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In defense of "no pics", my last two loaves of sourdough have radicalized me. They looked like I'd been set back five years, and they tasted the best I've ever made. Now I'm on a Desem bread bender. For a period I joined a pottery studio nearby. One open house evening, I bought five "lottery" tickets when it looked like no one would, just to support the place. Eventually, many tickets sold. Yet, somehow, all five of my tickets won. I got kidded about this for months. One of my prizes was a bowl the owner had made but couldn't sell. My neighbor is now very happy to have it. The bowl extended for an inconceivable distance. It displayed a mastery of technique, the impossibility of which would only be clear to someone who had spent years trying to master the potter's wheel. I have a strong aesthetic bias, that in fact it's easier to display exceptional technique than true originality. This is certainly true in math. Every artistic endeavor gets distorted by this, to the point where we teach ourselves to judge the difficulty of something, rather than its artistic merits. My favorite piece that I made at that pottery studio was a pen holder. In India, before styrofoam cups, disposable cups were made of clay, and after use they contributed to the road. I tried to imagine what a pen holder would look like, made a few seconds each in the millions, if that India instead needed pen holders. Needless to say, this work was divisive. At least no one could accuse me of flaunting my skills with clay. This applies to food, which can be tricky to assess by appearance alone.

In addition to the multi-zone cooking Tony mentioned, all that room is very nice. The pancake cook in the pics is the first time I've made pancakes and they were all still warm when I ate them. Clean up is easier too! I do have to admit that I waffled about getting one for years due to that very valid point, but I really like pancakes and have always struggled with them - I always burned the first one and I struggled with keeping the first ones warm while the latter ones cooked. I tried several large frying pans as well as a griddle plate for my gas grill. The pans didn't really help with the "keep warm" issue and the grill griddle plate was a pain for grease management. I've always struggled with not playing with my food while it's cooking and having several things going on the griddle at the same let's me play with one thing that needs constant attention while leaving stuff that needs to be undisturbed while cooking alone. (I think that's also a reason I like cooking on the big Santa Maria grill - I can play with the fire instead of the food). I'm having a blast cooking on this thing!

In Italy at the moment. Baby artichoke risotto for lunch was delicious.

Ha! My wife Laurie is my muse, saw where I was going with the Brød & Taylor Sourdough Home, and recalled reading the Desem section in The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, back in the 1980's when it came out. I sensed a seminal work, akin to Richard Olney's Simple French Food spawning the Chez Panisse diaspora. Sure enough, Jennifer Lapidus read that same passage back in the day, and tracked down Laurel Robertson's dear friend Alan Scott, who became her mentor. She bought his 5,000 pound, 48-inch stone mill when he died before receiving it, and used it to found Carolina Ground. Her book Southern Ground is my new bible; as @Pequod discovered it's basically about Desem bread. I'm working through the Kindle edition until her signed copy arrives. Tracing back her sources, I found a used copy of The Bread Book by Thom Leonard. It's yet another take on Desem bread, worth reading. I've learned a few things I hadn't put together, such as slack bread could be overly digested by the sourdough starter. Meanwhile, my grain order from Janie's Mill arrived, to supplement our stocks of hard red spring wheat from Central Milling, and soft wheat and rye from Giusto's. Let the games begin!

Just noticed this new piece of gear, interesting but it won't replace a KK. Could be fun to play with though. https://www.fourneauoven.com/products/fourneau-wood-fired-grill-16-deluxe

I have actually tried to make sourdough crumpets using left over starter. The results were disastrous. I made sure there were no pix. Jealous to hear of @Pequod's instant success, if the truth be told. Liking your bread Dave. Although I might prefer the pen holder. I love the idea of individual slots for each pen. No fighting to separate them to determine which is working and which is not.

I bet they tasted as good as they looked and they looked really good 😊

The skin on the smoked chicken rendered beautifully. I did not eat the chicken immediately and I think that helped. Cooling the chickens down slowly and then refrigerating them meant that the moisture was retained and when we cut into them to make sandwiches for supper, the breasts were moist and delicious. You also got that "chicken jelly" near the bones and beneath the skin which added to the taste. The smoke flavour was good but I might try this again without extra smoke. Also plan to try tandoori and suya whole chicken. Options abound!

No pix = Didn't happen, just sayin'!