Come all ye self-styled chefs and kitchen users, we must talk.

Oh, cool. I did a quick google and didn't see their veggie option. Thanks! I'll try both of these.

Axel, that looks great! Well done. Assume everything tasted good.

I helped my mom use the Anova Sous Vide stick I got her for a gift a few years ago that had not been used yet. Their best friends won a bet with a business friend based in Dallas (second year in a row) on the outcome of the Green Bay Packers vs Dallas Cowboys game. The received four huge prime grade aged Texas Ribeye steaks that were 2 inch thick and were likely go for $30/pound. They share them with my folks, who prepare the meal. The previous year, they tried to do them on the grill. They were edible, but there was to much flare up from the rendering fat and the long cook time from the thickness that they were far from ideal. Edible but not much more.

This year, we got the sous vide set up going, two pots, theirs and mine. Two steaks set for medium rare (my parents) and two for medium as their friends prefer. Followed the Seriouseat.com settings, seasoned only with salt, pepper, and some fresh cut Rosemary and Thyme. My dad finished them on the grill, flipping every 15 seconds or so. The report I got back was that they were as good or better than any steakhouse they had eaten at. I can't image preparing thick cut meat any other way after having done in a couple dozen times now.

Isn't it amazing? And so easy. Gotta love sous vide.

bhchrist wrote:

The received four huge prime grade aged Texas Ribeye steaks that were 2 inch thick

I hate you just a little.

My first grill should be arriving soon. I'm looking forward to when I can finish my sous vide steaks properly instead of broiling until the smoke alarm goes off.

Delbin wrote:

My first grill should be arriving soon. I'm looking forward to when I can finish my sous vide steaks properly instead of broiling until the smoke alarm goes off.

I like finishing them on a ripping hot cast iron skillet with some oil and browned butter. Another great way to finish them that I need to try is to use a Weber or similar charcoal chimney starter (half full) and put a small grate or skewered steaks over the top of the chimney to finish at 750F+ temperatures. LINK
IMAGE(http://amazingribs.com/images/recipes/afterburner_by_rob_lusk.jpg)

Delbin wrote:
bhchrist wrote:

The received four huge prime grade aged Texas Ribeye steaks that were 2 inch thick

I hate you just a little.

I never got to see or smell the finished steaks, let alone taste them. This was just my parents and their friends that I helped out. I was watching Frank Turner and Jason Isbell in concert from spitting distance on the same beautiful night though, so you can hate me a little for that.

Here's Frank!
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/VywS3YJ.jpg)

bhchrist wrote:
Delbin wrote:

My first grill should be arriving soon. I'm looking forward to when I can finish my sous vide steaks properly instead of broiling until the smoke alarm goes off.

I like finishing them on a ripping hot cast iron skillet with some oil and browned butter. Another great way to finish them that I need to try is to use a Weber or similar charcoal chimney starter (half full) and put a small grate or skewered steaks over the top of the chimney to finish at 750F+ temperatures. ]

Oh gosh, I tried that once and the smoke was so bad that the neighbors thought the apartment was on fire. It had such terrible ventilation that even broiling was just tolerable. The new house's kitchen isn't much better equipped, so I'm hoping a grill will make up the difference.

Using a chimney as a grill sounds like an awesome idea. We've been wanting a small charcoal grill, but they seem to be marketed to Crate and Barrel types, so they're always massively expensive. It never occurred to me to just use a chimney.

Yeah, a high volume hood fan is mandate for the cast iron method indoors. The little fan under the microwave set-up doesn't cut it. You can also go the turkey fryer propane burner outside. That, a chimney set up, or a charcoal grill with a special grate can also work really well for wok cooking.

Wok Cooking at Home

I do a lot of wok cooking (even have a special burner on my stove) and never thought to use the chimney starter as a burner - I'm going to try that now.

Made some salmon roe and cheese crackers. The pepperjack was a mistake because it overpowers the eggs, but it was still good. The eggs are great plain. They taste like little balls of butter when they pop. Got a lot more and I guess it keeps over a week in the fridge, so I'll try some other things with them at some point.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/6dXmh2F.jpg)

Try some soft goat cheese with that instead of the hard cheese.

