lancastermike

I think this looks much better than fish tacos. I have never done it nor even thought about it, but how difficult is it to turn the cod into dried salted cod? I would not want to turn all that lovely fish into dried but maybe try some? As I say, I have no idea of how to go about doing this, but I imagine someone out there does

the cod is lovely. I know this is a west coast idea, but I find cod great for fish tacos.

Many years ago I was Food and Beverage manager at a large resort hotel. The breakfast cook was an older guy with no formal culinary training. But man he could get breakfast done. He was fantastic and we treated him well. With no input from me the hotel GM brought in his pal to be executive chef. He had all kinds of awards that he displayed all over the place. This guy told me we needed to increase the culinary talent in the kitchen. I had bad feelings. He either fired or chased away most of the line cooks including the breakfast guy. Replaced them all with culinary school guys who had one problem. They could not get the job done. I had this crazy idea that we were in business to take care of the guests. He wanted to be running some sort of salon for cooks. We had major fights. He tried to ban me from the kitchen. The labor cost went nuts and the food was no better. Has damn awards for competition cooking did the guests no good while they were waiting for their eggs. Since he was the GM's boy I knew I was done. But that breakfast cook was worth more than any of the award guys. Anyone of those culinary guys may have moved on to become a famous chef someplace. But the old guy pumping out the breakfast deserved the respect of everyone for what he did. In an interesting conclusion after I was gone,within a year the GM and his chef moved on to their next jobs. The new guys hired the breakfast cook back.

Now that my back surgery is done planning to be in town the end of the month. I was wondering how late the Spiritual Adviser is available for consultation on a Friday night?

The lemon at Rita's was always my favorite. Stopped the other week and asked for lemon and got lemonade ice. Much sweeter than the real tart ice I was looking for. Not what I wanted. I hope the real lemon ice is still there as I thought it was the best they had. The sign said something about "Alex's Lemonade" and if my purchase helped that noble cause I am fine with it. But I want the real lemon ice.

I do indeed throw them on the grill for a bit when they come off the smoker. It gives them a bit of a char. This is also the point I would apply sauce, if using.

it will make no difference

Shenna what sort of device are you going to use to do the smoking? the size of picnic you have should be fine. I would think you can finish the whole thing on your smoking device without having to move to the oven. As always, Susan has provided perfect advice. The fat is your smoking friend and put it on cold. I wish all the weekend smokers good luck and happy smoking. I would love to be doing a big holiday smoke, but have been waylaid by a ruptured spinal disc. I wonder if smoking percocet would be a good idea? Just last week I lucked into some nice cherry ready for the smoker. Oh well, I hope to be back in smoking form sometime soon.

I agree 100%. Vanilla Coke, which I held high hope for, is wretched stuff. ← The all new Vanilla Coke is back. I saw it in a case a local deli on Tuesday. I did NOT try it as I was having a reuben and did not want to have vanilla anything with it. The first version, as I opined above 18 months ago, sucked. Anyone tried this new version? Also I understand that Vanilla Zero is now in limited release, but I have yet to see that

Dude. Chill The place we went to certainly has music, but not every night. I am an old married guy and I don't know what the action is like at this place. They certainly pitch food, have a nice dining room, the place is right in the middle of town across from the courthouse and plies a lunch trade. So they are in the food business. I was not expecting cassoulet. The stuff they flopped in front of us was just simply no good at all on any level. So why do it? I think the money answer is it. The cheaper they can make it the more they can make. And I guess enough people go there to make it worth their while. Currently, I am laid up with a bad back pending surgery. My mobility is limited. So, my wife wanted to go get something to eat and we went to a local diner because it was easy for me to get in an out of. She had a real diner meal. A hot turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy. I had an omlete. Nothing fancy but somebody cared about it and it was fine. If you are going to push food of any kind, just don't disrespect the customers. I'd rather the place I first talked about just serve pretzels and chips and nuts. At least it would be honest

Thank you for blogging, Peter. Not sure which I like more your kids pictures or your cooper cookware picture. {That's an obvious joke, the kids are the most precious things you will ever have} Have never visited your part of the planet and looking forward to this maritine province blog

It was a Chairmans Selection so I guess when it is gone, it is gone. They only store in Lancaster County that has it is the specialty store I don't think it will be a regular stock item. But, who knows? The Pikesville, which I love, can be SLO but the distributor has a one case minimum. I believe you are correct in that it is only retailed in Maryland. Although on the rye thread some say it is also sold in England.

