Lived like a King Yoda was!

First he drank all of Sunshine's wine;

Then he ate all of Sunshine's homemade pasta and meatballs;

PFT Yoda said.

I make a pretty mean chicken!!!

Here's proof;

Southern fried Chicken Breast

Brining makes this a chicken breast moist for days, literally.  After the leftovers had sat in the fridge for 3 days, I reheated and the breasts were just as tasty and moist as they were when fresh.


Start by letting the 3-4 chicken breasts sit for at least an hour in a bath of;
-3 cups ice cold water
-1/4 cup salt
-1/4 cup honey
(mix all till salt is dissolved before adding chicken.

Then drain thoroughly and pat dry with paper towels.  Soak in buttermilk for at least a half hour.  Dredge in seasoned flour, I used; 

-salt 

-pepper

-onion powder 

-garlic powder

-cayenne pepper

You can use whatever seasoning you like, just make sure to coat the chicken very well.

Use a cast iron skillet or saute pan to pan fry.  Pour about a 1/2 inch of canola or peanut oil and heat to about 350.  After adding the chicken you the oil temperature will drop, but you want to maintain a constant temperature between 300 and 350.  Failure to do so will result in a poor crust and/or burning, as you can see below.  Cook on each side for about 5 minutes or so, making sure to get a good browning before turning.  It's best to only turn once, but shit happens.

Which one of these is not like the others.........ahhh shut up!

Stay hungry my friends!

He once made a pizza from old shoes, oak leaves, and dead batteries just to beat Bobby Flay in a pizza throwdown with it. 

The most interesting pizza maker on his block

Separated at birth?

This crab is on a roll!!!

This is a take on the east coast's famous lobster roll.  Obviously I used crab instead of lobster, and I used canned lump crab meat, but it was still PFT!
Oh, and I made the hoagie rolls from scratch!

 

Crab Salad Mix

-1 16oz can lump crabmeat (or fresh crab meat if you can get it)

-1/2cup mayonaisse

-1 TBLS sweet chili sauce

-1 tsp lemon juice

-2 TBLS fine chopped onion

-2 TBLS fine chopped red pepper

-1 TBLS chopped green onion

-1/4 tsp salt

-1/4 tsp black pepper

-1/8 tsp cayenne

Mix all other ingredients, except for crab meat.  Gently fold in the crab meat, trying to keep crab in as large of chunks as possible.  Serve on soft bun with slice pickles, tomatoes, and crisp lettuce.

Some of ODR's PFT favorites!

Veal Picatta w/ Mushrooms and Linguine Carbonara

Chicken Parmesan

Sausage Calzone

Potato and Feta Cheese Pizza on Focaccia

Sausage and Jalapeno Kolaches

2nd attempt at meat pie mate.

I tried a more traditional recipe for this version.  It included;
-onions
-carrots
-celery
-peas
-mashed potatoes
-ground beef and ground turkey
-pork cutlets, cut into 1/2 pieces, floured, and sauteed in olive oil
-shredded cheese (I used smoked cheddar and pepper jack)
--puff pastry

I started by cooking off the beef and turkey, then adding the veggies till they were translucent.  I then mixed all the other ingredients together and seasoned with salt and pepper..

Half of puff pastry was formed in pie pan and baked covered with foil for 12-14 minutes.  Filled pie with meat filling and topped with other half of puff pastry.  Brushed top with eggwash and scored with tip of knife.

This meat pie thing is limitless on what you can do with it, and is quickly becoming my favorite cold weather, hearty homestyle favorite.  Puff pastry makes this addicting, though you can also use pie dough as well.

Meat Pie mate!

A guy I work with, who is from New Zealand, asked me, "hey mate, can you make me a meat pie"?  I replied, "what's a meat pie".  He then said, "don't make me hit you bloke"!  So after some googling, and some cleaning out of my refrigerator, I made this;

Basically, it's puff pastry filled with a really thick beef stew and topped with cheese.  I also read that you can use pie crust as well, but the puff pastry worked great here. You can buy the puff pastry or pie dough at the store, and if you can't cook, just buy some Dinty Moore for the filling.  Line your pan with the dough, cover with  foil, and bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes.  Fill baked shell with your choice of stew (that has most of the liquid strained out) and top with cheese of your choice.  Place another layer of pastry on top, crimp into pre-baked pastry, and score with the tip of a knife.  Brush with eggwash (1 egg 1 TBLS water) and bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes.

It's definitely PFT!

Spare rib recipe.

