When I first came across the idea of using smoked hazelnuts in butter I knew exactly what I was going to use it for: baked sweet potatoes. I love sweet potatoes, and baking them like Russets is one of my favorite ways to serve them. Crunchy skin and creamy insides, they make for something different than the ‘usual’ baked potato side dish.
Great Crunch And Flavor
The smoked nuts add a nice light smoky flavor, and a little crunch. I often serve sweet potatoes with roasted pecans. The smoked hazelnuts are different than pecans. They are also great right off the smoker as a snack. Well, let them cool off a bit first of course.
I leave it up to you to decide how many smoked hazelnuts you want to add to the butter. I still wanted to taste the butter, so I didn’t overwhelm it with the nuts. I also added a few good sprinkles of Gorgonzola to my baked sweet potato. It was a great dish.
This is the world’s easiest, tastiest meatloaf. Stove Top stuffing meatloaf is our absolute go-to dish when we’re hankerin’ for some good ole comfort food. Hot out of the oven, or leftover and served as a sandwich, it doesn’t matter. This is always on the top of our list. As a bonus, it’s easy to keep all of the ingredients on hand. We can make dinner without a lot of planning ahead or fuss.
Picking Your Stuffing
There are a lot of varieties of Stove Top Stuffing mix out there. We really like the chicken-flavored one in this Stove Top Stuffing meatloaf. The stuffing adds the best flavor to the meatloaf. And when you’re in a rush, grabbing that box of mix is sure quicker and easier than making it yourself from scratch.
Nothing Fancy
Yeah, I know. It’s easy and it ain’t fancy. But this sure hit the spot.
One of my favorite things to make is baked pork chops. As a kid, Shake’N Bake was often a go-to dinner and it still is for me to this day. But, I admit, I like to stir things up a bit by making my own mix. I like to make all sorts of different flavors. I was walking into the grocery store the other day and of course they make sure that I’m instantly surrounded by the aroma coming from the rotisserie chicken roasters. However, my first thought wasn’t to go snag a chicken. Instead, it was “Oh, I gotta make rotisserie chicken-seasoned Shake’N Bake pork chops”!
Wonderfully Delicious
Indeed, these pork chops taste just like what you’d expect. Yes, you can use this mix on chicken. But me, I love baked pork chops even more so that’s what I made! These rotisserie chicken-seasoned Shake’N Bake pork chops really hit the spot. I made these three times in one week that’s how much I love this mix!
I was blown away by how much I loved this rotisserie chicken-seasoned Shake’n Bake mix on pork chops (I’m sure it’d rock big time on chicken too!).
It’s great to be in control. It seems sometimes a rare thing in our lives. Well, when you make some cedar-plank spicy nacho cheese Doritos you’re in control. You decide how much of that cedar aroma you want. And how much flavor the cedar is going to bring. You even get to decide how roasted crunchy the chips end up. You’ll love the results of your efforts, believe me. Control never tasted or felt so good!
Best Easiest Snack Ever
There’s nothing complicated going on here. You do have to be careful you don’t go crazy nuts and leave the chips on the grill too long. The process for making cedar-plank spicy nacho cheese Doritos is simple. These are great snacks for your next grill party. You can make a lot of them, and quick. Do like I do and make some cool ranch Doritos too. And some regular nacho cheese for sure!
Doritos Rock. So Do Other Chips.
I bet you’re thinking… Can I do this with other chips, too? Why sure! You can place any chip onto planks and grill them. But, watch out! Thinner chips, such as potato chips, will cook a lot faster! You might want to do a ‘test run’ with a few chips first to get a feel for the amount of time you want to grill them.
Soak plank (or planks if you need more than one) in water for at least 1 hour.
Fire up your grill to medium-high heat, around 400 F.
Place the plank over indirect heat. Add the chips. Close the lid.
Let the chips grill for 2-5 minutes. Check them at least once. If they start to turn dark brown or char on the edges, remove them.
Let cool slightly before serving.
Notes
Note: If you prefer a stronger cedar flavor and aroma, place your soaked plank over direct heat for a few minutes first. Get a nice char on the plank. Then move it to indirect heat and add the chips.
Got a Char-Broil Big Easy? Think you can’t join the tailgating crowd with it? That it’s just for turkeys? Well, wrong! It’s time to fire up and make some fantastic crispy Cajun wings on the Char-Broil Big Easy! These great wings take just a little effort, just a little time, and they come out absolutely fantastic. And the sauce is nothing to sneeze at either! These are great tasting wings too!
It’s Super Easy
There are just two simple steps to making crispy Cajun wings on the Char-Broil Big Easy. First, you need to air dry the wings coated in seasoned baking powder (not baking soda) overnight in a fridge on a wire rack. This helps dry out the skin, making it easier to get it crispy later. And second, when it comes time to cook the wings, make sure you don’t over-crowd your Big Easy. The high heat circulates around the wings, helping crisp up the skin.
