Learn how to cook the perfect steak in this steak cooking video we made. Simple steak recipe that uses a frozen steak, so you don’t have to wait to defrost it. Neat. If you are looking for the answer to how to cook the perfect steak, watch this GardenFork video, you will be amazed at this easy steak recipe.
This steak recipe video was inspired by Melissa Clark of the NY Times and Nathan Myhrvold, author of the 5 volume Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. They made a video on the NY Times site showing this method, and I wanted to share it with you all and put the GardenFork spin on how to cook steak.
For this steak cooking method, I suggest a propane torch from the hardware store, don’t buy one of those little butane torches at the cooking supply store, buy the real thing. Its also great for making Creme Brule, see our how to make Creme Brule video here.
We have also made a video about cooking steak sous vide, which is also a great way to cook steak and is part of the modernist cuisine movement. Our version of sous vide cooking uses a beer cooler, low tech but it works, much like a propane tech is low tech but it works.
I have a copy of the Modernist Cuisine At Home and really like it. If you want the full set, you can get that below as well.
Tell us your steak recipes, hacks and hints below, love to hear from you all, eric.
Aquaponics and Aquaculture How-to has been taking up a lot of Rick’s time. Below Rick tells us what he has learned about how to build an aquaponics system. Eric
The backbone of the inner tunnel is just 1" ID PVC for ribs
I haven’t been around the Gardenfork site very much, been busy in the greenhouse. But for the last few days rain and, particularly, mud has kept me away from the greenhouse, so I thought I’d update you on my progress on the aquaponics project.
Of course, everything is harder and takes way more time than you think it will, so I have not made as much progress as I though I would by now.
4 mil plastic from the Blue Store comes in 20 ft widths on 100 ft rolls, just what I needed.
Last time I wrote that I wasn’t going to build the inner tunnel inside the greenhouse because the winter was so mild here in Tidewater, but I changed my mind.
I’ve got 40 tomato seedlings just sprouting in the spare bedroom at our house, snuggled in and just getting a start in life. And I am already 2 weeks behind in getting the seeds sprouted, so any more setbacks would be devastating.
Clamp-On PVC over tubing to hold plastic to frame and tension the skin. 4 clamps, two per end.
That’s because, as I mentioned previously, this project has to pay. So if this crop craps out, I’m losing much more than 40 seeds; I’ll lose the early crop.
Not only do the tomatoes have to “make,” but they have to be early enough in the spring to demand a higher price at the Farmers Market. Early local tomatoes are worth gold. Late July tomatoes are nearly giveaways. So we decided that it would be pound foolish to not go ahead with the inner tunnel.
inside the inner cover (that's the Dutch Bucket system in the back left, waiting for the tomato sprouts)
I’ll be growing the tomatoes in Dutch Buckets. (I’m working up another post soon explaining how Dutch Buckets work.)
Dutch Buckets (also called Bato Buckets) are something you can do in your house, as long as you have enough light and enough warmth, particularly for tomatoes and peppers.
It’s a flimsy, wobbly affair. It won’t stand a gust and in even moderate heat the ribs will sag. But it’s quick and cheap. I’m using all 1-inch ID PVC in my plumbing, so as the temperature goes up and the inner cover comes down, I’ll be repurposing the PVC to the irrigation system as I expand.
What’s Aquaponics without fish?
The Fish Tank, is another matter all together. Here’s my first try at the platform:
first try at platform
The problem is that I didn’t show this design to anyone before I built it. She, who must be obeyed, took one look at it and said, “why not have the 4x4s tall, to help contain the tank?”
–Doh…
Fortunately, I put it all together with screws so –after another run to the Blue Store– I had some 5 ft long 4x4s for along the outside edges. I also added more of the cement blocks, so that no span is unsupported for more than two feet.
Redone…with the 5 ft supports all around.
Temperature control is important in Aquaponics. And it’s easier…it says here…to warm up a tank than to cool it off. So temperature control of the tank is important. That’s so your fish are comfortable, but most importantly, that so because the bacteria must be comfortable as well.
