sold. A lot of recipes I spend more time prepping than actually cooking.
Tonight! Kung Pao Chicken (with red peppers and celery, plus peanuts) over jasmine rice :)
Will prepare my traditional crab rangoons tomorrow to split 'em between this and the orange chicken I’m making Friday.
Still on the docket for tonight: a bunch of Discrete Math homework, then some apple-cinnamon-walnut granola with flax, quinoa, and chia seeds 4 Extra Helff
Armando, that loaf of bread looks like it came off the cover of a cooking magazine.
Thank you! It’s a real hellish recipe, but the loaf–chewy, crusty, with a nice salty, sour flavor to it–is pretty fantastic with just a bit of butter or honey. I’m thinkin’ it’s gonna be a bitchin’ French Toast bread come the weekend :)
Last food post for a little bit, but, just had to share. . . Apple-Walnut-Spice Granola with “Super Grainz 4 Super Gainz”:
Yeah that bread looks amazing. As does everything else. Bread might be the next thing I take on. I have a couple of my mom’s recipes lying around that I want to try. First I need to get a mixer though.
Winter is soup time, as everyone knows. And my wife had bought a bulk pack of thick cut applewood smoked bacon, despite us not using bacon much, and we had a bunch of potatoes that were starting to go bad.
So I made a potato corn chowder. With bacon, carrots, and onion. Plus fresh parsley from my indoor garden.
Even though I’m only lukewarm on bacon, this stuff smells and tastes so good. Plus now our place just smells like applewood smoked bacon, which smells amazing.
I’m not sure if this qualifies as interesting, but I got myself a pizza steel for Xmas - a cheap-ish 1/4" Kitchencraft one - and I’ve been impressed so far. I’ve been experimenting with the steel underneath and a stone on the shelf above, and it does seem to be making the crust browner, but could also be my imagination. The dough is from supermarket “Strong Bread Flour” with a little added gluten, kneaded in a Kenwood Chef. Topped with sliced bockwurst, mushrooms and some spring onions I had mouldering in the fridge. Sauce was made with loads of fresh basil from my Aerogarden.
Make sure you preheat for an hour or so if not already. The baking stones and steels are basically batteries that need to reach the ambient temperature of the oven and that takes quite awhile.
Yeah, 45-60 minutes of pre-heating at the highest oven setting seems to do the trick. Like Gendal said, the main point of the steel is to act as a thermal mass. It’s 25 lbs of steel, which just absorbs a ton of heat, and then makes it so that heat gets transferred into the pizza quickly.
Also, that pizza is prettier than anything I’ve made thus far. Mine are all oblong. :P
I actually got one of these for Christmas, and can’t wait to unpack it. Waiting until the baby comes to do so, purely because of the disruption. Have grown anything other than herbs?
Heh heh heh
When just using the steel you can get away with half an hour, I’ve found. It heats up more quickly, but doesn’t retain as much heat as stone - which is the point, as it’s the rapid transfer of heat that crisps the base. So, a stone might have a temp of 250c, while the steel might be 5-10 degrees cooler, but will still do a better job. Sorry, if that’s already obvious to you.
If I’m using a stone on top I still need to give it at least an hour, but I’m not that convinced it’s helping much as there’s either too much of a gap or not enough gap, depending on where I place the steel vs the stone. Maybe I’ll put the steel on a stone to close the gap. Where does it end? (Buying a commercial pizza oven, is where it ends. I’ve been pricing them up…)
So, yeah, I’ve spent almost thirty years trying to make the perfect home cooked pizza. Not even close yet.
Hmm, this isn’t really true, at least unless you have a really massive stone.
The amount of heat that the steel/stone contains is directly related to its mass. Since the steel is most likely a great deal heavier than the stone, it is capable of holding a great deal more heat.
You’re right though, that it will more readilly conduct that heat to the pizza, in theory.
I wouldn’t stress too much, an Aerogarden won’t cause all that much disruption. Hahaha.
Though, yeah, the Aerogarden is virtually an appliance, albeit one you have to feed and water regularly. Like a baby. Circles within circles…
I got the herb starter set which is two kinds of Basil, Dill (been eating a bunch of salmon because what else is Dill for?), parsley, which has virtually surrendered to the Basil jungle, Mint, which is coming on strong after a slow start, and some Thyme, which said Cilantro (coriander) on the box but Thyme on the pod, but actually turned out to be more Mint, which I’m fine with - I made ghetto creme de menthe around Xmas, so I might try making it properly with the mint.
I’ve also have one of those Ikea hydroponic set-ups, which started out well for the first month, with lots of fresh lettuce, but which I appear to have killed either with too much or not enough nutrients. Got a ppm meter on order.
I think I was confusing heat and temperature. The stone definitely gets hotter as it can’t dissipate the ambient heat as quickly as the steel does. Oh and the stone and the steel I have are about the same weight. Actually I’ve got a cordierite stone which is about the same weight as the two of them combined but I retired it and my current oven is a bit too small.