Dave148 wrote:Tonight’s dinner was my first ever stab at Kenji’s Detroit-Style Pan Pizza Recipe sans pepperoni. Definitely worth the effort.

I have been thinking about it also. Did you use brick cheese? If so, where did you get it?

lougord99 wrote:I have been thinking about it also. Did you use brick cheese? If so, where did you get it?

We live in the region where brick cheese is easily available. I have bought brick cheese at Jewel, Woodman's and Caputo's in Lake Forest (RIP).

Regards,
Cathy2

lougord99 wrote:

Dave148 wrote:Tonight’s dinner was my first ever stab at Kenji’s Detroit-Style Pan Pizza Recipe sans pepperoni. Definitely worth the effort.

I have been thinking about it also. Did you use brick cheese? If so, where did you get it?

Yes I did and I purchased it at Woodman’s in Buffalo Grove. $1.39/gallon for unleaded.

Friday's snow day pork spare ribs and sauerkraut was deboned, chopped up and mixed into a triple recipe of spaetzle. The potatoes were put aside to integrate into a potato salad.


My Grandfather's first two wives were Germans from the southern regions of Germany. My Grandfather was born in the north near Hamburg. This north-south divide was most evident in preferences of potatoes (north) and spaetzle (south). My Grandfather did not like spaetzle. If he was home for dinner, there were potatoes. If he was not, then it was spaetzle. What was the family crazy for? Spaetzle!

If my Grandmother served spare ribs and sauerkraut, often with potatoes, it was guaranteed the next evening's meal was spaetzle (and Grandpa would not be present).

German cooking is very regional. My Dad's first trip to Germany in 1958, he was dismayed all the food was not like his Mother's. The sour rye bread could not even be found or at least it was not initially. Eventually he visited the side of the family where this bread was common, though it was just not everywhere.

My family has a love-hate relationship with German food. Anything associated with my Grandmother is just fabulous. I will admit my appreciation for German food and culture has been enhanced by attending DankHaus German food classes. I don't go very often, it largely depends if they are making a regional dish unknown to me. I will further suggest probably largely unknown to my family.

I have golden hands like my Grandmother: almost anything we choose to make our family tends to like (or at least tolerate).

There were two items Oma made I did not like: all her mashed potatoes were the consistency of a puree and her mutton stew was overpowering. I have long considered making mutton stew to see if those strong flavors are more appealing now. Now mutton is not exactly easy to obtain, though one of these days we will cross paths.

Regards,
Cathy2

Stir Fry veg bits and pieces, including potato and cauliflower, with tofu on jasmine rice = dinner. Peanuts and Chili crisp over top.

Hi,

This morning I was thinking about the leftover potatoes from the pork spare ribs and sauerkraut. My initial plan was to integrate them into a potato salad, but wasn't sure I wanted porcine flavored potatoes in my salad. Maybe it was just too early in the morning to contemplate.

I decided to chop them up, reheat them in the microwave and crisp up in a frying pan. As I was doing this, I began to remember Patty's Diner's off-menu old potatoes. Just the thought of them tickled the brain.

Possibly the very first image of Patty's old potatoes by Gwiv:


If I had consulted this picture first, I might have sliced to increase the surface area rather than chunk. Still it hit the spot along with a scrambled egg.


A good breakfast just brightens the day.

Regards,
Cathy2

Really cleaned out the fridge and freezer with tonight's dinner . . .


Ramp & Chive Soup | topped with Mexican crema, unfiltered olive oil and homemade schug
Was happy to find a good use for two containers of homemade chicken stock, which are no longer taking up real estate in my freezer. My pound of garlic chives is now gone, as are the two pounds of ramps I received over the weekend (much of them also given away). In any case, the soup was really delicious, much better than it looks.


Mixed Grill - Coho Salmon, Sauteed Zucchini, Mystery Sausage, Pacific Cod (clockwise from bottom, left)
We're now working through our April box (~5 pounds) from Sitka Salmon Shares, which was delivered last week. It was mostly pacific cod but they threw in one piece of coho salmon, which is now no more. I think the sausage, a vacuum-sealed three-pack, was spicy Italian from Tempesta but it wasn't labeled so I'm not 100% sure. This was the last of our zucchini (yay!), which we sauteed with evoo and garlic, and finished with some concentrated pork glace I made a while back.

Just to help us stay organized and reduce waste/spoilage, we're keeping and printing out a weekly meal plan, which is taped to the refrigerator.

I might try a little baking later this week . . .

