My typical Pork Chop Grillin’…

Most of the time I have a usual process with grilling depending on the meat. This is one of those processes concerning pork…

The Pork Chops (thick cut)

½ teaspoon or so per side of Victoria Taylor’s Kansas City Steak Rub (yep)

1 cup or so New Belgium’s Dig Pale Ale

Grilled actively for a good 30-45 minutes on 350 degree heat on the grass grill until done.

The Potatos

Star Spangled Spuds about 2-3 each color for me and the wife. (Using different colors adds a nice aesthetic)

1/3 tablespoon if that of Olive Oil (just to coat, for flavor and lube)

1 teaspoon of freeze dried Dill

½ teaspoon or so of  Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Salt

Sprinkle with fresh Ground Peppercorns

1 Brown Gravy Packet if desired & follow their directions (I recommend McCormicks, especially when serving pork)

I use a glass baking dish container (1.5 L) and cover with foil. I Preheat the oven at 400 degrees first. Then bake at 400 also on the middle rack for about an hour.  But keep an eye on it, and maybe shake/stir those taters up a bit mid-way through. When I’m grilling, I’ll sometimes just turn the oven off at certain point if I know that my grilling time is going to go longer than expected. And that oven heat will cook long enough more for me to finish up the meats.

The Zucchinis

Olive Oil Drizzle My Nizzle (just drizzle some olive oil then brush if needed)

Sprinkle Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Salt

Sprinkle Ground Peppercorns

Slice long-ways then quarter. Basically your making Zuchini sticks to grill. The drizzle the olive oil enough to just lightly coat (for flavor & lube) then sprinkle the other spices. I’ve found that these need to be grilled on high heat. Grilling time varies due to desired taste. I like just grilling on high heat for about 5 min. if that just to get that cooked outside, but the vegetable is still crisp. I’ll leave it up to you to experiment with what you like. I like crisp veggies.

The wife and I (the “lovely wife” in case she reads, ha ha…jk, she really is lovely) went over to our friends’ house this weekend to have some grilled steaks and check out his newly acquired whiskey collection.

You see, he’s a collector now, so he’s been buying up a lot of vintage antiquities. Is that redundant, ha? But anyways, he came across this nice collection of vintage decanters. We got to sample the opened ones. If you see the photo above, the one’s we sampled were mainly on the left (the decanters). There were some Beams, an Ezra Brooks, and others. They were from the 70’s and 80’s. And the Jim Beam shooter on the right was for comparison. The other shooters & bottles were there by mistake/show, don’t ask, ha ha.

It was interesting to try to taste the differences in each. I was the main taster, ha ha, but I’m no connoisseur. Some had more of a “bite” than the others, and the aromas varied. But I did find one of the decanters of Beam to be a lot smoother and tastier than the others. I hope to develop my palette more to be able to describe the differences. Basically I know what I like, but I just can’t describe it in detail yet.

The decanters themselves were one of the more interesting things of those whiskeys though. I didn’t realize the variety of products that distilleries put out to the public. If you want to see more, check out his collection.

He also grilled up some steaks for us afterwards along with some grilled sliced potatoes. And I do want to mention that his wife did some quick cucumber pickling that was a nice addition to the meal (comparable to Ted’s Montana Grill’s appetizer pickles, but better!). Afterwards we all sat around my “borrowed” firepit (ha ha) and drank some more of that vintage whiskey!

It was a damn-good Saturday night.

P.S. Right now my “go-to” whiskeys are: 1792, Gentlemen Jack, and Makers Mark , ranked in that order.

Or two-timin’ after the change in grillin’? Not sure what the hell I’m talking about…I’ve been drinkin’. Oh yeah, I remember now…though most of those hippies think we’ve lost an hour, we’ve gained an hour more of sunshine and life after work! Which means that this first Monday after the Spring Forward, I’ve already taken advantage, and grilled up some meat and veggies for the wife and I. And we had some beers. It was fun. Real fun.