The spare ribs in the prior post were not made the traditional "smoking" way, they were baked, stewed, or some may say braised.  I coated them with a rib rub (use your favorite cause I have long forgot what I put in mine) and let sit in fridge overnight.  In the bottom of a cake pan or casserole dish, place some roughly chopped onion, carrots, and celery then cover with beef stock.  You can either cut the veggies big enough to support the spare ribs, or you can put a cooling rack on top to support them.  Put seasoned ribs on top and cover the pan with foil.  Place pan in a 250 degree oven and let bake for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  Take ribs out (reserve liquid in bottom of pan to make a nice sauce or gravy) and coat with your choice of BBQ sauce.  Bake in oven at 400 degrees or under broiler until sauce starts to caramelize.

Don't tell Sunshine, but I think these would best his smoked ribs in a blind taste test.  Oh hell, what do I care, tell him.

Kick ass potato salad, and Bbq spareribs too.

I have struggled with making potato salad for years and years. I have tried different potatoes, different dressings, multiple cooking techniques, and more.  I finally decided to try the way I was originally taught while working at The County Line Bbq  http://www.countyline.com/index-2.html  more than 20 years ago.  They always boiled the whole potatoes with skin on till they were just tender (fork penetrates potato with low to medium resistance).  (for some reason, cooking them in their jackets (skins) make the potatoes taste more creamy)  You then drain the potatoes and let them cool just enough till you can handle the potatoes and peel them with easily with the side of a fork.  Then you cut them into 1/2 inch pieces, place them in a bowl and toss with your desired type of dressing and vegetables.  I cannot tell you what is best, as it is very subjective, but this is what I added (amounts vary);

3 90 ct potatoes
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 TBLS mustard
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp dill weed
1 tsp salt (divided in half)
1 tsp pepper (divided in half)
2 TBLS apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped dill pickle
1/8 cup chopped green onions

-as mentioned, boil potatoes just to tender, let sit for 5-10 minutes, peel, and chop into 1/2" pieces
-season potatoes with half of the salt and pepper
-mix all other ingredients in bowl
-gently toss all ingredients together and chill for at least 4 hours

I would like to emphasize that the key to a good potato salad is cooking the potatoes in their skins and seasoning while warm.

These meatballs look PFT!!!

Olsen twins pizza recipe!

 

Let them eat cake, my ass!

Monarchs would have never let the peasants get their dirty hands on this tasty morsel.  This was the remnants of two 3-layered banana cakes I made (leftover layers and frosting).  This may have been the best cake I have ever made.  Secret recipe follows;

Recipe

For cake;
1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
2 cups mashed bananas (preferably brown)

For Frosting;
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup crisco
1 tsp vanilla
milk as needed for consistency

-Mix all cake ingredients
-Pour into two 8-9 inch cake pans (well greased and lined w/ parchment paper)
-Bake at 325 for 24-30 minutes (till firm center)
-Invert cakes immediately and cool before frosting

-Beat butter and shortening till smooth
-Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beat till smooth
-Beat in vanilla and milk to desired consistency

-Frost as you wish, then eat the s#*t out of it!

I'd like to welcome a new edition to the PFT family!

I haven't blogged for a few days, and you can blame it on this this beautiful distraction;

It's a Charcoal!!!

She was bigger than I ever dreamed!

Papa Grill, Mama Grill, and Baby Grill.

Big Mama's first effort, NY Strip.  Not a good pic, but PFT!!!

Sunshine is stepping up his pizza game!

Sunshine just created a brick oven setup on his grill, that according to him, makes the best pizzas he has ever made.  Of course we cannot see these PFT pizzas because, as Sunshine puts it, "they take 4 minutes to cook and 1 minute to eat".  At least he sent me this;

The pizza is cooked on the square pizza stone at a real high heat (700 or so) while the round stone and bricks soak up the heat and help create even heat for optimum deliciousness.

If you ever secretly record your annoying smoking neighbor...

...make sure you have black tape over the red light on the front of your camera;

Who's a good doggy?

Chicken Enchiladas

-I started by pan searing some chicken breasts and simmering in homemade tomato sauce for 30 minutes.  I then removed the chicken and added chili powder, cumin, and oregano to the sauce and cooked it till thick like gravy.

-Then I assembled the rest of the ingredients;

 -Dump all the above into a bowl and toss in some of your seasoned tomato sauce, just enough to make it moist, but not soupy.

-Coat corn tortillas, one by one, in your tomato sauce;

-Fill each tortilla with chicken filling;

-Roll each one up, place in a baking dish, cover with tomato sauce and jack cheese.

