Country Ribs and Apples!

I had a nice weekend watching Isabella while Stacy went to a Pampered Chef retreat. We played lots and went shopping and we grilled. When we were in the meat aisle buying pork, I saw some pork country ribs for a really good price. So I bought them and grilled them for dinner.
   While Isabella took her nap Saturday, I prepped everything. I salted and peppered the ribs on all sides and put them back in the fridge. I cut up cabbage and onions and put them in a foil packet with salt, pepper, olive oil, and minced garlic. For dessert, I cored some apples and put them in foil. I poured lemon juice on and in the apples to prevent browning. Inside the apples I stuffed brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, more brown sugar, coconut, and poured caramel flavored syrup on the apples. Then I tightly wrapped up the apples in the foil.
  When it was closer to dinner time, we went out and lit the grill. When it was hot, I turned the center burner off and the other two to medium. The apples went in the middle and the cabbage on one of the outside burners. After a bit, we put the ribs on. I grilled the ribs for about 5 minutes per side. When the last side was on the grill, I started basting the ribs with sauce. I then turned them a few times and basted them with sauce to cook it in a little. The sauce I used was Kenai Premier Old Alaska Style Spicy BBQ Sauce. This was one of the sauces that we bought at the Alaska State Fair about a month ago. It had a very nice flavor. The cabbage was on the grill for about half an hour and I rotated it several times. I had the apples on for almost an hour. I also heated up some leftover cheese bread from the night before in foil. I had it on the grill for about 5 minutes and it was nicely warmed up.

Locally made BBQ sauce!

Yummy pork ribs!

Meat, veggies and bread!

Apples turned to sauce!

Apple in foil!

Everything turned out great. The apples were a little like applesauce though. I might have grilled them a little too long. They tasted really good anyways. Sunday, Stacy wasn't feeling well and so I made the stuffed peppers she was going to make. Here is the the recipe. I used vegetable broth instead of the chicken broth. I thought they were good.
I have two weddings to go to this weekend, so we will see about grilling this weekend. I hope everybody has a good week. Happy grilling!
Matt

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Smoke-roasted Turkey breast!

We had a nice weekend of staying home and getting things done around the house. It was very windy and rainy most of the weekend, so I only grilled once. I smoked a boneless turkey breast. The turkey was already brined and seasoned with herbs. All I had to do was open the package and put it on the grill. I used the charcoal side of my grill and put a layer of charcoal on one side. Then I heated some more charcoal in my chimney starter and poured the glowing ones over the unlit ones. Next, I made a foil pouch and put some oak wood pellets that had herbs mixed inside the pellets in the pouch. I found the pellets on clearance a few weeks ago and wanted to try them. The turkey went on the grill away from the coals.
   Under the turkey, I put a pan of vegetables to roast. I cut up carrots, onion, and potatoes and put them in the pan. I drizzled the veggies with olive oil, salt and peppered them and poured some blackberry wine we had in the fridge over everything. The turkey smoked for a little over 2 hours until it was 5 degrees from being fully 170 degrees. I took it off, tented it with foil and let it rest to finish cooking to 170.  I put the veggies directly over the heat to finish cooking, but it was taking too long. When you have a hungry toddler, sometimes you have to speed things up. I removed the veggies from the grill and put them in a 450 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes. 

Yes that turkey is done, the pink on the edges is the smoke ring.

Mmm, turkey!

  The turkey came out flavorful and juicy. It had a nice smokiness to it. Isabella ate all of hers and has continued to eat it, which means she really likes it. The veggies had a nice smoky flavor and you also could taste the wine. It was a nice combination. Yes I gave my toddler wine, but the alcohol was evaporated in the cooking process. 
  For Sunday dinner, I made a goulash. I started out by sauteing carrots, peppers, broccoli, and zucchini in my cast iron dutch oven. I salted, peppered the veggies and added some Italian seasoning. Next, I added 2 cans of diced tomatoes, half a jar of leftover pasta sauce and some cooked elbow noodles. I mixed it all up and let it simmer for a little bit and grated some parmesean cheese in. We all liked it. Stacy even ate all her zucchini which is a feat for her since she normally isn't big on zucchini's texture. 
  I am not sure what this weekends cooking/grilling adventure will be. I will be watching Isabella most of the weekend while Stacy has Pampered Chef training and fun all weekend. Have a great week and happy grilling.
Matt

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Smoke-Roasted Pears!

