The Son's Burgers & Fried Green Tomatoes

Aug 06 2017

The Son cooked on his 36 inch Blackstone last evening for a little party. He called at noon and wanted to know if I wanted 2 burgers he had seasoned & made up, he said you need to cook them. I said yes and he brought them down. I had something special I had planned but that would wait until tomorrow.

They looked good and I had a green tomato left to use. I fried the burgers on my Weber Spirit and topped with some provolone cheese. I used some dark rye bread, not my choice but needed used up.

I just used Panko bread crumbs on the tomatoes and fried them in the skillet with olive oil. They came out better than on the grill.

The burgers were good, better than a lot of  mine! I’ll have to find out what he seasoned them with.

On the grill

Tomatoes in the skillet

My Supper

Grilled Pork Steaks, Fried Hash Browns and Applesauce

Jul 20 2017

I don’t do pork steaks very often, preferring bone in chops better. Most of the time the steaks are grilled until browned and then braised for up to 3 hours. I read a new method where they were grilled hot and fast. He was using ¾ inch thick steaks, mine were just ½ inch so I reduced the times some.

I heated my Weber Spirit to 400 deg. med. Heat. I had the steaks coated with Jack Stacks meat and poultry rub after dry brining in the fridge for an hour. They were in the fridge for 1 ½ hours after seasoning. I did them for 6 minutes per side then sauced with Kah’s BBQ sauce and did them another 3 minutes per side.

In the mean time my wife was browning up some Or Ida hash browns and we had applesauce for a side too. Fried potatoes and applesauce are our favorite sides for pork chops.

The pork steaks were nice and brown and had juice on top. I let them rest about 5 minutes before eating. It all tasted great, a good flavor and not too tough, a new way to do pork steaks for me. I did like the Jack Stack’s rub.

The steaks

Seasoned

On the grill

BBQ sauce added

Hash browns

Steaks resting

My supper

Skirt Steak & Veggies over Rice

Sept 19 2016

Saturday I had taken a small skirt steak out of the freezer, just enough for a meal for the wife and me. I was glad a cooking tool came this morning, a Jaccard tenderizer. I kept putting it off even though many in here thought they were great. After Smoke, LTBBQ member, said he Jaccards all his red meat I thought time to get one. The skirt steak would be ideal to use it on. I got the original Jaccard brand.

I wanted to have some veggies and serve it all over rice. I had not used my Instant Pot to do rice so wanted to try it. I went for veggies this AM and got some asparagus, red pepper and sugar snap peas. I had some sweet onions to add too.

I prepped the veggies and added some olive oil, soy sauce, Penzey’s sandwich sprinkle and some dried garlic flakes to marinade about 45 minutes. I had some Stubbs Beef marinade for the skirt steak and it was in about 40 minutes after I had used the Jaccard on both sides. The Stubbs main ingredients are Soy, red pepper and garlic.

I heated my Weber Spirit to 400 deg. on med. heat, placed the veggies in a wire basket and on about 10 minutes before I put the skirt steak on. I did the skirt steaks about 4 minutes on the first side and flipped for another 3 minutes.  I stirred the veggies and poured a little marinade that was left over them.

I had my rice cooking in my Instant Pot, 1 cup of water, white rice rinsed in water and 2 Tbs. butter. It was done and on warm hold when I served. I let the steak set a few minutes before slicing.

The wife and I both thought it was a pretty good fast and easy meal. I added a little soy sauce to mine but she said it was fine without. The rice came out well in the IP but I like the little burnt crust my rice cooker adds for some more flavor. I didn’t have much pink in the steak so 3 -2 minutes instead of 4–3 might work better. I thought the Jaccard worked well for this cut of meat! The dog approved too!

Ingredients

Skirt steak in Stubbs beef marinade

About done on the grill

Letting the steak to rest

Rice is done

Steak sliced

My supper

Grilled Shrimp Boil & Tomato Pie

Aug 07 2016

I know grilled shrimp boil does not sound right! I forget where I got the idea but they made skewers with the normal ingredients you would use in a shrimp boil. Those are shrimp, smoked sausage, potatoes, and corn on the cob. I was leery of doing them all on a skewer since the shrimp only takes about 6 minutes and all else longer. I had 10 oz. of raw wild caught shrimp from Krogers.

