What's For Dinner?

I'm trying to be positive but I need to let my Ferrari chat fellows know.....had a fire on thanksgiving night...Friday morning at 3 am. Lost my Ferrari, 40 x 40 shop, 300 cases of wine...etc, etc. 40 years of my life, tools, kids records, tax docs, etc. Looks like might have been illegal fireworks that caused my shop to be an inferno....terrifing to wake up at 310 am to your shop completely engulfed in fire. 40 ft high inferno....luckily no one hurt except my hair caught a few times as I was trying to keep the house from going up too. Really bad. Wife hasn't slept well since, nor I.....here a few pic's of it and what is left of my car, which isn't much, completely melted everything, no anything left..Car exhaust on the right of the shop...nothing else there Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login .......new definition of black friday for us.

 

So sorry for your loss of property and serenity! Just really sad, and a massive kick to the crotch. Hopefully you can move forward, and achieve some peace of mind.

 

I'm so sorry to hear this. Glad you were able to save the house. Your family is in our thoughts and prayers.
T

 

Nice! Someone married up!

If I could move to oligarch-level finances, I would hire a personal sous chef! I like cooking, but having someone do my mise en place and chopping things to a uniform size would be awesome! Oh yeah, they would also be in charge of lighting the charcoal for the grill!

T

p.s. I'd also hire a valet to make sure the right car is fueled, staged and ready for the day's drive!

 

@BrettC so sorry to hear about what happened. I cannot imagine the loss. Glad you and your family are safe.

 

So sorry to see this. Can't imagine waking up to an inferno - then having to protect your house. Glad everyone is safe and hope you and your family can recover and rebuilt quickly.

 

Oh, Man. Sorry and sad.

 

Sorry about the fire............................

I haven't had any post worthy meals. McRib last night and a few days ago. DQ in between. But tonight I'm making beef tacos at home. Spaghetti and meatballs tomorrow.

 

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Couple nights ago.

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Escargot in the top pic?
What's the stuffing?
T

 

Yep! Store bought frozen. Still very tasty.
I’ve looked up all the supplies on Amazon but buying frozen is so easy. $12 or so at Wegmans.

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Very cool. Never thought about making them at home, because I assumed it would be a bit of an ordeal. But that looks pretty straightforward and the price sounds totally reasonable compared to what you'd pay at a restaurant.
Thank you...T

 

This is the brand available when out west. Super easy. These might be slightly bigger, and they're more expensive probably because of shipping.

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OMG, so sorry to hear/see this. Terrible. The proverbial "at least you are okay" is certainly the operative phrase in this case, so much "stuff" lost. Again, so sorry.

 

Peeled the frozen cover off of the pellet smoker this morning just after sunrise at 20F...happy to report the thing fired right up (despite getting no care and maint from me).

Dinner in ~9 hours...

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4 hours later, time to for a mop-bath and a wrap-nap...

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Pork shoulder? What wood for the smoke?
T

 

So...the story here is that the Foodie Neighbors had to empty out their freezers when they moved, and they were into the whole pig and 1/2 cow programs...so they gave us a pork shoulder (which I smoked back in July and was amazing) and a Pork Leg Roast of some sort when they left (and a few other goodies). This was the leg roast. I treated it exactly the same as the shoulder, same temps, same pull temp of 200F.

But this was not nearly as good. Far less juicy, although the flavors were similar due to the same rub and mop sauce. The bark was very different (and better) on that shoulder, whereas this one didn't seem to cook as much and was very soft. I recall the shoulder somehow having a boatload of juice in the foil that went into the bowl with the pulled meat and kept it juicy and wonderful. This cook I didn't end up with much liquid at all in the foil. So...it was "okay" but not great. I'll stick with shoulder.

(oh, used cherry pellets that were in the hopper from the Turkey we did for Thanksgiving)

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In my disappointment tonight I went back and looked up the post from July. Its here:

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/149210884/

That pork was so different and better. I'm wracking my brain to figure out what I did different on that one...

 

@BrettC Sorry to hear about the fire.

Dinner tonight, bacon wrapped porkchops, layered with potatoes, cheese and eggs. My first time cooking this, turned out okay, I need to use bacon with less fat next time to get that crispy outside.



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Never seen anything like that! Where did you get the inspiration or recipe?

 

Same, just popped up on YT algorithm and I gave it a try. One note that's not in the video, cook in the oven (350F) with the foil cover for 45-50 mins then another 30-45 without the cover, then broil until golden brown. I was eyeballing just to make sure I didn't burn the bacon.

 

that's wild. I was thinking the only way I get truly crispy bacon is to cook it in a pan where the fat is deep enough to fry it. So for this recipe, maybe take the nearly finished bacon-covered chop from the oven and then quickly fry the bacon exterior in a fry pan full of bacon grease or some fat/oil?

 

I had thought about doing that, frying the bacon exterior, but I was scared it would make the bacon too crispy which would break apart and lose its shape when you slice into portions. I opted to use the broil in the oven.