DerHusker

I been wanting to do this for a long time but didn’t have a proper equipment or the correct weather conditions. I recently bought an A-MAZE-N smoking tube. It was expected to get down to 41 degrees (fairly cool nights for Southern California) and it was only 67 during the day so I decided to give this a try. Around 4:00 PM I started by cooling the kamado down by placing 5 pieces of Blue Ice in it. Around 8:30 it reached 50 degrees outside, so I started up the A-MAZE-N smoking tube in my gasser so as not to heat up the kamado. Once it ignited, I let it burn for a few minutes before blowing out the flame. I let it smoke while I went in and prepared the cheese. I had purchased 2 lbs. of Gouda, Colby Jack and Sharp Cheddar at Costco. I took them out of their wrappers. I cut them up into smaller sizes so they could absorb more smoke and placed them on a wire rack. I then placed the A-MAZE-N smoking tube in the bottom of my kamado. I next put in both of my ceramic heat deflectors, then the grill grates and then the rack of cheese. (You can see some of the smoke coming up around the deflectors) I closed the lid and observed a small amount of smoke coming out the top vent. An hour later it looked like this. After two hours in the smoke I opened the lid. WOW! I brought the rack in the house where I could see a subtle change in the cheese color. I vacuum packed them all and placed them in the fridge to age and mellow for 3 weeks. This morning I when out to see how much of the pellets were left in the A-MAZE-N smoking tube. It looks like approximately 1/3 was left unburnt. I’m thinking it could’ve gone at least another hour. I can’t wait to try them but will wait to let time do its thing on them first. Thanks for looking.

1. Food grade mineral oil. It's cheap and a little goes a long way. I just re-oiled it a month ago and used approximately 2 tablespoons. Just spread this out over the entire cutting surface to a thin coating. Once done, just let it sit on the counter overnight to let it absorb into the wood. In the morning wipe any excess off with a cloth. (or paper towels) 2. I mostly clean as I go but when I'm done I take it to the sink and spray it off with warm water and then wipe it clean with a cloth. (Note: I do not cut meat on it. (Although you can if you want to) For meat I use a poly board that I can scrub with a soapy sponge and hot water.)

Yes the harder the steel the sharper the edge and the longer it will hold that edge. I ended up buying a nice teak end-grain cutting board from Teakhaus and really like it. (see link below) I've used it many many times and it hardly looks used at all. (Just need to re-oil it every 6 months or so) https://www.amazon.com/Teak-Cutting-Board-Rectangle-Teakhaus/dp/B001DGCPRG/ref=sr_1_35?crid=39JKE12YONXEU&keywords=teak+cutting+board&qid=1578970103&sprefix=teak+cu%2Caps%2C230&sr=8-35

Lot of information out there on Google on this but I'll share a few things. 1st is from an article I found on Google. Next is that a number of members have the Dalstrong knives and seem to be very happy with them. The following is from a post I made years ago to someone else asking for knife advise. I own a set of Zwilling J.A. Henckels and I bought my knives over 25 years ago. From what I’ve come to understand, the “Zwilling” name is on the company’s better knife products. It will have the two standing men (Twin) logo on them. The J.A. Henckels branded knives are their more affordable knife products and will display a single standing man on them. Still some nice knives but not their top of the line products. (As you’ll see in the pricing) Because I purchased them so long ago and they still look and cut almost as new I’m very happy with that purchase. If I didn’t already own them I might be tempted to purchase some Japanese / more exotic knives but I’ve been able to resist that urge for now. (Darn you CK and “If they ain’t broke, why fix them”) If I were to think about buying some good knives today I’d consider the following: 1. What do I need to do most of my everyday cutting chores? 2 My cutting style. 3 What kind of cutting broad will I be cutting on? 4 Blade construction / steel type. 5 How does it feel in “my” hand? 6 What can I afford? (Remember value is a combination of both quality and price) 7 Company reputation. 8 Product availability. (Can you find more knives of the same brand and series if you want to expand your set?) 9 Warranty. (Will they replace a knife that ends up with a problem) Further Notes: #1 - Most will say you can get by with a good 8” chefs and a paring knife for 90% of your cutting chores. I’ll say this is mostly true except I’d put it more like 80%. This is why you can usually find a chefs & paring knife set as a small set. If I were limited to just 1 knife it would be a chef’s knife. Since I’m not limited I’ve purchase many knives for specific cutting chores. #2 – There are a number of different cutting styles / methods. Determine which you prefer and buy knives that are best suited to that cutting method. #3 – The best blade construction and steel type will be different depending on your different cutting style / method. Example: If you like to place the tip of the knife on the cutting board and rock the blade down though and across the food then you probably don’t want a brittle steel type. Even though high carbon steel can be sharpened to a finer edge, it is generally more brittle and is more prone to chipping. A softer steel won’t hold that thinner (razor shape) edge as long but it also isn’t prone to chipping. Also in this decision is how your foresee caring for your knives. High carbon steels can rust and need more care. Stainless blends will resist rusting and are more forgiving of a quick wash and your done lifestyle. As my life is very busy, I’m happy my Zwillings are a SS blade. (Oh and they hold an edge like a champ as well) #4 – Harder steels should be paired with better cutting boards. #5 – As every hand is a different size and shape, it’s hard for a knife maker to please everyone with a particular handle size and shape. That’s why you should visit a cutlery store and feel for yourself how a particular knife feels in “your” hand. I suppose appearance could also enter into the equation as well. #6 – When we purchased that 9 piece set 25 years ago it was a major purchase. $350.00 at that time was more money than it is today. We also made significantly less money back then. As I said above, we’re very happy with that purchase and would probably do it again. #7 – There are so many knife makers in the world today you need to use something to whittle down the choices. #8 – Assuming you want to have your knife set all look and feel similar to one another (this is not important to everyone) you will want to look and see what other knives are available for future purchases. #9 - A lifetime warranty is not that hard to find but will the company be there in the future to honor that warranty? Take it for what it’s worth but this is my $.02 on the matter.

