Summer fun

       This is a quick non BBQ, but still outdoor related post. This is another post I wanted to get done this summer. We had a busy summer and had fun outside. We found a play grill on sale for our daughter. She loved playing with it and grilled lots of pretend food for us. 

       We also bought a fire pit. We had several fires in it. Each time we cooked dinner with it. We roasted hot dogs one time. Isabella loved that part. Another time, I cooked hobo stew in the coals. I put pork cutlets, onion, carrots, and potatoes with a little seasoning in foil packets. They cooked for about an hour. We ate them on the porch. Here are few pictures of our times. 

Hamburger or hot dog?

How's the food coming?

Taste Test

Got to wash my hands! There is a pretend sink on the other side.

Roasting hot dogs over the fire

   I hope you enjoyed the peek at some of our summer fun. Now that winter is almost here do you have plans started for next summer? Have a good week and happy grillin'.

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French Toast and Sausage On the Grill

     I hope everybody is doing well. This is a post that was supposed to be done this summer. Due to a heavy work schedule it didn't and I just found the pictures the other day. I whipped up a big batch of French toast for dinner one night when my mom was visiting from Oregon.  We also had blueberry birch syrup flavored sausages from a local butcher.  Making french toast on the grill is one of my new favorite ways to do it. I did a previous post about it where I did it directly on the grates. That was a little messy though. You can see that post here.

        This time I put my griddle on the grill and used that. My griddle is a Lodge cast iron double sided griddle. It works great on the grill or the stove. You can get your own from Amazon here. I made the egg mixture ahead of time. Everybody has their own favorite recipe for French toast, so just use your own recipe. Then when it was time for dinner, I preheated my griddle on medium heat. Working in batches, I dipped the bread then let it sit to drip and soak on a wire rack for a minute. I took them out to the grill and put them on the heated griddle. After a few minutes and the lid closed, I flipped them over. I alternated between lid open and closed to regulate the heat. If it was cold out, I would have kept the lid closed almost the whole time.  While the toast was grilling, I direct grilled the sausages.  The French toast and sausages were really good. The sausages had an incredible flavor. 

MMmm, looking good!

closeup!

    French toast is not the only breakfast food you can do on the grill. With the right tools almost any breakfast food could be done on the grill. What is your favorite breakfast food to do on the grill? Have a great week and happy grillin'.

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Mexican Lasagna

This is a non BBQ recipe post. The other night I made what we are calling "Mexican lasagna." It came out really good and so I decided to share it with you. It was even good reheated a few nights later. Sorry the pictures are lame, I forgot to take a picture till it was almost gone. I came up with the recipe off the top of my head and some of the measurements may not be exact but are approximates. Feel free to substitute ground beef for the ground turkey. We have a beef allergy in our house, so ground turkey is our go to substitute. 

Mexican Lasagna

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

6 flour tortillas (We used whole wheat)

1 can refried beans

1 large can diced green chilies

1 pound ground turkey

8 ounces sour cream

1 cup salsa (divided)

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon taco seasoning

1 to 2 cups shredded cheese (depends on how much cheese you want)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cook ground turkey and add 1 teaspoon of taco seasoning to meat.
3. In a 13x9 pan add 1/2 cup of salsa and spread to cover the bottom.
4. Place 2 of the tortillas on the salsa.
5. Mix the refried beans, green chilies (drain the chilies if you don't want as much heat), and 1 Tablespoon taco seasoning. Add the mix to the pan and spread to coat the tortillas.
6. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on top.
7. Layer in 2 more tortillas.
8. Next mix sour cream with cooked turkey meat and taco seasoning. Spread the mixture on top of the last layer.
9. Top with 2 more tortillas, then the rest of the salsa and a nice coat of shredded cheese.
10. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes until it is bubbling and the cheese is nicely browned.
11. Remove from oven and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. It will firm up a little.
12. Refrigerate any leftovers in the pan. To reheat, place in the oven covered with foil for about 20 until warmed through.

MMM, Yummy! 

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we did. Please pin it to Pinterest or share on Facebook. I also made it so you can just print the recipe. Just click where it says printable recipe here. Have a great week and happy grillin'.

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Stuffed Smoked Pork Loin

    I hope everybody is doing well. I possibly have an extended time off from work. So, I am going to try and get caught up on all the blogs I have been meaning to get out. I have multiple recipes to post. I am also going to be trying a few new things to make recipes easier. I think you will notice the picture clarity is better too. I got a new phone over the summer that has a way better camera than my previous one. As always feel free to comment and share my blog with others. The recipe today is one that came out really good. I had been wanting to make a stuffed pork loin for a while and I finally made one not that long ago. 

