Grill Knuckles

Cuban-style pulled pork

2013-05-18T08:38:00.000-04:00

This cook started with some great expectations. Chris Lilly's Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book has a section on whole hog recipes. I've never done a whole hog, but one recipe jumped out to me recently. And I thought I might be able to apply it to a pork shoulder.

Everything lined up for a good cook. Boston butts were on sale. Lump charcoal was on sale.

Things were smelling great. This Cuban-style recipe involved injecting the meat with a cocktail of orange juice, lime juice, dark rum, soy sauce, salt, garlic salt and onion powder.

Rum. Yum.

The recommended sauce to go with the finished product was Caribbean Mojo Sauce--a combo of lime juice, olive oil, minced garlic, oregano and cumin. Smelled really fresh. I was imagining that the citrus flavors were going to be a new take on the sour, acidic flavors that vinegar usually gives me.

Caribbean Mojo Sauce

Now talk about smelling good. The rub was a fragrant blend of garlic, finely chopped green onions, dried oregano, fresh-ground pepper and salt. This was a radical detour from the traditional BBQ. I was excited. I cooked it in the usual way with a little bit of hickory, but I took it easy for fear of covering up the injected flavors.

Shoulder as it went on.

Shoulder after a couple of hours

Fourteen hours later it was ready. In the photo below you can see a little of the juice (I think). It all looks great, right?

I pulled the meat using the gloves my wife bought me. (similar to the ones advertised here) They're great for protecting your hands from the piping hot pork as you pull it. I don't know what you think, but I think my BBQ looks way better than that pitiful stuff the hand model is messing with.

Of course my partner in crime, Labon showed up to try this new recipe. So I've got this general attitude that all barbecue is amazing. Different cultures and regions put their stamp on it and it's up to me to find what makes it great. An example of this is the Alabama White Sauce Chicken recipe from the same cookbook. So I was prepared to be amazed by this Cuban take on pork.

The verdict? Meh. I thought the rub wound up being too salty. The injection didn't really do much to enhance the flavor. The sauce was WAY too sour from the lime juice. The best move of the evening was when I grabbed a bottle of Eastern NC BBQ sauce and liberally doused the pulled pork. Then it started to taste pretty good. So as it turns out I do have pretty strong opinions about different barbecue styles. Cuban barbecue (as I executed this particular take on it)? No thanks. If somebody has pointers on what I might do differently or try next time, I am all ears.

A Chat with James Hogan

2013-04-26T07:39:00.003-04:00

This was great fun. My friend, co-worker and fellow blogger, James Hogan (www.jamesdhogan.com), sat down with me to talk about food, grilling and fellowship. I had a chance to discuss what goes on when you fire up the coals and the importance of eating with friends and family. James has a wonderful blog that I encourage you to bookmark and check out often. I admire his writing; the overall visual aesthetic of his blog and the devotion he brings to his work.

You can read our conversation here: http://www.forum.jamesdhogan.com/2013/04/11-questions-gray-dyer-grill-master.html

Cheyenne Burger

2013-03-21T18:00:00.000-04:00

This is another great recipe from Steven Raichlen's Planet Barbecue!. In particular this is dubbed "Bobby Flay's Cheyenne Burger." It sounded simple enough, but I was almost completely unprepared for exactly how delicious this was going to be--especially when you consider that this is a turkey burger recipe.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised. When you start with big ol strips of lovely bacon, you're going to win. Am I right? I tried Wright Brand Bacon for the first time. This was apple smoked, thick cut and very, very tasty--even by bacon standards.

The part of this recipe that really piqued my attention wast the homemade onion rings to serve on top of the burger. I'd never tried this before.

The instructions in the book were not all that specific so I winged it a little. It did specify heating peanut oil to 360f in a heavy pot. I used my cast iron Dutch oven. It also said you dredge the cut onions through flour seasoned with pepper, salt and cayenne pepper (amounts were not specified). Then you dunk the rings in salt and pepper seasoned buttermilk. Lastly before dropping them in the oil you dredge them back through the flour.

I had ambitions of making up a whole mess of onion rings, but it all got really messy, goopy and frustrating after a while. I had some lovely specimens and decided that about a dozen or so were plenty for our burgers.

As the burgers cooked, I brushed the buns with olive oil and gave 'em a quick toast.

So to bring it all together, you slap cheddar on the turkey burgers as they come to 165f. Then you set them on the bun in a little puddle of BBQ sauce (I used Stubb's Spicy). Top them with bacon, onion rings and pickle chips and you're ready to eat a real treat.

I set up the photo of the burger shown at the top of the page. My four-year-old was licking his lips and called dibs on that one. He's not always the biggest eater in the world, but he put away nearly the whole thing.

My six-year-old DID eat the whole thing and made quite a fuss over its deliciousness.

I love this shot. My daughter is happy and my son is ripping at the bacon like a feral dog.

This was easy and really darned good. Thanks for reading.

Venison Steaks and Stuffed Acorn Squash

2013-03-15T22:55:00.000-04:00

First of all I feel the need to clear my reputation. Just because my recent post was a vegan recipe, it doesn't mean I've gone vegan. We straight on that?

In fact our most recent grilled meal included delicious venison from the doe pictured here, which my dad killed back in November. I've got over 20 lbs of venison in the freezer. When I announced I was going cook some of the deer meat, my wife was motivated to find something hearty to eat instead--er--I mean go WITH it.

We tried stuffed acorn squash. She discovered this recipe.

Here's what you need:

4 acorn squash, halved lengthwise; seeds and membrane removed
1 cup organic brown rice
1/2 cup wild rice (we used only wild rice)
4 cups vegetable broth or water
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3/4 cup diced celery
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped (you may use any nut of your preference)
1/2 cup dried apricots, diced
1/2 cup cranberries
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2-1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (we used fresh)
1/8 teaspoon each ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

So guess what? It's daggum hard to split an acorn squash. Hard, but fortunately, not impossible. Otherwise there wouldn't me much more to say on the matter of eating acorn squash.

So here's what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 375º F.

2. Cook both varieties of rice together in broth or water with ¼ teaspoon of salt (omit salt if broth is already salted).

3. Meanwhile, place squash halves, cut side down, into a large shallow baking dish or cookie sheet (you may need two). Bake for 30 minutes.

[We did need two baking surfaces. One was the oven (yawn). The other was the Big Green Egg (yesss).]