Thanks everyone. I haven't used the jarrcard yet but plan to do so soon. Yes I really like the shape and the BD1N steel is really nice steel. I don't know if Cutlery & More ships to Australia but if they do these are worth a look. These aren't the sexiest knives out there but they are real nice and down right reasonable. Nexus is their house brand and right now these are on sale. Right now the 6” curved boning knife is only $24.95 plus tax & shipping. The 9” hollow edge craving knife and fork set is $64.95 plus tax & shipping.

On New Year’s Eve we had our friends over for dinner. They were getting up early to go to the Rose Parade so the evening ended early but we still had a great time. I made 2 pizzas. The first was a Hawaiian Pizza with red onion, black olives, Canadian bacon and pineapple. The second was a Meat Lover’s Pizza with red onion, black olives, peperoni and Italian sausage. Both were delicious but I have to say the Meat Lovers was my favorite. Thanks for looking.

Thanks everyone. I was able to get a couple of new photos of the display yesterday showing the 50' Italian Cypress with lights. And they are synchronized to skits / music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfczIikigKM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blsk604ej5M

Most of you who’ve been around a few years, know this is the time of year that I go full Griswold. Here’s a pic of my house from a few years ago. It gets a little bigger every year. This year I rented a boom to put lights up in our 50’ tall Italian Cypress you can see to the left of our garage. (Sorry no photo of it this year) Anyway, as is our family’s tradition, we host everyone on Christmas Eve for dinner and presents. In attendance were my two brothers that live here in California. They came down from the L.A. area along with my niece, my nephew and his fiancé. (in addition to my wife and I) We like to vary the meal menu each year. One year we will cook Tamales, (A So. Cal. Christmas staple) the next we’ll do Ham, then Turkey, then a nice Ribeye Roast. We hadn’t had Ham since 2016 so we settled on that. We were quite busy making all the dinner and fixing’s, so I didn’t have a lot of time to take a whole lot of photos but here are the few that I did get. Here’s the ham on the kamado for the first few hours at 275. Here’s a pic of the stove with the beans, carrots, potatoes and gravy on top. (Green Bean Casserole and biscuits in the oven) Here’s the ham after the 2 hours in foil with the pineapple and cherries added for another 10 minutes at 425. Here’s the ham on the table waiting for the rest of the fixings to join it. (It’s funny but I didn’t realize that this is almost the exact same photo from 2016) Here’s everyone waiting to dig in. Here the one photo I got of the food and table. (As you can see we broke out our finest plastic cups for this dinner ) Here’s what everyone looked like when I asked if they could wait for me to take more / better photos of the food. Everything was delicious and we had a great time that evening. Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for looking.

A certain knife dealer site had so good of prices on some nice knives in BD1N stainless that I couldn’t help myself. (It’s a sickness I tell ya!) Anyway, here’s some pics of my new tools. 9” hollow edge craving knife and fork set. 6” curved boning knife. I had a Big Poppa gift certificate I’d won in a throwdown that was burning a hole in my pocket so, I placed a couple of items I didn’t already have in my cart. Also added 2 rubs on sale that I thought I’d use a lot. I already used the carving knife for Christmas Eve dinner with my family and hope to use the other items real soon. Thanks for looking.

