Brine Pickled Celery

Brine pickled celery

Jul 11 2017

I ran across this the other day, never thought of using celery. It is one of my favorite veggies so should be good. I have a quart started and should be ready in two weeks.

Brine Pickled Celery

• 1 small bunch of celery
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1/4 onion, sliced
• 1 bunch of fresh dill I used dry dill about 1 tsp.
• 2% brine solution (19 gms salt per 1 quart water) I used 3 Tbs coarse salt

Trim celery and cut into pieces to fit your jar.  Stuff celery in a quart sized mason jar (you might need 2 jars depending on how much celery you have).  Insert garlic, onion slices and dill in between the celery stalks.  Cover with salt brine to about 1″ from the top of the jar.  Close your fermentation vessel and don’t forget to fill the airlock and let set at room temperature for 5-7 days or until bubble activity dies down.  Move to cold storage.

Smoked Shredded Beef for Tacos

Jul 09 2017

I paired my Traeger and my instant pot to make some shredded beef for Tacos. I had an English cut chuck roast about 2.2 lbs. I trimmed off some fat then seasoned with Mexene chili powder. The Mexene has some cumin in it. I smoked it on the Traeger for 1 hour set at 215 deg., about 240 deg. grill level.

Then I chopped 1 onion in chunks and added them to my instant pot. I cut the beef into 3 pieces then on the onions and added a cup of beer. I set the pot to meat and the time for one hour. When done I released the steam and shredded the beef and removed any fat. It was fall apart tender. I skimmed off some of the fat and added the beef back to the pot. I put the pot on sauté low until all was boiling then set on warm hold while I prepped the rest for the Tacos.

I like soft corn tortillas for Tacos but the grocery only had flour so used them. For toppings I had Tennessee tomatoes, shredded lettuce, sour cream and some shredded Mexican cheese. My wife used salsa instead of the tomatoes. We both ate two of the Tacos and enough beef left for sandwiches tonight.

I know it’s a lot of pics just for Tacos!

Beef ready to smoke

After an hour of smoke

Onions in the pot

Beef & beer added

Shredding the beef

Toppings

Making up my Taco

My supper

Salmon Salad on Boulios with Mac n Cheese

Jul 03 2017

Here is something a little lighter for in between your BBQ’s. My mac n cheese was use up some old cheese. You can make it with less fat cheeses and sour cream.

This is a no fuss meal; just mix up the few ingredients for the salmon salad early then do the mac n cheese stove top. If you want another side beets would go well with it.

I used a 15 oz. can of red salmon, use pink for about half the cost. It didn’t say what size can in the recipe but I guess it was a 7 oz. can. I used 2 TBS. of Mayo and 2 of sour cream, more celery and more sun flower seeds. I used what I thought was wheat Boulios but must have been marked wrong, they were white.

I am not a salmon lover but this tasted pretty good!

Click Here for printable recipe

Ingredients

Salad mixed up

Mac n Cheese

My supper

Latke Burgers and a Salad

Jul 02 2017

I wanted to fix something different and thought of latke burgers. I thought I had something new but searched the net and had been done before. Most of the latke burgers were just a thin latke on a burger patty. Some called potato burgers had shredded potatoes mixed in the burger.

I wanted to try these out on my griddle but was pretty hot today and my one knee was bothering me so just did stove top in my Lodge CS skillet. I used Ore Ida hash browns; you can grate your own but the frozen ones are already pretty dry. I didn’t have a recipe just mixed ground chuck and the hash browns for two patties with equal amounts. Added some grated onion, a beaten egg and ¼ cup plain bread crumbs. I mixed well and made two patties.

I made up the salads and added some sliced onions and garlic flakes to mine and had blue cheese dressing. My wife likes vinaigrette on hers. I mixed some sour cream and dill relish for on the sandwiches.

I added olive oil to cover my skillet and heated on medium (5) on my electric glass top stove. I did them 4 minutes then and flipped for another 4 minutes. They were plenty brown but were not up to temp so I covered them with a lid for another 2 minutes and were good. I had toasted the buns under the broiler.

They tasted pretty great for something different. Mine were a little thicker than I wanted. I suggest making them just ½ inch thick and cook at a little lower temp than you normally do burgers to get done and not burn the potatoes.

Burgers are on

Flipped

My Salad

My Supper

First BLT's of the Summer

Jun 29 2017

Nothing looks better on a pellet smoker than a pound of bacon cooking and nothing goes better with it than some garden tomatoes! I used to have to wait until late July or early August when my tomatoes ripened. I think for about 10 years now Jolly’s produce stand goes to Tennessee and brings in tomatoes early and they are good.

I use Kah’s thick cut bacon and cook it on my Traeger, a pound will just fit. I cook it at about 280-290 deg. F at grill level. It takes about 1 ½ hours to get crispy like we like it.

I should call mine a BTL since that’s the way I want mine stacked; bacon on the bottom, tomato then ice berg lettuce on a cheap ole white bun or bread. I want 3 layers of bacon, mustard on the bottom and mayo on the top.

It tasted so good I had a second sandwich!!

Bacon at 1 hour

At 1 1/2 hours ready to serve

My supper

2nd supper

Lipton's Meatloaf, Smashed Potatoes and carrots

Jun 28 2017

My first real meal in about 1 ½ months! I was getting tired of eating carry ins; my wife doesn’t cook a lot, but she did make salmon patties last week. My stomach was getting back to normal. I had blood tests last Tuesday and saw my Dr. Monday. She said all the numbers were back to normal. I have two more tests to make sure all is OK.

The Lipton’s meat loaf is not my favorite but I like it and it’s my wife’s favorite. It doesn’t take much prep work I use Lipton’s Beefy Onion soup mix. I had some smashed baby Dutch potatoes and carrots as sides.

I only used 1 ½ lbs. ground chuck so cut the water and bread crumbs some. I made up the meatloaf early and had it ready for the oven. I had to use the oven since I don’t have my smoker fixed yet. We like meatloaf and I think this is the first time I have done it inside since 2011 when I got my pellet smoker.

I got the meatloaf in the oven at 350 deg. I set it on a foiled trivet in a Lodge CS skillet to drain the fat. I cut crosses in enough potatoes for the two of us and nuked them for 5 minutes on high. I smashed them up roughly, and added, a little salt, dried garlic and poured ½ stick melted butter over them and in the oven. The carrots I did stove top with water a couple pats of butter, salt and parsley. It took about 1 hour 20 min. for the meatloaf. My potatoes were done early so I placed them on my warming burner.

I had some Kings Hawaiian hot dog buns left so that was our bread and butter rolls. Did that ever taste good to me!

Click Here for printable meatloaf recipe

All but the eggs

Meatloaf

Potatoes

Carrots

My supper

Off Sick for a While

Jun 06 2017

This has not been a good year for me.  I January I came down with both stomach flues that were going around back to back. I got all over those and was waiting on spring weather to start cooking out. It was a wet spring.

I had some trouble with my pellet smoker and looked like I needed a new temperature sensor so I got one on order. I never got it installed before coming down with another stomach problem. It was diagnosed as CDef and I wound up in the hospital for 4 days and rounds of tests.

I got out just a week ago and today went back to my family Dr. for a visit. She said I am doing fine. I have two more tests to do as an out-patient at the hospital. I should be done with those in a month. In the meanwhile I am eating better and hope to get back to normal soon.

To help get you started on the summer BBQ look through my archive, there are plenty of good recipes there. Also you can always go to Lets Talk BBQ forum for any help you need and good recipes there too!