Zuchinni Canoes

Looks like we didn't realize just how good that garden was doing and let this zuke get too big. A newborn babe probably could float down the river on it. I couldn't wait to cut it see if it was still good or not and sure nuff it was. Fresh ground sirloin, rice, shredded mozz, home made marinara sauce, parmesan made the stuffing.

The End "Maybe"

This "might" mark the end of a weeks worth of cube steak dinning adventures. Never knew cube steaks were so versatile. Had 3 left and Sue worked her but off in the garden after keeping Brie till about 3 yesterday so I took the path of least resistance for supper and did the same dredge, egg wash, pringle dipped thang on them 3 steaks. Been thinking about smothering some, so that's what I did with onions, garlic, home grown & canned maters, and basil fresh from the lil herb garden. After getting a browning on the steaks they were removed and the veggies cooked till tender then slid to the side to put the steaks back and covered them with the mater mixture and put the lid on for a spell. Easy finish was a handful of Parmesan on each and under the broiler a min or two and BAM!

Fathers Day Weekend

I think we did a pretty good job entertaining my Mom this weekend, she sure seemed to enjoy the cooking and even brought us a PEACH CRISP for Saturday nights desert (with ice cream). We didn't know if she was going to make it Sat night or come early Sunday morning and the amount of beef we had for CHEESE STEAK SANDWICHES we planned to have was steaching it for 3 and I hate skinny sandwiches, so we just made two loaded and cut em in 3rds. Served with some Oven Fries that I covered with foil for the first half of the cook and that took away from them crisping up the way they should have. The PRINGLE BATTERED CUBED STEAKS were so good a week or so ago when we had them for the first time I wanted to cut some down to breakfast / biscuit size for breakfast yesterday morning and everyone enjoyed the breakfast about as much as anything else and you will too if you do em this way. It sure is nice to have a really good tasting cantelope and tomato for a change, especially on a breakfast plate like this. Last night was fresh caught Bluegill and Catfish that #1 son Craig caught and gave us. We had slaw and hush puppies and a real nice Grilled Corn Relish I made with tomatoes, onion, fresh basil, Lowery's, blk pepper, grilled corn off the cob, evoo. I really don't know which meal I'd choose as my favorite if I had to rate em but it would be between the first two I guess.

Sirloin Tip Roast

I see no reason to eat junky stuff when with a little planning and food smarts in general you can eat the quality homemade things you like. This Shaved Beef is becoming mighty popular at the house and the bonus is that it is not very expensive. I injected this a couple of hours before putting it on with Kosmo's beef injection and put a heavy layer of Treagers Prime Rib rub on it before cooking it with a good deal of hickory for smoke at 300 degree till the internal meat temp was 130. After resting 30 min it was exactly what I wanted it to be with rare in the center and graduating to medium, and well done on the outside. I cooked it right on the grate but had a pan of apple juice and water underneath that made a nice au jus for steak last night. I will slice and vacuum seal tonight to be used in various ways but our favorite is to make Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches with it.

Hot Dogs

What is it with me and Hot Dogs and Burgers, am I the only one that is picky? I just think there is only one way to do em and even when you might be lucky enough to find a good dog or burger joint they never seem to know how to put em together. Dogs is simple - you just gotta not overload em where your forced to use a fork and knife to eat it - I mean, they are hotdogs to be consumed with yer hands not a stupid fork. That being said I did run across a good dog and burger stand over by the oldest food market in our lil town of Dalton (Green Spot) that posted on their menu that "all the way" means, mustard, chili, slaw, onion which is exactly what all the way means to me (ketchup is what fries are for) but I like some hot sauce too. Burgers are simple too, you got your bun top and bottom and you put it together starting with the bottom where you put your mustard then your meat, onion, lettuce, pickles, mater, and then you mayonaise yer top good and salt n heavy pepper on that mater before smashing it down and diving in.

Best Chicken Salad

I ever made! I love a good Chicken Salad Sandwich and have never made any that I thought was very good - until today. I had some smoked chicken breast on hand and pulled it off the bone and took the skin off and chopped it fine, added mayo / sour cream, pickles, celery, onion, boiled egg, seasoned it and danged if I didn't finely make a good Chicken Salad. Plated and served with Corn Off The Cob with a lil Chili Oil, and a thick slice of ripe tomato right on top of the chicken salad. I think I have been putting too much of everything in with the chicken and you couldn't taste the chicken enough.

Grilled Fish Tacos

Seems like I cooked an awful lot this holiday weekend and from the looks of the photo record, I may have even cooked more than I thought. I believe it was Saturday night we started with these Grilled Mahi Mahi Tacos. The flour tortillas were really fresh and made these so good. You can use about any kind of fish and even fry them rather than grill – just a great way to eat fish.



So Sunday morning with plenty of those fresh flour tortillas left I fried a pound of sausage and about 4 eggs and put together some nice breakfast tortillas. I really like the local tacos stands chorizo / egg burritos but these mostly American style tacos are kinda hard to beat.