I grilled two thick-cut pork chops, grilled onions, and grilled mushrooms…served up with some blanched fresh green beans and some good ol’ McCormick’s package pork gravy (ha ha, oh yeah). I used the Pearl St. Plank Rub from Savory Spice Shop on the chops along with Samuel Adams Irish Red beer for the marinade. That rub has a smokiness to it that is good if you’re not cooking on wood or coals.

Just some salt/pepper, olive oil, and dill (to freshen it up) was enough for those white button mushrooms and white onions (and no I’m not racist, that’s just what I picked up at the store, brown onions aren’t very good, but yellow ones are, but brown mushrooms are usually better).

I wanted to get back on the charcoal, but by the time I cleaned the kitchen, prepared the pork chops, had a couple beers (and some whiskey), it was too late to wait for the fire to start. The gas grill is optimal for the weekday workin’ man! But you can guarantee, I’ll be burnin’ coal soon on the weekends, especially with this warmer weather.

But to the point (again)…it was finally nice to get back out on the grill. I even found myself doing a the grillin- man-dance-shake while listening to some old country and staring at my spice cabinet to figure out what I was going to season those chops with, ha ha! I’ve confirmed grilling is a stress-reliever for me (and maybe a few beers, ha ha!)

It was a damn good grillin’ time!

I was just reflecting (after a couple beers) about how much I love to get out on the grill no matter what the season. But I especially can’t wait until summer, the warm air, the smell of charcoal, the crisp taste of a cold beer on a warm afternoon, that savory smell of food grilling…yep, I’ve got a grillin’ chub going right now, ha ha!

I haven’t used the Weber (charcoal grill) in a while so that’s why I’m anticipating the warmer weather. I’ve gotten pretty lazy since acquiring the gas grill.

I really hope to actually do some slow cooking (real BBQing) this summer, and also experiment more with smoking. I still have a good amount of Mesquite and Oak that I cut down while back in Texas, and plan to use that effectively.

America’s grilling/bbqing season is coming up pretty quickly so I plan to have some good grilling blog posts and cheesy humor for everyone.

Go Grillin’!

Try out this song while readin’ to get you in the spirit!

Well the wife and I went out and got our Christmas Tree, and did the whole house decoratin’ thing. It was fun. We went to our usual tree supplier and I tried out my negotiatin’ skills again – I think I only got about $5-$10 off. Yeah that’s right, I’m a shark, ha ha.

After 5 trimmed branches, 4 Nogs, 1 broken candle, 3 broken ornaments, and the damn Cowboys losing in OT, I decided to grill up some Holiday burgers.

Anywhoozits, my Holiday/Christmas burgers didn’t have any secret Santa seasonings, except for the beer. I marinated the pre-made beef patties in Session’s Premium Red Lager Fest. I like to get mixed-up six packs from Colorado Liquor Mart, and this beer was one of my selections. It’s not only good for seasonal grilling with probably chicken, pork or beef, it’s good for drinking too!  I’ll be getting a six pack before Christmas fo’ sho’.

I also rubbed them down on one side generously with my new favorite burger seasoning, Weber Gourmet Burger Seasoning. I’ve tried out a few different seasonings, and also tried my own concoctions, but nothing compares yet. I only do one side generously so that they’re not over-seasoned, and also it’s less work. Basically just throw the burger patties in a deep pan, pour the beer, then rub down the top of the patties with the seasoning, EASY!

The flame broiling part is sort of easy too and fun! Just let that burger grease drip down on your mid-plate above the gas-burners, let it catch fire and burst into flames, ha ha! Although, you need to tend to your grill pretty often. When it comes to burgers, I’m a flipper anyways.  If you don’t want the flames then I think a spray bottle of water or something will help. Or just use a leaner meat.