 Smoked Stuffed Pork Loin

Ingredients:

Pork loin

apple cider

salt and pepper

garlic powder

sweet onion

garlic cloves

apple

carrot

apple cider vinegar (or more apple cider/ apple juice)  for spritzing

1.  Trim any silver skin from pork loin and butterfly loin.
2. Inject pork loin with a mixture of apple cider, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Save any leftover injection.
3. Salt and pepper the inside of the pork loin.
4. Stuff inside with sliced onion and cut garlic cloves.
5. Tie the loin together with butchers string.
6. Rub outside of loin with olive oil and salt and pepper.
7. Put loin in a metal or foil pan.
8. Add sliced carrots, onion, and diced apple to the pan around the loin.
9. Drizzle olive oil and leftover injection on the veggies.
10. Tent with foil and poke a few holes in the top of the foil to vent it.   
11. Smoke the pork at 300 degrees indirect heat until it reaches 165 internal temp. It took about an hour and a half for mine to reach temp. I used alder with a little apple wood as my wood. I also had a few hickory briquettes mixed in.
12. Spritz meat and veggies a few times with apple cider vinegar or apple juice.
13. Remove the meat from the pan and let rest.
14. Spread the veggies out in the pan and roast over direct heat for an extra 15 minutes.
15. Remove the string and slice the pork before serving.

Pork on the grill

Nice view of pork cooking

Veggies all done.

Pork up close after slicing

The pork was super moist and very flavorful. The veggies had an incredible smokey flavor to them. We really enjoyed it. Have a good week and happy grillin'. 

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Grilled Fruit Crisp!

I hope everybody is doing well. I want to apologize for not getting any blogs out all summer. My work as an aircraft mechanic has kept me busy with lots of overtime. Also we have been busy enjoying the summer in Alaska. I will try to catch you up on some of the things I did this summer in another blog. I am going to give you a recipe for a crisp that I made up. I used peaches, nectarines, and pears, but feel free to try other fruits as well. All measurements are approximates, so sorry if you like to be exact.

for the filling:
cut up 3 peaches, 1 pear and one nectarine
mix in:
 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
juice and zest of 1 lemon
splash of vanilla extract (or about a couple teaspoons)
a few shakes of cinnamon (or about 1 teaspoon)
a sprinkle of old fashioned oats

topping:
mix:
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1 tablespoon flour
Set aside:
2 tablespoons of butter thinly sliced

To assemble:
Prep the filling
Prep the topping
Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in a cast iron skillet
Add the filling
sprinkle with topping
add the sliced butter cut earlier on top
indirect grill at about 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour until it is bubbling and the top is golden.
(Note: you could also cook it at 350 for the same amount of time in your oven)

Crisp cooking on the grill. I had some alder wood in my smoker box,

We loved the crisp. I have made it twice now and have added it to my favorite recipes. I hope you enjoy it. I have other fun recipes to share with you from the summer too, so look forward to more blogs soon. Have a great time till next time and happy grillin'.

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Caribou steak and Pork Country Ribs!

I hope everybody is having a good week. I had a long work week last week. I ended up working part of Saturday. Saturday afternoon, I rushed home after working in the morning. Stacy had to go work a Pampered Chef show, so I made dinner for Isabella and I. We had things that Stacy doesn't like very well, since she wasn't going to eat with us. We had grilled caribou steaks, yams, and Brussel sprouts. I made everything on the grill.
    For the caribou steak, I put some Worcestershire sauce on it and rubbed it with Pampered Chef's new Tex-Mex Rub. I grilled the steaks over medium high heat for about 15 minutes until they were about 160 internal temp. I might have over cooked them a little, but since it was wild game, I wanted to make sure it was done. I also grilled some yams over medium heat. I microwaved mine for 2 minutes before I put it on the grill since it was so big. I grilled the yams for about 20 minutes until they were soft and cut them open. I buttered them and sprinkled brown sugar on top. The yams stayed on the grill for a few more minutes to melt the sugar a little. To grill the Brussel sprouts, I tossed partially thawed sprouts with olive oil and Pampered Chef Three Onion Rub. I grilled them in the basket for my Char-broil Grill Top Infuser. I tossed them several times as I grilled them over medium heat. I took them off when I took the yams off and they were golden and some had a slight char.  Everything turned out good. The caribou was a little tough, but had a nice flavor. The rub was both sweet and spicy. The yams were really good as were the sprouts.

Caribou steaks, yams and sprouts glistening in the sun on the grill!

Yams all sugared and about to come off the grill.

