Top Sirloin & Tasso Maque Choux

Quality really does matter and the top sirloin from Sam's and Tasso from Findley's Butcher Shop in Acworth, Ga were certainly both very good quality. This 9 buck a pound pack of tasso has been hanging around in the fridge for a couple of months now just waiting for me to come up with just the right recipe and I think I found it with this Emeril Maque Choux recipe. Fresh corn, the Tasso, onion, garlic, red bell pepper, green onion, heavy cream. I made a little cilantro pesto to go with it. The top sirloin from Sam's had been hanging around about 2 weeks in the fridge as well as I just don't like to grill nice steaks until they have had some time in the fridge. It was a big pack and I removed them from the original packaging and vac sealed them first. If the steak is fresh when you get it, try a couple of weeks in the fridge cause you can really tell the difference. They looked and smelled so good when I opened them that it made you just want to eat em raw. The PK (Portable Kitchen) grill is the most underated grill in America and should be on every patio. I use to be crazy over ceramics but since cooking with the Backwood Chubby the long cooks (about 800 bucks) and grilling with the PK (about 200 or less). I would never consider anything else, especially considering the price.

Chili w/ABT

Well I wasn't about to let that last ABT go to waste, so here it is in my bowl of chili. Ever since I said I wasn't crazy about the abt wrapped in bacon, all I want to do is eat em. I'll never do that again.

My Best ABT's

I've been making these for 10 years at least and I've used all kinds of meats and cheese but this Spare Rib n Cream Cheese is my best yet. The ribs were vac sealed and frozen and were not completely thawed when I cut the meat off bone. They were also undercooked which is why they didn't score worth a toot in my last contest. The contest is over and history but these ribs will no doubt have a lasting memory cause they were that good. They were cooked on the PK Grill and indirect all the way as I think you get better results on the bacon that way. I do wish the jalapenos would not get so done and be kinda crisp so I may try and speed em up by letting them spend some time directly over the fire next time.

Lamb And Jalapeno Poppers

I'm never surprised at how much of a foodie I am, as I like just about everything. I've had lamb a number of times and cooked it a few times as well but I've NEVER had lamb this good. I marinated it for about 5 hours in herb buttermilk brine. Just added about 2 tbs of evoo along with dried dill, oregano, thyme, crushed red pepper, salt, blk pepper to 1 1/2 cups buttermilk. Wiped the marinade off and added Cavenders greek seasoning, grilled over hot fire to internal of 160 or med. Perfect! The jalapenos stuffed with pulled bbq chicken (plenty of sauce, with breading of flour, egg wash, bread crumbs and fried in pan big enough to do four at a time with 2 inch of veggie oil. The jalepenos were crunchy and we served them with a cheese sauce. A tex mex place in town serves these and I think it's everyones fav dish there and it has become my favorite way to prepare jalepenos. I just think ABT's for myself anyway are over rated and bacon is best fried.

BBQ Chicken Stuffed Tater

Well I never met a stuffed tater I didn't like and this was one of the best I've had EVER! I learned one thing about pulled chicken and that is "a lot of good sauce will make it better". Nice mixed greens for salad and roll and life is good. Even if the rest of the day was not. The leaves was so high I could see how wet the yard was and got my mower stuck. Then ran out of gas. Couldn't find a socket to take the plug out of my rv hot water heater to keep it from freezing. The tater was good though and we'll get back at it today and see what we can do.

Double Meat Birthday Dinner For Mom (77)

She’s like me – country cooking is always good and I knew she’d enjoy the double meat suppa. The wife’s chicken out done my meatloaf – man is she a good fry baby. She cut the breast in half and marinated in buttermilk over night and got a good breading on there, wooooo boy was they good. My meatloaf had some pulled pork that I took off the cooker while it was sliceable all chopped fine and then some onion, garlic, grilled then chopped shrooms, au jus, bread crumbs, eggs. For veggies we had slaw, crowder peas, smashed taters, bread n butter pickles, beets.

