nicoleandgreg.net

Red Roquefort Dressing

greg — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:58:57 +0000

Just the stuff you need

1 cup Roquefort (or Blue) cheese
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Lemon juice
2/3 cup Olive oil
2 tablespoons Red wine vinegar

What to do with that stuff

Mash cheese with a little oil. Add Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, vinegar and balance of oil.

Bland well until creamy.

Best (non BBQ) Beef Brisket Sandwich Ever

greg — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:51:03 +0000

Just the stuff you need

1 beef brisket (about 3 to 3 1/2 pounds)
2 cups apple cider, divided
1 head garlic, cloves separated, slightly crushed and peeled
2 tablespoons whole peppercorns
1/3 cup chopped fresh thyme or 2 tablespoons dried thyme leaves
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon ground allspice
2 to 4 whole cloves
1 bottle (12 ounces) dark beer
10 to 12 sourdough sandwich rolls, halved

What to do with that stuff

Place brisket, 1/2 cup cider, garlic, peppercorns, thyme, mustard seed, Cajun seasoning, cumin, celery seed, allspice and cloves in large resealable plastic food storage bag. Refrigerate; marinate overnight.

Place brisket and marinade in slow cooker. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups apple cider and beer. Cover. Cook on low 10 hours or until brisket is tender. Strain sauce; pour over meat. Slice brisket and place on sandwich rolls.

source: Cooking With Beer

Ale’d Pork and Sauerkraut

greg — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:02:50 +0000

Just the stuff you need

1 jar (32 ounces) sauerkraut, undrained
1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
12 ounces of amber ale – i used a Leinenkugel Amber Ale
3-1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder or pork butt roast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Paprika

What to do with that stuff

Place sauerkraut in 5-quart slow cooker. Sprinkle with sugar; add beer. Place pork, fat side up, on top of sauerkraut mixture; sprinkle evenly with remaining ingredients.

Cover; cook on HIGH 6 hours.

Remove pork to serving platter. Remove sauerkraut with slotted spoon; arrange around pork. Spoon 1/2 to 3/4 cup cooking liquid over sauerkraut.

source: Cooking With Beer

BBQ Blue Bison Burgers

greg — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:38:27 +0000

This isn’t so much a recipe as its a photo gallery of photos of a simple dish I whipped up not too long ago. A coworker gave me a pound of ground bison from a small farm in Ohio. The instant she handed it to me I knew what must be done…

Toasted a half dozen Kings Hawaiian Dinner rolls to start. Sliced up a nice big sweet onion and got to saute’n in a little olive oil and garlic. Divided the bison into six relatively equal portions by merely cutting the packaged bison into a 3×2 grid. Not everything has to be THAT technical. Seasoned the bison lightly with sea salt and cracked pepper and set them into a hot grill pan. Managed to get a really nice color on the outsides. They were fairly rare, but that may be due more to me not wanting to risk overcooking (and ruining) such a generous gift.

Topped the burgers with poorly sliced hunks of Irish blue cheese, the browned onions and BBQ sauce. Three sliders made for a really nice little meal.

Update: I submitted one the shots below to the #fridayfoodfaves contest on twitter and WON! Wooooo!

Smoked Turkey and Corn Enchiladas

greg — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:15:29 +0000

Just the stuff you need

2 cups chopped or shredded turkey, smoked (or roasted)
1 cup corn
1 1/2 cups (shredded) of a cheese of choice. I used an awesome smoked Cooper Sharp but pepper jack will do nicely
salt and pepper to taste.
8 small flour tortillas
1 cup enchilada sauce

What to do with that stuff

Preheat oven to 400°. In a large bowl, combine the turkey, 1 cup of cheese and corn. Add salt and pepper to taste. Amounts are subjective here. I usually measure my salt and pepper by the number of cranks on a mill. Its easier for me since I am a compulsive counter (it takes 15 swallows for me to chug a Slim-Fast. Everytime). So for this dish, I used 10 salts twists and 17 pepper twists.

