CeramicChef

MacKenzie - what a wonderful bowl of soup! Looks absolutely sumptuous! It's cold here in OKC and bowl of that soup would certainly hit the spot. Kudos on a great cook on a cold night!

tony - I always felt oats were best left to horses. At least that's what I told my Mom. That went over like a lead balloon!

tony - polenta, grits, hominy, etc. Just other word for wall paper paste if you ask me. I've tried grits every way imaginable ... cheese, garlic, fried, etc. Wall Paper paste. But that's just my uneducated palate!

tony - I can't imagine even trying cooking Naan on the dome of TheBeast. I'm sticking with my KK Baking Stone. If I ever were to get a will hair where the sun don't shine, I'd just brush off as much soot after a really hot cleansing burn.

dstr8 - there is nothing like a well timed and well reasoned rant! Feel free any time!

Thanks, Wilbur! I appreciate that. I haven't seen many of your cooks lately; you must be really busy. How is the woodworking coming along?

Skreef - I'm not a big fan of gratis, but I just changed my mind! Killer cook! Awesome desert! Killer pics. WOW! Young lady, you can cook on that KK!

Instead of using the main grate direct, ckreef, I'm thinking of using the baking stone in TheBeast. After taking a cook at the inside of the dome in TheBeast, I reconsidered quickly. The baking stone is MUCH cleaner ... less sooty and black.

ckreef - thanks! I appreciate it. You, skreef, and Hawke are welcome to join us any time you wish.

tony - no, it was actually medium rare! LOL! Sorry about that; I just couldn't resist! Thanks, for that nice compliment. As for the Bacon Fat, in our ultra-über healthy low fat kitchens these days we've forgotten our roots. My Mom and Dad always had bacon fat in the kitchen. But exceedingly few do anymore. I have friends wives throw a conniption fit when they see it. They always ask if I used it in whatever I'm feeding them. I say YES, but you don't have to eat anything! They always eat and say how good everything tastes. Go figure! Everything in moderation.

dstr8 - one thing I learned with BBQ is that you have to be flexible! Always have to have a Plan B! Maybe even a Plan C.

MacKenzie - it was really a nice meal. SWMBOI was satisfied ... she likes her asparagus! And as we all know, if SWMBOI is happy, everyone is happy!

tiny - thanks! Every now and then I get lucky.

skreef - I wondered when you'd get over here! WELCOME! Sports fans, skreef has a reputation of sandbagging folks. That's how she lassoed ckreef for good. I've seen her cooks and I'm telling y'all this lady can cook! She knows her way around that small KK hiding in ckreef's back yard! skreef - you ain't blindsiding us over here! It's great to have you join us, skreef!

Buffer - like 5698k, Rob, says, forget about the dolly. It will die a swift and bloody death. The castors on the KK are more than sufficient to move it provided you have good ply wood under it. I moved my KK BB 32" on oriented strand board, (OSB) it too comes in sheets like plywood, just by leapfrogging. I enlisted the help of 2 friends. They rodeoed the OSB and I muscled the KK BB around. I really urge you to enlist the help of friends for this, especially if you have any elevation changes from front to back or side to side on the proposed route. These KKs are heavy beasts and Newton was right about moving mass ... it wants to go in a straight line once moving. Trying to stop the mass you'll be moving can be a chore, and if the KK slips off the plywood, you're well and truly screwed! Please, do yourself a favor and get some help. A 12er of beer, a couple of steaks, some spuds, etc. and you'll have all kinds of help. Many hands make light the labor. I'd be there to help, but I'm told I'm planting a garden this afternoon!

Shack - now this sounds interesting. I've never done Naan, but I think I may have to do it soon. The reason is that my pastor is a Catholic Priest from India! Go figure! I have him over regularly for lunch, dinner, drinks, whatever and a taste of home might just be a very nice gesture.

