Smokety Smoke Goodness....

In the grilling world, the big debate is charcoal vs. gas...Some say that charcoal has better flavor whereas some of the gas side say there's no difference...
I'm a gas guy cause I have the patience of a 3 year old and don't like dealing with the charcoal. I do however offer a solution to bring some smokey goodness to your gas grill...
Here's a step by step guide...

Step 1: Purchase some wood chips from your local home improvement or BBQ store. They should have several varieties to suit your smokey pleasure. Right now, I'm on the Apple Wood kick. These bags run about five to eight bucks.

Step 2: Soak your wood chips in some water for about 20 - 30 minutes. Go ahead and light up your grill while you're soaking.
Step 3: Grab some drip pans that normally go on your grill to use as your smoke box. You can make your own smoke box using foil if you don't want to use these. Step 4: After your wood is soaked, place the chips in the drip pan and cover with foil. Cut a few holes to release the goodness.Step 5: Place the homemade smoke box on your flavorizer bars or somewhere above the flame. Then give it about 5 minutes to start smokin'...Step 6: Throw on your grub...In this case, it's a nice rib eye and some sliced zuke...

That is all there is to it. It probably takes about the same amount of time to do this than to get your charcoal grill going but I still am going gas. One of these days when I have a sick backyard to have several outdoor cooking devices I'm sure I'll have both. But while we're in team apartment, I'm on team propane.

Great Freakin' Weekend...

Weekend was stupid fun...
Quick recap for all you fans out there...
Friday night - Picked up Cara (Amanda's So Cal Friend) and had a great dinner at Osteria 832. Love that place. Good food. Kind of cheap. It was great to hang out with Cara and learn about her biz...She was selling some website goodness at the World Congress Center this weekend...Heard she closed a few...Great job Cara! I think I may have convinced both Amanda and Cara to start blogging as well. We shall see...
Saturday - Amanda and I went our own ways and got a bunch of stuff done. By bro man Jimbodini has been so kind enough to store my grill this last year and since it's officially Spring, I had to reserect that fool from the dead. Got a bunch of stuff from Lowes and Home Depot to bring it back to life. More on that later...Janer and I went to a great b-day party on Sat. night. Great times with some new folks that are turning out to be some great friends.

Sunday - Top 10 service today at Buckhead Church. "When tempted, don't say don't, say help." Really, really good. Lazy for a bit and then used the Weber. Red Snapper a couple of different ways along with some grilled asparagus. Although we live in an apartment, we throw it down. Had a great time hanging outside, grillin' and listening to some Jack J...

The goodness on the grill - Snapper on Cedar and Snapper in Foil...Holler for the recripe.
Our little set up...
Ridiculously hot and awesome wife...
Great weekend. Loved every second. Looking forward to a great week...Hoping you have a great one as well...

Fun Little Grubbage...

Hooked up a fun little meal for Amanda and I on Thursday night...

Here's the scoop:

Ground Turkey (85/15)
Diced Onion (White)
Diced mushroom
Diced water chestnut
Grated carrot
Romaine Lettuce leaves
Hoison Sauce (Asian sauce, really good)

Throw all of the above, save the carrot and lettuce, into a frying pan. Cook til' Turkey is good to go. Spoon out some of the meat stuff onto the romaine lettuce leaf and sprinkle some carrot on top for color. Eat like a taco...

This is a super easy recipe. It's good. It's healthy. And there are probably like 8 million combination's based on your tastes...

A Recipe for Ya...

There's a place in Southern California called Wahoo's Fish Tacos that I absolutely love. All their stuff is just so fresh and grubness...Since I'm not able to eat at Wahoo's every single day, I shook things up a bit and cooked something similar here. This is a great and easy and goodness recipe. Especially for single dudes out there that don't really want to cook...

So, here ya go:

1) Cup of cooked rice...This is the only thing you have to cook...I personally use a rice cooker because of the consistent quality and I can set it and forget it...
2) Warm up some black beans and place them into the little rice valley that's been made...
3) Shredded lettuce next...
4) Now for some meat...I like to use this pre-made chicken breast in SW flavor. It works well but you can use whatever meat you want or don't want if you're veggie-tarrean...
5) Here comes the dairy group with some Mexican cheese...That warmed up chicken and rice will help the cheese melt into gooey proportions...

6) I top the whole thing off with some Herdez Mild Salsa. I love this salsa. It's found in the true Mexican aisle of the grocery store so you know it's close to the real deal and not made in New York City...Nonetheless, you can pick your flavor...7) And here's to some enjoyment!!!!

