The warm spring and summer months starts up the grilling. The other day I wanted to grill something on my new grill and started going through the fridge. The loin lamb chops that were on the meat shelf screamed out loud “Grill Me!”

I then started going through the vegetable drawer trying to find something else I could cook up with the lamb at the same time and came across the parsnips. I prepared all of this ahead of time and so can you.

Parsnips:

3-4 pounds of parsnips cut in half lengthwise.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil.
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika.
About a tablespoon lightly chopped sage.
Salt and Pepper.

Place the parsnips in a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil for about 5-6 minutes until almost done. Cool.

Mix the rest of the ingredients (salt and pepper to taste) and toss with the parsnips in a suitable container. Refrigerate.

Lamb Chops:

10 loin lamb chops.
1 long sprig of rosemary.
3 cloves of garlic, minced.
1/4 cup of olive oil.
The juice of one lemon.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Strip the leaves from the rosemary and lightly chop. Combine with the rest of the ingredients and pour over the lamb chops in a suitable container and refrigerate.

Let the chops and parsnips marinate for at least an hour and up to 24 hours.

Preheat your grill on high and cook the parsnips and lamb chops together, placing the parsnips on – (More…)

So the wife decided it was time I got a present. She bought me a new gas grill. The Charmglow 810-7420-S 4 burner grill was delivered the other day. Now my old grill was in a sorry state. The burners has basically rusted apart and when I dissembled it, they fell away into dust. My grilling of course was just horrible because the flame setup was just all over the place and there was no even heating.

We were looking over grills for the last couple months and I saw this Charmglow at the Home Depot website. The grill is only available through them. What I liked about it is that it had a double hood (see pic below). Each hood covers two burners. This means that you do not need to light all the burners if your just cooking up say, a London broil.

This can really save on propane when you are cooking. Another plus is that you can cook two different things on the grill at different temperatures. Each hood has a separate temperature gauge so you can monitor the heat. I am a bit skeptical about the gauges themselves and am going to test them against a thermometer soon. When I first fired it up, they heated so quickly, I found it a bit hard to believe. They were basically at 700 degrees in – (More…)

So it was a pretty crazy week. Spring is finally here and I have been pretty busy getting the herbs outside and planted. There is also the fact that kids have been having half days at school this week. Basically things have been non-stop.

This of course does not relinquish me from my cooking duties (unless I am feeling reckless and let my wife cook 🙂 ). I had some chicken that really needed to get cooked and originally my plan was to fire up the grill and barbecue it with my normal recipe. There just wasn’t enough time to cook all of that and have it on the table at dinner time.

So I decided to whip up this barbecue sauce from scratch and just tasted it as I went along. It came out wonderful and I cannot wait to try it on the grill, but this recipe and technique is for the busy person who really only has time to cook it in the oven (and stove).

Sauce:

1 cup of ketchup
1/4 cup of Grey Poupon or other such Dijon mustard.
1 heaping tablespoon brown sugar.
1 small red onion (or shallot), chopped fine.
2 cloves of garlic, minced.
2 tablespoons of Canola oil.
Pinch salt & pepper.

Put the oil in a large skillet and heat to medium. Cooke the garlic and onion until the onion is clear. Cool on a plate (discarding oil) for about 10 minutes.

Add the – (More…)

I am always trying different things when it comes to leg of lamb. Sometimes it can be hard to find just the right taste with such a flavorful cut of meat. Many of the recipes you find for leg of lamb involve some sort of mint spice, but recently I decided to try something a little different.

I have read about people using Juniper berries with lamb but I am one of the few who does not care for that particular berry so I decided to go with cranberries instead. I use a well trimmed leg that has had most of the shank removed but still has the bone in higher up.

1 leg of lamb 4-6 pounds.
1 can of Guinness.
1 can of cranberry sauce (the whole berry version).
3 tablespoons honey.
Canola oil.
4 bay leaves.
2 sprigs of rosemary whole.
1 medium yellow onion, quartered.
5 cloves of garlic minced.
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

Preheat oven to 250.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the beer and honey. It will take a couple minutes if the beer is cold as the honey will temporarily harden. It will be easier if the beer is room temperature. Add 3/4 of the can of cranberries to the mixture. Set aside.

Liberally salt and pepper the leg of lamb. In a medium skillet, add enough canola oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Heat to medium high and when the – (More…)

The final piece in our cast iron upgrade was the dutch oven. Since we have thrown out all of our Teflon, we have upgraded much of our cookware to cast iron for many reasons. Although we also use stainless steel and ceramic cookware, cast iron is by far my favorite. The Lodge Logic dutch oven is an absolute pleasure.

I have had the dutch oven for a month or two without a real chance to use it. I ordered it from Amazon (for less than $30) along with some other cookware. As usual, this Lodge Logic cast iron product came pre-seasoned. Not that seasoning cast iron is hard, it is just to be able to use the dutch oven right out of the box.

When I finally got some time, I cooked a couple stews and a pot roast in it. You instantly appreciate the even heating when browning meat. The lid is pretty heavy so it sits on the pot firmly. My wife commented the other night that this dutch oven was the easiest to clean out of all of our cast iron cookware. Before I get any grief from some of you, I clean up much of my own mess when cooking, but what is left after we – (More…)

A few weeks ago I posted an article on how it was time to start your herbs for the season. Normally at the beginning of March this is the case, however if you live in the Northeast, this year seems to be a bit different.

