Porktacular!
So, we decided to grill some good stuff for Memorial Day, as I think we are required, by law, to grill on this holiday. We came up with a couple pork tenderloins and potato packets. We had never grilled pork tenderloins, but had just cooked them in the oven, previously. I wasn't really sure what I was doing or how to grill them, but in winging it, the product turned out delicious.
On the grill in the below picture, the potato packets (mine seasoned with worcestershire and the lady's seasoned with garlic and rosemary) are on the left, and both tenderloins were seasoned with a homemade dry rub of a whole bunch o'stuff, consisting of paprika, kosher salt, cumin, and some other junk. The tenderloin on the left was cooked with only the dry rub (in order to form a good crust) and the one on the right was glazed with a thrown-together concoction of cumin, the dry rub, liquid smoke, dijon mustard, worcestershire, and molasses.
And here is the finished product, with an action(!) shot of slicing the tenderloin:
(zoom in and check out the unintentional baby smoke ring)
The end result was ridiculously good and was possibly the best pork product I've had in years. The non-glazed tenderloin was actually far better, because of the crust, which helped retain the juiciness of the pork. The glazed tenderloin was still pretty good, but the glaze added so much flavor, that it actually overshadowed the interplay of flavors in the pork and the rub. In sum, I would definitely recommend heavily applying a rub and grilling pork tenderloins. The end.
Labels: cooking, grilling, Memorial Day, pork
Happy Memorial Day
In memory of a fallen 6-pack that recently met its demise, I have posted a (tasty) picture of one of Boulevard's soldiers, shortly before consumption. . .
But seriously, have a happy Memorial Day with your respective families and give thanks to the veterans who made the celebratory day possible.
(Grill pictures to come)
Labels: beer, Memorial Day
Yum, pie.
I made a strawberry pie today- yum! I may tweak the recipe a bit, but this was so easy to make and is very refreshing!
Labels: baking, pie
I Made Some Lace.
Branching OutMy first attempt at lace! I think it turned out pretty well, the worst of it is that I made it as a gift, and really just wanted to keep it for myself!
The pattern is from Knitty.com. I used 2 skeins of some sort of wool/acrylic blend from JoAnn's that was on sale. These first two pictures show off the stitch pattern.
This is more true to color, though it was not nearly this bright in person. It was probably a mix of the color of the upper pictures with this one.
I'd definitely make this again, pretty impressive without too much work. Though it is definitely a paying-attention project. I learned the value of knitting with a lifeline quickly, though I only had to rip back once!
Labels: knitting, scarf
Happy Mother's Day!
Black Forest CheesecakeWe had dinner over at my mom's for Mother's Day. I brought the salad and the following cheesecake. It was absolutely delicious and looked much better than these photos show. I am seriously an abysmal food photographer. Plus, I was trying to take the pictures in a hurry so not everyone would ask me why I was taking pictures of a cheesecake. Anyway, here you go. Mmm, cheesecake.
Labels: baking, cheesecake
Burgers . . . Cuban-style
Almost immediately after watching the burgers episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay, we knew we wanted to re-create his
Pressed Cuban-style Burgers, which are featured in the show. What makes them different? Well, they have a pretty pedestrian patty that is pressed together with pepper jack cheese and pickles, but is topped with a piece of ham, and the buns have a liberally-applied type of mustard-garlic aioli, which is delicious on these burgers, but also works well on regular sandwiches and other foods. This is the 2nd time we have now made these burgers and they have been delicious on both occasions.
This is the pre-pressed, and pre-foiled burger that has already been cooked and is waiting to be melded together.
This is how we pressed the burger together, with a tea kettle inside of a skillet, sitting atop the two foil-wrapped burgers. On the show, they used a foil-covered brick, but since we weren't grilling this outside, we made do with what we had inside.
This is the gloriously delicious finished product, and if you click on the picture, you can zoom in to really see the gooey-ness of the burgers. Gooey and messy = incredibly tasty.
Labels: burgers, cooking
Green thumb?
The Vegetable Garden!It's all planted, now to see if things will actually grow! Clearly I need to work on my photography skills, but you can get a pretty good idea of the layout of the garden.
Up front are the tomatoes ( I got a variety, because I don't know what will grow well and taste good) and the red peppers.
Here are the strawberries! I've never grown strawberries before and have no idea if they'll actually grow.
One cucumber seedling and a row of green beans that will hopefully grow from seed.
A parting shot.
The herb garden is also growing nicely. The chives and basil have both sprouted, despite my fears that the torrential rains last week washed all the seeds away!
Sunday Smoke-tacular
I decided to break in my new smoker with a 7-pound pork shoulder. This is the start of my 8 hours of smoking, after a liberal seasoning of a homemade rub, consisting of a lot of kosher salt, paprika, cayenne, garlic, onion, and black pepper.
After 8 hours, I was left with this juicy piece o' pork.
Here is a cross-section view.
Here is a closer view of the smoke ring. Click on the picture to zoom in. . . IF YOU DARE.
Action shot of me pulling the pork, resulting in . . .
. . . a lot of meat that we, our family and friends, will be eating for the next week.
Labels: cooking, pork, smoker
Prelude to a Smoke Ring
As an undercard to Sunday's smoky goodness, we grilled a really simple meal of bratwursts and corn on the cob. It was awfully good.
Labels: bratwurst, cooking, corn, grill
You Say Ris-ah-to, I Say Ri-SO-tto
. . . So let's call the whole thing off.
Yeah, that's the punniest title I could think of, but why don't YOU try finding a pun for risotto. Okay, here's a pic of the Italian Risotto that Pan made the other day, which was extremely delicious, despite the rather unattractive, unartistic nature of this photo.
It features arborio, lots o'broth, red peppers, italian sausage, freshly grated asiago, and a sprig of parsley in an attempt to make it appear less slurry-like.
I just received a new Brinkmann smoker in the mail (thanks Westlaw!), so you can expect to see some smoke-tastic pictures soon, including a pork shoulder that is soon to meet its smoky demise.
Labels: cooking, food, risotto
Get a Job, You Slacker!
Labels: cat, Gizmo
(zoom in and check out the unintentional baby smoke ring)
