Naughty or Nice

When you live far from family members you get to have several Christmas celebrations. This is the case with my family. We started Christmas with my family in Tennessee spending four nights there. The next four nights we will be at home celebrating with Renie's family. Junior loves this because he gets presents spread out over a long period of time. The only thing that he has consistently asked for has been a train and Renie and I have one set-up now under the tree for him.

He also got to play with a leap pad that belong to one of his cousins and he loved that. Fortunately, Renie was able to find one several months ago at a consignment sale. We have some "girl-friendly" games that we plan to share with some of our female cousins.

The last toy that he has asked for is "Hungry-Hungry Hippo" (where he saw this game we will never know). This the the final toy that we have for Christmas morning. He loves games and after receiving several from his Tennessee cousins we look forward to having something to do on rainy days.

As I look at the pile of toys assembled under the tree I think that I am more excited than he is.

As I alluded to in an earlier post I have asked for some more charcoal (the traditional gift of naughty boys and girls). I hope that I have been nice enough to get charcoal. Hope your Christmas wishes come true.

Broken Camera and steaks

Last week the button on our digital camera fell off. The "button" is what you push to take pictures...kinda an important part of the camera. We never purchase extended warranties but for some reason we bought it with this camera. This was the second time that the "button" has fallen off. We dropped the camera off at Wolf Camera and should have it back in about six weeks. Unfortunately, we won't have a camera for Christmas...we will have to rely on family members to take lots of pictures.

On Friday night we invited Renie's sisters over for dinner with brother-in-law Rob and boyfriend Stan. Renie's father was also in town and joined us. I cooked steaks on the grill and again used the side-burner for sweet potato fries. Renie made a cheese dip and salad.

Our Christmas tree has taken over our dinning room so rather than eating on the coffee table we ate outside. A warm December evening in Birmingham with a string of Christmas lights strung along the deck made for a perfect evening. Too bad that I didn't have a camera to prove it.

Side Burner

This weekend was my first experiment using the side burner. I found it to be quite easy and do plan to use it again in future grilling experiences.

The fries are sweet potato fries...similar to what Uncle Win introduced to us. A small amount of cajun seasoning was sprinkled on them when I removed them from the skillet.

The burgers were stuffed with blue cheese and cooked over the last bit of charcoal that I have. With me traveling with work before Christmas I may not have another opportunity to cook before the new year. Maybe I will get some more charcoal for Christmas!

Happy Birthday

Last week was the annual celebration of Renie's 29th birthday. She, of course, requested steak. Though we didn't have child care we had a great time being together as a family. With Renie quiting work this past year our financial situation has changed quite drastically. However, though we didn't have a table full of presents or really any presents at all I believe it was my favorite birthday so far. Renie ran an errand in the late afternoon and came home shortly after 5:30 to a meal fully prepared with a homemade card from Junior.

The steaks were t-bones received from the cow my parents purchased. (We have ordered half a cow for next year-it will be ready in August). I used a basic beef rub. Feel free to let me know if you want mine but if you google "beef rub" you will get many that are very similar.


Finally, yes I made the cake too...but not on the grill.

On-Sale

Chicken breasts went on sale recently at our local grocery store for $1.99 a pound. My wife, feeling bold, bought $50 worth. The butcher put it in four separate bags for us to use. Most of it is in the deep freeze and hopefully will last through the winter. This was a sweet pepper marinade that I mixed together. In the future I plan to keep track of what I am adding to better prepare for future grilling experiences.

Appetizer

Recently we had some new neighbors over for burgers. They were invited to come over at 5:30 and I was pushing it to make it home by 5:00 from afternoon meetings in Huntsville, AL. I arrived in time to get the grill going. Unfortunately, both neighbors prefer their burgers "well done".

Steaks

Steaks are always a great choice for dinner

Shrimp

Renie and I love shirmp. We could eat shrimp for just about any meal. Our favorite way to prepare shirmp is the "Barbecue Shrimp" that has been a staple at the annual family reunion. However, I wanted to try to grill some. I found a marindae on-line and soaked them for a couple of hours. I cooked them for a couple of minutes on medium heat. They were not as good as I hoped. Anyone have ideas or suggestions on how to grill shrimp?

