Overboard on Appetizers

Well, after a long day of watching football, eating fajitas, and suffering through a gut wrenching Iron Bowl, my buddy and I got a little over exited in our celebratory cook for dinner and ended up with an absurd amount of food for just 4 adults. I must say that I was proud of our appetizers. They really stole the show from our wings. We had jalapeno poppers and mushrooms stuffed with cream cheese and salami wrapped in bacon....I get hungry just remembering those bad boys!

Day after Thanksgiving Fajitas?

Yep, that's right...at our house we went with all to popular tradition of Fajitas on the Egg on the day after Thanksgiving. I had a buddy over and we were cooking most of the day and watching football. We decided to do something a little different so we went with Fajitas. I got this recipe from Nibble Me This. It was great. I followed it to the T except I did not have any Tequila for the marinade, so just click on the above link for the recipe. The finishing sauce was the perfect touch!


I used a Flank Steak that was nearly 2lbs and while it was great, I prefer my meat to be a little thinner in a fajita so I might a different piece of meat next time. But that is just me.


After about 5 min per side at a temp of about 500 degrees, we threw some veggies on the grill (yes, I need a cast iron skillet!), and then served everything up for a nice holiday lunch!

Random, Recent Dinners

Chicken Wings....


Thin Crust Pizza....


Smoked Meat Loaf....

Quick Dinner / Quick Post

Chicken and Veggies:

I cooked this chicken on a raised grid over the veggies and smoked the meat at about 400 degrees till the meat was about 175 degrees. I am not sure it is possible to overcook anything on the Egg! I love it.

Meat Loaf!

The first (and maybe the only) non-Egg related post on this site is about my Mother's meat loaf. This happens to be the only non Egg item that I really cook, so this turn of events is really not all that surprising!

Here is the recipe and some pics from my favorite dish as a child (and today I must confess!).

Mix the following ingredients:
-1/2 tsp salt (heaping)
-1 tsp sage (heaping)
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1 cup bread crumbs (heaping)
-1 cup milk
-2 eggs

For the sauce/topping, mix:
-1/4 tsp nutmeg (heaping)
-1/3 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup ketchup
-3 squirts mustard


The add between 1 - 1/2 lbs of ground chuck.


At this point, you put/form the meat loaf into a loaf pan (?) and then spread on the topping. Then bake between 1 hour 15 min and 1 hour and 30 min. I cooked this one for exactly 1 hour and 15 min and it probably could have used another 15 min or so.


I must say that my Mother's meat loaf is always a little different than mine, so she is either not giving me the entire recipe or her constant use of the word heaping and her scientific measurements of "squirts" of mustard lead to a little bit of variation in recipes. Having said that, if you follow the above recipe to the T, then the outcome is a fantastic night of some of the best comfort food around.

The Search for Perfect Chicken Wings

I love wings. I think they are easy to cook, relatively quick, and delicious. I love wings.

Having said that, I am constantly looking to improve my wing grilling skills. I find that I am constantly in a battle between smoking the wings for ideal tenderness and cooking them over direct heat for exterior crispiness. I know that I can do both during the same cook but that is a bit of a pain.

So this time, I did some BBQ wings and decided to smoke them but at a much higher temperature than I normally would.


I smoked the wings at about 325 (ish) for approximately 1 hour and 20 min. I was somewhat disappointed that the skins had not crisped up a little more (they were still a bit rubbery looking) so I removed the plate setter and then charred them up for abour 10 min over the open flame.


This did the trick and the wings were excellent after I tossed them in some BBQ sauce and served them hot. However I still came away feeling like there has to be a better way......thoughts?

Chopped Chicken Sandwiches

Tonight I wanted to do some quick and easy comfort food. I cooked a BBQ'd spatchcocked chicken and then turned that into chopped chicken sandwiches with chips.


After the chicken was done, I just chopped up as much meat as I could and then placed all of the chopped chicken in a bowl. I then tossed the chicken in my BBQ sauce and served it up on plain buns with some chips and ate till I was almost sick. I love food!

Family Bonding

Partially inspired by a late night viewing of a TLC "Top 10 BBQ Joints In The Country" show, and partially inspired by wanting to have a good dinner for the beginning of a week long Father/Son bonding extravaganza,......thats right SHARK WEEK 2010....., I cooked ribs. Nothing better than some fall off the bone Baby Back Ribs followed by hanging with your 6 year old watching Air Jaws!

Left Overs

We have had some internet issues so I meant to post this a few days ago, but I got in 3 cooks in 3 nights! The left over chicken became BBQ chicken pizza!

Buffalo Chicken & Veggies

I was feeling sporty tonight and decided to cook two nights in a row, which has been a rarity of late. So just as I was about to bust out a big hard back cook book, I thought I would check on my list of blogs that I follow to see if there was something there first. The first site I went to was Food-Fire and the first thing I saw was a recipe for Buffalo Chicken.....so that is what I did.

