Brats!

No, I'm not talking about the children, I would never call them that.* I'm talking about dinner! Delicious, humongous bratwursts from U.S. Wellness Meats, to be exact.
I was really tired tonight, after a long afternoon at our weekly homeschool park day, so I made the Grill Geek ply his trade for dinner. I chopped up some veggies for Sidedish (this time it was red potatoes, a small sweet potato, a lot of mushrooms, and half a red onion) and he did all the rest. A large scoop of real sauerkraut (with all it's lovely probiotics intact) and a dollop of coarse mustard were all that was needed to complete the meal.

Now, those brats probably look pretty big to you... and you're probably sitting there thinking "how on earth could she eat TWO of those things? She must be a pig!" Well, first of all, Smarty Pants, pigs don't eat pig, and these were pork brats. So. There you go. And secondly... I was really darn hungry after a light pre-park lunch and no snacks. And third... well... see for yourself.



I didn't eat all of it. Almost. But not quite.

* I prefer to refer to them as pirates, or perhaps "scallywags" on a bad day.

Recent Eats

I hate it when I don't post punctually... but... life happens. So, once again, a montage of recent meals.

Saturday night I made this riff on a traditional German dish of sausage and cabbage. The original recipe calls for apples, but I wanted a more-summery version.

Grilled pork chop, grilled asparagus, and Rainbow Sidedish. Which was grilled. I love grilling, because all I have to do is prep. Then the Grill Geek takes over. I loved this version of Sidedish. Normally it contains potatoes, garlic, and onions, with olive oil or butter, and salt. (Wrapped up in heavy duty foil and cooked while the grill heats up for the main course, about 30 minutes.) This time it was red onions, orange bell pepper, yellow squash, and zucchini, with herb butter. Fabulousity.

Sort-of-Chili, on a grilled, bacon-wrapped potato, with salad. The chili (made with leftover grilled pork and leftover veggie-heavy marinara) didn't thicken. So, it was soup on a potato. Weird, but tasty.

Easter Dinner

I love the idea of "dinner" being in the middle of the day. That way it's not hanging over my head all day, nor do I have a giant bunch of food to digest while I'm sleeping. Which I guess is good.

I've spent too long already getting distracted from posting this. So, without further attempt at wit... some before and after pics, with necessary description.

To the right, a sort of Sidedish, but with leeks, to be fancy. And because we got them in our weekly Greenling delivery.


Menu:
Appetizers: Spicy Pecans, olives, cute little gummy berries
Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
That potato-and-leek thing
Grilled lamb chops
And, because they were so itty bitty, grilled pork chops as well.
Dessert was Even More Candy

Yeah... I'll eat that.

The potatoes and leeks got charry-caramelized, the pork chops were juicy, the lamb was silky, and the bacon-wrapped asparagus is now on my menu for Last Meal Ever. And I barely did any work at all, because I made the Grill-Geek cook it outside. Fabulous.

Easy

Tonight's dinner was easy. I had reason to think I wouldn't be feeling well, so I planned ahead and had dinner be completely grilled.

I love foil-packets. I just ignore the whole aluminum thing... I know it's not good, but I am fairly sure my overall aluminum risk is low, so I can handle a few foil packets every now and then.


This was a bit of white potato, a sweet potato, not-quite a quarter head of cabbage, about 1/4 thinly-sliced onion, and then 1 1/2 cheap smoked sausages. Per packet. Well... hubby's packet was a lot more white potato and no sweet potato, cuz he doesn't dig on the orange tuber.

I added about a tablespoon of olive oil, same amount apple cider vinegar, and some salt and pepper. Then the Grill Geek worked his magic.

Delicious!

75% Local

How local can you get?

Ok, I realize most of you can't reasonably answer that until spring hits. Spring is here, already, and I'm not sure autumn ever left. That's one really big reason why I love South Texas. I am not a Four Seasons kind of girl. Although I wouldn't mind one nice big snow, complete with sledding. 6-8 inches, with three or four days afterward where the temp hovers around 30, with clear skies.

Anyway, I'm certainly not going to get that here. But what I can get here is lots of great local produce and meat. Tonight's dinner could have been 100% local, excluding the salt, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. But I haven't yet opted for the local potatoes and mushrooms.

And, um... I have to confess to once again not taking pictures. Um... I was hungry. Didn't even think of it. We had lovely grilled pork chops, from pastured, local pigs. Our Sidedish was a little different, with a very large green onion standing in for a regular yellow one. We tossed some chopped mushrooms in there, as well. And then we had more balsamic-roasted Brussels sprouts. We love them. Even the Little Guy loves them. They are crazy delicious. Has anyone on the face of the planet ever described Brussels sprouts as "crazy delicious???"

As usual, I only got about half my pork chop. We grill hot dogs for the kids (instead of steak or pork chops or smoked whatever), basing our habits on our exceptionally-selective Fairy Child. We tend to forget that our Little Guy is more adventurous. And carnivorous.

Very carnivorous.

Iron Chef Grill... preliminaries

Tonight was a practice night of sorts for the Grill Geek. He wants to get in on the Iron Chef fun, so I suggested he plan and make the entire meal once. He grills a lot, but I generally make a side dish or two, and help out with fiddly details. Tonight was all him. And he did well. He has passed the test. Hee hee... and once we hash out the details (does he have to make the entire meal on the grill? How can he smoke meat with just a one hour time limit? And so on...) I will proudly share his endeavors here.

Tonight was lovely slabs of grassfed "rib steak" (I'm pretty sure they were ribeyes), our usual Sidedish, and some salted sliced cucumbers (kids dig 'em.) Delish!

Gone Cajun Again

Or, perhaps Creole. I don't know. The fact that I was inspired by an Emeril recipe implies it's probably more Creole. I am not one to pick nits. I just want it to taste good.

