Few things have I cooked that have changed so many minds than Raspberry Duck. Most people in this country have never even tried duck, much less a raspberry flavored one.

Duck can be hard to find in some places, where I live, the local supermarket chain carries full size birds and also duck quarters. If you cannot find it anywhere, you will probably either have to ask a local butcher to order you one, or try to find one online.

Try to get the largest bird you can find, which can be a challenge. If you can find one that is 6 pounds, you are doing great!

Duck is a very greasy bird, so place a rack underneath the duck while you are cooking it. An even better way to cook it is on a rotisserie such as the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie that I use.

Ingredients

1 4-6 pound duck.
Salt.
Pepper.
Onion powder.
Paprika.

5 cloves of garlic, minced.
1 cup of seedless raspberry jam.
4 cups of chicken stock.
2 tablespoons olive oil.
1 cup of red wine. I usually use a cabernet sauvignon.

Preparation

Remove the giblets from the turkey. I always throw these out, but if you have some special thing to do with them, be my guest. 🙂

Salt the inside and outside of the bird and sprinkle with pepper to – (More…)

Last year I bought the George Foreman grill model GR35TMR and must say it was a big dissapointment. I had heard mixed reviews on this grill and since there are sometimes you just want to cook a steak, burgers, or chicken without firing up the grill, I figured I would give it a shot.

The first thing wrong with this grill is there is no on/off switch! If this machine is plugged in, the grill is on full blast. In order to shut it off, you must unplug it. Im sorry, but even Thomas Edisons’ first lights had a lightswitch. This was the first red flag thrown up when I took it out of the box. I mean, who looks to see if an appliance has an on/off switch? Is that considered an option these days?

I decided to try a london broil the first time I used the grill. Following the directions to the letter, resulted in a cooked steak to my preferred medium rare, but that was as close as the grill got to getting it right. There was absolutely no browning of the meat, it was grey. This, after preheating the grill as specified by the instructions. I could have gotten the same results by steaming or microwaving the steak.

I tried burgers, hot dogs, everything and found it to – (More…)

Just about any time of year is great for barbecued chicken. The only real way to have barbecued chicken is on the grill. I could write pages and pages on which is better, gas or coals, but I at least will not get into that argument. Myself, I use gas unless I have a lot of stuff to cook on the grill and am having guests. In my opinion, gas is more practical, where coal is messy and time consuming but allows you to control the flavor more and in the end can bring out a better taste in meats.

When I am just cooking for the family, I use the gas grill so I will base this recipe on that type of cooking, but if you use coal, the technique is similar.

The most challenging food to cook on the grill in my opinion is chicken. Chicken is one meat that you do not want to eat rare in any form. Cooking it on a grill and ensuring it is done is a challenge but once perfected is a skill not many posses.

Chicken contains a lot of fat, and cooking it over a flame leads to many flare-ups and burnt meat. The technique I use tries to combat that a little while not sacrificing taste. I boil the chicken until it is about 60% done – (More…)

If you have ever cooked chicken on a grill then the one recipe you are going to need is a barbecue sauce. There is nothing better on a summer afternoon than a plate of macaroni salad and barbecued chicken.

This sauce I found some time ago and adapted to my own tastes. It is a bit sweet and a bit spicy and if you prepare your chicken right, it will be your barbecue sauce for the rest of your life.

I use this exclusively for my barbecued chicken recipe.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup brown sugar (granulated or “brownulated” is best).
1 15 ounce can of crushed tomatoes.
1 cup of cider vinegar.
1 large white onion chopped fine.
7 tablespoons Grey Poupon dijon mustard.
1 teaspoon of salt.
1 1/2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper.

Preparation

Mix all of the ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes.

This recipe can be made ahead of time.

Modifications

Add 1/4 cup of red wine for a richer taste.

Add 1/2 teaspoon more cayenne pepper for more zing.

Add lemon zest to add a bitter sweet tang to the sauce.

Every March 17th St. Patrick’s day rolls around and corned beef and cabbage is served all over the world. In my house, it is served year round! This is an easy food to cook, but takes time. Myself, I always use the slow cook method. Generally I cook it in a large crockpot. I have also cooked it in the CrockPot BBQ Pit which works wonderful. Either way the recipe is the same.

When you go to the store to select the brisket, try to find a large one between 3 1/2 to 5 pounds. Personally I think the Angus beef is the best when it comes to corned beef.

I use the real small potatoes you find in the supermarket such as boiling potatoes, huckleberry, etc..

Ingredients

1 large corned beef brisket 3 1/2 – 5 pounds.
10 large carrots skinned.
15 small potatoes.
1 small head of cabbage cut into wedges.
1 1/2 cups of cold water

Preparation

In your crockpot, lay the carrots on the bottom of the pot. You may have to break them in half to get them to fit.

Open the brisket out of the package and make sure you get the spice pack out.

