Thank you Mr. Grill!

I just received these Mr. Grill Heat Resistant Grill Gloves from Rizzi at Mr. Grill and have been ask to give them my opinion on their performance. The gloves with sell for $29.99 are made from kelvar and nomex. 

So far I have been very impressed with their ability to protect my hands from heat.  They did a great job keeping my hands from burning while I removed a rotisserie chicken from my gas grill. In the past, I have used fairly heavy duty oven mitts to grab the rod that supports the chicken over the grill but by the time I reached the kitchen from our where are grill is outside, the heat was almost burning my hands through the mitts. Not the case with Mr Grill's Gloves, my hands stayed cool and the gloves also gave me the dexterity to easily removed the hot rotisserie hardware from the cooked chicken.

In addition to grilling, I loved using these grill gloves to securely grip my 8 quart Le Creuset dutch oven. The silicon on the fingers grip the enameled surface and I didn't even worry about dropping a piece of cookware that is not only very heavy but also cost quite a bit.

I highly recommend these gloves.  Definitely a great addition to my cooking toolbox. They are heavy duty and durable, too.  They are available from Amazon.

Home-Grown Dinner

Our growing season here is quite short so eating fresh from the garden is a big deal.  Yesterday was our first chance to actually harvest something from one of our gardens so I decided to try to make a completely home grown meal out of it.

My daughter Emma and I picked spinach, arugula, baby kale and radishes to make a salad.  No tomatoes yet, they are going into the garden this weekend.

I defrosted some elk sirloin from a nice elk harvested off our property last fall. Heated a bit of olive oil in my cast iron skillet and sprinkled a salt and fresh ground pepper on both sides.

 

Into the skillet they go for a pan sear.

 

Four minutes on each side, they were cut pretty thin and I wanted them pink inside.

 

What a great dinner that tasted even better knowing that it came off our place.  With the exception of the ranch dressing!

My Favorite Split Pea Soup

Remember my Easter Ham?  I held on to the bone that remained from that home and decided to make some Split Pea Soup with it.  It might be warm in other parts of the country but it has remained cool enough here for a bowl of soup to be a treat.  Here is what you will need to make some, too:

Ingredients

• a ham bone or ham hock
• 1 pound bag of split peas
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 large celery stalked, diced
• 2 quarts of water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 pepper

 

Place all the ingredients in a large pot or dutch oven with the exception of the ham bone.  

Add the 2 quarts of water and start to heat over medium, high heat.

 

When it starts to boil, add the ham bone and back off the heat to low and cover.

You want the soup to simmer on low until the peas completely dissolve and soup is thick and creamy.  On my cooktop, this took about 3 hours.  Just check your soup every half hour or so to see when it's reached that point.

When the soup has reached its desired consistancy, remover the ham bone from the soup.

Once the ham bone is cool enough to handle, strip off the meat into little chunks and return it too the soup.

Now it ready to enjoy.  I served my soup wtih these rolls using a recipe from the Pioneer Woman show on the Food Network.  Definitely a keeper and super easy, too.

Well, It's About Time I Got One.....

Lookie at what I got for a late Christmas present which just arrived this week. I have been pining over a Le Creuset dutch oven for almost a decade and now I finally own one.

My dear husband got tired of me calling any cooking show host that had one a female dog (got to keep it clean here!). He knows I like doing the homework and finding the best price around so he gave me the cash in my Christmas card and said that I had to use the money to buy one.

So, here it is! It's over 7 quarts and beautiful. I just need to get cookin'...probably a beef stew will break it in. Figuratively speaking.

Green Enchiladas Stuffed with Spicy Grilled Zucchinis, Pork Sausage and Tots

Here's an Iron Chef Bradley entry from the past that did get voted the winner.

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds spicy pork sausage
2 med zucchini
10 large corn tortillas
2/3 cup chopped onion
3 TBS chopped fresh parsley
2 cups tatortots thawed and crushed
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend
1 large can of green enchilada sauce
1 cup sour cream
Penzeys Southwest Seasoning (salt, ancho pepper, garlic, black pepper,oregano, cayenne, cumin, chipotle, cilantro)
Canola oil

Heat up the grill to hot.
Slice zucchini lengthwise 1/4" thick.
Brush both sides with oil and season generously with Southwest Seasoning
Grill about 3-4 mins on each side.
Once cool enough to handle, chop.

