I get to sample a lot of different food in this “job.” (And my waistline is really showing it!) This time of year there are many open houses to which I’m invited and the hosts often ask me to bring something to ’share.’

Here are four of my favorite appetizers to prepare on the grill and that guests seem to just love. Hey maybe that’s why I get invited to ’share’ at so many parties! [NOTE: Please observe that 'bacon' is well represented in this group.]

Happy New Year Grilling!

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Just click on the recipe title to go to the complete recipe that is printable too!

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Created by Ka Honu

Shroom Bombs

“If you like garlic, mushrooms, and bacon (and who doesn’t?) it is Da Bomb”

~ Ka Honu

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Created by Larry Gaian

Larry Gaian’s “Original” Moink Balls

“The key to this appetizer is the simplicity.  Some people want to make fancy meatballs, but it isn’t necessary.”

~ Larry

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Created by CB

CB’s Bite Size Burgers

“Mouth-watering tasty bites of DEE-LISH-US!”

~ CB

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Created by Mike Hedrick

Pirate Mike’s Peg Leg Chicken Drums

“These take a few extra minutes of prepping on the front end – but they are Oh-so-good you’ll want to slap yourself!”

~ Mike

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As I write this post in my neck o’the woods it’s the shortest day of the year. We like to celebrate this somewhat overlooked event within my circle of friends – usually with a shared meal and plenty of laughter – because we know once this short day  engine has arrived at the station the other end of the train is parked at the longest day of the year! When that day arrives in June and daylight savings time is activated, the sun rises very early and sets fairly late – around 10 o’clock at night. (For my friends who live in Alaska and Canada I realize neither of these is any big deal!) If you live in lower latitudes you may not have first hand knowledge of why these events are so important.

December, the last month of the commonly used western calendar, is a holiday time of year.  I find it’s great fun to learn about different folks around the world who mark this same time of year with their own cultural events  – some of which that are vastly different from those I was raised with.  Seems to me the one thing that all of these appear to have in common is sharing food with friends and family. And I can’t argue with that one bit!

If you need some ideas for holiday meals – regardless of which holiday(s) you celebrate – just click on the Search Recipes tab at the top of this page. Here are a few favorites from past holiday posts:

1. Christmas Goose
2. Roasted rack of pork w/rosemary
3. Grilled boneless leg of lamb
4. Lemon & Herb stuffed roasted chicken
5. Cook a 12lb turkey on your grill in 45 minutes
6. Seared duck breast with sweet potato fries
7. Wild caught Alaska sockeye salmon

Whatever and however you celebrate and share this season with loved ones – to you and yours – thanks for inviting me onto your computer screens each week, sharing your recipes, tips and tricks with others on the Users Forums and for providing me with some of the finest memories of my life.

As my Hawaiian friends say in their gentle way – Mahalo and Aloha.

Happy Grilling & Happy Holidays!

I can’t pass up a bargain in the meat dept.  Since late in the summer one of my favorite local grocery stores has been offering USDA Prime sirloin & ribeye steaks fairly regularly – as the restaurant business has slipped just a bit and the Prime grade beef cuts are generally sold to those outlets. The other day I saw a 2+ pound Prime sirloin roast and snapped it up. When all was said and done it served 6 meals including some tasty sandwiches – so I think the $13 was well spent!

USDA Prime beef is more available to us 'common folk' these days.

Want to know more about USDA meat ratings? Check out What are USDA Grades of Beef all about? in “Just Ask CB.”

Smoked & Roasted sirloin roast resting for 30 minutes prior to carving.

I used a simple seasoning of McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning and patted it in – resting for about 30 minutes or so while the Char-Broil Outdoor Kitchen Stovetop & Smoker warmed up to about 250F degrees. I placed the roast in the smoke chamber with a remote digital thermometer probe inserted to the center of the roast – placed a handful of mesquite-apple wood chunks in the smoker tray and relaxed for about an hour – checked the thermometer and pulled it from the cooker at about 90 minutes and an internal temp of 120F degrees.  I wrapped it in foil, inserted a Polder dual temp analog thermometer in it and placed the bundle inside my kitchen oven set to 200F degrees whilst I prepped the rest of the dinner. The internal temperature had climbed to just about 14oF degrees when I pulled it from the oven, unwrapped and let it rest for 30 minutes before carving. (Want to know a bit more about resting meat and why? Check out these comments on the Users Forums.)

Tasty thin slices of smoked & roasted sirloin are great for dinner entree or for sandwhiches!

I sliced some of the roast as “English Cut” (thin slices) for a meal entree that is also perfect for sandwiches! [Note: The picture is kinda washed out - because the color of the meat was a lovely bright pink-nearly-red.]

The remaining portion I saved as two small-ish (4-5 oz) serving sizes for a variation of Steak Diane prepared the next evening.