The key to Aquaponics is the bacteria. You can have all the fish you want and all the plants you want, but they’ll both DIE if the proper kinds of bacteria do not colonize your system or if the bacteria are unhappy.
If it dries off enough so that I can get back there with a truck this week, I’ll deliver the –damn heavy!– 4 x 8 ‘ sheets of 3/4-inch treated plywood for the sides. I’ll put sheets of interior insulation and a fish-safe pond liner inside the tank so it’s water proof. I’ll also band the top, middle and bottom of the tank around the outside of the 4 x 4s.
The finished Fish Tank will be 8 x 8 x 3 ft or 192 cubic feet. That’s about 14,000 gallons of water, which is 5.8 tons of water. Once I finish the fish tank, I’ll start on the grow beds. I’m hoping four 4 x 8 foot to begin with.
We talk about the Simple Backyard Brick Oven Plans and Video. The pizza oven construction is discussed, and how to source angle iron using freecycle techniques. Placement of the wood fire within the Brick Oven and the difference between our simple brick oven and those pizza ovens in a restaurant fill out the conversation. Its the perfect brick oven for a pizza party. Mike talks about the ritual of building the oven is akin to BBQ, the ritual of doing it. Having your friends help build the pizza oven when they come over to eat would be fun. How to cut Durock, a cement backer board used in the Brick Pizza Oven is best scored with a utility knife.
What kind of dough recipe to use in the pizza oven comes up. Eric used this pizza dough recipe and found it to be good.
Mike asks if people remember a mimeograph machine, and dates himself immediately, and talks about fishing in winter.
Monica joins us to talk about what Eric should make with what he has in his fridge, the consensus seems to be Mexican Casserole. We also talk about Monica’s trip to Los Angeles.
The 7 bone roast mystifies Eric, and Monica suggests visiting your local butcher who knows about meat. Stew meat, what kind to use, and how Monica and Mike make it is discussed, use what you got seems to be the theme here. Mike has a great suggestion to save food from catering platters, put them in the freezer and use them to make stews.
After watching our Simple Brick Oven Plan Video, Roger sent us these photos of his Brick Oven Construction. He has modified the Brick Pizza Oven Plan we used to be able to hold more heat and make a Backyard Brick Bread Oven.
Enjoyed your brick oven video. We found the same plan after being inspired by our daughter who had spent a week with Bread and Puppet on her campus in Iowa (they built an oven and baked bread for the audience after their performance). Attached are some photos. We added the wooden door for bread baking. We soak it prior to baking so that it steams the oven and gives the bread a nice spring as it bakes. We purchased a [ Fluke ] infrared thermometer to ensure the proper temp for the baking. Fluke 62 Mini Infrared Thermometer
A typical baking progression includes: flatbreads, pizza, bread, tart. It’s great fun. Thanks for sharing your video, Roger
I like how Roger has added more mass to the Wood Fired Brick Oven to allow it to bake bread, yet still retaining the break down portable nature of the oven, keeping the oven a simple dry fit brick wood oven, easy to build and then take down.
Bread and Pizza Oven using dry fit brickA wood door was built and it is soaked in water to give steam in the oven when baking breadBread from a simple brick ovenPizza from the backyard brick oven
Matt joins Eric to answer Beekeeping for Beginners questions on this show. What equipment to buy, how to buy honeybees, where to put beehives in your yard, what kind of beekeeping suit to buy all answered here.
what kind of beekeeping suit and beekeeping veil is good?
what kind of frames should i use in the beehive, are plastic frames better than wood frames?
wax foundation versus plastic foundation should i use plastic or wax foundation on the frames of the beehive? eric talks about the benefits of wax foundation and plastic foundation and frames
do you paint the outside of the beehive? yes, we use latex paint.
should i buy 8 frame supers or 10 frame supers? matt and eric talk about the benefits of 8 frame boxes and 10 frame boxes
what kind of beekeeping tools should i buy? eric suggests bringing duct tape, scissors, entrance reducer, smoker, woodchips, matches, 2 or 3 hive tools, a frame grabbing tool, needle nose pliers and more.
