I’ve been thinking about how to use the Big Green Egg more like an oven lately, and something I do every now and again is cook chicken wings in the oven. So last night, I tossed them on the egg instead. I filled up a ceramic casserole dish with the wings, doused them with a bit of salt, pepper, and garlic, and then put them in at around 350. Other than draining them a few times (juicy!) and dropping a few hickory chips on the coals, that’s about it.
When the wings looked nice and done, I dumped them from the casserole dish directly onto the grill, charred them a little for flavor, and then devoured them. They were some of the tastiest wings I’ve ever made (hot sauce or not hot sauce).
We got a new roommate last week, and he’s a big pizza fan. When I got home last night, he’d already prepared some bbq chicken chunks and was rolling out some dough. Rather than cook it in the oven, I showed him how to fire up the big green egg—tossing in some hickory chips for good measure. The pizza was great (red onions, bbq sauce instead of tomato sauce, cheese, and bbq chicken chunks), but the pizza stone didn’t make it. Right after the first pizza came off, the whole thing cracked in half.
We did a couple of them in the oven, and the rest we put onto some cedar planks I had lying around (for grilling fish). The cedar didn’t transmit heat like the ceramic stone would’ve, so the results were mixed—we had to toss them in the oven for a few minutes to get the crust nice and hard. The smoke flavor was excellent, though, so as soon as I find a pizza stone that can withstand the heat a little better we’re back in business. It doesn’t hurt that the pizza place down the street sells “ready-to-bake” pizzas for lazy evenings.
I saw something on the Food Network awhile back that piqued my interest: using a fondue pot over a campfire to melt chocolate. Because, though marshmallows melt easily, the chocolate never really goes all gooey for s’mores. Brilliant! I didn’t pay attention to the actual recipe, but the concept was enough.
We went to Crater Lake over the weekend, and instead of stocking up on chocolate bars i picked up a couple of bags of chocolate chips. I had a bottle of Kahlua lying around, so that went into the cooler, too (we’ve used rum before for fondue proper, but kahlua seemed like a good fit). Besides our main campfire, I also have a Grilliput which I usually take along. We set this up next to the fire, tossed the liqueur and chocolate chips on, and went to town.
Step 1: Melt marshmallow to desired gooeyness.
Step 2: Dip said marshmallow in chocolatey goodness.
Step 3: Put graham crackers around each side and squeeze.
Step 4: Remove stick and consume smore.
Step 5: Repeat.
I went home yesterday and made what I like to call “grown up food.” I steamed som broccoli & carrots, sauteed some spinach, roasted some potatoes on the big green egg, and grilled up some filet mignon. What occasion? It was Monday, and I wanted steak.
As my parents used to do when I was in high school, I bought an entire filet from Costco and sliced it up for freezing with my handy dandy cutco knives. At ~$9.00/lb, it’s really not outrageously expensive (especially when ground beef goes for $5.00/lb at the non-Costco grocery store).
I went to Subway for lunch today, as I often do, only to find that the “limited” promotion for the $5 footlongs that’s been going on for the last couple of months has ended. They’ve now got a $5 everyday “value menu” with a smaller selection of subs, and my usual sandwich—the Subway Melt—didn’t make the cut. The spicy italian is on there, as is the chicken breast (I could just add bacon for $1 and make it a $6 footlong), but no Melt.
Rather than be upset that my lunch bill will go up by $2 or so, I’m actually sort of relieved. I really like ordering their specialty subs every now and then, but I noticed I’d been refraining from getting them in the last few months. The “premium” subs are good, but the value proposition they offered ($7 or $8 for a footlong) compared to $5 for my usual sandwich just made them less appealing. Now that they’re only $0.50-$1.00 more than my “usual” sandwich, it feels like much less of a splurge—meaning I foresee eating a lot more of them.
We had some organic tomatoes from the farm this week, and they were awesome. To go with them, we got some prosciutto, some fresh mozerella, and a loaf of bread. Just for kicks, we sauteed up some spinach, too. Bread + cheese + prosciutto + spinach = mini pizzas. Yum.
I love ribs, but for some reason I only ever cook them for special occasions. Last time I was at Costco, I decided to break that pattern. I guess you could argue that they’re a little expensive for a “normal” meal, but at $25 for three racks of the things, it’s not so different from the $25 I routinely pay for all-you-can-eat sushi. Only this is all-you-can-eat ribs. No brainer.
Diana was out with a college friend, so there was no need to go mild. I sauced those suckers up, and then proceeded to devour as many ribs as I could while watching pro wrestling and guzzling Dos Equis with my roommate—a true “man night.”
I talked Diana into making us some pancakes this morning. I’m not a big fan of syrup, but I’m not opposed to pancake toppings in general. While she made the pancakes, I sliced a few plums. Once the pancakes were done, we sauteed them with a little bit of butter and honey until they were essentially liquified, then poured that hot mix over the pancakes. Yum!
Wednesdays are new veggie days for us, so last night I decided to use up as much of last week’s veggie shipment as possible (being out of town Fri-Sun didn’t put much of a dent in them). I started by simultaneously boiling a handful beets and steaming a couple of heads of cauliflower over the same pot (with a sprinkle of turmeric and cumin for flavor). In a big wok next to that, I cooked some summer squash, carrots, and wild onions. Once the beets were done, I chopped those and added them to the pot. Once everything was mostly done, I added an entire head of bok choy (cut up first). Finally, I added the cauliflower back to it, stirred, and devoured.
It was a pretty colorful mix—the beets have a habit of staining everything reddish purple.
Kourambiedes are my all time favorite cookie. It’s basically the Greek version of a sugar cookie, made with ground almonds (or almond flour) and sometimes dusted with powdered sugar. They’re close enough to regular sugar cookies that I usually just go for those when I’ve got a craving.
I set out for an afternoon snack specifically thinking I was going to avoid the sugar cookies (instead opting for more of the Hazelnut Nut-Thins). Entering Draegar’s, though, there was a nice lady handing out cookie samples. I didn’t really pay attention to what she was saying (something about “I baked these myself—cookies with almond and pistachios”). I snagged one on the way by and bit into it about half way down the cracker aisle… Kourambiede!
I grabbed the crackers I came for and did a U-turn. When I got back to the lady, she asked, “How was it?” I told her that it tasted just like a kourambiede. She started glowing and said that’s exactly what it was. She asked if I was from Lebanon, but didn’t seem too miffed when I said my grandfather was Greek. She said that no one knew what the hell a kourambiede was, so she just called them “Mediterranean Almond Cookies.”
And that’s how, even though I set out with the best intentions for healthy food, I ended up munching on cookies at 3 in the afternoon.