I decided to do it on my Weber Spirit; I would do the sausage, potatoes and corn in my wire basket and the shrimp on skewers to do at the last minute. I nuked some new red potatoes in the microwave for 5 minutes since they take longer to cook. For the flavors from my usual shrimp boil I seasoned all with some Old Bay seasoning, Cajun seasoning went on the shrimp and melted a half stick of butter with a half teaspoon of Zatarain’s liquid shrimp boil and some garlic powder.

I got my basket of sausage, potatoes and corn on the Weber heated to 400 deg. and it was on about a total of 18 minutes and basted several times with the butter mix and turned. The shrimp skewers were

basted on both sides with the butter mix and grilled on the back side of grill grates for 3 minutes each side.

All was served with a piece of Hub’s tomato pie on the side. The pie was great and will be doing it again!

I will use this recipe again just for the wife and me; it’s hard to go wrong with the flavor profile and a lot less prep and clean up than doing a boil.

All ready for the grill

All done

Served

Tomato Pie

My supper, pretty tasty!

Grilled Bologna Sandwich and a Bacon Cocktail

Jun 29 2016

I did a brined spatchcocked chicken to pull for tomorrow night’s supper. I threw on some smoked jowl bacon to use for my supper tonight.

My wife went with her Aunt and a cousin to a progressive church dinner tonight. They went to 4 different churches for the courses. She said it was good.

I wanted a fried bologna sandwich and saw a perfect side to experiment with. I saw on Wing Commanders blog a Rib Cocktail he made up. Wing Commander is a fellow member of LTBBQ. He had beans in the bottom of a glass, topped with slaw a slice of bacon and a rib with a ring of corn on the cob hung like lemon on the glass. Mine would be a little plainer with just 2 slices of bacon. I didn’t want to make a batch of slaw so I got a cup from Sandman when I got beer today. His is pretty good.

For the bacon cocktail I had a small can of Bush’s Grilled Beans, browned some bacon and onions then added the beans. I fried the old fashioned bologna on my Weber Spirit on grill grates and toasted the bun. My sandwich was a little mustard, a slice of Vidalia onion, the bologna, some bacon, a slice of Tennessee tomato and some more mustard on the top bun.

My cocktail was the beans in a ball pint jar, two slices of jowl bacon and the slaw. It looked pretty good. Surprisingly I thought the beans and slaw tasted good mixed together. Would I make it again; probably not but had to try it. Thanks for the idea Wing Commander. I knew the sandwich would be good!

Click Here to see Wing Commanders Version

The bacon about done

Bologna and buns on the grill

My sandwich

Bacon cocktail

My supper

Yum!

My Father's Day gift 2016

Jun 19 2016

Hope all Dads had a great Father’s Day, ate some good BBQ and food with family!  I had a pretty nice week-end and we had great weather.

Our daughter came for the week-end. Saturday I had two guys in putting new roofs on my two sheds and they finished by late evening.

Our son took us all out to eat Saturday evening. We went to a pizza place about an hour away. They have wood fired pizza ovens there and it was delicious. We had some appetizers and then a pepperoni, red pepper and onion regular style pizza and a Detroit style pizza. It’s a little like a deep dish but is made in a square pan with crispy gooey edges.

I had Sunday brunch for all. After we ate my wife gave me a present. We usually just get our own but she had seen I had a Camp Chef iron griddle in my wish list on Amazon and got that for me. In one way I have her trained right! The kids had already given me a cast iron garlic roaster and a stainless bacon fryer early.

I got the griddle seasoned this afternoon. I first sprayed it all over with some Pam and let that cook off. In 10 minutes I was getting 600 deg. on the griddle. I let it go for 20 minutes and then let it cool down.

After it cooled I gave the cooking surface a thin coat of lard and heated it up again for 20 minutes. It should be ready to do some good smash burgers on it this week.

Canadian Walleye Fillet

May 24 2016

I made a run to a Kroger’s store 7 miles away to get some shrimp for the week-end. I got 2 pounds of large frozen gulf shrimp shell on for a shrimp boil. Besides Memorial Day May 30^th is our son’s birthday.

I was going to mow so looked for something to do quickly on the grill for supper.

I saw this nice Canadian wild caught walleye fillet marked down; it had started at $15.99 a pound! I don’t usually buy packaged fish near the end of the use by date but thought it might be good. It was just the right size for the wife and me.

When I opened it, it didn’t smell bad. I pulled what pin bones I could find out and got it in to marinade for 3 hours. I used about half balsamic vinegar infused with honey, and soy sauce, some roasted garlic, lime juice and a little olive oil. I ended up with about ¾ cup. I put the fish in a plastic bag, added the marinade and in the fridge. I turned it half way through.

