Cross posting this from the Lunch thread for context: You might have noticed I'm not posting much food of late. Two reasons for that; First we have been traveling a lot (have visited many national parks and monuments and San Diego trip in the past 5 weeks). But also I've gotten the health-message that I need to eat healthier and lose weight. I'm down from 245 to 225 in the past 2 months and on my way hopefully to 200 (I'm 6'3"). So...lots of salads, no fatty fried foods, no processed foods and no sugar and very, very little carbs. Missing my crap food. But I feel a million times better already. With that said, here is a typical dinner these days. Grilled lemon-pepper chicken thighs with corn (the early season corn from who-knows-where has been awesome this year). The corn was as good as I've ever had - we marinated it overnight in butter, tons of cilantro, red pepper flake and salt and pepper. Then grilled in foil. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Diet or not, I still gotta have beef, but now its Filet rather than Ribeye. Grilled a couple of surprisingly great filets from the local grocery store with skewers of onion and red pepper and a grilled potato (served only with some butter and chives - no sour cream nowadays - and only half of a potato each now). I was really happy with how the filet turned out. I posted a final pic showing a cut of the two filets to note the difference a small delta in thickness can impart (given same cooking time), or, said differently, a small delta in cook time if for steaks of equal thickness. The two steaks were clearly cut from the same loin and likely next to each other. But the butcher cut one slightly thicker than the other. I decided not to account for that in the cooking, figuring the thicker one would just come out a bit rarer. That is what happened as you can see in the pic (slightly thicker piece on the top of the photo). BUT, the interesting part is that there was a very noticeable difference in the texture and chew of the two steaks. The rarer one was a fair bit juicier and more tender. Given that the steaks were cut next to each other from the same cow, the difference has to be attributable to the cook (which in turn is solely due to the thickness delta, given that each steak cooked the same amount of time). I was shocked by the difference to be honest. The lower piece in the pic is medium rare to my eye. I call the piece in the top of the photo with the thicker cut's level of done-ness "rare plus" (someplace between rare and medium rare) and its what I always aim for when cooking myself and ask for when dining out. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Medium rare? My wife would be chucking that baby in the microwave! I'm impressed at the diff in doneness. By eye, that looks to be about a quarter of an inch? Maybe your grill has hot/cold spots? T
Thighs. Mmm. Best cut for the grill. By the way, which national parks? Start a thread, so it's home bodies can live vicariously through you. T P.s. Congrats on the weight loss.
Diet (should really just call it “life” now) continues, as it will forever. Tonight turkey burgers (patties only I guess is more accurate)and grilled onion and red pepper skewers. Decent flavors from the spices we added, but dry as heck. Meh. Image Unavailable, Please Login
They were so close together that I’m sure they got the same heat. They cook so fast (must have been less than 8 minutes total) that even a couple of millimeters thickness delta caused the different done-ness.
Thanks Tom. The eating changes were overdue and the bills had arrived. I’m happy with this thus far and ensuring I have some variety and some things I like in small amounts (steak, wine once per week for example). Just no added sugar and not much processed food or carbs. And trying smaller portions and more frequent meals (I used to be a 2 large meals per day guy and nothing else. Now it’s 3-4 smaller meals). I may start a favorite National Park thread in the travel section...we have been to too many to count in recent years. We bought the $80 full year pass and must have gotten $500 worth of admissions from it. Since May 18 we have been to; Saguro Grand Canyon Zion Grand Teton Yellowstone Mt Rushmore Devils Tower We’ve put 3000 miles on the Jeep from AZ winter home thru Utah to Wyoming and then trips to Yellowstone and across wy into Nebraska and South Dakota and then back across Wyoming. I’ve lived in wy for 17 years and yet I found dozens of amazing new places this past couple of weeks. It’s truly my heaven...will be sad to leave it for London in October.
I'm in central Washington State. Thursday night had Chinese food. Friday was Olive Garden and last night was Applebee's.
Let me guess, Chinese = Panda Express! It's officially too hot to cook. We're eating leftovers in preparation to defrost our upright freezer. I am making pickles though. Cukes are from farmers market. Apple cider vinegar, sugar water, salt, pepper and dill weed. A couple dashes of Cajun spice to, hopefully, give it a little kick. Now we play the waiting game. Image Unavailable, Please Login . T
Tom I have always wanted to make pickles and keep forgetting. Look great. I finally found a place in Canada with good ‘que. First pulled pork on the kamado turned out great Image Unavailable, Please Login
Nice looking pulled pork. Did you put cole slaw on the sammich? Wife bought maters and peaches at the farmers market, and they threw in some free cucumbers since it was the end of the day and they were getting long in the tooth. So, I decided to make them into pickles. I recall a web page a while back that said if you dissolved the ingredients in hot water then soak the cucumbers, they'd pickle faster. I just tried a couple after a few hours in the fridge. Not bad. Think they might be ready in a fast or two. In my further attempts to make dinner without heating up the house, Gazpacho. Two maters, one of the aforementioned cucumbers, half a red bell pepper, salt, pepper, paprika, Cajun spice for a little kick. Image Unavailable, Please Login T
The Chinese food wasn't Panda. Same style, but in a grocery store here like Whole Foods Market...…………… I'm going to make Chicken breasts on the grill with a side of pesto linguine.