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Cathy2 wrote:The wrapper used by Helen is one I know by sight ... I am 90% certain it is this product.

I found these at Woodman's. Thanks, Cathy!

With the extra time at I've had at home recently, I've definitely been cooking more but when it comes to breakfast, a meal I typically skip in normal times, I tend to keep it really simple. So, it felt good to get back in touch with the 'old' normal today . . .


2% Yogurt, Tupelo Honey, All Bran Buds

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ronnie_suburban wrote:All Bran Buds

Your regular breakfast is sure to keep you regular.

G Wiv wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:All Bran Buds

Your regular breakfast is sure to keep you regular.

Well, you know I love broccoli but I can't have it at every meal!

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This meal was all about the potatoes. Crispy smashed potatoes with walnut dressing from Bon Appetite: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/crisp ... t-dressing .

Potatoes were outstanding and I accompanied with smoked ribs that were frozen from several nights ago. Turned out to be the perfect side dish to these potatoes.

Got a hold of some skirt steaks and we put together a Meat +2 for dinner tonight . . .


Skirt Steaks
Oiled, seasoned and cooked hot and fast over lump charcoal


Skirt Steaks
My son claimed he could eat the entire platter. He probably could have but I'm glad he didn't.


Skirt Steak, Baked Green Beans & Cauliflower Casserole
Tomato-baked green beans and riced 'clean out the fridge' cauliflower casserole with sauteed green garlic, sauteed onion, garlic confit, leftover cooked rice, dijon mustard, Mexican crema.

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Killin me, Ron!
Skirts are probably my favorite cut for the price, and I missed out last week on one of my hood market's decent sale last week. I'm doing some big fat NY Strips tonight, but honestly, I like skirts more. You got a smart kid over there.

Sheeple status be damned! Thanks to most revered breadguru, Pairs4life, I learned how to nurse a starter back from the brink of death and baked up my first ever loaf of bread. Will need to work on getting the interior to be a bit tighter, but it was perfectly crusty and delicious. Got a thumbs up and requests for more from the hubs (after several questions about what the hell I’ve been concocting in the kitchen for the past 5 days ).

ronnie_suburban wrote:I might try a little baking later this week . . .

Well, that I did. Oatmeal Raisin cookies, super easy and they turned out pretty nicely, though I have lots of room for improvement in my baking game . . .


Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
About half the batch


Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
The full batch, except for one that mysteriously disappeared when I wasn't looking.

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seebee wrote:Killin me, Ron!
Skirts are probably my favorite cut for the price, and I missed out last week on one of my hood market's decent sale last week. I'm doing some big fat NY Strips tonight, but honestly, I like skirts more. You got a smart kid over there.

How'd your strips turn out? I'm just trying to mix it up over here and not get into too deep a rut. Since this ordeal began, I think I've grilled at least 5 different cuts of steaks, 3 different types of fish, 3 different types of sausages, chicken drumsticks, chicken thighs and pork chops. Plus I smoked some spare ribs, too. And that's just the outdoor cooking!

And yeah, the boy's pretty smart. As my mother often says, "Julie, you've done a wonderful job with him."

boudreaulicious wrote:I learned how to nurse a starter back from the brink of death and baked up my first ever loaf of bread.

Looks great. I'm curious about starter in general because so many people have been posting about restarting their starters. But my experience is that to keep one going, quite a bit of flour is needed . . . and it's relatively hard to find right now. If I were going to bake some bread, it seems like it'd be easier to find yeast than it would be to find the amount of flour necessary to resuscitate my starter. Not that I don't prefer naturally-raised loaves but beggars can't be choosers. Wondering how much flour people have to burn to keep their starters going. When I was baking Silverton breads (Breads from the La Brea Bakery, many years ago), the flour requirements were crazy-high . . . 3 feedings a day. We use to joke that it needed more TLC than a child.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:I learned how to nurse a starter back from the brink of death and baked up my first ever loaf of bread.

Looks great. I'm curious about starter in general because so many people have been posting about restarting their starters. But my experience is that to keep one going, quite a bit of flour is needed . . . and it's relatively hard to find right now. If I were going to bake some bread, it seems like it'd be easier to find yeast than it would be to find the amount of flour necessary to resuscitate my starter. Not that I don't prefer naturally-raised loaves but beggars can't be choosers. Wondering how much flour people have to burn to keep their starters going. When I was baking Silverton breads (Breads from the La Brea Bakery, many years ago), the flour requirements were crazy-high . . . 3 feedings a day. We use to joke that it needed more TLC than a child.

