BGE

OK, so maybe someday I'll get around to regular, frequent posts (or maybe not).

I work for a major utility here in Atlanta, and every year we have a big money drive for Junior Achievement with different departments trying to outdo each other with fun fund raisers. I don't play golf well enough for anyone to want me on their team in a tournament; and there was no bake sale, costume jewelry sale, book sale, doll sale, clothing sale (I think you get the idea) near my office. When I heard, though, that one department was going to raffle off a Big Green Egg, I knew how I would support that fine organization.

I am not a winner. Whenever I enter a raffle, I just consider my money a donation. If my name is on a paper in a hat or barrel, that paper will not be on the top. If there's a wishbone, I will have the smaller piece. If I say odd, the coins will be even. If I have rock, the other person has paper. If I say heads, it will be tails. I'm not complaining; I just don't do well with games of chance. Needless to say, I was shocked to find out I had won the Green Egg.

Just in case you don't know, a Big Green Egg is a kamado-style ceramic smoker and grill. Mine is their large size with an 18" cooking grid. According to the BGE web site, the large will cook a 20 lb turkey or six chickens vertically or seven vertical racks of ribs. I haven't cooked any of those, yet, but I do know it will cook five pounds of boneless, skinless checken breasts at once. I have smoked two eight-pound Boston butts at the same time, and I could have fit a third. The two big reasons I wanted a BGE are it's insulating properties and the vent system designed for it. The Egg is made of a thick ceramic that insulates well enough that with the internal temperature at 600 degrees, I can place my hand against the side (though, admittedly not for very long) without getting burned. BGE's have adjustable vents on the front below the fire box and on the high point of the lid. By adjusting the airflow, using these vents, I have maintained constant temperatures from 250 to 600 degrees. Because of these features, I was able to smoke the Boston butts for twelve hours without adding more charcoal or wood and keeping the temperature between 290 and 300 the whole time.

If I ever get around to it, I'll post pictures and recipes.

Cheddar cranberry shortbread

I found this recipe on Lex Culinaria last Christmas, made a couple of minor adjustments, and had an instant favorite. I made them for the goodie table at work and decided to make them for both mine and my wife's family get togethers. This year, people were begging me to bring them again.

I changed the recipe to remove the 1/2 cup of toasted, chopped pecans(see the Sunbutter post below) and also upped the amount of cheese and cranberries (just because I like them). Here's my version:


1/2 lb extra sharp cheddar cheese, finely grated (I use Cabot Seriously Sharp)
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1 t baking powder
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries

Cream the butter and cheese together at high speed in your stand mixer. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together. Combine flour mixture and cranberries with the butter mixture on high.

Turn dough out onto a large piece of waxed paper. Form the dough into a log shape, roll the paper around it and twist the ends shut. Refrigerate for at least an hour. You can freeze the dough at this stage as well.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Unwrap the dough log and, using a very sharp knife, slice the log into rounds 1/4 inch thick. Place rounds on cookie sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookies are golden brown. Remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Simple Chili

Even though daytime temps here near Atlanta have been pretty warm recently, it’s chili season. Ok, at my house it’s always chili season, but that’s beside the point. My chili is award winning and internationally acclaimed (meaning there were missionaries at the church chili cook-off I won), so I figured it’s a good time to post about it. I have never really used a recipe. I come from a large family, so chili was a good way for mom to stretch her meat budget. My recipe is similar to hers, but I’ve made a few changes. If you’re looking for an “all homegrown ingredients” recipe, you’ll have to look somewhere else, but if you want a nice, simple, filling bowl, you’ve come to the right place. So, here is what I call “Simple Chili.”

1lb ground beef

1 med onion, diced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

2-4 rounded Tbs chili powder

1-2 rounded Tbs ground cumin

2-4 cans kidney beans, drain half of the liquid (I like the look of half dark red and half light red)

2-4 cans diced tomatoes, drain half of the liquid (I like petite diced)

Brown the ground beef with the onions and garlic together till the ground beef is no longer pink; drain (and rinse if you’re worried about fat). Stir in the beans and tomatoes, bring the chili to a boil, and turn the heat down to a simmer. Add 1 Tbs chili powder and ½ Tbs cumin. Let the chili simmer (stirring occasionally) till it is nearly the consistency you want and add another Tbs chili powder and ½ Tbs cumin. Stir the spices in and taste. Depending on your preferences, the spices you use and the salt content of your canned goods, you may need to add salt or pepper or increase the amount of chili powder or cumin. Given a choice, I will use almost all the bean and tomato liquid and simmer my chili for a few hours (till it’s nearly the consistency of canned). If I don’t have much time, I’ll use less liquid and simmer for less time, but it won't taste as good. The longer this cooks, the better it tastes.

This chili tolerates variations well. I have used black beans (rinse them very well – trust me, use none of the liquid from the can), pinto beans, and a mix of just whatever we had in the pantry at the time. I’ve used Italian tomatoes with basil, tomatoes with green chilies, and all crushed tomatoes at different times. I’ve (again, at different times) added unsweetened cocoa powder, star anise (remove before serving), cayenne, ground chipotles, beer, and red wine. I usually don’t add any kind of hot peppers unless I’m going to be the only one eating it. I’d rather make my chili well seasoned but mild, and let folks add Tabasco, salsa, or sliced jalapeños at the table.

