I bypassed going to Ed’s for game day. He had the shingles. And I was feeling gamed out. But I was in the mood for experimenting.

I came across this product at Williams-Sonoma and thought that it was a cool idea. However, it was $99 dollars! I already own a pizza stone and keep it in my oven to help even out the temperatures. So I put it in my gas grill.

I also used another recently purchased toy of mine (an infrared thermometer) to check the temperature. 439 degrees Fahrenheit. Good to go…

I did run into one problem though. My dough was probably too wet. Not enough to stick on the counter but enough to stick on the pizza peel. So, I threw that one away and this time I covered the peel in 1/8″ of corn meal. I figured I could scrape it off when it was cooked.

It did slide off of the peel easily enough this time. Getting it back on was not a problem. Although cleanup was surprising. I would not have guessed that cornmeal would flare up that much. It must have more oil in it than I suspected.

Next time I will work on making a dryer dough…

Tonight, I cooked a 1″ thick cut of beef tenderloin. I was inspired by the Good Eats show Tender Is The Loin I. In it, Alton buys a P.S.M.O. (“Peeled”, as in of extra fat, and “Side Meat On”) of vacuum packed, wet aged, beef tenderloin. I checked and Costco has them for around $85. I haven’t bought one yet. After all, that is a lot of meat. So, I just bought one steak at H.E.B.. And then cooked it acording to his recipie.

What was surprising was just how big of a fire ball the 1/6 cup of Hennessy V.S. Cognac produced. I turned off the flame. Poured the alcohol in. And lit it with a stick lighter. And looked up in awe at the huge ball of fire. It seemed to be going up the cupboards and reaching the ceiling. Of course, the fire alarm that went off was not helping matters. When it finally settled down, I poured in 1/2 cup heavy cream and started to look around. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any damage. And I do have a new fire extinguisher.

Next time, I will skip lighting the thing on fire…

I stoped in at Ace Mart today to buy pastry tips after realizing that cake tips were not going to work. Of course, I had to look around. When I am building a home where money is no object, I would definately use a profesional stove, oven, and refrigerator; use stainless steel; and a fire supression system. But thats in the future…

Mmmmm…. a beer kegerator… too bad its $1000 bucks…

Good Eats is the only cooking show on today that can inspire me. And after watching Choux Shine, I knew I had to try out making éclairs from a flour paste that the French call Pâte à choux. My problem was the icing tip. It was way too small. And even switching to the largest flat leaf one, it was still too small.

Sigh. I need to buy some professional ones at the restaurant supply store on Lamar.

They did come out all right. Tiny, little, miss-shaped, finger-sized eclairs.

Well, William’s posts on cooking has inspired me! I love making my version of garlic spread. It is easy to make. It lasts for a while in the fridge. And it tastes excellent on freshly made bread!

Instructions follow:

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