Ouch! Grilled Cactus-n-Shrimp Salad

I enjoy using the prickly pear cactus in the pasture for cooking or making jelly ..... and here  

but when I was in the store the other day, I found cactus pads already half-way cleaned. Thinking this would save time I brought a few home. :)

The pads still had a few thorns... 

So I got my trusty channellocks out of the kitchen drawer and found a nice sharp knife to clean the pads up a bit.  The channellocks are handy for holding the cactus while I scrape them with the knife. 

Those darned little thorns are painful if you get one stuck in your hand.  A strip of grey tape will pull them out most of the time but if left in your hand they will irritate the heck out of you. lol 

The cleaned washed cactus...

I had a few ears of "redneck" corn in my freezer. I call them "redneck" corn because they remind me of the friend who showed me how to freeze them this way. 

He has an upright freezer full of corn on the cob and homegrown steaks. That's all. :)

When the corn is ripe, he pick the ears and throws them straight into his freezer without doing anything else to them.  When he cooks on the grill he throws frozen steaks onto the fire and ears of frozen corn still in their husks...

Both the steaks and corn come out perfect. :)

I place the fresh picked corn into a bag before freezing so the silk won't get all over my freezer. 

When you want an ear, run the corn under water to soften the husk a bit, then peel. 

The corn kernals are plump and juicy, just like the day they were picked.  

Some of the salad fixins......

I grilled the corn and cactus first....

then added shrimp that was marinaded in olive oil, sherry and garlic....

Cactus has a bit of "slime" like okra, so rinse it before using in the salad if you want...

I like to add what ever I have on hand.  Grilled cactus, grilled corn, black beans, minced green and red onions, garlic, jalapeno, tomatoes. I like to add jicima when I have it. 

For the dressing I use 1/3 c red wine vinegar, 2/3 c oil, minced garlic, 1 TBs dijon, onion powder, salt and pepper to taste... Cayenne is a good addition too.

The grilled cactus and shrimp salad....

It was kinda tasty! :)

I know a lot of folks refer to the cactus as nopales... which is fine.

 I just call them cactus. 

When out in the pasture I never say "ouch, a nopales  thorn just poked me through my shoe" or "dang, another flat tire from running over a darned nopales "  

So when I cook em...they are still cactus to me.  :)

Venison Backstrap & Bacon Wrapped Corn on the Campfire

Another tractor tire rim cook... When deciding what to take with me to cook while camping, I came across a whole whitetail backstrap in my freezer that I had forgotten about. It was a nice surprise. I DO love backstrap on the fire. :)

 I used the weed burner to get the fire going...

I started a skillet of fried potatoes with onions first, then added a pan of shrooms-n-garlic in butter...

Next came the bacon wrapped corn.  I drizzle the corn with oil, salt and black pepper before wrapping in bacon. The unwrapped corn was for my jalapeno corn cakes the next day.

I used a marinade on the backstrap that I hadn't tried before. It was for wild game and made by Allegro..  It was pretty tasty. :)

The backstrap went onto the fire next. I like to keep it pink in the center and not overcook.

Then I added a couple of ribeyes...

My mushrooms, bacon wrapped corn, ribeyes, backstrap and fried tatoes...

The corn and ribeyes..

The venison backstrap and mushrooms...

I tried some of the ribyeye ( at the top of the plate and on the fork)... and a few slices of venison...

It was pretty tasty! Not sure if it's right to serve two kinds of meat with more meat on the side (bacon) but no one else seemed to mind. :) 

Tractor Rim Cooking... Ribs-n-Beans

I had the chance to take a few days off for camping last week. It was nice to get away and relax...

I took the tractor rim for cooking. (really happy there is no burn ban right now :)) 

The weed burner does a great job of firing up the wood....

I soaked anasazi beans overnight, drained and added minced onion, garlic, bay leaves, cayenne peppers, basil, thyme and a smoked ham hock to the pot.  Also chicken stock. 

I let the pot of beans simmer while I cooked breakfast...

I added more chicken stock and fire wood when needed....

I slathered a slab of spare ribs with bacon drippings then sprinkled with dry rub. Set them on the low heat side of the fire...

I let the ribs slow roast for about 2 hours until they showed a nice color...

I'm not fond of "fall off the bone" ribs and don't usually foil them at home but I wanted to speed up the cooking process a bit.  

I foiled the ribs meat side down and added a beef stock/beer/minced onion mix to the packet...

Then placed them back onto the tractor rim on the low heat side of the fire again...

I was able to do some fishing while supper cooked. :)

After an hour and a half the ribs showed some pull back on the bones....

I placed them back onto the heat to brown and roast a bit more....

Then I mixed up a batch of jalapeno corn cakes...

Fried the corn cakes...

When the beans were nice and tender, I seasoned with salt and pepper....

My pork and bean supper. :)

I don't usually sauce my ribs, I like the sauce on the side. The ribs were tender and had a nice smokey flavor and the beans-n-corn cakes weren't bad either!

I enjoyed sitting by the lake, caught a few fish too! :)