No, we aren’t talking about Brittany Spears here. Or even asparagus spears. SWMBO demanded a repeat of the beanie-weenies from the other night, and who am I to ignore her? In fact, I even went so far as to make a double batch in the Dutch oven.

Other than doubling the ingredients, the only difference between this batch and the previous one was to sneak in some Big Butz No Butz sauce instead of the SBR. Hey, it was what was open, and we have a lot of it on hand. Not only that, it spiced the beanie-weenies up even more. And we like that.

The other difference from the other night was the addition of some nice grilled pineapple, made true to the recipe.

As much as I don’t like to repeat myself this soon after cooking something, tonight’s meal was very satisfying. And easy. Important after a hard day of mowing the swamp. And Diablo III. Mustn’t forget that.

Have I mentioned recently that it’s a real bitch to be gainfully unemployed?

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Chicken satay is supposed to be on skewers. And I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t be using something called “Pig Pollen” as a base spice for it, either. At least half were flavored in a (more-or-less) traditional manner…

And yes, that grill was very clean before I started. Looks like I get to do that over again soon. The more-or-less traditional satay were those in the back. I didn’t have enough spice mix to cover all of the chicken, so I reached in the cupboard and pulled out some Big Butz Pig Pollen. Some that had been hanging around since the test-batch days. It still smelled ok, so on the chicken it went. Once done, the chicken ended up on a plate with more jicama salad and some green bush-looking things.

The jicama salad was made properly with fresh pineapple and without all the extra stuff I had to add yesterday for flavor. The acidity of the pineapple combined with the sesame-ginger dressing provides plenty of bite and sweetness all on its own.

We won’t mention that the recipe calls for green bell peppers and not red ones…

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It’s Mothers’ Day and SWMBO picked the menu. Or at least approved of it, as she wanted Trashbag Taters and I was able to talk her out of it by offering up some fresh jicama slaw instead. On the menu was Teriyaki Strips (with the addition of some fresh-grated ginger), grilled Cajun shrimp, mushrooms in foil, balsamic carrots, and the aforementioned jicama slaw.

The meal was well-received; as the commercial says “mom-tested, mother-approved”. The only issue I have with this meal is the clean-up afterward. Teriyaki strips by themselves make a huge mess of the grill, and this wasn’t helped by the accidental puncture of the foil packet the mushrooms were cooked in.

Looks like I might need to get the pressure washer back out and use it on the BS Keg…

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After a week of pressure-washing, yard maintenance, and all the corresponding aches and pains that go with them, I was ready for some comfort food. Especially after driving for 3 hours in traffic behind slow drivers dazed by the sun (these are the same people that speed up when it’s pouring down rain) with a non-working iPod and no decent radio stations for company.

So out came the onions and peppers, the habanero-mango chicken sausages, a couple of cans of beans, and that cast iron skillet I used last week on the chorizo-chicken wraps.

The peppers and onions went in first, followed shortly after by the sliced sausages. Once they were nicely heated (about 10-15 minutes), in went a couple of cans of white northern beans mixed with a couple of tablespoons of molasses, SBR’s BBQ sauce, and some Chipotle Tasbasco. Another 5 minutes and it was time to eat.

These aren’t your mother’s beanie-weanies, but my wife approved of them and she’s a mother. I know this, because I had to beat her children off with a stick so there would be some of this left for her when she got home…

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The mothership was fired and loaded with chicken wings and taters last night. About 10 pounds of chicken wings; so much so that what started out as two baskets of trashbag taters had to be combined into a very large basket to make room on the grill…

The wings were dusted with some homemade rib rub (it’s not just for ribs anymore), cooked indirect on the grill until almost done, then basted with a mixture of Big Butz No Butz sauce and melted butter and left to cook until it was time to run off to a special meeting of a board I serve on. Or in this case, serve to.

No pictures exist of the buffet table, or my plate from dinner. But I guarantee that these wings would light up your taste buds, but not until after you finished eating one. For all I know, there may be other afterburner effects as well…

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I spent another beautiful spring day pressure-washing decks, driveways, and walks, so it seemed only fair to make dinner as easy as possible. And not much could be easier than some spicy green bean chicken cooked up in the wok on the BS Keg.

Tonight’s batch consisted of two chicken breasts sliced thin, then marinated for about 15 minutes in a mix of corn starch, soy sauce, minced garlic, Sriracha sauce, and some Red Boat Fish Sauce. Once the chicken was cooked it was joined by sliced onion, carrots, string beans, water chestnuts, and a 1/4 cup of water.

The end result disappeared quickly with sounds of great contentment. And requests to do it again in the near future.

I’m assuming they were referring to the meal, and not the pressure-washing…

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Spring showed up today and the temperature actually got over 50° without raining. And there was a big bright thing in the sky; I believe it is called the sun. We haven’t seen it in awhile, so I’m not really sure.