Still over a hot grill.
Brown sausage in a skillet, then drain
Saute in oil the tator tots and chopped onions.

To make the filling, mix together sour cream, chopped parsley and 1 3/4 cups of the shredded cheese.
Add to this the browned sausage, sauted tots and onions and chopped grilled zucchini and mix until just blended.

Soften corn tortillas in hot oil for 5 seconds on each size.
Dip each tortilla in enchilada sauce
Then generously fill with the filling
Roll and place seam side down in a roasting pan.
Once all your enchiladas are built, pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese.

Cook in a 350F preheated grill over indirect heat for 25 minutes or until bubbling.
Close the grill while cooking.

Enjoy!

Chicken Thigh Pies with Sweet Onion, Pear & Ginger

At the Bradley Smoker Forum the have a contest called "The Iron Chef Bradley" competition. It's a lot of fun to be involved because it helps me think out of the box a bit more that I usually do. This was the forth competition this year and the secret ingredients were: pear, onion and chicken thighs. The requirements are that 80% of all the cooking must be done outside either in a smoker, BBQ or grill...even an open fire!

Here's my entry. When the voting finished, it ended up in second place. It was my first experience with puff pastry and I was really impressed with how easy they were to work with.
Please note that I baked them in the grill on an insulated baking pan because this was keeping with the outside cooking requirement of the contest but feel free to bake them in the oven if you do not have an insulated baking pan.

Ingredients:
3 large chicken thighs (approx 1 pound) cut in half
1 cup apple cider
6 slices regular bacon
1 TBS oil
2 tps minced ginger (divided)
1/2 large sweet onion sliced thinly (I used a Walla Walla sweet onion)
1 large pear peeled and sliced thinly
salt, pepper, and nutmeg to your taste
1 1/2 sheets of puff pastry cut into 6 squares, at room temperature for at least 40 mins.
6 oz cream cheese at room temp
1 tsp soy sauce
1 egg
1+ TBS water
Spray oil like Pam

Marinade chicken thighs 8 hrs in apple cider. Keep in the fridge while marinading.

Dry off chicken with a paper towel. Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Wrap each piece with bacon and place on a Pam-sprayed smoker rack.
Smoke in a preheated smoker at 225F with apple smoke for 2 hours.

Have your pears, onions and 1 tsp of the ginger prepped and ready to go. Add 1 TBS of oil heating very hot in a skillet on the grill and when it starts smoking add the onions and saute till tender.
Then add pears and ginger, sprinkle with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Saute for just a couple minutes and the pears are tender but not falling apart. Remove from heat.

To the cream cheese add the soy sauce and the remaining 1 tsp of minced ginger.

On a lightly-floured surface roll the puff pastry to squares of 6 inches square.
On each pastry, spread a 1/6th of the cream cheese mixture, then place a bacon-wrapped chicken piece and top with 1/6th of the sauted onions, ginger and pear mixture.

Fold over each puff pastry, moisten with a little water where the puff pastry comes in contact with itself and press down with a fork. Place on a Pam-sprayed insulated baking sheet.
Mix one egg with one TBS of water and brush on the tops of the pies. Cut slits into each pie to vent.

Place in a 400F pre-heated grill, close the grill and bake for 20 mins.
Bake until brown and bubbling.
Enjoy!

Sunday Morning Pancakes

As with many families, Sunday morning breakfast is a much loved ritual. Sunday breakfast in our household means either pancakes, French toast or eggs with sausage or bacon. After playing around with a few pancake recipes we came up with our own healthy, hearty whole grain pancake recipe that we just love and I'm going to share it with you.

Our Pancakes
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flax meal
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
6 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups milk

Mix the dry ingredients first with a whisk.
To the dry ingredients add the eggs, oil, vanilla and whisk into the dry ingredients. Slowly add the milk and whisk together until mixed but do not over-mix. Let the batter rest about 15 minutes before cooking in a greased pan or griddle over medium-high heat.
Cook until lightly-browned then turn to brown the other side. Once browned on both sides you are ready to serve and top with butter, maple syrup or whatever strikes your fancy. Enjoy!