tony b

I used my Gunpowder on a ribeye cap last night. Too damn hot to fire up the oven, so I experimented with doing the melting potatoes in a cast iron skillet on the lower grate. Worked out pretty good. You'll have to look close to see the steak hiding in the back, more directly over the fire back there doing the reverse sear. Had just swapped places with the skillet. Plated with a nice Caprese salad, as my basil plant is starting to go crazy!

Krell monoblocks - very nice! All of my stuff is late 70s/early 80s vintage. Metronome speakers, B&K pre-amp & amp, Thorens turntable and Rotel CD player. Hardly played it for many years. Now in retirement, I'm rediscovering lots of my old vinyl (about 800 albums).

I have to admit that I'm not very adept at Photoshop (I have Photoshop Elements 10), but in the main menu bar at the top, Open the Enhance pull down menu. There are several options here - Auto Sharpen and Adjust Sharpness. You can also manually adjust the Smart Fix option, as well, but it seems to work more on lighting than focus.

Welcome to the Obsession. I, too, was a previous RJ kamado owner (however, mine didn't last nearly that long - you were quite lucky!) You'll love the KK even more - much higher construction quality. Given the early design of yours (pre-dates most of us here who all had to do the burn-in), I'm not sure what accessories you could accommodate? You'd have to speak directly to Dennis about that. Examples, - does it have a Guru port, where the cold smoker goes? Does it have the internal bushings for the rotisserie? Does it have the probe port on the side for your thermometer wires to come through? You didn't say what size it was, but given it's age, it's either a 23" or a 19"? A second charcoal basket and the basket splitter is great accessory to have. Pizza stone if you're into that. We're a friendly bunch here and there's lots of experience to draw upon, so ask questions. btw - What electronics, turntable, etc., go with those speakers?

Common complaint about the instructions being in a "foreign" language. I did season my donabe, just to be on the safe side. Very simple to do and it's a one-timer, just like venting your KK. My standard is the 20/20/20 method. The 20 minutes "cook" is an approximation. You want fairly low heat as you are trying to slowly warm up the pot (it's a ceramic cooking vessel after all). Once you see steam coming out of the top lid hole ( you do know the trick is to position it 90 degrees from the 2 holes on the inner lid, right?), after about a minute then you turn off the heat (you can go another 1 - 2 minutes if you want a bit of "crust" on the bottom of the rice pot) and go straight into the 20 minute rest. No peaking! Then open and fluff. Because you've warmed up the ceramic vessel, you can put the lids back on and hold the rice for quite a while. For most rice, I use a 1:1 ratio of water/broth to rice, same as an electric rice cooker. The "standard" is supposedly 1 cup of rice (which is actually slightly less than a cup - as they use a special measuring cup for the rice - approx. 3/4 cup) to a cup of water. I've found that it's not a linear scale. Since I'm usually only cooking for myself, I typically cook 1/4 - 1/3 cup of rice (standard measuring cup), I'll toss in a splash more liquid. Depending on what type of rice you're using, say Jasmine, Basmati, etc., - a good prewash to get much of the exterior starch off, before the 20 minute soak, will give you very fluffy results.

That would be me to a T! If I'm not pushing boundaries, I'm not happy! It was pretty tasty. I should have dusted it again after the cook, like I'd do skewers, though. All I had done was dry rub the Suya on it and let it sit for about an hour.

Us homebrewers use PID controllers to run converted freezers/refrigerators into controlled temperature fermenting chambers. Same basic concept - feedback from a thermocouple to a control unit that switches the power on/off on a standard power outlet, with enough offset to not constantly cycle the compressor and burn it out. These units are typically in the $50 range. Wouldn't work here because their upper temperature ranges are too low, even for low & slow cooks.

WOW!! All I can say!

Congrats, ckreef! Just gotta love the name - now you can truly "NUKE" your food!!

Software will clear up more than you think. You have to be really out of focus for it to not do a reasonable job. I'm a terrible photographer - camera or phone, and Photoshop on my PC and the Photo Editor Pro on my phone are my best tools.

Glad you are going to tackle the shrimp & grits recipe. While those are better than the "instant" grits, which are horrid, these will do in a pinch, but they won't absorb as much half-n-half as regular grits (Quaker labels theirs "Old Fashioned" grits), because it's ground up finer to cook faster. Stir these constantly or they will lump up like wallpaper paste! Piece of trivia - the home of Quaker Oats is right here in Cedar Rapids. All of your QO oatmeal in the US comes from here, as does your Captain Crunch! You don't want to smell Crunchberries being made!! Can't wait to hear how they turn out!

Any port in the storm, as they say! Good luck on the big cook and Congrats on the upcoming wedding, too!

OK, Bruce, now go out there and use it!!!

Nice score, Tekobo! That should hold you for many cooks with the smoker.

Happy that it finally made it this time!! No leakers either! Just so you know, Aussie, they have an even BIGGER size of the Gunpowder at the BBQ shop!!! And, yes, Charles, get some and try it on a steak - very good!! Can't wait for you to try the Cornell Chicken recipe. I like it better than the Alabama White Sauce.

What variety of basil did you plant? There is a "global" variety.

Nicely done 1st cook!

I'd have to work really hard NOT to!

Yes, I really love to grill out. But, I'll be on hiatus for about a week, as I'm off to RI for Homebrew Con (National Homebrewers Conference).

What I could find on the web about regular black pepper says they'll last 3 - 4 years whole and kept in dark, dry places and in air tight containers. Some sites said that if you freeze them, their flavor intensifies. How all this translates to Purple Crack - I don't have a clue!! I vacuum sealed my last batch in small quantities and just kept them in my pantry. They've seemed to held up well over 2 years. I'll likely do the same with this new batch.

Knew I was leaving something out - the cover; if it's going to be exposed in the new home. (Thanks for the reminder - Pequod!)

Nicely done, MacKenzie! Both the cabinet and the burger (sans beets, thank you!) Rainy here off/on all weekend, but I did manage to get in a few nice cooks. Sirloin with 2x Baked spud and corn on Saturday. Yesterday, it was beef ribs, melting potatoes and corn. I rubbed one of the boneless ribs with Suya and the other got coffee/ancho rub. Both were great.