4. In a skillet, sauté onion in olive oil until it becomes transparent. Add the celery and sauté a couple of minutes. Remove from heat. Using a large mixing bowl, blend this mixture together with the cooked rice, cranberries, nuts, apricots, and remaining seasonings.

5. When done, remove the partially baked squash from the oven. Spoon out some of the cooked squash and mix it with the rest of the ingredients. Be sure to scrape only a little; you want to leave squash in the shells, too.

6. Press the rice mixture into each squash cavity, mounding rice as much as possible. (Depending on how large the squash are, you may end up with some leftover rice mixture, which makes a great side dish by itself.)

7. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes or until squash flesh is thoroughly tender.

Pretty tasty-looking stuffing if you ask me.

So I thought it looked like we were cooking up some crazy turtles or something.

After 30 minutes we stuffed the squash. Some of them went back in the oven. Others, back on the Egg. All of them cooked another 30 minutes.

Once the squash was done, I took out the plate setter and opened it up the Egg to get it good and hot for the venison.

Right so the venison. All I did was spray it with olive oil and season it up with some sea salt and fresh-ground pepper. Then I cooked it to an internal temp of 165f after searing it on both sides.

And there we have it. I mean dang. This was a great meal. The venison really has terrific flavor. It's not at all gamey. And it's not jacked full of antibiotics or hormones. It's just a very tasty, flavorful, clean food. Superb. I even snuck some nibbles to the kids without telling them what it was. They snapped it up with enthusiasm.

The acorn squash was great too. It had a very savory quality, punctuated by the sweet and tanginess of the cranberries. The ginger and apricot did a lot to give this a really nice taste too. It felt like some sort of druid feast of the forest or something. But it was one of those meals when I pushed back from the table I found myself very contented and pleased.

In with the new

2013-03-13T23:40:00.000-04:00

Dear reader: I realize you're going to think I've totally made this whole thing up. You're going to think I just did an image search for "dumpy grill" and one for "dream grill" and created a little short story around it.

But I swear. Every word you're about to read is true.

My next door neighbor has moved out. He left this at the curb:

In its prime this was a proud and mighty Weber 3-burner propane grill with a side burner. For all I know--back in the day--this was the nicest grill on the street. Today? Total garbage. Now, don't get me wrong. I'll jump on an old grill. But this was beyond repair. I know. It's sad.

And now for a little back story.

A friend of mine reached out recently. We hadn't spoken for about a year. It's probably fair to say we were mostly barbecue friends. Sure our lives had other connecting fibers. But he and I were always on the same wavelength when the conversation turned to smoked meats. He and I like to talk barbecue joints and smokers and sauces. Stuff like that. We've never actually cooked together. But we've talked casually about taking a vacation day or something to hang out and cook some pulled pork.

So a recently he shoots me an email. And in the email he's got a photo of his smoker (below). Of course, I'm all jealous of it. I mean look at it. And I reply something to the effect of how it's now on my wish list of dream cookers.

He calls me up a couple of days later to let me know that I can take it off my wish list. I'm thinking, "Is he trying to sell it to me?!" Turns out he and his family are moving in next door. No, for real!

If I've never said this, the neighbor on the other side of me also has a Big Green Egg. So now among the three houses we're going to be this big outdoor cooking consortium or something. I'm so excited. Since moving here in 2008, I've been very happy with the neighborhood. I must say I'm getting even happier.

If you smell something tasty cooking in the neighborhood, come on by.

Mighty Muffins

2013-02-23T11:16:00.000-05:00

Recently I had a business lunch. I met with a peer who had a similar role at another place. We are both fairly new to our jobs so we wanted to get together and compare notes. While we managed to get some good work stuff done, as it turned out we also talked a lot about food.

Not too long ago he had tried The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan (Google Affiliate Ad), which he explained is basically a vegan experience designed by an executive at Whole Foods. He did the 28-day diet and is now back to "normal" life, but explained that his new normal involves eating much less meat than before.

While I (like many people) am becoming increasingly interested in all my food sources--especially meat--I don't intend to go vegan. I read up on the diet a little and also decided not to go down that road either. What I did zero-in on was the fact that this guy I had lunch with had completely embraced some recipes from the book.

In particular he went on and on about these muffins and how they're a great breakfast on-the-run or a nice snack. So I decided to try them.

Especially after back-to-back muffin tin recipes I promise to be back to grilling soon. But today I present the Engine 2 Diet's Mighty Muffins. The recipe can be found on the official Engine 2 Diet website here.

Mighty Muffins:

3 cups oat bran

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons sweetener

Juice of 1 lemon

1 large apple, grated

6 brown bananas, lightly mashed (leave some chunks)

¼ cup walnuts, chopped or halved

¼ cup raisins

¾ cup water

Preheat oven to 375º. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Squeeze the juice of the

lemon onto the combined apple and bananas. Add walnuts, raisins, and water. Combine the

wet and dry ingredients into one bowl. Pour into sprayed muffin tins and bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Y'all? These are really good. They've become my go-to breakfast in recent days. I've made a couple of batches actually. I keep them in the fridge and will microwave one for breakfast. What I'll tell you after making them a few times is that the 4 tablespoons of "sweetener" is way too much for me. I don't go for artificial sweeteners at all, so here I've been using "sugar." I've started using less than 2 tablespoons and am very happy with the taste. And you know what? They seem incredibly wholesome, healthy and filling.

Chile con Cupcake

2013-01-27T08:38:00.000-05:00

My wife tore this recipe from "Family Fun" magazine. She thought it sounded like fun. I did too, so I kind of invited her to be a guest blogger for the day. Actually she just cooked. I took some photos and am typing it up. Let me disclose right off here: This was cooked indoors. No grilling today folks.

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1 can kidney beans (15.5 oz.) drained and rinsed.
1 medium red bell pepper finely diced
1 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 pound extra-lean ground beef
1 cup grated cheddar
1/2 cup low-fat sour cream
sliced scallions for garnish (we didn't have any).

1. Heat oven to 375f and coat 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray. In a large bowl lightly beat the eggs. Stir in everything but the beef, cheese, sour cream and scallions. Then gently mix in the ground beef.