what kind of hive stand should my beehive rest on? cinder block, wood, metal stands are talked about, eric suggests having a work table next to your hives.
we talk about benefits of top bar hives vs. langstroth hives, and the drawbacks of top bar hives and langstroth beehives.
should you buy a bee package or a honeybee nuc? eric talks about the advantages of honeybee packages , the pros and cons of bee packages, and the benefits of being a nuc or nucleus hive to start a beehive.
eric advocates buying local honeybees and queens, either packages or nucs, the closer you can buy your bees the better.
should you feed honeybees in winter and how do i feed my bees over the winter? eric talks about how to feed bees in winter. you can watch our Beekeeping for Beginners video series here, and several videos are about feeding bees in winter.
Eric uses a hand immersion blender to mix this sugar feed solution, and adds this homemade essential oil recipe for bees to the sugar
The essential oil mixture is great for spraying the bees to combat nosema and bee diarrhea.
winterizing beehives is discussed, here is eric’s beehive insulated inner cover video, Eric feeds sugar cakes to the bees in winter, not fondant or sugar syrup. Should you close or open a screened bottom board? Matt and Eric discuss
Mudsongs.org is a favorite beekeeping blog of eric’s. Phillip documents his beekeeping in Newfoundland Canada.
where to site your hives in your yard, where should you put the hives, what is the best location for beehives? eric has learned that full sun is best, he talks more about it during this radio episode.
should I take a beekeeping class? eric says yes.
and join your local beekeeping group. search on the web for your state’s beekeeping association, and that site should list local beekeeping groups.
Megan of BrooklynHomesteader.com offers online beekeeping classes, and in-person classes as well.
Build this homemade brick pizza oven in your backyard with recycled used clay bricks and a recycled metal mattress frame. And the pizza oven is portable! You can assemble this in 20 minutes, make homemade pizzas, then take it apart and store it. Most backyard pizza ovens are big and permanent, this homemade brick oven is great because its easy to break down again until your next pizza baking party.Here are the pizza oven plans shown in photos, our oven uses used clay brick and 24″ angle iron we cut from a old bed frame. You have to heat up the oven for an hour to get it up to temperature. The brick pizza oven has to be on sturdy sawhorses or cement blocks. We used cement tile board to insulate the plywood table from the heat of the brick oven. Stuart, author of the Bread Oven book, emailed us, cautioning that he felt the 2 layers of cement tile board was not enough insulation to keep the plywood from scorching, he suggests a base of cement, as shown on his blog here.
Clean the bricks that will be used for the floor of the oven, that’s where your pizza dough will be sitting. We didn’t have a thermometer, but I’m told the floor of the brick oven can reach 700F. We also found its good to keep some of the coals in the front part of the oven, so the heat is more even. We had to turn the pizza once during baking to have it cook evenly.
I have a few ideas for more modifications, which we will post later on. Keep children and animals away from this and all fires, this is for adults.
base of pizza ovenbuilding walls of pizza ovenpizza oven roof using angle ironBackyard Brick Pizza Oven
Our backyard pizza oven is based on one in the book Bread , Earth, & Fire by Stuart Silverstein. Stuart’s book has a bunch of plans and info on building backyard ovens, go buy it here. it is available as an ebook or paperback. Read Stuart’s blog here.
Ah, meatloaf — it brings back memories of a cross-country road trip, getting lost, and finding a diner that served the best home-cooked meals. The meatloaf was delicious, moist and smooth, but the waitress was salty. I asked her what was in it, she made a crack about lost college kids. In a hushed tone she said “potato chips” then she gave us pie on the house.
You don’t have to get lost to find this truck-stop style meatloaf. This recipe does not call for salt or oil since potato chips already have the perfect balance and just the right amount of starch which gives this meatloaf a very moist, smooth texture. I prefer plain low-salt potato chips, but you can explore the many varieties that are available. Cool Ranch anyone?
