At my local store you can buy 2lbs of great smoked aPPlewOOd bacon ends for a measly $5.99. I cut it up into small pieces and stir fry it in a pan with some onion and then combine with cheesy eggs. Its a great meal and so much you can do with these bacon bits. 2lbs of this stuff in regular form would be $30. Look for bacon ends next time you go shopping.
If I wore a shirt, it would need washed due to bacon splatter. Shirtless bacon cooking hurt less knowing I still would have a clean shirt. I overcooked it, my reticence to attend to the danger zone was certainly a factor.
I have created a way to cook meat in the oven that is on par with BBQing.
Marinate, season and prepare.
Heat cast iron skillet on high for 5 minutes.
Sear each side for 2 minutes.
Oven cooking preparation (preheat to 375)
Take aluminum foil and roll (crumple) strips the thickness of a drumsticks, make enough to cover bottom of casserole dish every 1". This is done to keep the meat raised off of the bottom of the dish. You want to prevent the meat from steaming and cooking in its own juices and allow for air to circulate under the meat.
Place meat on top of foil in dish.
cook for 25 minutes.
I also use this self created method for steaks and it works great. Nothing is as good as BBQing with charcoal, however, this is the best method I have ever used for oven meat cooking.
I also used this method for frozen chicken and it worked great so that problem is solved.
Cook your turkey to an internal temp of 150, not 165. It will kill bacteria and will be unbelievably juicy. Check multiple spot to ensure you don't hit a single hotspot.
I only bake once a year, and that's mostly because I enjoy giving people baked goods. It makes them very happy and I like to get the praise. I mostly bake banana bread, persimmon bread, persimmon cookies, and pina colada bread. (I'll provide my recipe if anyone is interested.)
I have four large Hachiya persimmons ripening on my window sill right now. I usually make both bread and cookies, which require different recipes, but this year since it's just me at home, I'm only making cookies. I enjoy experimenting with the ingredients, adjust the quantities to get different outcomes in texture, size, rising, etc.
I might try making pumpkin cookies for fun. Pumpkin pulp is thicker than persimmon pulp, so I'll need to find the right balance of liquid for that, but it sounds fantastic.
My wife loves the things. She also hates fat on her steak. Perfect. I say this is a no recipe because there's not any specific measurements needed.
Step 1: Cut the fat off your steak, and chop it into smaller chunks. Put it in a small pot on medium to low heat and let the fat render down. Pour it off into a something using a napkin or paper towel as a filter to catch the bits. At this point, you can use what you need and the rest seems to store forever in the fridge. As they say, this can be done well in advance.
Step 2: Mix equal parts, eggs, flour, milk. That's it. If you're using a 12 hole muffin pan, I find one egg equals around three holes. So, 4 eggs go into the measuring cup, match the same amount of milk and flour, and you have enough for twelve. Here's where you can go a few ways. Let it rest, refrigerate it, use it right away. If you want a cup shape for holding gravy or other goodness use cold batter, or a more hollow puffy result use warm. Side note: I came across this seasoning the other year, Everglades Seasoning (the all-purpose original), it's super salty, so you don't need much, but it's great to add. I'm not a sponsor, I just like it. Otherwise, a bit of salt does the trick. I also throw in some herbs at times. Mix in the seasoning just before cooking.
Step 3: Add about a 1/8 tsp of the fat, or whatever oil you have, to each muffin cup. Throw it in the oven and preheat to 450F. When the oven beeps that it's at temp, pull the pan out, pour in the batter around half full for each cup, and put back in oven for 20 minutes. This works for me using beef fat. You want the pan and oil to be smoking hot when the batter hits, but not burnt hot. If you're using other oils keep an eye on it to figure out how long it needs to heat up. You may need to preheat oven first, and then pan and oil.
Give them a peek after 20 minutes, maybe they need a little more time, maybe not. Serve right away. If not, put on cooling rack so they bottoms don't get over done sitting in the pan.
Enjoy!
tldr: Use equal parts eggs, milk, flour, with some seasoning. Pour into lightly oiled and piping hot muffin cups and bake at 450F for 20 minutes.
I've had a pepper grinder (or at least I think it is) in the cupboard for many years and be damned if the thing wouldn't grind peppercorns. Today I decided to have a close look at it before throwing it out and the peppercorns are too big to fall into the grinder mechanism and then I had a light-bulb moment and thought ...maybe there are extra fine peppercorns and I discovered "cracked pepper". So I'll give that a try but it seems odd to need to use a grinder to grind already partly ground pepper ffs! Clearly I'm missing something? maybe it's a salt grinder?
