Tell us what you have cooked lately (that's interesting)

The past is the past. Water under the bridge. We are in agreement.

That cheesecake looks amazing! I never knew they were baked - all the homemade ones I’ve seen done (as a child) were like poured on the crust and put in the fridge to set.

Yeah there are no bake cheescakes made by Pilsbury and stuff, and they’re easy to make. But real cheesecake is baked, and is so much better.

It’s also a butt load more work, but is worth it.

Oh yum that looks good!

How do you all store your cast iron pans in between use?

Okay, the missus and I might be drinking beer and watching the food channel.

Can anyone identify what the pepperoni is that they put on pizzas that is small, round, curls up and forms small chalices of pepperoni oil awesomeness?

Ezzo sausage from the article is down the street from my fire station and will occasionally send a couple of bags of pepperoni our way for being such wonderful public servants. So. Good. That’s why Saturday, pizza day, will always be my favorite day to work.

That article is why I love reading everything Kenji writes. The engineering side of me always wants to dissect the how and why of something, and when I cook I frequently can’t just turn that part off, and my mind goes in multiple directions thinking about 5 degrees warmer or cooler, or when precisely to flip the steak, or how much dressing is the perfect amount, etc.

Great article, and now I want a pepperoni pizza!

I wasn’t 100% satisfied with the dough—I think it probably needs to be a little wetter. I’ll post the recipe I used when I have it figured out.

I don’t have enough cast iron to store it specially. Our dutch oven goes on a shelf with the lid on upside-down and a paper towel protecting the lid and rim from each other. The pan just goes in the pan cabinet with our non-cast-iron stuff.

I’ll add in how I clean mine and then store it.

Cleaning:
I let the pan cool down, then while running hot water over it I’ll scrape off the burned on parts with a plastic scraper. Lodge makes a good one. If anything is left I’ll run a non-scratch Scotch Brite pad on it while still under the water. Once things feel clean and the water runs clear I dry it off well with a paper towel, then put it on a burner on low for just a bit. I heat the pan until dry, which doesn’t take long at all.

Storing:
Then I’ll lightly apply some oil and rub it in with a paper towel, top to bottom. I store it after that. The oil can be very, very light. It helps prevent rust between uses. Cast iron is heavy, I always store mine on a bottom shelf somewhere in a cabinet or on my pantry cart.

Thanks, I hope sometime I’ll feel organized enough to start using one.

It’s a pan, they are tough. It really takes a lot to mess them up. Even rusty and dirty, they can be brought back to glory.

The drawback is that they are flipping heavy, but they double as a great one or two-handed weapon when the zombies finally show up.

TangledIron

-xtien

Some wings i made in the breville smart oven air.

Practicing Japanese food this week. Most of it turned out well. Some is gonna need more work ahead of next Friday.


Okonomiyaki in progress. Batter is flour, dashi stock, egg, pickled ginger, tenkasu (bits of fried tempura batter), shredded cabbage, and green onions, fried atop some thin-sliced pork belly.

Sadly, flipping it went super poorly and I wound up with this rather unsightly mess, covered in smoky-tangy-sweet-salty okonomiyaki sauce, Japanese mayo, green onions, and shredded nori.

Some leftover okonomiyaki and leftover gyudon (beef simmered in a Teriyaki-esque sauce with onions and egg) mixed in with the rice I had it packed with. It’s “presentation.”

Fried pork tonkatsu with white rice and an onion-carrot-and-potato spicy curry, with some green onions on top.

Finally, last night’s dinner: fresh miso soup with tofu and wakame (my gf doesn’t like the fillings much, so less in her bowl), white rice, frozen-steamed edamame, and some very unattractive teriyaki salmon that luckily tasted much better than it appeared. Frozen, skin-off salmon fillets of different size an weight do not a good presentation make. . . but it was tasty!

Looks great to me!

I oculd never really get into tonkatsu though but the pancakes were fun.

A good looking mess that I’m sure was extremely tasty. I can’t wait to see how you do for the Tennessee “catering.” I’ve noticed you’ve settled into a lot more Japanese, even prior to this practice and event coming up. Do you find yourself mixing cuisines when you cook or do you just go through cycles of, “this month I feel like X?”

Get in mah belly!

Habanero?

No, the sauce was some black vinegar, rooster sauce, soy sauce, and some Korean bbq.

For Mother’s Day I made French toast with a cream cheese frosting

Fairly simple, but very delicious.

So funny thing about the frosting. It called for cream cheese, sour cream, and sugar. Which I had. But whipped cream, which I did not. So I substituted some of the low fat peach ice cream from Aldi I had.

It worked really well. Shockingly well, actually. It had just about the right texture too.