Pizza, Poultry, Tomato, and Cleaning Question

Gretl

Hi All,
Just reading all the posts from the weekend. Big Q'ing time, I see.[p]I made BGE pizzas on Sunday to take to a potluck. I made the tomato sauce and whole wheat dough early in the day. The store had sold out of fresh mozzarella, so I switched gears and made Greek pizzas with olives, feta cheese, several different colors of pepper, capers, and caramelized onions. Oh, they were GREAT. Everyone loved them. AND this was the first truly great crust I've achieved, the result of a base of 3 thin firebricks, one thin pizza stone, topped by a thicker BGE pizza stone. I preheated the Egg for about 1/2 hour at about 500-600 before doing the pizzas.[p]The chicken on Monday was done ahead and served cold at a picnic. I used chicken sitter in a pan with some ale, over firebricks, and the result was very tasty and moist. I brined it overnight in some salt and sugar water. I rinsed it and dried it and loosened the breast skin to make room for minced garlic and herbs. I coated the skin with olive oil and Grains of Paradise. I put the contents of a whole can of ale in the pan. Here's where I ran into problems...[p]I spilled some of the drip pan contents on our patio stone as I was bringing the finished chicken inside. I tried scrubbing the stain with ammonia, which didn't work, and I'm not real happy with a big blob on the stone. Does anyone have a product to recommend? I'm waiting anxiously.[p]Oh, the tomatoes. I made a roasted tomato sauce for pasta using the leftover heat from the chicken. I had 10 vine-ripened tomatoes that look really good but taste like nothing. So I put about 2 T olive oil on a baking sheet, cut the tomatoes in half, placed them cut-side down on the pan along with about 5 garlic cloves scattered around. I salted them lightly with coarse sea salt. [p]After we returned home from the picnic, the tomatoes had given up their juice and the skins were wrinkled and easily removed. I put them through a food mill, which resulted in about a cup of concentrated fresh tomato/garlic sauce. I'll have it on pasta with fresh basil tonight. I'm keeping this method in mind for late summer when I just can't get enough tomatoes.[p]Sorry this is so long![p]Cheers,
Gretl

sprinter

Gretl,[p]In regard to the blob of stuff on the stone. There is a deck wash product that will "probably" take it off. I have a slabstone patio and its taken some oil and gas stains off of it for me. I know that they have it a Lowes here locally, cant think of the name of it. Its for taking stains out of concrete etc. Works great on those areas of the patio that get grease and oil and leaf stains on them occasionally. I just asked for a driveway stain remover and they pointed me in the right direction. Comes in a gallon can, one of those square deals, made by Thompsons I think? Let me know if you need more information and I'll see if I can help more.[p]Those pizzas sound great. I've made some similar to yours and have added artichoke hearts to it as well, yummy. Been awhile for me and pizzas, need to so some more of those. Those carmelized onions sound like an awesome addition.[p]Your tomato idea is intrigues me. I have a bunch of tomato plants this year also, will have to try it. Thanks.[p]Troy

Gretl

sprinter,
Thanks for steering me in the Lowe's direction. I sort of thought there was a cleaner; probably in the automotive department. Honestly, I just groaned when the spill happened, knowing it was going to be really visible for a LONG time. I'll check out Lowe's tonight.[p]Re: caramelized onions. I have done this many times; just slice the onions thin and saute them slowly in olive oil until they're completely wilted and very light brown. They are SO sweet! GREAT on pizzas. [p]Re: tomatoes..I signed up for an online "class" from the Cook's Illustrated site. The sauce featured last week was a fresh tomato sauce. No way was I going to get a good fresh, uncooked tomato sauce out of these poor substitutes. And expensive! Sheesh. I'll send my report to CI today, the last day of the class.[p]Thanks again,
Gretl

Mike Oelrich

Gretl,[p] I signed up for it, too. I was a bit disappointed. It was basically just old CI articles and reviews repackaged in web format (and I already had the free book!). Also, one of the .pdf files didn't download properly. I like Cook's Illustrated, but I have ben a bit put off by how they continually retool the same content to come up with more books, etc. Reminds me of a headline I saw in my copy of The Onion from a couple weeks ago: "Taco Bells Finds New Way to Combine Same Four Ingredients"[p]MikeO

Gretl

MikeO,
Yeah, but look at what resulted when I tried roasting the tomatoes in the Egg? A happy little discovery. However, with tomato prices what they are now, I figured that about a cup of sauce set me back 8 bucks! Well, I'll serve the sauce tonight on some good pasta and warn the troups to Eat Slowly and Enjoy Every Bite!!
Cheers,
Gretl[p]p.s. Love The Onion articles!!

Char-Woody

Gretl, odd that you should post..I just finished a first time cleaning of my BGE exterior since it first arrived. A product called Rutlands Brick and Stone cleaner, and a stiff brass brush to get into the little dimples. My BGE shines like new again.
It says "restores a like new again to your brick and stone". Might work for ya..try Lowes, or if you have a Menards I know they carry it.
Sprinters suggestion is valid also...Cheers...C~W[p]

Gretl

Char-Woody,
Thanks. I have a trip to Lowe's in the very near future, armed with a shopping list (as usual!)
Cheers,
Gretl