What's your favorite home cooked meal??

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Since I do the majority of the cooking around here, I only cook and create things I enjoy.  Choosing my favorite would be just about impossible. 

When the kids visit, they always ask for the one of the following:

   1. BBQ: In order, spare ribs, whole chicken, pulled pork, and brisket. 

   2. Italian: Pizza and pasta.  With the pizza, everything is homemade.  The dough can take up to a week to ferment.  My two favorite toppings to go along with the sauce, onions, garlic, and cheese are smoked meat balls or smoked buckboard bacon/Canadian bacon.  Additionally, my kids love my pasta sauce.  Even though one has married into a large Italian family, she says no one can touch the flavor of my sauce on pasta.

Personally, my favorite meal of the day has always been breakfast.  I just have so many memories of traveling and fishing with my dad when I was a kid.  He always stopped at diners before the sun came up.  Family owned places, Sambos (no longer in existence), Waffle House, IHOP, Stuckeys, Howard Johnson, Holiday Inn diners, and Big Boy were his favorites.  When I was little, I'd get hot chocolate, sticky oatmeal (the kind you get when you add the oats to cold water), and toast.  Scooping that buttered toast through the sweet oatmeal was a kid's answer to breakfast heaven. 

Later I grew into eggs, crispy hash browns, sourdough toast, and a meat side.  If I had to pick a favorite home cooked breakfast meal, it would be an egg scramble with fried potatoes, sweet onions, red peppers, and crispy-cubed, home-smoked, buckboard bacon all mixed in. 

Right now it's a toss up between the pizza and the egg scramble, both of which are better with a smoked meat!     
 
Oh my God!

Where do I start!!

We very rarely go out to eat, because we can make just about anything better than the restaurants.

My favorite changes on a daily basis!

Al
 
I like it all...But I would say right now smoked meat loaf, with oven baked Mac & cheese.
I also eat a lot of chicken.

Agree with Al prefer to eat at home...
 
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Both atomicsmoke!
Noboundaries, thanks for such detail,smoked meatballs sound really good! Is that pasta sauce a family secret or is it possible to find on this site??
I love to try new things and when I'm on here it's really hard to sit down and just search for something to cook, my mind goes straight to the norm when it comes to smoking food. I decided that if people where to share a favorite thing they cook we could all get new and different ideas!
I have a WSM and a weber performer so I think I'm pretty well rounded on my tools. We just bought a pizzaQue and that turned out amazing!
So far we have tried (and loved!):
Jalapeño poppers
Pulled pork
Brisket
Cheeseburger fatty
Steaks on the performer
Lots of chicken!
Smoked wings
Pizza on the pizzaQue
Those are pretty much "go to's " on the weekend.
So idinner be very great full of you could add to our growing list!!
Thanks!
 
That's easy... Steak. I don't even ask anymore. Its always the same answer.

So.. the dry aged steak fetish began... I created a monster!
 
We don't have a "favorite". When we ask each other in the morning over coffee what we want for dinner and nothing jumps out, we'll often go for Pork Chops with mashed potatoes and gravy with a vegetable or Hot Italian Sausage or Kielbasa with fried potatoes and onions. Sausage is usually the winner because for some reason we usually have plenty in the freezer....
icon_biggrin.gif
 
Wow that's a tough question!!!!  There are so many to pick from.... It all depends on my mood, Sometimes Italian, Greek, Mexican is always a favorite. We have been dabbling with Indian and Thai food as well, But the go to is always something meaty..... Just can't decide .....
 
A hearty bowl of homemade chili and fresh baked bread and Beef stew when it's fall and winter.. maybe ham and potato salad or steak and kielbasa in the summer cooked on a grill.. fresh perch and walleye pan fried
 
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Noboundaries,  Is that pasta sauce a family secret or is it possible to find on this site??
 
Not a family secret, but a sauce I created that evolved from my Italian mother's sauce.  Her's was very light and watery.  I like a thicker sauce packed with flavor.  She paid me the ultimate compliment once and said my sauce was better than hers. 

Unfortunately, I seem to be the only one who can duplicate it exactly.  It will probably die with me, like so many of the flavors from my Italian mother and grandmother.  I've written it down, but my kids, who are both great cooks themselves, just can't duplicate it for some reason.  The palm of my hand is the measuring cup.  The meat in it varies, but always includes Italian sausage and ground chuck.  There's a taste test required about two hours in to adjust the end result.  At that point I usually add something to take it where it needs to be.  Then it is essential the sauce simmers for at least four hours total.  It transforms by that point from individual ingredients in the same pot to a blended oneness that just makes love to your tongue.  When you put it on your pasta, there's no watery bleed, just pure flavor.   

The sauce includes browned Italian sausage, ground chuck, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, diced tomatoes (or whole tomatoes squeezed by hand), crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, red table wine, and occasionally tomato paste, depending on the amount of liquid in the canned tomatoes.  It is better with fresh tomatoes, like this time of year, but I usually fix it in the winter for some reason.   

As much as I want to make this right now, I'll hold off.  I'm on a "shrink Ray" program right now and pasta isn't included.  I made a chicken breast and brown rice with my spaghetti sauce earlier this week.  It was satisfying, but not the same as pasta. 
 
Me...Seared Scallops with Compound Butter, Rice and Roasted Asparagus

Wife...Sauteed Shrimp with Basil Pesto, Sundried Tomatoes and Pinenuts tossed with Linguini.

Daughter #1...Pot Roast with Spinners, hand rolled Dumplings.

Daughter #2...Chicken Tikka Masala and Rice.

Daughter #3...Pulled Pork, Coleslaw and Fries.

SIL #1...Assorted Sushi Rolls

SIL #2...Stuffed Shells or Lasagna.

SIL #3...Buffalo Wings. 

As a group, Grilled Steaks, 1 1/4" Rib Eye, Med/Rare, Baked Taters and Brown Butter sauteed Green Beans is popular...JJ
 
Me...Seared Scallops with Compound Butter, Rice and Roasted Asparagus
Wife...Sauteed Shrimp with Basil Pesto, Sundried Tomatoes and Pinenuts tossed with Linguini.
Daughter #1...Pot Roast with Spinners, hand rolled Dumplings.
Daughter #2...Chicken Tikka Masala and Rice.
Daughter #3...Pulled Pork, Coleslaw and Fries.
SIL #1...Assorted Sushi Rolls
SIL #2...Stuffed Shells or Lasagna.
SIL #3...Buffalo Wings. 

As a group, Grilled Steaks, 1 1/4" Rib Eye, Med/Rare, Baked Taters and Brown Butter sauteed Green Beans is popular...JJ
OK, JJ, what's a "Spinner"?
 
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