This was an elegant meal – easily prepared on a home grill (set up for indirect heat and a smoker box with wood chips) or a smoker.  The results were so tasty and would please your most finicky meat aficionados.  I was fortunate to get a-hold of USDA Prime but I’ve also made this with a USDA Choice cut and had similar results.

Perhaps for a holiday dinner party or maybe a quiet New Year’s Eve dinner for a special someone – this is the meat to prepare and serve!

For more recipes on grilling, roasting or smoking click on Search Recipes.

Thanks and…

Happy Grilling!

Is beef on your party menu?

Besides finding a date on the calendar and time that works for everyone; coming up with a guest list and getting out the invitations  – there’s all that other stuff that goes with hosting a holiday party.  Like cleaning and decorating, as well as finding the perfect attire that suits the occasion. Yep. It’s the holidays and regardless if it’s just the boys from the bowling team over to have a couple of laughs, the neighbors, co-workers, friends or relatives – you are known for making sure everything is in perfect shape at your parties.   But there is  always one really big decision to make when hosting a party:

“How Much To buy?”

You want to be a good host and make sure there is enough of your tasty grilled and barbequed food to ensure everyone has a helping or two, but these days you also want to watch the costs! Buy too much and it goes to waste. Buy too little and folks are hungry! What to do?

Our friends at the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association have created a handy printable guide that may help you!  It tells you the serving size in ounces and how many servings you can generally expect from one pound of beef. Of course how you prepare and serve is up to you!

They call it, simply enough: How Much to Buy

Click on the link to open the PDF file. You will need Adobe Reader to view and print it.

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Grilled Flat Iron steak, sliced and served with Mustard Bourbon sauce. Photo courtesy of the Cattlemen's Beef Board and National Cattlemen's Beef Association

Here’s a tasty idea for your holiday party menu – grilled flat iron beef steaks.  Flat Iron steaks are fairly standard size and weight, thus easier to predict cooking times and plan for the number of guest.  One steak can provide 2 -3 servings. They are very “grill-able” – so you can cook them to order and prepare only what you need, as you need it!  Or cook several ahead to just a rare stage and hold, wrapped in foil, at a safe temperature until ready to carve – they will continue to cook slightly and generally will be at medium-rare when sliced.

CB’s EZ Grilled Flat Iron Steaks with Mustard-Bourbon Sauce

Happy Grilling!

When I read the story of how Larry Gaian came up with the first “Moink Ball”  – I had to ask him to be a Guest Chef at Sizzle on the Grill. His creativity and practical approach to outdoor cooking is an inspiration.  It’s the holidays and Larry graciously provides us with his original recipe. ~CB

"Moink Balls" loaded into a cooker - slowly crisping up to DEE-LISH-US!

CB,

The term ‘Moink’ comes from two sources of barbeque cooking and eating pleasure, beef and pork. I first came up with these when I was preparing a catering job and felt I needed something more. I had some frozen meatballs and plenty of bacon – so beef meatballs with bacon. MOO (Beef) + OINK (Pork) = MOINK

Larry Gaian’s Original Moink Balls
Prep time: just a few minutes for a dozen or so
Cook time: until the bacon is crispy
Ingredients
1 dozen frozen pre-cooked beef meat balls
6 strips of your favorite bacon, cut in half to make 12
Your favorite BBQ sauce or glaze

Directions

1. Place meatball in center of bacon pieces and wrap bacon up and around thawed meat balls – secure with a toothpick out of the top – makes a great handle on an appetizer tray
2. Place the Moink Balls on oven safe trays or racks
3. Set racks in cooker, smoker or grill (set for indirect heat) and registering approximately 225F degrees
4. Leave in place – checking about every 30 minutes – turn or adjust individual MOINK Balls as necessary.
5. Cook until bacon is crispy and brush with sauce
   
6. Continue cooking until sauce has set.

The key to this appetizer is the simplicity.  Some people want to make fancy meatballs, but it isn’t necessary.  After smoking, saucing and with the bacon most people can’t tell.  The important part is that it’s beef meatballs and bacon.  That’s what a MOINK Ball is.

Larry Gaian
The BBQ Grail

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Get a printable version of this recipe – CLICK HERE

Read the account of how the Moink Ball got it’s name – CLICK HERE

Have you decided on the menu for your holiday meal(s) yet?  I have and I haven’t.  I’m still figuring out how many meals I will be responsible for preparing and how many I am asked to “bring something tasty to share.”

To inspire my gray matter I sent a note to several of my friends who are professional cooks, food writers or food enthusiasts to inquire as to their holiday menu plans.  Most replied with good natured comments that I can’t reprint here. My friend Mike Stines – founder of Cape Cod Barbecue, a working chef, regular contributor to Sizzle on the Grill and author of Mastering Barbeque (my “2nd favorite book” on outdoor cooking) passed along a complete holiday menu with recipes – which I am pleased to present for your inspiration.

