09 December 2014
Reason #1977 that I love cooking over charcoal...
...my cookin' clothes are taking on that distinctly rugged, outdoor wood fire smell...
ABTs for Thanksgiving
I've been wanting to make these for a while, but being the only one in the house who craves spicy foods they've been relegated to the back of my mind till now. Finally an opportunity presented itself, so I cooked these bad boys up and took them along as an appy for Thanksgiving dinner.
As it turns out my fears of setting my wife on fire from jalapeno heat were unfounded. She was one of their biggest fans. By removing the seeds and veins you really cut down the amount of heat in the pepper, and a lot more is cooked away from being in the grill for 2 hours.
Essentially a Jalapeno Popper, Atomic Buffalo Turds are a common fixture in many BBQ joints, many with their own variation. I used this recipe because it's relatively easy and lends itself to much variation in future attempts
Atomic Buffalo Turds
You will need:
You will make:
There's no amounts listed for any of the ingredients, because honestly this recipe is totally subjective in the quantities needed.
Pull the cream cheese out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
If cooking in your grill - set it up for indirect cooking, get the temp to around 235-250*. Cooking in the oven, set it for 235*
Brown the Italian sausage, set aside to let cool.
Get your gloves on (or not if you're a toughguy), and start splitting your jalapenos. You want to cut them along the length into little boats, leaving the stem intact.
Scoop out the seeds. If you want a milder pepper, scoop out the veins as well. Much of the heat that lives in a jalapeno comes from the seeds and the veins, not the flesh itself.
Season the insides of the pepper lightly with salt and pepper, or your favorite bbq rub.
Your cream cheese should be soft and your sausage should have cooled enough. Combine both in a mixing bowl until smooth. Add cream cheese or sausage as desired to get a consistency you like.
Stuff each jalapeno with the mixture, letting it round up over the pepper a bit (it won't melt or leak out much)
Stretch each bacon slice to maximum length. Decision time - how much do you like bacon? You can split each slice in half, or just wrap each pepper with one full slice of bacon. In the photos above I used a half a slice per pepper, but once they shrunk down on the grill it didn't wrap up as neatly as I would have liked, so I think my next attempt will be with full slices of bacon.
Wrap each pepper with your bacon, trying to start and end on the bottom. This will keep your pepper from unraveling in the oven without needing toothpicks to hold it all in place.
Place your ABTs on a rack in your grill, above a drip pan.
Smoke or bake for around 2 hours, until the bacon is dark and on the edge of crispy.
Enjoy!!
As it turns out my fears of setting my wife on fire from jalapeno heat were unfounded. She was one of their biggest fans. By removing the seeds and veins you really cut down the amount of heat in the pepper, and a lot more is cooked away from being in the grill for 2 hours.
Essentially a Jalapeno Popper, Atomic Buffalo Turds are a common fixture in many BBQ joints, many with their own variation. I used this recipe because it's relatively easy and lends itself to much variation in future attempts
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| This is the entire list of ingredients. |
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| Like making a cabbage roll. Only not. |
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| Ready to settle in for a good smoke. |
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| Ready to enjoy |
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| Enjoyed. |
You will need:
- Ground Italian Sausage
- Bacon
- Cream Cheese
- Jalapeno Peppers (2-3 inches in length)
- rubber/latex gloves (for handling the peppers)
You will make:
There's no amounts listed for any of the ingredients, because honestly this recipe is totally subjective in the quantities needed.
Pull the cream cheese out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
If cooking in your grill - set it up for indirect cooking, get the temp to around 235-250*. Cooking in the oven, set it for 235*
Brown the Italian sausage, set aside to let cool.
Get your gloves on (or not if you're a toughguy), and start splitting your jalapenos. You want to cut them along the length into little boats, leaving the stem intact.
Scoop out the seeds. If you want a milder pepper, scoop out the veins as well. Much of the heat that lives in a jalapeno comes from the seeds and the veins, not the flesh itself.
Season the insides of the pepper lightly with salt and pepper, or your favorite bbq rub.
Your cream cheese should be soft and your sausage should have cooled enough. Combine both in a mixing bowl until smooth. Add cream cheese or sausage as desired to get a consistency you like.