So there ya go...It's a great and easy recipe that requires some time and a microwave...Maybe a pot or a rice cooker if you don't use microwave rice...

Let me know what you think...

Beware Vegetarians...

Amanda and I had a great weekend. There wasn't just one thing that was great about it, just the entire weekend was good...We got a lot of stuff done and spent a lot of time together. So to celebrate we decided to do something that we have never done since we've been together...Cook some meat...We always eat chicken or fish and have never got down with a nice piece of beef...

So we got two 20 ounce Ribeyes from Fresh Market...Beastly pieces of pure goodness...

Fortunately, our apartment complex just installed a BBQ down by the pool so Amanda and I had a nice candlelight dinner listening to music via Iphone...Great night...Great food...

Look at that goodness...20 ounces of pure joy...
That's a huge loaf of foraccia bread on the left that we dipped in some nice olive oil...
Finished product...Steak, portabello, salad with vinagarette, candles and some blue moon since we couldn't buy wine today...Sundays in Georgia I tell ya...The above picture doesn't show the mood because of the flash...This kind of does...

As Promised from previous post...

My creation from tonight:

Red Snapper pan sauteed in butter, garlic (lots), light Tony's and sprinkled with lemon pepper...
White rice cooked in rice cooker...I like to cook my rice in chicken broth...Better flavor
Blue Runner Beans drizzled atop the rice...
Spring Mix salad with seedless cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and balsamic...
And washed it down with a nice 2005 Cab (Charles Krug - Peter Mondavi family) - the boss man gave it to us...

Grub 101...Write it down...

The Grubness...

Amanda and I used to really like Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice...It was good and it was super easy for Amanda to cook...

That was until I was introduced to Blue Runner Creole Style Red Beans...I didn't discover these beans, they discovered me...While at my bachelor party, the dude that delivered the crawfish found out the reason we were there and gave me a six pack of the beans. I thought it was kind of weird but at the same time, pretty freakin' cool...

I have to say that I will never go back to the box stuff...You have a couple more steps when using this stuff because you need to cook the rice but it's well worth it...Go to their site and buy some and you'll thank me later...

Wait a couple of hours and I'll how you the finished goodness...

The goodness...

Last night I was volunteered to babysit this little dude as the ladies had a night out...His name is David and he's the son of Amanda's co-worker...He's a cool cat that likes Bob the Builder and Thomas the train...


Before David came over, I wanted to cook him some grub and his mom said that hot dogs and mac n cheese would be fine...I of course picked that menu since those were pretty much my favorite things as a kid...Unfortunately, David got some grub before he came over but I still went ahead and cooked myself up some insane hot dogs and mac n cheese...So good...Little dude ate push ups all night instead...

That's the goodness right there...Hot dogs were a little bit different when I was a kid but nonetheless, what was your favorite meal as a little dude or chick???

Help Please...

My buddy Paul hooked me up with a sick All Clad Fish Poacher...Here's the deal though...I've never poached a thing in my life. I emailed All Clad and asked if they had recipes to go with their product but they were pretty much useless.

So, how does one poach fish in this thing? It has a rack that I don't know if the fish is supposed to be fully submersed or if it is supposed to be above the water and steam? I don't know. Please help because once Amanda and I get married, I want to poach it up...

Ridiculous...

Almost a year ago, I posted this...And up until last night, it's been used a grand total of zero times...

Last night the small group finished up our study of John and I felt it was necessary to cook a little redfish,,,Southern Style...Or fried as most people call it...

I love this fryer...Everyone should own one...


Redfish sandwiches with a special creole sauce just didn't cut it and we had to throw down a few sides...

Crinkle cut fries with some Tony's...

Sliced Green Tomatoes...

Dill pickle spears...

All of us had to see the cardiologist today because of the amount of grease intake last night but it was well worth it...

If you have anything that you want to eat fried, let me know...I'm in the full on experimental mode now with this thing...Bring something over and we'll batter it up and throw it into some grease...

I'm ready to get my cook on.....

I'm thinkin' someone was telling me that I need to go fishing because when I got home tonight I had a brand new Cajun Fryer by R&V Works. Check out the website here.....

Here's a brief statement from their website as to why the Cajun Fryer is far better than conventional fryers....

"The success of the Cajun Fryer is due to the design of the Burner/Flue. The Burner is positioned 6" above the bottom of the oil reservoir and is at a 45 degree angle. This prevents the food batter from collecting on the burner and allows it to fall to the bottom. Since heat rises, the bottom never gets hot enough to burn or scorch the batter. This keeps the oil clean, cooking after cooking."

Here's a pic of the beast. Hopefully we will put this thing to good use in the very near future.