You’ll Need:
1 lb ground chuck or sirloin
1 lb ground turkey
2 sweet Italian sausages or 1/4 lb ground pork
3/4 cup crushed plain potato chips, low salt
1/2 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs
1 cup onion, minced
1 cup celery, minced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp each dried ingredient: rosemary, thyme, basil, black pepper
2 tbsp dried mustard
1 eggs
1 large and 1 medium size bowl
1 paper bag
a low baking dish
oven thermometer
Make the Sauce
The sauce is important, it makes a tangy seal that keeps in moisture as the meatloaf bakes. In a small bowl mix ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, powdered onion, and dried mustard. Liquid smoke is optional but it gives this meatloaf an extra kick.
Mix It Up
In a measuring cup, crush and pack in enough potato chips to yield 3/4 cup, then pour everything into a paper bag. With the bottom of a glass or the palm of your hand, pound the potato chips further to remove excess oil (warning: the bag will be soaked with oil). Pour crushed chips and all dried ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
The key to a smooth meatloaf is to not overwork everything. I find that mixing with my hands instead of a food processor give me the right texture. Remove sausage from the casing (or use ground pork), add all ground meats, minced ingredients, and egg into a large bowl and mix well. Add all dry ingredients and mix again. Here’s how I do it: plunge both hands into the bowl and squeeze every thing through your fingers, turn everything over in the bowl and repeat until everything is smooth and evenly distributed. Let it rest for 15 minutes.
Bake It
Preheat the oven to 375°. In a low baking dish form a loaf into a low, rounded rectangle — roughly 2″ deep. The edges will further round off as it cooks. Use the back of a spoon to generously smooth the sauce over the top, but coat the sides lightly. Bake the meatloaf for an hour and 10 minutes. Use an oven thermometer to check if the center has reached 165°. Remove from the oven and let the it sit for 5 minutes.
If you want a more caramelized meatloaf, stick it in the broiler for three minutes, but watch it closely to make sure that it doesn’t burn. Serve it hot with gravy, more ketchup, or cocktail sauce… turn off the TV and enjoy every bite, but try to leave some for sandwiches tomorrow.
Eric and Mike talk about car repair and how to save money by (safely) avoiding potholes, as hitting potholes can have an impact on bearings that is pricey to fix. Rick asks us to consider celebrating New Years on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) so you can have a party and still get to bed at a decent hour. The unseasonably warm weather brings up concerns about bears coming out of hibernations and affected jobs including its impact on the sugaring season (also known as sap season) for maple syrup and landscapers. Eric discusses how active the bees are due to the warm temperatures and how to feed your hives to get them through the winter. Discussion about this also took place on the Backwards Beekeepers of New York CIty Facebook page. Mike and Eric hear from a number of viewers writing or calling in on a variety of topics including: making virtual (such as in Evernote) versus pen and paper lists, shopping at Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore in your area, the color a proper pickle should be, and beginner mushroom growing tips. Mike shares his favorite highlights from GardenFork’s Labrador Retriever New Years video show. Oh, and follow Mike on Twitter! @GFR_Mike
Read Meg Stouts excellent blog 3'x5' Aquaponics, on how to build a backyard aquaponics system
My greenhouse aquaponics project (OMG What Have I Done?) has come up in some soon-to-be-published interviews with Eric, so I thought I’d report on my progress…or lack of progress. First of all, the old commercial greenhouse (100 ft by 30 ft by 30 ft high) has been sealed (added side curtains, repaired the fire damage, put up some canvas flap doors on each end (contact local sign and advertising companies for used banners they are throwing away: heavy, hemmed, UV-resistant. Good stuff for temporary fixes.)
I’ve begun seedlings at home under a grow light, mostly tomatoes. I’ve set up a Dutch Bucket hydroponics system (video forthcoming). I’ve given up on the idea of building an inner greenhouse inside the greenhouse (see the writings of Eliot Coleman on winter greenhouse gardening without heat) and instead will drape plastic over existing plants if needed.
Aquaponics – aka aquaculture.
The learning curve is steep, but not daunting. Thanks to GardenFork listener
@CCorbiere who’s offered his considerable experience in fish wrangling and pond design. His knowledge and experience is going to be more than helpful as I get started on the fish side of the equation.