The finished product. (Isabella makes me use one of her princess place-mats)

    Sunday for dinner, I smoked bone-in pork country style ribs, corn, and potatoes. I seasoned the ribs on all sides with Big Butz BBQ Pig Pollen rub and let the flavors meld in the fridge for a couple hours. When the the time came, I set my charcoal grill up for 2 zone grilling. I piled some coals on each side then added lit coals to each side. In the middle, I put a pan of water to separate the 2 piles. To each pile I added a chunk of cherry wood.  Once the wood was smoking nicely, I added the pork to the middle. I put the potatoes on one side and the corn on the other. For the potatoes, I used the Pampered Chef BBQ Vegetable Rack. For the corn, I used the Pampered Chef  BBQ Corn and Skewer Rack. After the first 20 minutes, I started spritzing the ribs with apple cider vinegar to keep them moist every 20 minutes or so. I smoked the corn and potatoes for an hour. I rotated the corn a few times whenever I spritzed the ribs. Just before I took the corn off, I brushed it with a mixture of melted butter and Pampered Chef Tex-Mex Rub. I smoked the corn so long because it was still frozen a little. I had vacuum sealed fresh corn and froze it when it was on sale at some point. When the ribs were almost done I sauced them with Big Butz Cranberry BBQ Sauce. I sauced them on each side and let the sauce set for about 10 minutes before I took them off. The pork was on the grill at 300 degrees for about an hour and a half.
      Dinner was great. The ribs had a great flavor and nice smokiness. They each had a beautiful smoke ring. The sauce was sweet with a slight spice to it.The corn was tasty. It had a subtle smoke flavor and the rub was really good on it. We had the potatoes with  chive flavored sour cream and butter. They also had a great smoke flavor to them.

Potatoes, ribs, and corn ready to smoke.

Ribs shining before I remove them.

Ribs, corn and potatoes ready to eat.

Nailed the smoke ring!

      I have started watching the show "BBQ Pitmasters". I found past episodes online for free and am now on season 3. If you like BBQ and food competitions then I highly recommend this show. I have learned some tips from watching it. I started spritzing my ribs because of the show.
     There was no winner to my giveaway since no one entered. I will try again some other time. I always appreciate comments about my blog. Please continue to share it with your friends and help me grow my audience.  Speaking of giveaway check out another blog that I follow. Grill Grrl is doing a big giveaway! She always has good recipes on her site too.  Have a great week and happy grillin'.

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Asian Style Pork Chops and Faux Crab Stuffed Peppers!

I hope everybody had a good week. I was able to grill twice last weekend. As a reminder, I still have a giveaway going. Just go to the post Blog Anniversary and Giveaway and leave a comment. It is as easy as that.
  We bought some pork chops on Saturday and Jasmine rice, so I decided to make an Asian style pork chop. We were out of an already made marinade, so I found one on Pinterest that had ingredients we already had in it. The recipe is super easy. All you have to do is combine soy sauce, honey, lemon juice, ground ginger, olive oil, and minced garlic together in a ziploc bag. I used bone in pork chops and marinaded them in the bag for about 2 hours. Make sure to mix them in the bag a few times while they are marinading. That helps to keep the pork evenly coated. I grilled the pork over medium heat for about 15 minutes or so. We ate them with the Jasmine rice and steamed broccoli. The pork had a great flavor. The meat was moist and had the taste I was going for. We will be keeping the marinade recipe around.

Asian chops, Jasmine rice and broccoli

    Sunday, we wanted something with for potatoes dinner. I looked in the freezer and found we had a package of imitation crab chunks and knew we had red bell peppers. I decided to make crab stuffed peppers. For the stuffing I mixed the crab chunks, about 4 ounces of  softened cream cheese, about a cup of Italian bread crumbs, a quarter of an onion minced, and a few squirts of Dijon mustard. I mixed it all together and stuffed what I could into 4 red bell pepper halves. I had some extra that I put in a ziploc bag and froze. I then grated some Parmesan cheese on top of each one. I direct grilled them over medium heat  sitting on the Pampered Chef BBQ Vegetable Rack for about 20 minutes. I just sat them on the rack and didn't poke them on. The imitation crab was already cooked so all I had to do was let the flavors meld and cook the onion. They came out super good. Next time, I think I will add a little salt and pepper and maybe a little Old Bay style seasoning. They were great for just making up the recipe.

Peppers on the grill

     Along with the peppers I also made fries with red potatoes. All I did was cut them in wedges. Then I seasoned them with olive oil and Pampered Chef Garlic and Herb Rub. I grilled them over a medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes on my Pampered Chef BBQ Roasting  pan. As a dipping sauce, I mixed mayo and Sweet Baby Ray's together.

Imitation crab stuffed peppers, fries, and dipping sauce

I hope everybody has a good rest of their week. Happy grillin'.

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