Easter Dinner!

Today's Easter dinner is going to be Chinese take out!  Not just any Chinese take out, it's leftover Chinese take out. lol

I plan on spending Easter outside enjoying the beautiful day. :)

Happy Easter friends!

Slap Yo Daddy Salmon

I'm still enjoying Harry Soo's Slap Yo Daddy Chicken Rub.  Harry had suggested trying the chicken rub mixed half and half with brown sugar on salmon....and I finally had the time to try it. I'm really glad I did!!

I planked the salmon and cooked on the Char-Broil gas grill. Just closed the lid and let the grill do the work.

It was mighty tasty,  I'll be doing this again for sure!

Not sure if you will see this but...
Thanks again for the Slap Yo Daddy Chicken Rub, Harry...and the salmon suggestion. Great combo!

Grilled Venison Backstrap with Wild Onion Sauce

It's wild onion time here. The first sign that spring is on the way. :)  I love using the onions while they are available. One of my favorite uses is to pair them with venison.



I gathered and cleaned a few onions, seasoned some venison backstrap steaks  from last season
with olive oil and Tatonka Dust.




I cooked the onions in butter with one clove of minced garlic. When tender, I added 1 TBS sherry, 1 tsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp of capers, salt and pepper to taste and about 1 tsp of cornstarch to thicken the sauce.  The sauce is definitely an "add to taste" sauce on all of the ingredients. I just add a bit here and there until I like the flavor. :)




Grilled the venison to medium rare....






It was pretty tasty!





I'm looking forward to morels to add to the mix. Keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to find some this year. :)

Big Poppa's "Money" and the Reader's Choice Best BBQ Rub Contest

Update...Thank you to everyone that took the time to vote!! Looks like the poll is closed now, should find out who the winner is in a few days.
I appreciate your help on this!!  :)




Smokin' Pal  Big Poppa, from Big Poppa Smokers, has an award winning dry rub called "Money" that is in the running for the 2013 Best BBQ Rub on the  About.com site!

I've had the pleasure of knowing Big Poppa (Sterling Ball) for the last few years and am amazed at his kindness, generosity and his consistency in developing killer BBQ dry rubs.
I love his Little Louie's dry rubs and didn't think he could top those, but he did.

Big Poppa's "Money" was the rub used to win the 2012 American Royal Invitational, 2012 Sam's Club Invitational, the 2012 Jack Daniel's World Championship and many other competition cooks across the U.S. (Canada too).
I know this sounds like a commercial for dry rub but it's not... I would love it if you helped me give the "Money" a shot at winning this competition though. It deserves the recognition.
If you get a minute, please click on the link  About.com  and vote for Big Poppa Smoker's Money Rub.

Thanks for taking the time!

Not sure if you will ever see this BP, but good luck.

Grilled Corned Beef and Cabbage Wraps with Chipotle Thousand Island Sauce

The kind folks at Char-Broil invited me to be one of their All Star posters again this year.  Thank you Char-Broil,  I feel very privileged to be included in your program. :)

For my first post there, I decided to go with corned beef and cabbage.  St. Patrick's day is coming up and even though I'm not sure that corned beef and cabbage have anything to do with the holiday, the grocery store was overflowing with inexpensive packages of corned beef. I couldn't pass it up! :)

This was a good chance to try out the new Char-Broil Grill Top Infusion Cooker too.  The topper can be used for smoking foods too but I wanted to try the "steam" feature this time.

I steamed the corned beef on low until tender then grilled napa cabbage, made Chipotle Thousand Island sauce, built the wraps and grilled them for an added "crunch".
If I posted this right...this link should take you to the recipe.
Char-Broil

...and this should take you to more info on the infuser..
Grill Top Infusion Cooker

I enjoy outdoor cooking, but when it comes to computers, I'm pretty much lost!


One note on the napa cabbage.  It's a bit sweet when grilled so I didn't add sugar to the Chipotle Thousand Island sauce.  I'm more of a savory fan.  Regular cabbage would work well too.

I'm looking forward to using this infuser again. I have smoked salmon or chicken or chops in mind... maybe steamed veggies or shrimp.  There are so many ideas running through my mind.  Fishing season is right around the corner too. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to bring home a few catfish to smoke.

If you get the time, hope you take a look at my first post. Thanks!

Found em....

Hidin' in plain sight.

While hanging out in the old shop after that last snow storm, I put a few beef ribs and a rack of spares on the drum to catch some smoke.

Chilled a couple of beers....

Listened to some music while sorting through a rack of old tack...

The ribs were ready after about 6 hours.. I just watch for the pull back on the bone.
Both the beef ribs and the pork ribs were sooo tender.

No side dishes needed, just a cold brew and a tender rib...

While nibbling on the ribs, listening to music and eye balling the "stuff" in the back of the shop..I found them.  The pair of jumper cables that have been missing for a month.

Sitting right on top of the rack of old saddles.... in plain sight.

hmmmm I should spend more time out there, my favorite earrings are missing. :)

Cold Smoked Salmon Patties

When I was a kid, my mom made these using canned salmon. I thought they were great with ketchup (everything tasted great with ketchup :)).
I've been making patties with the cold smoked salmon that I canned in the fall. No ketchup required with these. :)

the cold smoked salmon...

mixed some minced onion, one beaten egg, one jar of canned smoked salmon, and cracker crumbs.
The mix didn't need salt or pepper. The smokey flavor was enough.

then coated the patties in panko bread crumbs...

and fried in butter til brown and crisp....

I've been enjoying the heck out of this smoked salmon. I can get 4 patties from one 1/2 pint jar....that's enough for 2 meals for me.

I need to figure out a way to get more salmon next year. Maybe I'm due for a trip up north. :)