As I look out my window in my New York home, I can’t help but feel a little depressed that it is April 12th and it is snowing outside. With all of this talk about global warming, I find my large picture window in my kitchen packed with pots with all of my started herbs. I swear that my basil plant is about one day from shouting “I want to go outside!”

I have had to attach a light over the large window sill so some of the herbs have enough light so they avoid reaching and stalk out too much. I have all my planters sit at the ready to be filled with dirt and put into the sun.

I can’t imagine what the local garden shops are going through right now. By now I am usually buying bags of potting soil, picking out herbs that I either forgot to start or for some reason just didn’t take. There really is no point yet as I just do not have enough sun inside to host all of them.

Checking some of the weather sites on-line gives no hope either. Most – (More…)

I think just about every cook in America has their very own meatloaf recipe. Meatloaf is the ultimate comfort food. I think it is impossible to spell out just one recipe for meatloaf as I change mine constantly.

There are some constants that I always use such as ground beef, bread, breadcrumbs, and onions. But really, you can add just about anything you want to meatloaf. Here is the version I have been making lately that the family just loves. If there are any leftovers, they do not last very long.

2 pounds ground beef.
1 medium yellow onion, chopped.
3 medium stalks of celery, chopped fine.
1 large carrot minced. I use a small food processor to mince.
3 large cloves of garlic, minced.
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce.
1/2 tablespoon Tabasco Garlic Hot Sauce.
1/2 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar.
2 large eggs.
3 slices of bread.
1/2 cup Italian flavored bread crumbs.
Olive oil.
1/3 cup ketchup.
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar.
Salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Add enough olive oil to a medium skillet to coat the bottom, about two tablespoons. Heat to medium and cook the carrot, onion, celery and garlic until the onion starts turning clear. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, add the meat, Worcestershire, Tabasco, and Balsamic. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the cooked vegetables, and eggs and mix with your hands until combined.

Quickly soak the three slices of bread in water and then squeeze the – (More…)

In our home, we generally have Easter dinner a week early. This started a few years ago when we always got that free ham from the grocery store, but we would spend our Easter with the relatives. So the weekend before, we would have an Easter dinner with friends and family that would not be at our traditional Easter dinner.

The store usually lets you select from a few different types and I almost always get a smoked pork shoulder with the bone. The smoked flavor really makes it easy to flavor the dish in interesting ways.

Over the years, I have used a few different techniques and recipes, but by far this one works the best.

1 large smoked pork shoulder.
8 cloves of garlic.
2 1/3 large sprigs of fresh rosemary.
4-5 large fresh sage leaves.
2 tablespoons Olive oil.
About 10 slices of Pancetta

In a small food processor, add the garlic, rosemary sprigs (not the stem) and the sage. Add the olive oil and chop/process until it makes a paste. One of those small electric choppers work great for this.

Salt and pepper the ham (go light on the salt). Rub the mixture all over the ham. Place the slices of pancetta all over the entire ham (except the bottom) using toothpicks to hold into place.

Now I normally will cook the ham for about 6-8 hours in my Crockpot BBQ Pit on low, but you could cook this – (More…)

Deep frying is not something I do a lot of anymore. Besides the general health questions around deep frying, it requires a bit of time and work. You have to maintain the oil in the fryer, and keep the unit clean. Having that much oil sitting around in an appliance in the kitchen can also be a bit of a hazard. If that oil catches on fire, it will burn for quite a while.

However, there are times you just want to cook up some fish and chips, or some old time fried chicken and that is when you really need one. I have always had one of those round electric fryers in a cupboard for that once or twice a year I fried something. Lately, we have been frying more things so it was time to upgrade.

After reading many reviews I decided to go with the Presto Dual Profry Deep Fryer. Once I received it from Amazon, I set it right up to cook. The heating element sits right in the oil which is a real plus. This makes the heating much more responsive and as you probably know, proper temperature is the key to good frying.

The tub that contains the oil slides right out of the unit and is dishwasher safe. In combination with the removable element, it makes it very easy – (More…)

One of my favorite vegetables is zucchini. I have a lot of different ways to prepare it, but the most flavorful way is by deep frying. They come out golden brown and crispy and the real trick is in the batter.

For anyone with even 10 minutes of deep frying experience knows that the batter is everything. Batter usually consists mostly of flour, spices and a liquid. The strongest “spice” in batter is the flour. It is challenging to add spice to batter because the taste of flour is so strong. This is why you must use more spice than you would think.

1 cup all purpose white flour.
1/2 cup all purpose white flour.
1/4 cup smoked paprika, regular will work too.
1/8 cup garlic salt. (or 1/16 garlic powder and 1/16 kosher salt).
2 tablespoons of black pepper.
Vegetable oil for frying.
Up to 1 can (12 oz) of beer.
Zucchini.

Heat deep fryer to 350 degrees.

Mix together the 1 cup of flour, paprika, garlic salt, and pepper. Whisk in the beer a little at a time until the mixture has the consistency of pancake batter. Drink the remaining beer. 🙂

Lay out the 1/2 cup of flour on a separate dish.

Slice the zucchini thin, about 1/4 inch per slice. Dredge the chips in the flour and then add to the batter.

Working in batches, add them to the deep fryer and cook for about 4 minutes, turning half way through. – (More…)