I had a pretty good weekend. I worked late on Friday and we got the wind damaged plane fixed. They made 9 flights over the weekend and were very happy with our hard work. Saturday we ran errands and harvested the rest of our vegetables in our garden. We had a few more zucchinis, a summer squash, some carrots and lots of green tomatoes. We are ripening the tomatoes in the house and I will let you know how that goes.
  Sunday, we went over to the in-laws house and had a nice lunch of deep fried cod. For dinner, I grilled smoked sausage and mini sweet peppers. I also smoke roasted pears using a Steven Raichlen recipe that I modified slightly to our tastes.  I still cut part of the tops off, scooped out the seeds, and squeezed lemon juice in the cavity. Next, I mixed 4 oz of cream cheese (since I was only using 3 pears), the full amount of brown sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon and vanilla extract. I stuffed the pears and put them on foil rings that I made by rolling foil up and coiling into rings. I put apple wood in my smoker box and grilled the pears on indirect medium heat for 45 minutes or so.

Here is dinner cooking. The center burner is off and the 2 outside burners are on medium

Here is the yummy goodness of the inside!

   We loved the pears! They had an incredible flavor. We had planned on only giving Isabella half of one, but she kept wanting more and ate a whole pear! This is definitely a keeper recipe. It was kind of like a pear pie. I'll hopefully be smoke roasting more fruit this fall.
    I had a discount code for 25 percent off anything on the Char-Boil website and so I ordered myself a new grill tool.  I ordered the Char-Boil Infusion cooker. Watch the video and see how cool this thing looks. I should have it in a few weeks and will be letting you all know how it works.
  I'd like to let you guys know that I sometimes post links to websites and recipes. I usually hide them within my posts. These links show up as blue words. Just click on the words and it will take you to the website. I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows about this feature so they can get everything out of my blog.
  I hope everybody has a good week. Happy grilling!
Matt

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BBQ'D Pork Chops!

I had another busy week this week and wasn't able to blog till tonight. Wednesday, the wind was blowing pretty good and the power kept going on an off. Thursday and Friday, I was busy with work. One of our company's airplanes got damaged in the wind and we were working hard to fix it.
     Last Friday, the 31st, I had the day off from work and we went to the Alaska State Fair. Isabella enjoyed seeing all the animals. They had an exhibit that had a baby bear, monkeys, lion cubs and other animals. We got to sit and watch as a guy showed the animals to us and told us about them. Isabella kept saying "bear, grrr." It was cute. We bought a couple bottles of locally made bbq sauce that were spicy, but not in a hot sauce type way. I look forward to grilling with them. I'll tell you more about them after we use them.

Here is the bear!

   Saturday, we went to a local farm and picked veggies. We got Yukon gold potatoes, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, snow peas, and rhubarb. When we went home and Isabella was napping we preserved the veggies. We blanched the broccoli and froze it on cookie sheets for a few hours before dividing it up into freezer bags. The rhubarb was cut up and froze in 4 cup increments. We also froze the cabbage. We put the potatoes and carrots in a dark tote and put in a cool place. It was nice to be able to get fresh veggies to be able to have through out most of the winter. 

    For dinner Saturday, I made barbecued pork chops. I salt and peppered the pork, then grilled it with applewood chips in my smoker box. When the pork was cooked on one side, I glazed them with bbq sauce. We had 3 open jars of sauce in the fridge that only had a little left in them. I added a little water to each jar, shook them with the lids on and poured them into a bowl. I then mixed the sauces together and that's what I used to brush on the pork. I brushed both sides with sauce and grilled for a few minutes longer. We all liked the pork, even Isabella who doesn't eat her meat very well. 

MMM, pork chops!

Old cover.

I bought myself a new grill cover a few weeks ago. My old one was starting to rip and was faded after 2 years of use. I finally put it on the grill last weekend.

New cover

I hope everybody has a good week. Happy grilling!

Matt

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