Fill tortillas with the filling and place in a baking dish seam down. I used a 7″x11″ glass bakeware dish that was a tight fit for all eight enchiladas. Top with enchiladas sauce and 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until heated thoroughly. I did find that 20 minutes crisped the edges of the enchiladas a bit much. That may be due in part to a smaller baking dish I used.

source: realsimple.com

Glazed Sweet Potatoes

greg — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:08:57 +0000

Just the stuff you need

4 tablespoons butter, plus 1 tablespoon for greasing
4 medium yams or sweet potatoes, peeled
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

What to do with that stuff

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 13-inch baking dish with 1 tablespoon butter.

Cut each of the yams into 8 evenly shaped wedges. Lay them out in the prepared baking dish in an even layer. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar and allow to dissolve. Mix in syrup and cook until smooth. Pour the glaze over the yams and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for about 45 minutes or until the yams are tender when pierced with a fork but they still hold their shape.

source: Food Network

Baked Acorn Squash Filled with Italian Sausage and Rigatoni Pasta

greg — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:46:06 +0000

Just the stuff you need

4 medium acorn squash, halved and cleaned
Olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound Italian sausage, casing removed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup sliced red onion
4 cups tomato sauce
1/2 pound rigatoni pasta, cooked until tender, tossed in olive oil and cooled
1/2 pound mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley leaves

What to do with that stuff

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Season the squash with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet, flesh side up and add 1/2 cup water to the pan. Cover with alluminum foil and bake until tender, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

In a large saute pan, over medium heat, brown the sausage and onions, about 6 to 8 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, toss the sausage and onions with the tomato sauce, pasta, and cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well.

Spoon the pasta mixture into the cavity of each squash. Place the filled squashes on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake until the squash is heated through and the cheese melts, about 20 minutes.

source: foodnetwork.com

Lime Cilantro Vinaigrette

greg — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:51:20 +0000

Just the stuff you need

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/8 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, no stems
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh chopped garlic
2-1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3/4 cup light olive oil

What to do with that stuff

Place lime juice, white wine vinegar, cilantro, honey, brown sugar, salt, garlic, and Dijon mustard into a blender. Process until smooth. While blender is running, add olive oil in a slow, steady stream and process until thickened. Do not over-blend.

source:

Delicious Times at the Blue Ribbon Bacon Tour

greg — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:45:20 +0000

The Blue Ribbon Bacon Tour, sponsered by Vande Rose Farms made another stop in the ‘burgh this past weekend. It’s very much like a traveling version of the annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival held in Des Moines, Iowa each year. I seem to recall the Tour stopping in Pittsburgh once before and I had missed it. This time I made sure I would enjoy all the bacon-y goodness. Hosting the event from Harris Grill was the one and only Mr. BaconPants. He was joined by Heather Lauer from BaconUnwrapped.com, author of the book Bacon: A Love Story: A Salty Survey of Everybody’s Favorite Meat.

Joining me on my quest to prematurely clog the arteries and double my cholesterol were good friends Bobby Burdette (@bobbyburdette) and Derek Kalinosky (@dkalinosky). My main goal was to see what the masses would make of the Pittsburgh Penetrator. Bobby and Derek cared less about that and more about all out BaconComa^©. Having put myself on a diet after the Grill Around the Globe… I managed some measure of self-control and didn’t over eat.

What did you eat, Greg?

Excellent question. The Harris Grill, which serves bacon every Tuesday night FOR FREE, set up a nice little buffet area for all the wonderful dishes available to sample. Lets go to the lineup:

Country Fried Bacon
Bacon Perogies
Bacon wrapped Shrimp
Bacon Sushi
and for desert… a Bacon Cupcake.

First up, the Country Fried Bacon. Now its probably not fair for me to judge this dish since I have such an unfavoring love for the Six Penn Tempura Bacon. Still, I found the breading a little heavy which prevents the bacon from really getting the kind of crisp you’d expect. It tasted good – but also very, very unhealthy. I could almost feel it coat the inside of my heart with a thin layer of slick grease. Definitely couldn’t manage more than one slice.

