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Starting to prep for our New Year's Eve party, four days out. Today was marinade and sauce day with a little bit of tortilla action thrown in for good measure. I picked a recipe for chicken tacos with chilmole. The recipe said that preparing the chilmole would remove the ability for the air in your kitchen to sustain life, such is the level of capsaicin that would be released when you roasted the 100 arbol and 8 ancho chilies to the level of blackness required to make the sauce. I had a simple solution to that - fire up my 23 KK, get it well heat soaked and "broil" (we say grill in the UK) the chillis in there. I also made the al pastor marinade as per @Troble's recipe. I doubled the recipe. Our sturdy Vitamix had a job on its hands, getting all that achiote blended in! See this post for more about tacos al pastor After all that work I ended up with three tubs of al pastor marinade and one of chilmole. I also wanted to experiment with tortillas. I started off with beautiful purple corn. This is following the wash after nixtamalisation. Some people say to wash a lot, some say to wash a little. This time I washed a lot. Just depends on when I remember that I don't need to slough off ALL of the outside of the kernel. Machine in action, grinding the corn. IMG_4010.MOV Working on my own I managed to make 42 tortillas in under half an hour. I have left them to cool and will test the reheating methods tomorrow. 42. The Answer to Life the Universe and everything. It is a sign.

It's been a long, painful recovery from my torn rotator surgery.. Tore the muscle not the tenon so it was MUCH more challenging. Two months in a sling, three months of terrible no-sleep nights, lost 7 kilos.. Argh and double Argh. Back on my feet and starting up video production again. First one: Smoking Meat With The Komodo Kamado Smoke Generator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJsesndfbUE&t=307s

So yesterday was our early NYE gathering with some close friends and their kids and my family so we had a total of 13 of us. A pic of my sweetie helping to press tortillas outside in about 34 F weather…pretty mild end of December evening here in SE WI. A couple pics of the taco spread and one finished taco…..I thought they turned out great but then I’m tooting my ow horn I guess. Our friends sister was a professional in the food industry with a high skill set in confectionary / baking. This is a pic of a coconut cake……..many years ago my wife and I enjoyed going to a Chicago restaurant called “Heaven on Seven” a New Orleans themed restaurant that make an excellent coconut cake. This cake was as good as the cake or better than we used to get at Heaven on Seven! Today we are taking it easy before we head to Mexico where other good people can make great tacos for us!!! Good luck @tekobo and Happy New Year to all the good folks here on the KK Forum,

A special night calls for a special cut of meat. 1.125kg 42 day dry aged bistecca fiorentina, low and slow until just under rare then seared in the 7th circle of hell. Also some lamb lollipops, chicken skewers and snags for the kids. We started out with yummy negronis. Served with a ‘green papaya salad’ made with green apples. The contrast of spicy, funky and sweet with the rich steak is our favourite. Happy new year!