Beef Wellington http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1704169819.jpg

Fun with homemade pie crust:

Apple
(butter under the vented crust and egg wash/cinnamon sugar on top)
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Shepard's w/ onions garlic carrots peas cheese and sweet potatoes.
(McCormicks Montreal Steak for the burger)
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Pad Tai
(w/ coconut milk, tai curry, pad tai sos, peanut butter, basil, brown sugar, fish sos, lime)
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Ramen
(w/ ginger broth, dried mushrooms, fried pork wonton/gyoza)
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Big cooking night, Thor's Hammer Beef Shank osso buco and meatballs in fresh compari and canned San Marzano tomato sauce. Very simple. Extremely tasty.

I have to turn the shank over on its side to submerge the marrow overnight for incredible goodness. Have to think of some kind of special potatoes or polenta or risotto.

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Made Shrimp Pad Thai for lunch today.....using noodles, pad thai seasoning packet, jar of pad thai sauce and fresh shrimp. The shrimp were the best part of the meal.

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7 lb Thor's Hammer Osso Buco, cooked on and off for 3 days in the crock pot with rosemary thyme masarepa-based creamy polenta. Pic 3 is onyly after day 1. Wish I had taken a pic tonight before trying to get it out. It was glorious. The beef shank was a Christmas present from a dear friend who loves to cook as much as I do. Can't wait to do some fun things with the beef stock.

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Looks fantastic, Shaun......YUM!

Pork loin leftovers brine'd in apples, apple cider vinegar, rosemary garlic, brown sugar. Seared and baked low to 140deg. Still a little dry.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1704814016.jpg

This Japanese wild rice mix is nutty and hearty. Mixed veggies onion and dried cranberry.
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Italian Wedding Soup made with homemade chicken meatballs and Acini di Pepe pasta garnished with a mixture of ricotta and parmesan. Buon Appetito!

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Plated in our "new to us" mid-century modern dinnerware set handed down from my in-laws. Poppytrail Peppertree by Metlox. We have filled in pieces from ebay. Very cool set and goes well with our kitchen granite.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1705069520.jpg

^^^

soup looks delicious Mark!

love the mid-century artwork too, very cool. What other pieces do you have?

I like some of the 20s and 30s designs.

You guys are AMAZING.


I just left a long explanation which at least one person will find aggravatingly tedious, regarding Rain-X, so I won't do that again here this morning regarding pie crust. I can make a flaky pie crust that practically disappears in your mouth. PM me if you are curious.

I'm using half lard and half butter in pie crusts and winging it these days. $5 for one supermarket crust? So easy to make and freeze them yourself.
The bonus is when it's better than anything store bought. I'm still batting .500 but getting better.
Just takes a little practice and experimenting to see what the dough is doing and what it needs.


Also found some King Arthur pizza flour and made a few pizza crusts as well from one batch. The brand is quite glutenous compared to All-Purpose. I do have a Kitchen-Aid mixer which will beat the gluten into anything. More flour. More oil. Dab of water.
Made the mistake of using quick rise yeast and had to put the fridge rounds in the freezer without too much settling time. They became half risen quickly. Coated every side with lots of olive oil and into plastic wrap.
Actually that might have been a 'happy little accident' because it was easy to nuke 30 sec, rotate and push onto flat cast iron, marinara and toppings, into the very hot oven about 20 minutes, done.
So much better than than supermarket. And inexpensive.

Here is the rest of the collection: Large platter, serving bowl, gravy boat (missing matching ladle), numerous bowls, salad plates dinner plates and coffee mugs. No one in the family wanted the set following my MILs' passing prior to covid and my FIL's move to an ALF 3 yrs ago so we took it out of storage about 6 mos ago and are loving it.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1705081908.jpg

We found everything in the first photo on eBay to add to the basic collection.

Cool stuff! Thanks!

That is very cool stuff, thanks for taking pics, I love the midwestern wheat theme!

John, I use Crisco for pie crusts. Would love it if butter or butter flavored Crisco would be better or just as good, but it is neither. And the secrets are flour/shortening cut to the point it looks like sand, careful sprinkling of REALLY COLD water, and then handling it NOT AT ALL after adding water. Just fluff with a fork and make into balls to roll out. The crust around Doug's Beef Wellington at the top of this page actually looks like it was done well.

Color me impressed! Job well done, Sir.
I made Indian Butter Chicken yesterday.

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Garlic Shrimp Pasta w/broccoli, carrots, and corn.

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This thread makes me hungry. There are some busy cooks here!
I bought King Arthur pizza flour once and had good results, which I attributed to the extra gluten. I tried bread flour with a couple of tablespoons of vital gluten in it and found it worked just as well. I've been putting vital gluten in all of my bread lately. I think it gives a better texture.

I've (mostly) failed on my last few dozen or so attempts with making bread and crusts.
All were edible but that's not enough.

There is a delicate balance between fats and flaky crispy, sticky gluten holding it together, and yeasts rising and conditioning, and all the other good stuff.

Adding a bit of sticky flour to all-purpose is well within the realm of future baking. Or into the mixer. Whatever works.
Usually my breads don't rise and are too crumbly.

I'm just a pure layman pastry chef here, starting my culinary education from scratch.
(no pun intended)

My wife makes a no knead bread that crusts up rather well. It’s one of those cook in parchment paper in a le creuset that you heat in the oven for a half hour deals. We use regular old bread flour for it. Recipes are all over - it’s the cook in heated cast iron bit that gives the crust. May be worth a try.