Now that's a good night


I'm back on the low carb kick so I did bacon cheeseburgers wrapped in bib lettuce with brussel sprouts. Extra bacon on the side lol

The chicken last night turned out very good. Brined it in salt water and pickle juice, then coated it with olive oil, lemon pepper and old bay. Nice, crispy skin, great flavor. Had one breast and thigh left that I'll use to make chicken salad with later.

Picked up some bone in thick cut chops from the butcher this morning. Rubbed down with a coffee, brown sugar and cayenne mixture. Got them on a bakers rack air drying in the refrigerator.

Mrs. said she'd fix baked beans, macaroni salad, and her late mama's recipe (now hers) banana pudding for dessert. Marrying up is a good thing.

Having a few beers and smoking some chicken, sides are going to be easy...baked beans.

Even the best laid plans....lol. Chops will be done on Sunday now.

We took off mid-morning to get some chores done and to visit a local nursery my wife frequents; they were having a spring planting sale. On the way, we are going past one of our favorite restaurants, so she suggests "let's stop in for a bloody mary and maybe light snack"....all this after I'd cooked breakfast for us earlier.

Two bloody marys and two mimosas, some buffalo shrimp and a burger with ham, swiss, bacon, lump crabmeat, blt, later, we get to the nursery. Do her shopping. On the way home, she say "I'm not very hungry for dinner".. thankfully, she said it before I did. Damn... if we eat anything tonight it will be a small salad. The chops meal will be fixed on Sunday.

Cheers and great grilling, y'all.

Haha that sounds like a good Saturday!

I grilled a couple of ribeyes in the 14oz range. Keeping it low carb we did what would essentially be a loaded baked potato casserole but used chunked cauliflower instead. Not bad. Steaks turned out to be a good medium rare. Had George Stagg neat to go with. Now I'm going to build a fire outside and listen to some Jamey Johnson

Going to light the charcoal during this tv time out. Had some hickory chips soaking in wood since early afternoon. The chops have been out an hour, coming up to room temp...I'm thinking they are going to be good.
Mrs. BTG had the sides ready yesterday, so very little to do but enjoy a glass of wine while the chops are cooking.

Today is my Friday. Burgers tonight. Beach the rest of the weekend.

Bell Tower Grey said:

---

Today is my Friday. Burgers tonight. Beach the rest of the weekend.

---

Good for you brother. I'm doing some pork chops tonight. Got to wait till Friday before I can head east though

^picking up some burgers to grill later, beer in hand...what a beautiful day.

Smoked some chicken wings last night over hickory wood. Took them about 30min at 300deg. I had rubbed them with a honey bbq rub. Served em up with some squash/zucchini/onions and asparagus/bacon. Also enjoyed a little Tito toddy while I was doing the cooking. Headed east this afternoon to hopefully find some better weather tomorrow. The Lowe's Foods at Cape Carteret has prime grade beef as well as dry aged. I see a large steak in my future

It's race day, gonna grill some nice thick burgers and wife is gonna make some jalepeno peppers for snakes. Of coarse some beer as well. Never grilled burgers the other day liked I had hoped.

Have been down with the flu since last Friday night...beach trip was replaced with trip to the doctor. Been in bed almost the entire time since. Finally starting to feel better. Lost 12 pounds - haven't eaten anything except cereal or oatmeal, and drinking juice and water. May try to light the grill and put some chops on later this evening.

Haven't had flu in years. I only know a handful of folks that I'd wish this on. Ugh.

Bell Tower Grey said:

---

Have been down with the flu since last Friday night...beach trip was replaced with trip to the doctor. Been in bed almost the entire time since. Finally starting to feel better. Lost 12 pounds - haven't eaten anything except cereal or oatmeal, and drinking juice and water. May try to light the grill and put some chops on later this evening.

Haven't had flu in years. I only know a handful of folks that I'd wish this on. Ugh.

---

Hate to hear that! Glad that you are feeling better. Nothing like some grilled chops to cure what ails you!