The Bacon Perogies were very nice. The bacon shared the spotlight with perfectly cooked onions. I believe there was bacon both in the onions and inside the perogie. Very understated presence but definitely there. The Bacon Wrapped Shrimp were outstanding. Seafood that sits in a chaffing dish can run the risk of ending up overcooked and tough but no chance here. Probably due to the shrimp not spending much time resting. They were gone in a flash. The Bacon Sushi, as I understand it, came in two varieties. I only had a chance to sample the Philadelphia – which had a nice cream cheese element that played really well with the bacon. It was by far the most… interesting dish I tried. And I’ll leave it at that.

The Bacon Cupcake was, in a word… redonkulous. Plain and simple. Candied bacon chip on top of what I think was a maple cream cheese frosting. I didn’t eat the actual cake so i can’t say much there. I can only assume it was good based on how quickly the cupcakes were flying off the serving trays.

There was beer too, right?

Local home-brewers club, Three Rivers Underground Brewers, were on hand with several styles. Three on tap included a nice Pale Ale, a curious Applewood Cider brew and the star of the day – an incredible Maple E.S.B. which is so good I have to believe someone somewhere is going to get rich off it. It was that good. Poured a somewhat cloudy tan with a slight head. Perhaps due to a combination of the portable tap system and the tiny little plastic cup they provided.

The aroma bore a strong scent of maple yet didn’t invade the taste of a tastefully hopped beer. At first I was a little confused by the mouthfeel. The typical crispness of a bitter was gone and in its place was a well-balanced, pitch-perfect beer. Bobby’s best guess is that the sweetness of the maple tipped the scales to even. The tiny little plastic cup wasn’t the only reason I went back for thirds, fourths, AND fifths. It was that damn good.

So what’s this about a Pittsburgh Penetrator?

One of my big goals for the day was to introduce my variation of the world famous Bacon Explosion – The Pittsburgh Penetrator. The premise is simple one. Add a little Pittsburgh flavor to what is already a fantastic dish. Construction is easy. Its a Bacon Explosion wrapped around a fresh kielbasa, the casing removed to allow smoke to penetrate fully. No pun intended. Ok. I lie… it was intentional.

I need to make sure I give credit where credit is due… the idea came from my boss. Several months ago he attended a party in Upstate New York and wanted to bring something special. Being an avid sport shooter, he described to me a type of ammunition known as a penetration round. The general idea is that the core contains a solid rod designed to punch through… things. Here we punch through your taste buds.

I was very happy with the overall reception. However, there seemed to be a bit of confusion around what it was exactly. I read one account in a blog that thought it was a pork tenderloin, which I totally don’t understand. I think some folks didn’t realize that it wasn’t a standard BE.

I didn’t get around to taking many photos when I made the Pittsburgh Penetrator but here are just a few. Also only snapped a few pictures from the event. My hands were too full of beer and bacon.

Let’s go back in time

greg — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:11:11 +0000

Let me tell you a story:

I can’t remember exactly when this happened so for the sake of argument….

Years ago, there was a lovely radio station here in Pittsburgh called ” The Zone”… which I believe was short for The Man Zone (or at least I think it was). I can’t recall clearly and since that time the station has been replaced by several formats in the last few years. It was supposed to be a man-oriented all-talk radio format. I liked it. Opie and Anthony in the morning drive. The studio where the radio station broadcast from happened to be in the same industrial park I worked at during this time. Not that it matters…

The point of this back story is this: I listened to this station on my drive home every night from work. It was hosted by Scott Paulsen who I grew up listening to on the perennial Pittsburgh favorite WDVE.

One of my favorite features of the show occurred every day at 5 o’clock. Scott would give away a case of beer “minus One”… which he would drink on air and talk about it. Well, eventually CBS caught wind of this and quickly put a stop to this practice. Well, the day Scott announced this – I was immediately struck with an idea… so i called up the station and offered to come across the street at 5 each day to drink the beer for him until the issue was resolved. Well…