Baba Ghanouj on the Firedome (and some additional notes on the continuing saga of the Firedome development)

I'm happy with the use of this thing, but I need more experience.  A big problem I'm having is dome temps.  They're all over the place.  It may not be a problem, it just has to do with whether there is a live fire or if the fuel is smoldering.  

The objective I set out to acheive at the beginning of this project was evenness of cooking, crucial for a pizza.  With this rig, the only thing that will burn the bottom of a pizza is placing the fuel beneath the stone and not on the perimeter.  I've observed this several times.  

What keeps tugging at me is using wood for fuel.  After briquettes are started, this thing is pretty damn hot and new fuel catches fast - and burns fast.  Also, since so much of the perimeter is accessible with the hinged grate, removing the dome, charging fuel and regaining temps isn't such a big deal.  I do it routinely.  Now, I want to try to recharge with two logs on either side.  Once they catch, I'm curious about the temperature and the burn time.  So, that experiment's on tap.  I also have a few friends queued up who need some samples for tolerating my babbling about this thing.

Applesauce for 1 (guest blogger Frankie)

I'm hitting some wickedly cool milestones this Summer.

A week ago, while at the RPAC pool at OSU swimming with my papa, I tossed my kickboard aside and swam across the pool, watched a bunch of Bieber vids on YouTube,  sticking a few serious handstands and roundoffs in gymnastics and kicking my papa's butt in Connect 4.   In the kitchen, I've been dabbling in vegetables, decorating cupcakes under the watchful eye of my pastry chef mom and, today, my very first culinary creation.  Uncooked apple sauce!  I made it up; yet another data point for nature clobbering nurture.

Applesauce for 1
Core and slice a medium Granny Smith apple (from OSU's farmer's market).  Take each slice of the apple and shred it using a fine grater.  Eat the residual skin (big vitamins).  Take the resulting very fine apple pulp, add a single level teaspoon of sugar, mix, and then (my secret), clean your hands and squeeze a few cherries letting the sweet/tart juice into the applesauce discarding the pit and skin.  Chill a bit in the fridge, top with maraschino cherry - serve with demitasse spoon.

A crumbling meatloaf and wishlist

Summer, busy, really busy.

Prodded by the paying customers, Ross (hey man, go eat some Memphis bbq and stop reading blogs) suggested I post something to get those jars of jam below the fold.

Tonight was a special night, our dinner to commemorate Bastille Day.  This is our 10th anniversary of the day we landed in Columbus; it also marks another very special event.  Curious, aren't you?

I planned a meatloaf, a relatively rare and special dinner for us.  I usually add cracked wheat and then the usual suspects found in meatloaf (onion, fresh herbs, egg, a few bread crumbs, milk, some tomato puree, etc.) and then cook in the kettle.  It turned into a crumble - the whole wheat incorporation tastes great, gives a whole grain punch, but sometimes causes a less stable loaf.  Regardless, we had it with grilled asparagus and yellow squash.   Despite being a less than favorable texture, the smokiness was killer.

What's coming on weber_cam?
1. Eons ago, weber cam was intended to be a real webcam to watch my grill while I was in work (to check on it for safety's sake).  I'm contemplating this via ustream.tv to do some ribs for a weeknight.
2. More Firedome (Kate, I haven't forgotten you!).
3. Giada's limoncello recipe looks pretty easy and good, peeling the lemon looks like the tricky part.
4. Mac's merguez is killing me, gotta try it soon.  Merguez is heaven, I'll be scouting out some lamb shoulder at Mediterranean Food Imports for this.
5. Brining a pork shoulder?  This one I did.  I tried a 7 lb brined butt vs a 5 lb non-brined.  The 5-lber was actually better.  Brining provided negligible benefit.  I was surprised.  May try injection sometime.
6. Sweeet 'n sour pickled anything.

That's it for now ...