2. Divide the mixture evenly into each muffin well. Pack down the contents with your fingers. Cook for 20 minutes. Then remove from the oven and sprinkle a tablespoon of cheese on each muffin. Return the tray to the oven and bake until the center of the cupcake is 160f (about 10 minutes more). Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the tin. Serve with sour cream and scallions on top. The recipe suggests you could substitue tomato paste or barbecue sauce for the sour cream.

The cheesiness overwhelmed our smoke detector.

There were some breakaway bits during transfer, but overall the cupcakes held together very well.

This ended up being a really tasty dinner. The kids ate theirs up. Our 6 year old daughter left all her kidney beans behind, but what are you going to do? I have to say I was reaching for a second cupcake and decided to save it for leftovers. That's to say that one cupcake is sufficient if you're portion-conscious. And 2 would probably make a hearty meal. I'm the only member of the family who likes spicy food so I added some Sriracha "Rooster" sauce to mine. Otherwise the flavor was excellent and this was a fun meal.

How to light charcoal with a paper towel

2013-01-18T21:16:00.000-05:00

Grill Knuckles is pleased to present this modest video premier:

Thunder Thighs

2013-01-17T22:02:00.002-05:00

Thunder Thighs. I was pretty much sold when I saw the name of this recipe. I mean, weren't you? It was the first thing I'd tried from Smoke &; Spice, which my folks had given me recently.

It involved making up a paste of the following, smearing it on the chicken thighs and letting it sit overnight in the fridge.

Thunder Paste:
1 small onion, chunked
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 teaspoons ground anise
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

There was an optional mop sauce, which I opted not to use.

I was excited to try a new thighs recipe, because I am such a big fan of Papa's BBQ Chicken Thighs.

So I set up my Big Green Egg for indirect cooking (using my plate setter) at 250f and let these guys go for about 2 hours

The results?

Well.

They were good. I mean fine. I guess.

Something about the paste that sounded so delicious on paper and even smelled really interesting coming out of the Cuisinart, just didn't really result in anything all that life-changing for me. Furthermore, I couldn't figure out how one should photograph a thigh. They're not the sort of food that has the same visual cache as other stuff I've made. So see if any of the photos below do it for you. I wasn't all that excited about the recipe or the photos.

Some stuff works. Some stuff doesn't I reckon. There's always next weekend, right? Thanks for reading.

Lomo al Trapo with the usual New Year's trappings

2013-01-04T11:30:00.000-05:00

Like so many years, my 2013 began with a package of salted pork. I set some ham hocks to boiling down in some water.

As that was going on, I worked on the collards. I just rip them down the stalk before I rinse all the greens off in a colander.

After they're rinsed I take several leaves together and roll them up tight before slicing them up into pieces.

The ham hocks boiled down for almost 2 hours. I poured half the hot ham water into the collards and half into the black-eyed peas. I also tossed out the bones and chopped up the remaining chunks of ham hock and split it evenly between the peas and collards. Oh and I dropped a packet of Sauzon Goya into the peas. Into the collards I added 1 tablespoon brown sugar.

I was eager to try out my new grill rings, which my wife had given me. I found a "recipe" for onions where you simply set them on these rings and cook them on indirect heat for 45 minutes.

But the main even here was salt-crusted beef tenderloin or Lomo al Trapo. It was a recipe I'd found in Steven Raichlen's Planet Barbecue! This is a Colombian technique for cooking what Raichlen describes as "one of the costliest and most prestigious cuts of meat, but paradoxically one of the least flavorful." So how much pressure is that? I will say that I went to the butcher's counter knowing that I was asking for something sort of special and pricey, but I really didn't know what I was getting into.

Ok, since we're among friends, I'll tell you that this cut was $19.99/lb. HOLY moly. So the pressure was on to make this worth while. I was cooking a cut I'd never cooked before and I had decided to use a peculiar technique at that.

The idea is to wet an old napkin or cloth; coat it with salt and wrap the tenderloin inside. I was a nervous wreck. Pre-game I practiced with the salt.

Meanwhile: The onions were doing their thing without much fuss.

Here's the guest of honor.

Here's the wet, salted up napkin. After putting down 1/4 inch of salt I sprinkled dried oregano over the salt. This particular napkin is one of a set of napkins I bought once with my dear wife. It's a good-looking napkin, right? We use them nearly every time we cook out. I picked them out years ago when my wife and I were shopping for some household stuff. She was so bemused by the fact that I found some napkins that I was excited about that not only did we buy them, but each time we use them she tells our guests the story about how I picked out the napkins. The story never makes me feel all that manly.

Ok. Tossing expensive cuts of meat directly onto coals is totally manly. Let's talk more about that. I rolled the tenderloin up thusly and tied it off at the corners. My 6 year old daughter watched me roll everything up and let me know I was wasting salt. I didn't explain that salt is, like, $0.15/lb. Again over the salt I sprinkled some dried oregano.

So that's it. Just drop it on the coals, which were cruising at 350f.

After 12 minutes I flipped it.

I jabbed a thermometer into the tenderloin at this point to monitor what was going on.

This is where I tell you about what my parents gave me for Christmas. It's the iGrill. It's a Bluetooth wireless thermometer with an accompanying iPhone app. This was my first time playing with it. It's awesome. You just tell it what you're up to and it alerts you when you get the temperature you want. I guess it's not totally different from my Maverick setup, but it has a very cool interface and it's much more intuitive in terms of finding the temperatures for what you're cooking and setting up alerts. In this case I was looking to do some medium rare beef.

Having reached 130f on the inside I pulled this curious project from the fire. Raichlen suggests you let it rest for 2 minutes. That was funny to me as it took me more than a few minutes to figure out how the hell I was going to crack into this thing.

My wife remembered the heat-resistant gloves I had for pulling pork. They were very useful in unwrapping the meat.

So for as nervous as I was, it all turned out really well. The recipe made it sound like the tenderloin would have this lovely crust around it after you knocked all the salt off. I had it in my mind that there would be 1/4 inch of salt stuck to the tenderloin. You'd tap it with tongs and it would all fall away leaving this lovely charred beef with tender insides. Well it wasn't exactly that. The recipe does tell you that you have to brush away the excess salt with a basting brush, which I did. So it was all very tasty. It simply didn't look how I expected it to. The oregano imparted a surprisingly pleasant taste.

This was a fun project and the kids thought it was interesting. But the consensus was that the bone-in ribeye steak that I'd cooked on New Year's Eve was superior. All the same it was a nice kick-off dinner for 2013.