Just last week I saw Steven Raichlen do a beef shoulder on his tv show. He called it a beef clod. It came out just like pork and he said he liked it better for sandwiches than brisket I also found this linkbeef shoulder

A beef chuck roast with plenty of fast and sinew will cook up very much like a pork butt. The key is in selection of the meat. A piece of lean beef will just not work. But a low temp cook of a beef chuck will bring you something very close to pork. You may want to look for a final internal temp closer to 175 for the beef. It certainly will slice and should even shred. As rooftop 1000 suggests, if it is a cut you would use for pot roast, it should smoke up and pull as well. Again, just make sure it has plenty of fat and other nasty bits for the slow cook to break down in to wonderful stuff.

At the Lancaster store today I was looking at the chairmans selections when I was happy to see Wild Turkey Rye whiskey as a CS at 15.99. Recently this has been an SLO item at 25.00 or so. The Wild Turkey rye is 100 proof and is good stuff. Also, on sale this week for 2.00 of the regular price of 49.99 is the Michters 90 proof 10 year old rye. Also good stuff. I got a bottle of the Wild Turkey. If only we could get Rittenhouse or Pikesville rye without having to place a case order I would be even happier. For discussion of these and other rye whiskey's click here

The Schmitter is the real deal. It is almost TOO good for ballpark food. The line at the Schmitter stand moves much more quickly than the Tony Luke's one. I find food at CBP to be really pretty good. My wife likes the crab fries from Chickie's and Pete's. Not sure what they put on them, but they are tasty.

I like them grilled, but in an case, a simple preparation is best. Their flavor is so wonderful that not much needs to be done to them

Susan has taken my answer. I would do the EXACT same thing. And I agree with Mr. Shaw's original idea. Keep it simple.

Whacking that baby in half should not cause any concern. I know it is counter intuitive, but I feel if you have one 7 pounder and one 4 pounder on the same rack in the same bullet, they will finish about the same time. On occasion, I get the guys at the meat counter to whack a butt in half for me if I am planning just to cook for myself. I have found my times to not be much different than doing a whole one. Sounds like you have a real smokeapolozza set up, Arne. Could I assume that malted brewed beverages may also appear at this event? Have fun and happy Victoria Day.

That's just lovely, Chris. Kudos for another top notch smoke.

Last night after work we went to a local bar/restaurant to see and listen to the band that was playing in the outdoor courtyard for the local "First Friday" celebration. The band and the company were great. The food was terrible. I tried a pizza and many better have come from the freezer section at my local grocery. Someone else got some sort of fried snack platter. A plate of tasteless chicken, onion rings, fries and cheese sticks all cooked in oil that had long since passed the point of no return. Another lucky diner ordered a plate of what the menu laughingly called sushi. I went inside to use the restroom and walked past the open kitchen. I wanted to yell at them, "Don't you guys have any pride at all, you all ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I understand this place is not Le Bec Fin or Per Se or anything. But there just is no reason to foist that junk on people. A bar can have a menu and the food can be good if they want it to be. This place and so many others just do not give a hoot in hell.

York is a nice town, but it was not the first capital of the US. It was the capital for a while after the government fled Philadelphia.

Donneckers is in Lancaster County, the town of Ephrata to be exact. It indeed is still there. I have not been since they changed chefs earlier this year. Greg Gable who was with le Bec Fin has departed as executive chef. From what i hear, there have not been major changes

As everone else has, I wish a speedy return to good health for your wife. Your blog is wonderful. It is the perfect example of the real best feture of the blogs. It takes us to places we otherwise would never go to and allows us a to see a portion of your life from another place. Thanks for the effort, in particular, with Image Gullet. It can be very frustrating at best.

Nothing terribly inventive, but this weekends warm weather lead to the first Caipirinha's of the year. They certainly are tasty little devils. Perfect for warm weather. Had some pineapple and tried one that way. It was good but I like the lime better. This was made with 51.