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Here's how to use a fan belt and wrench to open a stuck damper top. VIDEO-2025-10-24-05-10-08.mp4

Cooked up a nice kielbasa stuffed pork loin wrapped in a bacon weave and it turned out delicious! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

How desperate are you, are you Jonesin and seeing racks of ribs? The fix my friend is a good sturdy shovel, cut a path and the rest is all down hill. C6Bill and I are sitting in the sweet spot for this storm 12-18, he's probably doing the no snow go away dance in his living room. Ain't gonna work, but I'll be cookin. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night shall keep you from your appointed rounds of tending to your KK.

Mexican pizza, have you done this or heard of it? The idea came to me for using Rotel tomatoes and green chiles with some black negro beans. Empty the can, add a dollip of tomatoe paste ( overful table spoon ) and blend by machine. Add this to your dough, then the beans and taco hamburg that you just cooked. Cover with cheese of your liking grated and cook. Now I didn't cook this on the KK because of time constraints so I used the Ooni with the new gas attachment. Brought into the house and covered with sour cream, lettuce and tomato. The pizza was spot on, top and bottom with beautiful leoparding all around...however the middle was a bit gummy. I attribute this to shopping at another store other than my go to for dough and I noticed the dough also didn't have a good rise. Although the pizza was very good besides this gummy it could of used a twist of Taco Sauce as olive oil is applied to a Margarita pizza, preferably after the cook. First time for this, has potential. I will go to confession for not cooking on the KK

Max likes it but I fail to see the humor in it 😡 I’ll dig the 32 out in a few days

Wings again! Now just hold on a second, it's not the wings, it's the sauce...yep a peach sauce I found on a shelf at a distant brewery/winery out in the Berkshires., not far from Arlo Guthrie's house. If you don't remember him just do a Google. Wineries and breweries are an attraction I'll spin the wheel over for a look and taste, while inside finding local treasures people are making up at home in their kitchen and resting comfortably on shelves could be considered a bonus find So if your in a position and wondering what to cook for dinner, well that old bottle on the shelf you might have forgoten about could be a mix it in thought. Don't tell the wife though if it's gone past the date of expiration, nope you don't want to go there...trust me, besides it's still good way past the date, trust me, research supports this or a finger taste will suffice. Nothing special, it was tasty but it was just a reminder for you to by something next time your out and about or cruisin to no where, so take a chance...you never know.

An historical piece, not quite an antique but you'd make a great witness Toney if anyone was stangled in a murder case and asked if, "Can you identify this Mr Toney?" A little off script, but good eyes.

tekobo Thanks for the welcome!! I currently have Tiles. Convincing my wife to get the pebble KK will be tough as she has been kind enough in the past year to allow me to purchase 3 new grills. A lonestargrillz 20x42" pellet grill, A 40'' true flame gas grill and my 32'' KK. So I may have to wait for a while!! Here is a picture of all 3. And yes I have a very Loving wife!! 39 years we are married!! I don't want to push my luck! lol

The weather men got it right!! The Blizzard was spot on. So far we have 23'' and still snowing with winds still gusting to 50mph. Here are a couple of before and current pictures!! Will have to wait a few days to dig out the KK for my first cook of 2026!! Stay safe if you're in the northeast and don't over do it with the shoveling !!! Be smart take breaks or just hire someone to get it done!!!

Looking at your machine on line and mine I truly can't find a difference. I believe at one point Craftsman had MTD make the blowers for them. The same electric start, gas tank positioning, plate covers, spark plug etc all match up. I have chains on my tires, brutal grab and it has a 26 width bite 8HP. So if your akin to mine I can understand your devotion.

This storm wore out my Ariens, it’s 13 years old and the friction disc is a wear item so I guess it was due 🥲 At least I made it through this one, I’ll just have to shovel things out until the new parts arrive. But now I think I might go buy another so I can have a backup lol

Love the pic of the pooch! Everyone be safe. As crazy as it sounds, we'll be 60F here on Friday, but only 30F on Saturday. March can't make up its mind if it wants to come in like lion or lamb?