2012's Last Supper: Bone-In Ribeye

2013-01-03T12:31:00.000-05:00

New Year's Eve was subdued in our house. Fresh home from travels to Massachusetts and New Jersey left us tired and fighting off various ailments. On the afternoon of New Year's Eve I ran to the grocery to buy a few staples for the household and to make sure we had our collards and black-eyed peas for New Year's Day.

I stood at the meat counter patiently waiting for a beef tenderloin (post forthcoming). Time had passed. How much I couldn't say, but I returned to myself with a realization that I was staring. And drooling. At this:

Yes, about 2.11 lbs of bone-in ribeye gloriousness. Politely I asked the butcher if he would kindly package that up for me as well. I took it home along with all the other groceries and left it on the counter to come toward room temperature before grilling.

I pulled out a bottle of this 2010 Priorat from Spain and poured a little into the cool decanter my wife bought me a couple of years back. It's called a Knight's Decanter and does a nice job of aerating the wine. Plus it looks really awesome.

Meanwhile the coals were jammin inside the Egg.

So I actually took some video footage with my phone of searing the steak. That's still in production. It's my first effort, so please moderate your expectations. Thank you. Meanwhile, expectations for the steak were running high to quite high.

I've always been a NY Strip guy. This was the first time I'd used the T-Rex Method to do a ribeye. Actually it was the first time I'd made my own ribye. One of these days I'll do a side-by-side comparison, but holy moly this was delicous. The kids, who had already brushed their teeth for bed decided to have a taste and raved about it before running upstairs to brush again. My wife's comment was, "MMM. Buttery!" You brush on some olive oil and generously season with coarse salt and coarse pepper and then give it a high-temperature sear. It's so good. And the marbling (fat) in the ribeye really does add richness to the flavor. It is a buttery sort of an experience.

I served this up with some little red potatoes, which I quartered and tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper and a little sage before cooking in the oven at 400f for about 30 min.

The worst thing about having a Big Green Egg is that it's ruined the restaurant steak for me. I still get the occasional steak when we're out to eat. But it's hard to pay premium prices for something that's not as good as what I do at home. This really was a delight to cook and eat. Dang it's making my stomach rumble just to type it up. 2012 was a good year and this was a great way to cap it off.

On Location: Luella's BBQ in Asheville, NC

2012-12-21T15:30:00.000-05:00

My job takes me on the road occasionally. When it does, I'm always keen to find a good local joint. A co-worker insisted I try Luella's in Asheville, NC. Boy, am I glad he did. They have a complete menu of all sorts of good stuff like chicken, brisket, pork and even turkey. Since it was my first visit and since I'm kind of a purist, I ordered the chopped BBQ pork.

As I ordered, the helpful woman behind the counter asked if I was interested in having some local pork from Hickory Nut Gap Farms for a little bit extra. Sure! For my sides I got the spicy vinegar slaw (or "slaw" as I was raised calling it) and the fried okra. The plate comes with hush puppies.

First of all the sides were all great. The slaw was tangy and had a nice crunch to it. After I ordered it dawned on me that okra was out of season. I don't know a whole lot about what needs to happen to make fried okra taste right. The cynic in me says that simply frying is 90% of what makes fried okra good. But all fried okra is not equal. I would suggest that Luella's has some mighty fine fried okra. It totally hit the spot. I even found myself squirting sauce on a fried nugget before popping it in my mouth. I was having fun. The hush puppies were good too.

But the barbecue. Let start by saying that it's really easy for me to get disappointed by a plate of BBQ. This stuff was excellent. It comes with a "touch of Scooter's Vinegar Sauce." So I had my first few bites just as it arrived. The pork was moist and tender with a subtle and delicious hickory smoke. Once I had a good appreciation for what I was eating I started squirting some extra sauce around--namely I experimented with the Sweet Pisgah, but was drawn mostly to having a little more of the Scooter's. Mmm.

The sauces were so good that I bought some jars as a present for my dad. I got the last jar of Scooter's and also bought some Lusty Mustard Sauce, which I imagine would be good on wings or pork tenderloin or something.

Luella's really was a treat. This isn't a restaurant you check off your list. You look forward to going back.

Love Okra?

On Location: Bob's Grill

2012-12-16T08:35:00.000-05:00

Some folks at my employer, Davidson College, have a loose tradition of visiting Bob's Grill in downtown Mooresville, NC for a mass hot dog run. This was my first visit to Bob's.

I took this photo toward the back of the restaurant. Yes, this is it. At the far end is the grill and a counter where you order. On the right is a counter where you can stand and eat. And if you must, there's a bench there on the left for sitting.

On this particular visit, Parker (glasses) instigated a hot dog eating contest. The lone entrant was Ryan. Once upon a time apparently there was an employee of Davidson who managed to take down 5 dogs in one visit. So Ryan decided to start with 6 just to dispense with that record. Just to drive the point home, he ordered his 6 "all the way" and took them down without much ceremony.

Then he learned that the Bob's record was 8, so he got another 4 hot dogs. To cut the drama he managed to eat the seventh and eighth dogs (all which had less stuff on them). He spent a very long time on that 9th dog. And after eating 1/4 to 1/3 of the 9th dog he threw in the towel. He chucked the rest of the 9th and took the 10th home with him (pictured below). Later I learned he never ate number 10. I certainly don't blame him.

Meanwhile I had an incredible lunch. This is the stuff I was raised on. Of course "all the way" means chili, slaw, diced onions and mustard. The chili was served out of an old pot sitting on the stove next to where the hot dogs were cooking up. For some reason the idea of a chili dog makes my stomach turn, but when you disguise it as a hot dog all the way, I don't hesitate. In fact, these two were the best hot dogs I'd had in a long time. Certainly hot dogs are a "sometimes food," but every now and again you just can't beat a good hot dog. And these were superb.

I even tried a little Samson's Sauce on my hotdogs. I'd never seen this stuff before. Apparently it's been around the North Carolina Piedmont since 1925. The label was a riot. It went on about how Samson's Sauce makes everything better, but it's not for use on hemorrhoids and stuff like that. Made for good reading as I thoughtfully enjoyed my dogs. I found an enlarged label here. It's worth the 12 seconds it takes to read it.

