Balsamic Chicken & Asparagus Fried Rice

Our Saturday supper was white balsamic vinegar chicken & asparagus fried rice. I was not really into a mood for cooking. I have had a cold for a few days & when I am sick I almost shut down & do not want to do anything. I envy women; they seem to be able to keep on pluggin even when they are sick. It must be the mother instinct in them.

I seen this recipe at “Nibble Me This”, he used Girard’s white balsamic vinaigrette to marinade a spatchcocked chicken. I have used Girard’s dressings before, good, but a little pricier than other brands. He did his on a Green Egg at 350 deg, in a clay baking dish with some chicken broth added. I marinated the chicken for about 6 hours, added salt, pepper & some Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset seasoning. I did it in a corning ware dish & did mine on my Traeger at 325 deg. After an hour it was coming up slow so went to 350 deg & was done in another ½ hour.

I love stir fry of any kind. It is kind of a fail safe way of cooking and hard to mess up. Fried rice is a favorite. I fix the rice the day before & in the fridge overnight. I read once if you do this it doesn’t get as mushy & it works. I do mine in a skillet instead of a Wok & use med high heat. I prep buy having all my veggies cut up & chopped & in bowls to add when needed. Asparagus was my main veggie & would use, onions, garlic, green onions, a little green pepper, baby carrots, & sliced water chestnuts; I like those for a little crunch.

Fixins for Fried Rice

Marinated Chicken ready for the Smoker

I fried two beaten eggs, cut into 1/4 inch ribbons 1 inch long to add to the fried rice.

Onions, peppers & green onions sauteeing in olive oil & a few drops of sesame oil.

Here I added the baby carrots & sauteed for 3 to 4 minutes.

Added in the sliced water chestnuts & some soy sauce.

I first added the asparagus & sauteed several minutes, added in the rice & stirred to mix & then added the eggs. Let simmer a few minutes until serving.

Chicken is done

My Plate, some of the skin stuck to the dish, but I don't eat much of the skin.

Bottom line is the chicken was moist & tender but I didn't think it had that much flavor. Next time I will make up my own marinade. The fried rice was good. If you want to get the recipe for the chicken visit "Nibble Me This" under my favorite blogs.

Bacon & Artichoke Pizza

Last Saturday I was in a Meijers grocery store looking for tamarind paste. I had no luck on the tamarind but while looking at frozen pizzas I spotted some Tiseo’s frozen pizza dough so I bought a ball of it.

Sunday during getting my ribs ready; I sliced two pints of grape tomatoes in half, placed in a sauce pan with olive oil & salt. I simmered them on low, covered with parchment paper, for three hours. I added some granulated garlic & onion, a tsp. of sugar, and Italian herb blend, turned up the heat some & reduced for about 45 minutes. I then pureed with an immersion blender, this would be my pizza sauce. I also sliced up three onions & melted the same as the tomatoes for adding to my pizza.

I had planned on doing the pizza on the smoker but it was just 33 deg today so I opted (chickened) out of that & did in my inside oven. At lunch time I diced & fried up some bacon for the pizza. I watched a video on stretching out the dough on Tiseo’s web site. I had a blend of shredded cheddar & mozzarella and would also add some quartered artichoke hearts. For my half I also added some diced up marinated olives & peppers, and some fresh cracked pepper.

I removed the thawed dough from the fridge & let rest for 10 min at room temp. I preheated the oven to 475 deg. I proceeded to stretch the dough, following the video lesson. It went pretty good even for a novice, The dough worked nice, better that any other dough I have tried. I wanted a thin crust so pulled it as thin as I could. I was using a 13 inch perforated pizza pan & had about an inch of thicker extra dough. I cut it off & laid 4 strips of it on a pan, sprayed with olive oil & sprinkled with garlic salt. Folded the strips over & twisted for some garlic knots.

I first layered the sauce & some of the melted onions. Spread almost 2 cups of the cheese on then topped with the bacon & artichoke hearts. Sliced olives & peppers, and fresh ground pepper on my half.

I popped the pizza & garlic knots in the oven & set the timer for 12 minutes. The directions said to bake in a 400 to 500 deg oven for 12 to 15 minutes. After 2 minutes I turned on my convection fan. Checking at about 9 minutes the bread was about to burn & top of the pizza looked done. I pulled them out & let the pizza cool a couple of minutes before slicing.

The pizza tasted great, the crust was thin like we like it. The bottom could have been a little more brown but that was the cooks fault & when I get the temp & time down should be good. I will go down to 450 deg the next time & not use the fan. I like the Tiseo’s dough & will use it again. The extra worked out great for some garlic knots or twists. Next time I will have some garlic butter for dipping those!

Bacon browning

Tiseo's frozen dough

Pizza fixins, cw in the bowls, my sauce, melted onions, & bacon

My sauce & melted onions added

Cheese & toppings added

Twisted bread knots read to bake

Pizza & bread teady to serve

My Plate, yummy good!