Tonight's dinner was brought to us by unthawed stew beef. I must keep the fridge too cold.... So, no beef stew. It really wasn't beef stew weather, anyway. Thanks to my efforts to warm the house the morning, and the sun's efforts to remind us that we live in San Antonio, the house was plenty warm, thank you. I wanted the cooking to take place outside. The only meat in the fridge that wasn't frozen or promised to another meal was some boudin sausage. It was an impulse purchase at the commissary, mainly because they actually had it and I was surprised. There were a few questionable, vague ingredients that might cause me allergy problems, but I chose to ignore them. We'll see if that turns out to be a wise decision!

So... boudin (which I've never had before and am not real sure how to cook), plus my desire to not heat up the kitchen, plus my requirement of working with ingredients already on hand... I googled a recipe. I came across this snooty-sounding one. Sounded like my best shot, but I had a few adjustments to make. I've mentioned Sidedish here before... basically potatoes, onions, and garlic in a foil pack with some sort of fat, grilled until charry. Lacking the futziness necessary to do individual parchment packets, I decided to do dinner as a Sidedish Supreme. As usual, I have no idea what to call this.

Cajun Sausage Grill Packets ??

Start with one big ol' piece of heavy duty foil. Bigger than you think you'll need.

To one side of it add:

1-2 onions, in 1/4-inch slices

3-4 garlic cloves, smashed, chunked, depends on size

However many little red potatoes you need, cut in fourths

1-2 T olive oil, drizzled over all

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp rosemary

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp Emeril's Essence (make your own, he gives the recipe)

about a pound of boudin sausage, cut into 3-inch (or so) sections

Seal the foil up really well, grill 15 minutes on one side (start with onion side down, sausage side up), flip and grill 10 more minutes. The Grill Master says to use "high" on a gas grill, and to put it on as soon as you light the charcoal, if using that... 20 min first side, 12 the other.

Dinner is served. We had salad, too. With an awesome lemon-garlic vinaigrette. Gotta have some veggies!

Um, I have a confession...

I bought and ate rice cakes.

Anyone who knows me will think the real Bekki was abducted by aliens.

But it's true. I, Bekki Blahblah, being in sound mind (somewhat), did on this very day, around noon, place in my cart with the intention to purchase one bag of Lundberg Farms brown rice cakes. I then proceeded to the check-out (after piling other items in as well) and did authorize the transfer of funds from my bank to theirs, so that I could take all the items home.

I have rice cakes in my kitchen.

I ate two for dinner. Well, not FOR dinner... with dinner. Basically as an edible plate. Tasted a bit better than stoneware, I'm guessing. I've never eaten stoneware. But... after the events of the day, I won't rule it out entirely.

What led me to take such drastic action? The ingredient list. Rice, salt. That's all. No preservatives, no funky "ose" things that I have to remember what they're derived from... rice and salt. I can eat that. And they're much cheaper than the everything-free toast that I have for breakfast, and would feel guilty about eating too much of.

So, tonight's dinner:















That's it. No, I swear I am not on a diet. I put it on a wild plate, to make it look better... and all that green looks kind of like vegetables.

I'm in a bit of a vegetable rut, as I suddenly can't have green beans. Didn't realize how often I ate green beans before... but I guess they were my crutch veggie. I love broccoli and cauliflower, but being brassicas (I think, cabbage family anyway), they can suppress the thyroid a bit if eaten too much. So, I try to keep them to just twice a week... and I don't know what else to make. I like to just pop something in the steamer pan while I give my full attention to the other parts of dinner.

Today was a major football day, (with Kentucky BEATING #1 LSU!!!! in triple overtime) so I planned a simple dinner. Tuna salad. On salad. Then I didn't feel like salad. So... I, um... had rice cakes. The tuna salad was just a can of tuna (hunted down at the health food store, so as to not have weird ingredients), some mayo and dijon mustard, white pepper, dill, and cayenne.

Lunch was really good, so I feel like I can get by with a bad dinner. I was starving, though, so didn't remember to take pictures. It was Spicy Apricot Chicken, rice, and... um... green beans. For the last time. A goodbye to beans, I suppose.

Spicy Apricot Chicken, my personal adaptation


INGREDIENTS: (Serves 2)

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
2 tsp dijon mustard

1 clove garlic, pressed
1 Tblspn apricot preserves

several splashes Tabasco sauce (to your heat preference)
3 Tblspns chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup chicken broth

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

Place the chicken thighs in a casserole or small baking dish, skin side up. Put next 5 ingredients in a small bowl, stir together. Pour broth over chicken, then baste or smear the other ingredients on top of the chicken. Cover and bake for 45-60 minutes at 375 degrees, removing lid for last 10-15 minutes. (Makes the glaze get nice and brown.)

This was dinner last night:

Ok, I was nice and didn't eat those all by myself. I just had to share the pic of the mountain of grilled hamburgers. Such a lovely sight.

I only ate one, despite being constantly hungry these days. We also had Sidedish, which is our official thing to have with most grilled meat. The basic elements are potatoes, garlic, and onions, with olive oil or butter, and salt. Wrap that up in heavy duty foil and cook while the grill heats up for the main course. Other delightful add-ins include mushrooms, peppers, and squash.

The charred bits are the best.

So, this was actually dinner:

Both pickles and sauerkraut was probably overkill, but I have the tendency to eat anything I can eat, whether or not I actually want it. Must be one of the stages of food allergies, like the stages of grief.

And, that would explain why I bought rice cakes.

By the way, I didn't actually post this until Saturday, the date says Friday (making me a football psychic) because I opened the window to type my post on Friday night, and then didn't get to it.