Chicken saag/dal. Inspired by this recipe, and just being sick of looking @ some leftovers in our freezer. http://www.northindiancooking.com/chicken-with-spinach-curry-chicken-saag.html Had beet greens that I sauteed up and froze a while back. That replaced the spinach (saag). Had some onions & garlic that I sauteed a few weeks ago, also in the freezer. Added turmeric powder, fenugreek, garlic powder, S&P, and curry powder. Threw it in a pot with chicken broth and set it to simmer. Then, stick blender to puree it all. Image Unavailable, Please Login This is my leftovers version of saag. Image Unavailable, Please Login Chicken being browned in olive oil with a little butter. Image Unavailable, Please Login Almost done. Just need to simmer it a little more to soften up the lentils and reduce the liquid. Final judgement. A lot less leftovers in the freezer. Wish I had bought some naan or chapati. Woulda been better w/ garam masala, but wife would have balked. Tasted good w/ a generous dash of Sriracha. T
Prime cap steak from Costco. Costco wraps the cap into a spiral and then ties it with butcher's string. I like this because it gives me an opp to cook it the way the wife (overdone) and I (underdone) like it. Image Unavailable, Please Login Before. Just some pink salt. Image Unavailable, Please Login The new Weber chimney starter gets its first action! Image Unavailable, Please Login It's about 500 F @ this point. Image Unavailable, Please Login It's abt 700 F by the time I seared the cap steak with a bit of bacon fat. 2 mins per side. Image Unavailable, Please Login First flip. The skillet is a 10" Lodge cast iron skillet. Image Unavailable, Please Login Took it off the fire, and the just had it in the skillet, covered on the stove top with the burner on simmer, so all the heat didn't bleed out of the skillet. Let it be for 10" with a flip mid-way. Outside bits were closer to medium, inside bits (pictured above) were ideal in my book. Since cap steak is so rich, served it with just a little white rice. T
Mini-Q run with the missus! Hit 3 places in near-West Texas. Wife & I shared a two-meat (ribs & brisket) @ each, except the last place, where we bought a pound of brisket, so we'd have extra for the dog sitter & her hubby. This is the skinny... Taste of Texas (Easterling's), Anson - very good brisket (mesquite-smoked) .Best of the lot may have been the ribs. They were meaty, nicely smoked, and a hint of sweet. Most joints here have free pickles and sliced onions, which I like 'cause they cut through the fattiness after eating a slice of brisket. This place had pickled jalapenos. If I had to guess, Ortega from a jar, still a nice idea that I will steal. Big Boys in Sweetwater. Good, not great IMO. Brisket was mesquite. Ribs were good. Sweetwater in Abilene. My wife & I agreed that their brisket was best of the day, which means there was oak in the smoke! Banana pudding is getting more and more famous. We tried some. It was good, but family obligations require me to conclude that my aunt's is better. Image Unavailable, Please Login Heading west. Mesquite and windmills. Image Unavailable, Please Login Breckenridge, Texas. County courthouse. Image Unavailable, Please Login Taste of Texas in Anson. Great ribs. Image Unavailable, Please Login Big Boys. Snapped a pic after we had begun digging in. Corn bread with Q. Can't recall seeing that outside of south Texas. Image Unavailable, Please Login If you like sweet desserts, this is the one for you. Image Unavailable, Please Login Sweetwater. Local popo were lunching here, so you know it's good. Image Unavailable, Please Login Best brisket of the day. Stillwater's. This was after it had cooled off. Still tasted good though! T
You've never had jalapenos with your bbq before Tom? That an onions are what I want more than the pickles.
I've seen them a few places that I can recall. I guess I'll need to be more on the lookout for them. Whipping up a batch today. Texas sized jalapeño. Image Unavailable, Please Login Into the hot brine. Image Unavailable, Please Login Now, we wait. T
Lol. My wife thinks I'm crazy, but I always load up on the pickles & onions. It is a great palate cleanser between slices of brisket. Also pickling green tomatoes today. Don't know how this is going to turn out! Image Unavailable, Please Login T
Did assorted sashimi and chopped scallop rolls. I was disappointed in the sashimi because it was just salmon, tuna and two shrimp. They have a tuna and salmon sashimi mix on the menu. Its a few dollars less over the assorted sashimi price, so I feel cheated. I have a cold, don't feel like making anything, even a salad. I've invited my brother over to share a large meat lovers from this place: http://www.pizza24.ca/our-menu/#speciality-pizza
That's a drag. Feel better soon Max. I've already worked my way through 2 summer colds. They stink! After our carnivorous exertions of the day before, we went veggie. Image Unavailable, Please Login Lentils, turmeric powder, curry powder, fenugreek, salt, pepper and chard from the garden. T