ness

Except for a little different technique, it's just masa and water. I dunno. They just need something.

Ha! So, I bought that tortilla press on Amazon and that's when I bought that bag off masa and tried this the first time. Just looked -- it was February 2014

This was rocky soil out in tall grass prairie. We saw them in a draw with bigger rocks and a lot of cedars around. I'd say they were close to a foot long. The color was what was so striking.

We saw two of them that day. Of course, the area is a lot different than the Ozarks.

No lard. It needed fat.

Huevos Rancheros, baby: Those tortillas were made according to the recipe on the bag. Water, masa, salt. They were like eating cardboard. I need to find a recipe with a little fat in it. Anybody ever do this? I've seen a couple recipes, but the vast majority are just like the one I did.

So, last weekend we did a little jaunt out to the Flint Hills in Kansas. Just like everywhere else, there are wineries popping up in Kansas. We saw some signs for Prairie Fire Winery so we pulled off the highway and trekked down the long, rough road to the place. Expectations were pretty low, and the place didn't look like a serious winery when we pulled up. More like a couple houses and an outbuilding or two. We debated about turning back, but there were a bunch of cars and folks milling around so that built up our courage and we went on in for a tasting. We ended up paired with the vintner's wife, who was an engaging lady that was happy to share everything there was to know about the wines and the winery. Her husband was from France and they had moved to Kansas some time back and decided to start a winery. She really knew her stuff. I always like it when I meet a small business owner who is really doing everything they can to produce a great product, and I really got that feeling from talking to her. They're obviously in it for the long haul because they were planting several thousand new vines the day we were there. Along the way I mentioned I had taken French in high school, so she challenged me to pronounce her last name: DesRuisseaux. I nailed it We started off with a couple white wines. They were well made, but not really my cup-o-tea, so we moved on to the reds. We asked for dry reds and she steered us to three of those. First one was a Chambourcin, which is a pretty common grape variety in the midwest. The first words out of my mouth were, 'Wow! You guys did great job with that.' Similar to a Merlot I guess, it was rich, a little fruity and had spent a good amount of time in oak. The second was a Frotenac. Similar to a Pinot Noir, with lighter with more fruitiness and no oak. That's the one we brought home. Third was a Noiret which she warned us was a leetle different. And it was Anyhoo, nice to find this little gem out in the rocky Flint Hills. Just thought I'd share here. A little taste of the Flint Hills:

I like the old stuff

That's a fatty!

Alright, don't mean to hijack the thread, but this doesn't really warrant a new thread. Went out to our beautiful Kansas Flint Hills last weekend and saw this guy: Had to look it up -- that's a Collared Lizard.

Tell me how tall you are and your waistline. I'll do the math

I've made it with kinda like that just chili powder (not a seasoning mix -- interesting!) and the other stuff. I've also made it with store bought and homegrown dried chiles. But there are some pretty good canned ones out there too....

Mine's sposta be thin crust, just not at the edge. The whole 'rule' about not using a rolling pin is about not deflating and flattening the outer edge so you get that little puffy ring around the perimeter. I have found, at least with my fairly wet dough, that it will still puff if it gets rolled out. I don't toss, I hang it over the backs of my knuckles and let it sag down and stretch that way.

Too poofy for me too, but it really didn't hurt the flavor. Just wanted a thinner, larger pie and I was having a little trouble getting it right. I know the 'rules' say never roll out this kind of dough, but I have done that before and you can still get a nice edge. As far as weighing goes -- I want consistent results, and I don't do this enough to get it by feel. So, I'm a fan of weighing. Kinda like what I'm shooting for. Thanks!

So, I'm curious if anyone looking at these posts is thinking I'm burning the pizza? It ain't Pizza Hut I'm shooting for, it's more a Neapolitan style. I might have been a tad over target, but it was really tasty. Sill trying to get the balance between bottom, top and edge right. I'm not a burned cheese fan, so the tops were just right to my taste. Not 100% sure why my dough was so gassy, but I think it might have been too much yeast. The recipe calls for 4 grams yeast for 680 grams of flour. I always add the flour, tare the scale then add the yeast and salt. I just add yeast until it gets to 4 grams, but this time it seemed like it didn't budge until I'd added more than what I feel like I usually do. Maybe weight the yeast separately. Probably being too picky weighing out the yeast anyway, but I'm a firm believer in weighing the water and flour.

Well, after last weekend's test run of the KettlePizza appliance, I went ahead and rolled it out to the public tonight. I started dough Thursday night and did a cold ferment until today. About an hour before we were gonna eat I got the dough out, balled it up and set it out to warm and rise a little. I started the charcoal in a chimney. After about 20 minutes it was ready to go and I dumped it out and pushed the coals to the back of the kettle. I put the KettlePizza insert on so the stone could heat up. About 20 minutes later I took it off, loaded a bunch of chunk hickory onto the coals, put the insert back on and let it flame up until the temp got way up there. Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, I got the pizza ready to go. Once it was up around 600 I loaded in the pizza and kept an eye on it, rotating it so the charring was even and the top was cooked too. They came out very, very good. Flavor was incredible and there was just the right amount of char. Crust was crispy on the outside and crunched when you bit into it, but was soft inside. This was exactly what I was working toward. Very happy with the results. Only issue was the dough was overly gassy leading to too big of bubbles. But, that edge was really, really tasty .

That's some serious rabbit defense going on there!

It was good, but honestly I think a plain old burger bun might have worked better. Easier to bite and softer/sweeter too. But it's a journey!

Do call, and I'd love to meet rat too!

Last of the stuff went in the beds today. Rabbits have been nibbling on stuff this week . Thinned out my radishes and beets some. Not a lot to see, but here goes... Alpine strawberries in the center, BilletHeadHorseRadish to the right: Pole beans at the back, bush beans then spinach in front -- spotty germination. I never seem to do well with spinach. I think I'll soak some seeds and fill in the gaps: Maters to the rear, peppers next. Herbs in the pots in front: Maters to the rear, beets, then garlic and some lettuce: Snap peas to the rear, carrots (really good germination this year, which is kinda rare), lettuce from seeds, then lettuce transplants and the rabbit-thinned radishes. Need to get those gaps filled in and get the cage over the rest. Old Hinnomaki Red gooseberry and the two survivors from last-years planing -- another gooseberry and a red currant. Gonna root a branch off of each of them and get some more plants going: And, the rest of the mess going to my uncle this afternoon. A bunch of Cherokee Purple, Sun Gold and Brandywines.

Hah! No worries -- 2,000 + posts in this thread.

I'm slightly hurt that you don;'t follow my posts more closely

Anybody familiar with a Bierock? It's an Eastern European meat-and-cabbage-filled pastry. I'd never heard of them until I went to school in Kansas, and one of the cooks was a Mennonite lady from Western Kansas and she made them for us. Later, when I started pheasant hunting, I'd see them at various opening day dinners out west. And, a few years ago I learned there's a chain of restaurants up in Nebraska that sells them, but they call it a 'Runza'. So, I've never done the full-blown deal, making the dough, then filling and baking. But I have used frozen dinner rolls and even Pillsbury bread in a can. But I got to thinking it could easily be turned into a burger and eaten on a bun. I Googled and not surprisingly I wasn't the only one to think of that. So, a couple weeks back I browned ground beef, then added cabbage, onion, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, yellow mustard salt and pepper and cooked it all down. Served it on some take-and-bake ciabatta rolls. Perry darn good!

You dog! That's just a few blocks from my house! I wish I would've know you guys were there. It's relatively new and I haven't been there yet. Homemade kraut sounds to me like they take it pretty seriously there. Glad to hear it's good.

Last weekend