My Bible: Sylvia Bernstein's Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together
My biggest hurdle seems to be settling on some systems issues, a breed of fish, and –most importantly– trying to start the biologic process in the winter, which is the reason I launched a hydroponics Dutch Bucket system first. Hydroponics is even more “fiddly-fidgety” than aquaponics, but at least you don’t have to try to start bacteria colonies in the cold. I’ll be documenting this process as I go along.
If you need a brief primer on aquaponics you can’t do better than the Flash animations (click the red button to make them work) from EcoFilms Australia: How an Aquaponics System Works. The system demonstrated is the CHOP system (constant height, one pump), which is what I’ll be doing. There is also an excellent animation on the same page about how a Bell Siphon works. (BTW: the Austrailains are way, way ahead of us in aquaculture.)
from Meg Stout's 3×5 Aquaponics & 365 Aquaponics Blogs, excellent how-to building videos
If you are not familiar with aquaponics, here’s a brief description. Think: Closed Loop Agriculture.
You feed the fish (organic feed, if you wish)
the fish poop
you pump the fish water with the poop to the grow beds (what is called a flood and drain system)
the medium (usually gravel, but can be other things) hosts bacteria that convert the ammonia in the poop to nitrites and then another bacteria converts the nitrites to nitrates (plant nitrogen)
plants in the grow beds pick up the nitrogen from the water when the bed floods
the bell siphon (see video link above) drains the bed after a “dwell” time
the draining of the bed draws oxygen down into the beds and the root zone for the plants
the drained water splashes down to the sump, re-oxygenating the water for the fish
the sump water is pumped back to the fish tank with as much splashing as possible to add more oxygen to the fish tank
Repeat
eventually you get a lot of solids built up in your grow bed
so you add compost worms to the beds (which can breath air and water) to reduce the solids to castings, which become compost tea for the plants
Your only input is fish food and water (to top off the tanks).
Of course there is more to it than this, but that’s the gist of it, a closed-loop, sustainable, agriculture system.
Yep, I’m a fanboy. The minute I stopped being paid for fiddling around with other systems I took the whole house Apple and never looked back. But this tactic should work for most cell phones where you can install ringtones.
Despite our cell numbers being listed in the Federal No-Call Database, we frequently get telemarketer calls as well telephonic missives from that broad class of “allowed” cold calls: political candidates, companies we have a “business relationship with” (however slight), and charities.
Most annoyingly, however, many of these unwanted telephone calls are robo-calls that treat you to several seconds of dead silence as the line is switched to a person who then tries to lighten your wallet. If you or, more importantly to these callers, your fat wallet are not boated the first time, or if you slip the hook and hang up before an operator gets to reel you in, the system will call again and again, usually once a day. It’s quite annoying when your phone goes off in meetings or when you’re trying to get some work done, like during my naps.
Unsolicited calls particularly bothers “She, Who Must Be Obeyed,” because…well, I don’t know why. But it does. She’s downright cranky about it and demands that I “do something.” So I searched the There’s-An-App-For-That store but didn’t find a tool that would work. (If given the choice, I always opt to buy my way out of things.) But I turned up an excellent fix on an old blog post by Richard K Miller, which works like a champ. I’m sure a similar workaround is available for other operating systems, but this will give you the idea:
First download a ringtone called Silence.m4r, which is just 30 seconds of dead silence (m4r is the file extension for Apple ringtones).
Drag Silence.m4r into the Tones directory in iTunes on your computer.
Sync your iPhone to iTunes, ensuring that Sync Tones is checked on the Tones tab.
Then on your iPhone create a new Contact. I called mine SPAM. Assign SPAM the custom ringtone “Silence” and set the custom Vibration to “None.”
Tap the “Recents” icon on your phone, find the offending numbers, and one-by-one tap the blue right arrow next to each number and on the next screen select “Add to Existing Contact.” Of course, that contact is SPAM, the one I created earlier.
That’s it! When those numbers call your cellphone, they activate the 30 seconds of silence ringer and, since Vibrate is set to None, it’s just “poof.” The record of them having called will show in Recents as SPAM. You can add as many numbers as you like to the contact SPAM.