I have three Aunts getting on up in their years, one on the Rhudy side and two on the Calhoun side, that I wanted to visit yesterday and I always like to take a little something and yesterday it was Pot Roast. That might not sound like normal Memorial day fare but I wanted to take that because it was my favorite Sunday afternoon meal at Granny Calhoun’s house and I thought Aunt Mildred and Marylou would enjoy it. I gave it a good sear on the little Portable Kitchen Cast Aluminum Grill and then removed them to half pans with some broth and covered to finish in the Backwoods Chubby. Of course you have to have plenty of potatoes, carrots, onions, celery and we did, but we kinda cheated and did those in one of the two half pans in the meat broth after the meat was done. We did this Sunday with plans to make our rounds with it Monday.




Since the pot roast wasn’t going to get done in time for us to have Sunday, I picked up a bottom round roast for some Chopped Sirloin (bottom round). I really like this with a tossed salad, baked potato, and roll – gotta have a lil 57 or A1 though.



Now that seems like an awful lot of cooking and it was but, we were not finished yet. I'm pretty sure the week got a little long for me and I kinda just gave out or something because what we cooked last night wasn't fit to eat and in fact I through out some Potato / Cauliflower Salad. It's the first thing I remember that was so bad I threw it away. What happend was I thought it would be a good idea to start the pototoes and cauliflower to boiling and turn it off and put a lid on it and they would be perfect when we returned from visiting the aunts. Wrong. The cauliflower was so over cooked that when I tried to mix up the salad it turned into water. Bummer. Being peaved about the salad, I rushed the chicken breast and took them up a lil too soon - they were still good and can aways be cooked a lil more but, I also left my cooker on wide open with the 80 dollar themopen sitting on top of it.

Dream Steak Sandwich

This is why I like to buy big ol sirloin tip roast and smoke em. When they come off the cooker I like to shave it in the electric slicer and serve it on sandwiches RARE, but it seems to loose some thing when frozen even if it's been vacuum sealed as this has, so I think it's a lot better cooked again as you see here. There are some caramelized onions as well as some cooked till just tender and plenty of cheese which was melted into the meat. Bread is fresh from the mexican bakery and we didn't add a thing to these sandwiches but the meat mixture.

Beef Ribs, German Potato Salad & Cucumber Salad

You've heard the saying "it's the next best thing to being there"? That's kinda how I feel about beef ribs; they are the next thing to a Prime Rib and about everybody loves Prime Rib. Anyways, on the way back from the course Saturday morning I ran into the store and was just minding my own business walking by the meat case and these two slabs of ribs jump into my buggy. I was glad though because it had been like forever since I cooked beef ribs and I was oh so ready for some. I do a lot of my cooking on the Backwoods Chubby and this little insulated water smoker is perfect for this type of cook. They turned out great and I learned something that I either never realized before or had forgotten and that was how important it is to remove the membrane. I read some recipes from some great bbqr's and most didn't mention it and I think it's only because they felt you should know that already. One person wrote that the beef ribs actually have two membranes and it is more critical on beef ribs than spare ribs that they be removed and I agree. I didn't make any effort to see if two membranes were there but was careful to remove all of the first one and still had some that it was quite obvious a membrane was present, so I believe there is two of them. I cooked these Saturday afternoon and it took only 3 hours at 250 to get the internal temp to 180 at which point I wrapped in foil a few min while we set the table. Since I had to mow the grass while the ribs were cooking the sides limited to just the Olive Pasta Salad and some bread, which was fine by me especially since I knew we would have plenty of ribs for Sunday too. Soooo, yesterday found me a little more ambitious when it came time to put some sides together and I chose two that like the ribs had been a long time since I had them. German Potato Salad and German Cucumber Salad and they did pair very well with the ribs. My Dad use to trade body work for motor work with a German friend in town named Paul Bender. Paul served in the German navy on a submarine and was quite a character. I was just a 12 or 13 yr old boy back then but in my 20's or around about 1972 or so I ran into him at some local rodeos where he had his son entered in the jumping horse events and I wound up stabling my horse with his for a while and during that time he hosted a cookout where his German wife made these two dishes. I can almost taste them some times when I think back about that day and I put my heart into making these and they tasted just like I remembered. Good weekend of cooking and fond memories for sure.

Grilled Zuchinni and Olive Salad Sandwich

I have been wanting to try the Olive Salad that is part of the Muffuletta Sandwich that is known far and wide as being a New Orleans favorite. The authentic sandwich includes cold cut meats like salami and such but I wanted to do this one with grilled zuchinne and straight neck yellow squash. We were both a little disappointed but it could be that we included too much of the salad on each sandwich. I do think it would be great on pasta which is another recommended use for it. Anyway google you a recipe and try it, I will wait till I have time to tweek my recipe and if it's good enough I will add it to my online recipe file.