Stuff each jalapeno with the mixture, letting it round up over the pepper a bit (it won't melt or leak out much)
Stretch each bacon slice to maximum length. Decision time - how much do you like bacon? You can split each slice in half, or just wrap each pepper with one full slice of bacon. In the photos above I used a half a slice per pepper, but once they shrunk down on the grill it didn't wrap up as neatly as I would have liked, so I think my next attempt will be with full slices of bacon.
Wrap each pepper with your bacon, trying to start and end on the bottom. This will keep your pepper from unraveling in the oven without needing toothpicks to hold it all in place.
Place your ABTs on a rack in your grill, above a drip pan.
Smoke or bake for around 2 hours, until the bacon is dark and on the edge of crispy.
Enjoy!!
18 September 2014
Breadhead
So, my celiac and paleo friends may not appreciate me for this next post.
I need to preface this with a comment. I don't actually eat a lot of bread. In fact I generally avoid it wherever possible. BUT, I've heard all these testimonials that bread from an egg is nothing short of spectacular, so I had to try it.
I need to preface this with a comment. I don't actually eat a lot of bread. In fact I generally avoid it wherever possible. BUT, I've heard all these testimonials that bread from an egg is nothing short of spectacular, so I had to try it.
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| The final results. Oven loaf on the far left. The rest were baked in the egg. |
Let it be known that this also the first time I've ever tried baking bread at all, let alone try it in an egg.
I actually made two different styles of loaf - a sandwich style white bread, and a french loaf that was a bit more dense.
For experiementations sake, and because the recipe I made produced enough dough for it - I decided to split the french loaf batch in half, and bake one in the egg, and simultaneously bake another in my oven. This would be the only true way to compare results. Because I'm a nerd like that.
The egg didn't have anything to do with the misshapen look of the french loaf, as it was all me poorly handling the dough during the transfer from the baking sheet I used for transport from kitchen to porch, to the preheated baking stone in the egg. I smartened up and did a much better job transferring the other loaf from the counter to the preheated stone in the oven.
I actually made two different styles of loaf - a sandwich style white bread, and a french loaf that was a bit more dense.
For experiementations sake, and because the recipe I made produced enough dough for it - I decided to split the french loaf batch in half, and bake one in the egg, and simultaneously bake another in my oven. This would be the only true way to compare results. Because I'm a nerd like that.
The egg didn't have anything to do with the misshapen look of the french loaf, as it was all me poorly handling the dough during the transfer from the baking sheet I used for transport from kitchen to porch, to the preheated baking stone in the egg. I smartened up and did a much better job transferring the other loaf from the counter to the preheated stone in the oven.
I couldn't resist trying a slice and was blown away at just how good it tasted. May have to try a gluten free version next!
17 September 2014
Chuck Roast - a picture book!
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| Coated in mustard, then liberally covered in rub |
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| dat bacon weave |
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| these roasts are pretty lean overall, so the weave will help them retain moisture |
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| 5 hours in |
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| transferred to my dutch oven, and then left to braise for another 2 hours inside the egg |
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| the moistest, tastiest roast I've probably ever cooked. |
12 September 2014
Taco Stuffed Mini Bell Peppers
I made this dish to use up some leftover taco filling a couple weeks ago. They were so delicious that Shelley asked if I would make a batch for a pot luck at her work this week. Instead of using full size peppers I decided to use minis to make them a little more 'single serving' sized. These turned out just as good as the first round. Maybe even a little better!
350* direct, 35 minutes. There may have been some apple smoke leftover in the fuel from a previous cook.
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| Taco UP! |
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| Taco Slurry |
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| So colorful |
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| OMFG I WANT ONE |
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| Little bit of sour cream on the side, because tacos. |
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| This is what was left after packing up the rest for the potluck |
10 September 2014
Numero Uno
Howdy!
I started this blog for two reasons...
To journal some of my more interesting cooks on the Big Green Egg.
and
Whenever I post #foodporn pics from my BGE on facebook someone almost always comments that I should put them into a blog. I think mostly it's because they're tired of seeing me constantly posting meals on FB, but whatever. Follow if you're interested in reading about the stuff I do on the best damn BBQ you can buy!
I started this blog for two reasons...
To journal some of my more interesting cooks on the Big Green Egg.
and
Whenever I post #foodporn pics from my BGE on facebook someone almost always comments that I should put them into a blog. I think mostly it's because they're tired of seeing me constantly posting meals on FB, but whatever. Follow if you're interested in reading about the stuff I do on the best damn BBQ you can buy!
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