BBQ

This is a high temp steak, burger, grilled tenderloin, and homemade brat cook on the Green Mountain pellet grill. I added my steak insert which is two adjustable Brinkmann heat tents which I have sitting on a couple of firebricks for the correct height. They are used as flame tamers to keep the flame where I want it. Next step was to place the standard grates back on the cooker and then I added my Grill Grates on top of the standard grates. I didn't use any of the standard drip shield or the two wind deflectors that come with the cooker.I fired up the cooker and set the controller to 350 degrees which is all I need for my high temp grilling. Remember, this setup will grill at the tip of the flame so a fellow doesn't need those crazy hot temps that will warp and spring the parts in the cooker. As soon as the cooker got up to 700 degrees which took about 10 minutes, I added the burgers. By the time my burgers were done of the first side (about 3 minutes), the cooker had reached my target temp of 775 degrees. Again, the controller is set at 350 degrees. My setup allows me to cook at the tip of the flame with my insert. Next up was two rib-eyes cut about 1-1/2” thick.The rib-eyes cooked about 3 minutes on the first side and then 2 minutes on the second side. I then did my 2 grilled tenderloins and they took about 2 minutes to get done.I also cooked 3 homemade brats on the indirect side of the grill. I didn’t want to break the skin with the high temps.The results of the cook.The burgers as served.The steak as served.Now that some good stuff!!Along with my rotisserie mod, this high temp setup is one of the better modifications I have done to this fine cooker.

I started with a 4.78 pound chub of all beef bologna for this treat.Next step was to remove all the wrappers.I then quartered the chub to increase my surface area for the smoke. I scored the surface area and added some SGH rub and it was ready to go on the cooker.I fired up the Green Mountain cooker and set the temp to 150 degrees as at this very low temp I can get some smoke without a bunch of heat. The bologna is ready to eat as it is and by smoking at a higher temp will only dry it out. Fwiw, it is really better to just smoke it like you do cheese using no heat at all. Anyway, I had some other items ready for the cooker so I added the bologna. I smoked the quarters about 100 minutes and pulled them off the cooker.I wrapped 3 of them for the freezer and sliced up one of the pieces into about 1/2” to 3/4” wide slices.Next step was to add a black iron griddle to the smoker and then some bacon.Did a couple of rounds of bacon for the sandwiches. I then fried my bologna slices in the bacon grease for some additional flavor.I added a little mayo to my seeded bun and then some lettuce, a tomato slice, a couple slices of the bacon and about 3 of my slices of smoked and fried bologna. Just so simple but oh so good!!Served with a dill pickle spear and some of the pit beans off of this cook.

One of the best bargains in meat right now is the Pork Butt and in most areas, it can be purchased for about $1.19 to $1.29 a pound. There are many things a fellow can do with this great piece of meat. From just plain pulled pork, to sliced pork, to may kinds of jerked pork, to Western or country ribs, and more. Then it can also be ground and this opens up many new possibilities. Breakfast sausage, Italian sausage, many kinds of stuffed link sausage, and a couple of my favorites are the State Fair Pork-burgers and Bratwurst sandwich patties. I start by getting the grinder out and set it up for my pork. I then cut up about 16-1/2 pounds of pork from a couple of pork butts into some big strips that will fit the grinder. Run it thru the grinder along with some thick cut smoked bacon.Once my meat is ground, I then mix in some crushed garlic, some Worcestershire sauce, a little dried basil, a little diced onion, a pinch or two of seasoning, and some Lipton dry onion soup mix. This will be some fine tasting Pork-burger. This is my 16 pounds of Pork-burger meat ready to be made into patties or frozen in 2 pound packages for later use. Rolled my little Char-Broil 500X out to the cooking patio and fired it up with some lump charcoal. I set the cooker up with the right side direct and the left side indirect for this cook. I like to sear stuff at the tip of an open charcoal or wood flame for a few minutes on each side and then finish up on the indirect side of the cooker.Along with my Pork-burgers, I had some other items to cook and I started out with 10 one quarter pound thick burgers.Next up was the 1/3rd pound Pork-burgers.Also did 4 of those huge skin on bone in chicken breasts. Had the fire going so might as well do some dogs. Chicken looked good coming off the cooker.Cooked the big pork burgers to about 160 degrees internal and they are ready for the sandwich. The sandwich served at the State Fair has a steamed bun and they do not dress the sandwich except for a slice of dill pickle. I like to spread on a light layer of Miracle Whip, the add some lettuce, tomato, thin slice of onion or serve with green onions. I am just not sure there is a better sandwich out there!! Juicy, flavorful, make you want to throw rocks at a standard burger sandwich.