I nuked 4 small yellow potatoes in the microwave, sliced them up, some onion and had some orange pepper strips thawed. They went in my wire basket with butter and seasoning pored over. My wife made up some salads for us. Our grandson had his last day of school today and was here playing with neighbor kids. He wanted to know if he could stay for supper. I and the wife’s portion of fish just got smaller!

I heated my Weber up on medium 350 to 400 deg. I put the potatoes on for about 10 minutes and then did the fish on the back of grill grates skin side down; it was on about 15 minutes and flipped half way.

It looked like blackened fish but that was from the honey in the vinegar. Tasted great, fish was mild and done just right.

The walleye

Skin side

On the grill

My salad

My supper

Turkey Burgers on Pretzel Buns and Corn on the Cob

Aug 25 2015

I went to Kroger’s today and found some pre-made turkey burgers and they had some local corn that looked good. I have to get my corn on the cob before the season runs out and it would go good with a turkey burger. My usual corn supply, Suter’s little red barn has already closed up. They probably still have it but I would have to drive to Lima, they run out of college kids, who start school, to man all their stands. They had said they should have corn to the end of August.

I had just enough tomatoes for the sandwiches and some in our salad. I made some dressing for mine, a couple Tbs. of mayo, a tsp. of sour cream and some dried garlic flakes. I had iceberg lettuce to use; my wife has bought a Romaine mix ever since she read iceberg lettuce has no food value. Food value or not I like it for the nice crunch especially for sandwiches.

I had the corn in my rice steamer to be ready when the sandwiches were. I seasoned the turkey burgers with some Penzey’s sandwich sprinkle. I did the burgers on my Weber Spirit on grill grates about 6 minutes each side and toasted the pretzel buns.

My wife and I both had mustard, lettuce and tomato on the sandwiches. All tasted pretty good. The turkey burgers were a tad dry; some bacon would have fixed that!

The burgers

My salad

My corn

My supper

My Philly Steak Sub

Aug 12 2015

It was a great day today, mostly sunny and 75 deg. I sat out back most of the afternoon while the grandson spread sand on my brick walks and patios. They are laid from old street bricks all over 100 years old. Every few years I have to add some new sand to fill in between the bricks. He spread four 40 lb. bags of sand. He didn’t stay for supper; his Mom picked him up early to get ready for his soccer teams pool party tonight.

My supper was my take on a Philly Steak Sub done on my Weber Spirit on the flat side of grill grates.

I had bought three nice sirloin tip steaks from my butcher. I made some potato salad and had some corn left to have corn on the cob.

Two of the steaks were plenty for the sandwiches, I threw them in the freezer for a while and then trimmed and sliced about 1/8 inch thick. I seasoned them with some mushroom powder and some Weber’s Chicago steak seasoning. I guess this will be a Philly Chicago Steak Sub! I sliced some onions thin and had baby Swiss cheese to top it with.

I heated the Weber to 400 deg. put the beef on for a couple minutes then flipped and added the onions on top. I let it cook a couple of minutes and then added the cheese and the buns to toast. When I took them off I could see I had enough beef for 4 sandwiches! We could hardly get them folded to pick up and eat!

They were delicious and the steak was really tender. My potato salad was not my best but decent. The white corn picked yesterday was good as usual!

The steaks

Trimmed and sliced

On the grill

Flipped and onions added

Cheese and buns added

Ready to serve

My Supper

Brat Burgers & Tomato Asparagus Salad

Jul 24 2015

Wow I think we just had 5 days without rain! It was a little hotter today at 85 deg. the past week had been nice. I rested today after two days washing the house down. I downloaded some new music and did get a few good hummingbird photos. My supper tonight was easy and not much prep work and all done on my Weber Spirit.

I love brats and get hungry for a brat burger sometimes. I get fresh brats from my butcher and use 1 ½ for each patty. I made them up and in the fridge a few hours. My salad was two slices of tomatoes with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar topped with some Havarti cheese and seasoning and thin sliced basil. I had two bundles of asparagus marinated with the same as the tomatoes and done a few minutes on the grill then served over the tomatoes.

The brat burgers I did about 8 minutes per side; did the asparagus and toasted the buns. My wife had mustard and dill pickle on her brat and I had my favorite, mustard and a slice of Vidalia onion on mine.

That was a great sandwich and salad!

Ready to cook

All done on the grill

My salad

My sandwich