Saturday, August 28, 2021

Broccoli Salad Ala Larry

Bev had bought some broccoli salad from the market deli and since I really enjoyed it, I decided to make my own.  The store version appeared to contain broccoli, red onion, shredded cheddar, bacon and mayo plus maybe some sour cream.  As a fan of Mediterranean flavors, I decided to make a Greek version and use my creamy feta dressing for it.

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Grilled Pork Chops With Peach Salsa

We had taken a piece of pork loin from the freezer and discovered six peaches in the fridge needing to be used and decided to make them into a meal.  Our first thought was to simply grill the peaches as a side for the chops but then we thought a peach salsa would be better.  I went on line for a peach salsa recipe and found one from Natasha’s Kitchen that even used some of our big bowl of cherry tomatoes.  I made 1/3 of a recipe to get the one below but you can click on the link for the original recipe and many pics.

Saturday, August 21, 2021

Mediterranean Tuna and Swordfish

We love Mediterranean (Italian, Greek, African, etc) flavors around here and have recently made several seafood dishes using them and I decided I wanted to try another as we use up our freezer fish supply.  This Mediterranean Tuna recipe comes from How to Feed A Loon and, for flavor, relies heavy on black olives but also makes use of our homegrown tomatoes plus capers and garlic.  The only real change I made was using fresh tomatoes rather than the canned ones called for in the recipe and cooking both Ahi tuna and swordfish that came from our visit to Joe Patti's Seafood back in April.  I also cooked the sauce and fish in separate pans.  For the original recipe and plenty of pics click on the above link.


Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Individual Tomato Pies & Old Smoker

It’s been a while since we had these and about seven years since I posted about them so I thought it was time again here in the middle of tomato season.  First, let me say that you are really missing out if you don’t try them as they are roll your eyes back good to us. 

Thursday, August 12, 2021

First Cook On The New Smoker

Well, it was finally time to fire up the new smoker and I went thru the seasoning process the day before which burns out any manufacturing junk and coats the inside with a little smoke.  My original plan was to cook just a pork butt then I decided I should at least cook a chicken while I was at it.

Monday, August 9, 2021

Huli Huli Grilled Chicken

We enjoyed Hui Hui Chicken several years ago and when I saw Kevin’s recipe for it I thought it would work well for the Thursday meal for our friends with a couple of changes.  Kevin’s recipe is for sandwiches but I made the chicken as an entrĂ©e and doubled the ingredients to get the recipe below.  You can click on the link to get the original recipe plus several pics.

Friday, August 6, 2021

A New Smoking Machine & Tomato Canning

I’ve been using my gas grill with a smoke box to BBQ with only mediocre results and after having my little hobby/business for several years, I got used to the good stuff.  The big Stumps smoker that I used then is too much for what I cook now and I have been thinking about something else.

A few weeks ago, a couple from our RV club invited us to their place for BBQ and I was looking forward to checking out his cooker in addition to eating the food.  He has a Masterbuilt Electric Smoker that uses wood chips for the smoke and an electric element for the heat.

So after watching the cook and eating the meat, I decided I couldn’t go wrong at only $375 for the smoker and stand plus I bought a cover. I got the next size larger than our friends so I could easily cook for a crowd when I wanted.  

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Chicken Pepperoni Skillet

We had two large grilled chicken breast leftover from a previous meal and I decided to turn them into a chicken pepperoni skillet meal using the peppers, onions, pepperoni, cheese and a partial jar of Rao’s Marinara - I had everything on hand.  You may recall that chicken pepperoni originated from the Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase movie entitled “Seems Like Old Times.”  We have made the original dish a couple of times and always enjoyed it so I decided to try creating this dish with the following recipe.

Chicken Pepperoni Skillet

The Ingredients:

Two large grilled chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces (see note)