But back to our hero, Ryan. We also have a work tradition of holiday poetry contests (it is a college, after all). I'm happy to report that this year's contest, "Ode to Hot Dogs, The Ballad of Ryan Arnold" took the prize at this year's holiday party. The poem was team-authored by Parker, Leslie, Louise and yours truly. For your consideration I offer a reprint.

Ode to Hot DogsThe Ballad of Ryan Arnold.

[to the tune of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald]

The legend lives on in Old Mooresville, downtown
of the hot dogs they serve there at “Bob’s Grill.”
The chili, it’s said, soaks down deep in the bread
when you order “all the way” to get your fill.
With a load of slaw, buns, onions, mustard and more
these wieners in no way leave you empty.
If you think you can chew you just might handle two,
But you’ll likely throw in the towel early.

The man was the pride of the Davidson side
coming up to have lunch with his work mates.
As the big eaters go, he was bigger than most
with an appetite for hot dogs well seasoned.
Concluding some terms with Parker Ingalls and team
He gotsix fully loaded frankfurters.
And next thing they knew; he started to chew
As the spectators loosened their girdles.

Once ago it’s been said someone left Bob’s well-fed
with five hotdogs chewed up in her belly.
The big man, he knew, five’s the least he could do
So he took down all six without pausing.
As he waited in line for dogs seven, eight, nine
Yes, and ten he began the meat sweatin’.
And everyone knew as Ryan Arnold did too
Of the trouble those toppings were causing.

The next dogs in line were relatively benign
As they contained naught but just mustard.
All the fundraisers knew as our man diligently chewed
that sure enough on this day they’d see history.
The seventh was done; Ryan stared down the bun
of that eighth dog he knew’d be a challenge.
His smile was now gone and the pressure was on
as the internalized dogs had revenge.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
when the bites turn the minutes to hours?
The spectators all say he’d have had 12 that day
if he’d just had the first 6 without chili.
He might’ve spit up or he might’ve passed out
But this day he knew when to say when.
And all that is left are the photos and the heft
of the calories left round his belly.

Still in Hood house they sing of the man who is king
of the record that still stands at Bob’s Grill.
When next you eat there, bow and send up a prayer
For the winner we all know as Ryan.
There’s barely alive one who can take down five

and eight and a quarter’d leave us all cryin.

Thai Grilled Chicken Breasts

2012-12-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

This is another recipe that came from The Cook's Illustrated Guide to Grilling and Barbecue and it's good for making up some of the best chicken I've ever tasted. Brining the chicken ahead of time, plus the rub made this something special.

The folks at Cook's Illustrated are big on brining chicken. By putting the chicken in the following bath for more than 30 minutes, but less than 60 the chicken gets a nice, tender texture and a very clean, fresh taste.

Brine:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup salt
2 quarts cold water

The Rub:

2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 lime juice
12 minced garlic cloves
2 tablespoons fresh, minced ginger
2 tablespoons fresh cracked pepper
2 tablespoons ground coriander
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

"There's the rub." -- Prince Hamlet

So the bulk of the cook time is drawn up to be indirect, but the recipe calls for you to cook them skin-side down for 3 minutes first to crisp things up a little. So I used my platesetter, but just set the breasts at the edge of the cooking surface, where there is direct exposure to the coals. See 'em under there?

Meanwhile all that lime juice and cilantro got us thinking: guacamole. Because what goes better with Thai chicken, than guacamole? It wasn't tough to sell it to these customers.

Zyliss Jumbo Garlic Press (Google Affiliate Ad)Zyliss Jumbo Garlic Press (Google Affiliate Ad)

So the direct head crisped up the chicken skin. I suppose you could say it burned the skin. I was worried about this. I hate it when you make a misstep so early on in a cook. It's not like I had the contingency chicken waiting in the, um, wings.

Well, nothing to do but press onward. There was dipping sauce to make.

Dipping sauce:

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
three minced garlic cloves
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

So I got the internal temp to 160f, pulled the chicken and let it rest for a few minutes. I'm sorry the photography doesn't adequately capture the deliciousness of this chicken. It really was some of my favorite flavor combos between the rub and the dipping sauce. And I am a big believer now in using a brine for chicken. The burned skin didn't affect the flavor of the food. Part of that may be b/c I tend not to eat all the skin anyhow. The meat was still tender, juicy and delicious.

Thanksgiving: Turkey, Wings & Venison

2012-11-28T10:47:00.001-05:00

In 1997 we were merrily cooking Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house when the oven failed in the middle of the whole process! Thanks to the kindness of our neighbors we were able to share theirs to get some of our goodies baked up. My dad did a quick internet search (I wonder, was it Netscape? I also remember a search tool called Dogpile that he and I sometimes used). Anyway somehow in that internet frontier he found some instructions on how to cook a turkey on a gas grill. It came out great and a tradition was born.

All one does is put the turkey like so in a gas grill at 350f. In the roasting pan we use water, chicken stock and coarse chopped onion. Baste it often until the breast reads 160f and the thigh gives you a read of 180f.

It's Norman Rockwell meets . . . I dunno. But it sure tastes good. We tented it with foil until carving time. Meanwhile the Big Green Egg was patiently waiting at 400f ready for the wings.

We liberally dusted with Dizzy Pig's Swamp Venom.

And set to cooking them directly on a grid raised to the level of the seam.

We tossed them to get a light coating of Papa's BBQ sauce (my kids call my dad, Papa). The sauce also works great on chicken thighs.

After saucing them we grilled them for another 10 minutes and served them up hot. They were a great appetizer. Papa's wings are loved by all in our family and have become a standard pre-Thanksgiving treat in recent years.

Papa's BBQ Sauce:

2 Tbsp. onion chopped

1+ Tbsp butter
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup spicy ketchup
½ cup water
¼ cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 Tbsp of honey
Sauté onions in butter until brown. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer for 15 minutes

Cousin Hannah, who doesn't really like restaurant wings, loves Papa's.

But wait! There's more. I'm very proud of Papa for more than just his wings. He also happens to be a crackerjack marksman with a crossbow and a conservationist who is serious about the problem with deer over population in North Carolina.

Just days before Thanksgiving he shot a doe, which he skinned and then took to a local butcher. They processed the meat. On Thanksgiving we got our first taste of the fresh venison. We cooked up some steaks.

The weight listed on the label is wrong. These two steaks weighed more than 0.06 lbs. They were probably about a pound total, but I don't know and didn't weigh them.

