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

Grandson wanted Sloppy Joes

Aug 11 2015

Last night the grandson ate with us and we had carry ins from Captain D’s. He said why don’t you make some sloppy joes Grampa. I said OK we’ll have some tomorrow night.

I remember his Dad loved sloppy joes and requested them a lot. He always wanted the Hunt’s Manwich sauce. I didn’t care for it but obliged him a lot. Whenever I tried some sauce from scratch he didn’t like it as well but I did! I think any I made was better than Manwich but I never wrote any of them down to save.

I got a pound of ground chuck from my butcher and went to the grocery for the sauce and buns. I planned to use a packet of McCormick’s seasoning and tomato sauce. I was looking over the sauce and gravy packets and found a sauce already made by McCormick and decided to try it. I stopped at the Sutter’s corn wagon and got 6 ears of their white corn. The grandson loves corn on the cob and so does Grampa! We gotta eat the corn now, another few weeks and the season will be over.

I steamed the corn in my rice cooker, and browned up some sliced new potatoes to have too. I browned the ground chuck, poured about half the grease off and added some chopped onions. When they were soft I added the sauce and let simmer about 10 minutes before serving.

If you need a sloppy joe fix I would recommend the sauce. We all liked it, the next time I will try some chopped green peppers in it too and maybe a tablespoon of vinegar for a touch of sour.

The sauce, potatoes and ground chuck

Sloppy Joes ready

My corn

My sandwich

Week-end Snacks for my Supper

Aug 09 2015

Last night I had my week-end snacks, pickled ham and garlic ring bologna along with some Kerrygold cheddar on crackers for my supper. I was tired out from watching the daughter in law paint! She did a great job and got it all done. My wife had some leftover chicken for her supper.

I had to get into the pickled ham early for a taste; it was great but to me could stand some heat. I added a dried red pepper to the jar. By supper time the pepper had not added much so I had mine with some Blues Hog rub and Cholula hot sauce. I had some good brew to wash it down.

For me the pickled ham is a winner for a great appetizer or snack. This will be a good use of leftover ham for me now!

Pickled Ham and Smoked Garlic Ring Bologna for week-end snacks

Aug 07 2015

I haven’t done many cooks the last few days. Our daughter in law, who is a good painter agreed to paint the front and back barn siding for me. I had started washing down the rest of the house which is vinyl coated aluminum siding and was half done. She wanted to start painting Sat. AM so Thursday I finished washing the house down.

I mowed grass today and had planned on smoking some week-end snacks. Art, a fellow member of LTBBQ had posted a recipe for Pickled Ham from the Ronneberg Restaurant in Iowa, looked good to me. I went to my butcher Kah Meats and bought a center cut slice of his smoked ham; 1.6 pounds. I also bought some of his ring bologna.

After I got the grass mowed I fired up my Traeger at 200 deg. Even though the ham was fully cooked I decided to smoke it some first before pickling. The ring bologna I would do my favorite way; cut slits in it and add slivers of garlic. As an afterthought this time I added some Blues Hog Rub and rubbed it into the slits too.

I got the ham and bologna on at 1:30pm and after ½ hour went to 220 deg. and another ½ hour went to 240 deg.  In 1 ½ hours both were done. My grill level temps were running 25 deg. hotter than set temp.

When the ham had cooled enough I trimmed all the fat and edges, the edges were a cooks treat! I cut the ham into ½ inch pieces and added it along with a small sliced onion, 1 ½ cups water, 1 cup white vinegar and some fresh ground pepper to a half gallon ball jar. It went into the fridge until tomorrow night.

I didn’t let the bologna cool long before I had to try it. It was delicious and liked the addition of the rub. I just now had a couple pieces of the bologna for a late night snack and it is half gone now.

Ham and bologna ready for the smoker

Hams done

Bologna done

Ham cooling

Bologna ready for snacking!

Ham in to pickle

Smoked Chicken with Butter Beans

Aug 04 2015

I seem to be getting more behind in my posting. My supper last night was nothing special but it all tasted so good I wanted to share it. I had a split fryer from my butcher that got brined for 10 hours.

I had some leftover jowl bacon and a ham hock that had some good meat left on it. I was hungry for some butter beans but not enough time to soak overnight so I used a can of butter beans and a can of cannelloni beans.

I had some tomatoes from my garden so made a favorite salad, tomatoes, cucumber, onions with vinegar and oil. I had a good loaf of bread to do on my Weber.

After the chicken had brined I put it in the fridge to air dry about 4 hours. I started my beans in my bean pot on my gas burner. I browned up the jowl bacon and then browned the ham hock some; I added the chopped onion to soften and then the drained beans and added enough chicken broth to almost cover. I brought it to a boil then turned the heat down to simmer.

