What's for Dinner?

[Boatboy24]

Since you were all so helpful, let me ask if you were going to buy a gas grill, which would you choose? Bear in mind that we rarely grill, there are normally only two of us, I don't want to spend a lot and I don't need a lot of bells and whistles. I see that prices on various brands vary widely and the "name" brands are really high. Is there a good store brand that would do the job? Thanks.

I'm a Weber guy, through and through (have 4 of them), but they are expensive new. However, two of mine I bought on Craigslist. Especially this time of year, there are a lot to be had out there with people moving, looking to upgrade, etc. You can go used and let the original owner pay for all that depreciation. While new Webers are very expensive, they are made pretty well, parts are easy to come by, and their customer service is excellent. Buying used and then updating the guts can be a simple and VERY economical way to get a great grill for not a lot of money. Plus, it's a fun little project.

 

[cmason1957]

An item I have considered, might buy at some time, in the future, they might only be sold at Bass Pro/Cabela's is a propane grill with one side being the griddle the other a conventional grill. They look interesting, seen to have good reviews. I'm not in the market for anything, right now.

 

[tullamore]

We only eat out for special occasions with a group of friends. We enjoy being able to converse without any need to cook or serve. Still, it rankles me to spend $25-30 on dishes that I could make for $5.* There are many reasons we rarely eat out but some, in no particular order, are: the prices of the food, the prices of wine, the quality, the food, being pressured to finish and leave the table, the ability to talk and hear people talking, concerns about the kitchen staff and concerns about health and cleanliness in the kitchen.

* An example: One of my favorite pasta dishes is linguine aglio e olio (linguine with garlic and oil). I enjoy this simple dish. We went to one of the local Italian restaurants and it was on the menu for $22.95. I could make a bathtub full of that dish for that amount! (Serves me right for going out for Italian food. It is like a postman going for a walk on his day off.)

great dish one of my favs - simple but great tasting - sometimes i put a sardine in there
friend of mine says to me one day- how any times u guys go out to eat - i says 5 times
he says wow - fives times thats more than us - we go out 3 times times a week
i says thats 5 times a year -everyones birthday
being of Whop decent we rarely went out to eat - we had 7 in the family
back in the 70's all the cousins and friends gathered on Lake Superior on Sundays - it was little Italy
everyone brought food, booze - started at 9am went all 10 pm - we would be 60 plus of us - the men would play bocci in the afternoon drank -the women would just gather together and talk ,
how my father drive home i have no idea - different times then
food is a very big thing with the Itallians - i love cooking
- just eat at home i says - and seeing people at the grocery stores buying junk - processed foods - i just shake my head
just my take - i find pope are lazy to cook a good meal!

 

[tullamore]

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nice bark and smoke ring
love it!!!

 

[winemaker81]

At Mrs. WM81's request, I made tacos today. Sometimes I season it myself, sometimes we use a commercial mix. Today we used the one from Aldi's.

We suspect the vendor changed their recipe recently. Mrs. WM81's stomach is sensitive to spicy stuff, so I tone things down if she's eating it. Recently we've both noticed that Aldi's mix is a bit spicier. This probably means I'll be eating tacos for lunch for several days this week, which is ok, since I need something for lunch anyway and this solves it.

Normally I add minced onion, even when using a mix. This time I also added a can of diced tomatoes. Mrs. WM81 likes tomatoes in things, so I figured she'd be ok with it. Oddly enough, she thought it was ok, but it didn't wow her. This surprised her, since she figured she'd like it.

This demonstrates that not all ideas work. It wasn't bad, just not as good as I hoped.

I need to look at recipes for taco seasoning ... one of my habits is to read a bunch of recipes and cobble together one that uses what I like from various recipes.

 

[bstnh1]

one of my habits is to read a bunch of recipes and cobble together one that uses what I like from various recipes.

Ditto!