My aunt commented afterwards, "I think it's the seasoning that made them so good." What seasoning, you ask? We sprayed them with olive oil and then lightly dusted them with coarse-ground salt and coarse-ground pepper. That's it.

We seared them at 500f on the Craycort grate I got my dad a couple of years ago.

We flipped them after about 3 minutes and continued to cooke them until we got to 160f inside. Were they good? Oh man yes. Because venison is so incredibly lean they were chewier than your average beef steak, but not by very much. These were delicious. I was expecting some gaminess or a little funk or I don't know what. But these had a very clean and lightly beefy flavor. Nice juiciness too. In fact, my mouth is watering as I type here. (Gulp). I'm fortunate that my dad gave me a freezer full of venison for later use, so I am eager to do this again. Talk about being thankful. My cup runneth over. Thanks for reading.

Mixology: Cough Remedy

2012-11-26T21:11:00.002-05:00

The over-the-counter cough medicine I took last night was a joke. Sure, it tasted kinda nice: sweet mouthfeel with strong bubble gum presentation along with some cotton candy and heavy eucalyptus tones. But it was worthless as a cough remedy. I coughed my head off most of the night.

It's time to take matters into my own hands. As this blog post went to press your correspondent was enjoying the following remedy:

Grill Knuckles Homemade Cough Syrup

3 parts bourbon. To my chagrin I only had my top-shelf Woodford Reserve handy. Oh well. Bottoms up!
1 part lemon juice
2 spoonfuls honey

Microwave the bourbon and lemon juice in your favorite mug until hot. Stir in the honey. Sip. Ahh. Sip. Sip. Zzz.

Teaching Tomorrow's Grillers Today

2012-11-21T17:38:00.000-05:00

Back in June I struck up a conversation with a rising college senior at Davidson College. I wish I could say that I remember how the conversation turned to outdoor cooking, but hey. If you're talking to me, the conversation is going to find its way around to outdoor cooking. His girlfriend and her roommates had just acquired a used propane grill.

Intuitively he felt that propane cooking wasn't the same as cooking on live coal fire. I tried to convince him that there's a time and place for all sorts of grills in this world. But he wanted to know more about cooking over coals and after seeing him on subsequent occasions we continued the conversation.

Ultimately we found time on Saturday to get together for a little grilling colloquium. I gave him a full range of options of things to cook. He liked the idea of doing a beer can chicken and some atomic buffalo turds. Can you blame him?

When he came over, I'd already sliced the jalapeños and scraped out the membranes. I'd also mixed up the stuffing for the ABTs.

I browned two tubes of chorizo earlier in the day and set it in the fridge for use later on when I had time to mix up the rest of the ingredients.

Atomic Buffalo Turd stuffing:

2 tubes chorizo, browned
one packet of cream cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 yellow onion finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic

Mix all of this until you get a yellow-orange goo.

Stuff the goo into the peppers.

Wrap the peppers with bacon and spear with a toothpick.

I cooked these indirect at 325f until the bacon was crispy.

I had all of the goo ready to go when he came over so he could get to work stuffing the peppers and wrapping them with bacon. You think this guy's a natural? Obviously a Marylander down to his bones, as he was stuffing the peppers he wondered, "How do you think these would be stuffed with crab meat?" Man, I don't know, but now I want to try it. I think he's going to do just fine out in the world.

I also had him light the coals and prep the bird and do all the other stuff. I believe in "learning by doing." The coals were getting going while we prepared the chicken. They got really hot--like up around 550f, which is too hot for what we wanted to do, so I choked everything down. Right after that I remembered some finer point or another that I wanted to explain, so I hoisted the lid right back up:

WHOOSH! Just like that I took a good bit of hair off my forearm. Well, It's also important to know what NOT to do, right? My guess is that he'll remember the fireball that erupted from my Big Green Egg. The question is: When am I going to learn?

We ended up with a mighty fine meal on our hands. This is how I do my take on Beer Can Chicken.

Take a can of beer (or other favorite beverage) and do rock paper scissors to see who has to (gets to?) drink off 1/2 of the contents.
Using a church key open the can in a couple of other places up top so that it's well-ventilated.
Into the can I drop some bits of celery, carrots and onion and set aside.
Rinse off bird and dry with paper towels.
Rub with McCormick's Montreal Chicken Seasoning (which the pupil was quick to point out came from Maryland)
Into the bird I stuffed the other half of the onion from the ABT mix along with some carrots and celery.
Ease the chicken onto the can and set it all onto the grill using the legs and can as a tripod of support.
Cook indirectly at 325f until the breast meat is 160f and the thighs are 180f (90 min to 2 hours). It's nice with a handful of soaked apple wood chips.
Don't forget how blasted hot the can and its contents will be. Use tongs to remove and discard before turning the bird over for carving.
Carve, serve and enjoy

For me this was nothing but good fun. I hope our guest had a good time. Next fall he'll be in the classrooms of Baltimore with Teach For America. That right there is hard, noble work. I wish him the best. Maybe he'll have a grill to blow off steam on the occasional weekend and can tell me how his ABTs with crabmeat turn out.

Slow Cooker: Beef Stew

2012-11-11T20:30:00.000-05:00

Here at Grill Knuckles we sometimes eat food that was cooked indoors. For Sunday dinner we enjoyed this easy and hearty recipe for beef stew in the slow cooker.

After hearing on a cooking program that "stew beef" can be a grab bag of undesirable and chewy bits, my wife bought a one-pound London broil and cubed it to fit the following recipe.

1lb beef stew meat
8 tsp McCormick Beef Stew Seasoning (1/2 package)
15 oz. green beans--fresh or frozen
15 oz. canned black beans
15 oz. peas
15 oz. corn
1 medium onion, diced
2 large carrots, sliced
3 cups of water
garnish with fresh chives

Can I be honest? We just opened up a couple of bags of mixed frozen veggies and dumped them in. Super easy.

We also used our bread maker to make a simple recipe for French bread. My 6 year old daughter got an assist on the bread.

After about 7 hours, this was what we were looking at. The real problem with slow cookers is that if you're at home when it's cooking, you spend the whole day very hungry.

The bread maker and the smell of fresh bread only compounded that hunger I had most of the day. It's possible that smelling it all day is what made me eat three bowls of it--with as many hunks of delicious, hot, fresh bread. Wow. What a yummy dinner.

