CeramicChef

Oh my gracious goodness! I just fell in love with a pork tenderloin! MacKenzie, please tell me that you have leftovers with my name on the box!

Now that's bacon done right! I cannot deny it, I like bacon. Any bacon. I especially love bacon cooked right on the grates over the fire in the belly of TheBeast! Best bacon ever! And Dennis, if you don't post that carbonara cook, I'm personally coming to Bali to kick you square in the butt!

+1^ The 19" Hi-Cap is larger than the basic BGE and the KJ Classic. I didn't realize that until I really started looking at what others had to show. When I decided to get something smaller than TheBeast, I originally thought I'd get a 23 ... until I realized how big it is by looking at Wilbur's hot dog cook. I couldn't wait for the 21" and after talking with Dennis, he pointed me in the direction of the 19. What a great selection! It's perfect for the week night cooks of a couple of burgers, chops, filets, etc. When the GrandMunchkins join us, I fire up TheBeast, well, I tell them to go fire him up. And they are really good at it! The Ladies are really good with both Beauty! & TheBeast. Beauty!, the 19" Hi-Cap is a joy to cook on. She is easy on lump, really maintains temps quite well, and can hold a good sized pork butt no problem. I'd have absolutely no problem putting a good sized turkey on her, i.e. 20 lbs or so. She can easily accommodate a couple racks of ribs or 4-5, maybe 6 steaks for a few friends over during the week. I find my 19", Beauty!, the perfect complement TheBeast. I have absolutely no problem recommending the 19" for small (a couple of burgers, chops, files, etc.) to medium (something like 4-8 people, maybe 10 max) sized cooks. You can do a big butt on a 19" no problem, you can cook 3 racks laid out not he main and the upper grate, you can cook a medium sized packer brisket on the main and another on the upper grate, yo've got thermometer probe ports and the 19" can spin meat on a rotisserie basket. I really think that for a family of 4 or so the 19" could be an everyday cooker. It's small enough to really get cooks done in a hurry, i.e. sears, and large enough to entertain up to about 12 folks. I find my 19" to be very versatile. I'm glad Dennis recommended it. It's been a wonderful addition to my patio.

ckreef - any time you can combine power tools and cooking, you've really got something!

Charles - you're obviously not as dumb as I look!

Great money shot, ckreef! Droolicious!

Yeah, compared to Memorial Day, that salade really doesn't mean much. Those heros on the other hand ... We can never thank them enough. And thanks be to God that we have such heros amongst us!

Duh! I always try and make a dime do a dollar's worth of work! Or how about ... This is my one and only meager attempt at recycling!

WOWZERS MacKenzie! Great money shot. That texture shot looks to be smooth as silk. Very nicely done. Kudos!

Ok, you guys have convinced me to NEVER do fish any way but SV ever again. I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree, but I can take a hint!

And now all y'all know why I love my 32", TheBeast, so dadgummed much! The grate space is not to be believed! And of course, temp control is so incredibly easy with the new manifold.

MacKenzie - it was a really tasty treat. However, it could have used your inimitable talents as food stylist. I trul suck at that! You, onmthemother hand, have that deft touch ...

Hey MacKenzie - any word on a due date for your KK?

Oh SNAP! And I was doing so well on my diet!

Thanks, Tony! It was delish. As for floating, I've got the gondola strapped to the top of the car and my swimmies are filled. Just in case!

Howdy KKers! Salade Nicoise is a classical french salade/meal from the area surrounding the town of Nice, hence the appellation Nicoise. Classical Salade Nicoise is made with Eggs, Olives, Tuna, and other garden greens. I'm not big on eggs in my salad, and I had some salmon in the fridge, so I took liberties with the classical French rendition and I've dubbed my concoction Grilled Sooner Seafood Salade Nicoise as an homage to the classic. First we start off with boiling potatoes. I used miniature purples, reds, and golds. I boiled them up using the NuWave induction cooktop as seen below. I really like this induction cooktop as it doesn't get the place hot. In Oklahoma and in the Summer, that's important! After they were cooked, I wanted to stop the cooking process, so into an ice bath the spuds went. Next came the haricots verts (that's green beans to everyone in the world but the French and Quebecois) which were blanched in the spud water after the spuds joined the polar bear club. And here the haricots verts are swimming amongst the ice bergs. And again, just like the spuds, the haricots verts jumped into the freezing water to stop the cooking, set the color, and to win a Polar Bear Club Certificate. As many of you know, I'm a sucker for new gadgets. A friend has a FoodSaver with a marinator, and I just had to get one. Below is a photo of the marinator in action. The marinator really works quite well. Here you see the salmon fillets in a quick marinade of olive oil, tarragon vinegar, lemon juice, tarragon, and pepper. Total time in the marinator was about 15 minutes. IF you have a FOodSaver, you owe it to yourself to get this marinator. Its less than $25 and it's really worth every penny. Now it's time to get down to brass tacks and get the seafood on the grill. I made up a couple of skewers of shrimp and one skewer of scallops and set them on Beauty!'s main grate. Temp was about 400F The shrimp cooked quicker than the scallops so I pulled the shrimp and put on the salmon fillets. Everything cooked quite nicely. The salmon was wonderfully tasty and flakey, the shrimp were done just right, and the scallops had just a nice little sear to them. So everything is cooked and it's time to assemble the Grilled Sooner Salade Nicoise. As you can see, I'm definitely NOT a food stylist, but this salad was a really nice treat. Tasty, refreshing, and dressed with pomegranate-blueberry balsamic vinaigrette. It seems as if everywhere I turn lately pomegranates and blueberries have been paired together, so what not at ChezChef as well, right? Without further ado, here's the money shot of what I placed on the table before SWMBOI. Thanks for looking in. I had forgotten how much it takes to plate up a nice Salade Nicoise. Assembly took as long as it took to cook the seafood! I fell in love with Salade Nicoise over in Paris, but there, they had all kinds of folks to plate it up. Here it was just yours truly. Now I remember why I save Salade Nicoise for really special folks! Y'all have a wonderful and safe weekend. Here in OKC, we're looking at manning the boats. We've had almost 15" of rain this month and another 4" forecast this weekend. Please take a moment this Memorial Day weekend to remember those members of our Armed Forces who paid the ultimate price so that we could sleep well at night and live in the greatest country in the history of mankind!

Scarlet! Frankly, I don't give a damn!

Charles - you never cease to amaze me with your cooks at the Bistro. Amazing!

mk1 - very nice thread! Thanks for posting. I used to do comp BBQ years ago and it was all kinds of fun for me. Here's hoping you can have more fun and that you get some time on stage and time cashing checks!

Every place I turn I see articles on this kamado. The Harvard PR team is working overtime!

That's an interesting hack! I'd never thought of that, but it's nothing but money!

WOWZERS! That is some kinda fine! Beautiful money shot!

mk1 - that just looks positively scrumptious! Now I'm starving and it's all your fault! Please pass me a dry drool bib!

Geez, Dennis. Not even I can miss that button!

Charles - gorgeous pizzas. I love a thin crispy crust and those are bomb!