My Steak Heaven

There is nothing like a good old-fashioned steak dinner. I pulled a top sirloin out of the freezer to satisfy my craving for tasty protein. I put a decent coating of dry rub on the steak and let marinate in the fridge for about 2 hours. Then it was on to the grill for a searing for about 3 minutess per side. Next, I moved the steaks over from the direct heat, put a chunk of hickory on and let the steak smoke the rest of the way done to a nice medium well. Then I basted the steak with a teriyaki garlic butter mixture I whipped up. Lastly, I topped the steak with blue cheese crumbles and served it up with two of my favorite vegetables 1) A Corn/Greenbean mix and 2) …Bacon!

1/2 Lb. Bacon Cheesburger

I decided I wanted a grilled cheeseburger so, I grilled some bacon and onions to top the burgers. I also added some blue cheese crumbles for an added kick!

Bacon Wrapped Chicken and Beef!

Please forgive me, but I am absolutely chowing down as I write this post.  There is nothing better on a mild August afternoon than a hot grill waiting for anything wrapped with bacon!  Let me express my true feelings for bacon as I paraphrase Emeril, one of my Food Network favorites… “You could wrap bacon around a rusty nail and it would be good!”.  Well, I’m not sure that I am ready for bacon and nails; however, there are a couple of other items that work very well with bacon – Chicken and Beef.

First the chicken.  I got some really nice breasts, really thick because I like to cut them in half so that I get twice the servings and they don’t have to cook so long to get done which reduces the drying factor.  After they are cut, I simply sprinkle them with salt and pepper, then wrap in my favorite bacon slices.  I do a combination of indirect grilling (the meat is not directly over the coals) and direct grilling (the meat is directly over the coals) to accomplish this cook.

I put the chicken on the grill for indirect cooking for 15-20 minutes.  The breasts have been cut in half so they are not very thick and it does not take long for them to cook.  After about 20 minutes I crisp up the bacon by putting the chicken directly over the coals.  This finishes the chicken and crisps up the bacon at the same time.  That’s all there is to it!

Now the Beef.  I went to the Indiana State Fair and tried all the hyped-up food items that were supposed to be the big thing – none of them lived up to the hype.  So, my wife and I were walking near the back of the fairway and I saw a little booth with a guy and his wife selling Cheesy Beef Sticks.  Well, I like beef and I like cheese so this had to at least salvage my disappointing experiences after all the hyped-up foods turned out to be failures!  So, I bought one and took a bite… I heard angels singing, music playing and my whole life began to come into perspective!  Well, that may be a bit much but, these things were fabulous!  So much so, that I bought about 6 of them.  Ok, that’s not what the doctor orders… but the doctor wasn’t ordering that night! lol!

Here is what I did to make mine which, are no where near as good as the guy at the fair but; never-the-less, very good!  I seasoned up some angus ground beef (any ground beef will do) with typical spices: Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Salt, Pepper, Cumin.  Then I rolled out some roughly 4 oz. meat balls and then mashed them flat.  I put some extra-sharp cheddar cheese in the middle then rolled them up into cheese-stuffed meat sticks.  I wrapped half of them in bacon because… well, you know how I love bacon!  Then I cooked these with the same method I cooked the chicken above.

It did not take long for these to cook because the meat is wrapped around the cheese and as the cheese heats up and steams it also cooks the beef from the inside out.  Here are the pictures…

Do yourself a favor… wrap something in bacon and grill it!

Big A's BBQ Cubed Steak w/Cheddar & Swiss

I had two nice cubed steaks in the freezer that I decided to throw on the grill this Memorial Day weekend.  These were very nice cuts and I have never, ever cooked a cubed steak before.  I checked with a few friends on my favorite BBQ forums and got a few ideas.

Originally, I thought I would smoke them low and slow hoping to tenderize them like a brisket.  However, my good friends who have been doing real BBQ a lot longer than me said that was not the best idea.  So, I took used a hybrid approach of braising and grilling to come up with a dish that was not only tender but very, very good!

In keeping with my prior performance as a good BBQ friend to many on the internet, I am going to share with you what I did so that you can share in my experience and perhaps have something you can try for yourself.  You will need a few items but not much as this is a very easy recipe – this is what you need…

• Fresh Cubed Steak
• Fresh Onions
• Fresh Green Peppers
• Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt or Salt Substitute
• Black Pepper
• Onion Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Italian Seasoning
• Your Favorite BBQ Sauce
• Apple Juice

First, I put my two cubed steaks into a cooking pan and coated it with olive oil on both sides.  Then I seasoned them in the pan on both sides with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and italian seasoning.  After they sat in the fridge a couple of hours, I put equal parts of BBQ sauce and apple juice in the pan with the meat so that they were covered.  Then, I chopped up some onions and green peppers and threw those in.  Next I covered with foil and put them on the grill over medium heat so that the meat could braise done.  This only took about 30 minutes.

After the meat was braised to my liking, I took them out of the pan and finished them on the grill.  All I needed was a couple of minutes per side so that I could crust it up a little bit.  Ok, so I thought this was going to be some very tough and wasted meat but I was very wrong.  I came out pretty good – ok, not perfect, but It was very tasty.  I cut them against the grain into strips, put some swiss and cheddar cheese on top and let the cheese melt.  I created a pretty nice little treat.

A Little Down-Home Grilling

This past Mother’s Day weekend was super busy. All the kids came over, one daughter bought a car, another we drove to BSU to bring home for the summer and the new Star Trek opened!  All these events left little time for “Low and Slow” BBQ so, I resorted to a little “old school” grilling to get some charcoal flavor in my system.

Old school grilling for me is hamburgers, brats, hot dogs, baked beans and either home-made cole slaw or tater salad. I did all that opting for the cole slaw.  I fired up my Chargriller Smokin’ Pro in grill mode and got started with the brats and hot dogs first.  Of course the cook needs a little incentive and motivation for the cook, so I threw on some slices of bacon as treat for myself while the longer cooking items got done.  Then I threw on the hamburgers.  These were a mix of some really good beef I had left over from a 1/4 that I bought last year and some regular Walmart 80/20.  Lastly, I put on 6 ears of corn on the cobb as an extra – what the heck – you can never have too much food on a cookout!

Here is the evidence for all you unbelievers out there…