On Location: Coddle Creek BBQ

2012-11-09T16:48:00.002-05:00

The co-workers piled into a couple of minivans to hit the 64th annual Coddle Creek ARP Church BBQ luncheon on Thursday in Mooresville, NC. This was my first annual trip.

The fellowship hall was packed.

Eight dollars got you a heaping plate of tasty barbecue, sweet tea, and a desert. There were also loaves of white bread on the table so you could, you know, have some bread.

Check this out. First of all, I am totally and completely unaccustomed to having applesauce OR pickles served with my barbecue. As it turns out, both made for excellent sides. As tasty as everything was yesterday. I must confess that the homemade pickles were outstanding and the thing I will be most excited to see at the 65th annual Coddle Creek BBQ.

Porterhouse with Chimichurri

2012-11-06T18:00:00.000-05:00

What in the world is chimichurri? This etymology for chimichurri on Wikipedia was amusing. I don't know if it's true. But I do know that it's great with beef.

The recipe for chimichurri was easy. I just used what I found here at epicurious.com

1 cup packed fresh Italian parsley (I used whatever was in the produce section--country of origin unknown)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup packed fresh cilantro
2 garlic cloves
3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

The recipe calls for you to puree it. I just chopped all the dry ingredients and mixed in the wet.

The porterhouse recipe from Cook's Illusrated Guide to Grilling and Barbecue recommends cooking the fillet mignon portion of the porterhouse over indirect heat while the strip cooks over direct heat. I wasn't sure exactly how to accomplish this. I have a cracked pizza stone (a wedding present that was lost in the pursuit of expanding my grilling knowledge). I dropped a shard of it onto the coals. Can you see it in there?

Don't these look good?

So here you can see that I was trying to keep the fillet portions over the pizza stone to keep them from cooking too quickly.

Mmmm.

Alright. What's all this? Well the white thing is a turkey burger with cheese and cranberries from Fresh Market. The rest of this are a result of the fact that the steaks were done in the center portions of each cut. But up against the bone they were still basically raw. Ew. So what began with two porterhouse cuts finished with 2 fillets and 2 strips--and 2 bones. It still tasted really flippin' good.

I don't use chimichurri very often. In the past I've pureed it all together, but after having just coarse chopped like this at somebody else's house I thought I'd try it this way to. Either way, I'm a big fan. It's delicious and goes so very well with beef. I wish I knew what I'd do differently to pull off the porterhouse with more style next time. But hey. We ate well and it was yummy.

Bar-B-Q Chicken with White Sauce

2012-10-31T14:12:00.000-04:00

One of the best ways to rid your mind of prejudice and stereotypes is to make the foreign into the familiar. I'll confess: white barbecue sauce made from mayonnaise sounds pretty gross to me. But I trust that the good people of Alabama don't eat it simply to make the rest of us cringe. Even if it's an acquired taste, it must be popular for a reason. I decided it was time to expand my BBQ horizons.

This was my second recipe in as many days from Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book.

On the heels of a study confirming the benefits of eating organic meat, I bought an organic chicken and spatchcocked it. That's to say that using kitchen scissors I cut along either side of the spine and opened the bird up and laid it out pressing on the sternum until it pops and flattens out.

By the way I had started off cooking at a high temp in order to burn off a little crud on the inside of my Big Green Egg then I choked it back down for this cook. Any time you go from high temps to low, it's always good to "burb" the lid before opening it all the way. I forgot this valuable nugget and gave myself grill knuckles. Better than grill eyebrows, right?

Another reason for letting it get really hot is I had my other spatchcocked chicken in the back of my mind. It was the very first thing I cooked on my Big Green Egg almost 3 years ago to the day. It's funny to see how--uh, green--I was on the Big Green Egg. First of all it seems silly that I put foil down to protect my platesetter, which now sports the drippings from dozens (hundreds?) of other cooks. Second I recall that the coals weren't fully going, so the chicken was marred with that too-heavy smoky flavor. I wanted to make sure this fire was burning clean.

After sprinkling the chicken with salt I put it on the Big Green Egg indirect (using a platesetter) at 350f. Then I got to work on the sauce. Here's what went into it:

Mayonnaise
Apple juice
White vinegar
Horseradish
Lemon juice
Black Pepper
Salt
Cayenne Pepper

Mixing it up with a spoon didn't do much to change my preconceived notions.

Using a whisk I was feeling a little better about it. The sauce was no longer chunky.

After an hour of cooking skin-side up I brushed both sides with olive oil and sprinkled the cavity side with fresh-ground pepper.I flipped the chicken over and cooked it for another hour.

The recipe then calls for you to dip the bird into the sauce. I didn't have a container that would let me do that very easily so I quartered the chicken and then dunked it and served it up hot.

I gotta say. This white sauce is alright! The vinegar tang to it makes you realize that it's certainly kin to the eastern North Carolina sauce I typically favor. The sauce is thin and didn't really stick to the chicken very well. It ran right off onto the plate. I found myself spooning it on and wiping morsels through it. My wife and I both really liked it and the chicken was tender and moist and really good. Makes me realize I don't cook bone-in chicken often enough. Going indirect and taking your time with it really pays off too. Alabama? I like your sauce.

Spicy Apricot Wings

2012-10-28T10:00:00.000-04:00

My wife and I raked, blew and bagged over 40 bags of leaves on Saturday. You can see by all the leaves on the surrounding trees that this was merely round one. After spending the day raking, I was ready for a tasty reward.

And by the way, look what my parents gave me for my birthday: Big Bog Gibson's BBQ Book! These wings were my first recipe to try from the book.

It didn't take too much study for me to jump on Spicy Apricot wings. The marinade consisted of:

Apricot preserves

Worcestershire Sauce

Brown Sugar

Soy Sauce

Dijon Mustard

Kosher Salt

Black Pepper

Garlic Powder

Paprika

Cayenne Pepper

Ginger

The recipe called for the wings to marinate for 4 hours. I gave them just under two hours in a freezer bag.

Here are the wings in the marinade. Above in the sink are some snippets of chicken skin. Am I the only one who likes to trim up the wings so they're not so fatty?

My dad has apple trees on his property. So when a recipe calls for apple chips, he's the real thing on hand. Me? I buy this stuff in bags at the hardware store. For these wings I threw on a handful of apple chips before the wings went on. They were dry chips. As I watched them burn up on impact, I decided it's important to soak 'em in water for an hour first if you expect any significant smoke flavor in your food. The smoke flavor made it into these wings, but it was very subtle.

