Enchiladas

Roast pork, Potato Enchiladas

How To Make Delicious Sandwiches

We all love sandwiches and have them often - why not go all out to make them the
best they can be. Actually that's just sums up the way I feel about cooking in general.
 Every little detail improved upon just helps make something turn out better than just so so or a ho hum kind of meal, even if it's a sandwich. You will find plenty of people that just don't feel that way and any way of making a sandwich works for them as they were really just out to curb their hunger and they don't care if it's exceptional or not.

Broccoli Casserole

Broccoli Casserole

This recipe took First Place in the Vegetable Side Dish category at the 2004 American Royal Barbecue Contest and it is THE best veggie casserole you will find.

2 bags frozen broccoli florets
1/2 cup butter
1 small onion chopped
2 cups cooked rice
2 cans cream of celery soup
1 jar 15 oz Cheese Whiz

Cook the broccoli in the butter until just thawed. Combine broccoli mixture and remaining ingredients. Mix well. Pour into a 9x13 pan.. Bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Top with French friend onion rings and bake for 10 more minutes (watch closely so the onion rings don't burn).

BBQ Chicken

I have just one way I will do BBQ Chicken for Sandwiches.  I smoke breast (bone in) and later pull the skin off and cut it in ribbons, melt the fat away and crisp it up in a non stick skillet on LOW heat stirring every few min for even cooking.  Shred or pull the meat and add to the pan of crisp skin and toss.  Add BBQ sauce (Williamson Bros) and heat through.  BBQ Chicken Sliders never get better than this...

Pot Roast Re Do

I was trying to think of something different to do with these leftovers and came up with the idea of Hard Toast using some fresh Rye Bread and heated the meat and veggies and a pan with tight fitting lid.  I had plenty of the broth the meat was cooked in and to that added 1/4 cup red wine.  After the broth reduced and flavored the meat and veggies, I minced the meat a little before covering the bread with it and pouring the broth over it.  This was a good idea.

Granny's Sunday Pot Roast

Just about every sunday morning while getting gravy and biscuit with all the trimmings ready my Grandmother would also be getting a Pot Roast in the oven to be ready right after church.  It was always great and I wanted mine to be good as well so here's what I did.  First I got some bacon fat and garlic ready...

The poked holes and stuffed the fat and garlic inside

Next I rubbed with real butter and seasoned with Cavenders and course salt and pepper

I put it on my smoker @ 325 just long enough to get a nice bark and color along with the smoke on the meat

Green beans from our garden and some rolls was all I had planned for sides but I wanted them to be good too, so I sauteed some onion and smoked ham before adding the beans

Next I added the potatoes, onion, and carrots and covered the pan with foil and continued to cook in the oven at 325

Real good meal but probably still came up short of my Grandmothers

Black Forrest Ham

This is how I like to buy sandwich meat.  3 lbs on sale for 7.99 - not per lb - the whole 3 lb piece was 7.99.  With a inexpensive meat slicer you can shave it and enjoy.

Chili w/Pasta

I have always loved my Chili but I never knew it could be this good this many ways.  I think it's up north where they serve it over spaghetti but I like elbow mac and it seems to be a better fit.  Tobasco has a Smoked flavor Chipotle Sauce and it is the perfect match for this chili and many other things.  In fact I substitute it for hot sauce for tacos at times.  Pimento cheese sandwiches have always been the perfect match to go with chili for me but these Tortilla strips are even better.

Philly Cheese Steak

They are so good just about any old Philly Cheese Steak will do but home made is better.  You get to make adjustments that way, like pile on the veggies or select what kind of cheese goes with it.  I always use the fake processed cheese and just cover the individual portions like you see in the bottom pic with a couple of slices and slide the oven proof pan into the oven till it melts then scoop up the individual portions with the hoagie rolls.  Don't forget that the handle of that pan is HOT.

New Twist On Chili

I was in the mood for a pot of chili yesterday and thought about the recipe the Cook's Ilustrated guy had where they blended the veggie part of the recipe along with a big handful of chips to add to the meat once it was brown.  I like my chili fine but thought I would try this and it did turn out to be a nice pot of chili with a ton of flavor.  I like all my chili, soups, and stews to have a lot of broth and for chunks of tomato, and onion floating around in that the way I normally make it.  I also wouldn't give two cents for a beanless chili.  I must have been craving anything hot because I wound up making some salsa to go with the chips as well.  The great thing about making the brothless chili is that those things like cheese and sour cream really provides a nice touch to it and this was the first time I ever had chili with sour cream on top but it will not be the last.  

Reverse Sear

Cooking steaks at a low temp until it is about 10 degrees short of your final internal temp and then finish over very high heat is called the Reverse Sear Method.  It is a really good way to be sure you lock into that internal temp on you finish product.  The only thing I don't like about it is the simple fact it includes an additional step and with my set up that means the use of 2 cookers.  You could also bank your charcoal to one side of any old grill and do the low temp cook on the opposite side and finish directly over the coals.  I don't think this Tri Tip could have been any better but I doubt the Reverse Sear mehod had anything at all to do with it.

Friday Night Pizza

I've been talking about our Friday Night Pizza for some time now and I bet your going to think that a guy going crazy over frozen pizza is nuts and maybe I am but I'm still a frozen pizza advocate to the max.  Not just any frozen pizza works though.  We buy Mama Cozzi (?) from Aldi's or California brand from Walmart and always choose whatever they have with no meat of any kind.  What we do is add our meat and a sprinkle of Pecorino Cheese.  Other add on's are: Anchovies, Mushrooms, and always have a little Sriracha Sauce at the table.  Usually try to have a nice salad just before the pizza is ready.  With all that said the pizza in the pic was a simple 4 Cheese Pizza (California brand) and the meat was finely diced ham and the Pecorino Cheese.  What made this one so different and GOOD was the addition of the Cajun Candied Jalapeno Peppers instead of the Sriracha.  Can you imagine the Candied pepper flavor with the ham and cheese?  So so good.

 

Ham & Bean Soup

I was determined not to waste that last little bit of ham and thought this soup would be good and something I had not done before or at least not this particular way.  To start with we had a pint of white beans cooked from dried in the freezer and they are always a lot better than canned, but I knew that would not be enough and was hoping to find canned white beans but all I could find was pintos.  Of course I used the pintos but I boiled them hard for 30 to 45 min with a can of water added and then added 1/2 diced onion and 3 smashed cloves of garlic - cooked about 10 min more - let cool a few more min - pureed with the boat motor.  It was a little thin so I added a crumbled up hard roll and pureed again before added 2 diced carrots that I had par boiled along with the made from scratch white beans and the diced ham from Thanksgiving.  Served with grated pecorino cheese and cornbread.

Sausage Balls (One Dish Meal)

I don't think I could have found a better use for these leftover Sausage Balls.  I started with a little evoo and added about a cup of chopped onion, 1/2 cup chopped bell pepper, 1/4 cup chopped celery, and 3 cloves of minced garlic.  After it cooked down a little I added about a cup of chopped button mushrooms, after they had cooked a few min, I added about two cups of fresh spinach and cooked that a few more min and added about two cups of cooked pasta, and fresh mozz, grated sharp cheddar, and pecorino cheese.  After the cheese was melted and combined with all the rest I nestled the sausage balls on top and poured about 1/2 cup of heavy cream in and covered the pan and let simmer until the sausage had time to heat through.  Served with yeast rolls.