Empty the brisket AND all the juice into the – (More…)

Lasagna is one of my favorite Italian dishes. Every person who I have ever met who makes lasagna has a different way to prepare it. Some boil the noodles, some do not, some use this cheese, some use that cheese. For myself, every dish of lasagna I make, I try to do a bit different.

As with most Italian dishes, the sauce is the most important ingredient. I have already discussed how to make a basic Italian sauce here. The only modification from this would be to add meat. When you make the sauce, add a pound of hot italian sausage links, removed from the skin, to the garlic after you let it cook for 2 minutes. Let the sausage cook for about 5 minutes, then add the onions and keep stirring and cutting the sausage breaking it up into the smallest pieces you can. You will need more tomato sauce than the tomato sauce recipe, so add another can of crushed tomatoes to the recipe and up the basil a teaspoon.

The second most important ingredient is the cheese. The cheese will define your lasagna with your own unique flavor. Just about any cheese can be used, but try to avoid over processed cheese. My favorite cheese for lasagna is fontina. It may – (More…)

A couple of Christmas’s ago my girlfriend bought me a rotisserie made by Ronco. I always wanted to try one of these, so I cooked up a couple chickens, roasts, and kabobs. I was shocked how well this thing worked. There was only one problem, it was too small.

My parents last year gave me the larger model which is the Showtime Rotisserie ST4000. This was much better because I was getting tired of trying to find a chicken weighing 3 pounds or less to cook. The only thing missing from this model is a temperature control, which other models have.

This machine is great, which is saying something because most things that are “As Seen on T.V.” fall short of their claims. For cooking poultry and roasts, it is perfect. At least twice a month I cook a chicken on the machine. I occasionally cook a duck and other fowl too. By far my favorite dish to cook in the rotisserie is a standing rib roast. If prepared correctly, the roast comes out crunchy and spicy on the outside, and tender and juicy on the inside. I usually made up a rub consisting of a lot of course salt, garlic powder, and onion powder and rub it all over the meat and then as the commercial – (More…)

If you have lived near any Polish communities then you automatically know how good stuffed cabbage, or golumpkis can be. Where I grew up, there were many Polish people around, so many in fact, that pretty much every family be they Irish, German, or whatever, had their own recipes for stuffed cabbage.

After I left home, I moved to an area where this was not the case. I went home for Easter to visit the family and my aunt had made a batch of golumpkis that brought back the memory of this food.

Most of the Polish versions of stuffed cabbage always seemed a bit dry to me. I believe that is the way they intend it, which is fine if that is your taste. For myself however, I altered this recipe quite a bit to fit my tastes. It is no secret that I have Italian taste buds even though, as far as I know, there isn’t a drop of Italian blood in me. I decided I would modify the traditional recipe just a little.

Ingredients

1 head cabbage
1/2 pound of Italian sweet sausage
1/2 pound of ground beef
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 cup cooked rice (I use – (More…)

For my birthday my fiance bought me a new gadget: the CrockPot BBQ Pit. This appliance is great for slow cooking and particularly barbecuing meat inside. For those who do not have a slow cooking grill outside this is a godsend!

The main trick to this is that is slow cooks the meat much like a CrockPot will slow cook chili or soup. Meat just falls off the bone by the time it is done. The slow cooker is perfect for cooking chicken and/or ribs. I have already cooked ribs in it twice and without fail the meat was as tender as anything else I have tasted anywhere. I cooked a six pound chicken in it and the only complaint I had about it was that the bird was falling apart when I tried to take it out.

Our local supermarket like many others across the country, gives their loyal customers a free turkey around Thanksgiving, and we ended up with two turkeys. So for Christmas dinner, I decided I would cook the other one in the slow cooker. My plan was to cook the turkey most of the day (about 12 hours) in the slow cooker so it would be ready by dinner. Late the night – (More…)

If you are going to cook Italian then you must have a good tomato sauce. Tomato sauce is the base of many Italian dishes. Spaghetti and meatballs? You need Tomato sauce. Lasagna, mussels marinara, baked ziti, etc., all require that you start with a good sauce.

Nothing will makes me cringe more than someone using store bought spaghetti sauce in an Italian dish. For those of you outside Italy, New York, and Pittsburgh can somewhat be excused because you probably have never been properly instructed on how to make your own sauce. Fortunately, I have had the pleasure of trying many homemade recipes throughout my years living in New York. I still remember my first Italian food awakening. My father took me to Lombardi’s Restaurant in Gardiner New York. Yes, Gardiner New York, a small town upstate that is blessed with many Italians who moved from the city to live in the suburbs. Mrs. Lombardi made the best sauce I ever had up to that time and from that point forward, sauce from a jar was forgotten.

A good sauce cannot be written down on paper. You must take the basics and add your own creativity to it. With that being said, you need a good place to start. Here is the most basic recipe for Tomato sauce that will get you started.- (More…)