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Strip steaks aka New York cut is my favorite cut from the top side ;). I think someone once said 'New York strip steak is the steak eaters steak...'. Nicely done!

Ditto CC: I had cast iron grates on one of my big gas barbies years ago. And even though I have decades of cast iron & carbon steel pan use, and use them nearly every day, under my belt I wouldn't go back to cast iron grates; too maintenance intensive even here in the dry high desert. Season the KK's SS grates and they'll perform admirably for all types of grilling/baking on the KK.

Looks great CC! Its been a while since I have oven baked breaded chicken but need to follow you and do it in my KK!

Very, very nice! Ditto on the creative use of the taco rack too!

I've used CocoChar for almost 3-years and CoffeeChar since earlier this year. I probably use 75% Cocochar and 25% Coffeechar overall (mainly because I roast veggies, fish, baked sweets, etc.) and prefer the neutral smoke/flavor of CocoChar. More meat eaters would probably lean more towards CoffeeChar.

I'd take 10-boxes or more...plus some CoffeeChar too.

I prefer sour cherries for pies...all things the way my Mom scratch made them while growing up.

Charles, I like where you went with the KK cherry pie thing!

Yeah, go ahead and laugh. I did. Until I tasted them. They're going atop vanilla ice cream after dinner tonight. With the KK biscotti I made yesterday. Shake 'em around until they get caramelized yet still moist; the idea is not to turn them into raisins

That's just insane MacK! Rhonda made rhubarb crisp a couple weeks ago. And now your wonderful looking rhubarb pie gets my mouth o'watering! Grew up eating rhubarb pie...and also another midwest/upper midwest farm favorite: Gooseberry. On occasion my Mom would mix rhubarb and gooseberry together for a wonderfully different pie.

No problem when you use the incredibly versatile Komodo Kamado! it was unseasonably hot here today in the Reno-Sparks area and I needed a fresh batch of biscotti for a little dinner party we're having tomorrow evening. And to keep the heat outside the house I stoked my Two-Three KK and let it cruise at three-fifty . Worked out great. Garden rosemary, macadamia nut & SoCal orange zest biscotti.

Valoriani is what I want...and they recently introduced their "Baby" line. http://valoriani.it/en/forno_baby I assume Mugnaini, the North American Valoriani distributor in NorCal, will have them eventually...: http://www.mugnaini.com/residential-ovens/ If you are not familiar with Andrea Mugnaini's story and even if you're not in the market for a wood fired "pizza" oven, you like I did, might find her entrepreneurially story for all things business & marketing very interesting.

The Blackstone is a nice pizza oven given its size, affordability and quickness to baking temps for all things Neapolitan (or lower temp doughs too) pies! Although I don't own a Blackstone my BIL has one and I've seen it in action several times. I've vacillated back/forth about getting one...but holding out for something: Too big, too expensive along with requiring copious amounts of wood

Congratulations Dennis!

Nice crust MacK!

Not sure you'll have enough surface moisture on the bird for the flour trick...to make it work using Judy Rodger's salted & dried bird...

^ nothing the KK can't do

Although its not the best photo it is, between the two pics, no contest for me (and what you want to accomplish): The 23" shot! The 23" is iconic. I wondered, at first glance, if the 19" pic was even a KK...

Wow...MacK you must have a cold/root cellar? Nice to eat your own grown 1/2 year or more from picking? Good on you...nothing better than home grown. And your post reminds me: Its been too long since I last cooked wings. Your's are sure tasty-licious looking!

Browned King Oyster mushroom slices, 3-hour caramelized onions, grated aged Emmental cheese atop the Hole In One Ranch smash-burger... damn I forgot to snap a pic of the assembled & griddled patty melt: Oh snap! But tasty it was

I didn't have time to put a lump fire in the belly of my twenty-three but since it was windy as heck (hey...its Nevada after all :D) I dropped the Iwatani blue flame burner down in the KK and smashed some Hole In One Ranch (local) grass fed, quality ground beef into burgers for patty melts.

Dennis, I hope you need to hire additional employees ;). Well deserved Kudos!

Congratulations and welcome to Komodo-Kamado-ville Shuley! Another 23" here. Many of us went through the 'hand wringing' decision as you described before fully committing to make a KK purchase. As everyone has stated (more or less :D): Soon you will wonder how you did without your KK! It is capable of any type of cooking process you want it to do; limited only by your imagination. Soon your friends and relatives will think you're getting paid to sell Komodo-Kamados...haha! You'll be bragging like a salesman! Hope you also had Dennis include some CocoChar and CoffeeChar as, essentially, it gets a free hitch-hike on your 23's pallet. Curious: What part of the world do you reside?

Dee-lish looking MacK! Per others: Nice leg holder!

I thought I had pics of the chicken roast off but after checking...nope. So next time. Its Judy Rodgers' recipe (Zuni Cafe Cookbook adapted to my KK ;); Judy who died a few years ago at age 57 was the owner and chef of the famed Zuni Cafe in San Francisco; I've been there several times...): http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015770-zuni-cafe-chicken I've cooked chickens a multitude of ways over the years including brining, slow roast/smoking, frying, etc., etc., and since trying Judy's recipe a number of years ago its my 'go to' roast chicken recipe. Coupled with a heat soaked KK...its just crazy good worthy of: Repeat, repeat, repeat...