Robear wrote:

Try some soft goat cheese with that instead of the hard cheese. :-)

I did look for some, but they didn't have any at the store I was at that evening. Will try next time. Might try and make some sushi too.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/AoBvmbt.jpg)
Blackberry cake with vanilla cream cheese frosting.

Favorite slow cooker website/book for recipes? I have America's Test Kitchen and I've been going through the recipes..... love to hear people's thoughts on it.

I have some friends who use that too, Iridium, so you are in good company. The stuff they make is *tasty*...

So, due to the freezer drawer being left over late last week for an indeterminate period of time (enough to make a mess of things in zip locks that were either partially open or pierced) but not enough to thaw the thicker items) I have been preparing may pounds of fish from my Sitka Coop. I smoked two filets of King Salmon, did a filet of Halibut, and tonight am doing a triple batch of seafood chowder with three pounds of Pacific Cod, Lingcod, and Rockfish. Nothing like the fear of wasting Grade A fish to spawn the cooking juices. Damn, the Chowder is good. Used Kenji's Seafood Chowder recipe on Serious Eats.

That chowder is one of our go-to recipes when we don't have much time to do prep but also have a bunch of odd-and-ends in the kitchen. It's delicious.

I wonder if you could substitute something non-dairy for the milk?

I've discovered a college-dorm style recipe that normally I'd only cook on nights where I'm super busy, but I've found it so easy that I'm finding myself making it even on nights where I do have time to cook a proper meal :/

Ingredients
-Rice
-Random frozen vegetables (thawed)
-Bouillon (preferably better-than-bouillon)
-Garlic, italian spice mix, chili flakes, whatever the hell else I have in the cupboard to add flavour
-Optional: crack an egg or two into it for some protein that does not come in bouillon form.

Throw all of it into a pot and boil until rice is cooked. A very quick ok tasting dish that is has more nutritional content than instant noodles.

Living by myself I sometimes don't have time to go grocery shopping, so I find a real benefit to this recipe is that everything in it has a very long shelf life. Theoretically if I got into a situation where I was locked in my apartment for a month or two and couldn't leave, I could stock up on these ingredients and live off them for some time before getting some kind of horrible nutritional deficiency.

Robear wrote:

I wonder if you could substitute something non-dairy for the milk?

I did sub in a mix of Heavy Cream and 1% Milk for 32 oz, as I only had a half gallon of whole milk. That probably isn't the sub you were looking for though!

Seriously though, milk is such an integral part of a chowder that it would likely be a hard task to pull off.

Axel wrote:

Theoretically if I got into a situation where I was locked in my apartment for a month or two and couldn't leave, I could stock up on these ingredients and live off them for some time before getting some kind of horrible nutritional deficiency.

Do we need to keep a watch on you?

Oh! Glad you were able to plow through all that seafood, bhchrist. Sounds like you made the most of it. I made a seafood chowder which I posted the recipe to here quite awhile ago. If you ever need to make more chowder, I'd be curious to read your thoughts. It looks quite similar to that Kenji recipe. I really like having a little squash and kale in there, though.

I'd just go full Manhattan style if you want to avoid the dairy. A Manhattan style should actually be pretty good for you unlike the New England style, and it can be damn delicious. Fishwives Stew/Seafood Cioppino is also a good, healthy way to go for seafood soups.

Yeah, I just really like milk-based chowdahs, which I remember from when I could eat them as a child...

I have a few questions I'm hoping someone could help me with. My wife and I have spent a lot of time since moving back home cooking. It's one of my favorite things to do and I find I eat better when I have more control of the process front to back. Plus we're saving a lot of money right now making most of our own meals. But I'm fairly new to cooking. Parents never taught me so we're leveling up, but all on our own. Anyway, on to the questions.

Does anyone here have a good, fairly simple, sweet potato-heavy recipe for a slow cooker or pressure cooker? I need to cook up some veggies and potatoes now and then, usually when I overbuy after making lunches. I'd love to find a recipe like this where I could toss in a little chicken, veggies and potatoes and come out with a good fall stew or something similar. Something relatively healthy, but simple. I have a recipe I got online that I used to make frequently a long time ago (before I started really trying to eat healthier), but it involved adding a decent amount of honey mustard salad dressing. . I'd like something cleaner than that.

