What we've eaten...

Wow, it's been a while. What can we say - we've been busy. Busy with our new house, busy with weddings, busy with the summer. But also, busy with the new grill and other warm-weather-type cooking! We'll be better, we promise. Until then, here are just a few photos to catch us up...

BBQ-seasoned Pork "country style ribs" with Grilled Zucchini and Mashed Cauliflower... these are those fake, boneless pork "ribs" that you see in the store - I believe they are really just a pork loin cut up in a funny way. Regardless, the way it is cut is perfect for grilling:


Cajun Grilled Chicken Tenderloins with Fiddleheads and Spaghetti Squash - love spaghetti squash with parmesan cheese, and the fiddleheads are still in season! Finally ran out of our sampler of Penzey's Cajun Seasoning... need more!


Beer Can Chicken! - hahaha, it came out ok. We put some melted butter and fresh thyme in with the beer and cooked this thing on the grill. Flavor was nothing special - we are so used to brining our chicken at this point that I guess we are spoiled to any chicken that isn't! There is no other way to permeate chicken meat other than brining in some way, a fact of which we are thoroughly convinced. Because there is no fat to melt and carry flavor, you have to get flavor in there yourself. Next time, we'll brine the bird overnight first! Looked good, though!!!
yes, there's a beer can up in there...

Steak Tips, Collossal Freshwater Shrimp, Artichokes, Red Bell Pepper - All Grilled, of course! - I screwed up the artichokes, but we'll give that another shot. The easiest, best, tastiest grilled thing in the world: 1lb steak tips, in a freezer bag with a store-bought steak seasoning mix, a couple dashes of worchestershire, a dash of liquid smoke, a splash of olive oil, and a little gulp of beer. Roll up the bag TIGHTLY and let it sit for as long as you can stand. Grill for 8-12 total minutes - depending on the size of the tip strips - turning a few times. Cannot go wrong!


We go to the grocery store now and just look around, trying to think of anything that can go on the grill. Leave us some fun/exotic/interesting grill-item suggestions in the comments and we'll make them and post pics! Thanks and we'll be back again soon...

Memorial Day BBQ Party

We had a Memorial Day party on Sunday with friends and neighbors stopping by to celebrate the start of Summer with some cold beverages and hot grilled food!

On the menu - Barbequed Ribs, Homemade Cole Slaw, Grilled Cajun Shrimp, Grilled Red and Italian Peppers, Brined-n-Seasoned Chicken Drumsticks, Grilled Asparagus, and finally... Hot Dogs! Our guests brought a variety of accompaniments, including a yummy Peach-and-Corn salsa with blue chips, Pasta Salad, and a delicious Key Lime Pie.

We covered the Ribs (see previous entry) so now its onto the rest of the spread...

We found a cole slaw recipe that was a supposed bite off of KFC Cole Slaw, so we thought that would be fun. Chopped up one head of cabbage into tiny strips, further chopped up some already-shredded carrots from a package, and chopped up very finely a 1/2 an onion. In a bowl, we combined a couple tbls of sugar, 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 buttermilk (this gave a great soury flavor), 1/2 cup mayonaise (diet? what diet?), a splash of white vinegar, big squeezes of lemon juice (ended up using 1.5 lemons), and good pinches of ground black pepper and kosher salt. In went the cabbage, carrots, and onions - combined very well - and covered and in the fridge. This was still hours away from BBQ time (the ribs had JUST gone on) so all those flavors had a good amount of time to meld into a sweet-and-sour slaw...

THEN we brined the drumsticks. Everyone knows how to do it by now - 8 cups water to 1 cup kosher salt and 1/2 cup sugar (I doubled that because of the sheer number of drumsticks). Also added to the brine: Texas Pete's hot sauce, liquid smoke, crushed bay leaves, and corriander. This sat in the fridge for two hours, then was rinsed well and put BACK in the fridge until they were ready to meet the heat.

Other prep work: peel the easy-peel shrimp (we had about 2 dozen), season them with our Penzey's cajun seasoning, and skewer them up. Cut the peppers into big pieces and oil-and-season them and let them sit. Par-boil the asparagus for 2 minutes, then ice-bath to shock them into submission (SUBMIT, ASPARAGUS!!!), and oil-and-season.

After the ribs appetizer came off (and was eaten), the shrimp appetizer went on next. Stacey did a great job grilling the shrimp while Michael joined the boys playing horseshoes in the back yard. Shrimp were delicious, passed around right on their skewers for people to snack on.

