Gas Grill Chef

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Memorial Day Weekend 2010 Posted On 2010-06-01 , 7:15 PM Memorial Day Weekend 2010 This holiday weekend is usually a three day weekend but I decided to take Friday off as well so I could turn it into a mini vacation. Wow! Four days off to relax and visit with friends and, for the most part, we accomplished our goal. Friday started by sleeping in a little later than normal and believe me, the extra couple hours of sleep felt darn good and after a sausage, egg, and biscuit breakfast, we were ready to get going. First, some yard work, broken up by several breaks in the shade with a cool soda. After that was done, we had some lunch then wasted a couple of hours sitting on the porch and throwing a stick for the dog. I decided that all that hard work had earned me the right to have bourbon or two, so I did. It was quite relaxing! Later that evening, we went to visit our good friends Dean and Ruth and he threw some hamburgers on the grill and we proceeded to have a great evening. Mike and Kim, Dean and Ruth’s son and daughter in law, showed up later and we had a nice visit with them all. Saturday started a lot like Friday. We had some more yard work to get finished up so I got started on that. I wanted to spray the fence rows and a few other areas with roundup but when I fired the sprayer up, it had a serious leak. Bonnie was in town so I called her and had her go by TSC to pick up a new sprayer wand. They had what I needed and soon the spraying was done. We had been invited to Darrell and Suzanne’s house for a cookout so, with the chores done, we headed out. Darrell has just finished building a Tiki bar on his back patio so we broke it in with drinks and music. Good times for sure! Sunday got off to about the same start as the others. Dana and Carol had invited us over for a cookout lunch and we were glad to join in. We had a great lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs and all the extras. Dana had just bought a new radio control plane so he assembled it and we took it out for its maiden flight. After about 30 seconds of flight, a tree reached out and grabbed the plane. We spent the next 30 minutes getting it out of the trees clutch. The rest of the flight was trouble free. We wanted to relax Monday so we did just that. The only thing we did was go to town for lunch. That evening we built a fire in the fire ring, cooked a couple of hot dogs and that was a fun little way to wind up the weekend. Spending the weekend visiting good friends, having good food and a couple of drinks has been fantastic. All weekends should be this good! comment
BBQ Chicken on the Grill Posted On 2010-05-10 , 3:28 PM BBQ Chicken on the grill. The weather here today is still cool for this time of year. It’s a chilly 59° and normally it’s in the mid 70’s, but the bright blue sky and plenty of sunshine put me in the mood for some BBQ chicken. Actually, it could have been cold and raining or hot and dry and I would still be in the mood for BBQ chicken but, that’s beside the point. I checked the freezer and found two chicken breasts that would do nicely. After thawing the breasts, I salt and peppered them and they were ready for the grill. I then fired the grill up on high, let it preheat then turned the burners to low. After putting the chicken breasts on the upper rack of the grill, I closed the lid, fixed me a bourbon, and proceeded to let em’ cook. About every eight or ten minutes, I flipped them and refilled the Bourbon as needed. This went on for about 40 minutes and I decided it was time to check the internal temperature with my meat thermometer. When the temperature hit 165°, I coated them with some “Sweet Baby Rays” BBQ sauce and continued the flipping / Bourbon ritual until the temp reached 170° F. Meanwhile, my better half has been cooking potatoes and preparing a salad and somehow, all the food got done at the same time. It was delicious! comment
BBQ Chicken on the Grill Posted On 2010-05-10 , 3:28 PM BBQ Chicken on the grill. The weather here today is still cool for this time of year. It’s a chilly 59° and normally it’s in the mid 70’s, but the bright blue sky and plenty of sunshine put me in the mood for some BBQ chicken. Actually, it could have been cold and raining or hot and dry and I would still be in the mood for BBQ chicken but, that’s beside the point. I checked the freezer and found two chicken breasts that would do nicely. After thawing the breasts, I salt and peppered them and they were ready for the grill. I then fired the grill up on high, let it preheat then turned the burners to low. After putting the chicken breasts on the upper rack of the grill, I closed the lid, fixed me a bourbon, and proceeded to let em’ cook. About every eight or ten minutes, I flipped them and refilled the Bourbon as needed. This went on for about 40 minutes and I decided it was time to check the internal temperature with my meat thermometer. When the temperature hit 165°, I coated them with some “Sweet Baby Rays” BBQ sauce and continued the flipping / Bourbon ritual until the temp reached 170° F. Meanwhile, my better half has been cooking potatoes and preparing a salad and somehow, all the food got done at the same time. It was delicious! comment
Rib Eyes on the gas grill Posted On 2010-05-03 , 3:13 PM Rib Eyes on the gas grill. Rib Eyes on the gas grill – I learned an important lesson. Friday evening, it rained. Saturday, it rained. Sunday was a continuation of the same, rain all day. Despite the rain, we decided to cook a couple of small rib eyes on the grill. I think we just wanted to end the weekend on a positive note by having a good steak. So, I got two rib eyes out and seasoned them up with some Mc Cormick “Season-All”, and put them in a zip lock bag to absorb the seasoning. Two hours should do the trick. Just before the two hours were up, I got a sweet yellow onion out, peeled it, added salt and pepper and some margarine and wrapped it aluminum foil. Then, I fired up the gas grill, cleaned the grates, and put the onion on. I let it cook for a solid 30 minutes before adding the steaks. My better half was cooking the potatoes on the stove inside. All sounds good so far huh? I put the steaks on and let one side cook for about four minutes, flipped them, went inside and got distracted by that stupid box we call “TV’. The next time I looked at the clock, nine minutes had passed. I jumped up like I’d been shot, ran outside, and the grill was blazing. I turned the burners off and got the rib eyes off as quick as I could but the damage was done. Two well done steaks! Luckily, I got them off before they were shoe leather. The lesson…Don’t watch TV while you’re cooking rib eyes! comment
Baby Back Ribs Posted On 2010-04-11 , 6:15 PM Baby Back Ribs The weather is great and it’s time for some baby back ribs! I’ve always been a believer in the “KISS” (keep it simple stupid) method of doing things so when I decided to cook baby back ribs, I decided to “KISS” it. Now I know the die hard smoker guys are going to dislike this but it is a lot less work and it’s hard to screw it up. First, I cut the ribs into lengths that will fit into my rib rack. That’s about nine or ten inches. Salt and pepper both sides and place them in the rack. Put them in the slow cooker, set the temperature to 225 degrees, put the lid on and walk away. Three hours later, the baby back ribs are at about 150 degrees (use a meat thermometer to check this. Click here to read my page about meat thermometers). Now, I’m ready to move the baby back ribs to the gas grill to finish them off. First, I filled the smoker box with mesquite wood chips (see my page about smoker boxes here). Place the smoker box next to the burner and replace the grate. Now I fire up the grill and when it’s heated up sufficiently, I add the baby back ribs. Let them cook and absorb the smoke flavor until they start to turn brown. Now, add your favorite BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Rays today) and cook until the sauce is glazed over. The baby back ribs were delicious! That’s it! The “KISS” method for baby back ribs. Total time at the grill is about 45 minutes! comment
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