BBQ Pork Salad

So we have established that I like to grill and use my smoker as much as possible.  As much as I want to have only a meat and potatoes diet, we also need to eat healthy right?  Here's a quick idea if you have leftover bbq pork...which you probably will.  If you didn't catch it here's the link to last weeks smoking.

I made this at work on Monday.  The great thing about smoking meat is there is always a bunch left, so I brought extra for my co-workers.  It was delicious.

What did I use?  The recipe is super easy.

Spinach, cherry tomatoes, avocado, some shredded carrots, a can of mandarin oranges and some sweet vidalia onion dressing.  There is always extra servings from the can of mandarin oranges and avocado so it's a great idea to share with some co-workers or friends!  Plus they'll thank you for it!

There's always left over spinach and vegetables for the next day's lunch!  Enjoy!

Sweet Pork Sandwiches with Tangy Coleslaw and Homemade BBQ Sauce

It's been a while since I blogged about BBQ pulled pork sandwiches.  Mostly this is becuase of my lack of picture taking throughout the process.  So, I'm trying to work on that.

Today I wanted to go for something a little more sweeter than the list time I blogged about pork.  I'm the only person in the house that really likes spicy food and I have tendency to overdo the spicy rub so today, no spicy.  :(

It seems to me BBQ is always about following someones recipe.  Do a google search and the recipes are endless.   There are so many different ways to BBQ and today, I felt like cleaning about the cupboards a little and kind of doing my own thing.  I have no idea the exact measurements but the family raved how good it was.....so I must be on the right track.  I have listed below what I think the approximate measurements are.

The Rub

• 1/2 a bottle of Tri-R-Seasoning.
• 1 Cup of Brown Sugar
• 2T of Kosher Salt
• 2T Black Pepper
• 2T Celery Salt
• 2T Spanish Paprika
• 2T Garlic Salt
• 1T Ground Mustard
• 1T Sugar
• 1/2 T Ground Cumin

I added some of this rub to the apple juice and injected the pork butt.  I also reserved about a 1/4 c to sprinkle on the meat after it had been chopped and to add some to the bbq sauce.

The Slaw

Tangy Coleslaw Recipe -

• 1/3 C cider vinegar
• 1/3 C Canola Oil
• 1/3 C Sugar
• 1.5 t celery seed
• 1 T Kosher Salt
• 1/2 t black pepper
• 1/2 head of cabbage thinly sliced
• 2 C shredded carrots
• 2 C thinly sliced yellow onion
• 1 C thinly sliced red pepper

Directions:  Cut, Mix, Eat

The Sauce

• 2 C Ketchup
• 1 1/2 C Brown Sugar
• 3/4 C Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 C Water
• 1 Medium Yellow Onion - Diced
• 2T Worcestershire Sauce
• 3-4 Cloves of Garlic minced up. 
• 1T ground Mustard
• 2T of Yellow Mustard
• 1 T of the seasoning mentioned above.
• 2-3 T of spicy brown mustard

After you get this boiling on the stove, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 1 hour and then run through a strainer to have a smooth sweet tasting slightly tangy BBQ sauce.  

 

I went ahead and put this on the smoker in -1 degree weather!   Brrrrr

In order to help the meat along, I used the Texas Crutch.

I chopped up the meat this time instead of pulling it...It's up to you either way.

The finished product!

Want to know what to do with the leftovers?  Tomorrow I'll be making a BBQ salad for lunch!

Shrimp Tacos

It's Sunday March 2 and today I'm planning multiple meals for the week.  It's -1 outside so I guess there isn't much else to do, right? 

Today's Lunch - Shrimp Tacos with Tangy Coleslaw.  I'm also bbq'ing a pork butt (which we'll need the slaw for the sandwiches) and some ring sausage and chicken for the jumbalaya we'll have later this week. 

Shrimp tacos are the easiest thing to make, and so yummy.  A few frozen shrimp, some old bay or creole seasoning, and some chipotle mayo and you have yourself a healthy and nutritious lunch.  Oh, don't forget to take the tails off the shrimp.

The upside is our kids love them too.  They love anything with shrimp, I would leave off the chipotle mayo though, that might be a little on the spicy side for the children.

Here's the coleslaw recipe.

Tangy Coleslaw Recipe - This is courtesy of my Weber's Smoke cookbook.

• 1/3 C cider vinegar
• 1/3 C Canola Oil
• 1/3 C Sugar
• 1.5 t celery seed
• 1 T Kosher Salt
• 1/2 t black pepper

• 1/2 head of cabbage thinly sliced
• 1 cucumber cut into thin half moons
• 2 C shredded carrots
• 2 C thinly sliced yellow onion
• 1 C thinly sliced red pepper
• 1 C thinly sliced green pepper

Directions:  Cut, Mix, Eat

You can also check out my page for pork and slaw sandwiches. 