So in short, these burgers had no amazing holiday ingredients except for the seasonal beer and puttin’ them on a Santa Claus Platter (and maybe a little Christmas Spirit). But once again, they were damn good!

If I don’t grill again before next year, then HAPPY HOLIDAYS and HAPPY GRILLIN’!!!

p.s. if you’re wonderin’ how to grill Reindeer then Check out my post from last year.

Yeah, yeah, I know…it’s a douchebag title, but I tell you what…in my life history I’ll be able to say that on the Halloween of 2011…this guy grilled up a damn good pork chop. I think I might have found a good recipe and/or process to put in my books.

I grilled 2 sets of 2 chops, and on the thicker ones I used a maple-nut brown ale and a pre-mixed rub from a local spice shop. On the other 2 thinner chops I used Stubbs pork marinade. The thicker chops proved to be a mouth-waterin’ delight of flavor and dead pig in the mouth. Ha! Happy Halloween!

I’ll have to tell you about my process / marinade on the thicker ones though. They were damn tasty. I also grilled some asparagus and then baked an American medley of potatoes.

As far as Halloween goes, We had seven Trick Or Treaters tonight. I had a bet goin’ with the wife that we’d have twelve, but she bet five (“price or right” rules). Now I have to do laundry for a week. I’ll be doing some recruiting around the neighborhood for sure this next year.

BOO! Grillin’ Blog!

Listen to this shizzy while readin’: http://pl.st/s/715030033

Oh man, where do I start. Well it was Labor Day weekend, so I’d been planning on grillin’ something new, and gettin’ my drink on. I knew that I’d be at a BBQ the Saturday before, so I paced myself by just drinking a lot of Coors Light (which is like water for these northern folk) and grilling some burgers. But I knew come Sunday it was on. It was do or die. I was going to grill something good and drink a helluva lot of beer. And watch Texas A&M beat the hell outta SMU (whoop!).

The whole week before I had been contemplating a big-ass brisket, but then downsized my plan to a smaller shoulder cut of either pork or beef. I went to the store on Saturday and did some brainstorming/pricing then decided between either the small pork shoulder or a chicken. When it came down to it, I went with the lesser cooking time, and chose to do a beer-can grilled chicken. Also, there’s just something about a chicken that gives me the urge to want to shove a beer can up its ass. I think other Grillers and BBQ’ers have this problem too though. God help us all. Just don’t drink the beer afterwards.

By the time it was all said and done, our whole meal consisted of juicy beer-can chicken (Shiner Bock to be exact), grilled cherry tomatoes, German-style potato salad, and beer. I’m definitely going to do this one again. Und dass die deutschen Kartoffelsalat war wunderbar! (German Potato salad was wonderful)

Auf Wiedersehen! Grillen Blog Aus!

I grilled up a couple of Filet Mignon’s tonight. They were good. And if you might already know, a Filet Mignon, is a cut of the tenderloin that runs along the sides of the spine of the bovine.

These beef cuts are tender…and savory…and damn good. You don’t need to rub or marinate this cut of meat because it is usually just good as it is. But sadly, I resisted temptation and rubbed them (just a bit) with a newly found rub that I’ve been really excited about. But don’t be alarmed, they turned out to be pretty tasty.

Also, most store-bought Filet Mignons are wrapped in bacon so you get a lot of the sodium/salt flavor from that when grilling….and there’s no need for seasoning or marinating. In other words, these little beefcakes are ready to go out of the package.

Any-whoo, me and the wife had a good meal. We enjoyed these little beefcakes along with some stir-fried veggies and microwaved black-beans. Beef…it’s what’s for dinner!

Yep, that’s what I grilled. I let the shrimp sit in a garlic & herb marinade before grilling. And they grill quick so be prepared to flip’em fast, woo hoo!  The grilled vegetables were squash and zucchini with some salt & pepper and a bit of drizzled olive oil. I also had some white button mushrooms on there. I used the gas grill today. I like grilled shrimps.