Amberjack and Confetti Couscous

subtitled: the answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.

A quick stop at the fish market landed me some very fresh locally caught Amberjack! I was planning a quick grilling along with some mixed greens. My daughter decided to get involved in the kitchen and made a confetti couscous salad. Marissa's couscous absolutely turned this meal into something remarkable. Her couscous salad went so well with the amberjack. It also looked gorgeous on the plate, don't you think?

I made a quick marinade that I am calling Thai Basil Marinade. I have several types of basil growing in my yard. It requires zero maintenance, makes a nice landscape plant and it is great for cooking. 

I'll give you a peek. Check this out:

Back to the marinade....

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon of honey

A few tablespoons of fresh chopped Thai Basil

a few chopped garlic cloves

Toss the amberjack in the marinade and put it in the fridge for about an hour.

By the way... Ever hear of Keepeez? This is a very cool product. Instead of lids for bowls, or plastic wrap or plastic bags, you can use these things instead. Easier, plus you're not throwing plastic bags in the garbage. Here...  watch this little video:

After the marinade I threw a little salt and pepper on the fish and tossed on the grill for about 6 or 8 minutes per side. A quick garnish of lemon and lime with a sprig of the Thai Basil bloom finished off the  amberjack.

Now... The great Confetti Couscous salad that Marissa made:

A small box of whole wheat couscous

One red pepper, diced

One carrot, sliced super thin

2 cups of shredded red cabbage

about 4 chopped green onions

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

a teaspoon of curry powder

Toss the veggies in the cooked couscous

Mix the lemon juice, vinegar and curry power together, then add it to the couscous.

Toss it all around, and then add a little salt to taste.

Put this in the fridge for about 30 minutes and serve it chilled.

Very easy to make and absolutely scrumptious! I love it when my kids get involved in cooking!

The couscous and the amberjack played off each other very well. It was a fantastic meal.

So for this week, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Chipotle Chicken KoЯn Chowder

subtitled: feeling like a freak on a leash!
Does it count as a grilling recipe if I didn't grill this, but used leftover grilled chicken that I had in the freezer? I think so....

Remember the Beer Can Chicken? I had leftover chicken from a few weeks ago that I shredded and threw in a bag and tossed it in the freezer.

I was going to take this weekend off from cooking. My sister and her family were in town and we had a huge Italian feast last night. I didn't have to do anything except show up with a few bottles of wine and eat. My brother-in-law is Italian and his family knows how to feed a big group. One of the family owns Capo de Monte Deli on Seminole Blvd in Seminole, FL. If you want phenomenal Italian food, check this place out!

So this morning I decided it would be a great day to get back to work on restoring my little 15' Boston Whaler. It's going great by the way. I'm almost ready to put it back together. Today's job was to put the last coat of varnish (coat # 8) on the mahogany.

Midway through the varnishing job, my wife opened the garage door and said "Darlene is on her way... what's for lunch?" Oh Yeah... I forgot! So this was a quick throw together soup with the left over frozen chicken from a few weeks ago. I did a google search for chicken corn chowder and found a simple recipe on the Food Network's site. Of course I had to tweak it to make it my own, and also substitutes for the stuff the recipe called for that I didn't have on hand.

The soup came out fantastic! I'll put a link to the recipe at the end of this post. My tweak was to use chipotle pepper in place of jalapeno pepper, and use cream in place of milk. Everything else was exactly like the recipe. It took about 30 minutes to throw this together and it was really good! I'll bet this soup is even better as left overs.

So, as it turned out, I did cook this weekend and made a great meal for our company and had something to blog about. And to top it off, tomorrow's dinner is sitting in the fridge getting even better. And I had time to complete my varnishing on the little boat.

If you're looking for a quick and easy soup, try this (with my tweaks!) You don't have to grill a chicken, just buy a rotisserie bird from the grocery store.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/creamy-spicy-corn-chowder-with-chicken-recipe/index.html

That's all for now.... Next weekend I'm thinking I need to do an all veggie project. Any suggestions?

Transported to Chicago in a single bite!

Grilled Nathan's Dawgs

Poppy Seed Bun

Sweet Relish

Yellow Mustard

Tomato

Diced Onion

Celery Seed

Sport Peppers

Nuff Said

Some of you can taste this by just looking at the picture... Others don't have a clue!