For nearly every purpose our flour is freshly ground using a KoMo Grain Mill then sieved through a #20, #25, or #35 Gilson Test Sieve (12" sieves fit nicely into an 8 quart Vollrath mixing bowl (69080)). This is a home approximation to traditional stone-ground flour, which bears little resemblance to roller-milled white flour that isolates the endosperm. The nutritional value of wheat is mostly in the highly perishable germ, and the bran; "white" flour is a modern invention that is shelf-stable for years. White flour is spectacularly successful as an "artist's medium" for how responsive it is to varied baking techniques, but at health costs. Just as I can't watch athletes harm themselves in boxing or American football, I can't watch white flour baking. While many people who don't have celiac disease conclude that they can't tolerate gluten, a competing view is that they can't tolerate overly processed grain products. (One should let experiment not culture decide this.) And everyone is vulnerable to diabetes if they live long enough; the starch in white flour is too accessible; constantly stressing our insulin systems. Should one address this in one's twenties, or wait for rising A1C numbers in one's seventies? The medical evidence isn't clear, but the larger picture implicates overly processed foods in general as one reason that health in the United States lags behind its first world peers. My bread has evolved to use exclusively freshly ground flour and sourdough leavening, a "desem" style spread out over several days of cold ferments, for example using the Sourdough Home for an overnight bulk ferment at 50 F, and finishing proofing the shaped loaf in the fridge. Drawing out the sourdough process has both health and flavor benefits, and makes scheduling bread making easier: There's far more leeway in the timing of cold ferments; get in a step when you can. Bread from freshly milled flour is notorious for going sploof into a flat pancake when baked. Many bakers have worked around this without understanding the mechanism, but it's challenging. Bread spreads more as either the hydration or the rye content climbs, and spreads less if baked from a cold proof. I learned from Advanced Bread and Pastry, a professional tome by Michel Suas, about "green" flour: Flour needs to age several weeks to facilitate the quality of gluten development we expect. I don't want to age my flour. It's inconvenient, the germ goes rancid, the flour oxidizes. I now use 60ppm ascorbic acid, as recommended by Suas, as an additive to correct the difficulties posed by "green" flour. I mix ascorbic acid 1:20 with white flour (one of my few uses), and mix that 1:20 with white flour to obtain a 1:440 blend I can actually weigh and include in my dough. I found that it made a dramatic difference. I've stopped using the other additives mentioned above. I have been experimenting with small amounts of organic psyllium flakes, which gels to stiffen the loaf when chilled before baking, but doesn't adversely affect the crumb when used in moderation. Psyllium has a pretty wild effect on hydration, so I'm learning how to again throw strikes.

Looks delicious Tyrus! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I remember those!

Tryus WOW!! Thanks for making me feel better!! I thought I had it bad. Nice to see I'm not alone. I'm really impressed with the path you carved out absolutely a beautiful job! Question did where did you end up parking the snow blower?? P.S. Are you still disappointed As you were on Sunday at 3am ?

Here's a few pics in Mass gaining access out to the cooking areas. The backyard, whatever you don't see will be revealed in the spring.

That instantly brought me back to when I used to change my own oil. Craftsman made the tool, I have another larger one with a red handle and a longer wider strap somewhere in one of my tool boxes, but you get the idea. 8 1/2 years I haven't succumed to that demise, I spin the top to close but always remember by habit now to back off the cap to a touch. Then again my settings are generally a 1/4 to 1/2 turn at the final setting when closing so I'm not going far to that touch.

Hello all!! This is freaking unbelievable!! It's February 20th and still no KK action!! The cold, snow and sleet won't give me a break!! And now they're predicting anywhere from 5-18'' of new snow this weekend!! So if anyone can post pictures of recent KK cooks. I would greatly appreciate it as I am suffering withdrawals and need a KK fix!! Hope everyone is well!!! Thanks gcb

Nice Fatty!

Looks awesome, SteveL.

First few cooks on my new 32" KK. So far so good!! Just trying to learn how to adjust the intake and damper so temps don't get out of control!! A challange in itself. All the advice that I have been getting here in the Forum has been a great help and much appreciated. Also my countless calls to Dennis have been most helpful. I must say that Dennis is an incredible owner and businessman as well as a man of great integrity, hard working and honest as the day is long!!!!. He truly goes above and beyond. Looking forward to more cooks as soon as the snow and cold lets up. It's Been 2 weeks now with below 0 wind chills and 14'' of snow . Nothing melting and crazy wind. Hope to post more pictures soon. Looking forward to taking this journey with you all. IMG_3579.mov

yes still using it. they sell butane grills if you want to do indoors. but they don’t cook as well as charcoal..