Happy Grilling!

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I’ve cooked hundreds of beer can chickens over the years. And it was always a pretty simple process. Open a beer, sample it to perform necessary quality control, place a rinsed, dried and seasoned whole chicken over the can (inserted into empty cavity) and set on a small tray to stabilize – then put it all on the grill or in the oven for about an hour at 400F degrees.

The Chicken Roaster is useful for flavoring chickens.

When The Big Easy came along – beer can chicken was one of the first meals I cooked in it. And nearly every week since. Last year sometime I began using the Chicken Roaster and now prepare chicken with a variety of flavored liquid infusions.

The premise is pretty basic: The chicken is cooked from the outside by indirect heat of the grill, or direct infrared energy in The Big Easy, and the heat also warms the liquid in the beer can or Chicken Roaster . The warming liquid slowly steams into the cavity of the chicken – imparting flavor, adding moisture and helping to cook the bird.  Simple and tasty.

So why on earth have I never thought to prepare a ‘Beer Can Turkey?’ (more…)

The holiday season is nearly upon us. I’m hoping you’ll have reason to host a dinner party or two for family and friends – or perhaps something more intimate.  For those smaller meals – or to prepare individual servings for a larger party I have been playing with a recipe for making Smoked & Roasted Boneless Turkey Thighs Stuffed with Sage Dressing.  This is a tasty meal to prepare for yourself or to share with others.  It evokes the taste memory of full-on turkey dinners with all the trimmings. BUT it’s a bit easier on the pocketbook and certainly a bit easier to prepare than a  whole turkey!

For safety reasons I strongly advise against stuffing the cavity of a whole turkey, chicken or other fowl with anything destined to be consumed – only aromatics for flavoring the meat from the inside. (Read my post: Don’t Stuff that Turkey! ) But this is not a whole bird, it’s the meaty and rich tasting dark meat of the thigh – bone removed – stuffed with a basic sage bread stuffing – and the cook is pretty fast.

Smoked & Roasted Boneless Turkey Thigh stuffed with Sage Dressing.

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Citizens of Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin parade in tribute to mustard at the 2008 Mustardfest celebration on National Mustard Day. (Ahem - the young lady on the right evidently enjoys a little "razzberry" with her mustard!

One of my favorite web sites is The MT. Horeb Mustard Museum, a fun idea that is seriously dedicated to that tasty little seed with so much history, mustard.  The ‘curator’ is a self-confessed silly guy and I like that in just about anyone, but especially so because he’s dedicated to tasty condiment that is so useful for grilling and barbeque. Join in the fun this weekend, or as often as you like, and try out some grilled, barbequed or smoked foods that either use mustard in the recipe or as a ’sauce’ for the finished product.

CB's degree in the existential philosophy of mustard bestowed upon him at an early age by the infamous 'Poupon U'

May I recommend a generous dollub of tangy stone ground mustard as a DEE-LISH-US accompaniment to grilled hanger, sirloin or flank beef steak. Oh, in case you ‘doubt’ my credentials for discussing ‘moutarde’ – I’ll have you know I am certified as a “Philosopher of Dijon” by the infamous ‘Poupon U.’

Happy Grilling!

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Here are some posts you may enjoy which feature mustard:

Mom’s Mustard Eggs
Rib & Pork Rub Tip
Grilled Hanger Steak – ‘Moutarde’
Brady’s Cajun-Style Pork Ribs
Lettuce Wraps of Grilled Meats & Veggies
Grilled “MEAT” Scallopini with Sauces to Match Your Appetite!
Rotisserie Roasting a Ribeye Rack
Roast Pork – Stone Ground Mustard Glaze

And here are some recipes that feature mustard as an important ingredient:

CB’S EZ Georgia-Style Mustard Sauce
Cherry Mustard Grilled Pork Tenderloin
CB’s EZ ‘Moutarde’ Sauce for Grilling.
Suzanne’s Deviled Eggs
Smoky Mist Mustard Sauce

This is a holiday week for the citizens of Canada and the United States. As with most holidays, many folks are planning family get-togethers and many attend community celebrations this weekend.  I bet by late Sunday afternoon there will be a cloud of backyard barbeque smoke covering most of North America that the weather satellites can track from space!  Wherever you go you are sure to encounter an aroma of food grilling in parks and back yards in towns, cities and the country. To inspire creativity with your menu planning I checked in with three of our celebrity chefs: Marvin Woods, Chris Koetke and Gadi Weinreich – for their thoughts on what to serve this weekend. Oh – and just for grins I added a couple of my favorites as well!

I’m thinking they have some great ideas but, if you want to check our recipe files for something ‘just right’ for your event, click on the Search Recipes tab at the top of this page.

Happy Grilling!

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