Here’s a twist:
If you need some serious alone time, like a nap, but also need to be available to certain numbers, like the kids or the your bookie, assign each special number a unique ringtone. Then set your phone’s general Ringtone to Silence, Vibrate None. Now only the callers you’ve assigned unique ringtones to will get through. The rest go to voicemail.
Richard K. Miller has excellent screen shots of each process on his blog, linked above.
I am closing out the books on that dog of a year, 2011. We’ve been working on passive solar renovations for the last several years. While weather plays some part in our utility usage for our home from year to year, I thought I’d report on our general progress.
The Results of our Passive Solar Renovations
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. If solar panels are your goal, you’ll go broke trying to “solarize” a lossy house.
Proper windows, doors, insulation, CFLs, Energy Star appliances, and shutting down drafts will save you big when it comes time to buy solar panels.
Eric and Mike start off their new years day show with Chris Brogan and his 3 words for 2012, Eric suggests not going to Times Square for New Years Eve, you probably wont like it, its very crowded.
Fireplace safety comes up next, Eric suggests everyone have glass doors or a wire screen over their wood burning fireplaces.
Smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors have an effective life of 8-10 years, according to FEMA, and don’t cheap out when buying new ones, you get what you pay for. Its also important to follow the installation instructions you get with the detectors, smoke detector placement is very important.
Eric tells of his visit to a green home supplier that sells kitchen cabinets from deconstructed renovations. One of the projects will involve creating an opening between two rooms by cutting an opening a load bearing wall, which will be a future GardenFork video.
Sauerkraut fermentation times are discussed again, with more comments on Eric’s How to make sauerkraut video. Eric knows that yes, he did not let the cabbage ferment long enough.
Viewer mail takes up a lot of the show.
Eric talks about how to grow mushrooms and inoculate wood plugs with mushroom spore, and inoculating logs with mushroom plugs and spore. All about mushroom spawn.
Rick will be back on the show to talk about aquaponics and aquaculture , and Eric of chicago writes us about his tires being cupped.
Eric still plans on having breakfast with executive coach Rich Gee, and Radio Rick thinks it was the best interview we’ve done.
Eric talks about building his portable wood fired pizza oven, which will be a how-to pizza oven video for the show.
The Human Potential in all of us, eric calls it, and we talk about it again today on GF Radio. Steve Jobs talking about how we are all capable of all sorts of stuff, from this YouTube video.
From Monica we learned about the website, The99percent.com, and talk about how to find your work sweet spot, by focusing on doing what you like with genuine interest and skills. Kinda like do what you love, the money will follow but with a dose of reality kicked in.
And from the same site, Mike and Eric talk about email etiquette, and how most emails can be negative and how to write emails that wont be taken the wrong way. Eric decides emoticons are ok to use, as emails can always be read the wrong way. Make way for more smiley faces from Eric now.
Kickstarter, and how to run your own kickstarter campaign is our next topic. Eric suggests a free PDF book, The Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter, by Nelson de Witt, as a great place to start learning about running a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Planning is very important when deciding to have a Kickstarter campaign, so we have decided to wait a bit to start the GardenFork Kickstarter campaign. Stay tuned for news in February.
oil skin with olive oil, salt & pepper if you want
Here we show you how to roast a turkey on a grill. we are using the charcoal method of cooking a turkey on a grill. the photos here will show you how to make your turkey tasted great on the grill.
add a meat thermometerprep your charcoal burning grill, ours also has a propane lighterlight off and gray up 30 briquettesdivide, 15 per sideadd a drip pan between the coals and add the grilladd the turkey (this is our T-Day bird, an heritage breed, Bourbon Red)
vents full open, top and bottom. start your timer: 1 hour intervalsrelax. best of all, the turkey is out of the kitchenevery hour add 8 briquettes to each side. it usually takes 3 – 4 hours of cookingSydney naps in the ginger lilies near the grill, visions of turkey dance in her head. (obligatory GF dog pix)A great bird roasted on the grill
Rich Gee, head of The Rich Gee Group – Executive and Business Coaching , joins Eric today to talk about what keeps us from doing stuff we want to do, but can’t seem to get going on. We also talk about eggnog and making plywood boats
Sugar cookies are an easy christmas cookie recipe, even I can make these holiday cookies, maybe. Watch here and learn how to make sugar cookies for Christmas and the holidays.