This is basically a spatchcock chicken cook where you put the veggies in a dish on top of the plate setter and then the chicken on the grate on top of the veggies. The juices from the chicken flavor the veggies, and I also like the smoky flavor that the veggies soaked up being on the egg.



I started with some veggies that I chopped up and put into an aluminum pan. I then lightly coated the veggies in olive oil and seasoned them with salt and pepper. I then spatchcocked the chicken (I do completely remove the back bone) and coated it with olive oil and rubbed it down with my favorite rub not forgetting to get some under the skin.



I then put the chicken on the grill over the veggies, and cooked it skin side up for the first 30 min. I cooked everything with a mixture of Pecan wood chunks and Apple wood chips. After 30 min, I flipped the chicken and stirred the veggies. I cooked for another 30 min and then pulled the veggies and covered them tightly in foil. For the final 15 min or so, I basted the chicken with Suck Creek Wings hot sauce until the chicken hit 160 degrees in the breast.




I then carved up the chicken and served it with the veggies. It was excellent and I truly have to give all the credit and thanks to Food-Fire because this meal just entered the rotation!

New York Pizza

First let me say this is not a post about me making real New York pizza.....I wish it were! I just got back from a week in the Big Apple for a mixture of business & pleasure and I got to take in some of the best pizza in the country. My three favorites are John's, Lombardi's, and Grimaldi's.

So having been away from my egg and wanting to do something rather quick, I decided to cook some pizza. Now I was a bit lazy tonight and just went with the pre-made crust. Partially to add some NY flare, and partially because I felt bad about using the pre-made crust, I used fresh chucks on mozzarella on one pizza. Ripping the mozzarella by hand and placing it on the pizza to melt in the oven is the way that they do it at Lombardi's and it definitely made a big difference to all those present. I will no longer be using the bags of shredded cheese, that is for sure. Man, I love pizza!

Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin

Tonight I did some pork tenderloin on the BGE and it was excellent. Not sure why I have not done more with tenderloin, but I will in the future.

Tonights meal was simple. I first marinated the tenderloin for about 4 hours in some Soy Vay Teriyaki marinade. You could easily do this for 24 hours if you were so inclined. Next step was to fire the grill up to about 350-375 degrees prepped for an indirect cook. I also added some cherry wood for a little smoke flavor.




I cooked the tenderloin for about 35-40 min until the internal temp reached 150 degrees. I then removed the plate setter and left the egg open to get some flame going and put a little char (and I mean little) on the pork before pulling it off, taking it in, slicing it up, and devouring it!



There was too much meat for just my wife and I so it looks like someone just scored some pork biscuits for breakfast!

Father's Day Cookout

Well, I have to be honest when I say this year's father's day did not go as scripted. With work issues on the brain and a very sick daughter keeping my wife and I up for basically 48 straight hours, I almost bailed on cooking all together. I was supposed to do ribs for a larger group, but it ended up just being my wife and I, (and our screaming children) eating wings. I did a batch for my wife and then I did some BBQ wings for me, to try a little something different. After rinsing the wings off, I coated them lightly with EVOO and then dusted them with John Henry's hot wings seasoning. I then cooked the wings direct on about 300 for approximately 30 to 40 min and then kicked up the temp to about 400 degrees for the last 10 min or so to crisp them up. After that, the wings with the rub on them went swimming in some Suck Creek Wings Spicy BBQ sauce......delicious!

Combo # 1....sort of

I said earlier that I am traveling a lot this month and do not have time to grill very much, and when I can, it usually has to be pretty quick. So my version of fast food tonight was just some good ol' burgers and fries. Like a better version of a fast food combo. Cooked the burgers on high seasoned them which a variety of things that I could grab easily from my spice cabinet, and they were very tasty. You can see in the pictures below that I tried the intentional indention in the patties to keep them from blowing up into giant meatballs on the BGE and it was successful, although I again made the burgers a little too big (is that a problem?).

Whole Chicken

My wife and I invited my parents and sisters to come over and eat with us last night and I was looking for something good and easy to whip up. I decided chicken was the best option. Instead of going with the beer can route or the spatchcock option, I simply threw two whole chickens on the grill and it was simple and tasty.


Basically all I did was take to whole, young chickens, rinse them off and then pat them dry. I then coated them with EVOO and rubbed them down with a good BBQ rub.


I then threw them on the Egg for an indirect cook at about 375 degrees for approximately 1 hour. For the record, I would prefer to cook the birds a little lower and slower, but I was not able to break away from work to allow myself enough time. So despite the slightly rushed cook, the chicken turned out beautiful and I carved it up and served it with some sauteed veggies and potatoes. Very nice and very simple! I am about to head out on the road for work quite a bit this summer so cooking opportunies are not going to present themselves as often as I would like so quick and easy options on the egg are going to be what I have to bank on.