I cooked these at 450f direct on a raised grid for about 40 minutes. I needed Labon for this cook. He's super vigilant about flipping and turning the wings to cook them evenly. I checked on these about every 10 minutes and some of them got pretty charred. Given how sugary this marinade was, I should have known better.

A little char is ok in my book. These wings were quite good. I have to say that the flavor wasn't quite as balanced as I expected. The soy, Worcestershire and salt flavors were a little too heavy for me. I would have liked for a little of the sweetness to have poked through all that. So I may try them again and use less salt than the recipe calls for. I might also try doing them indirect--but I like the dryer, crispier texture you get from the direct heat. Maybe start them indirect and finish them direct?

Anyway, they were tasty and I especially liked the kick from the cayenne. It was just the right amount. It was a nice reward after a hard day of yard work.

Grilled Peaches on Cast Iron

2012-09-26T22:28:00.000-04:00

Emboldened by the tastiness of grilled peaches--which were an after thought when we tried the bacon-wrapped chicken strips, we wanted to try them again on direct heat using cast iron. Just to catch you up on what had been going on earlier in the afternoon the coals doing were doing backflips to produce temperatures north of 800 degrees Fahrenheit in order to sear up some tasty steaks.

For comparison: indirect heat (using a plate setter) at about 350f produced this delicious treat after we were done with the bacon-wrapped chicken strips. Note that this grate is stainless steel.

When we were done with the steaks we used direct heat at about 400f on cast iron, which gave us these babies--complete with pleasing grill marks. By the way, I can't tell you what grill marks taste like, but any old fool can appreciate what they look like. They're pretty awesome, right?

In both cases we cooked the peaches face-down for 2-3 minutes before we flipped them. After flipping them we inserted a pat of butter and a spoonful of brown sugar into the peach pit hole. We kept on cooking until all that was melted up together and we served it with vanilla ice cream. Trust me when I say there was nothing wrong with the peaches cooked indirectly. They were awesome, actually. But if I had to choose I would suggest doing them directly at a little higher heat on a cast iron grate. Thanks for reading.

Celebrate the Fire

2012-09-24T18:26:00.001-04:00

Here's something I've learned about myself. Sometimes a cook is about a new and interesting recipe. Sometimes it's about the journey of going low and slow. Other times it's just about doing something quick and tasty.

Then there's the times where you just want to celebrate the fire. When I get the urge to have a big, juicy steak I've learned that some of that is rooted to the desire to rev up my Big Green Egg and listen to that sizzle when meat slaps down on cast iron.

As a matter of course these days when I cook steaks and chops I use the T-Rex method, which I found on the Naked Whiz's website. The hot link takes you there.

My wife came home with these lovely cuts, which also happened to be on sale. All I did was brush them with olive oil and then sprinkle with sea salt and fresh-ground pepper.

I've read mixed reviews about food safety and cooking steaks. I always leave my steaks out for an hour or more (wrapped up and resting on the kitchen counter) to get them as close to room temperature as possible. The reasoning I've heard is that cold tissues cook up to be tougher than warmer tissues. Just as you want to warm up your muscles prior to a strenuous workout, you don't want to grill cold meat. Others have said that this increases your risk for food poisoning, but I've never had a problem. Anyone got any opinions here?

Anyway while I was watching some football; letting the steaks warm up and letting the Big Green Egg heat up things actually got out of control. For the first time ever I "pegged" my thermometer. As you may be able to see, it appears as if we were north of 800f, folks. Yessss.

So if you've been to Grill Knuckles in the past, you've probably seen shots like these before. Nothing new here. I just love getting it hot as all get out and searing a good steak like crazy. I did 2 minutes on each side. I rotated them at 60 seconds to get the nice cross-hatched grill marks. That left the steaks with a great seared "crust."

Then I took them inside on a plate and let them sit for the 25 minutes or so it took for the grill to cool back down to the 375f neighborhood.

I stood the steaks bone-side down and cooked for another 5-6 minutes until they were reading in the 130-135f range on the inside.

This was 135f when I pulled it and it rested for 5 minutes before I cut in. That's just how I like it.

That's all. Just wanted to share my love of the fire. Thanks for reading.

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Strips & Grilled Peaches

2012-09-14T16:54:00.000-04:00

This is the first recipe I've cooked off of Pinterest. I first saw it on a friend's board. It linked to Diary of a Recipe Addict.

The recipe was so simple.

4 chicken breasts cut into strips

bacon

chili powder

garlic powder

brown sugar

salt & pepper

Cut the chicken into strips and then season with chili and garlic powders and the salt and pepper.

Wrap with bacon.

Roll it all in sugar.

I added this step myself: Have a beer.

(When I went to the grocery to get my supplies I found this tasty seasonal ESB from Sweet Water. I recommend it.)

The recipe on the blog references that the recipe was originally intended for an oven, but used a grill herself. I did these on my Big Green Egg at 350f using a plate setter to get indirect heat. They were done in about 25 minutes. I used an instant read thermometer to make sure the chicken was done. I moved them to the outer edges for a few minutes at the end. That gives you some direct heat to crisp up the bacon.

I tried to photograph the unbelievable downpour that came out of nowhere. I'm unsure what the proper technique is to do so, but the pics weren't worth posting. Let's just say it rained unbelievably hard and when I went to retrieve these things I think the rain washed off a good bit of the seasoning. I ran out there in a rain jacket. A (dry) guest suggested after the fact I should have used an umbrella, but I didn't have the appropriate number of hands to hold a plate, tongs and an umbrella. Alas.

But hey. They still look pretty good, don't you think? We spiced 'em up at the table with some Dizzy Pig Jamaican Firewalk. In fact, that was so tasty, I think next time I would use that in place of the chili powder and garlic powder. For desert we had some delicious peaches. I'd tried something like this before and I can't remember if it was a formal recipe or just ad lib. This evening it was ad lib--but inspired by some vague past experience.

Anyway, all you do here is cut peaches in half and remove the pit. Grill them face down for a couple of minutes. Flip 'em over and then put a pat of butter and a lump of brown sugar where the pit was.

Let it melt.

Melt a little more.

Put some ice cream with it; serve hot; sit back and accept praise from your guests.