Have a Merry Big Green Egg Christmas

I will be moving to Missouri in January without my beloved Egg...so posts may slow down for a few months....but Keep On Eggin'...I'll be back occasionally.

Perfect Pizza Set Up on the Big Green Egg

This is the perfect set up for Pizza on a Large Big Green Egg. Platesetter on the fire ring with legs UP...Grid on the Platesetter legs and the Pizza Stone on the Grid. I have been using parchment paper under regular crust Pillsbury dough and they cook for 10-12 minutes PERFECT across the entire crust...starting with EVOO on the dough and then your favorite ingredients. Give it a try and Keep on Eggin'.

Pork Tenderloin on the Big Green Egg

Pork Tenderloins
Lysanders Pork Rub
Baby Spinach (shredded)
Green Onions (shredded)

Spiral cut the tenderloins, add the spinach and green onion, tie with butcher's string and grill at 400 degrees dome temp. or use open flame with a grid raised about 2" (additional fire ring).

Asparagus in EVOO with Minced Garlic on the grid until the oil boils and remove to steep.

Sugar Plum Fairy - Florida Arts and Dance Nutcracker 2008

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll216/THEBTLS/DSC09601.jpg

Proud Papa Moment - Our Sugar Plum

Our Daughter Megan danced for the 12th and final year in the Florida Arts and Dance Nutcracker last night (actually 6 performances this week). I don't have any pictures from the performances, but she was the Sugar Plum featured dancer...I posted below a still shot of her and Mom and me as well as a copy of the advertisement we placed in the playbill.

Sous-Vide - Worth the effort and risk?

Sous-vide (pronounced /su ˈvid/),[1] French for "under vacuum",[1] is a method of cooking that is intended to maintain the integrity of ingredients by heating them for an extended period of time at relatively low temperatures. Food is cooked for a long time, sometimes well over 24 hours. Unlike cooking in a slow cooker, sous-vide cooking uses airtight plastic bags placed in hot water well below boiling point (usually around 60°C or 140°F).
The method was developed by Georges Pralus in the mid-1970s for the Restaurant Troisgros (of Pierre and Michel Troigros) in Roanne, France. He discovered that when cooking foie gras in this manner it kept its original appearance, did not lose excess amounts of fat and had better texture.[2] Another pioneer in the science of sous-vide is Bruno Goussault, who further researched the effects of temperature on various foods and became well-known for training top chefs in the method. As Chief Scientist of Cuisine Solutions, Goussault thoroughly developed the parameters of cooking times and temperatures for different foods.[3] The sous-vide method is used in several gourmet restaurants under Thomas Keller, Jesse Mallgren, Paul Bocuse, Joël Robuchon, Charlie Trotter, and other chefs. Amtrak has used this method of cooking in the dining cars of its long-distance trains, and recently began using the method on its Acela Express trains. Non-professional cooks are also beginning to use vacuum cooking.
Clostridium botulinum bacteria can grow in food in the absence of oxygen and produce the deadly botulinum toxin, so sous-vide cooking must be performed under carefully controlled conditions to avoid botulism poisoning.[4] To help with food safety and taste, relatively expensive water-bath machines (thermal immersion circulators) are used to circulate precisely heated water. Differences of even one degree can affect the finished product.
In the USA and other English speaking countries, the technique of vacuum packaging may be known as Cryovacking[5]
Source: Wikipedia

Prime Rib and Tomato Basal Mozzarella Salad

Tonight's cook was quick and simple, Prime Ribs with Fresh Ground Sea Salt and Fresh Ground 4 kernel pepper and a Tomato Basal Mozzarella salad.

Tenderloins and Friends

Tonight we had some good friends over for some tenderloin, wok shrimp and antipasto grilled veggies.

They dropped off a prime piece of tenderloin yesterday and I marinated it in Andy's Beef Rub after cutting it into 'dippin' or 'skewer' sized pieces.

The wok shrimp was my flour and Bad Byron's Butt Rub in Oil with garlic and onion (posted here earlier) as was the antipasto veggies with the EVOO-Balsamic-Garlic-Chili Sauce Pour Over sauce (also posted here earlier).


Pictured here is the set up from this morning...

I good time was had by all especially at dessert where the sham tarts were served with strawberries and real whipping cream...suppose I can do those sham tarts on the Big Green Egg????? May have to try that soon.




The Finished Shrimp and Tenderloins...

Home Grown Organic Bibb Lettuce

Home grown in home-made compost...no chemicals, no pesticides, rainwater only...disappeared too fast for me to get a picture after we wilted the lettuce and added some ham and potatoes...oh my.

