tony b

I use lots of dried chilies when making my chili con carne recipe. I have multiple varieties in my pantry. My challenge in this box (besides the shear quantity) is uses for the 2 bricks of annatto paste? Never worked with it before, just the seeds/powdered versions. Suggestions?

Or adds to the frustration when your ship is anchored off the coast for days waiting to dock, or it does a "drive by" your port only to go to another one first. @ckreef can attest to this one, as can @tekobo!

Old Julia Child tip for getting beet stains off your hands - table salt. Mix up a wet paste of salt and water and use it as a scrub for your hands. Then wash with soap & water.

For the Napa part of the trip, it's more trying to restrain myself from joining yet another wine club! Yeah, lots of potential in that box! Will take me a while to get over the "overload factor" though - where to start?

Well, look at what showed up at my doorstep about 30 minutes ago! Looks like someone ( @Troble perhaps??) ransacked the local Mexican market and shipped it halfway across the country to throw the authorities off their tracks!

Sent you a PM. No French Laundry - didn't know that I was doing this trip in time to make reservations. Plus, I'd like to hang on to my retirement account for a while longer - LOL!

You got that right! Welcome! BrewTech gear - nice! Spotted the Blichmann hoprocket and chiller, too. Serious cash in that setup for sure. Propane tank, but didn't see a burner? You convert totally over to all electric as part of the "upgrade?"

To celebrate the tease of an early spring (it was 45F), threw some snags on the grill and made some coleslaw to get me in a summertime mood. Our local supermarket (HyVee) makes good bratwursts. These are bacon-cheddar and jalapeno-cheddar. Color on the coleslaw is from the purple crack. Trader Joe's tater tots done in the airfryer, with Peruvian green sauce (the other crack!) @Troble will catch the beer homage!

What an ugly mess that had to have been, and to break the stove on top of it. I'm surprised Mrs RD will even let you near the kitchen again! I was an partial extract brewer (mini-mashes) for many, many years. As another experienced brewer told me, "why spend hours trying to mash 10 pounds of 2-row, with all kinds of possible hiccups (like stuck mashes), when you can buy the base dry extracts for your brews - same results every time, no hassles." Made perfectly good sense to me. But you took this to a whole another level, in the opposite direction, trying to malt your own grains. An interesting experiment, one time, but wouldn't be something that I'd want to do on a routine basis.

Polar Vortex has been shed! It was in the mid-40s today and sunny. Snow is melting like crazy. Yesterday was nice, too, so back to grilling! Chicken legs quarters, one rubbed with Yardbird and the other with Slap Yo' Daddy. Direct, main grate, peach wood. Plated with some nice spicy pasta puttanesca and a side salad with feta cheese. A very nice Clos Pegase chardonnay to go with it.

Our Club was the 1st one you saw when they opened the doors on Club Night in Minneapolis - Cedar Rapids Brewing Society. We had 2 bars set up. I brought my Gose. It was well received, lots of positive comments. I booked my hotel in SD months ago. Nice venue, been there 2x before for HomebrewCon. We'll see what AHA does around registration time? You saw how they really changed up the Competition judging this year. At least they're not pouring out the beers like they did last year! 😢

An easy test to do, just keep a tissue handy, just in case!

Missed Philly, but I was in Baltimore. Our club has poured in Grand Rapids and Minneapolis. We were thinking about Nashville before it got cancelled. San Diego is just too far to haul our trailer with all our gear and beers. Way back in the day, I did smoke some grain on the old POSK. Actually took 2nd place in a brew contest with it. Not a huge fan of rauchbier, so I really haven't made another one since. One of the few beers that I generally won't drink. The other is anything pumpkin! Vile!

@Basher BEWARE! I see a new rabbit hole opening up! Seriously expensive hobby when the "entry level" scope is $1200 on Sale!

Congrats on the delivery. I'd be out there with a flame thrower, if necessary, to clear a path to its final home spot. Like the one vulture said to the other, "Patience, Hell! I'm ready to out and kill something myself!"

I tend to wrap briskets more than butts, but I target the wrap after clearing the stall (~170F IT). I'm a Franklin technique guy - pink butcher paper for the wrap. It breathes and promotes a better bark than foil.

Nice crispy looking skin on those chicken thighs! TY for all the nice compliments!

That will be the biggest difference you will notice between your current grill and the KK - it's heat retention. Once heat soaked, the KK rebounds very quickly and you're spritzing it so you're adding moisture. I'm not a big fan of the spritz. I just usually let it rock naturally. I get plenty of smoke infusion in my cooks without it. The old BBQ sayin' - "If you're looking, you're not cooking!" really doesn't apply to a KK, unless you get stupid about it and are opening it every few minutes.

I made a Cubano sandwich with the leftover pork roast from last night, so I hear yah!

Once heat soaked, the KK is very resilient and recovers temperature very quickly.

That's a good enough reason! You'll have no regrets or buyers remorse - guaranteed!

I'm sure that Dennis would have advised you against the upsizing if he'd have thought that it wasn't a good match for you. He values customer happiness over profit. That's why we all think so highly of him and never hesitate to recommend folks talk directly to him about their thoughts about buying.

Nothing wrong looking about those loaves!

Snuck in one more cook before the snow returns today. Pre-marinated pork loin (local market has been running a BOGO special on them.) This one was roasted garlic and black pepper. I slathered on some Dinosaur BBQ Wango-Tango. direct, 350F, peach wood chunk on the coals. Plated with a nice pasta and side salad.