OFFICIAL THREAD: General Cookery and Discussion

[gettoasty]

The 6 min YouTube video

It uses instant yeast

Might add olives once I get this down.

 

[Piobaire]

Here's our current recipe. Super easy and absolutely excellent. I am using a Lodge cast iron 9x13 for baking. I also use a half recipe in the Lodge pan for Detroit style pizza. Blind bake the crust for about 10 minutes prior to adding toppings.

The Best, Easiest Focaccia Bread Recipe | Alexandra's Kitchen

Cold, refrigerated dough is the secret to making delicious focaccia! This recipe takes 5 min to stir together and emerges pillowy and golden.

alexandracooks.com

 

[Lizard23]

My current favorite focaccia recipe - the salt water is apparently traditional. Worth the extra effort. Its still really easy but does require planning ahead.

Ligurian Focaccia — SALT FAT ACID HEAT

www.saltfatacidheat.com

 

[Lizard23]

Hard to make braised stuff look good, as it all ends up sort of shades of brown, but braised a big piece of chuck with a chunky mirepoix, fresh rosemary, lots of garlic, dried thyme and oregano, a splash of chicken stock, and a few tablespoons of dark shoyu. Served over creamy, cheesy, garlic polenta. That's a carrot piece up front and in the back.

Everything fork tender and paired with a Paso Syrah. So damn good.

View attachment 2289937

Looks so good that I'll overlook that you put cheese into the polenta

 

[Piobaire]

50/50 aged cheddar and Gruyere. I know it's wrong but it's so good.

 

[Piobaire]

"Okay," you're saying, "But Piob, it's just a sandwich."

Well, thinly sliced brined and smoked turkey, homemade garlic pepper bacon, and Mrs. Piob made the loaf of sour dough this morning. The fries are hand sliced, and done in duck fat, with some sriracha mayo for dipping.

But, yeah, it's a sandwich.

 

[Despos]

"Okay," you're saying, "But Piob, it's just a sandwich."

Well, thinly sliced brined and smoked turkey, homemade garlic pepper bacon, and Mrs. Piob made the loaf of sour dough this morning. The fries are hand sliced, and done in duck fat, with some sriracha mayo for dipping.

But, yeah, it's a sandwich.

View attachment 2290505

looks good!
my version adds stuffing and cranberry.

 

[brokencycle]

"Okay," you're saying, "But Piob, it's just a sandwich."

Well, thinly sliced brined and smoked turkey, homemade garlic pepper bacon, and Mrs. Piob made the loaf of sour dough this morning. The fries are hand sliced, and done in duck fat, with some sriracha mayo for dipping.

But, yeah, it's a sandwich.

View attachment 2290505

Gun to my head, I'd eat it and not complain.

 

[edinatlanta]

What id

"Okay," you're saying, "But Piob, it's just a sandwich."

Well, thinly sliced brined and smoked turkey, homemade garlic pepper bacon, and Mrs. Piob made the loaf of sour dough this morning. The fries are hand sliced, and done in duck fat, with some sriracha mayo for dipping.

But, yeah, it's a sandwich.

View attachment 2290505

As someone who eats a lot of sandwiches that looks like a good one

 

[otc]

Landed home on Thursday afternoon after 16 hours of redeye travel with a baby and had about 15 minutes to run through the grocery store.

So this was thanksgiving for the wife and I:

They were out of whole chickens so my “bird” (and not starting a turkey at 4pm even if they had non-frozen ones) was some chicken thighs. Roasted over a bed of root vegetables (red and yellow potatoes, rutabaga, carrot) which turned out fantastic.

Made a pumpkin pie (certainly not finding one of those at the grocery store half an hour before they close).

Mashed potatoes. Green beans blanched and then rewarmed in butter with some IKEA fried onions on top.

Gravy from a packet (but it was a Kinder bone broth turkey gravy packet that actually tasted super good). Rolls from a freezer.

 

[gettoasty]

Looks sweet ^

Second try of focaccia seems to be a hit. Third times a charm. I don’t think I need to buy bread again.

 

[venividivicibj]

Landed home on Thursday afternoon after 16 hours of redeye travel with a baby

How did that go? Tips?

 

[otc]

How did that go? Tips?

I'd say it went pretty alright, but I can't say that's not due to random chance.

In terms of "stuff", here's what worked:
- Picked up a Baby Jogger City Tour 2 to use as a travel stroller. Liked this more than the Uppababy Minu V2 and the Mountain Buggy Nano that I also tested. A lot of travel strollers aren't meant for <6mo, but those ones work fine. It was super handy to have during layovers as well as on the trip--restaurants, giving him to the MIL, etc.
- Nursing cover was handy as a makeshift shade for keeping out of the sun, shade on the plane, etc. (has a plastic stiffener for keeping it off the baby's head, plus some straps that let you easily hook it to seats/strollers/etc).
- Zojorushi coffee thermos to hold several bottles worth of mixed formula (we are like 90% formula). Fit inside a mini cooler along with an ice pack, some distilled water, 4 bottles, and a wearable breast pump.
- Little battery powered fan with a gorrila-pod style stand. Helpful if the plane got hot and for keeping stroller or his little beach tent cool in the hot weather.
- Cosco scenera next as a travel car seat. It's cheap and super lightweight...and doesn't rely on styrofoam for safety so it can't be secretly damaged by baggage handlers. It is not very nice fit and finish and has zero extra features (no sun shade, no detachable base, no carry handle)...but it meets safety standards and was easy to mange.
- Renting some stuff from a local baby rental service (there are also gig-economy baby rental websites/apps). We were there long enough that it was really nice to have a bouncer chair and play gym with hanging toys. Place we were staying provided a pack-n-play.

Stuff that didn't work:
- Boba wrap carrier. Too long and complicated to put on and off on the plane...too hot to wear during the day in Maui. Should have gone with either of our other options (Baby Bjorn Mini, or my favorite, the Baby K'Tan Active)


Techniques that seemed to work:
- Nurse the kid during takeoff and landing to avoid ear pressure crying.
- Strategically try to book an empty middle seat in a row you think is unlikely to be taken. Nobody took the middle on 3/4 of our flights so he got to hang out there. Redeye back from Maui was 100% full, but fortunately he slept the whole way on an inflatable nursing pillow on my wife's lap (not 100% sure the inflatable pillow was actually worth it though...)
- Minimize the amount of crap you're actually carrying. Check everything you don't immediately need(you're going to be waiting for the car seat anyways). We had diaper bag + a backpack duffel + small cooler with formula/bottles/pumps that could fit in the stroller's lower shelf (with 14-16hrs of travel time each way, we needed more than could be carried/kept cold in the diaper bag alone, but I would have loved to have ditched the cooler). Electronics/snacks went in a sack that fit in the duffel and only got pulled out after getting seated and stowing the duffel in the overhead.
- Figure out which bathrooms on the plane have a changing table...because apparently not all do (usually it is on the door, but the flight attendants will also know).
- Lounge access is nice (even if you're now that asshole bringing a kid into the lounge). Burned some united club passes from a credit card on the way there, used the amex lounge on the way back--Amex's new guest policy sucks, but I paid to add my wife as an authorized user on the card so she can get in without a guest charge (small local airport so we get DEN layovers almost everywhere).

 

[otc]

Oh and we brought our full size light/noise machine. Was nice to have.

And I quickly bought a $20 audio only baby monitor from target. We were in a 3br unit with my MIL/BIL and there was enough ambient and A/C noise that my wife was too paranoid about not being able to hear the baby. Keeping that for future trips.