-Cover with parchment paper or plastic wrap (to prevent cheese from sticking to foil) and foil, then bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

Latest dish from KC and Sunshine

Orange marmalade grilled chicken with roasted garlic whipped potatoes and lima beans.  Looks really really good!

Texas A@M relishes being an underdog.

I asked Texas A@M's #1 fan, Hershey,  what the prospects were for this years football team, his reply, "grrrrrrrrrrrr"!  Then he mumbled something about biting the fat man and went back to sleep.

Not looking good Aggies, not looking good.

Apparantly, it was PFT!!!

Sunshine sent me another pic, this time of something that he allegedly "ate the shit out of".  Question is, what was it?  My guess is that he ate it so fast that he forget what he was actually eating, so we will probably never know.

This pizza crust has more wrinkles than Cloris Leachman!

Also could have went with;

Still looks PFT, Sunshine!  I'll be making fried chicken in the coming days, you may want to make a road trip.  Wouldn't be the first time you drove for hours for some delicious fried chicken.

Dueling Pizzas!!!

I do not hear banjos playing, strangely though I hear some gangster rap from the 80's.

Sunshine finally sent me a pic of something, which is a minor miracle in itself.  I have to say it looked PFT!

(BTW Sunshine, you are a professional photographer, would it kill you to send me a pic that when I try to enlarge doesn't look blurry?  Never mind your honor, I withdrawal the question.)

Edit- Alright KC, I'm a dumbass, I didn't download the pic.  You happy now?











I'm guessing that the toppings were either beef or sausage, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, fresh basil, mozzarella, and feta cheese.  Well played Sunshine, well played!

Not one to back from a challenge, unless you look like a UFC fighter or have a gun, I went right to work in making a worthy pizza opponent.  Using dough I made 4 or 5 days ago and toppings that I had on hand, I made this;

Toppings were; red onions, green peppers, green olives, pepperoni, mozzarella, asiago cheese, and homemade tomato sauce leftover from the steak pizzaiola recipe.  It was also PFT.  I tried to match Sunshine's amoeba shape, but could not.

In the end, it was a close vote, but I think Sunshine totally trumped me on quality and pairing of toppings and won this round.  The margin of victory probably would have been much higher, but had to deduct points for inferior photo quality.

Crispy thin crust pizza

In my never ending quest for the perfect pizza crust, my latest venture was probably my best effort at thin and crispy.  The keys to this crust is a very dry dough, no kneading, and a smoking hot pizza stone.
Here is the recipe; (though amounts will vary according to altitude and humidity levels)
1 TBLS Dry Active Yeast
1 cup Warm Water
3 cups All Purpose Flour (don't use bread flour)
1 TBLS Salt
2 TBLS Sugar
2 TBLS Olive Oil


Directions
-mix yeast and water, let sit for 5 minutes
-combine the water and yeast with all other ingredients in mixing bowl and mix just to combine
(you want a dry dough, kind of like a "play-dough texture.   Add water or flour as needed)
-cover and let rise to double in a warm place.
-cut into 3-4 dough balls and let dough rest in refrigerator for at least an hour.  (The longer you let it rest, the easier it will be to work with)
-roll out dough with a rolling pin as thin as you can get it, 1/8 of an inch is ideal.  It will be hard to roll out and have the texture of leather.
-place on a corn meal dusted pizza peel, or back of a cookie sheet and add sauce and toppings.
-bake on a well preheated pizza stone (at least 500 degrees) for approx 8-10 minutes

Steak Pizzaiola take #2

OK, after microwaving the leftovers of my attempt at Steak Pizzaiola (at 50% for 3 minutes) it was actually PFT!  The flavors were much more prevalent, and it didn't seem as dry as before.  The rice was still tasty too.
Sometimes food is better the second day, and this was definitely one of those times.

I have a new goal in life!

I want to learn how to play this on the piano;


Now all I need is a piano, and to find someone that knows how to play the mandoline.

Steak Pizzaiola

Another creation from the guidance of Jon (via an old Italian broad)  from  foodwishes.com , my second favorite food site (next to http://chefdonhensley.com/  of course)

I guess this is an old Italian staple, and it was fine, but not necessarily PFT.  I used beef eye round instead of beef shoulder, and I seared the meat before braising, but don't think it made much difference.  I would guess that older people would really like this, as the meat was cooked to death and flavorless, but not so much for urban hipsters like myself.  Anyway, here it is;

The rice was actually better than the steak.  I'll post how to make the rice later.
Here is the old Italian Lady's video (note her dog that looks just like a small bear);