Bought some Caputo Blue 00 flour and tried my hand at making neopolitan style pizzas with my gores. Crust came out thin and crunchy. Had a hard time keeping them temp above 550 for 3 pies, think I need to use better fuel ne f tine bud happy with the results gif the first attempt. Nice change of pace to my NY style pizzas I’ve been making the last 3 years

How to get Kamado hot 500F°+ -Remove any items or debris from the lower intake vent (e.g. ash catcher, small charcoal pieces, etc.) -Make sure the bottom of your firebox is well aligned with your lower intake vent. -Store your charcoal inside away from the wet elements. Only use dry fuel. -Use lump charcoal, it will get a lot hotter then briquettes or extruded charcoal and produce less ash. -Don’t blame your brand of lump charcoal, all major lump brands are capable of producing high heat temps for cooking pizza. -Deliberately build your fire: * Keep in mind small pieces of lump burn hotter however they also restrict airflow. * Larger pieces won’t burn quite as hot but they promote airflow. * Airflow = Heat * Airflow restriction is the primary factor preventing you from getting your Kamado to pizza cooking temperatures. * Do not pour your charcoal directly into your firebox, small pieces of lump can fall into the bottom of your firebox and block free airflow. * Lay your lump charcoal out in a wide mouthed bin. * Sort your lump by large, medium, and small pieces. * Discard any really small lump pieces and the dust that settles at the bottom. * Deliberately build your fire box to promote free airflow. * Start with large chunks (fist size or larger) place them one by one at the bottom of your firebox until you have a complete layer of large chunks on the bottom of your charcoal basket. * Now light your layer of large lump pieces. I prefer using a torch until I get a visual flame coming off of two spots of the large lump pieces. * Once your large lump is lit continue building your lump pile by using medium pieces on top of the large lit coals, lay them on top in such a way they don’t interlock with each other and block airflow. * Fill your firebox to the brim with medium lump atop the large chunks at the bottom. Cooking at high temperatures requires a lot of fuel. If you do not use enough lump your fire will run out of steam. * Optionally, you can place some smaller pieces of lump at the very top of your charcoal basket on top of the medium pieces. Don’t use too many small pieces and ensure they don’t fall down into your firebox. * Again, light several more spots on top of your now fully filled firebox, I recommend lighting until the charcoal is glowing in at least four different additional spots. * Once your fire has been built for airflow and is lit remove any platesetters, fire deflector plates, or any larger objects in your Kamado blocking the free airflow of convective and radiant heat up into the dome. * Close your Kamado lid. * Open your bottom vent completely. * Open your top vent nearly fully open, the more your top vent is open the stronger vacuum airflow will be created making your fire burn hotter. However, if you completely remove the top vent then you also allow some of the hot convective air to escape rather then being trapped in the dome so there is a fine balance, explore this with your own grill. * I like to let the grill heat soak for at least 1/2 hour at a temperature of 50 degrees above my intended cooking temperature. * Time is your freind, I recommend starting this process 2 hours before your intended cook time. Rushing things will lead to unsatisfactory results. * Once you’ve allowed sufficient time for the dome to heat soak open you grill and set up your pizza cook with your stone and deflectors if you are using such. Close you lid once again. * Keep your grill lid open as minimally as possible. You will lose some heat after installing your deflectors, let your Kamado stabilize once again at your cooking temperature for at least 15 minutes without adjusting vents. * Place your pizza on your stone. * Check on your pizza as infrequently as possible, you want to retain dome heat for cooking your toppings. * Burp your grill dome before opening. *Additional tips -You can pre-heat your pizza stone in your oven while you grill is heating up. -An infrared temperature gun is a good idea, this will allow you to determine if your stone is to temp before placing your pizza on. -A fan such as the BBQ dragon, a hair dryer, or leaf blower can force air into your lower vent speeding up this whole process. Getting your Kamado hot too fast can put additional stress on your ceramics. -Beer helps. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm bi-coastal so it's really fun being in NYC and seeing ~2' of snow on my patio while also seeing my solar roof pulling in 12kW of juice in San Diego. Why am I in NYC over the winter?

Well at least I never lost electricity during this one, day two of snow removel about to get under way. Time for the roof rake, we got close to 3 feet 🤮

We already have well over a foot and it is coming down hard. Add in the 70 MPH wind gusts it is making life difficult to say the least. It looks like they will be close with the 24-30 inch prediction for this area, it is just hard to tell with the drifts. I need to get back out and do a pass on the driveway before that gets too tall for the snowblower. So far I've just been keeping the back deck clear and making trails in the yard for Max and a bathroom for him lol Stay safe out there everyone !!!!

Tony b The Blizzard has just started and we are going to get between 18-24'' with wind gusts 55 to 75 mph. I think that much snow and wind will continue to postpone my 1st cook of 2026 on my KK for a little longer!!