To celebrate I fixed some chorizo-chicken lettuce wraps, a perfect dish for Seis De Mayo, not to be confused with the day before when all of the US celebrates what they believe is the Mexican equivalent of Independence Day in the States. But isn’t.

Undeterred by all this, a chub of chorizo spent some time in a cast iron fry pan on the grill with some onions and peppers while the chicken breasts (dusted with granulated garlic, chili powder, and cayenne pepper) were grilling.

Shortly after that picture was taken, black and pinto beans were added to the chorizo. When the chicken was just about done, it was removed, sliced into small cubes, and mixed in with the chorizo. The whole mess spent another five minutes on the grill, and was then removed to the table for assembly.

Butter lettuce took the place of tortillas and received a spoonful of the chicken-chorizo mixture, a sprinkling of grated cheese, a small handful of tomatoes, and a heaping tablespoon of fresh guacamole. The resulting wraps were a huge hit with the family, at least while the larger lettuce leaves lasted. And when the leaves got smaller, the kids had even more fun making appetizer-sized wraps.

This was a great ending to a wonderful day (even though I spent part of it pressure-washing a deck) with a nice light meal (well, mostly; chorizo isn’t exactly the healthiest of meats) that didn’t send me staggering off to the couch immediately after.

Now if that sun thing will just make another appearance tomorrow, I might even be able to mow the swamp…

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I received a cryptic message the other day from one of my readers regarding good rub mixes for beer can chicken. At least I think that was what he was getting at; as I said, the message was a bit cryptic. At any rate, it should be no secret that I am not a fan of wasting beer (good or otherwise) by sticking a can of it in a chicken on the grill. Nor have I been very impressed with most iterations of beer can chicken that I’ve had in the past, regardless of who cooked them.

Now that I’ve pissed off all those folks that swear by their beer can chicken, let me explain. Better yet, let me introduce you to spatchcocked chicken, smoked properly, well-seasoned, with crispy skin on the outside, and moist and juicy meat on the inside.

Spatchcocking is essentially the process of cutting out the backbone of the chicken and butterflying it. Seasoning is then applied to both the skin and the what used to be the inside of the chicken. In this case, fresh ground black pepper, granulated garlic, thyme, sage, and rosemary were the spices of choice. Once seasoned, the chicken goes on a 325-375°F grill, indirect and skin side up until the skin has turned a deep brown and has begun to crisp up. At this point, turn the chicken over and let it cook until done (165°F internal temperature at the deepest part of the breast). Remove it immediately, carve, and serve.

If you still insist on having beer with your chicken, do what I do. Buy some good beer (not the cheap stuff) in a bottle (or a keg, if that’s how you roll), or even a can (as long as it’s Guinness in those special cans they have) and drink it with your dinner. If you make your own home-brew, even better.

But whatever you decide, just say no to wasting beer by sticking it up a chicken’s butt…

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There’s something to be said for bringing back old favorites and freshening them up a bit. I’ll spare you the grill photos as they aren’t worthy of sharing, but trust me when I say the BS Keg did itself proud with tonight’s offering.

On the menu were thick-cut pork chops (about 2″ thick, cut directly from a pork loin) marinated in white wine, a dash of soy and Worcestershire sauces, and a sprinkling of granulated garlic and ground basil. This used to be a staple around here before I started the blog and exposed all the ruts we were in when it came to variety in our meals. It’s been several months since I cooked pork chops like this, and the first time I’ve carved them out of a pork loin. Which turns out to be a lot cheaper than buying them precut.

As for the veggies, the sweet potatoes were simply cooked whole on the grill, and the fresh string beans got the foil treatment after having onions, carrot, water chestnuts, and mushrooms added to them along with some generic no-salt garlic seasoning, pepper, a dash of sea salt, and a bit o’ butter.

Not only was this a very satisfying meal, it was also pretty healthy as the salt content was very low, the veggies were all fresh and baked and/or steamed, and the pork was very lean.

You’d think I was trying to clean up our diets or something…

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Tonight we cooked up some hake for the first time. Since it was supposed to be like cod or halibut, I went ahead and treated it that way without bothering to reference any recipes online. Some sliced onions went in the bottom of the grill basket, got a sprinkling of fresh basil, and the fish went on top with a covering of fresh basil, salt, pepper, and lemon slices. It was cooked on the BS Keg for about 25 minutes at 325°F until it looked like this.

There were some beans cooking in a pot above the fish; as Younger Daughter pointed out, fish drippings in the beans just don’t sound right. This particular batch was a mixture of pinto and black beans with chopped onions, mini bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and just a dash of No Butz sauce from Big Butz BBQ.

The fish was ok, but would have been a lot better with a sauce of some sort. And sautéed onions rather than grilled. In fact, it would have been very tasty with a lemon-sautéed onion sauce. Basil optional. Capers perhaps, but then I might be accused of catering to SWMBO. But only if I left out the onions.

As for the beans, they were really good and will likely show up on the plate more often in the future.

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