I have had a couple of successful outings with my three mushroom dogs this spring and I will tell you about one of my adventures into the woods for this wonderful treat.Loaded the dogs up and headed to the woods yesterday to see if we could find a batch of mushrooms. I hadn’t had my mushroom dogs out over the Winter for much additional training so I wasn’t sure just how well they would do on this first outing. They certainly were ready to go and took off on the hunt before I could even get a beer opened. In a few minutes, Herman started barking and I knew he was on to a patch of these wonderful delights. I got to him and picked up a couple of the small grey sponge mushrooms that were kinda dried out. By now my other two dogs were barking and both of them were onto some of the bigger yellow sponges. By the time I got these picked, this old fellow was tired so we quit for the day. We did have enough for a couple of breakfasts. It wasn’t a big batch but some of them were quite large. It hasn’t been a very good year in my area for mushrooms.Jan got the mushrooms cleaned and sliced up and put into a salt water filled bowl and then they went into the fridge for their overnight stay. Got the mushrooms out this morning and rinsed and dried them off and they were ready to be breaded and fried.Used a egg and milk wash and then flopped them around in a mixture of flour and cornmeal with salt and pepper. They did fill two large oval plates after the breading.Got a black iron skillet hot and fried this treat up and got them ready for our breakfast.I fried up and egg and then some hot spicy breakfast sausage and along with a piece of toast, got ready to eat this wonderful breakfast. Jan ate hers straight up with nothing but the mushrooms for her breakfast.It just doesn’t get any better than this!!Had the dogs out again and did find another batch of these wonderful morsels. My point dog did need some additional work as he sure gets lazy over the Winter....kinda like his master!Got them cleaned and into some salt water for their overnight stay.Got them breaded and ready for the black iron skillet.Looking good...Most likely my last batch of the year as season is about over. This is one great breakfast.

Truth be told, you don’t need much more than a good pan to make panini. That said…I’ve found some simple, inexpensive tools that have made panini-making a whole lot easier (and tastier!) for me over the years. Today I’d like to share with you my 8 Essential Panini Tools – what they’re good for and why I use them. Plus, one lucky reader will have the chance to win ALL 8 TOOLS, thanks to OXO (worth more than $100!). The giveaway details are at the end of this post! * * * Silicone Grill Brush Many grills come equipped with their own grill scraper, but for those that don’t, you will probably find a silicone grill brush very helpful when it comes time to clean your panini press. The soft-yet-firm bristles make it easy to scrape up the cooked-on bits that can get trapped between the grates without damaging the nonstick coating. * * * Meat Thermometer If you’re going to grill meats on your panini press, I highly recommend using a meat thermometer. It’s the easiest and most reliable way to ensure that meat is cooked to the desired temperature. With the OXO model I have, it’s easy for me to set the temperature (it comes with preset USDA and chef recommendations), insert the probe into the meat I’m grilling, place the meat on the panini press, close the lid, and wait until the thermometer beeps to tell me that the meat is done. It eliminates all of the guesswork, and I don’t lose any heat by having to open the lid repeatedly to check for doneness. * * * Cheese Plane You can, of course, buy pre-sliced cheese but it tends to melt and layer more easily when you slice it yourself. A basic cheese plane or slicer is relatively inexpensive (this one, from OXO, sells for $10). You want one that is comfortable to grip, and with a metal blade that can stand up to slicing firmer cheeses without bending itself out of shape. * * * (...)Continue reading "8 Essential Panini Tools…and Big OXO Giveaway!" >>

