Food, Brewed & BBQd

Summer temps are still upon us so fired up the grill again. Tried a new dish we saw on the Kitchen. It's BBQ cauliflower. Yes. One slathers it in butter adds a dry rub heat until fork tender, and sauce it near the end. Turned out great with BBQd chicken thighs and Ranch beans.

Relaxing holiday weekend Took advantage of some of the fresh produce at the farmers markets. Peaches and cream sweet corn, Rocky Ford cantaloupe, Palisade peaches, real field grown tomatoes, red (finally some awesome slicing tomatoes!) and green and fresh dill Grilled chicken thighs and wings and quesadillas. We did up some fried green tomatoes, tabbouleh, cucumber dill salad. Made a round of pickled green tomatoes too. Also, found a real good locally made canned Moscow mule, aka Colorado Mule. Skol!

My unofficial rankings of the four different pasties I had during my visit to the U.P. in June.  #1) Suomi Restaurant in Houghton.  It's not your traditional hand pie as it's very round in shape.  Veggies are all diced small.  Very good pastry-like crust. Just a great combo of everything.  They are winners of the Copper Country's Best Pasty contest 2017 and 2018.  #2) Muldoons of Munising.  Packed with filling big time!  The crust was the most homemade tasting.  You can see the brown slightly burnt edges where the juice leaked out when baking,which always happens when I make my own.  Winner U.P. Peoples Choice Award 2001.  #3)  Lawry's of Ishpeming  (since 1946).   To me perhaps the most iconic pasty in the U.P.  It's the pasty flavor that I'm most used to having spent a lot of time in Ishpeming/Marquette area.  Look at the nicely braided crust.  Professional! They were featured on a NPR story about U.P. pasties several years ago. #4) Crossroads Bar & Restaurant in Harvey.  It's on the way from Marquette's airport so it's an easy first pasty stop for us.  Serviceable.  No complaints.  I usually have pasties from  Ralph's Italian Deli in Ishpeming (did have their cudighi)  and Jean Kay's out of Marquette too but didn't have time.  I tied my record of eating 4.5 pasties during my stay!

Not many better smells than roasting chile peppers!

Did up that Spicy Steak Noodle Bowl with Sesame Soy Dressing again. This time I got some super thin sliced ribeye steak from our local Asian grocery store HMart. Worked out really well. Talk about tender meat. Wow! Locally brewed Prost Pils to wash it down.

Of course roasted Hatch green chile time means homemade chile rellenos smothered in Durango green chile sauce with side of refried beans, lettuce and tomato.

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Got our two bushels of Hatch green chiles roasted. There aren't many better smells in the world! It's now officially fall.

We tried our best to celebrate National Cheeseburger Day! Grilled up some burgers topped with avocado aioli, green chile and pepper jack cheeses, tomatoes, lettuce, red onion, toasted buns. Served with homemade fries. Breckenridge Summer Pils to wash it down.

If you were a recipient of some giant zucchinis yesterday for Sneak Zucchini Into Your Neighbor's Porch Day here's a great way to use them- a zucchini boat a la Larry. (We were gifted a giant one a few days ago). Cut zucchinis in half, scoop out seeds to form the "boat". Place copious amounts of butter on them, season with salt and pepper, bake in 325° oven until tender. Could take over an hourdepending on the ripeness of the squash. In the meantime make your favorite pasta, here we used angel hair, and also heat some sauce, we used store bought jarred, we added seasoned ground beef, although this recipe is great meatless too. Once Zucchinis are done apply a layer of shredded parmesan cheese then layer sauce, pasta and mozzarella cheese and bake until cheese melts. Top with fresh basil. These should turn out so tender you can cut the skin with a fork and eat it too. Mmmm.

Tried another recipe we saw on The Kitchen - BBQ potato salad. Highly recommended. Served with flattened BBQ chicken breasts nad asparagus. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/grilled-barbecue-potato-salad-5288130

Our 4th of July spread. Smoked drumsticks, dogs, homemade pasta and potato salads. Yummy hors d'oeuvres.

We rocked Martha Stewart's baked eggplant parmesan a couple times last month.

Been making grilled pizzas lately with some great new to us store bought premade super thin pizza crust by Golden Home, plus garden basil. So easy and so good.

Spicy steak noodle bowl with soy dressing as seen on The Kitchen TV show. Really good! https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/spicy-steak-noodle-bowl-with-sesame-soy-dressing-5334326

Spareribs for a friend's birthday. Rubbed with Savory Spice's dried mustard, Red Rocks Hickory BBQ rub and Pike's Peak Butcher's rub. Hickory smoked on the Pit Barrel Cooker, finished with homemade BBQ sauce made by the friend who's bday it was. When they finished smoking wrapped them in foil and placed them in a faux cambro to keep them hot. Turned out to be one of the best ribs I ever made.