Second question. I'm also trying to better organize my mornings better. I'm not the best at managing my time in the morning. For a while there I was basically waking up and making eggs and avocado and that was fairly simple and health. Lately, though, I've figured out eggs don't agree with me so much. So I'd like to come up with a way to quickly get some protein as I start my day. Any tips or ideas? I'd thought about just throwing a couple of chicken breasts in the Instant Pot and going that way. Have one in the morning and then reheat one the next day, etc. I'd welcome any better ideas, though.

Breakfast - Some plain yogurt with whole-grain granola and some dried fruits. Plenty of protein and other good stuff. Just get the lowest sugar content yogurt and granola you can find...

Robear wrote:

Breakfast - Some plain yogurt with whole-grain granola and some dried fruits. Plenty of protein and other good stuff. Just get the lowest sugar content yogurt and granola you can find...

Greek yogurt particularly is a protein-powerhouse.

I'm a fan of oatmeal and other hot cereals, particularly as we're getting into cooler weather. Bob's Red Mill does a 10-grain cereal that was my rocket-fuel for a day spent snowboarding or snowshoeing. Things like that are a little bland as is, but you can throw any number of different things in them to add variety and tastiness, from chopped nuts, seeds or dried fruit, to leftover vegetables or chopped meat (e.g. bacon, sausages, chopped cooked chicken breast). Likewise for farro pudding - I'd make a big batch of that on a Sunday night, throw the lot into the fridge, then take a portion each day to work and nuke it in the microwave for instant, wholesome delicious breakfast at my desk.

Jonman wrote:
Robear wrote:

Breakfast - Some plain yogurt with whole-grain granola and some dried fruits. Plenty of protein and other good stuff. Just get the lowest sugar content yogurt and granola you can find...

Greek yogurt particularly is a protein-powerhouse.

I'm a fan of oatmeal and other hot cereals, particularly as we're getting into cooler weather. Bob's Red Mill does a 10-grain cereal that was my rocket-fuel for a day spent snowboarding or snowshoeing. Things like that are a little bland as is, but you can throw any number of different things in them to add variety and tastiness, from chopped nuts, seeds or dried fruit, to leftover vegetables or chopped meat (e.g. bacon, sausages, chopped cooked chicken breast). Likewise for farro pudding - I'd make a big batch of that on a Sunday night, throw the lot into the fridge, then take a portion each day to work and nuke it in the microwave for instant, wholesome delicious breakfast at my desk.

I thought of doing this, but I don't like how it microwaves. Maybe I'm using the wrong brand.

DSGamer wrote:

I thought of doing this, but I don't like how it microwaves. Maybe I'm using the wrong brand.

Try an overnight oats recipe. You basically combine some rolled oats, milk, and yogurt and let it chill out in the fridge overnight. You can put on whatever toppings you fancy.

DSGamer wrote:
Jonman wrote:

I'm a fan of oatmeal and other hot cereals,

I thought of doing this, but I don't like how it microwaves. Maybe I'm using the wrong brand.

I often add a splash of milk when I'm putting it in to nuke - prevents it drying out.

My sushi mold arrived today, time to try to make spam musubi!!

DSGamer wrote:
Jonman wrote:
Robear wrote:

Breakfast - Some plain yogurt with whole-grain granola and some dried fruits. Plenty of protein and other good stuff. Just get the lowest sugar content yogurt and granola you can find...

Greek yogurt particularly is a protein-powerhouse.

I'm a fan of oatmeal and other hot cereals, particularly as we're getting into cooler weather. Bob's Red Mill does a 10-grain cereal that was my rocket-fuel for a day spent snowboarding or snowshoeing. Things like that are a little bland as is, but you can throw any number of different things in them to add variety and tastiness, from chopped nuts, seeds or dried fruit, to leftover vegetables or chopped meat (e.g. bacon, sausages, chopped cooked chicken breast). Likewise for farro pudding - I'd make a big batch of that on a Sunday night, throw the lot into the fridge, then take a portion each day to work and nuke it in the microwave for instant, wholesome delicious breakfast at my desk.

I thought of doing this, but I don't like how it microwaves. Maybe I'm using the wrong brand.

Yogurt is also quite easy to make in the Instant Pot. I have done so a number of times.