Friday, May 29, 2009

A new toy for the Grillmaster

Last week, we took delivery of a Cookshack Smokette Elite
After a dry burn in, and a practice run with 1 small pork butt, we did 4 for the long weekend. We put them in on Friday night at 9 after rubbing with a basic rib/pork rub (that came with the smoker). Took them out at 8am, wrapped in foil and newspaper & popped into a cooler to hold for a while (while we went to Huntington Beach for a quick travel ball game). We came back at lunchtime to this:


It pulled beautifully.

We had 4 full tupperwares, so we "dressed" each version differently - one with rub & cider vinegar, one with spicy bbq sauce & rub, and one with spicy sauce & vinegar, and one with Mo's BBQ Philty Phil's sauce (mmm... next weekend in Los Osos - Mo's in SLO!!). Perfect on hamburger buns between the remaining double headers of our tournament filled weekend.

Trying out some smoked chickens tonight, and in 2 weeks - brisket!

The Cookshack is the Juan Pierre to the new convection oven's Manny Ramirez in this house right now --- batting .400 while the convection oven waits out the hot weather. GO BLUE.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Yay!!!


So, the new range is awesome. I made this paella one night for some friends, which is an adaptation of the Cook's Illustrated version. The high heat browned the chicken & sausage nicely, and the regular bake function did a good job of cooking the rice. I used regular calrose rice instead of arborio, I think I like the texture but wish I would have had more of that crispiness on the bottom. Maybe longer browning on the stovetop next time.


And....ta-da! The convection function is totally awesome, I almost forgot to snap a photo of this beautiful chicken that I roasted in only 45 minutes!!

Now, if spring baseball season would go away I could cook even more. But, it's a start! And, bread bakes beautifully.. I haven't tried convection on that.... will have to experiment.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Christening

What better way to christen the new Fridgidaire PLGS389EC than to go back to an old favorite, chicken divan. No pics, it always pretty much looks the same.
Worked like a dream.... I'm back!!!
Ooh, and this one has convection!