What's for Dinner?

[ceeaton]

Took the turkey off at 163*F and rested for about an hour in foil (waiting for my wife to catch up with the sides, no ketchup). Served with corn, hash brown taters and a cold beer. Very moist and juicy. BTW, only used thick grind pepper for the rub. Still had a bit too much sodium from the brine it is packaged with. Still a very easy meal and a forgiving subject for my offset grill experiment with fuel management.

 

[sour_grapes]

Tonight's fare was leftover fava beans (with garlic and cumin); grilled baby Japanese eggplants (marinated in soy, garlic, ginger, and sesame oil); cucumber salad (rice vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and cayenne); and the star of the show: loin chops of goat. I dry-brined the goat chops, and then marinated them all day in olive oil, garlic, marjoram, and fresh thyme. Grilled on a hot grill to med. rare. Yum! Desert was a granita made with ho-made Merlot.

 

[ceeaton]

Thought the evening would be a washout, so picked up some ground turkey and string cheese on the way home. Had an orthodontist appt for my youngest daughter, which I abruptly left to go visit my Mom after my wife showed up (my Mom ran out of basic bbq rub, so it was an emergency). Made up some meatballs with a wedge of string cheese in the middle (whole milk mozzarella), served with some marinara sauce (store bought Francesco Rinaldi's-GF). Very nice meal, though it didn't rain anymore, yet. Happy August (I just noticed, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer).

 

[ibglowin]

Ho-made Cubano for lunch.............?



Absoluteamente!

 

[ceeaton]

I'm trying to figure out how to make 1/2 of a 10 lb pork picnic into cuban pork, the other half traditional pulled pork without splitting it in half. May just make it "bland" (ie. Texas style, salt, pepper, smoke) and spice it up later depending on the intended use.

 

[ibglowin]

Dang Craig. I have been out of Texas for almost 33 years and when you said that the hairs on the back of my neck stood up!

Cuidado Hombre! LOL

May just make it "bland" (ie. Texas style, salt, pepper, smoke) and spice it up later depending on the intended use.

 

[Boatboy24]

Ho-made Cubano for lunch.............?


Absoluteamente!

And a double decker, no less. Nice to see you're enjoying the new work schedule.

 

[ibglowin]

Its amazing when you realize the man don't own you anymore. LOL I don't have to kiss ask and mess with another performance appraisal ever again. They have nothing to make me toe the line or bust my ask for a good raise as it won't make any difference in my retirement payment. Its all over except waiting to hit the big Six 0 as that age maxes out the age factor for the retirement calculation. With accrued vaycay I think I have about 4 weeks of work between now and October. The rest will be burning leave (vacation) and preparing to terminate.

And a double decker, no less. Nice to see you're enjoying the new work schedule.

 

[sour_grapes]

Picked up a CSA box for my neighbor, and enjoyed (mostly) grilled fare for a lovely evening. Grilled zucchini and yellow squash (just EVOO), grilled scallions, sauteed/braised Swiss chard (onions, coriander, cayenne), sourdough bread, grilled crimini mushroom caps (fish sauce, EVOO, and lemon juice), and those lamb shoulder chops that are nearly rib chops (dry brined, then coriander, fennel, and garlic powder after grilling). The fact that the lamb chops both looked like the state of Wisconsin was an unexpected bonus! Washed this down with a 35-month-old Eclipse Old Vine Zin, which is pretty tasty now.

 

[ceeaton]

Dang Craig. I have been out of Texas for almost 33 years and when you said that the hairs on the back of my neck stood up!

Cuidado Hombre! LOL

I wasn't looking for a fight. I guess bland or plain isn't the right word (I'll blame the beer), but more like versatile since I use that mixture as a base for any rub I make. I actually prefer it to most any rub I do as it lets more of the actual meat flavor to shine through. Some of the rubs with sugars and too many other spices seem to hide the meat flavor rather than complement it. Now watch as the venomous replies come from Memphis, KC and the Carolinas!

I was just told from one of my cell mates that here in PA we have mostly German influenced foods (somewhat, but not totally true) and that there is nothing more bland than a German sausage. Now that's enough to get the old emotions churning...I told her I don't want the visit the restaurants she used to eat at since I've never had a bland German meal.

 

[sour_grapes]

Spatchcock Chicken on the Weber. Gonna kick it up a notch using a rub of Montreal Chicken seasoning with some Chimayo Red ground chile blended in for color and some spice. Pulled out a ring of my ho-made German snausage as well. Last but not least gonna use some of my home grown Jalapeño's and make some bacon wrapped Jalapeño "Poppers" on the grill as well. Film at eleven.......

Mike, I am planning to cook a spatchcock chicken on my Weber. Any tips? Indirect heat, followed by a sear? The opposite? Some skin-up time, some skin-down time? What're your preferences?

 

[ibglowin]

I have been cooking at ~350F indirect for about an hour (skin side up) and then 30 mins or so (skin side down) direct to crisp up the skin. I use an instant read probe in the breast and look for 165F or close. The fire has usually dropped down and won't burn the skin by the end of the cook.