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I jumped on the sourdough train when the sh!t went down 5+ weeks ago. Wifey bought me the Tartine Bread book which sat on the shelf for a few years. Now I realize what took me so long, the whole process, indeed, requires constant attention (and I'm juggling a four year old full time!)

And not long into the process I realized how much waste the feeding and discarding process would involve, which is not ideal for today's scarce resources (+ I'm a pretty economic cook to begin with.) The Tartine recipe favors a lower pH "sweeter" starter which requires everyday feeding of about a cup of flour and then discarding 80% of it, which is roughly 6 cups of wasted flour a week!

Well I've found work arounds & fortunately we like a little sour funk in our sourdough. We eat about a loaf a week (usually 2/3 in one day) maybe two. The starter gets stashed 3-4 days in the fridge. And then I feed it about half a cup of flour a day for a few days before my bake. With each feeding I "discard" a little over half, which gets saved for other projects. So I'm producing about 1.5 cups of discard a week and there's plenty of options to use it elsewhere–

Pancakes are a popular option. Big, billowy Dutch baby style. I've also been pouring the starter right into a hot pan to make thin, crepe like sour pancakes that I eat in savory applications. I realized the other day, its not unlike injera, so I'm gonna make some spiced lentils this weekend. English muffins are also on deck.

Overall, its been a fun & delicious project. I honestly can't believe how good the bread's turned out, tbh. Some of the best I've ever eaten.

Notes on flour scarcity– my main grocery, Angelo Caputo's in Carol Stream seems to be where the home cooks shop, since they are down to 50 lb. bags of store brand flour (they haven't seemed to restock in over a month.) Jewel by me had no bread flour but AP and whole wheat from King Arthur & Gold Medal. Target had ample bags of King Arthur bread flour last weekend. Its likely more supply chain-related, but I can't help but wonder if the culinary inclinations of the customers of each store might be a factor.

ronnie_suburban wrote:How'd your strips turn out? I'm just trying to mix it up over here and not get into too deep a rut. Since this ordeal began, I think I've grilled at least 5 different cuts of steaks, 3 different types of fish, 3 different types of sausages, chicken drumsticks, chicken thighs and pork chops. Plus I smoked some spare ribs, too. And that's just the outdoor cooking!

And yeah, the boy's pretty smart. As my mother often says, "Julie, you've done a wonderful job with him."

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The strips were fine, my kid took an unexpectedly strange intense interest in watching my grill techniques and asking questions about them in between us playing catch. Though I ate enough to have the "meat sweats" later in the evening, I still have a hankerin for some good ol skirt (damn you!) I think, for the price, my favorite cuts are:

1. Skirt (outer taking the slight edge, when it's available)

2. Whatever that little round part of a top sirloin comes in at a pretty close second.

3. Flat Irons, but that little sinewey thing in the middle bugs me.

Also, join the club. My parents like my wife and son FAR more than they like me. Can't really blame them tho.

seebee wrote: I think, for the price, my favorite cuts are:

1. Skirt (outer taking the slight edge, when it's available)

2. Whatever that little round part of a top sirloin comes in at a pretty close second.

3. Flat Irons, but that little sinewey thing in the middle bugs me.

In situations where the skirt steak is cut up ( like in tacos ) I will always go with a hanger steak over a skirt steak. It is almost as flavorful and less money. The only place around me that I have found hanger steaks is Marianos Northbrook.

This thread got me interested in Kenji's Detroit style pizza which I made last night. Found the brick cheese and Boars Head pepperoni at Sunset Highland Park. I made a 1/2 recipe because I only have (1) 8x8 pan. We loved it, though as Kenji admits, this is not an every week type of meal. I had a little difficulty getting it out of the pan, so the finished product is not as pretty as it might be. I also should have left it in the oven another minute. This will definitely be made again at some point in our house.

lougord99 wrote:This thread got me interested in Kenji's Detroit style pizza which I made last night....
I had a little difficulty getting it out of the pan, so the finished product is not as pretty as it might be...

Parchment paper is your friend. Make a U-shaped sling that goes up opposite sides and covers the bottom (crease along the bottom of the pan. It's good for cakes, brownies, etc.