Oh man!!!!! Sometimes the simplest recipe is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm off to have another!

Beer Can Chicken

subtitled: 99 cans of beer on the wall, 99 cans of beer, take one down, shove it up a chicken, 98 cans of beer on the wall....

Sittin' Pretty

This is the easiest and best way to cook a whole chicken. Super simple and a guaranteed success. Plus it's just a fun to prepare and makes good conversation for your guests.

I like to use a plump roaster for this. Nice and meaty. Rinse the whole chicken and pat it dry. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on the bird and rub it all over. I use a rub made of 1 part Old Bay seasoning, 1 part Tony Chachere's seasoning, and 1 part sugar. Coat the bird with the rub, inside and out.

Now comes the beer. Open a can of your favorite beer. I prefer a full bodied beer or a good stout. Guinness is my favorite for this recipe. Open the top of the can with a can opener. This only uses a half a can of beer so you'll have to find something to do with the extra beer. I'm sure you'll figure it out.

Now stuff your favorite fresh herbs in the can. Fresh sage, fresh basil and a few cloves of garlic is what I use. Imagine the steaming Guinness with these flavors infusing the chicken from the inside while it cooks!

OK... Here's the part you've been waiting for! Stand the chicken up and put it over the can. The chicken will stand on the can and it's legs. You can get a beer can holder from just about any home store in the grilling section. This makes the bird a bit more stable, but it's not necessary.

Prep the grill... This cooks over indirect heat. A pile of hot coals on each side of the grill, and in the center between the coals place a baking pan or pyrex pan to catch the drippings. The grill should stabilize around 350 degrees.

Place the chicken on the center of the grill, close the lid, and figure out what to do with the five beers remaining in the six pack you bought. (or four pack if you got Guinness). In about an hour check the temp of the bird in a few spots. The target temp is 165, and after an hour it's probably close to 145. After the first hour check it every 15 minutes until it's at 165.

Be careful with the bird when it's done. I use two pair of tongs - one to hold the bird and one to get the can out. I do this over the grill so the beer in the can spills out in the drip pan. You'll figure it out.

Let the bird sit for about 15 minutes, and then carve away. Mmm Mmm Good!

Now it's your turn.... make this and let me know how you do. (Or come over to our place with a chicken and a six pack of beer and we'll make it together!)

Fajitas with an orange chipotle sauce

subtitled: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness!

Click on this picture. Doesn't this look good!

The secret is in the sauce! This is worth a try. I've been tinkering with an orange chipotle sauce and I think I'm done tinkering. Jot this down:

2 cups orange juice
1 & 1/2 teaspoons of the sauce from a can of chipotle peppers
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup dry white wine
about an 1/8 of a cup of balsamic vinegar

Bring this to a boil. Reduce to about 3/4 of a cup. Maybe 45 minutes on medium. Keep a close eye on this.

That's it. Let this stuff cool and it's good to go. (sneak a taste on your finger... good, huh!?)

I used equal parts paprika, cumin, coriander, thyme, and old bay as a rub on the top round steak. I pounded the steak with a tenderizer mallet.

I grilled some onions and green peppers in a cast iron pan on the grill. At the same time, I cooked the steak to medium. I brushed orange chipotle sauce on steak as a glaze while cooking.

I took the steak off the grill and let it rest for about 10 minutes. This was a good time to heat up both corn and flour tortillas. I tossed the sliced steak in the hot cast iron pan and poured in enough orange chipotle sauce to coat the steak well. I immediately took the hot skillet to the table and served the feast.

 

Serve the orange chipotle seasoned steak and onions/peppers on a grilled tortilla with tomato, lettuce, avocado, fresh lime juice, cheese, and cilantro along with black beans and rice. A shot of tequila is the perfect beverage to complement this oh so tastey meal!

This was great! I'd make this again. If nothing else, this blog is a way for me to keep track of my favorite meals. Note to self... you really liked this. Make it again!

North Carolina Trout - From Fishin' Pole to Plate!

subtitled: Fish and whistle, whistle and fish
Eat everything that they put on your dish

We escaped to the wilderness of the Great Smokey Mountains for a few days. We are wasting the days hiking, fishing and tubing down a crisp mountain creek. Our evenings are spent stargazing and roasting marshmallows over the camp fire. It's a nice way to end the summer.