We spent Thanksgiving with good friends and neighbors and their family. We were tasked with providing the dressing and a pecan pie. The pie we bought from Costco but for the dressing I made my favorite Cranberry, Apple and Walnut dressing. (Recipe can be found here: Here are most of the ingredients. Melted the butter and sautéed the onions and celery. Combined the cranberries, apple and walnuts. After the butter, onions, celery, apple cider and chicken stock had simmered 10 minutes I stirred it into the dry dressing and spread it out into the baking/serving dish. I covered this with AF and cooked it for 20 minutes at 350 degrees and then uncovered it. I cooked for another 25 minutes at 350 and this is the results. Here are some pics of the rest of the dinner entrée’s that we enjoyed. Mashed potatoes. Miscellaneous sides. White meat plate. Dark meat plate. My plate. We had a great time of food and fellowship. Hope you all had a great day as well. Thanks for looking.

So my work had a Chili Cookoff contest and I decided to join in on the “fun”. I put fun in parenthesis because I had to make the chili on Tuesday after work and didn’t get done until it was 9:00. I then had to wait until it cooled off enough to put it in the fridge. So I’m in bed at 10:15 and the alarm is set for 4:30. This so I can shower and get everything ready and make the drive up to the L.A. area on Wednesday. I made a White Chicken Chili called Chili Blanco. I used a recipe from All Things BBQ. (Here's a link to his video: https://www.atbbq.com/thesauce/chili-blanco/) I tweaked the recipe a little. Here are the ingredients I used with my tweaks in red. · 2 lb chicken, boneless breasts or thighs (I used 4 boneless breasts) · Carne Asada Seasoning (I used Fajita seasoning) · 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil · 1 large yellow onion, diced · 3 Anaheim chiles, seeded, diced (I used 2 Anaheim and 1 Poblano) · 1 jalapeno, seeded, diced · 1 tbsp All Purpose Rub · 1 tbsp ground cumin · 1 tsp Mexican oregano · 4 cloves garlic, minced · 3 tbsp unsalted butter · 1/4 cup flour · 2 (15 oz) cans of great northern beans, drained, rinsed · 1 quart unsalted chicken stock · 1 cup heavy cream (I used Caciqui Crema Salvadorena) · 8 oz cream cheese, cubed · 1 bunch cilantro, minced · 4 oz (1 cup) pepper jack cheese, grated Didn’t have time for a fully documented cook photo spread but here is what I did get. I had taken some chicken I had in the freezer and thawed it out. Assembled most of my spices (some I didn’t use) and the chicken. Sliced al the breast in half to increase the surface area and then sprinkled on the fajita seasoning. I grilled the chicken on my preheated Grill Grates I got from BPS. Brought then inside to cool while I started prepping the veggies and other ingredients. Onion and Poblano diced and now the Anaheim’s added. I took all this out and placed it in my 9 Qt. Dutch oven to sauté. This is where I was pushing for time and quit taken all the pictures that slow down the cooking process. I did get one of the final results. I really liked the flavor and heat profile of it. It had some heat, but the heat was flavorful and not just hot. My wife also liked it but indicated it was just a little to hot. (She still ate it 2 days in a row) I didn’t win the cookoff but came in 3rd. This is a little different that what everyone was used to. The traditional chili’s won but I did get a lot of complements on it. Thanks for looking

I’ve made this pizza at least 10 times as it is my favorite. This morning I made up some pizza dough. Around 3:00 I prepped my kamado for pizza and lite it up to preheat. Around 3:30 I brought out my dough and all my ingredients. I applied a thin layer of BBQ sauce and some red onion. Then some red bell pepper and cilantro. Then some chicken breast I’d mixed up with some BBQ sauce and finally, the cheese. Placed it on the pizza stone in the kamado for approximately 8 minutes at 400 degrees. Here’s the result. As always, it was delicious. Thanks for looking

Yeah, I knew I should've got a Falcon! But seriously, a friend in high school had a 67 Falcon much like that one you're talking about. We'd cruse Whittier Blvd in it and had a blast.

Thanks. It really was. Thanks John. I've started experimenting with the original recipe and like the results. Next time I might even add a slice of cheese under the filling. (as that will end up being the top when I put them in the dutch oven) Since the filling is already cooked you're only trying to get the dough fully cooked and browned.If you cook them to long you and up end up burning the bottoms.

Pizza and beer looks great. Yellowstone / Tetons / Jackson = Our favorite place to visit. Although we've never been there we know where that building is.