I use parchment paper when I cook regular pizzas on a stone in the oven. However, I pull the parchment paper out from underneath the pizza after a few minutes. Even just a few minutes at 550 and the paper is turning to ashes. There would be no way to pull the parchment paper out and it cooks at 550 for 10-15 minutes.

lougord99 wrote:This thread got me interested in Kenji's Detroit style pizza which I made last night. Found the brick cheese and Boars Head pepperoni at Sunset Highland Park. I made a 1/2 recipe because I only have (1) 8x8 pan. We loved it, though as Kenji admits, this is not an every week type of meal. I had a little difficulty getting it out of the pan, so the finished product is not as pretty as it might be. I also should have left it in the oven another minute. This will definitely be made again at some point in our house.

Don't feel bad. I also had to wrestle mine a bit to get it out of the pan.

lougord99 wrote:In situations where the skirt steak is cut up ( like in tacos ) I will always go with a hanger steak over a skirt steak. It is almost as flavorful and less money. The only place around me that I have found hanger steaks is Marianos Northbrook.

Totally feel you, but I like the skirt flavor/texture more, and the price... debatable-ish...

If you can, watch for skirts to go on super sale at Mexican tinged markets, especially around May 5th . Oddly, my little fruit market around the corner had choice OUTER skirt on sale for 3.99/lb last week (whole/uncleaned.) The norm lately I've seen is that it's always been inner at most markets, and sale price has been a steady 4.99. In a normal situation, I'd load my freezer up with that 3.99 outer. And I mean load up for the entire summer / fall season.

Also, last year, a few times, Jewel was slingin choice inner skirt for 3.99/lb. Some had them pre-cleaned, and some were whole. I bought a few whole pkgs and worked on my knife skills (or lack therof.) Not sure it's worth the hassle for me, but we ate good.

On my last Costco run, I grabbed a two pack of soft goat cheese. As often happens with my impulse buys, I had no idea what I was going to do with it. We had an abundance of potatoes from our produce box from Urban Canopy and I guessed we could find a recipe to use both. Epicurious for the win! Potato gratin with goat cheese and garlic Mr. X was in charge of making it. No heavy cream so he thinned out sour cream with milk. He also forgot to add the garlic. That was remedied by sprinkling the top with Penzey's roasted garlic. It turned out great.

The GP wrote:On my last Costco run, I grabbed a two pack of soft goat cheese. As often happens with my impulse buys, I had no idea what I was going to do with it. We had an abundance of potatoes from our produce box from Urban Canopy and I guessed we could find a recipe to use both. Epicurious for the win! Potato gratin with goat cheese and garlic Mr. X was in charge of making it. No heavy cream so he thinned out sour cream with milk. He also forgot to add the garlic. That was remedied by sprinkling the top with Penzey's roasted garlic. It turned out great.

Looks great, Mary. I've got 4 potatoes just looking for their final destination right now. Maybe I can improvise something similar.

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lougord99 wrote:I use parchment paper when I cook regular pizzas on a stone in the oven. However, I pull the parchment paper out from underneath the pizza after a few minutes. Even just a few minutes at 550 and the paper is turning to ashes. There would be no way to pull the parchment paper out and it cooks at 550 for 10-15 minutes.

Same idea, but use foil instead.

Going around the edges with a knife is what I do to get it out. Sometimes that is easier said than done.

Regards,
Cathy2

seebee wrote:Totally feel you, but I like the skirt flavor/texture more, and the price... debatable-ish...
Oddly, my little fruit market around the corner had choice OUTER skirt on sale for 3.99/lb last week (whole/uncleaned.) The norm lately I've seen is that it's always been inner at most markets, and sale price has been a steady 4.99. ...
Also, last year, a few times, Jewel was slingin choice inner skirt for 3.99/lb. Some had them pre-cleaned, and some were whole.

I'm a devoted and loyal skirt steak fan, using it in Mexican dishes, the high amount of surface area makes seasoning it with fajita/sazon salt easier. I'm jealous of the prices you're seeing. I feel lucky to find it at $7.99/lb for inner at Fresh Farms (Golf only now, formerly Touhy too). The S. Wilmette Jewel has it at $8.99 with shorter use-by dates, and WF is $12.99. I recall only about a 1 week span where Jewel had them reduced to $4.99.

Chopping up the asada for quesadillas or tacos doesn't reduce the appeal for me. I'd be concerned with having to add additional seasoning post chop to the hanger to make up for the surface area ratio. I'll give hanger a try soon though, just to know if I'm doing things right.

I do love it but hanger can be difficult to find, even under normal circumstances. Only 1 per animal. It's got a similar flavor to skirt -- perhaps, beefier -- but is generally more tender. And being a thicker cut, at least in places, it's a bit more forgiving to cook.

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