Mike, I am planning to cook a spatchcock chicken on my Weber. Any tips? Indirect heat, followed by a sear? The opposite? Some skin-up time, some skin-down time? What're your preferences?

 

[ceeaton]

Mike, I am planning to cook a spatchcock chicken on my Weber. Any tips? Indirect heat, followed by a sear? The opposite? Some skin-up time, some skin-down time? What're your preferences?

Paul, I just tried this recipe the other week, turned out well on my weber kettle (https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/grilled-spatchcocked-greek-chicken-3364920). Served with a salad with lot's of feta cheese and gazebo room greek dressing (https://gazeboroom.com/history/). I love using the dressing as a marinate (works great with grilled zucchini) and with a fresh salad, I went to both high school and college with Nick, one of the current owners.

Couldn't avoid it for a third Friday, so pizza night. Our niece just "graduated" from special training with the Navy and is supposed to ship out this Fall for 8 months, so she's home and said she'd visit. So I did up a second crust and about the time I was gonna put the pies together, she texted that she wouldn't make dinner. Oh well, stuff happens. Made the doughs last night so they were parked in the fridge for close to 20 hours. Made a really nice crust. Layered some provolone under the mozzarella, put some green pepper and diced pepperoni on one, plain for the other. GF pizza not pictured.



Pouring rain this evening, imagine that. Normally one of our driest months of the year and I think the latest downpour added about 1.25" to our monthly total. So, I'm not doing the lawn tomorrow, but got some rub ingredients on the cheap (restaurant supply store) to make up a "versatile" rub for some pulled pork tomorrow (kosher salt will be the third component of the rub). Since I can't do any yard work I'll have to concentrate on fire maintenance with the offset smoker. Got some more beer to make sure I didn't have to break away too long and let the fire suffer. I usually do a butt portion, but I couldn't pass up the deal on this picnic shoulder.

 

[sour_grapes]

Minimal-ish dinner tonight. A simple salad, with ho-made dressing and roasted pistachios; grilled 'sparagus (EVOO, marjoram), and some country-style spare ribs (spice rub including smoked paprika, garlic, cumin, chipotle, salt, sugar...). This was a Mike @ibglowin Kroger Woo-Hoo special, like $2 a pound. Cooked this on indirect grilling for ~30 minutes, then direct for a few minutes, and it was outstanding. Wifey did not know the history, and was raving about it. I think country-style ribs need to make it into my gullet more frequently than has been the case.

Washed down with some ho-made Viognier.

 

[geek]

 

[ibglowin]

Thanks for the recipe Craig. I snagged it and pushed it to the cloud for a future cook!

Paul, I just tried this recipe the other week, turned out well on my weber kettle (https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/grilled-spatchcocked-greek-chicken-3364920).

 

[ceeaton]

Thanks for the recipe Craig. I snagged it and pushed it to the cloud for a future cook!

It turned out better than I thought it would, nice to have a variation for a chicken dinner, since we usually eat it two or three times a week.

Now time to get the offset smoker out of the garage and get it fired up for the pork shoulder (took wifey out for breakfast, took longer than expected, which is good). Rain is hopefully gone until next Tuesday (just East of us had 5" last night, we had around 2" from what I can tell), picked up some Pecan chunks to try out with the pork. Got beer, another bag of lump charcoal, a new calibrate-able instant read digital thermometer (love the restaurant supply store) and a soon to be sunny day. And it's too wet in the yard to do yard work, oh darn. Life is just too good to me sometimes.



And their off! A little behind schedule, may have to wrap early or push the temperatures up a bit. Made a rub with 4 parts kosher salt, 4 parts coarsely ground pepper, 1 1/2 parts smoked paprika, 1 part onion powder (granular) and 1 part garlic powder (granular). My hands still smell really good from rubbing it in a bit. Water pan in front (with some extra rub from the sheet pan I rubbed it on), drip pan underneath. Temp probe in front, one in back and the other in the shoulder. Lump charcoal with some pecan chunks. Running pretty clean for just starting up.

Edit: update - 1:56 pm EDST - 124*F at center - pushed smoker temperature up to 285*F after the latest fuel addition. Fat cap splitting so I could wrap if I needed to, but I think I'll get 'er to 195*F+ with enough time to rest 30 min to an hour.



Edit 2: 4 pm, 167*F, if it stalls I'm screwed. I think I've been pressing the temperature pretty hard, so here's to it pushing right through. If not it's burger and dogs tonight, pulled pork tomorrow night.

 

[Boatboy24]

I love these thin burger buns. Had some leftover from burger night, as well as some pizza leftovers. Made for an easy lunch.

 

[ibglowin]

My mini pizza's from last night were made on Nan! Makes for an excellent fast pizza as well. Excellent pizza like crust with no muss no fuss.

 

[ceeaton]

This was an interesting watch. They butcher a whole side of beef, very informational.