Sunday night dinner

Cedar planked chicken thighs with a soy-ginger glaze. I was given some cedar planks several weeks ago and didn't really want to use them on the old stand-by salmon dish. But by a strange twist of fate, I received this recipe in an email from the Weber folks. It sounded pretty tasty so what the hey!

Soy sauce, balsamic and brown sugar reduction with fresh minced garlic and ginger and a healthy dose of red pepper flakes. Whisked in some sesame oil, reserved a half cup for basting and marinated the skinless bone-in thighs in the fridge for a couple hours with the rest of the reduction. Soaked a cedar plank in the sink for a couple hours at the same time the chicken was marinating.

Set the plank directly over the coals until it started to smoke pretty good. Then flipped it, put the chicken on the plank and cooked them covered for ten minutes. Then I moved the plank to the opposite side of the grill and left them alone for twenty, basted them and cooked ten more minutes. The recipe recommended a final basting before serving but I left that up to the individual if they wanted extra flavor. If you've never cooked with a smoking cedar plank, the smells are fantastic.

Have a great week everyone and stay cool! Gonna be a hot one.

Happy Fathers Day!

To all the Fathers out there, whether it's a kid or dog or parrot or whatever, have a great day. Thanks Pete and Dr. D for all you've done for our family.

I'm hoping it dries out later today, the grass is tall from all the rain. Looks like we're going into a dry spell now. The forecast looks gross the next several days, Nebraska summer is here.

My wonderful wife is making me breakfast this morning and I see some bike riding later to work the meal off!

I don't really have a "Fathers Day" picture so here's two more for Karin.

Need recipe for.....

I smoked some pork the other day and used it for quesadillas last night. Had some nice green onions from the Old Cheney Farmers market also. But I struggled with a roasted red pepper dip to go with them. I roasted three red peppers, removed the seeds, ribs and most of the black burnt parts. In the food processor I added garlic, salt, pepper and some chickpeas. I added a splash of olive oil and it tasted okay but didn't really knock my socks off. It was pretty good with some pita chips we had but I expected it to stand on its own a bit more.

Do you have any suggestions for what I should add to it next time? I like the concept and the preparation but I was left wanting something more. But I'm not sure what it was.

Ready for summer?

After last night's rain, our tank is over 175 gallons. The potted plants and vegetables should be okay for awhile when the really hot temps get here. It would be nice if we didn't see any 98,99 or 100's this summer but I highly doubt it.

We put chicken wire all around our veg garden after the rabbits started getting the peas. And in a weird blackhole/twilight zone kind of way, we've not seen one of the little furry buggers since. Guess they migrated to easier pickings. Goodbye and good riddance!

Sate Udang

First day of vacation yesterday, let's get tropical! Lord knows it was humid like the tropics. I had some shrimp so I used them instead of prawns. I went to Thanh Binh Market to get some lemon grass for skewers, they had fresh prawns which I'll get next time. They looked awesome. Udang is Indonesian for prawn by the way. I think lobster an shrimp also but definitely prawns.

Soy sauce, molasses, minced garlic, ground coriander, fresh lime juice, palm sugar or light brown sugar, veggie oil. Whisk it all up till the sugar dissovles and marinate your prawns or shrimp for an hour or so. Trimmed the lemon grass stalks into oversize skewers then used a metal skewer to make a starter hole in the shrimp. The lemon grass imparted a very subtle yet wonderful peppery citrus hint to the shrimp and they really smelled great during the grilling. The better half whipped up a tasty citrus salad and I served up a few Coconaut's for a great meal.

Easy and delicious, try it!

BOLO

Bolo. That's "Be On the Lookout".

Ryan and I both looking for some of these. If you see them anywhere, give us a holler. There is reportedly a brown one of a different design also. I don't have a picture of that one.

Thanks!

Silly Ebay Stuff

Since I've been bitten by the Tiki bug, I did a little shopping for something to hold my rum. I thought these little tiki hut mugs were neat. I'll bet my guests will feel that much closer to paradise when they're sipping a Mai Tai from one of them. I've got some vacation coming up soon and I'm thinking of hitting the antique shops and Salvation Army to see what items I might find. But if you'd like to part with your Aku Aku rum barrel from the Stardust Casino, give me a shout!

What's that saying about too much of something?

Pork, pork and more pork. It seems to be a recurring theme here lately. Could be that it's so easy to prepare and so damn good to eat. We've been trying a lot of different jerk variations and they've all been really good. Over the past week and a half we've done chops and two loins. I was given a bag of vidalia onions a while back and we've been thick slicing them and grilling them along with the main dish. The sugars in these onions are fantastic when grilled, I recommend them. Even raw on a nice burger, they are killer.

Yesterday I had a request for the garlic/rosemary pork again so I prepped it this morning and then slow cooked it a little over two hours. The boy doesn't like the "spice" but his Mom and I sure love it.