Easy Tostadas & Gorditas

I have always enjoyed finding different ways to make a work night dinner that is fast, easy to do but also taste great. Many times that consists of not all of the meal being made from scratch but rather pre-made such as last nights Tostadas and Gorditas. Boneless chuck roast were on sale for 1.99 and I hardly ever pass that up, so I stopped by and picked up a couple of 2 ½ lbr’s to grind up for burgers and a 3 lb meat loaf. The extra ¾ to 1 lb of meat got me to thinking about having tostadas for supper. No sooner than I hit the Super Mercado I happened to remember those pre-made gorditas in the dairy section that I have been wanting to try for a year or more and I added that to the cart. The easy supper would be the heavily seasoned course ground beef (chili power, paprika, cumin), enough oil in a very small skillet to cover the gorditas and fry, fresh market made pico de galo and salsa verde, limes, shredded lettuce, a couple deep fried japs (after the gorditas were finished), some canned refried beans, and last but not least and I gotta thank Sis for this one, some Salvadorian style crema. I learned the fried Japs from a very popular taco stand that kept getting complaints about his salsas not being hot enough and started serving these on the plate. Oh BTW, the review on the pre-made gorditas is that they are very good and well worth the try, also I was happy with the pico de galo but I knew I would be as I saw them mixing it up so I knew it was fresh made. The best surprise though was the market made salsa verde which I just knew I would not like because I like my homemade version so much but I thought it was a very good substitute.

Brunswick (Ga) Stew PIZZA

And your saying to yourself "are you sure"! Well I confess that I have this problem when it comes to leftovers and the thought of wasting good food, and this is for sure a result of that little problem. Not too bad of a fault to have though I don't guess, some of the crazy concoctions are actually pretty good as this one was believe it or not. I was going to add more ketchup to the stew so it could serve as both the meat and the sauce but Sue didn't like that idea and we ended up just spooning a little pizza sauce on here and there to fill in. It also has some country sausage and if you look close you can see some kernels of corn and the tiny lima beans that all good Ga Brunswick Stew has in it.

Lenoir City 2009

We really enjoyed doing the Lenoir contest again this year as it gave us the oportunity to spend time with our friends and teamates "Vern (Jose) & Helen Ashbrook at their home in Maryville, Tn both before and after the contest. They are the best host you could every hope to find. I have heard a lot of teams say, "if you think you turned in great meat, you probably won't do well and if you thought you turned in bad meats you probably did much better than expected". It sure seems to play out that way a lot of times as it did this Saturday. I was very dissapointed in ribs, pork, and brisket and thought the chicken was great, but the judges thought the ribs, pork, and brisket were all better than the chicken. Anyway we finished 3rd place out of the 25 teams with a 8th in chicken, 3rd in ribs, 5th pork, 5th brisket. The really unique thing about this is that Adams Ribs (Grand Champion, Team Allegro (Reserve Grand Champion), and myself all used the Backwoods Smoker and what a testimony for this great little cooker.

Chicken Halves

BBQ was served at the wedding Saturday and a quick glanze told me I didn't care about even tasting the pulled pork. So I tried the pulled chicken and spooned on what I'm real sure was the Masterpiece sauce and I was surprised but it was pretty darn good. I've been telling Sue we need to cook some whole chickens for pulling and vac sealing for the freezer, so that became my project yesterday. It was kinda fun actually as I have my trailer at the office and of course everything you need to cook with is in the trailer so I cooked right on the side of Walnut Avenue yesterday while about a million cars drove by. The traffic and the noise was not a problem because I cooked on the opposite side of the trailer and it blocked the noise for the most part. I used the Backwoods Chubby and cooked the six halves in 3 half pans in butter. When they were done I sauced them and took them out of the pans and back on the cooker for 30 min. I cooked them at 275 and had very little red near the bone.