Smokin Don

Spare Ribs, Spaetzle, & Cheesy Bread

I first seen this cheesy jalapeno bread recipe at simplyrecipes.com by Elise, the photos will make you want this bread! When we were in Las Vegas I fixed this for my son & family. I found a large Italian boule to use. I didn’t use any jalapenos, just the cheese and it was a big hit.

I thought this would go good with my spare ribs, I found a small sour dough boule at Paneras. It would be perfect for the wife & I. It is simple to make, cut the bread most of the way through, both directions about 1 inch apart. Mix some shredded cheese with 2 or 3 TBS of melted butter. Spread the bread and stuff the cheese in all the openings. Wrap in foil & bake 15 min in a 350 deg oven, fold foil down & bake another 10 to 15 min. Dig in & enjoy. For this one I used about 1 ½ cups shredded Mexican blend cheese, 2 TBS melted butter & some parmesan cheese. I sprinkled some dried chives over the top before baking.

I was hungry for ribs & found a nice full rack of spare ribs at my butchers. I trimmed it up, my St. Louis style, wet down with some red wine vinegar, & my favorite Penzey’s Galena St. rub. I wrapped in plastic wrap & in the fridge about 4 hours before smoking.

Fried noodles would go well with the ribs. I found some Bechtle German style spaetzle at Meijers. I tried to make spaetzle once, poked holes in a tin pie pan to press it through. That was a disaster; I have tried different store bought spaetzle over the years but none to my liking until the Bechtle. I boiled it per package directions then melted 3 TBS of butter in a skilled, added some chopped onion & garlic then sautéed the noodles, adding salt & pepper and some dried parsley until I got some browning going on.

I got the ribs & trimmings on the smoker at 1:00 pm, did for one hour on smoke 175 deg then went to 225 deg for the rest of the cook. About 4:00 I mopped them with some Yuenglings Black & Tan beer. Normally I use some apple juice & Worcestershire sauce but didn’t have any apple juice. When you don’t have anything else beer usually works!
At 5:00 I mopped half with some Kah’s BBQ sauce on both sides. The ribs were done a little before 6:00.

At 5:15 I boiled the spaetzle & drained. At 5:30 I pulled the trimmings & munched on those while I fried the spaetzle & nuked a steamer bag of peas for our veggie. All served up, it was delicious. The sauced ribs were just right & the un sauced ones were fall apart, probably because they were on the hottest side of the smoker. The spaetzle was good with some crunchiness. The bread was almost to die for cheesy goodness. Thanks Elise for the idea & recipe!

Link to Elise's bread recipe

Bread sliced & cheese added

The finished bread

Ribs seasoned

Ribs on the Traeger

Spaetzle ready to serve

Ribs with good smoke ring

My Plate

Smokin Don

It's Chili Time Again

A cold, rainy March day and time for a batch of Chili, it tasted good! For the second time this week strong storms & tornados marched across the country, leaving death & destruction behind. Both claimed 41 lives so far. It gets a little scary and I feel for the people who were affected by the storms. It was predicted strong storms & wind for here today. We had thunderstorms & rain most of the day but not much wind. The wind started after the rain this evening. It’s just past mid-night here and has blown all night, 20 to 30 mph almost steady & gusts to 40. It has just now slowed down.

I pretty much followed my previous post for Burnt End Chili; there is a printable recipe there. The last batch I did for my wife, she likes thick & not many beans. This batch was for me, I prefer thinner & more beans. I left out the tomato paste & added 2 cans of red beans instead of one.

I had about a pound of brisket burnt ends, vac packed to use, I chopped it small dice, and it was tender enough most of it fell apart during the cooking. I got my ground beef browned up, added a chopped onion & the chili powders & paprika. Added that to a pot, deglazed my skillet with some Yuengling Black & Tan beer and added that to the pot. I added a little olive oil to the skillet & heated up the brisket & added that to the pot. I added all the other ingredients except the beans. This was about 2:00 pm. I brought it to a boil then simmered until 4:30 & added the beans. It was all ready by our usual 6pm supper time.

My wife had hers with shredded cheddar on top & buttered saltines. I had mine with a handful of Fritos & shredded cheddar on top. I added a few drops of Cholula hot sauce.
I really like the Fritos with it, & I did eat a few buttered saltines too.

After about 40 years of making my chili different about every time I finally have a good recipe made up that the wife & I both like. The smoked beef brisket & smoked paprika gives a nice smoky taste to it. The leftovers will taste better yet!

Some chili fixins

Ground beef, onions & seasoning

Deglazing the skillet

The diced brisket

Simmering away

Beans added

My Bowl

Smokin Don

Rib Eye Steaks & Crispy Baked Potatoes

After a meager meat & potato diet for 10 days in Las Vegas at my son & family I am now getting back to normal. We don’t eat as many steaks as we did at a younger age. T-bones or porterhouse used to be my favorite, cut thick & cooked kinda well done. I have learned over the years they taste better when med. rare to rare. I still don’t want much red but a good pink is what I like. I favor a rib eye now, it is full of flavor, & besides I can’t eat a whole t-bone anymore.

