What’s for dinner?

I’m putting my Emeril whatever cast iron to work on herbed pork chops and potatoes. I marinated the pork in garlic, white wine vinegar, and brine from a pepperoncini jar. I’ll make broccoli on the side at some point. The iron skillet has been my go to pan since my wife and I got it at our wedding 15 years ago.

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Looks good! I use cast iron as much as possible too. Those teflon non stick pans are garbage and terrible for our health.

Tonight is a meatloaf night! :smiley:

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I loved our teflon pans until I found out how horrible they are for you. Now it’s either the cast iron or stainless when I cook.

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I have a couple of cast-iron skillets as well. In fact, I’m thinking of selling my Blackstone because I just don’t use it. Cast-iron does basically the same thing. We are actually having breakfast for dinner tonight. Haven’t done this in at least five years. But I asked the wife and daughter and they were on board so it’s an easy cook for me.

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I’ve learned to put up with breakfast for dinner when it happens. I don’t like it, but it’s an easy way to get the kid to eat without any fuss.

Love breakfast for dinner! I like to make big ass cheese frittatas. So good! Fresh farm eggs when possible.

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When I’m not torturing myself by studying for organic chemistry, absolutely crushing my other classes, or watching football, sometimes I make dinner for me and my buddies.

I made burgers last night for the first time ever, but they weren’t anything super impressive so I won’t talk any more about them.

I will, however, show you all the seafood mac and cheese I made a couple of weeks ago and am going to try to make again soon:

Crawfish, blackened shrimp, and five kinds of cheeses. It was pretty good.

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That is slightly classier than my Kraft Mac and cheese with a can of tuna thrown in. When you are ready to look for a partner being able to cook is a huge draw.

End results from my cooking-

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Nice. Is there a certain temperature you cook them to or is it just judging by the sear on the outside?

Most times I will pound my chicken breasts to about a half an inch thick and then sauté them. I normally go by sight to tell when they are done, but I decided to check them with a thermometer last time and was surprised the center was only about 135°. I cook an awful lot and don’t think I’ve ever been sick because of undercooked chicken, but it did open my eyes a little bit. No reason to risk getting sick by not getting it up to the proper temperature.

I had a salad today. Tomorrow doing white fish, steamed carrots, with butter a hint of brown sugar, and grilled red potatoes. Saturday mashed potatoes, with shredded seasoned chicken, with gravy on top of both of them. Friday is date night with the wife.

3 plates at the shawarma buffet lunch means snacky dinner. It was all keto, unless you get persnickety about the oil they use to make their garlic whip/sauce probably wasnt EVOO… and I had a Lot of that

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I check them with a thermometer for safety but don’t worry about the overall temperature beyond that. These chops had a thick layer of fat on the edges to keep them moist. Anywhere from 160 to 190 degrees works for me.

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I dont do keto. Just tend to try and eat veggies and some type of protein. Friday is my cheat day. Either red meat, pizza, sushi or fried things.

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Wild rice with a bit of low sodium veggie broth cooked with carrots, Brussel sprouts, asparagus and chick peas over it.
A delicious reverse heart disease meal that prevents cancer as well. :innocent:
Sounds blah and boring, but I now eat to live, not live to eat.

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Last night I baked some fresh cod. Coated it with Tahini, some local spice mix and and crushed Ritz cracker crumbs. Baked it for 12 minutes, and i could just tell it wasn’t done. Turned out the oven wasn’t heating, something with the latch. Put it in for 10 more minutes, and it was perfect. Thought I made enough for a sandwich today, but my wife and I couldn’t resist finishing it off last night. Yum.

Tonite, my wife’s out so I stopped at this little place less than a mile away that was advertising Wagyu smash burgers. 10.99. Lets just say – It was not good. My dinner went from an A+ last night to a D- tonite. And I’m a huge burger fan.

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A damn shame if they effed up an actual Wagyu burger. I travel a bit for work and I can’t tell you how many disappointing meals I’ve had out there. I can’t understand how some of these places stay in business. They should be slapped and shut down.

I worked at restaurant kitchens right out of high school for a few years. Even took a year of culinary arts and then decided I did not want to spend my evenings, weekends and holidays away from my family. So I got an engineering degree. But I still love to cook. I’m overly critical of my food as I’m always in pursuit of perfection. Now, for instance, the bread that we had with my breakfast / dinner was a homemade brioche loaf.

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I don’t understand the concept of a wagyu Smashburger because they’re so damn fatty to get them crushed down so thin to be an actual Smashburger you pretty much have to burn the s*** out of it

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There’s a local facebook culinary group here, and right before Covid, me and a couple others from the group did a burger survey of local places. Between us we rated about 40 places over a year. It was so much fun, after awhile, a couple places actually messaged us urging us to try their burgers for free! Its amazing how much variability you can get for such a simple dish. A very under-appreciated part of the burger experience is the roll, and especially how its toasted or grilled. It can make it or break a burger. Also, some people like their burger very plain, no spices, some like it junked up with all kinds of things, I’m somewhere in the middle.

I prefer a non-overly thick burger (yet not toooo thin), with a little bit of burger spice, salt and pepper, and a roll thats soft, not too thick but very crispy on the inside. Others like really thick burgers so they strain their jaw muscles, not me. Some like soft non-toasted rolls, not me. The beef matters of course, wagyu is great, and no doubt healthier, but I’m good if its at least 15% fat (often times you don’t know this though). But I stay away from ground sirloin burgers for sure. Grilling on an open fire takes it up a notch for me.

Agree, shame to waste some Wagyu. Undercooked, overpowering spicy sauce which made the whole thing messy, blah roll. Its reallly hard for cheaper places to hold onto good staff.