Well, yesterday was supposed to be the day that I spun some meat. However, technical difficulties prevented spinning meat until further notice. Rather than sulk, I decided to make yesterday evening's consolation prize worth truly enjoying. My motto has always been when life gives you lemons, grab a bottle of vodka and make some LeninAde! Tonight's menu consists of NY Strips, Baby Dutch Golden Potatoes, and Fresh Asparagus! SWMBOI and I had bacon and scrambled eggs with sautéed peppers and onion done on the griddle yesterday morning in the belly of TheBeast. So we had bacon grease left over; yes, we collect bacon grease and use it for cooking! Pork fat rules! Thank you Emeril! So I grab the griddle and I use the bacon fat to coat the potatoes. I love rubbing up potatoes with bacon grease. It's one of the small things that takes me back to my youth learn how to cook in my Mother's kitchen. Here are the small baby golds rubbed up, salted, peppered, dusted with granulated garlic, rosemary and thyme, and sprinkled with some parmesan cheese. They are ready for the belly of TheBeast. Next comes the asparagus. It too gets rubbed with s slight coating of bacon grease, salt and pepper. It's in a tray and ready to sit next to the potatoes. TheBeast hit about 375F and it's time for the potatoes to hit the heat. I've got half the heat deflector in the belly of TheBeast; that's just right for roasting potatoes and cooking some asparagus. And dadgummit, I don't have a single pic of the potatoes roasting in TheBeast! The potatoes take about an hour at 375F packed as they are. Here are the NY Strips seasoned with S&P, granulated garlic, and some chipotle pepper. Here is the asparagus on the indirect side and the NY Strips on the direct side. Temp on the direct side for this quick sear was 550F. Here is the end result of the cook before we jumped in with knife and fork. My dear friend, Pete the Salt Pig looks on approvingly as not pigs were involved in dinner tonight! The steaks were seared to a wonderfully delicious medium rare. And here is the end result about 30 minutes later! While I'm disappointed I didn't get to spin some meat yesterday for that evening's dinner, but this was a really nice consolation prize that was quick, easy, and very tasty. I'll spin that meat soon, but as long as I can entertain SWMBOI with a meal this good, I'm doing okay! Thanks for looking in!

Dstr8 - I had some alignment issues as well. I had to tun the motor upside down to get the shaft in line with the hole in my RHS of the KK. I'm wondering if there isn't a conflict between standards, i.e. metric and US measurements. I'll ask Dennis on Monday.

Drink one, or two, or ... You get the picture! LOL!

Kerri - in both of my "Care Packages" that came with Beauty! and TheBeast there is the shaft that I see in the video Dennis shot. And three springs. I'm thinking that I need to call Dennis, find out if OneGrill was supposed to send the shaft, and then call OneGrill and get them high behind this. I'll keep everyone posted. Damn the luck! I'm just gonna have to eat steak this evening! When life gives you lemons, buy some vodka and make some LeninAde!

MacKenzie - absolutely KILLER money shot! Beautifully done cook. Kudos to you!

EGGARY - I'm an equal opportunity cooker of steak, chops, etc. Sometimes I reverse sear, sometimes I sear until done, and then sometimes I sear and roast. And for the life of me, I can't tell you my calculus for picking which one to employ! All I know is I LOVE a good steak, and steak is a lot like sex! The worst you ever had was wonderful!

tony - you know me by now ... I am NOT putting great bourbon into MNC! Granted, I have put bourbon into MNC, but it was the like of Woodford or Makers 46! BTW - bourbon does add a nice little background flavor to MNC. Guinness and Harp are also pretty tasty.

buffer - I currently own a KK BB 32" known as TheBeast and a 19" Hi-Cap affectionately known as Beauty! My brother stores a Weber Performer I gave him here on my patio. That translates as "Get your feckless butt over here and get this thing off my patio!" He lives less than 150 yards from me! LOL!! At various times I've owned a couple of BGEs, a couple of Primo XLs, an Akorn (don't even ask), I still have a Lodge Hibachi (Why I don't know, Inverse it), and now both of my beloved KKs. I tell people that cooking on kamados in general and KKs specifically is The Addiction! And it is. I'm a sucker for gadgets and there are almost as many gadgets for kamado cooking as there are fishing gadgets! Just ask @tinyfish. He suffers greatly from both Addictions!

Okay, I'm a complete and utter idiot! Yeah, I know, NEWSFLASH! Right? I simply cannot get the drive shaft, to fit as its supposed to fit into the motor. With the spring screwed onto the end of the shaft, I begin to have problems. First, I have to force, and I mean force the spring into the square drive hole in the motor. Then trying to push the square end of the drive shaft into the drive motor square hole is virtually impossible. I've tried my go to WD-40 lubricant and no joy at all. I have to literally force the drive shaft into the motor. Then to get it out I have to pull on the shaft with an incredible amount of force. Even without the spring threaded onto the drive shaft this thing is a very snug fit. So what in blues blazes am I doing wrong here? I've watched the following video, and to see how easily Dennis mounts his motor, that leads me to believe that I'm doing something dreadfully wrong here. Ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions? Pity, anyone? Here's the YouTube video made by Dennis. I've looked at MadMedic's video as well. Hell, I even resorted to reading the freaking Komodo Kamado manual and I'm completely bumfuzzeled! I'm at the point of blaming the motor's female end as I can't imagine that KK has an out of spec drive shaft!