Uncle's Grill

We recently attended an unofficial Vanderbilt reunion for my wife. She and three former roommates got together to see each other, catch up, and have fun. We were the only couple that brought children so our fun was a little different. We also stayed with my aunt and uncle.
On Friday when we arrived in Nashville we were treated to steaks on the grill. Uncle Win also used the side burner to make sweet potato fries in a cast-iron skillet. After cooking, he transferred them to the grill to stay warm. The steaks were seasoned with Cajun seasoning. Though I tend to use much more seasoning these were a great cut of meat and flavorful. The main thing that this inspired me to do is use my side burner.

Something Different

I have noticed that the main thing I have grilled is burgers and that did not change tonight. Renie was looking through an old church cookbook and found a recipe for Italian Hamburgers. Though it called for beef the burgers looked more similar to a veggie burger on the grill. The meat was stuffed with bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and chopped onions and made the cooked burgers a light brown color. Even junior, who requested a peanut butter and jelly before the burgers were on the grill ate almost half of his burger. In addition to the above ingredients, it called for basil, parsley, and oregano. The burgers were so flavorful I would not be surprised if we made these as meatballs or meatloaf.

Table for one

With my job I am often on the road during meal times and have many meals alone at restaurants. The alternative would be to get take-out at your hotel room which is even less appealing to me. However, last week it was my family that was on the road. A couple of nights in the mountains of North Carolina allowed me to grill for myself. Since Renie does not like lemon pepper (and I love it) I took advantage and grilled some tenders that we had in the freezer. Since we don't buy lemon pepper seasoning I used a tablespoon of lemon peel and a tablespoon of freshly ground black pepper. I cooked them for about 6 minutes on medium high heat flipped them and cooked for an additional 8 minutes. Perfect.

Charcoal Preparation

A charcoal chimney is my preferred method for starting my fires. Two small pieces of newspaper beneath the chimney and coals are ready to go in about 20 minutes.

Another method that I often use, and used here in the rain, is a fire starter square. A few squares with coals arranged around them and the coals are ready to cook in slightly under 20 minutes. These squares do tend to make the fire "hotter" so the life of the coals is lessened. With most meats I am cooking a few minutes of less cooking does not make a difference. (This is the method that I used when I most recently cooked ribs. I just added coals to the fire two different times to keep the heat for four hours.)

The other method, I guess, is to use lighter fluid. However, these above options are easy enough that using lighter fluid is not necessary. In defense of lighter fluid, I guess, if you wait long enough after applying it then you won't risk ruining the flavor.

Ribs

We recently cooked ribs again. Both of us decided we wanted ribs at about 2:00. After a quick trip to the grocery for a slab of short ribs I knew my marinading/cooking time was short. I marinaded them for about an hour and cooked for three more. For the final fifteen minutes of cooking I removed them from their foil packs to cook a little more on the outside.

You can see from the bottom picture how easily the meat fell off the ribs. We have been invited to a friends house this Saturday to watch football and cook ribs. I am looking forward to seeing how someone else cooks their ribs.

Teaspoon Burger

Last night we had burgers agan. Thanks again to all the ground beef we received from my father. This time Renie asked for something "flavorful"...so I invented the Teaspoon Burger.

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

1 tespoon of freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

1 teaspoon of marjoram

They were perfect. We used the only cheese we had, shredded sharp cheddar, and topped it with bacon. Junior, who will not each much meat (other than hotdogs), even ate several bites. This is something that we will make again soon.

Peanut butter burger

There is a burger restaurant close to Birmingham that has a wide variety of burgers. One of the more interesting sounding is the Peanut Burger. Though I am not willing to pay $7.99 to try it I am willing to try it at home. The recipe calls for peanut butter with bacon crumbles. The bun has mayonnaise. Nothing special about the way I prepared or cooked the meat.

Though it was good, there are many more flavors I want to try before I repeat this. Anyone have unsual ideas they would like me to try?

The results are in

The experiment started with four steaks. Two steaks were prepared in a marinade and two with my traditional steak rub. The bag in the middle contains chicken strips since one our dinner guests does not eat red meat.

My Chargrill duo is pictured here. On the left you can see two steaks and chicken tenders on gas. The steaks on the right you can see the charcoal portion of the grill.

Finally, the steaks were removed from the grill. If you have a steak at our house, I hope you like it rare/medium rare! The different color tooth picks indicate (to me) where the steak was cooked and whether it was a marinade or rub.

My wife and brother-in-law were the only ones sampling. Wife correctly identified the place that three of the four were cooked (she guessed gas on three of them) and was able to correctly identify two of the four "flavors". Sister-in-law could taste no difference in chicken cooked on gas vs. charcoal.

