Had no idea that was a thing, sounds like it would have saved me a lot of time.
Wait until you make clafouti. :) Spend a while pitting a couple pounds of black cherries with a large paper clip.
I thought it was a branding thing but maybe it’s a process thing. They’re called EZ-peel shrimp
Now it’s true because the machine does the cut it can go a little deeper than you would by hand, but they don’t look weird to me and I’ve never had a mangled one. Because they have the tail and most the shell, you can still do homemade broth or anything of that nature. They don’t have the head anymore.
You might give it a go if you’re looking to speed things up a bit.
That looks amazing!
Not technically cooking anything, but I decided to do a multi-layer salad for game night tonight. I was going to cook but we had server issues today so I had to scale back. I wiped together a semi-homemade honey mustard dressing and they’re marinating in the fridge now. It’s 95 out so… .this will probably do well for us.
I also realized I don’t really have a trifle dish. I am just not that kind of host but maybe I’ll get one for stuff like this… eventually.
I think I’ve mentioned elsewhere that my wife and I have moved. No longer in Ann Arbor, we are now in Troy, New York. Bought a nice farmhouse type house, though it is in town now.
Among other things, it has a gas stove, the first I’ve ever had. Really nice looking Frigidaire, with an interesting “griddle” feature in the middle of the cooktop. I used the stove for the first time tonight, made red beans and rice on top, and broiled elote and asparagus in the oven–corn on the cob rolled in butter and then sprinkled with cumin and ground chipotle, plus a bit of salt, and asparagus greased with avocado oil, sprinkled with salt, garlic powder and parmesan cheese, and then broiled to crispy. Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures this time. But it was a very simple meal.
But here’s the issue. As I said, first time using the stove. I had the broiler going, preheating, and smoke started coming up out of the back of the cooktop, right below where the buttons are for timer and such. I went ahead and broiled everything, but it really produced a lot of smoke, enough to set off the smoke alarm in the living room. We had to put a fan in the window blowing out, and open all the other windows for ventilation.
Anyone ever seen anything like that before? I’ve been watching it. It has cooled down completely now, with no sign of any fire or anything.
Oh, one other thing: the wife FINALLY let me buy a KitchenAid standing mixer. Ace had a display model on sale for $199. I love it, and I’m looking for uses, so throw some ideas at me.
Never bury the lede. :) Congrats on everything! Sorry I can’t help you with the stove issues.
Is there an exhaust fan above the rangetop? There should be.
I marinated chicken all day in a barbecue sauce (not my own) in hopes the rain would stop and I could grill.
The rain never stopped. Dammit.
But when in doubt, grab the best single cooking utensil known to man – the cast iron skillet.
Brown the chicken on high heat, about 5-7 minutes on each side. (@BennyProfane note the smoke – I have the exhaust fan on)
Baste with extra sauce, then right into the oven for about 30 minutes at 450.
Voila! Indoor barbecue!
Chicken looks great @tylertoo!
@BennyProfane Exhaust fan was my first thought as well, followed by residue from cleaning agents still in the broiler.
It may not be obvious, but if you remove the cooking grates, you can probably open the entire top part of the range, like the hood of a car. Thats mostly just where the wiring for the burner lighting elements are, and it doesn’t usually get that dirty, but it’s possible that there’s some crud in there that needs to be cleaned as well.
That chicken looks properly dead. Well done!
I find most bread/pizza doughs are just way less annoying with a good stand mixer + dough hook. I don’t love kneading, esp. since my counter is usually very crowded and getting flour everywhere isn’t any fun.
Also, my favorite cookie recipe, Alton Brown’s “The Chewy,” is so good that I always make a double batch. It’s actually easier to mix than most cookie recipes because the butter is melted, so creaming it is waaaaaaay easier, but even then, just mixing that much thick dough full of chocolate chips (and M&Ms in my case) by hand is unpleasant. Let the machine do the work, dammit!
The microwave is built in above the range, and it has an exhaust fan, but it isn’t actually vented, so it just blows out the top of the microwave. I really don’t like that, but there’s no way to change it–the range is against an inside wall, with the 2nd floor above it and a walk-up attic above that, so no way to run a real vent. I had it on high, but it didn’t really pull the smoke in well.
I’ll try opening the top up and see what I can see. The oven itself didn’t seem to be caked with cleaner or anything, and the smoke didn’t smell too toxic.
Thanks, Armando. I’ll check that recipe out.
What I really want to try is making my own sourdough. I love it, and it is SOOO difficult to find outside of large urban areas with decent delis.
I’d also check around the broiler, too—if something splashed or bubbled over in the oven, you might get some smoke from that.
I’m in more or less the exact same situation. We ended up buying a decently high end air purifier and run it on high anytime I cook anything more complicated than instant ramen, cuz otherwise smoke and odor just settles onto every part of the apartment. Especially since all our windows are painted or bolted shut, and our one exterior exit, onto a small balcony, is immediately swarmed by wasps whenever opened. . . the apartment essentially never really gets fresh air :(
I put a box fan in front of the screen door in the kitchen. that helped some, but I had to take the smoke alarm offline until later that evening.
Hm. I’ve never bothered with Alton’s cookie recipe, because, well, I mostly know how to make chocolate chip cookies already. Interestingly, his “brown sugar hack” is the way that my family has made cookies for years (basically, the Toll House recipe, but halving white sugar in favor or brown.)
If I’m going to use a recipe to make cookies, I’m going all out. Have you tried Jacques Torres’s cookies?
Edit non-paywalled:
A-mazing.
I do that same technique at least weekly if not multiple times per week. I love my skillets (and dutch oven, and cornbread trays, etc.) My GF has begrudgingly accepted the use of my skillet, but still prefers her non-stick pan, AND whatever she transfers things to for the oven.
Yesterday I browned chicken wings and finished in the oven. So good.
@BennyProfane I’ve never had a gas stove or oven. I thought they required a full vent outside? Maybe they don’t, but that seems strange.
I haven’t made these in several years, but this is some “secret” recipe that got out into the wild like 20 years ago. I’m pretty sure i got this during the America Online days or… maybe… when i was in college? It was like the first email spam i received. And maybe the only useful one.