Ground up some rib eye and some chuck, added kosher salt, cracked black pepper and worcestershire sauce and patted the meat out for burgers. Also grilled 10 pieces of bacon. Threw a couple of wet hickory chips onto the coals while the burgers and bacon were grilling. Mrs. fixed double fried potatoes. I put some garlic butter on the buns and warmed them up on the grill as well. Not too bad tonight.

Just picked up a 1.5", bone in rib eye, and three 1.5" bone in pork chops to grill tonight. Chops are in the brine. Steak was seasoned with dalmation and a little woosty sauce, and is on a bakers rack in the fridge.
Grilling sweet potatoes and broccoli as well. Mrs. if fixing her mom's recipe homemade banana pudding for dessert. I'm past ready, right now.

Bell Tower Grey said:

---

Just picked up a 1.5", bone in rib eye, and three 1.5" bone in pork chops to grill tonight. Chops are in the brine. Steak was seasoned with dalmation and a little woosty sauce, and is on a bakers rack in the fridge.
Grilling sweet potatoes and broccoli as well. Mrs. if fixing her mom's recipe homemade banana pudding for dessert. I'm past ready, right now.

---

Woooo you've got it going on. I did some burgers last night and I thought they were good but you've got me sweating right now. Enjoy!

^ sounds good, hope everything turned out great....grilled some bbq chicken last night myself...very good.

Grilled some burgers last night. Mixed in some Palmetto brand jalapeno pimento cheese with the meat before throwing them on the grill. Had some thin cut potato slices with butter and old bay on them that I grilled along with the burgers. Not too bad.

I could(and maybe have) eat that Palmetto cheese with a spoon.

JocoPack said:

---

I could(and maybe have) eat that Palmetto cheese with a spoon.

---

My only regret about it is that I didn't find out about it sooner. The jalapeno is great; the bacon, not so much.

Pro tip: Mix the two together on toast.

JocoPack said:

---

Sounds great Wilm! You sound like me, I cook outside at least 4 days a week. Pretty much regardless of weather lol. Right now I have a couple of steaks about to go on the mini max egg while I have some leftover ear corn from the freezer on the gas grill. I'm enjoying this low carb diet. Steaks on a Wednesday Will try and provide pics later if I can ever figure out how to post them from my phone.

---

This is somethings inspiring, as sometimes I also like to make food. Usually I used my moms kitchen to make my comfort food item. I like Pizza and grilled sandwich.

Grilled pizzas tonight. One was sliced ribeye steak with portobello mushrooms, goat cheese and sauteed onions with a sauce mix of A1, woosty, and beef stock. The other was mozarella, onions, peppers, tomatoes and chicken with alfredo sauce. Both turned out pretty good.

Wow that does sound good Bell. What kind of grill did you cook them on? What temp?

JocoPack said:

---

Wow that does sound good Bell. What kind of grill did you cook them on? What temp?

---

I'm a traditional, old school, old guy so I cooked them on my Webber 22 charcoal. Offset them in order to be able to add charcoal as needed to keep the temp about 375. I did add some hickory chips to the coals just to experiment. That turned out to be a major win. The crusts picked up a hint of that smoke and offered a truly unique taste to the pizza. Most eveyone agreed that it was something we should have that way again.

I want a true outdoor kitchen, but am hesitant on building one now since I am contemplating full retirement, which means we will most likely be moving to the lake. Once that is done, I'll go ahead and fix it the way I want it. To heck with a man cave, I will have the man deck / patio that would make Tim Allen proud, lol.

Me and you are on the same wave length. Yeah give me a nice tv inside to watch sports when I'm not at the games, but my money is going outside! My dad recently installed a nice automatic awning over his outdoor kitchen that you can control with a remote. Has lights and everything. Needless to say I'm pretty envious and will be looking at getting one myself pretty soon.

My wife went down to the beach with our son a day early. That means I cooked a nice 12oz ribeye on the egg with some mushrooms and onions on the black stone. Made an old fashioned with some Larceny and put on Tombstone. Life is good boys

I've very new to grilling, and just do it on a gas grill currently. I just did some Salmon on cedar planks that I got for father's day and they turned out good. I used a "plank saver" type metal grate that's supposed to extend the life of the planks a couple more times.