The result, no real difference in gas vs. charcoal. Also, no real difference in marinade vs. rub.

The Great Debate

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I wanted to put to test the theory that charcoal is better than gas. Well, the time has come to test that theory. I have marinaded two steaks and have made my usual beef rub on two more. With family members on the way (one of which does not eat red meat) I also have a handful of chicken tenders marinading...these, of course, will divided equally between the gas and charcoal grills.


Check tomorrow for the results!

More Tools

No, I haven't spent more money on grilling tools. However, this week I flew to Dallas for work and looked through the Sky Mall catalog. There were a couple of “grilling related” items in the magazine. The “Reveo Marivac Food Tumbler” promises a “delicious gourmet flavor and tenderness” in only 10 minutes was one of the more interesting. For the small price of $149.99 it looks nice but to me the fun of grilling and marinating is the time. I want to plan ahead for my grilling experiences.

Another great idea was the "Grillzebo". Though it is a little too pricey at $999.95 it allows grilling in all weathers.

There were others and you can check out the Sky Mall Catalog if you want to see them for yourself.

Mojo Chicken

My wife recently requested something "new". In one of my grilling books there is a recipe for Mojo chicken. The main ingredients are orange juice and lemon juice. After marinading for a couple of hours, I brought the marinade to a boil to use as a baste on the chicken as it cooked.

Good flavor overall and something that we would cook again.

Blue Cheese Burgers

Though not everyone is a fan of blue cheese we love it. These burgers were made with a recipe from allrecipes.com We didn't have any chives so those were left out but we did use the remainder of the ingredients. The recipe called for mixing the blue cheese within the burger. Since we love the taste of blue cheese, we added more crumbles on top.

On the side we have the standard, at our house anyway, potato wedges. Those were cooked in the oven and just lightly tossed in extra virgin olive oil.

Gas vs. Charcoal

My memories growing up with my dad grilling always involved carcoal...and alot of it. I was of the opinion that was the only way to cook. In college I would grill venison at college baseball games with the small tabletop charcoal grills. My first grill of our marriage was a cheap charcoal grill that was only large enough for the meat...no room for vegetables!


However, a year ago my wife bought me a combo gas-charcoal grill. I assumed wrongly that I would only use the charcoal side.

I love how I can control the temperature with gas. I love how I can easily have a "hot side" and "cooler side". I also love how I can cook without much warning. One staple meal now that we are on one budget is hotdogs. The discount grocery store Aldi's sells 24 hotdogs for $2. Though they have very little flavor I can easily throw a couple of dogs on there.

There are still great things about cooking with charcoal but for now I am onto gas!

Sometime soon I plan to have a "taste test". I will marinade the meat (probably chicken) and then put half on the gas and half on charcoal. My wife is convinced she will be able to tell the difference but I am not so sure...I will let you know.

Kabobs

I am not a huge fan of cooking kabobs...it is difficult to cook the chicken and vegetables at the sa me rate. The chicken often cooks much faster than the onions and peppers. The mushrooms and pineapple cook the fastest. However, I do enjoy eating kabobs and it was something that we had not cooked this year. Though the onions weren't cooked enough for my liking I thought they turned out fine. We had another couple join us and make their own stick. You can see how some people spread out their "fixings" for them to cook and others crammed as much as you possible can on the stick.

The chicken was marinaded for about two hours in a bottle of teriyaki. The vegetables were brushed with oil to prevent sticking. I am sure we will be cooking kabobs again soon.

Burgers again

When my parents were in town they brought a cooler full of ground beef. My wife would laugh if she heard me call my-self a city boy but apparently you can buy a cow from a farmer and have it slaughtered. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise but it was something that I had never heard. Regardless, we will be having burgers for the next few months. I am trying a variety of spices and flavors. One flavor that my wife loves is using a tablespoon of dry ranch dressing in with a pound of beef.

You will also notice that there are two big burgers and one little one for junior. This was the first hamburger that I have seen him eat in his three years.

Home Improvement

A couple of weekends ago my parents were in town for a conference. I don't know if my wife is "unique" but she is big on making changes in the house. (thank goodness she isn't big on rearranging furniture). Our kitchen needed some work and the latest was a tin back-splash. My dad and I spent much of Saturday working on getting these set. Good man time. Here are the results.

You can also notice the new counter tops. If you are ever in the market for counter tops see if you can find out who supplies Lowes. We cut them out and saved $13 a square foot. You will also notice a new oven. Like good Americans we were putting out stimulus check to work.