Organic Free Range Chicken Broth

Walking through BJ's yesterday I noticed they had added a small organic section to one of their isles. The item that caught my eye however was a six-pack carton of Organic Free Range Chicken Broth.

I use a LOT of chicken broth in my TAGINE cooking especially, since I often can't find (or sometimes afford) free range meat and vegetables it't nice to have a product that I use literally every week be organic.

Certified USDA Organic the 32 oz. aseptic reclosable packaging I can't wait to 'pour it on' as it were.

What makes it organic...the broth is made from "grain fed chickens, raised without hormones or antibiotics in an environment where they can roam freely." It is a gluten free product.

This product will probably get it's first test in my new MINI TAGINE I just picked up at Sir LaTable this week. The companies website is http://www.pacificfoods.com - Keep On Eggin'

WICKED - The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire (The Wicked Series)

I never imagined that I would get to the point in my life where I actually wrote or posted blog comments about a book. I am a outdoor grilling enthusiast...not a book critic.

Background: When I turned 40 I determined that I probably had not read more than 3 or 4 books since college...so I decided to read one book per week for the rest of my life. It went well the first year when I read over 55 books. In the subsequent years (13 of them) I've actually done pretty well reading over 300 books since that time, but it still runs in streaks.

You avid readers know what I mean, you find a good book and stay up till 3 a.m. reading it. Then you go for 10 days without another minute to pick up a book, so I'm averaging about a book every two weeks, not bad I guess.

What happens to me is that I find a author that I like and I read every book they have published, sometimes with few other authors in-between. However, I also have a habit of starting as many as 3 or 4 books at the same time and finishing them all about the same time as well.


It keeps me interested in the longer books like those thousand page biography's (of which I like but take me months to read). Most recently I stumbled across a display of Gregory Maguire A Lion Among Men books at my local book store. I picked up a copy and found out that apparently I had missed a 10 year (or more) series of books called THE WICKED SERIES...of which I was holding the latest (3rd) book in the series. Short of reading materials,


I picked up the first book A Day in the Life of the Wicked Witch of the West. About six hours later I was on Amazon ordering the second and third books in the series...the rest is history.


As a non-trained literary critic, I may hack this up but the first book is essentially the tale of Elphaba from birth to death...the first two thirds of the book tells the story of her life and the final third tells a story that is recognizable to all of us as the story of The Wizard of Oz...at least a very close resemblance...it's less fairly tale and more lifelike in details but in the end, the witch dies and Dorothy goes home...and openings are left all over the place for sequels...thus the series.


Clearly I am no critic and to give out details would spoil the series...however I find myself having completed the third book in about a week after reading the first and now I am almost finished with some of this other books Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Mirror, Mirror.


I highly recommend this series and if I ever decide to talk books again, maybe I will get into the characters and details...for now, I'm just promoting reading and to include this special series of books into your library if you haven't already.

Cascadian Farm Organic Granola

Okay, I have to admit, I've tried about every Granola available, and the two things (make that three) that have always disappointed me have been the fact that they are tasteless, dry and clumpy.

After two bowls of Cascadian Farm Organic GRANOLA (dark chocolate almond) I have to admit I may start eating GRANOLA for breakfast again (my wife actually eats it for dinner sometimes).

Okay, the samples I received HAVE to be fresh, but this GRANOLA is hard to describe, it is actually not 'dry'-while 'moist' may be the wrong term to use, the GRANOLA doesn't clump or stay clumped when you add milk (ORGANIC 2 % BTW).

The flavor mixture is probably what really put me over the top, I know a lot of GRANOLA has almonds, but that little touch of Dark Chocolate pushes this GRANOLA to the top of the list for all of the brands I have tried.

The GRANOLA is made up of Organic whole grain oats, wheat and barley, crisp rice, almonds and dark chocolate; with no artificial flavors or preservatives. Their foods are grown Organic with no synthetic pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

With 14 g of whole grain per serving this is a great source of whole grains but at 250 Calories per 1/4 cup serving (w/1/2 cup skim milk) you probably aren't going to use this as a diet breakfast if you are counting total calories as a 1/4 cup fits into the palm of your hand. It is however very low in fat.

For the sustainable fans the box is 100% Recycled Paperboard and the company supports the community even further by participating in the Box Tops for Education program.

A variety of products are available and you can find out more about these and other products on http://www.cascadianfarm.com/ or by calling 1-800-624-4123 C.T. zone).

Buy it and try it...you won't be sorry. Their website even has a store locator.

This is a independent opinion made at the request of the organization for NO compensation (other than the sample products).