Dear readers, I am here to tell you that you have been tricked. Bamboozled. Flim-flammed. By McDonald’s, of all places. The most universally trusted fast food restaurant in the world. Okay, that’s probably not true. Neither is the idea that you’ve been tricked, per se. The truth is, McDonald’s has, rather quietly, removed the Angus Third Pounders from their menu and replaced them with three new Quarter Pounders. The old Angus Third Pounders were Bacon and Cheese, Deluxe, Mushroom and Swiss, and, later on, the Chipotle BBQ Bacon and Cheddar Bacon Onion. A lazy amount of Internet research seems to indicate that the Angus Third Pounders weren’t doing that well, possibly due to their high price – $3.99 – in relation to the rest of their menu and the current trend towards value menus. This idea is directly contradicted by the fact that the new Quarter Pounders are the exact same price, so I’m just going with “nobody seemed to like the Angus Third Pounders so we’re trying something else”. The new Quarter Pounders are Bacon and Cheese, Deluxe and Bacon Habanero Ranch. Guess which one I chose to review? …Oh, right, you don’t have to guess. It’s in the review title. Gosh darn spoilers. The Bacon and Cheese and Deluxe varieties are just as boring as you can imagine they are, containing ingredients like…bacon, and…cheese. I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to be impressed with in the Deluxe – it’s got mayo, and lettuce, and tomatoes, and zzzzzzzzzzzz. So I find myself with the Bacon Habanero Ranch Quarter Pounder, which, in stark contrast to the other two, actually sounds interesting. “A quarter pound* of 100% beef topped by smooth white cheddar,** thick-cut Applewood smoked bacon, tomato and leaf lettuce, and a spicy-cool habanero ranch sauce, all on a toasted, bakery-style bun.” If you’re curious about the asterisks, the first lets you know that’s the weight before cooking and the second informs you that the cheese is pasteurized process. There, I’ve done my boring due diligence. At this point I was about to launch into the part where I actually eat the fucking burger, but I stumbled upon something on McDonald’s website that I just could not, in good conscience, ignore. In recent times I’ve made a point of not poaching pictures, because I’m pretty sure there’s copyright issues involved. But a picture is worth a thousand words, which I’ll probably end up writing anyways, and I just couldn’t help myself on this one. So up it goes until I get a cease and desist email from Ronald. Look at it. Love it for its ridiculousness. HABANEROS SLAPPING YOUR TONGUE! ZING! Bacon shaming! The tongue-slapping is my obvious favorite, but I’m also very fond of, “I see you looking at me?” With some different punctuation, it could be construed as an amusing threat from the aggressive habanero pepper. But phrased as a question, it a.) makes no goddamn sense and b.) makes the habanero sound insecure. I’m lovin’ it. (Please kill me.) Okay. Burger time. Hab. First off, I took pictures and ate my Bacon Habanero Ranch Quarter Pounder before I did all that researchy stuff, which led to me being surprised by the lack of habanero peppers on my burger. I thought it was bacon, habanero and ranch, not bacon and habanero ranch. I was a little disappointed, but that’s okay. As far as I can remember, this is the first time a major fast food chain has gone habanero, in any form. In case you didn’t know, habaneros are pretty serious business. To give you a point of comparison, jalapeño peppers rate between 3,500–8,000 units on the Scoville scale, while habaneros are between 100,000–350,000 units. Even if you don’t know what the Scoville scale is, and you should, you can see the impressive disparity in those numbers. What I’m trying to say here is that habaneros are hot. Let’s

Waist-high weeds at Casa Duck Lake, new consulting business, graduation festivities, kid’s bowling tournaments (on Fathers Day, no less), and a myriad of other things conspired to consume most of the last few weeks. And delay the posting of a stir-fry from last Tuesday. Some weeks are like that. Some months are like that. It appears summer will be like that. But it also appears some of my evenings will be freeing up and I can get back to making more meals like this. Stir fry chicken breasts and mixed veggies with a sweet chili-teriyaki sauce. Who knows, I might even find time tomorrow to cook up something a bit more traditional on the grill. And post it before a week goes by. And for those interested, Younger Daughter took 5th in her division at the Tournament of Champions on Fathers Day. She should have been in the step-ladder finals and competed for a higher spot, but as we say on the lanes “split happens” and she missed out due to some issues with another participant’s status that weren’t discovered until the final match. Long story, not worth telling here, and not worth losing sleep over. Especially when sleep has been at a premium lately…

Fluffy 3-egg fresh herb scramble, sausage & buttermilk biscuits wit honey butter Don't ya hate when yer honey butter slides off yer sausage biscuit???

Sharing a little vintage BBQ.  Simpler times.