Load Up
You can use a bunk bed basket (and you’ll want to) for more wings. And in fact, if you’re patient, you can fit two bunk bed baskets into the Big Easy at once. Or do like me and get more than one Big Easy and have a wing-cooking funfest!
Sure, you can use any sauce you want on these wings. But you’ll want to keep that Cajun theme going and make a batch of the sauce below. It has a nice spicy kick to it with a great flavor that compliments the seasoned wings perfectly.
It’s always a good idea to keep a few spare grease trays on hand for your Char-Broil Big Easy.
Place the wings in a large bowl or resealable container.
Combine the baking powder and Cajun seasoning.
Sprinkle half of the seasoning mix over the wings.
Using your hands, toss the wings to coat.
Add the remaining seasoning and repeat.
Transfer the wings to a wire rack over a baking sheet.
Place in the fridge 12 hours or overnight to dry out the skin.
Fire up your Big Easy.
Lightly spray the basket and the bunk bed basket with non-stick spray. Let the Big Easy preheat for 5-10 minutes.
Add the wings to the baskets and lower into the Big Easy. Do not let the wings touch or overlap. You can stand them on end if you want to fit more wings into the baskets. You can also use up to two bunk bed baskets at a time, adding more cooking area.
Cook until the wings are lightly browned and crispy, usually 30 minutes. While the wings are cooking make the wing sauce.
Transfer the wings to a large bowl. Pour as much sauce as desired over the wings and toss to coat. Serve hot.
For the sauce
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Stir in the hot sauce and Worcestershire.
Reduce heat and keep warm until ready to use.
Notes
Wings towards the bottom of the cooker may cook faster so check them after 30 minutes.
I used to buy frozen garlic bread from the grocery store. Regularly. And on occasion I’d make it from scratch. I was looking for something better and easier. This make-ahead garlic bread makes sure I always have great garlic bread on hand and for a better price. And it tastes a whole lot better too! Oh, and even better, I can make it as buttery and as garlicky as I want!
Perfect From The Freezer
I was afraid that all the buttery goodness in the topping would make this make-ahead garlic bread stick together. I feared I’d open the door to a huge block of bread stuck together. I’d be unable to even chisel a single piece away. But no! The pieces are frozen individually first, making sure they don’t stick. I keep them in a large one gallon freezer bag, always on hand for dinner!
We were in Cincinnati for the weekend, visiting our favorite foodie destination, Jungle Jim’s, when we decided to stop at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. That meal got me thinking… boy, I haven’t made a decent Mexican dish at home in a long time. Time to remedy that! So as soon as we got home I made some beef and bean burritos with red chile chimayo. And boy, was I ever happy that I did because my Mexican-food-inspired desires were more than satisfied!
The Sauce Is Incredible
The real start of the beef and bean burritos with red chile chimayo is the red chile chimayo. That’s the sauce that goes over the burritos after they have been lightly fried in oil.
I highly recommend that you shred or grate your cheese at home. Don’t buy the pre-shredded or pre-grated stuff. It has stuff added to it to keep it from sticking together. That ‘stuff’ affects how the cheese melts. Shred it yourself and use the good stuff. It’s a chili powder-infused sauce that has hints of garlic, cumin, onion and oregano. It has an amazing flavor that makes the burritos really something special. I would not hesitate to double the recipe for the chimayo. I would also be more than happy to use it in other dishes.
It’s gonna be messy. Juices are gonna run down your forearm. Pizza sauce too. Cheese is gonna drip onto your lap. All your favorite pizza flavors on a convenient grilled burger. No boring burger here. Pizza smash burgers are a wonderful way to change up your burger routine. The big thin patties are perfect for loading up the toppings so go big and enjoy!
You can go ‘loaded’ or ‘lightly loaded’ with these pizza smash burgers. I tried them both ways and both were great. More pepperoni. More pepperoncini. More cheese. Or not.
You can also add your other favorite pizza toppings, such as mushrooms or olives. Go crazy with it!
The equipment
Here’s the equipment I use. You can get by using two cast iron skillets. Use a larger skillet for cooking the burgers, and a smaller one to smash the burgers and keep them flat. Since I’m a cooking gadget collector, I prefer to use a few more tools.
The griddle
First, a griddle. You can buy griddles that sit on top of your grill grates or ones that replace them. Just about every grill I have has a griddle on it. I use them for a lot of things, not just smash burgers. You want one that can be placed over the hottest part of your grill so it gets screaming hot.