 

[Kraffty]

Grilled a couple thick chops and absolutely nailed the cook. Added some yellow squash, broccoli and rice.

 

[ibglowin]

We found an airbnb out in Paso for about the same price as a hotel room so we hit the grocery store for supplies. Last night was marinated tri-tip, baked taters and a caesar salad. Marinated the TT in my favorite McCormicks Brazilian Steakhouse marinade. The TT was only $5.99/lb and was beautiful, and to die for good. Wished we would have had a charcoal grill but the Weber gasser turned out to be a close second for sure! We have enough leftover to make a 2nd meal as well on this thing.

 

[Boatboy24]

We found an airbnb out in Paso for about the same price as a hotel room so we hit the grocery store for supplies. Last night was marinated tri-tip, baked taters and a caesar salad. Marinated the TT in my favorite Mcormicks Brazilian Steakhouse marinade. The TT was only $5.99/lb and was beautiful, and to die for. Wished we would have had a charcoal grill but the Weber gasser turned out to be a close second for sure! We have enough leftover to make a 2nd meal as well on this thing.

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One of the few things that's cheap in CA. Looks great. Here, Wegman's wants $15.99/lb.

 

[ibglowin]

One of the few things that's cheap in CA. Looks great. Here, Wegman's wants $15.99/lb.

I was happily surprised at the price compared to all the other cuts in the meat market which were going for north of $14/lb. Even back home its normally priced at $9/lb but I can quite often find it in the WooHoo bin as many folks just don't know how to cook it or what to do with it. Even our traveling BFF's really didn't know how to cook it but were swooning last night. Our airbnb even came equipped with very nice ThermoPro digital meat thermometer which certainly came in handy to make sure I got the (really) thick portion at least close to medium! LOL

 

[sour_grapes]

The TT was only $5.99/lb and was beautiful, and to die for.

The cow agrees.

 

[vinny]

So... I put in a fermentation fridge in my room. That means sausage. I am on whole meats right now, Capicola, lonzino. I have made italian sausage, and breakfast patties, and I finally bought a smoker because? Smoked sausage. Landjaeger is the big goal.

Some of you will cringe, but I hate the idea of pellets, and want to focus on the meat, not running the smoker as I get going. So I went electric for my FIRST smoker. I found out at 11:30 today that it was in 2 days early. Ribs were thawing in the sink by 11:37. I had to run to town for it after some other appointments. I put it together and got it seasoned and ready to go by 3:50. More time would have been better, but for an unplanned smoking it was damn fine.

 

[bstnh1]

So... I put in a fermentation fridge in my room. That means sausage. I am on whole meats right now, Capicola, lonzino. I have made italian sausage, and breakfast patties, and I finally bought a smoker because? Smoked sausage. Landjaeger is the big goal.

Some of you will cringe, but I hate the idea of pellets, and want to focus on the meat, not running the smoker as I get going. So I went electric for my FIRST smoker. I found out at 11:30 today that it was in 2 days early. Ribs were thawing in the sink by 11:37. I had to run to town for it after some other appointments. I put it together and got it seasoned and ready to go by 3:50. More time would have been better, but for an unplanned smoking it was damn fine.

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Sounds like electric smokers have improved. I had one about 25 years ago and there was no way I could keep the temperature in the 225-250 range. I eventually moved on to the WSM that I still use.

 

[cmason1957]

The one I bought secretly years ago from Cookshack keeps the temp at what I set it within 2 or 3 degrees of set point. That's measured by it and also by a temp probe at the outlet. Does a fine job. Not inexpensive

 

[winemaker81]

Sounds like electric smokers have improved. I had one about 25 years ago and there was no way I could keep the temperature in the 225-250 range. I eventually moved on to the WSM that I still use.

I have a 12 yo charcoal smoker, and it's harder-n-heck to keep a consistently good temperature, and its shape makes it difficult to get things in-n-out. It's only real plus is that it was cheap.