Any tips on how to keep the salmon from sticking to the plank? I soaked the plank like instructed but wasn't sure if I should be putting something down on the plank.

statefan91 said:

---

I've very new to grilling, and just do it on a gas grill currently. I just did some Salmon on cedar planks that I got for father's day and they turned out good. I used a "plank saver" type metal grate that's supposed to extend the life of the planks a couple more times.

Any tips on how to keep the salmon from sticking to the plank? I soaked the plank like instructed but wasn't sure if I should be putting something down on the plank.

---

How long did you soak it? I've seen it recommended to soak for at least an hour. I usually put mine in water that morning before I leave for work. Not really sure it makes a difference. I have a little bit stick every time. I just take one of those pampered chef scraper squares (I suppose literally anything with an edge could work) and try and get it off the best I can. At the end of the day it's a cheap piece of wood that only the skin of the fish is going to touch anyway so I wouldn't worry too much about it.


Now onto the important stuff. What did you put on it? We grew some dill in our garden this year and put a few fresh sprigs of that along with some lemon slices on the salmon while we grill it.

Thanks for the advice!

I bought some blackening spice mix that turned out fantastic. I used that on a couple pieces of salmon and then I used some of Chef Paul Prudhome's magic salmon seasoning on some other pieces: https://www.amazon.com/Chef-Paul-Prudhommes-Magic-Seasoning/dp/B00744ZBPO. Good stuff, has almost a sweet flavor.

Soak the planks as long as possible. Before you put your protein on the plank, brush it with a little oil (I use peanut) on the surface that will be in contact with the plank. It may stick some, but the oil will help it release properly and also help crisp the contact side.

Not sure if this was new thread worthy, but did feel like it would fit in here.

If you guys have a Kitchen Aide mixer and don't have the grinder attachment, please do yourselves a favor and get one. I bought one a good while back and started grinding my own beef for burgers. Probably have not purchased store ground beef in a year or more.

The quality of the burgers is far better than anything at the grocery store, and in many cases is better than what you purchase in restaurants. Hell, the fast food joints don't even count anymore.

As a result of having contracted Lyme Disease years ago, my wife can no longer eat red meat, so I also use the grinder to mix pork and chicken cuts to grill burgers for her when I want a good beef hamburger.

If you may be hesitant to buy one, Amazon has refurbished units for very little investment. My first one was a refurb, which I wound up "loaning" to our son and haven't seen since. I purchased another refurb and it works great, as did the other one.

There are all types of recipes online to guide you as to which cuts of meat make the best burgers. As is typically the case, experimentation and trial and error yield the best lessons for what may suit your palate. I have hit on a particular blend now that gets great compliments from nearly everyone that has tried them.

Good luck and great grilling...and, Cheers!

statefan91 said:

---

I've very new to grilling, and just do it on a gas grill currently. I just did some Salmon on cedar planks that I got for father's day and they turned out good. I used a "plank saver" type metal grate that's supposed to extend the life of the planks a couple more times.

Any tips on how to keep the salmon from sticking to the plank? I soaked the plank like instructed but wasn't sure if I should be putting something down on the plank.

---

If you are near the triangle area, it's worth your time to go by Grill Billies in Wendell. It's the "superstore" for folks that like to grill and smoke food; plus, it is a locally owned, independent store. They have all types of grills, smokers, accessories, sauces and rubs that anyone would want. Joe, the owner, is a great guy even though he is a northerner. He used to have a competition cook team and knows his business. He can advise anyone from the novice griller to the seasoned backyard pro.

Good grilling and Cheers!

Put chicken breasts and thighs in a brine of lemon pepper, old bay and kosher salt yesterday afternoon. Stirred them around this morning after I got up. They should be good to go on the grill late this evening after the temperature cools down some.

Going to be heading back from the beach today, want to get home in time to watch the race and grill something...not sure yet, got a three hour drive....drinking will be in order since I don't have to go in early to work tomorrow...yes