Next, you need a burger press. You can use a heavy cast iron skillet, like I mentioned. Or get a burger press. For easy cleanup I wrap mine in foil first. When I’m done, just peel off the foil and toss. Super easy. Get a press that’s at least big enough to cover two burgers. You only smash one at a time, but if you want to keep them flat, you want to rest the press on top so bigger (and heavier) is better. Plus I’ve found that a bigger, heavier press tends to stay on the burgers whereas a smaller, lighter one is hard to keep centered on the burgers, specially if you have a bunch of them cooking at once.
Next up, a dome. While not 100% required, it does speed the time it takes to melt the cheese and it does it in a nice even fashion. In my opinion you don’t really need one if you’re using a super melty cheese, such as American, but for thicker slices like say a deli pepper jack, you want the cheese to melt before you over-cook the burger and that’s where a dome comes in handy.
Lastly, you need something to clean your griddle. I like to clean mine when I’m done cooking, but you can do it at the start instead. I use one of these pad holders with a griddle cleaning pad. Then I add a bit of water to my griddle then use the pad (connected to the holder) to scrub off any big chunks and get up some of the grease. I don’t go crazy with it, I always heat the heck out of my griddle before cooking, but I get the worst. The long arm on the pad holder makes it perfect for scrubbing a hot griddle, too.
Fire up your grill for high heat. Place a griddle or a large cast iron pan over the highest heat.
Season the ground beef with the salt and pepper, mix and form into four 4 ounce balls (not patties!).
Place the balls of beef on the griddle and let cook for one minute. Just let them cook, don't mess with them.
Take your press and flatten out the patties. I like to use the point of the press and work my way around the ball first, doing a little section at a time and then finally I press down on the entire patty to flatten it out. You can also just flatten out the ball all at once. At this point I also like to season the patties some more.
Let the patties cook until you start to notice a little char along the edges. Flip, season again if desired, and continue cooking another minute or so until the other side is charred. The burgers are thin so they will cook very quickly so watch out.
Top patties with pepperoni, cheese, sauce and pepperoncini.
I was going to call these easy irresistible mozzarella cheese sticks just ‘easy mozzarella cheese sticks’. But no, that’s just not enough. It doesn’t tell you just how good they are. Eat two? Three. Yeah right. Not me at least. I’m not that strong. They have a power. The power of a crunchy, flavorful coating. Ooey gooey melty cheese. Perfect. Irresistible!
The Keys To Cheese Stick Success
These easy irresistible mozzarella cheese sticks are easy. But there are two things to remember while you’re making them. First is get the cheese well coated in the flour. Don’t forget the ends, either. Our goal here is the perfect breading, everywhere. Every inch of the cheese stick.
Second, is to make sure you get the cheese stick nice and coated in the egg. Beating the eggs well will help with this. And again, make sure you get the ends too.
After that it’s a walk in the park. Just get the breadcrumbs all over. And yep, get the ends again. Then fry until golden brown. Oh and resist eating them hot out of the fryer. Trust me on that. Let them cool a bit regardless of how tempted you might be!
I get out my big deep fryer when it’s time to fry a large batch of food. It comes to temperature quickly and it maintains that temperature perfectly. It has a built-in oil filter and storage unit so I can re-use the oil several times.
Baked potatoes find their way on our dinner menu with some regularity. Sometimes they are served up as side dishes, but often they are the main course. They’re easy to make, and pretty fuss-free depending how crazy you go when you top them. These quick fix broccoli and cheese baked potatoes are about as easy as you can get. Just bake some potatoes, heat some frozen broccoli and cheese, and boom! A fantastic baked potato is served! Well, ok, I added some bacon bits too but those aren’t that hard either! I just opened the bottle!
Feel free to peruse the frozen vegetable section in your grocery store. You might find other cheesy vegetables that would be just as good on a baked potato! And if they don’t include a cheese sauce, don’t fret. Just heat them as instructed and then top them with some freshly shredded cheese. Shredding your own is so much better than the pre-shredded stuff!
Rinse the potatoes under cold water and brush off any dirt. Dry well with a paper towel.
Pierce each potato 4 times with a sharp knife.
Brush potatoes with oil.
Sprinkle some salt onto a plate and roll the potatoes in the salt.
Place potatoes directly on the oven center rack. You might want to put a baking sheet lined with foil beneath them to catch any drippings.
Bake until potatoes are done (210 F internal temperature, or tender all the way through when poked with a knife), 40-60 minutes depending on their size. You can also test for doneness by squeezing the potatoes (with potholders on). If they give easily, they are done.
While the potatoes cool prepare the broccoli per package instructions.
Cut the potatoes open. Fluff the insides with a fork if desired. Add butter, and season well with salt and pepper.
Divide heated broccoli with cheese sauce between the potatoes and serve topped with bacon bits.
Notes
Don’t be shy when seasoning your potatoes, they need plenty of salt and pepper!