Then we did the peppers, which took maybe 10 or 15 minutes total to get some charred goodness, immediately followed by the drumsticks (which were quickly seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, and some cajun seasoning). We did a turn-every-10-minutes technique with the chicken, until they were perfectly cooked - crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. I do believe we averaged about 6 drums/person consumption - Impressive! (kidding!)

Not long after that, the asparagus hit the grill and the beer began to hit us... Horseshoes clanked, laughter filled the air, we all ate and drank. Eventually, we cooked up the hot dogs. The neighbors stopped by for some food and a beer and at some point the cards were broken out (of course!)... I won a couple of hands and we ate some yummy Key Lime Pie.

Looking for many more days like this over this summer - Happy Memorial Day!

Shrimp, Peppers, Drumsticks, and Asparagus:


This is how I spent much of the day:


Mike wants peppers NOW!!!


Beth and Stacey approve:

RIBS!!!

We had our Memorial Day BBQ Party (see next entry) but we cooked so much I had to split it into two blog entries! One for all the rest of the food and one for the...

RIBS!!!! Our first attempt ever! The night before, we made a barbeque rub - Kansas City-style - with 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup paprika, 1 tbls chili powder, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder - and a few shakes of cayenne pepper. We rubbed that rub all over our four sections of RIBS - two racks cut in two - and then wrapped each individual 1/2 rack very tightly in plastic wrap. The ribs slept peacefully - unsuspectingly - in the fridge overnight...

RUB IT IN:


The plan for the Ribs on the day of the party was: 1. out of the fridge for 30 minutes, 2. transfered to triple-layered alumninum foil, 3. moistened with 1/4 of a beer poured into the one, last open end, 4. and sealed off tight. Then, the packages met a very low, covered grill (about 325 was the lowest I could get it) for 2.5 hours to simmer and steam in the rub and beer.

After all that time, take them off and let them rest for about 15 minutes. Then, out of the foil packs and back onto the grill for about 8 minutes/side, basting with bbq sauce (store bought - KC Masterpiece) that entire time. Just watch them closely and finish 'em like you want 'em.

SIMMER AND STEAM:


The result? Two of the four packs (the two bigger ends of each of the two racks) came out PERFECT - and the other two were RUINED!!!!! The smaller ones were charred to an unsaveable crisp, while the two bigger ones were perfectly tender and fell right off the bone.

This is just out of the foil, BEFORE I put them back on the grill to finish them with the bbq sauce:


So, it was 50% of a whopping success! These two 1/2 racks came out so delicious - SOOOOO TENDER! - with very subtle flavor from such a seemingly POWERFUL (sweet and spicy) rub... And the SMELLS from the grill all day while it was cooking out back - sweet and delicious!

Next time I will kill the 2nd burner too and just run the one (out of three) on the lowest possible setting. I KNOW we can get these to be competition-level! It is my mission this summer...

Grilled Sweet Potatoes, More Chicken, Pizza, and Ribs?

We've been eating... food!

We sliced sweet potatoes in one-inch, three-sided spears and dressed them in olive oil, salt, and pepper and grilled them 10 minutes each on the two non-skinned sides. They came out good and mushy with lots of charring - will do less time and move away from the direct flames next time, but this seems like a good alternative to boiling or roasting.

Still trying to perfect the split breasts on the grill... tried searing the skin side down, then turning and grilling indirectly for about 45 minutes (the temp in the grill maintained about 375)... Too charry on the skin side, wondering if should even put the skin side down? My brother says my dad's secret is to always be turning the food - but that goes against every recommendation I've read that says "don't turn any more than you have to!" I'll have to consult with the big man to get the real scoop.

We tried adding smoke to the chicken by putting an aluminum tray full of soaked hickory chips under the grill racks - that didn't seem to do very much! Perhaps I added too many in a big pile, next time I will try one layer and see if that helps...

Made pizza with that leftover dough from a while back that had been in the freezer. We made a VERY thin crust and made sure that the oven was a very hot 500 degrees this time... came out great with turkey pepperoni and sliced red peppers and mushrooms - no sauteing!

We have lots of summer vacation planned this year, but this weekend - Memorial Day weekend - we have no plans! Except for one plan, of course - to run the grill all weekend long. The weather for Sunday and Monday looks great.

So we wanted to try our very first attempt at ribs. Have been doing lots of research but if anyone out there reading this has any specific RIBS recipes or pointers, please leave them in comments! We are, as always, open to experimentation!

Thanks!

~S & M