We had a great time fishing for trout today. Marissa caught the first fish, soon followed by Tommy. I have to say, Tommy looks very proud with his catch. When the day was over everyone caught fish and we had nine good sized trout to take back to the cabin and throw on the grill. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, like fresh fresh fresh fish!

A quick stop at the local farm stand landed us some fresh locally grown yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes and red peppers. I'm ready to grill!

A trusty cast iron skilled did the trick to saute the zucchini, squash and pepper. A little melted butter and seasoning salt is all it took.

 

I stuffed the trout with lime slices and a pad of butter, and added some seasoning. Wrapped each fish in foil and put it on the grill. I kept it real simple because I didn't want to overpower the flavor of the fresh trout. I cooked it for about 8 minuted on each side.

This was such a simple meal but, oh so good! The skin just fell off the fish and the bone lifted right out. Just knowing that dinner was swimming a few hours ago makes it taste even better. A really nice country fresh meal in the mountains!

If you are ever near Bryson City, NC and you want to catch fish - guaranteed! - check out Coopers Creek Fish Farm. They start with little baby trout and feed them the highest quality fish feed. The holding tanks are constantly filled with fresh mountain stream water that overflows into a creek. As the fish get bigger, they are moved down to the next holding tank until they are eventually released into the stream fed pond. They supply the fishing rods and the worms. You only pay for what you catch and, if you like, they will clean your fish for you. It's a great way to have fun with the family.

On Top of Old Smokey - Veggie Pizza

Pizza and beer on a Friday evening! 

subtitled: and your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick

I've never made pizza on the grill before. I'd heard about using bricks on the grill to turn it into a brick pizza oven. So... why not? I'll give it a shot and see what happens.

The grocery store has fresh pizza dough ready to roll in the bakery section. My garden is still abundantly overflowing with basil - 3 different types. I went up and down the isles of the grocery store picking out what ever else looked good.


Here's the list of stuff that went on the pizza:

Olive oil
3 types of basil from the garden
Pizza sauce
Goat cheese crumbles
Ricotta cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Spinach
Mushrooms
Onions
Garlic
Salt & Pepper




I rolled the dough on the counter covered with flour. By the way, countertops are for prepping food. Granite counters work great for this. I have some friends that are sooo afraid to get a drop of anything on their countertops. Drives me crazy! That's what they are there for! Any way, I brushed the dough with olive oil, added the sauce and sliced garlic, added the basil, goat cheese and ricotta cheese. It;s looking good, don't you think?

Then I smothered the pizza with the Mozzarella cheeses blend, covered it with spinach, mushrooms, and onions. I drizzled a little more olive oil over the pizza and added a bit of salt and pepper. It's ready for the grill and looking really good!

The grill: I used lots of smokey mesquite and heated the grill up to 450. Once the grill was hot I added the bricks and let the bricks heat up for 30 minutes. Before putting the pizza on the bricks I covered them with corn meal. Getting the pizza on the grill was a bit of a challenge. The soft dough didn't want to slide off the cookie sheet. It lost it's round shape. I should have covered the sheet with corn meal too.

About 25 minutes later I checked the progress. It looks and smells fantastic! Must be done! Well, almost. The dough in the center was still undercooked. I guess the bricks weren't hot enough. So I took the pizza off the grill, removed the bricks, and put the pizza directly on the grill grate for another 10 minutes. This did the trick. The edges were a little extra crispy but the center was cooked through.

HERE'S THE FINISHED PRODUCT! 

It may not be a round pizza anymore but it sure looks good! 

The verdict is.... It was OK. It was cooked right and the crispy crust has a great texture. The problem was the smokey flavor. A bit too smokey. OK...way to smokey. I had 3 pieces and convinced myself it was fantastic while I was eating. (The "my baby can't be ugly" syndrome). When I was finished my mouth felt like I had just smoked a couple of cigars. I'll definitely do pizza on the grill again, but I need to invest in a pizza stone for grilling and omit the big chunks of mesquite.

Coming next time.... I'm going to be in trout country for a week, Fishing and grilling!