Lunch Time Grilling

Since I work from home I often take quick lunches and today was no different. However, with our kitchen renovation just complete my wife and I both wanted a nice grilled hotdog. Tomorrow, for juniors third birthday I may be grilling around 30 hotdogs and wanted to enjoy one today.

Like daddy?

Having a son has been a great experience. It makes me very aware of everything I say and do since I know little eyes are watching. Junior really wants to help with everything that I am doing. This past week we had new countertops installed. In order to make the job go faster I removed the sink myself. Shortly after climbing under the sink I found that I had a little helper.

Is George Forman grilling?

Can George Foreman be considered a "real grill". I don't think that anything without an open flame can be considered a real grill. I do think that George Foreman grills can be useful. I mean, if I live in an apartment without a balcony then it is perfectly acceptable. If you live in a submarine then certainly, use a George Foreman. However, for my grilling needs, I will continue to use an open flame.

Where have I been?

It has been a month since my last post. Since then I have been travelling with work for about two of those weeks. I also had minor back surgery that kept me down for another week or so. However, I have cooked out both Friday and Saturday nights.

Friday it was margarita chicken. To make this I marinated the chicken for about three hours in the least expensive margarita mix that you can buy at the grocery store. I should have marinated the chicken longer.

Of course, I cooked corn from grandparents garden. That seems to be a staple when we are grilling.

Saturday I cooked burgers. The spices that I used in in turned out great. Though I didn't really measure the quantities I used fresh black pepper, sea salt, onion powder and garlic powder. Since all the barbecue recipes have something sweet added (usually brown sugar) I used a teaspoon of white sugar. The burgers were great!

Attached are the pictures of the chicken breast cooking

Best Ribs in Alabama?

The Birmingham News is having a contest for the best ribs in the seven county area. The article can be found here:

http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1215159346228360.xml&coll=2

It asked for reader nominations. It also asked for people to nominate themselves as a "reader-judge". I sent in my request to be a judge. Once readers send in their favorites, the panel, which includes the reader-judge, will choose among the top 5.

However, it made me think about some of the ribs I have had in the area. I did a google search for "Ribs and Birmingham" and found 308 business listings. I had NO idea there were so many restaurants. I plan to send in some of my nominations and will try to avoid the obvious ones.

Vacation Grilling

This past week my family and I headed to the beach for the week for my annual family reuion. Four of the nights the entire family (60+ people)gets together for the evening meal. Though I love grilled fish and grilled shirmp I did not grill the entire week. The grill that came with my condo did not appear to be very usable. We had a great time but I am glad to be home and look forward to some serious grilling for fathers day.

Weekend Menu

With Saturday spent sealing the deck we decided to wait until Sunday and Monday to cook out. My wife bought a whole chicken for a beer can chicken and also bought a slab of ribs for us to cook for the two evenings. There were a variety of sides that we would prepare with them.

We decided to cook the chicken on Sunday on the gas side of the grill and wait until Monday to try the ribs on the charcoal side. For the beer can chicken we used the only beer we had, which is one of the least expensive beers out there, Killian's Red. In addition to the beer I used a few basic seasonings including Kosher salt, fresh pepper, and a little garlic powder. We also added vegetables about mid-way through the cooking. Next time we will add them at the beginning.

With the chicken cooked on Sunday that meant that Monday, Memorial Day, I would cook the ribs. Many people will insist that you have to have a smoker to really cook ribs. Since you want an indirect heat for around three hours there are some challenges to using a charcoal grill. I got around this by adding a big handful of charcoal about three times during the cooking. I wanted to keep the temperature under 400 degrees but didn't want it to get too low. I also had a couple of burned wood planks that I had used to cook salmon that I broke and placed on top of the coals. Needless to say, smoke was not a problem. The whole neighborhood smelled great!

I saved a recipe for ribs that a fraternity brother had given me about three years ago. Contact me if you want it! I also bought a second rack to prepare in a different way. My friend's recipe was for wet ribs and mine were dry. In order to keep them moist I wrapped both in aluminum foil. Both were on the grill for over two hours and both were seared on direct heat at the end for five minutes. My friends were so moist the meat was falling off the bones. The picture looks like I have sampled a rib but I assure you that was straight from the grill. My ribs, which just used a dry rub were too salty in my opinion. However, both were great!