Balsamic Tenderloin with Mostacholi

Wondering what do with leftover beef tenderloin?

We had a balsamic glazed tenderloin for thanksgiving with some Balsamic Grill Sauce we received as a gift in our wine order from VML Wines.  The glaze is from Earthsbountyfinefoods and is delicious.  We didn't have enough so I ended up making more to use to drizzle over the meat.  I think they both tasted equally good and were very similar.  Here's the recipe I used.  I'll warn you though, the smell of reducing balsamic vinegar will smell up the whole house and burn your nostrils.  It's a recipe from Bobby Flay.

So here's what I did.

I took the leftover tenderloin which was about 1.5 lbs and cut 1 to 1.25 inch slices and made large cubes of meat.  I then coated this in the balsamic glaze and let sit.  Since this was already cooked I put under the broiler for about 8-10 minutes


 















While that was cooking I also had the Mostacholi boiling away and started cooking some onions and mushrooms.  When they were about 4-5 minutes from being done I added some garlic and cherry tomatoes.  I also seasoned with S+P and a little garlic salt.    

At the end I mixed it all together and served.  Everyone at it up, including the kids.  I topped it off with some french bread and Parmesan cheese.  Enjoy!

If you do use the recipe, please let me know!  I would like to hear!

 

Smoked Chili with Tri Tip and Prime Rib

Yesterday was one of those days where I just had to smoke something.  I know what your thinking.... but I was thinking food.  I ended up smoking a pork butt, whole chicken, tri trip and ring sausage.  Last nights meal was pulled pork and the sausage  but I thought I would use the smoked tri tip in a chili.  I also had a few pieces of prime rib that I had smoked a while back and were sitting in the freezer and I could put them all together for something good.

Off to the store I went today and stocked up and then started the process about 10:30 AM.  A friend of mine recommended a station on Pandora called Tag Team which is old school to decade old Rap.  Run DMC, Beastie boys, Cypress Hill, Will Smith, etc....  I was rocking out and making chili just having a blast. It's to bad the family was here because I would have seriously cranked it so loud the neighbors would have been rockin!

This chili had a nice smokey flavor and was surprisingly good.  The family ate it and commented on how good it was.  I guess I must have got it right.  I searched the internet for smoked chili and didn't really find much for inspiration and even less when I search for smoked tri tip.  I know there's a big argument as to whether or not you should use beans in chili.  I don't care about the argument, I like the beans so that's the way I made it.

Here's my ingredient List:

MEAT
1 package of bacon
4 pounds of smoked tri tip
2 pounds of prime rib. (this was the left over..)

INGREDIENTS
1 yellow onion
1 red onion
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 jalapeno ( I made sure to get some seeds in there for heat.)
2 cans dark red kidney beans
1 can light red kidney beans
3 cans fire roasted tomatoes ( I thought these would go good with the smoked meat.)
1 (28 oz) can of tomato sauce
1 Beer - I used the Boulevard Single wide IPA

SPICES
4 T Chili Powder
2 T Paprika
1 T Cumin
1 T Onion Powder
1 T Garlic Power
1 T Salt
1 T Pepper
1 T Ground Mustard
1/4 C Brown Sugar
2 T Sugar

So here goes.

I wanted to start with the bacon base.  Normally this would mean I cut up the bacon into small pieces and fry in the large pot, but we had bacon and eggs for breakfast so I cooked the bacon earlier and reserved some bacon grease to use as the base.

This was how I fried the bacon for breakfast so I fried the bacon the same way for the chili and just reserved the grease.

Leftover bacon grease to be used to start the chili.

Step 1.  Dice up onion, garlic and jalapeno and add to the hot bacon fat.

Onions softening nicely.

The smoked tri tip from yesterday.  I'm gonna dice it up.

This is the diced up left over prime rib.

I like to build the base by adding the veggies, meat, and some of the paprika and chili power into this concoction.  I don't have any idea if it's the way it should be done, but the way that I do it.

I just added the tomato sauce.  I do that first for the canned ingredients, then in goes the beer...

After the tomato sauce and beer have been added I then add the Beans and fire roasted tomatoes.

I let it simmer on the stove for about 90 minutes and then put in the oven with a lid at 200 for the next 4 hours.

Either way you like it, it's good.  I like mine with cheese and crackers. It had a great flavor.

Smoked Garlic and Thyme Prime Rib

Prime Rib, mmmmmmmmmmmm.    So good, so yummy, so many different ways to make.