Most of the time I used ground beef, but lately we have had a freezer full of ground venison (thanks to my hunter brother-in-law), so that has been my meat of choice for the past few batches. I’ve used ground turkey, diced chicken, and cheap steak that I cut up pretty small.

For a vegetarian version, I’ll cut three or four carrots into about a half inch dice and brown them with the onions and garlic. The carrots do make for a sweeter chili, but give the mouth feel of meat.

I buy all my spices at "Your DeKalb Farmer's Market" in Decatur, GA. They are always fresher than what I find at the grocery store and cost a whole lot less, too. At the in-laws, I have made this with grocery store spices, and I had to use more chili powder and cumin than usual. If you have a good source for high quality spices, pay a little extra if you must; they're worth it. If you live in the metro-Atlanta area, go to YDFM.

Sunbutter

LM will turn eleven next week, and ten years ago, we found out the hard way that he is allergic to peanuts. I got a page mid-morning from my father-in-law, and when I called, he told me that my wife was at the hospital with our son. She had a peanut butter bagel for breakfast that morning and gave our son a bite. As soon as it touched his mouth, she says that his whole face started to swell. Fortunately, we have a hospital emergency room about ten minutes from home; on the way there, my wife had time to call her sister and ask her to get word to me and our parents. I was working far enough away that by the time I got to the hospital, LM was almost back to normal. We took him to the pediatrician that afternoon, and the Dr. said that it looked like LM was allergic to peanuts and that we should not give him anything with nuts till we had seen the allergist. Well, my breakfast pretty much every day for years had been a peanut butter and whatever sandwich, and the Dr. said that as long as LM didn't eat any, we should be fine. Well, about a month later he was "helping" my wife load the dishwasher and apparently got hold of the knife I had used for my breakfast. I got to the hospital more quickly that time, and if you've ever seen a boxer with cauliflower ear, you can imagine what his whole head looked like. If not, rent the movie Hitch; while we laughed at Will Smith's allergic reaction, it had the right look. (I do want to say that no matter what it looks like, anaphylactic shock is never a good thing, and if anyone has any trouble breathing at all from an allergic reaction, go to the emergency room.) Needless to say, we got rid of all peanut products in our house, and I was at a loss for what to eat for breakfast for the next nine years.
Then my wife found Sunbutter. (Imagine the sound of an angel chorus in the background when you read that.) These folks are serious about nut safety. They grow their own sunflower seeds and bought all new, never used, machinery to eliminate chances of cross-contamination. Of course, if Sunbutter didn't taste good, it doesn't matter to me how safe it is, I wouldn't eat it. I would never have believed it if anyone had told me that there was something like peanut butter but better, but there is. Before, if I went out of town for work or if the kids were going to spend a few days with the grandparents, as soon as I could, I'd run to the grocery store and get a jar of peanut butter. Now there's no need; there's something better. They also sell roasted sunflower seeds that are good substitutes for nuts in many recipes.

Good Eats

One Monday morning recently my brother called me at work and asked if I was busy the next day. That's always a hard question to answer, because you never know, somebody might need help moving a piano or something. As it turns out, "No, what's going on tomorrow?" was the right answer. He told me that a friend of his is also a friend of Alton Brown and that he had been asked to find a couple of people who could hang out at Turner Field (our local baseball stadium) with AB for a few hours. Of course, I jumped at the chance. I love to watch cooking shows, but if I could only watch one I'd probably pick Good Eats (OK, I would hope that AB had Jacques Pepin and Martin Yan as guests pretty often). I like that Brown explains the why of cooking and not just the how.
My brother had invited my mom also, and they can be seen directly behind AB in the stadium shots. I got to walk between the camera and AB while he is talking to his "special guest" (I'm the last person to walk past). I got a lot of pictures, but I thought this one was appropriate, and if you know Brown's background you probably will, too. I would have been willing to be an extra on pretty much any TV show, but if I had been asked to name one that I wanted to be on, I'd have had to flip a coin between this one and Heroes. I'm still waiting to hear from NBC.

Popovers

I usually don't eat much for breakfast. On work days I'll usually have something easy to make that I can eat while I'm getting ready. Often that means a cream cheese and ham bagel or a Sunbutter sandwich (If, like us, someone at your house gets cauliflower body from peanuts, try it. You'll be amazed.). On weekends I might go all out with a big breakfast, but most of the time it's one of the above or cereal.
Well, today the kids ate the last of the cereal; I didn't want one of the extra eggs I had boiled yesterday when I made tuna salad; there was not a bagel or any Sunbutter in the house, and I didn't want much to eat. I had seen a post on Slashfood about popovers, so I thought I'd give them a try. I did use Martha Stewart's recipe instead, though, because it makes six. A soon as I opened the cabinet to get the muffin pan out (you use what you've got), UKH was right there asking if she could help. She measured the flour and mixed in the salt, and I melted the butter in the microwave and buttered the pan. She whisked the milk, butter, and eggs together and poured them into the dry ingredients. I was a little concerned at how thin the batter was, but the popovers turned out really good. We just ate them plain, but next time maybe I'll plan ahead and have some of my wife's freezer strawberry jam thawed out to put inside them.

Takeover

Well, I've taken this blog away from my wife. I might not post any more often, but now I won't be mistaken for her.