Marlene

I swear, I have never hosted a Tupperware party nor been to one in my life. I order whatever I need online or there is a Tupperware kiosk in the mall here sometimes. But the patti stacker is one of my favourites. The peanut butter gives the burgers a nice nutty taste without tasting of peanut butter. The fat from the peanut butter, and the butter combined with the fat of the ground beef make them incredibly juicy. YOu can use different seasonings, but I find the simple salt, pepper and garlic works very well. This is one of those recipes given to me by my father many years ago. Last year, when my brother first got sick, and I was cooking a lot for him, he wanted these burgers every other day it seemed. I had gotten away from making them, as Don tends to like making burgers here, but now I make these often. Morning everyone. The rain has arrived as promised this morning. At 6 a.m. it was literally pounding down. It seems to have stopped for the moment, so I'll pick up some that chilles after I drop Ry of at school and see what I can do about making sauce. They are calling for thunderstorms later. I'm as game to grill in the rain as my fellow bloggers, but I can promise you I won't be grilling on a stainless steel grill during a lightening storm, so we'll play today by ear. But first, coffee.

It's been years since I thought of them. They used to be a must have item at the Canadian National Exhibition when I was growing up. To bed, to bed. If it's not raining too hard BBQ sauce tomorrow. Just as soon as I pick up the Thai chillies I forgot to get today!

NIce lookin pork Mike! Yes, pizza will be interesting. Especially since they are now calling for downpours tomorrow! Tonight's dinner had to be fast and simple in order to accomdate schedules. During the nice weather, I often turn to burgers on the grill. Peanut Butter burgers in fact. Once again, I'm going to tell you, if you haven't tried them do. They are extremely juicy. The ingredient for PB burgers are simple: ground sirloin or hamburger, peanut butter, salt, pepper, garlic and butter. Mix that up really really well with your hands: And shape into patties. Regular hamburg patties should be loosely formed but these need to be a little more densely packed because there's not much holding them together. Make fairly well in advance and chill. The chilling is key for holding them together while grilling. I like to use my Tupperware patti stacker Which stacks nicely on top of each other for chilling: Burgers on the grill. Really really, only flip these once. They'll take about 5 minutes a side: In this picture you can see what I mean about being densely packed. The one in the front is free formed and you can see the cracks in it. It barely held together. I assure you, between the peanut butter and the butter, these will be plenty juicy even when more densely packed. Then the cheddar cheese goes on, the bacon, which had been partially cooked, and the buns if you like them toasted. Don and I do, Ryan doesnt. The tomatoes really arent' the best this time of year, but we like them on burgers. I did promise Ryan an ice cream waffle when we got home tonight. This is another toy that will get a lot of use this week, the KA Pro-Line waffle maker: Which makes fabulous waffles, in this case chocolate chip: Spread a little ice cream and voila, a waffle ice cream sandwhich.

I really hate the fact that you can get Old Dutch and I can't! Everytime we visit Don's family out west, we bring back boxes of their chips. I believe Don's still hoarding a BBQ chip box somewhere. THey made the market here in Ontario for a while but Lays and Humtpy Dumpty pretty much forced the stores to stop carrying them. Old Dutch CanadaSigh. Edited to add, it seems as though Old Dutch Canada now lets you order online. Happy dance Happy dance. Don's gonna love me even more.

Dinner is done, but pics will have to wait until I return from music. I've promised to make Ry a Chocolate Chip Waffle Ice Cream Sandwhich when we get home. A note about me and grilling. Until about a year ago, Don did all the grilling in our house. I refused to turn the thing on, partly because our old grill had to be started with a flame starter or match since the ignition thing burned out a long time ago. Except I found myself wanting a grilled steak or chicken often when he wasn't home. Since he works late a lot, I rarely had grilled foods during the week. Once we bought this grill, i nerved myself to get comfortable grilling. And I mostly am, although there's always that hold my breath moment between pushing the starter button and hearing the "whomp" of the gas igniting. And of course, I end up with my share of grill injuries. Like the time I lit the bbq not realizing there was still a bunch of grease on the burner, and the ingniting burner turned into one of those momentary towers of flames. That one took most of my bangs off. Or consider tonight. After we are done grilling, we leave the grill on high heat for 10 minutes to burn off grease etc. Then we shut it off and scrape the grates. Which is exactly what I did tonight, except i didn't realize the plastic handle of the grill brush was close enough to the BBQ to melt. Hot, melted plastic sticks really well to the palm of one's hand. Day 1, injury one. Susan in terms of the crust falling through the grates, well hell, I've never made grilled pizza before (I've barely mastered it on a stone in the oven!) so I've purchased a couple of pizza grill pans.

25 years entitles you to both. One for the anniversary, one for mother's day

Susan, i know you love your weber, but really after 25 years don't you think you could break down and buy a new one?

so you can grill and smoke with the same equipment (like Marlenes grill pictured upthread) but just use different heat? Smoking is just not done over here. People do what they call 'barbecue', by which they mean, grill. I'll be paying close attention and probably learn a lot from this blog ← You could smoke with our grill. In fact it came with a smoker box. We do use a Weber Bullet to smoke and for that we use charcol and wood chunks or chips. If you were going to do it on a gas grill, you'd have a smoker box of wood chips, turn on one side of the grill, but put your meat on the cold side. This is also called indirect grilling when you are roasting or not using a smoker box.

I haven't had time for lunch today and things won't get much better until I can slow down after music. I did get all the ingredients I need to make BBQ sauce, which is done entirely on the grill, and as long as it's not pouring tomorrow, I'll make it. I'm going to need to figure out what to do about the smoker if it rains. I don't currently have an umbrella to put over it!

well you can certainly request! I'm sure my fellow bloggers would be happy to supply some. Absolutely. The more the merrier!