Last year at our local Rotary Auction I purchased a Ribeye loin that has been sitting in the freezer for well, a year.  Seemed as though we never really could find the time to have friends over to use it up.  Well, that changed this month.  A few friends and a prime rib dinner, wine, whiskey, beer and it was an eventful evening!  It's to bad we don't do stuff like that more often.

The thing about cooking, smoking, baking, broiling, or whatever is you can take someones idea and make it how you want.  This recipe is something I hadn't tried before and it turned out well, my friends loved it, and the meat was fantastic.  I had searched the internet for some ideas and this is what I came up with.

The loin had the bones removed and was aged for about a week.  Prior to cooking I marinated it the rib roast the night before.  This was a big piece of meat so I felt it needed a lot in the rub.

8 garlic cloves (chopped up)
1/2 package of store bought fresh thyme (chopped up) - Save the rest to put in the au jus.
2 T Cracked Black Pepper
2 T Kosher Salt
1 T Emerils Essense
1 T of Dijon Mustard ( I used Denison Mustard)

I put this in a blender and added olive oil to make it past and proceeded to rub it all over the meat.

After a night of marinating I figured it would take about 3-3.5 hours to get ready and so I wanted to smoke it and have off the smoker around 6PM before everyone arrived.

This piece of meat went into the oven at 450 F for about 2 minutes and got nice and cooked on the outside.  This sears the outside nicely.  After removing from the oven I put on my smoker (WSM) at 200F and set the thermometer so I would remove when the temperature got to 129 F.  I smoked the meat with lump charcoal and added a few lumps of hickory for the smoke.  The smoker kept getting hot and I was seeing temps of 250 but after about an hour I finally got it settled down to the right temp.  They key is to pull at the right temperature.  At 129 this will gain around 8 degrees or so and I found the middle to be just the way I like it and the ends were just the way Emily liked it.

After pulling off the smoker I wrapped in foil and left in a cooler for a little longer than an hour until we ate.

Here are some pics of the process.

Putting on the marinade.  I did this the night before.

This is the prime rib after pulling off the smoker.

A few sprigs of thyme in the au jus.

The meal was delicious.  The prime rib was perfect.  We had this with cheesy potatoes and green beans, bacon and onions.

Enjoy!

This isn't Sirloin Steak!

Yesterday was one of the nicest days of the month.  Thankfully we were able to spend most of the day outside.  Cars washed, lawn mowed, patio furniture in storage, deck power washed, a little nap, and church.  It was a busy day!  My favorite part was the nap.  Unfortunately between the kids fighting it only lasted about 20 minutes.  So now it's 5:15 in the morning, I can't sleep....so let's blog!

The plan was to have Parmesan crusted sirloin steaks for dinner.  I had pulled them out of the freezer a few days ago to let them thaw.  When I pulled them out of the fridge and unwrapped I noticed the wrapper said Sirloin Steak Tip.  Well.... change of plans.

The Tip isn't really good for steak as it's a tougher piece of meat and needs to be marinated and I simply didn't have the time.  So, we changed plans and I decided to do a whiskey glaze sirloin kebabs!  First attempt and they turned out awesome!

I looked on the internet for some recipe's and didn't find one I specifically liked so with a few modifications, this is what I came up with.

Whiskey Glaze!
1 T Onion Powder
1 T Dried Chopped Onions
1/2 T Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 T Chili Powder
1/2 T Dried Mustard
2 T Honey
4 T Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 C Whiskey
2 C Brown Sugar
A splash of Beef stock ( you could also use beef bullion cubes)
1/2 Pineapple Juice.  I didn't have juice so I threw in some pineapple.

Heat over medium heat  to a boil and then lower heat and let it simmer and reduce.  This sauce was a little sweet and a little spicy.  If you  want it thicker, use less pineapple juice.  If you want it thinner, use more juice.

The Sirloin Tip was about 3lbs.  I ended up cutting into cubes and coating with olive oil, putting some off my favorite seasonings on it, and then added a little bit to coat the cubes prior to putting on the grill.

My oldest daughter Haley is learning to cook also.  She helped with the mashed potatoes and grilling the kebabs.  If making dinner is a chore, try cooking with your kids.  They enjoy good food and have fun helping make it!


The whiskey glaze sauce.  Any whiskey will do.

 Seasoned and cubed sirloin steak tip.

 Potatoes ready to be boiled.  I like them with the skins on.

 Emily made a ceasar salad.  Came from the bag from the store.

Steak tips just off the grill!  They are still pink in the middle!

 We tossed the cubes in the Whiskey glaze.   MMMMMMmm

For the mashed potatoes - we diced up 4 potatoes, boiled, added milk, garlic salt, and parmesan cheese.  Haley mixed them up.

Dinner is Served!