Posts

Northern California and Southern Oregon Epic Trip

Image
The Epic Thanksgiving Trip Lava Beds, Crater Lake, Lake Shasta Caverns A few days before Thanksgiving, we embarked on a trip to northern California and southern Oregon.  Little did I know it'd become the best trip under one week we've ever been on.  It was a possibility for some sections of roads to require traction devices.  I think the trip ended up being so fun due partially to the potential severe weather.  If nothing else, we kept the expectations quite low.  It was going to be wet and cold.  We hit the road anyway thinking in worst case, we'd be stuck in a hotel somewhere, which would in itself be an experience.  For the weather, we brought the following items. SAE Class S snow cables.  Our Subaru Forest doesn't allow chains. Knee pads. A backup driver side windshield wiper. A tiny shovel and a small hoe for removing snow and ice around the tires. Gloves as snow and ice can injure hands easily. The video below demonstrates how to install the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pan-Fried Chicken Quarters

Image
Every time when I visit a Costco store, I buy two whole chickens.  They are usually 99 cents per pound, which is a superb deal.  Upon butchering the chickens, I make stock with the carcasses and this dish.  This dish is quite easy to make and when deglazing the pan, you can make different sauces depending on what you feel like for the meal. The Recipe The Skillet A 10" cast iron skillet. Ingredients Chicken quarters, deboned.   I usually butcher two chickens and get four quarters.  You can cook as many chicken quarters as you want.  Deboned legs and thighs work well too. Salt Black pepper Shallots Garlic Green Onions Slices of ginger Any spices of your choice Instructions Add a bit of oil, no more than a teaspoon, into a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. Pan-fry the chicken quarters.  Start with the skin side down.  I usually start with one first so the rendered oil covers the whole pan.  After that, place as many quarters in as possible....
Post a Comment
Read more

Focaccia

Image
I tried making a few types of bread with a cast iron skillet.  Focaccia is the one I liked the most.  It is very versatile.  You can eat it as-is or with toppings.  It's not uncommon for people to make sandwiches with it.  The recipe is forgiving and flexible enough in terms of the type and the amount of flour to use, which makes it very novice-friendly. The Recipe The Skillet A 10" cast iron skillet.  Loaf pans and baking sheets are good alternatives. Ingredients The Dough 500 - 600 grams of all-purpose flour .  Some recipes call for bread flour.  The more you lean towards 500g, the stickier the dough and the focaccia will be. 1/2 teaspoon of yeast 1-2 teaspoons of table salt 473 ml (2 cups) of warm water 1-2 teaspoons of oil for the surface of the dough and the mixing bowl Note that you don't need to add sugar  because we are letting it rise over a long time.  The yeast will react to the starch in the flour nicely.  Sugar is for ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cast Iron Pizza

Image
I have made quite a few cast iron pizzas.  I think it's safe to say that it's a no-fail dish to make.  Once you have a pizza dough to work with, it takes about 12 minutes to make one pizza end-to-end.  We usually make multiple of them consecutively so we can feed the whole family.  The toppings can be anything cooked.  Usually, we use delicious leftover food as the toppings, for example, the leftover Thanksgiving turkey.  In this blog post, we will show you how we usually make the dough and the pizza. The Recipe The Skillet I use a 10" cast iron skillet for this recipe. The Dough 200g of all-purpose flour.   I tried 250g and it worked.  The dough was drier and bigger.  I am sure you can safely do 180-190g as well.  In that case, the dough will be more wet and stickier.  You can add more oil to the dough so it's easier to work with, just like working with the dough for bread. 1/4 tea spoon of active dry yeast 1/2 cup of warm water ....
Post a Comment
Read more