The Perfect BBQ

This summer our family made friends with a butchers son.  Other than Rich always offering to cook brats every time we  get together, which is a huge bonus, he has taught us how to properly grill our meat revolutionizing my BBQing skills.  From what I can see most people cook their meal on a grill that is way too hot, cooking the meat too fast, and burning the outside.  Not so Rich, his Weber grill contains a small pile of charcoal, which are not used for cooking until they are a gray white color.  When he puts his meat on the grill, he does not place it directly over the coals like a normal untrained cook.  He places them on the outer edge of the grate and puts the cover on to slow cook the brats.  Where most people cook there meat in 10 to 15 minutes, Rich takes over an hour to an hour and a half.  Slow cooking is the name of the game, but is worth it when biting into his BBQ goodness.

Being a cook myself, I decided to take Riches skills and add a bit of Dorothy.  Now I use about a third of the charcoal when I BBQ.  I am patient and allow ALL of the coals to turn white.  Previously, I would rush the meal making it taste like lighter fluid.  Now I cover the grate with thick alumni foil and place my meat on the it before it goes on the grill.  I remove the foil before the end of cooking to give my meal a BBQ appearance.  Before placing the grate on the grill I chuck in a handfull of smoke chips over the coals and place the grate on top closing the grill.  (Note: I put the meat on the grate before it is on the grill because the smoke in my eyes really hurts,  I want to cover the grill as soon as the grate is in place.)  It is important to make sure that the vents are not open all the way, too hot of a fire will burn up the charcoal too fast and burn your dinner.

Pumpkin Pudding

One thing that I cannot understand is why my fingers beg me daily to write and yet, at the same time, my mind is blank of anything worthy of writing. Communicating with my friends via Skype and Facebook gives my fingers a constant platform for complaining about under use.  

Every morning I  check my facebook and Skype to see if there is anyone in Europe is on to talk to.  Most days, I wake up way too early for my American friends and family leaving me plenty of time to chat with my Eruo-family. Usually, the first person for me to speak to each morning lives 6,000 miles from my front door, my great Slovenian friend Darja.  Normally we chat about what’s going on at that moment or what took place since we last chatted, like less than twenty-four hours earlier.  No matter what the conversation is my fingers start singing each time they tap on the keyboard, “Write something. Anything, just start writing again!”

Starting small is a great place so I have two for the price of one recipes:  Beef and Bacon Sloppy Joe’s and Pumpkin Pudding.

Beef and Bacon Sloppy Joe’s

Brown one pound of ground burger in a big pot.  Add 1/4 pound of cut into small pieces bacon, 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped green pepper, 2 chopped cloves of garlic, 1 small cubed large tomato cooking until the vegies are tender and the bacon is half way cooked.  Add: 1 cup + Ketchup, 1/4 cup mustard, 3 tablespoons of honey, 10 shakes of Soy Sauce, 1 teaspoon red peppers, salt and 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Cook for about 10 min, stirring occasionally.

Put a lid on the pot and place it in a 375 pre-heated oven.  Cook for an hour to hour in a half.  

Serve on burger bun.

Pumpkin Pudding

In a  pan place equal parts pumpkin (small can), milk, and coconut milk. Add: 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon clove, 1 tablespoon ginger, and 1 teaspoon pie spice.  Stir in 4 eggs and a 1/2 cup brown sugar.   Cook until it starts to boil.  

Place in a 350 pre-heated oven, cook for about an hour or until thickens.

In a frying pan add: 2 tablespoons of butter, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, and 1/4 cup brown sugar.  Heat until nuts are candied coated.

Sprinkle over the pumpkin pudding and serve.

Cold Tuna Salad on a Bed of Salad

Driving through my neighborhood, I quickly notices dead brown grass where normally a lush green carpet should stand.  The large trees in front of Kelloggsville high school  leaves have formed a brown carpet on the lawn, instead their normal umbrella which provides shade to any passer by.  How strange it is to smell Fall in July, instead of the fresh summer sent of grass clippings. This summer is a real scorcher with temps reaching as high as 103 degrees.  