My younger son just purchased a pellet grill/smoker, and I'm leaning in that direction when I replace this one. Or an electric. The current smoker is rusty, but not rusted through, so I've been hanging on.

 

[bstnh1]

I have a 12 yo charcoal smoker, and it's harder-n-heck to keep a consistently good temperature, and its shape makes it difficult to get things in-n-out. It's only real plus is that it was cheap.

My younger son just purchased a pellet grill/smoker, and I'm leaning in that direction when I replace this one. Or an electric. The current smoker is rusty, but not rusted through, so I've been hanging on.

My son has a Traeger pellet smoker. It's great for long overnight smokes as it's a set-it-and-forget-it smoker. However, IMO, the smoke flavor is not as good as what you get with a traditional charcoal or wood smoker. A little less flavor, but a lot less work!!!

 

[vinny]

The one I bought secretly years ago from Cookshack keeps the temp at what I set it within 2 or 3 degrees of set point. That's measured by it and also by a temp probe at the outlet. Does a fine job. Not inexpensive

I have to know what you mean by bought secretly.

As a surprise for the Mrs's?

 

[vinny]

Sounds like electric smokers have improved. I had one about 25 years ago and there was no way I could keep the temperature in the 225-250 range. I eventually moved on to the WSM that I still use.

I had a little chief smoker years ago. It worked great for smoked salmon, but the walls were as thick as a few layers of 'tin' foil and I am pretty sure it was on or off, no temp settings. This one is constructed like a fridge. Probably only an inch of insulation, but it is pretty good at holding temps. It turns off at the set temperature and overshoots by some before the element cools down, but it keeps the meat in the range you are aiming for and that is what matters.

Now I need to go by a multi probe thermometer. It never ends when you suffer from gadget acquisition syndrome.

 

[winemaker81]

I've been cooking but not posting.

First is the shrimp scampi my son made for Mother's Day. There's a lot of shrimp in there, it's just under the pasta:




We had heavy cream left over from a dessert Mrs. WM81 made, so I used it up in a chicken scaloppini with garlic cream sauce:





And yesterday catfish was on sale, so I marinated it in milk, seasoned salt, pepper, & granulated garlic, then pan fried:

 

[Christopher Anderson]

I am continually impressed by the food prep prowess of our members, so I have a question. I am about to invest in a gas grill but I have seen these gas griddles that look interesting. Has anyone tried one of these items? If so, how do you like it. Any general opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

https://www.amazon.com/Nexgrill-45000BTUs-Accessory-Tailgating-720-1057B/dp/B0CKKLFGP3/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3RQV8NF6U1Y09&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.xRaizb4D_E53CAWsfEvCLsVyGchM_NsXFizERBgsorH4oglQ-yF00Z8YVvynTnJS_SmFK-y-_NQK4MicNmWFTu9dDdth62PMwXwF-9EoCVYtorJOFgnlG57kxmdS2k4zHbQWfU1CZtyRfRXS31psiYK46WwNuSkyrnT6LTz5YaAXGfH4SuHoyQFzyi3cKgQ9CQSHXBuudR98_FhO7tEa1E989auxlizP8vm3iWvvhQE.riuPNEZg0b3FBINR6HcxbWcmxjFgWbMbEd0LfJzsQYQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=nexgrill+flat+top+grill&qid=1715219631&sprefix=,aps,279&sr=8-3&th=1

Have you made a choice? and will this be on the deck? or does it need to be portable and put up in winter? I bought a Nexgrill from HD several years ago. Because I am cheap, I waited for sales (Memorial Day is around the corner) and special financing offer ($75.00 off anything over $150), then used my military discount. total out the door was under $200. Don't know what they have as of 2024, but I would look around. After a few years the burners, shields, etc have become burned out. I bought on Amazon Stainless parts, grates, etc for ~$50.00. A great upgrade as the grates are very easy to clean. As for the grill mats, they are great to use. I have even used them to make pancakes! and great for soft items.