What's Bartman Cooking

[kbartman]

Roast Chicken and Vegetables, Broccoli casserole and Peach cobbler.

The bird was practice for "Turkey Day". Daughter did a awesome job on the broccoli casserole. Wife's cobbler is the best. WFO cooking, love it.

[Kurtloup]

Re: What's Bartman Cooking

Looks like you have the turkey down. Nice bird.

[Gulf]

Re: What's Bartman Cooking

Roast Chicken and Vegetables, Broccoli casserole and Peach cobbler.

The bird was practice for "Turkey Day". Daughter did a awesome job on the broccoli casserole. Wife's cobbler is the best. WFO cooking, love it.

KB,
Some of my most fond memories of Thanksgiving meals actually revolve around chicken instead of turkey. My mom would bake a couple of big hens, stuffed with "oyster" dressing....WOW!...... . Usually, the chicken turned out more moister and delicious than the turkey. The occasional turkey was not usually a butterball, though. It was more times that none, a wild one, shot out of season .

[kbartman]

Re: What's Bartman Cooking

Looks like you have the turkey down. Nice bird.

Thanks, Kurtloup

KB,
Some of my most fond memories of Thanksgiving meals actually revolve around chicken instead of turkey. My mom would bake a couple of big hens, stuffed with "oyster" dressing....WOW!...... . Usually, the chicken turned out more moister and delicious than the turkey. The occasional turkey was not usually a butterball, though. It was more times that none, a wild one, shot out of season .

Oyster dressing......mmm..... Just brought back memories of my grandmother's oyster dressing although it wasn't in a chicken. It was in a pan from her oven ..........Great idea grandmother's dressing in the WFO maybe some in the chicken or turkey............. Bummer........... Mom thinks the recipe went with her.

Thanks Gulf, for the ride down memories lane.

PS
If you have your moms recipe I would like to give it a try if you don't mind.

[Gulf]

Re: What's Bartman Cooking

You don't know how sorry I am, that I do not have her recipe. I am sure that is a South Louisiana recipe. My grandmother was from Bogalusa by way of New Orleans. I am pretty sure that my mother was influenced by her. My mom was one heck of a chef. She was of of divorced parents. Her mom, from South louisana. Her dad, a "stump jumper" from Mississippi. I think that my grandpaw was heavily influenced by the "french" women that he met in Paris during WWI . My mom, grew up, living six months at a time with each parent. She learned to cook old south and cajun/creole dishes.

After WWII, my mom and dad moved to Texas. My dad eventually bought a road house. There, my mom was taught by a mexican cook. I never grew tired of moms cooking. When we moved back to Mississippi, there was so much variety in her dishes that it was unbeliveable by my young friends who came to visit regulary .

I do know that her recipe for oyster dressing was made from a baked southern cornbread "stuffing" recipe, though. I have done a few searches on google for oyster stuffing/dressing, and have ruled the ones that use bread crums out.

I do plan on doing some experimenting this holiday season .

[kkgator]

Re: What's Bartman Cooking

My extended family is from the Carolina low country and they always make oyster dressing for Thanksgiving. Maybe search for a Carolina recipe. I do know that they also use cornbread in conjunction with regular bread stuffing. To give it a Cajun base use the trinity (celery, onions, bell pepper) or maybe seek a Justin Wilson recipe or maybe a Paul Prudhomme recipe.

[kbartman]

Re: What's Bartman Cooking

Thanks, Kurtloup



Oyster dressing......mmm..... Just brought back memories of my grandmother's oyster dressing although it wasn't in a chicken. It was in a pan from her oven ..........Great idea grandmother's dressing in the WFO maybe some in the chicken or turkey............. Bummer........... Mom thinks the recipe went with her.

Thanks Gulf, for the ride down memories lane.

PS
If you have your moms recipe I would like to give it a try if you don't mind.

Ok Guys,
I have to confess. I was speaking to Mom the other day and telling her about my oyster stuffing memories she quickly corrected me and explained they were baked oysters. I guess I just associated the bread crumbs with stuffing and dressing, anyway they were delicious. She said my aunt may still have the recipe and give here a call.

Had another Pizza party last night, we baked about 12 pies, I lost count. I think it was pretty successful, had one turn out as a scattered calzone, it was still very tasty and got eaten. The pie making got a head of the cook and they sat to long on the peel. I did have to rake the coals over the area to clean the scorched cheesy area.

I'm getting better at turning and cooking the pies, although I did flipped one like a hamburger and it came out unscaved. I know that's probably hard to believe, I'm still wondering how it did not stick when I promptly flipped it back............ I got to stop to planning all theses get together and get finish my oven.

Anyway this morning with all the left over fixings and some eggs was a deep dish, thin and crispy breakfast pie:
sausage
bacon
ham
mushrooms
green peppers
onions
spinach
tomato
cheeses and spices:

[mirassou]

Re: What's Bartman Cooking

Very nice...did you make the pizza in the pan?

