Cooking and Dining

[mac5155]

Costco’s gyro kit is really tasty. The lamb/beef was very tender.

Same with the Sam's kit. It's gone from like $9.97 to $15 tho

How big is Sam’s? Costco’s is $6.49/lb, and they’re about 3.5 lbs each. We’re going to get a full two dinners out of this one kit.

No idea, it is enough to make 6 gyros though which gets us one dinner and usually one lunch each.

[NTP66]

Yeah, Costco's kit comes with 6 pitas and a shitload of gyro meat, along with the veggie, etc. If you're getting the same size kit for $15, that's still good. My kid was just under $20.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Been BBQuing Pork butts all day. I smell like heaven.

Did that over Memorial Day weekend. So good

Sam's Club has been selling butts for cheap (bought these three for $15 a piece). Makes great meal prep for the week.

[meecrofilm]

That's a great deal for butts.

[tifosi77]

It is def worth paying a little more for good butts imo.

[Kane]

[NTP66]

I like bpig butts and I cannot lie

[shafnutz05]

Costco’s gyro kit is really tasty. The lamb/beef was very tender.

Yep, got this on my first trip and was really impressed with quality of toppings too.

[NTP66]

They also finally have the chocolate peanut butter pie at our Costco. Would recommend.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Is anyone having issues finding kosher salt? I usually get a 4 lb. box of Morton's a couple of times a year, but none of the local Wally Worlds have any locally, it's all third party vendors for $25 or something ridiculous. Kroger has their own brand via shipping, but none in the local stores.

WTF is going on?

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

4 pounds of salt a couple times a year? Are you making bacon and other cured meets at an institutional level?

[DigitalGypsy66]

Checking my purchase history, it's one box a year. In fact, almost exactly a year between purchases - early August the last 3 years! That's crazy!

[mac5155]

I see members mark sea salt in stock at Sam's for $3.98; there's a disclaimer due to high demand it may be unavailable.

[tifosi77]

I use Diamond Crystal and their shortage was about 18 months ago. I had lucked out on buying a box right before it hit, so I was okay for a while. (They ship in 3lb boxes)

Their deal was that concurrent with that shortage they came back to full strength with a rebranding effort that changed the look of their packaging. So when they were back in stores, I still didn't realize it for a while because they changed their stupid box art.

[tifosi77]

Speaking of shortages ----- the great Huy Fong Sriracha shortage finally hit locally. Such calamity.

[DigitalGypsy66]

I was able to secure a store brand 4 lb. box of kosher salt. Plenty of other Morton salts - pickling, etc., but no Kosher. And Diamond isn't sold here for some reason.

The Hoy Fong thing is interesting. Evidently, they used a farm in CA almost exclusively for their sriracha recipe. Then the farm and Hoy Fong got into a dispute/lawsuit, and they began sourcing their peppers from a farm or farms in Mexico. Now that area has had severe drought and a low yield pepper crop. The original CA farm hasn't had any issues and is supplying peppers to other hot sauce makers. Oops.

[tifosi77]

Yeah, it's a really weird story. The agriculture part of it played out right on the heels of a lawsuit brought by the city (Irwindale) the company had relocated to just a few years prior. A number of complaints had been filed against the company for the odor created during 6-8 week processing window every year, and the city filed an injunction that temporarily put the company out of business. Turned out, the source of complaints was an effort organized by a single resident looping in some of their neighbors to file additional complaints, and that organizer happened to be like the cousin or something of someone on the city council or whatever. When the lawsuit was finally resolved, the mayor was actually apologetic and said it never should've come to this.

I think it was two harvests after that that Huy Fong got into it with their chile supplier. If you talk to most fans, Rooster Sauce hasn't been the same since, and a lot of local Vietnamese restaurants stopped putting it on tables around that time.

[mac5155]

I need a new crock pot for the winter months and after school dinners - my old one pooped the bed. I'm looking at the Ninja PossibleCooker Pro at Sam's for $90 - anyone have this? I like the idea of being able to Sautee in the pan. And before you say you use an instant pot, I have one of those too. But we order a half of beef every year and the chuck roasts are cut flat and they don't fit in a circular pot - I need an oval or rectangular one.

[blackjack68]

I have six crockpots and don’t think I paid $90 combined

[mac5155]

Hahaha that's another reason why I'm trying to get talked out of it

[Shyster]

I can't comment on that particular cooker, but $90 seems like a very low price for that model.

[tifosi77]

I have kind of an irrational fear of pressure cookers, but if I got one honestly it would probably be a Ninja.

[the wicked child]

I got a Ninja when it was on a huge sale at one point... it has multiple features, including pressure cooker, but I've mostly just used it as an air fryer. Aside from also being somewhat uneasy with pressure cookers, you have to swap lids and crap so that never happens. Don't even remember where I put the other lid now that I think about it...

[mac5155]

Yes, that's the foodi I think.

This ninja model is a bit different.

[blackjack68]

I have the Ninja Foodi Grill. Mostly
Use the air fryer setting. It doesn’t have Pressure Cooker setting