Universal Sugar Cookie Recipe
This sugar cookie recipe is based on one Chris Kimball wrote about, saying its the universal recipe used by almost every baker.
1/2 cup white sugar
1 stick butter ( 1/2 cup ) slightly softened, but not mushy.
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
dash of vanilla
optionals:
chopped walnut, espresso powder, cocoa powder, almonds, etc.
Preheat oven to 375F
Put the stick of butter and the sugar in your food processor. You can also use an electric mixer, but I don’t have one right now, so the food processor works well for me.
Turn the food processor on to medium speed to mix the sugar and butter together, then add the 1 egg and vanilla, mix it in. The mixture should be lumpy, not super smooth.
Mix together all the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, salt, – and then add these to the food processor butter mixture.
Run the food processor until the mixture starts to form into a ball.
Turn our the dough onto a floured board and divide the dough into two equal pieces.
Roll each piece of dough into a log shape about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
Wrap these dough logs in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for one hour.
Using knife or pastry blade, slice off 1/4″ thick circles from the dough logs, place on cookies sheets with parchment paper.
Bake at 375F for about 8 minutes. you want the edges to be starting to brown, but not dark.
Cool on a wire rack and eat as soon as possible. They taste great when warm.
What is your sugar cookie recipe, your favorite addition to sugar cookies? Let us know below
Although this batch of socca is fresh from my Brooklyn oven, it’s origins are in Southern France. Socca (faranita) is a crépe made with chickpea flour, it’s similar to the savory Indian “chila,” but much less complicated. Bean flours are a good alternative to wheat flour — very high in protein and fiber. In Nice, freshly baked socca is sold in open markets by street vendors stuffed with savory things like goat cheese and potatoes — best eaten while it’s hot. You can get all the ingredients at your local grocery store. I’ve found that Indian Besan has a much finer mill than Bob’s Red Mill, it makes a very smooth, thin batter. A round cast iron griddle works best in the oven, but I just used my large skillet.
You’ll need:
1 1/2 c. chickpea flour
1 1/2 c. water
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbs onion powder
1/4 tsp cumin
12″ cast iron griddle (or pan)
oven set at 400°
Batter up! Mix all ingredients in a bowl and whisk for about 5 minutes. Cover and set aside for at least two hours at room temperature, then put it in the refrigerator for another four hours. I’ve found that the batter improves in texture and flavor if you allow it to sit for a day. You can keep the batter refrigerated in a covered container for up to three days. It should be as thin as eggnog. If it’s too thick, mix in a little water before cooking.
Preheat your oven to 400°. Heat griddle and coat evenly with a little olive oil. Pour about 3/4 cup of batter onto the griddle, tilting it back and forth to distribute the batter evenly over the entire the surface. Place it in the oven to cook for 15 to 2o minutes, but do check in 10 minutes. Use a spatula to loosen the socca’s edges from the griddle, then flip it over and see if it’s browned evenly. The “pan side” is the presentation side. Put it back into the oven for another five minutes if it’s not done, then set it aside to cool. Check your oven thermometer first, if the temperature goes above °400, let it cool down before you make a new batch.
Socca should be thin and soft with crisp edges. You can serve them individually or cut them into smaller pieces. They are best eaten fresh and hot — socca has a subtle sweetness that is perishable. Wrap some ham or scrambled eggs in your first batch of socca.
What kind of dough recipe to use in the pizza oven comes up. Eric used this 
More Pizza Oven Plan Photos Here
Eric tells of his visit to a green home supplier that sells kitchen cabinets from deconstructed renovations. One of the projects will involve creating an opening between two rooms by cutting an opening a load bearing wall, which will be a future GardenFork video.