I was too lazy to fire up the smoker for these so I opted for my favorite skillet method to cook. Would you believe I found this method in a fishing magazine? Season the steaks & let set at room temperature for ½ hour. Use your favorite seasoning; I used steak salt that had some, garlic, pepper, & onion in it. Start with a preheated 350 deg oven, heat a skillet, lightly coated with olive oil, on med high for 5 minutes. Sear steaks for 2 to 3 minutes on each side then pop skillet into the 350 deg oven. 4to 5 min. for rare, 6 to 8 minutes for medium & 10 to 12 minutes for well done. These rib eyes were not that thick so I seared them 2 ½ minutes on first side, 2 minutes on the second side & in the oven for 7 minutes. I let them rest on the plate while I plated the baked potatoes & steamed broccoli. The steaks were tasty, just a tad over but pink in the middle. You will have to experiment with the times to get it the way you like. I prefer to use 1 inch thick steaks; it is easier to get the doneness you want.

Broccoli was one side, I steamed it in my asparagus steamer for 5 minutes. I added a dash of lemon juice, salt & pepper. My baked potatoes I used med size baked for 1 ½ hours at 350 deg. with a potato rod inserted; they are an aluminum rod that transfers heat to the inside of the potato when baking. I found if I baked them at 350 deg. for 1 ½ hours I get a real crispy skin. After you eat the potato, you have a crispy potato skin to enjoy. If done right you can feel the skin crack when you pick them up with a hot pad.

Use caution though when removing the rod! I always wash my potatoes, insert the rod & poke 3 sets of holes with a pickle fork on each side. For the first time when I removed the rod from one potato, potato shot out like a jet, almost burning my hand, all over my big belly, on the floor & stove. I have been using the rods for at least 15 years & this is the first time it happened. I suppose it might be better to lay the potato down & poke it with a fork before removing the rod. There was still enough potato to enjoy though! :)

The rib eyes were tasty, the wife & I both enjoyed this meal.

The Rods I use.

The Steaks

Ready for the Oven

My Plate

Smokin Don

Sausage, potatoes, carrots, & cabbage

This is an easy meal to throw together & do in a Crockpot. I usually do beef with the potatoes, carrots, & cabbage, but my daughter-in-law said her Dad always did sausage. I decided to try it. I had 4 fresh sausage links from my butcher, some of the meat I bought upon my return from Las Vegas. I am now getting caught up on my meat diet!

I smoked the sausage on my Traeger for an hour & 20 minutes. I layered the bottom of my 6 quart Crockpot with 4 med potatoes, diced up & some carrots. I added the sausage on top, ½ bottle of Yuengling Lager beer. I would have added some onions but didn’t have any. I added some salt & pepper. I then cut up a whole med. head of cabbage into wedges; then filled with water to cover the cabbage half way. I always leave the core in to hold the wedges together, makes it easier to serve.

I did this on high for 4 hours & really needed about 2 more hours. The cabbage was not done so I put it in a bowl with some of the liquid and finished in the microwave so we could eat at our normal 6:00 pm time. It tasted pretty good & I liked the sausage for a change. I did this on Monday & the leftovers tonight were better.

Sausage on the Smoker

Potatoes, carrots, & sausage added to the pot

Cabbage, seasoning, & liquid added

My Plate

Smokin Don

Pork Shoulder Roast, carrots, parsnips, & turnips

I was hungry for some pork, mashed potatoes, & gravy. I had a 3 lb bone in shoulder roast to do. I would do some carrots, parsnips, & turnips with it on the smoker. To make it easy I got some Bob Evens garlic mashed potatoes & a packet of McCormick’s pork gravy mix. Normally I would do my own but I guess as I get older I look more to short cuts.

I seasoned the roast with salt, pepper, some Penzey’s pork chop seasoning, & oregano. I started my smoker & turned to high. I put the roast in a rack at 3:00 & left on high for a half hour, then went to 275 deg. and placed the rack in a foil lined pan. I added the carrots, parsnips, & turnips at 4:30. & went to 325 deg. At 5:45 the roast was at 165 deg IT so removed it & the veggies to a preheated 210 deg oven to hold while I made the gravy & nuked the mashed potatoes.

I smeared some bread with Fromage Fort & toasted under the broiler to have with the meal. It didn’t melt too good but was tasty. The Fromage Fort idea I found at Saveur. It is just left over cheese, any kind, about ½ lb. Cut in ½ inch squares & shred some in a food processor, add a couple cloves of garlic, & any herbs you like. Then puree, adding dry white wine & thin to a desired consistency. I had leftover shredded cheese from two bags, a small chunk of white cheddar and some shaved parmesan that was drying out. I used olive oil & a splash of red wine vinegar to thin mine instead of wine. A great way to use up odd amounts of cheese & will taste different every time.

My supper tasted great and I have some cheese spread left to snack on.

The Roast

On the Smoker

Sliced

My Plate

Smokin Don