Memorial Day Weekend

On Saturday morning my wife and I decided that our deck, which is only a year old, needed to be resealed. The project actually stared Friday evening when I cleared the deck of furniture and applied the stripping agent.

One piece of advise for those of you who are planning on restoring your deck...wear gloves. The stripper, which does not contain any warning, burned the skin off two of the tips of two of my fingers. Regardless, the deck now looks great. I hope that we don't have to do this again next summer.

The rest of the pictures from the weekend show the grill in the backyard. Fortunately, our neighbor didn't have any underwear on their clothes line!

Whats Cooking

Tonight I cooked steaks. For my birthday, in January, my mother-in-law gave me a bunch of steaks. We put them in the deep freezer to use this spring. I defrosted two and used a basic rub with Kosher salt, fresh pepper, onion powder, and chili powder. I also cooked corn and mushrooms for the sides. The steak was great! Also, it is hard to beat corn from the grill. For the corn I use a small amount of butter and mozzarella cheese mashed together to rub on before grilling. Excellent!

Satellite radio revisited

This week I have had satellite radio again in both rentals I had on Tuesday and Thursday. However, now I have grown to enjoy it. Tuesday I had a channel changer on the steering wheel so I was able to get familiar with location of channels and easily change when I wanted a new song. Though it isn't in the budget to purchase a satellite radio receiver, I would be willing to drop my daily newspaper subscription to pay for the cost of the monthly fee.

Guess that a grilling channel wouldn't be very popular....

Satellite Radio

I am in the car a lot. Mostly, I am in a rental from Enterprise. Since I rented between 30-40 nights this past year they know me and treat me well. For example, I never want to drive a PT Cruiser (I think the initials stand for "Part-Time" since no one would want to drive that full time) and they do their best not to put me in one. They have even given me free upgrades.

The car that I have had since Tuesday has satellite radio. I was excited about this since I had only had one other rental with it. Satellite radio is pretty smart invention. The stations range from "The Coffee House" to 90's Alternative, "Elvis Radio", etc. To make sure they are staying in their niche they play a variety of good songs and then ones that never made the radio....there were truly some bad songs.

I am having a hard time finding one that I like. After a couple of days the newness has worn off and I am back to the regular airwaves. I do enjoy talk radio but after an hour or so of ESPN radio I am hearing the same things over and over.

Maybe tonight on my drive home I will listen to some political talk and see if they democratic party is any closer to picking a candidate....

I do realize this has nothing to do with grilling but when I was pulling out of my drive way at 5:30 this morning I was struck by the genius of satellite radio...charge $13 a month when people only have one or two stations that they even listen to....Genius.

Change of Plans

So the chicken is still defrosting and I didn't cook on the grill last night. My wife, who is in the process of resigning her job, had to run to work to run a training session. With both little ones I thought it would be impossible for me to cook.

This weekend is mothers day and we are headed out of town to visit family. I hope to do some serious grilling next week. Right now Monday and Wednesday nights are strong options.

Great Quote

The movie "Kicking and Screaming" was on TV this past weekend. I heard a funny line from the main character's father. When encouraged by his son to take more vitamins, he reponds with, "I take a vitamin every day - it's called a steak.''

Classic.

Wednesday night

My wife pulled some chicken breasts from the deep freezer yesterday. She has a baby shower to go to tonight so junior and I will probably have pizza. However, tomorrow I will be cooking chicken on the grill. As with most of our mid-week grillings, I will be cooking on gas. Later tonight, after the kids are asleep, I will figure out what I am going to do to the chicken.

Meet me

I am a man in my mid-thirties with two children and a stay-at-home wife. I work in education sales and though I am rarely gone overnight I do have lots of long days. During the fall I often return home after dinner and have either eaten on the road or will eat leftovers when I get home. Our dinner time during the week is usually something quick. The weekend, when I am never gone, is the time to really fire up the grill.



I love grilling. In fact, I would rather eat food cooked off the grill than any other method. Some people say, "the best steak is one they didn't have to cook"...however, I love the process of preparing, cooking, and eating whatever I cook on the grill.


Though many would consider me a rookie since I have only been seriously grilling for about five years I have watched my father and others grill for much longer. I have taken tips and bits of wisdom from several people and have combined them to grill some excellent food.



Through this site I hope to do several things:

-share what I have learned

-learn more

-post what I have cooked or will cook on the grill that week...mainly the weekend night.



I am always willing to learn more. It was only this past year that I was introduced to cooking on cedar plans!