Sliders

I wanted to try something that I had never attempted so I decided on cooking "sliders". If you are familiar with Krystal or White Castle you have probably had one of these tiny burgers. The burgers were all the exact same size when they were placed on the grill-I used a small cookie cutter to try to make them the same. It was interesting how some shrank much more than others. I also cooked them on the charcoal side and had a "smoke pack" in the grill. The smoke pack caught on fire and flamed a couple of the burgers. We had a couple of other people join us for dinner and I tried to have enough for each of us to have three or four burgers.



One of the main reasons we wanted to cook burgers was a recent show on "The Food Network". It featured Pimento Cheese Burgers. Since Renie and I are both fans of Pimento Cheese we knew we wanted to try them. You can see the pimento cheese burger on the right and a regular cheese burger on the left. If you google pimento cheese burgers on the web you will find a few recipes. We just used store-bought pimento cheese and only light seasoned the burgers.

Here's to Good Friends...

Another steak night...we recently had a number of friends over for steak. Sweet potato fries were again the choice side dish since they are easy and delicious. The weather was not quite as cold as the previous few days so I took advantage of the opportunity to cook over charcoal. I am certainly ready for warmer weather!

Captain Rodney's Fish Plank

A new glaze that we have recently discovered is Captain Rodney's Boucan Glaze. You can find this delicious product on-line. However, to order one bottle the shipping cost was the same as the product...about $8.00. We asked our local Whole Foods to order it and it is now in stock in Birmingham. Though they ordered the small bottle it was much cheaper than $8.00.

We have both been craving grilled fish lately. A bag of frozen mahi mahi was fairly inexpensive so we thought that we would try them. The glaze was poured on the vegetables while we sauteed them in a skillet. The vegetables are leftovers from fajitas that we made last week and included red, yellow, and green peppers, and a small onion. After sauteing the vegetables we poured the vegetables over the raw fish with more Captain Rodney's Glaze.

The planked fish was cooked over medium indirect heat for about 20 minutes. No seasoning of any kind was added to the fish and it turned out okay. I added salt once it was on my plate and wanted the combination of sweet and salty. Renie preferred the sweet taste.

We will cook fish again soon but with so many wonderful grilled fish recipes I would prefer to save the Glaze for a delicious Boucan Cheese Dip. We were also pleased with the frozen fish. Though fresh fish would have been nice I know that you can't easily get fish in many parts of the country.

Cattle Exchange

Tonight I cooked fillet mignon on the grill. Another cold night in Birmingham. You can see the great crust rub on top of the fillet. The rub was my basic beef rub consisting mainly of salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder. I have listed the amounts in several other posts.

The filet's were cooked for about six minutes on each side on medium-high heat. Another great experience cooking on gas. I may not go back to charcoal until winter is over.

The fillets were from the box that I bought from the Atlanta Cattle Exchange. Another great grilling experience with this company.

Venison Steaks

First let me admit that I don't really know how to cook venison. This was a "back strap" that after cooking I thinly sliced. To prepare it I did a comb of marinade and a rub. I was a little worried that my wife would think that it was too gamey so I may have "over-prepared" the steak. Also, this was not from the doe that I shot over Christmas...I should that meat sometime soon.

The marinade consisted of:

1 cup of apple juice

1/3 cup of oil

2 table spoons of Worcestershire sauce

After soaking in the rub for about an hour I removed and sprinkled with a rub consisting of:

2 tablespoon of sea salt

1 tablespoon of onion powder

1 teaspoon of granulated garlic

1 teaspoon of chili powder

1 teaspoon of paprika

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

If you notice the small bowl on the plate you will see that I had left-over rub.

Cheese Burgers

Despite the cold temperatures for the past few days I still fired up the grill. The burgers were purchased from a regional meat company, The Cattle Exchange. After purchasing the meat I had some reservations when I found horrible reviews for them on the Internet.

I cooked the burgers from a frozen state and only used Worcestershire sauce, sea salt, and fresh pepper. After the burgers were cooked I put some shredded cheese on top to melt.

Twice in One Day

Tonight, in order to celebrate two developmental milestones, we had some friends over for dinner. Their daughter who turned two in October has given up her paci. Junior, who is now three and a half has had many successful potty-training days. Our friends came over and brought some bone-in chicken and a white barbecue sauce. One of my first experiences cooking bone-in chicken and the chicken was nice. After cooking on indirect heat for around 30 minutes I covered one side in white sauce and moved to more direct heat for five minutes before flipping the chicken and adding more sauce. When I re-opened the grill after five more minutes I was surprised to see several pieces engulfed in flames. What fun!

Though I am unsure that this is the recipe our friends used for the white sauce this is one that works well:

1 1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 cups white vinegar
add sugar to taste
1/4 cup black pepper (more if desired)

Lunch

One of the advantages of working from home is that I don't have to spend money to eat out. Today I decided to fire up the gas grill and cook some chicken breasts. Some of the breasts were split so cooking time was only about 12 minutes. The seasoning was a simple mix of garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt, and fresh pepper. One breast was left "plain" for the baby.

The entire family was together for lunch today and we all had different methods for eating our chicken. The baby used her two teeth to eat what we gave her. Junior's was cut into bite size pieces. Renie covered hers in a homemade dipping sauce. I chopped mine and put it on a bun with the dipping sauce.

Quick and easy chicken.

Holiday Grilling

Though I have not updated the blog I have been busy grilling during the past two weeks. The most tasty thing that I cooked was a large flank steak that I cooked on both sides for about 3 minutes. I only cooked one and it was large enough to share for dinner with leftovers for a black and blue salad for lunch. Renie actually marinaded it for about six hours and since I was at work I didn't even ask her what she used.

While deer hunting on the Mississippi River we grilled out twice at the camp house. One night we cooked a mix of venison and beef burgers and another night we cooked pork chops. There were not many spices at the camp house but in my opinion, anything cooked over an open flame is going to be good. I shot a doe so we will have some venison steaks to cook soon.

Tonight we are having friends over to grill out....going to be interesting since it will probably be about 30 degrees when I am standing over the grill! For lunch today I hope to grill a chicken breast. If all goes as planned then I will have two new posts tonight/tomorrow.