Loin Chops, Polenta, & Pineapple

This was suppose to be a knock out dish and presentation to enter in the BBQ Brethren showdown, but alas it was not to be. I have a dandy little grill to put grill marks on everything with but not if you don't tend to the grates. Oh well at least the combinaton of the chops, polenta, and pineapple was a great idea.

Texas Hot Links Toastada

Trying to find a suitable use for these sausages I made way too hot and I guess this turned out to fit the bill. As long as you don't add more heat to the dish it would be fine used a lot of different ways. Dressing up tostadas with a lot of good condiments is what makes them good. We had black beans that were cooked a long time and not refried, lettuce, tomato, cheese,sliced radishes in lime, feta, and sour cream.

Something New - Cooking Indoors

Before last night I could not have imagined me cooking a steak indoors but being the cold weather wuss I am and seeings how the wind was blowin like one thang and it was a lil over 20 last night when it was time to cook them steaks I decided to "plug in" rather than "fire up" so I retrieved that table top elec grill from the bottom of the pile of little used appliances to give her a whirl. Plan was to use a piece of foil to cover them with while grilling to help hold the heat in a bit, so I proceeded by rubbing with evoo and sprinklin with equal amts of lowery's, garlic powder, and grd blk pepper. They really cooked faster than I thought they would and in fact only took about 7 to 10 min per side for med. Here's my observation and it surprises the heck out of me and doesn't sound like me at all. For starters I don't own a gasser and haven't in over a dozen years and this is the first beef other than an occasional beef stew or some sort of grd beef dish that I've cooked indoors in years and this steak was as good as it gets (HONEST). The steaks were ribeyes and I don't even know if they were choice or not but they were from a nice new store and they were Canyon brand black angus (pretty sure they were select though). I quit using smoke on my steaks a while back and have enjoyed the flavor more since doing so, but now I am going a giant step further and have to say I don’t even think you need a wood fire for a good steak. I think the natural flavor of whatever meat you are grilling complimented by the flavors of spices you use is all you need if you cook the meat to the proper finish temp and get a nice brown crust on the outside. Anyone know of a good ELECTRIC outdoor grill? Seriously if you have a comment on this subject please fire away.

SAUSAGE

I just could not get that sausage I made the last couple weekends off the brain so here's what the cooking part of the weekend looked like. The Texas Hot Links (and I do mean HOT) turned out to be Saturdays dinner and was made kinda special with eggless scratch buns, and if you have never made homemade buns I highly recommend it and can just about guarantee you will be very pleased. I find these buns taste just as good without the eggs once toasted and stay fresh longer. I've made them both with and without the egg glaze you see here and I prefer without glaze. As for the Hot Links being hot, they were even too hot for a chili head like me, but still good. Sue fried a few little thin boneless pork chops to go on some of those scrath buns with a fried egg and that's another good thing about these buns you can shape some burger shape and some hot dog shape, anyway this Pork Chop & Egg with a little mayo, jalapenos or pickles, and lettuce is mighty fine. I love to cook just to have something to do when I'm at home and I think this next dish is got to be one of my favorites made even better this time with my scratch Italian Sausage and you could really tell the difference in mine and store bought (unlike the Hot Links these had just the right amount of seasoning). I think this is only the third time doing this one and all 3 times they turned out super so it must be pretty easy to do. The hardest part of course is rolling that dough out in such a big circle (about 20 inches). The flavors in this is so dang good - you gotta try this one. There was a Fatty (Tenn Pride roll of sausage) thrown in the cooker just for good measure and all I did to it was roll it out and put 4 slices of Sharp Provolone and roll back up and bread it with fine bread crumbs with a little caraway seeds added. Here's the link to the casserole, it's called Torta Rustica and the pics you see when you view the recipe is from the second time I made it.

Finished Texas Hot Links

Man these babies is sooooo hot if your car heater was on the blink you could ride around with some in the seat and stay warm!

Pit Beef w/Caramelized Onion Cream & Bleu Cheese Sauce

This dish represents flavors that meld together so well it will almost make a grown man cry. The beef started out Sunday as a 7.5 lb choice Sirloin Tip Roast and was marinated for 14 hours then slathered with plain mustard and coated (heavy) with Weber’s Chicago Steak Rub. Cooked without smoking wood in the Chubby at 350 till the internal reached 140, refrigerated overnight and sliced thin with electric slicer. We served open faced on English Muffins and covered with the sauce. The sauce is simply one large onion sliced and caramelized in 4 tbs of butter on high for 7 min, add 1 cup heavy cream continue cooking till sauce reduces and stir ½ cup Bleu Cheese.




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Pitt Beef

The best beef ever!!!