This hot summer reminds me of my younger days as a kid.  In those days, it was an exception to the rule for a home to have central air.  A family really felt fortunate to have at least one window unit cooling one room of the house.  In our home, the family room was the chosen cooled room.  Our kids rooms left us so hot, that we often slept in our underpants on top of the sheets, where we dreamt of the mercury in thermometers raising so high that the top of would break off into a million pieces.

Yesterday, my motivation to cook a hot meal disappeared as abnormal  temperatures rose robbing me of my normal appetite.  Knowing that I needed to cook, or at least prepare a meal, I decided to play “What’s in the Cupboard.”  Finding a can of tuna, I threw together a cold tuna salad on a bed of Romaine lettuce with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Cold Tuna Salad on a Bed of Salad

In a bowl, place one can of tuna, 1/2 chopped small onion, 1/2 green pepper, 1  chopped carrot, 1/2 cup raisins, 1/4 mayo, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, salt and pepper.  Mix well.

Chop Romaine lettuce up and place on a plate.  Put some tuna salad in the middle of the lettuce pile.  Squeeze 1/4 of a lemon over the top and mix.  Enjoy!

Two For One

For weeks I’ve cooked dinner and thought about writing my food blog “Imagine the Food.” One such day I looked at Brian and said, “You know, I really need to get back to writing my blog.”  

As always he piped in, “What blog?  You’ve not written on it in months.”

Last night, after eating Quick and Taste Red Spaghetti dinner,  the pangs of writing started to stir deep inside of me as my mind dreamed of my fingers tap tap tapping on the keyboard. I heard my blog call my name, as it begged me to feed it’s daily need for recipe offerings.   In the past I desired to write a cook book that encouraging people to cook healthy food on a tight budget. Now it was time to returned to my old friend “Imagine the Food” and renew our culinary relationship.

  

Todays offering is a two for one: Quick and Tasty Red Spaghetti and Meatballs and Cream Spinach.  Both are Rabourn family tested and approved for the net.

 Quick and Tasty Red Spaghetti

1 lb ground burger browned

In a frying pan, place 1 tbsp butter, let it melt.  Add: slice small summer squash, 1 chopped onion, 2 chopped cloves of garlic, and 1 dice small green pepper.  Cook until lightly browned.  Do not stir too often.  

On top of veggies, add the browned burger, 2 sm cans of tomato sauce, 1 sm can tomato paste, 2 bay leaves, 1 cup red wine, 1 tbsp basil, 1tsp Italian spices, small shake of cinnamon, and 1 tbsp sugar.  Mix into veggies and let simmer on low for about 15 min covered.

Place over any type of noodle that you choose.  Enjoy!

Meatballs and Cream Spinach 

Meatballs:

In a bowl, place 1 lb of ground burger.  Add 1 cup oatmeal (chopped fine in food- processor), and one egg.  Mix well.

Chop fine: 1/2 onion, 1/2 green pepper and 2 cloves of garlic.  Mix thoroughly into the the meat mixture adding a 1/2 tsp of salt.

In a frying pan, heat up some cooking oil.  ( barley cover the bottom of the pan)

In a bowl, add: 1/2 flour, salt and sesame seeds.

Make meat balls out of the meat mixture, roll them into the flour mixture and place them into the heated oil to cook.  Cook until all the sides of the ball are browned.  Take out of the pan placing them on a plate with paper towel to absorb the extra oil.

Spinach Sauce:

Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a sauce pan. Add: 1 chopped red onion, 3 chopped cloves of garlic and 1 tsp of salt.  Cook until tender.  Add 3 tbsp flour and brown.  Add 3 cups of water and stir until all of the flour is blended in.  Add: 1 package of thawed frozen spinach, 1 cup Parisian cheese and 1/2 cup of milk.  Stir until  completely mixed together.  

Serve spinach sauce in a bowl with some gnocchi (about 10).  Cut up meat ball, 3 or 4 and place on top.