[kbartman]

Re: What's Bartman Cooking

Very nice...did you make the pizza in the pan?

Nope just good cook....................Yes a well greased pan, used a rolling pin to make it round and put in a round cookie sheet pan. I let the dough rise and as it rose I pinched the dough up the sides to hold the fluffed egg mixture. Just a lucky experiment that went well...........

[Brad English]

Roast Chicken

How did you do the Roast Chicken? Temps and times! It looks really good!

[kbartman]

Re: Roast Chicken

How did you do the Roast Chicken? Temps and times! It looks really good!

To be honest with you, I don't really remember. I'm thinking somewhere around 450F with small fire going. I think it was about 2 hours or when the meat began to separate from the bone. I'm usually not very specific or follow any set recipes in my cooking, I just like to create on the fly. no one recipe turns out the same, It always brand new experiment. New recipes I find, start only as my as guidelines. Experimenting and creating with my new WFO has been fun. I can't wait to finish construction so I can find more time to have for cooking.

[Brad English]

Re: Roast Chicken

That's still useful information! That's the fun part about cooking with fire rather than in a home oven set at a specific temperature where you can exactly measure temperature and time in a recipe. I ilke the "live theater" aspect of open flame cooking!

It's good to have a target range for a new recipe, but then you have to feel your way through it.

Thanks!

Brad

To be honest with you, I don't really remember. I'm thinking somewhere around 450F with small fire going. I think it was about 2 hours or when the meat began to separate from the bone. I'm usually not very specific or follow any set recipes in my cooking, I just like to create on the fly. no one recipe turns out the same, It always brand new experiment. New recipes I find, start only as my as guidelines. Experimenting and creating with my new WFO has been fun. I can't wait to finish construction so I can find more time to have for cooking.

[SableSprings]

Re: What's Bartman Cooking

Great to hear that you both have enjoyed the cooking by sight & smell instead of being tied to temp & time mandates from recipes.

I still get a big kick out of when a neighbor brings in some dish to try in the oven and specifies, "I need to have 425F for 15 minutes and then drop to 375F for..." My response is normally, "The oven's running a bit hotter than that, but we'll make it work. Then we start actually watching and talking about the process, i.e. Looks like it's browning, so let's turn it and put it up on an inverted cookie sheet. IMO - a lot more fun & useful in understanding what really makes for excellent food out of the WFO.

[kbartman]

Re: What's Bartman Cooking

That's still useful information! That's the fun part about cooking with fire rather than in a home oven set at a specific temperature where you can exactly measure temperature and time in a recipe. I ilke the "live theater" aspect of open flame cooking!

It's good to have a target range for a new recipe, but then you have to feel your way through it.

Thanks!

Brad

The more I think about, I believe I started with a cold oven and once I got the fire establish and little browning going on the bird. I cut way back on the fuel and targeted a average temp shot with my IR thermometer around the oven while the bricks slowly regulated the lowered temps. Still in the learning stages. I think, if the bricks were fully saturated and with small fire, the temps would be a lot hotter. I hope I'm not adding confusion to the fire......Then again It may have been fire out and oven holding about 450F.

Just have fun and post what you remember...... as they say, there are more way then one too cook a cat....oops I mean skin.............mmmm
I see new a experiment in the future..........just kidding for all you politically correct cat lovers........... Maybe the wife's dog............LOL

Great to hear that you both have enjoyed the cooking by sight & smell instead of being tied to temp & time mandates from recipes.

I still get a big kick out of when a neighbor brings in some dish to try in the oven and specifies, "I need to have 425F for 15 minutes and then drop to 375F for..." My response is normally, "The oven's running a bit hotter than that, but we'll make it work. Then we start actually watching and talking about the process, i.e. Looks like it's browning, so let's turn it and put it up on an inverted cookie sheet. IMO - a lot more fun & useful in understanding what really makes for excellent food out of the WFO.

Sable,
Inverted cooking sheet, good idea. I'm assuming that is to lower the heat on the bottom of casserole. Great input thanks for the ideas. Hope your not a cat lover......

[SableSprings]

Re: What's Bartman Cooking

Yes, the upside down cookie sheet works great to keep bottoms from burning when your oven's a bit hot. Actually, I use an inverted commercial half-sheet or full sheet pan since they are heavier duty and don't warp (much) when moved into the hot oven. Note that if you put breads directly on the inverted sheet pans, you'll want to use parchment paper as the breads will tend to stick (I suspect because there are more scratches on the sheet "bottoms").

I also use the inverted sheets when someone brings over something to test bake (using their own dish) and says, "Oh, I'm sure it's oven proof...I can't imagine that it would break or crack in your WFO." ...and yes, that's from a previous "bad" experience...

(and no, I won't sic PETA on you for cat/dog jokes...)