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

Making ground beef in the instant pot from now on. I could it on the little tray thingy for 25 minutes. Then pull the meat out and use a chopper smasher to break it apart.

Attempted a new thing that came out great, keto cream cheese chicken. The instruction were for a Dutch Oven but I used a instant pot instead because I don't have a dutch oven.

INGREDIENTS
1 oil
½ cup diced onion
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
8 ounces cream cheese
1 can (4 ounces) diced green chile
¼ teaspoon xanthan gum( thickener: can use cornstarch)
1 cup chicken Broth
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro (Garnish)

INSTRUCTIONS
Heat the avocado oil in a large heavy bottom pot over medium-high heat. Add in the onions and cook for 5-7 minutes, until they become translucent and begin to brown.
Add the chopped chicken thighs and all of the seasonings. Cook the chicken for 6-8 minutes, until the chicken begins to brown.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the cream cheese. Stir constantly until completely melted.
Add the green chilis and xanthan gum, stir to combine. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cook a few minutes more, stirring occasionally, until the soup begins to thicken.
Stir in the chopped cilantro.
Serve with chopped avocado if desired.

NUTRITION
Calories: 440 | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 35g | Fiber: 1g

I attempted khachapuri over the weekend. It's a Georgian cheese- and egg-filled bread dish.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/0hdfLHz.jpg)

I did a blend of the Food Wishes stuffed crust version and King Arthur Flour's non-stuffed crust version.

The bread itself had the taste and consistency of a really good dinner roll. I followed the King Arthur recipe for the cheese mixture--feta, mozzarella, and ricotta--instead of the Food Wishes' feta, mozzarella, and Monterey Jack (or other melty white cheese)--and kinda wish I hadn't. It wasn't bad by any stretch. It was still incredibly tasty, just less melty/gooey cheese than I expected.

This dish was really good as is, but I can see how you could endlessly riff on it by adding other ingredients to the cheese mixture. I'm definitely keeping this recipe in mind. It makes a great communal app for a dinner party or brunch dish. Of course you can just make it and eat the whole damn thing yourself like I did!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/yvNnAd3.jpg)

Keto Buffalo Dip

INGREDIENTS
4 cups Cooked and chopped chicken breast
8 ounces Cream Cheese, Softened
½ cup Buffalo sauce
2 cups Shredded cheddar cheese
1 Tablespoon Dried parsley
1 teaspoon Dried dill
1 teaspoon Dried chives
1 teaspoon Garlic powder
1 teaspoon Onion powder
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
¼ teaspoon Black pepper
¼ cup Crumbled blue cheese, garnish-optional

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Spray the inside of a 9x9 casserole dish with cooking spray and preheat the oven to 400F.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooked shredded chicken, softened cream cheese, cheddar cheese, buffalo sauce, and all seasonings.

3. Pour the mixture into the casserole dish and flatten into a single layer. Bake in the pre-heated ove for 25 minutes.

4. Remove from the oven and top with blue cheese crumbles. Serve warm with raw veggies or pork rinds. Makes 10 servings.

NUTRITION
Calories: 271 kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 18g

Had it with celery. It was so good I had to get a gun to protect it.

Hardest part of that looks like the cooked and chopped chicken. One of my favorite shortcuts for things like that is getting a rotisserie chicken at the store and just shredding it up. Just thought I'd mention it, hope to try your recipe soon, though I may increase the buffalo and/or add some cayenne and vinegar.

I used something that look like claws. Might just be called claws or maybe bear claws. Chicken shredded in 5 minutes.

They are called "BBQ Bear claws" or "Meat shredding claws" on Amazon.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

I used something that look like claws. Might just be called claws or maybe bear claws. Chicken shredded in 5 minutes.

If you have a handheld mixer, just hitting meat with the mixer does it in seconds.

Quick youtube search shows this as an example, but I've been doing it for years for pulled chicken barbeque:

But that’s not as fun.

I love reading gag cookbooks, like this one circa 1994: Giga Bites from Jenz Johnson.

Samples:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/OUSO7tP.png)
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/b3LtG6a.png)
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/qGfamFD.png)

I've been really active working, fishing, and cooking stuff, so I haven't had too much time to post in here lately. My latest and greatest was some fresh caught coho salmon de-boned steaks wrapped in steamed leek strips and topped with a bread crumb/sautéed onion mixture with other things:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/BR0vUEz.jpg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/8SUve0o.jpg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/QxzwpLc.jpg)

Looks good. When can we come out?

DSGamer wrote:

Looks good. When can we come out?

Most any time! Hit me up if you want to head to Newport. We're remodeling the house right now, so we can't exactly put up guests overnight comfortably, but we love having people over to see the project!

I've managed to get pretty decent at one bread recipe over the past 18 months (a no knead bread, which is amazing--and easy). For a long time I've been wanting to branch out and try something new, specifically baguettes. I had tried to make them before, but found them too much effort for the payoff.

Enter my sister. She called a few weeks back and said she was planning a small family dinner to celebrate my niece's 30th b-day and she wanted me to bake some bread.

I spend a week test driving a couple of recipes (and practicing the shaping) and settled on one from King Arthur Flour. I modified it by cold proofing the dough an extra day to add flavor, something I would have never been comfortable with before making the no knead bread.

I have to say that the younger me was a gd idiot for thinking that baguettes were too time consuming because you had to do about five minutes of work spread out over a couple hours. I was pleased with how most of them turned out and realized that my best baguettes were baked on a bog standard aluminum half sheet and that the special three-loaf shaped baguette pan I bought wasn't all that great.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/3iMij6T.png)

I need to work on my shaping, but even the gimpy looking loaves tasted great.

