Me as well, but only when I bake bacon and there are less burned parts in it. It comes out looking mostly clear when poured off, and white once hardened in the fridge.
If I recall correctly, it’s better than butter in some regards, worse in others. But so much more flavorful. A dab of it for fried eggs is divine.
I love it.
I tried a new pizza dough recipe today. It isn’t all that different in ingredients than the other ones I’ve tried, but has some process changes which made a big difference. Rather than a short rise followed by punching down, it was a four-hour rise with a fold halfway in and another at the end.
The resulting dough was much harder to roll out into a pizza shape, but had three qualities my previous doughs have been missing: an airy, open crumb, a thin center where the toppings go, and a tall crust at the edge of the pizza.
The oven in our new place did a great job on the cheese, too.
Armando, what sort of air purifier did you get and is it mostly for odors or does it help with the smokiness as well?
I use cast iron weekly and am in an apartment where the hood vent exhausts a foot above its intake.
We got this guy:
https://www.amazon.com/Winix-5300-2-Purifier-PlasmaWave-Reducing/dp/B01D8DAYBA
I haven’t had a chance to test its effectiveness on heavy smoke yet, and admittedly, our kitchen/livingroom area actually outstrips its CADR rated max (but buying a 500sqft machine–our kitchen/living room is probably half the apartment’s total space thanks to its vaulted ceiling–was just unrealistic for our budget). That said, we’ve noticed a genuine reduction in odors after the fact when I’ve run it while cooking. The autosensing mode seems pretty effective.
I actually have that exact air filter myself, in my bedroom. I like the little tune it makes when you turn it on. Have it connected to a smartplug so I can go “Alexa turn on the air filter”. Good times, good times.
Quite cute, Rich. Did she enjoy your … uh … meatloaf?
*** queue Bat Out of Hell album ***
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one thinking of that response.
“But I won’t do that.”
Lovely work, y’all! We just went to Cheesecake Factory. . . so lazy >.>
I think the latest guidelines allow a doctor to prescribe you statins just for visiting Cheesecake Factory.
There’s one near me that I’ve been considering. How is the food? Feel free to elaborate at length.
The menu is absolutely enormous and very overwhelming. As you might imagine, any restaurant cooking that much different stuff doesn’t do much exceedingly well, but they do manage a certain kind of baseline, satisfying, rich quality in most of their food. Tons of oil and butter and cream in everything, sure, but it does help. The sheer variety is nice if you have picky eaters or just aren’t sure what you want–they’ve got everything from pizza to burgers to pastas to Thai curries to Chinese stir fries filled in there, tons of apps, etc. Prices are a little high (I think I could pay the same amount for any one menu item elsewhere and get something better), but well, convenient.
It’s always crowded, busy, and loud. The servers look like they’re on the verge of death by exhaustion but just keep their grins locked on. The decor is a weird mix of faux European grandeur, chintzy beach house, and, for whatever reason, these horrifying Eye of Sauron lamps. The booze is pricy, but broader than most chain joints go.
The cheesecake is, for what it’s worth, pretty okay! It’s extremely rich and thick and lavish and most varieties pack so much stuff in there that you’re basically eating a gigantic dessert plate that happens to feature a portion of cheesecake material stuffed somewhere inside of it, but it’s hard to complain about the variety and quality on display there. Tons of stuff. Some with cake layered in, some with fresh fruits, some with various candy bars mashed in, etc. All served with enormous dollops of fairly okay whipped cream.
End of the night, we’d blown $84 for a meal with no booze, 1 app, and cheesecake for each. Without the $40 gift card, I’d have felt ripped off. With it, it seemed like a way better way to spend $45 than Ruby Tuesday.
What an amazing distillation of Cheesecake Factory.
If you are critpathing Cheesecake Factory you get chicken Little’s as your main and Hershey bar cheesecake as your dessert.
Nicely written. I believe that the wife and I will try it at least once. And I’ll probably pre-game to avoid excessive liquor fees. :)
It’s probably worth noting that the missus and I almost never drink when we go out, so our pricing ideas may be off from others of similar income levels. I hope you guys enjoy–we almost always do. @MattN’s advice on the Chicken Littles is excellent, though I’d personally recommend the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake as the best one they sell.
I made tacos tonight!
Minced onion and garlic, buncha salt, black pepper, cayenne, powdered chipotle, cinnamon, cumin, and epazote, then a pound of beef, cooked till sizzling, mixed in some flour, then some beef stock, simmered till thick and viscous. Piled into pre-made taco shells and covered in cheddar, sour cream, Valentina (the greatest hot sauce, y’all), shredded lettuce, and tomatoes.
Dece little supper :)
My favorite cheesecake is probably cheesecake factory white chocolate raspberry.
Cheesecake Factory is near perfect for something like your evening out, Armando. I can’t fault your choice. Ours is too far away and we have too many other things between here and there to pull us off the path. We tend to do a high priced dinner about once a quarter or so, and with drinks we usually come out around 100-150 depending on the place. I personally know those aren’t “high priced” to some folks, but surely to us they are way outside of the norm.
When we go cheaper is when all the options open up and we generally have the analysis paralysis problem where we toss ideas to each other until one of us tires of it and says, “okay whatever, you choose.” AKA the age old relationship issue with eating out.
Someone on Reddit linked to a pic on Kenji’s pan pizza dough. I know a lot of you guys are well on the path to pizza mastery. Any comments on his recipe? Too overboard? About normal? I have a stand mixer and a hankering to make anything better than a lackluster pizza.
You missed your calling as a food critic. I don’t think I have ever read a restaurant review that so perfectly captured my own experience of going there.
