Saturday, January 30, 2010

3 Meals With One 7 Dollar Steak

Flat Iron Steaks are all the rage now and they do pack a ton of beefy flavor and cost less than many of the more popular cuts. You can do the steak, baked potato, salad mid-week meal with a Flat Iron and maybe have enough left over for these other two meals and that's not bad at all for 7 bucks!


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Shrimp Scampi

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Something Different w/Cornbread

I didn’t cook this in the smoker but the pulled pork was cooked in the Backwoods FatBoy at our last contest. I thought it was really good and all I did was heat up the pork with plenty of Blues Hog sauce and when the cornbread was mixed and ready to pour into a hot 450 degree pan with a couple tbs of oil swirled around in it AFTER the pan was hot, I just poured half the mix in and then sprinkled on some cheese then the pork and then more cheese, added the rest of the mix and baked about 20 – 25 min. This cornbread really keeps well in the fridge - we made it Sunday and had it for dinner Tuesday. We served it with scratch northern beans, cole slaw, and mashed taters, jalapenos, and sliced onion. Hmmmm.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Rainy Day Cooking

Well it rained and it rained so I had to find something to do. Got out a pack of pulled pork and sauced it good, made some food processor Whole Wheat Pizza Dough and added a few shakes of Tobassco and cheese. Two pizzas were also in order and I did make two batches of the dough, so one was made with my just made smoky buckboard pork loin bacon and the other was some really thin sliced steak. Cranked up the lil Chubby, inserted the Primo pizza stone and run it up to 450 or better and they cooked like you dream about with no worry of the bottoms burning and the top not getting done enough, they both got done at the same time. Everything turned out good and you just can’t beat the flavors. Next bbq calzones will have pickled japs though to kinda offset that sweet championship bbq sauce by Mr Blues Hog.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Friday Night Special

I think it was Wednesday we had Flat Iron steaks and yesterday we went to a new mexican place for lunch on a recommendation from one of our customers and Sue had Shrimp Fajitas and I had another shrimp dish and I could tell she was backing off eating all of her shrimp with the thought of having it again for dinner so I reluctantly followed suit so we would have enough. Sooooo here's what we came up with for our quick n easy Friday Night Special - Steak and Shrimp Salad.

Homemade Bacon

This is a good project even for someone that does not do a lot of bbq. As long as you have some way to add smoke to your meat, you will be o.k. Most bbq fanatics already know and have most likely made their own bacon, so this is for those that haven’t do so. The easiest cut of pork to work with on this is pork loin as it’s about the right thickness already so you won’t have to cut it down any, maybe just trim some fat of and proceed as follows. Buy the premixed curing rub made by Hi Mountain called Buckboard Bacon and use the directions provided in the box. The directions are super simple and really all you do is just rub, refrigerate 10 days turning after 5, rinse, soak in cold water 3 to 8 hrs, smoke / cook at 200 until meat temp reaches 140 – 150, slice and eat or fry first. The bonus will be all those uses you will find for your homemade bacon. I cut about an inch off each end to be used in beans and such but I get dizzy thinking about all the things that I might add this meat to.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Gorditas d Carne Asada

Grilled then chopped Top Sirloin, hand made Gorditas, fresh Pico de Galo, and fresh homemade Sauce with Mole flavors. Should have had rice and refried beans but outside chores got in the way, but they were sooooo good we didn't miss em at all.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Today's Red Beans & Rice

Someone mentioned Red Beans & Rice being their families traditional New Years Day meal and I knew I had the main ingredients including a lb of red beans Sue cooked the day before with a big piece of hog jowl, so I decided to make a double recipe of it and freeze some for later. The Ragin Cajun sausage by Thomas is a good product and I knew I wouldn’t be going wrong using it for this dish. I also happened to have a vac sealed pack of bbq chicken that I removed all the fat and skin from and wound up with about a cup of sausage and cup of chicken. Started out with a little EVOO in our giant sauté pan and browned the sausage first then added the trinity (1 lg bell pepper, 1 xl onion, 3 stalks of celery chopped), 4 cloves crushed garlic, cooked till mixture was softened but not brown, added 4 tbs tomato paste, red beans, chicken, 3 bay leaves, 4 tbs dried parsley, covered simmered for 1 hour.




Served with Saffron rice and fresh made and still hot Rich White & Wheat Bread.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Mexican Cooking

I cooked this meal to make another stab at duplicating the wonderful sauce that Benjamin does at Espinoza's Mexican Restaurant on 5th Ave and that I've tried over and over to make and have successfully been able to duplicate the flavor but not the texture. His is silking smooth and the flavor is that of a mole but thinner. It's not a sauce for dip although I love it that way too and he always serves a container of the traditional salsa for your chips along with this sauce which in my book is the best thing this side of heaven on all your meats and tacos. I went back to the morter and pestal hand grinding method and slow roasted the dried chile peppers before starting with them first in the long grinding ordeal trying to make the perfect sauce. I added roasted garlic, tomatoes, broth, and jarred mole. I think my next stab at it will be back to the blender and just try to make a paste which will then be used a little at a time to mix with broth for the final sauce. Anyway back to what makes a nice steak taco dinner is what you see which is pico de gallo, lime, avocado, rice, homemade tortillas, and refried beans (NOT). These were blackeyed peas from the other day and I do believe they are better than pintos for the refried bean dish.

Good Cooking To Ya!