I "traded" the excess bread for some zucchinis and tomatoes from my sister's garden and made a confit of zucchini and tomato following a recipe from the French Cooking Academy. I had made it before with store-bought veggies and it was amazing. The home-grown veggies made it to die for.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/aLMM25F.png)

Yum yum yum all around! I can't wait to put a greenhouse and garden in our backyard. Gonna happen eventually.

Actual bakeries just slide the baguettes onto the flat cooking surface over the fire. No need for the fancy pans lol. Obviously you're doing it right.

Keto Nutter Butter Cookies

INGREDIENTS

4 large egg yolks
Just less than ⅔ cups no sugar added peanut butter
¼ cup blanched almond flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ heaping cup Confectioners Swerve
FOR FILLING: 2 tbsps. peanut butter
FOR FILLING: Just less than 1 tbsp. Confectioners Swerve
FOR FILLING: ½ - 1 tbsp. almond milk

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350
Separate yolks and add to large bowl
Add the rest of the cookie ingredients
mix with a spatula until a thick peanut butter dough starts to form.
use your hands to shape a ball of dough
use a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop to scoop out some dough
Then use your hands to shape the dough into cookies
Bake for 7 to 10 minutes
Let set for a hour to firm up
Add all filling ingredients to small bowl
Mix filling until thick
Add a teaspoon of filling to a cookie and place another cookie on top
Repeat until all cookies are done

NUTRITION
Calories: 275 | Carbohydrates: 3.75g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: ?

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/E7LP4pi.jpg)

I liked PB and this is PB on top of PB. Not sure if anyone that is avoiding sugar will like them unless your love for peanut butter is greater than your love of sugar.

Well, those look delicious.

This is a simple pleasure, but a good one. Back when I was a kid, chuck roast was the cheaper roast, and people would put it into a covered pot with some water, maybe a few stock cubes, carrots, onions, potatoes, garlic cloves, a few spices maybe, and cook it at low temp all day for Sunday evening. And it would come out so tender that it fell apart in strings when you grabbed some to put on your plate. Some pot gravy and the veggies, some biscuits and applesauce, and you had a great meal.

Turns out you can do the same thing in sous vide, very simply. Marinate the meat for 12 hours in a bag in the fridge, then rub it with basic spices (for me, that was salt, pepper, rosemary, dark sugar and garlic powder, but use what you like), then sous vide at 170F for around 24 hours. (I pulled mine at 23 and it was fine.)

This is a classic well done roast, so you'll want something to moisten things up a bit - condiment for a sandwich, gravy for plate servings, but then, that's all traditional. When I went to take it out of the bag, by putting my hand under it and tilting it to slide, it literally started to fall apart in my hand. I had to use a spatula so that it would stay reasonably intact.

Slice against the grain for old school sliced beef sandwiches, or use chunks in rolls for a more stringy experience. Mustard is a great accompaniment.

If that was your jam as a kid, well, it's really easy to do and fantastically true to the one pot stewed "pot roast" you know and love. If not, and you value texture and flavor and don't mind well done chewiness, it's a great use for a big chuck roast.

Slice against the grain for old school roast beef sandwiches, or grab a chunk on a roll for a more chewy experience. Mustard is a great accompaniment.

Robear wrote:

Slice against the grain for old school roast beef sandwiches, or grab a chunk on a roll for a more chewy experience. Mustard is a great accompaniment.

You can say that again.

-BEP

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/If50iAg.jpg)

Basic nachos. Can't go wrong with nachos. I put popcorn chicken on these and they still tasted good. Ordering nachos is expensive and nachos are easy to make so I said "Baron, why are you buying nachos when you can be making nachos". I was Baron is making all the sense, for the price I'm paying for nachos I could be making 5 times as many servings maybe more.

Not hard, put down your chips, put down your no bake toppings and put down more cheese. Bake in the own for 10 to 15 minutes. Then put down the rest of toppings that you don't bake with the nachos like sour cream and salsa. Easy.

My only problem here is I made to much. You want to make less than you think you will need because nachos don't keep well. They get soggy if you try to reheat them. You can still eat it but most people want crispy nachos not soggy gross nachos.

I find that the chips will get soggier than I like just from the initial heating with the toppings on, so I tend to skew low on the amount I use and supplement with fresh chips out of the bag. One side effect of this approach is it makes reheated nachos much more palatable. Not as nice as making the right amount fresh, but as a way to salvage leftovers it's a decent plan B.

I do my nachos by essentially making a burrito bowl and eating it like salsa.

That's how I treat most burrito bowls, and some actual burritos.

Man now I want nachos

For keeping the nachos crispy, I will make the toppings and keep them separate from the chips until right before heating them together. I will only heat enough for the people that are eating and just keep the extra toppings for more chips down the road.

I am with you, soggy chips are da gross.

I heat just chips on plates in the oven at 200 degrees at least 15 minutes. Then when the meat is ready, pull the plates out and put the meat, cheese, and other toppings on. The chips stay crispy and there is enough heat from the plate / chips / meat to melt the cheese.

That's a great way to go if your plates can handle the heat.

(When we got married, my wife made a point of making sure the plates we picked out could go in the oven. I presume this means that's not a given. 200º is probably fine, but I ain't confident enough in that to recommend you do it with just any plate.)

Paper plates (without plastic coatings) can go about 400 without bursting into flame...Just use a couple to deal with the liquid/oil runoff. They also cool quickly.

Robear wrote:

Paper plates (without plastic coatings) can go about 400 without bursting into flame...Just use a couple to deal with the liquid/oil runoff. They also cool quickly.

451

IMAGE(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/Fahrenheit_451_1st_ed_cover.jpg)

Well... I suspect that if they are soaked in a more flammable oil from an ingredient with a low ignition point, they'd function like a wick. Hence the hedging.