I've had both and I currently have halogen. I never turn them on because they get too hot. In our upcoming reno, we'll be using Xenon. Our friends just had their kitchen redone and that what they've got.

The eating machine is off to school and I've done a bit of grocery shopping. It's a busy day today as I've got company for lunch, then get Ry from school, get dinner accomplished and off to music lessons. Tenor sax for him, piano for me. But first. Coffee. Those of you who know me, know I adore my coffee. As seen in previous blogs, I have the Cuisinart Grind and Brew Thermal carafe coffeemaker and I love it. My husband sets it up in the morning and by the time he comes to wake me up, coffee is ready and waiting. One of the new toys I'll be playing with this week is my new breadmaker. I've got a breadmaker, but already, I'm loving this one which is convection: (the orange is merely a reflection of the orange shirt I was wearing yesterday!) So far I've made some cinnamon swirl bread: And last night I attempted cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting: That's what my menfolk had for breakfast this morning. In terms of equipment, I'll be grilling on my Vermont Castings 5 burner with infrared rotisserie: It's a gorgeous day here. Unforuntately, it is supposed to rain for the next 4 days which should make smoking/grilling here a challenge. Like golf, I am a fairweather griller. In the meantime, I'm off to make hamburger patties for tonight's dinner and attempt to clean up my kitchen before company arrives.

Thanks Susan! Mornin all. I'm especially pleased to be teamed up with Mike who has supported me through various smoking/grilling projects in the past. Susan of course is a mistress of the smoker. I think we've got a great week lined up for you! We've been enjoying some really nice weather here so let's hope the weather holds as we grill our way through the days. I'll be back in a bit with some fresh cinnamon rolls for y'all. Right after I get the eating machine to school and lay in some supplies!

hash browns rosti potato gratin potato croquettes french fries potato chips mashed and gravy shepherd's pie roasted potatoes with garlic

Equipment I've tried, but I haven't tried tossing the cubes in fat first. Something to think about. ← I learned this when I started roasting potatoes. I noticed that even though there was fat in the roasting pan, potatoes would stick when I tried to turn them. Once I started coating them in oil first, it was never a problem again.

To me hash browns are grated potatoes, then fried. Have you tried tossing the cubes in oil first? That helps a lot with the sticking. Also I use a metal spatula with a stainless steel pan. I find a metal spatula gets under the potatoes easier. And I've never done the flip in my life. It would probably end up on my head!

Interesting that you would say this as I was saying to snowangel earlier that my next fried chicken experiment would use my electric skillet! But back to LC vs Staub. Either of them will be great for braising, but as Sam suggests, they are not all around general usage pots.

I'd agree with this in terms of reacting to heat. I used a Le Crueset tonight to fry chicken and I was not at all happy with the temperature control or lack thereof that I was unable to achieve.

I need more bookshelves. 4 more for me including two WS Mastering series, Vegetables and Sauces, and two others which I have to go downstairs to look at the names. But one has something to do with "Perfect recipes for having people over" or something like that.

SLM for a peameal bacon sandwhich. Peameal bacon is definiately Canadian. They won't get it anywhere else. Well, not easily. SLM isn't fancy, but it's also a great Canadian place to visit. Distinctly Canadian foods

I''m going to have to try the buttercream again. Sigh. I'm glad some people have tried some of the thingw we made for you! In terms of whether Fine Cooking is not as good as it used to be, it's hard for me to say since I've only been subscribing for about a year. So far, I've found something in every issue that I've enjoyed making and usually more than one thing. The next issue should be out shortly and we'll have another installment of Your Monthly Meals!

There seems to be some diversity on how to make beef carpaccio. Some recipes indicate searing the tenderloin first, others advocate just slicing it raw. Now that I have a meat slicer, this is on my list of things to try. i'm thinking beef carpaccio with a horshradish sauce and shaved parmesan. Tips, ideas?

Given the size of our staff (nearly 75 now), we'll document arrivals, departures and significant internal moves on this topic. We'd like to bid a fond farewell to several staff members who have served the eGullet Society, some for many years, and have now moved on to other projects and duties. Stanley Santos (SobaAddict70), Alberto Chinali (Albiston), Wendy DeBord, Neil Robertson (nightscotsman), Arne Salvesen (Daddy-A) and Jon Lurie (jhlurie) have or will soon be stepping down. They take with them our deep and sincere thanks -- we wouldn't have gotten this far without them -- and our best wishes for their future success. Most of our former staff choose to participate in our eGullet Society staff emeritus program, so you'll still see them around the forums as fellow members and contributors. Along with departures, we have two significant appointments. First, we're very pleased to announce that Susan Burgess (Susan in FL) will be handling the eG Foodblogs, effective immediately. Susan has done excellent work in our Florida and Beer forums, and has been an important part of our behind-the-scenes development efforts. Expect some nice improvements in eG Foodblogs with her in charge. Second, you might have noticed that Margaret McArthur (maggiethecat) has been sporting a red name for a couple of weeks now. This was an unadvertised administrative move in anticipation of the real news: with great pleasure, we announce the appointment of Maggie to editorial director of the Daily Gullet. As you know if you've followed the eGullet Literary Smackdown through its 27 rounds, her knowledge, taste and wit, as well as her fortitude, qualify her in spades. Be on the watch for a re-energized webzine. If you'd like to say hello, goodbye, good luck or thanks to an arriving or departing member of our staff, please do send that person a personal message (PM) or email.

I strain my oil after using and store it in the fridge. I wouldn't be storing it in your garage, especially in the summer!

let us know how they turn out!