seekrain

...again, not gonna get many laughs around here by trying to make horrible child sex crimes funny.

GO PAUL!! I am not a fan of Lindsay or Sarah.... Well at least we can count on a straight up finale, no gimmicks or BS games.

very well put, detlef.

very very rarely....last time was actually last week as I was driving to Vegas, and it truly sucked (the food).

I enjoyed last nights episode....finally everyone produced a very high quality of food.

I haven't noticed really... that "BBQ" cookoff was a joke. First of all, Salt Lick wouldn't be in my top 5 BBQ places in or near Austin, and I could poll 20 friends & I would be surprised if any of them would say that it is theirs. Second, the pit that they showed at the Salt Lick isn't where they smoke the meat...it's a finishing grill that they pull meat from before slicing & serving it. Third, smoked meat isn't slathered in sauce as it smokes. It wouldn't take on the smoke with a wet surface. Fourth...in order to smoke meat, they have to be able to contain the smoke. why would they give them those open pits (finishing pits) to smoke the meat? Or were they trying to see if they used the box smoker instead? But I only saw one box smoker.... I'd have put the briskets in the smoker first & foremost (and damn sure wouldn't have wrapped em in foil), let em smoke for 12-15 hours, then pulled those off & put the ribs & chicken on the smoker for the last 3-4 hours. period, done. in the meantime I would have done up my sides....but probably would have done something a little more original than beans & cole slaw, or at least changed em up a bit. I still say Paul will win...but revoke my prediction of Chicago Chris being in the final 3.

Won 2 of my 4 leagues....and got 3rd in the big $$ one (winner took home $2500) and woulda won that one if Rodgers hadn't been benched against the Raiders.... Alltogether I took home about $1200 or so...

awesome! glad you enjoyed them. we get a ham from there for thxgiving usually. I love the slab bacon because you can cut it as thick as you want/need. I like making lardons & slow cooking them to render out the fat & make em kinda crispy on outside & moist on inside. I did this with a slab year before last for a super bowl party.

10-2 (big $ league, and in sig) 8-4 7-5 3-9 28-20 overall. locked in for playoffs in 1st two leagues, should get in on the 3rd, 2nd to last on the 4th.

haha, yeah his coworker was definitely all over him. I was hoping the asian girl would get the boot, but she nailed that final dish.

those both sound great. nothin like using the ham bone to make a killer broth. I made some Manhattan Clam Chowder a couple weeks ago, turned out really good. I steamed about 6 lbs of littlenecks with about a cup each of white wine & water, along with 4 cloves chopped garlic. strained out the liquid, pulled & chopped the clams. my wife is vegetarian, so instead of bacon I just sauteed the carrots, celery & onion in butter, added the reserved clam liquid, a can of clam stock, seafood stock, chopped tomatoes, chili flake & some dried thyme & a bay leaf. let that simmer for an hour or so, added the chopped potato & cooked til tender. added the chopped clams to each bowl as it was poured, little salt, pepper & parsley. Turned out really good.

yeah, when keith bought those precooked frozen shrimp, he signed his exit ticket. that was incredibly stupid, just absolutely mindblowing that he would think that would be ok. he deserved to be ousted for that alone, but to use flour tortillas on top of that first blunder, inexcusable. his reasoning that he didn't know anything about mexican food doesn't hold water either....he should have done extensive research on mexican cuisine, knowing that he was going to be on Top Chef Texas...that's just bad planning.....too bad, b/c I liked the guy.

a little bit of both. the editing on those shows will make people look worse than they are, no doubt. but he is cocky & confident too, but for good reason. before all the Top Chef stuff came about, when we shared a house, he would cook stuff I wouldn't have ever even thought about. One day he cooked a mussel souffle out of the blue, just cause we had some mussels....and it was incredible. he was working on the molecular gastronomy stuff long before you even saw it on the food network, back when ferran adria & wylie dufrene were the only ones really doing it. but he was, and still is, a very good person & a good friend. he was the very first person I met when I moved up to Hyde Park for school, and he welcomed me into his house. he's absolutely nowhere near as annoying as he was on the show. if I hadn't known him before TC, he probably would have been one of my least favorites haha. but it's a competition, and he understood that.

yeah, can't see the pics, but I would love to check it out. I've been thinking of building one in my backyard lately. made a great dough last weekend, just needed a better oven than the ol' normal conventional jobber. for one pie, I cooked some clams with white wine, garlic & chili flake...chopped them up & cut up a lobster tail & sauteed that in butter. did a white pizza with the chopped clams & lobster....damn it was tasty! others were mushroom & sausage. the white pie took the crown that night.

Nueske's just try one from this place....un-believably good! While you're at it, order some of the apple smoked bacon (I like to get it in slab form), best bacon around.