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.