When the beans were simmering I started my Traeger at 250 deg. As soon as it was settled down I seasoned the chicken with some Stubbs and on to smoke. After about 15 minutes I added the pot of beans to simmer along with the chicken. I had to add a little broth to the beans. I upped the temp to 275 deg., about 300 deg. at grill level; and added a temp probe to the chicken and took it to 185 deg. IT. I did the bread on my Webber while the chicken was cooking.  Total cook time for the chicken was just over 1 ½ hours.

I served the wife and me; she would not eat any of the good beans! We ate half the chicken, my wife had her usual breast and wing and I had the leg and thigh. She said it was awful good chicken, some of my best, moist and tender.

I thought that was my least amount of prep for chicken and it turned out great. For good chicken on a pellet grill I say the most important is to brine it at least 8 hours; rinse, dry and air dry in the fridge on a wire rack at least 4 hours. I prefer to have mine spatchcocked. Heat your pellet grill to 275 – 300 deg. grill level. Add chicken to the grill, you can spray a little olive oil on the grill first if you like. The next step to me is the most important, insert a temp probe in the breast and take to 180-185 deg. IT. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Some of you may think 180-185 is overkill; but I was tired of a little pink in the wish bone and not pull apart tender like I want for chicken.  Ever since I went to at least 180 deg. breast IT my chicken has gotten better. I use my grey thermopen to make sure all parts are up to temp.  If you brine first you will still get moist chicken and a skin that is eatable.

For the beans

Bacons on

Ham hock browned and onions added

All in and simmering

Ready for the smoker

Beans and chicken done

My salad

My supper

JBLT's and White Corn on the Cob

Aug 02 2015

It was a great week-end and I fixed two of my favorite summer meals. Yesterday it was ham hock, green beans and potatoes; for the first time I added some corn on the cob and it was delicious. Today would be jowl bacon BLT’s and some white corn on the cob.

The produce stand where I have been getting my sweet corn every summer for over 30 years always has some white about mid-season.  Their standard is bi-color and it is delicious but I like the white too. Saturday I bought six of each kind; I used 3 of the bi-color in my ham, green beans and potatoes. I saved 4 of the white ears for tonight’s supper.  

I nuked the remaining 6 ears of corn and cooled; my wife cut it off the cob to freeze. I had a large tomato from my garden for the sandwiches but picked what was ripe; I just had 3 med. sized ones and a few grape tomatoes. It has been a bad year for tomatoes; way too much rain.

I baked a mini baguette, take home and bake, in my Weber Spirit to use for the sandwiches. I had a jowl bacon from my butcher Kah Meats; 1.25 pounds. I sliced up a pound of it and fried up for the sandwiches. I have cooked the bacon on my Traeger but I think jowl bacon really shines when fried in a skillet in its own fat. All I had to do for supper now was steam the corn.  

We ate supper about 6:30 and tasted great. I had mustard and mayo on my sandwich and butter, Penzey’s sandwich sprinkle and parmesan cheese on my corn. The white corn was good for a change.

I haven’t cooked as much the past week, I have been doctoring for a bad headache I get at night. Then Saturday after eating one of my favorites my cable modem went out so I had to wait until I got  new one this morning before I could post.

Slicing the bacon

Frying the bacon

Ready to steam the corn

I had two of these

My JBLT

Ham Hock, Green Beans, Potatoes and Corn on the Cob

Aug 02 2015

A favorite meal here in Midwest Ohio ham hocks, fresh garden picked green beans and new potatoes. We always had a garden when I was growing up so remember Mom fixing this a lot. She usually used left over ham and ham bones and any white potato would do.  She canned green beans so we had this in the winter too.

Mine over the years has evolved into using a smoked ham hock from my butcher, local grown green beans and new potatoes. For this year I had found some nice little new white potatoes at the Farmer’s market yesterday.

This is pretty simple to cook and I did mine outside on my gas burner. Cover the ham hock with water and add an onion, salt and fresh ground pepper. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 2- 2 1/2 hours. In the meantime wash and clean the potatoes and green beans. Some of the larger potatoes I cut in half.

When the meat is done and cooled remove from the bones and cut to desired size pieces. This hock was nice and meaty and had very little fat.

Add the meat, green beans and potatoes back to the pot; I chopped and added the onion too. Bring all to a boil and then lower the heat and simmer 30 to 45 minutes. You can check for seasoning here and add water if needed. I added a pint of water to mine.

I am not sure why I never thought of doing this before but this time I added some corn on the cob the last 5 to 10 minutes; why not have two of my summer favorites! One tends to get in a rut with some dishes and do it the same old way because that’s the way it’s done!  I had baked a take-home-and-bake baguette on the Weber Spirit for some bread and butter.

 Did that ever taste good, the potatoes were some of the best tasting I have had lately. The sweet corn was good too and took on some nice ham flavor.

Ham Hock, Potatoes, Green Beans and onion

Hock and onion made some great broth

Ham and onions for back in the pot

All in but the corn

Breads done

Corn added in

My supper