Can I interest anyone in some FOOD?

[aenemaTron]

In a slow cooker you're always going to end up with more liquid, not less. If I was going to do chicken breasts, at the very least I'd use bone-in breasts to help avoid undue shrinking and dryness. Also, pineapple has enzymes that can destroy the texture of meat.

[Kon Darp]

Well, pineapple can also tenderize meat quite well if you use it as a marinade. It's more the 10 hour cooking time WITH the pineapple than just the pineapple itself. If the only problem was that you added too much liquid, you would have been able to strain the meat and the leftovers would have been fine. Braising doesn't destroy the texture of meat, it just melts the connective tissue between the fibers.

Look around this list:
http://foodgawker.com/?s=slow-cooker
Or this food blog (some of which is ridiculous. I will punch you if you heat up hot dogs in your slow cooker. The oven would be 10 times better.)
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

[crlygrl]

Boneless chicken breasts take more like 6 hours on low, especially if you don't use many. I also find that boneless is better if you intend to shred it like for sandwiches. The juices from the meat create more liquid and it kind of steams in there.

Actuallly anything where you're shredding meat is great in the crockpot. BBQ beef is pretty awesome.

[MrDys]

I made a nice batch of pasta salad today. It's cheap and easy and it's a great thing to make to use up the last remnants of things in your fridge. Two carrots left? In they go! A weird cornerful of a bag of frozen peas? Get in there!

And now I have a thing sitting in my fridge that I can pull out for a snack that feels like a meal, or a side dish to go with dinner. Pasta salads are the best.

[Liezl]

I love pasta salad... my favorite mixed bag of ingredients is tri-colored pasta with chopped pineapple, lemon feta cheese, chopped celery, candied walnuts and balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

[Babychoby]

I just went off on a long ramble about casserole on my blog if that is of interest to anybody besides my shrink.

babychoby.com, naturally.

[Cameron]

Are there any other fans of the BBQ Pit Boys here? It's pretty much the best food porn I've ever seen and I'm kinda obsessed.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BarbecueWeb?feature=watch

[crlygrl]

These fucking things. SO GOOD.

[slothborn]

.

[crlygrl]

Here's one way to make kugel. There are lots of ways to make kugel. This is how I made it tonight:

1lb of extra wide egg noodles
cup of raisins
cup of unsweetened applesauce
4 eggs, 1 extra yolk
1 large container sour cream
1 large container small curd cottage cheese
1/2 cup sugar (you can use less)
1/2 stick melted butter
cinnamon
dash of vanilla

(NOTE: You can use grated apple instead of the applesauce.)

Boil the noodles in lightly salted water and throw in the raisins towards the end so they plump up. Drain. Stir noodles with melted butter, saving just a little bit of butter for later. Blend the other ingredients and mix in the noodles. I like to cool off the noodles/rinse them first. Pour into a greased 9x13 inch pan and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. I also brush a little melted butter on some of the noodles that are sticking out. Bake at 350 for about an hour, covering with foil half way through to avoid a totally way too crispy top.

I like to make it the night before then heat it up. Like I said grated apples or pears are really good in this, and golden raisins are the best but not entirely necessary.

[drieux]

After many months another entry has finally happened at the food blog I write.

http://sanfranciscoburgerblog.tumblr.com/

[KeithTalent]

Butternut squash fries are way better than sweet potato fries.

[nathansmart]

white potato fries are the best though, you gotta admit

[pissedpissedofferson]

Bump!

Has anyone tried a baking steel? I'm tempted to get one, since I like making pizza at home (so far cast iron skillets are best, IMO). That said, they're awfully expensive for what amounts to 1/4" of steel that's been cut to fit an oven.

[aenemaTron]

Well unglazed paving stones are cheap as shit and I've seen those bandied about as being just as good as anything. We got a pizza stone from a beloved friend as a wedding present and we make pizza every week. You just have to turn on the oven way, way early, because it takes longer to heat up with a cold stone in it and the stone then takes a while to get super hot.

But Camp Chef makes a 14" cast iron one for 22 bucks. So get that.

[MrDys]

I made this chickpea chocolate chip cookie dough dip yesterday. It's fucking delicious and not nearly as terrible for you as eating a bowl of cookie dough.

[pissedpissedofferson]

Well unglazed paving stones are cheap as shit and I've seen those bandied about as being just as good as anything. We got a pizza stone from a beloved friend as a wedding present and we make pizza every week. You just have to turn on the oven way, way early, because it takes longer to heat up with a cold stone in it and the stone then takes a while to get super hot.

But Camp Chef makes a 14" cast iron one for 22 bucks. So get that.

I own a stone and it is pretty great, but the baking steel is supposed to be amazing for neapolitan crusts because it's a better heat conductor. I was skeptical of that at first, but after using a cast iron pan I'm totally sold on using metal. I was never able to get microblisters on my crust using a stone.

If anybody wants a crazy treasure-trove of pizza recipes and equipment tests try Slice. I can vouch for almost all of their advice, at this point!

[nathansmart]

I always use the olive oil in a cast iron skillet method. It makes pizza taste like it did when we were kids.

[jkwall]

I've always used a stone, never heard tell of using an iron skillet. I'll have to look into that.

[nathansmart]

It's just classic pan pizza - it's how all the big wigs make it, although I'm not so sure they are shelling out for the cast part of it.