Tuesday, May 27, 2008

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!

Monday, May 26, 2008

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!

Friday, May 16, 2008

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....

Friday, May 9, 2008

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.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

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.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

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.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

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!