Grilled artichokes, stuffed mushrooms, etc

[krosskraft]

I tried a sequence tonight to practice getting the most out of a firing. While I was getting the WFO hot enough for pizza, I tried asudave's crab-stuffed mushrooms (thanks Dave!). Then I grilled some artichoke hearts on an iron grill. I had steamed them earlier in the day to soften, split in two length-wise, removed the choke, and drizzled with olive oil. Served those with some cucumber wasabi ranch dip. Right before bringing them in the house, I put a big log on the fire to really heat things up. 15-20 min later I cooked some pizzas. Then as the fire was dwindling I put in an 8 pound pork loin. I skewed it from each side and draped the skewers on the edge of a cast iron dutch oven. It cooked for 50 minutes, rotating once during cooking. Lastly, I cooked Frances' macaroons using cashews and pecans. Frances, they were delicious! Now I am going to put my feet up and sit down! If I had made bread earlier in the day I could have done that as well. I think I cooked all that using about six sticks of wood....wow.

[gjbingham]

Great effort. I always feel guilty leaving it hot!

[Frances]

Originally Posted by gjbingham

Great effort. I always feel guilty leaving it hot!

Yep, me too.

My problem is that after pizza for lunch no one wants to eat anything much for the rest of the day. I run around saying things like "what about a roast for dinner?" or "hey, I could bake a cake", or "does anyone fancy macaroons again?" and all they do is groan in a overeaten sort of way...

Sounds like a great cookup Krosskraft! good use of the heat, and I'm glad you liked the macaroons.