If you asked me what my favorite cut of pork is every day, I would probably change my answer each day. Shoulder, chops, ribs, sausage, belly....you name it. Sunday my pork weapon of choice was tenderloin. It's lean, quick cooking, and can take on so many kinds of flavors.
This particular time I went with the sweetness of cherry and the smoky heat of chipotle for a delicious grilled Cherry Chipotle Pork Tenderloin.
The brine, rub, and BBQ sauce are all easy to make for this simple recipe. If you don't have the time to brine, you could skip that part but it adds a lot of flavor and keeps the pork juicy while grilling.
Memorial Day Weekend is next week and
for a lot of folks, that means the start of the grilling and BBQ
season. With all of the great things that come with cook outs and
firing up that grill, one annoyance that comes with it is flies.
I have found something that turns that
annoyance into entertainment. It is the Bug-A-Salt salt gun and it wins the coveted Nibble Me This
Best Grilling Accessory Award of 2013*.
It is an ingenious
non-toxic solution that uses a pinch of common table salt and air to
take out flying or crawling pests.
When you light up your
grill or start prepping food outside, it is like a dinner bell for
flies and draws in every flying maggot for miles and miles, right?
I've tried the pennies in a ziptop bag of water and it doesn't keep
them away (Mythbusters busted that myth). Swatting a fly with a fly
swatter just splatters it all over your cooking or eating area, yuck.
The Bug-A-Salt kills the fly with about 1/8th tsp of
table salt but leaves the fly whole for easy, safe clean up.
I found the Bug-A-Salt
when they were doing a kickstarter type campaign last year or so. I
checked back recently and found they are in full production now so I
bought one for review.
Kills
flies, mosquitoes, roaches and other pests with a range of 3 feet
non-toxic
pump action - No battery required
bug remains whole for easy clean up
excellent for flying insects indoors near windows, corners, and ceilings
Testing
We
have cycled through two hoppers of salt for 100+ shots. This thing
works exactly as advertised. As shown in the video, we found it to
be accurate even at 3 feet away from the tiny target. Accuracy on
still targets is close to 100%. Trying to hit an erratic flying
target is harder but definitely doable. So far it has taken out
flies, meal moths, invasive brown stink bugs, and ants.
To see a video of the accuracy test in action, go to the 2:47 mark in this video that I made.
It
is a quality build and feels sturdy, like it will last. We did have
a couple of misfires at first. We quickly found that those were
caused by cocking the gun while tilted AND the salt supply was low,
so it just didn't get a full load of salt. Since then it has
performed flawlessly. If you do run into problems, they have a
hotline for customer service...I'm pretty sure it's the owner's
actual mobile or office phone. I love working with smaller companies
like that!
Summary
Expensive
for a “fly swatter”? Absolutely. But the x-factor is the
entertainment aspect. Without exception, EVERYONE that I have shown
the Bug-A-Salt has wanted to hold it and shoot it several times.
This would be fun to have at BBQ competitions, picnics, campgrounds
and such. It also works GREAT when a fly or gallon nipper gets INTO
your house.
I'm
glad I finally bought one and I would recommend it.
Note:
This should only be used on nuisance pests. Most insects are
beneficial and are important parts of our ecosystem. But flies,
mosquitoes, and roaches? Take 'em out!
Memorial Day Grilling Giveaway
After
buying my Bug-A-Salt, I reached out to them and they are willing to
sponsor my Memorial Day Grilling Giveaway. One lucky winner will
receive their very own Bug-A-Salt just in time for those outdoor
Summer Activities.
To
enter leave a comment below and tell me where you would use your
Bug-A-Salt if you win it. (Be sure to leave a way for me to reach
you if you use the Anonymous comment option. Leave an email or forum
name)
You
can get a bonus entry by tweeting a link to this blog post and using
the hash tag #bugasalt
Entries
will be accepted until Noon Eastern time on Memorial Day 2013.
Winner
will be selected and notified via email and a post update on Memorial
Day.
Winner
has one week from notice to provide shipping information or a runner
up will be selected at random.
*Yeah, I normally don't give out awards on this blog, I just made that award up. Bloggers are good at
just making awards up like that, it sounds “important”. Actual
cash value of this award plus a dollar will get you a cup of coffee
at McDonalds. But in all seriousness, this is my favorite grilling
gadget I have gotten this year.**
**This just in. The
above footnote has been awarded the Nibble Me This Best Footnote of
2013. I would like to thank my readers, my supporters, and
especially my dad, who told me when I was 7, that if I applied myself
and worked hard, I could one day win the Nibble Me This Best Footnote
Award.
The Sam's Club BBQ Tour rolled into Knoxville this weekend.
The Event
The Sam's Club BBQ Tour is
tournament style set up of KCBS BBQ competitions across the country and
boasting half a million dollars in prize money. 750 BBQ teams compete
in regional events, hoping to move on to the regional semi-finals and
ultimately, the national championships in Bentonville, AR.
After the Rocky Top BBQ Cook Off last weekend, the Big Bob Gibson Team had to high tail it back to Decatur, AL. They had almost the full flat from their Snake River Farms waygu brisket leftover and couldn't take it with them. Hoss asked if I wanted it.
Did I want it? Damn he's funny!
After enjoying it for a few days and there was only a pound and a half left, I wanted to try something different. After toying with a few ideas, I thought I would make a brisket sloppy joe.
When you hear "grilled chicken breasts" you normally probably think of the typical boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts can deliver a juicier and tastier meat but you just can't go about it the same way. It takes a little lower heat, a bit more time, and a watchful eye.
This recipe uses a few techniques and a tasty orange-chipotle sauce to create a spicy grilled chicken breast that just drips with flavor.
Orange-Chipotle Chicken Breasts
from 100 Grilling Recipes You Can't Live Without
Reprinted with permission from Bill and Cheryl Jamison
This past weekend was the
first Rocky Top BBQ Cook-Off in Knoxville. Alexis and I spent our
time with two teams, Bent Elbow BBQ and Big Bob Gibson's
Barbecue.
Chris Lilly with Big Bob Gibson's First Place Ribs.
I have a full post coming up about that experience (sorry,
no competitive secrets to be released) but I wanted to get out a
quick post out about this upstart BBQ competition.
I have talked about brining poultry and
pork but one thing I haven't written about much is dry brining.
Dry brining is just what it says,
brining without liquid. The salt in the rub induces the pores of
the meat to open up and draws out liquid that mixes with the
seasonings of the rub. After a while, the seasonings and liquid are
pulled back into the meat. With dry brining, you need to give it the
full length of recommended time, don't short change it. Otherwise
the moisture might not be reabsorbed and the meat can be dry.
I recently experimented with dry
brining using a recipe for Dry Brined Beer Can Chicken from the 2013
Southern Living book All Fired Up.
reprinted with permission from All Fired Up by Troy Black and Southern Living, Oxmoor House 2013
It took 24 hours to brine the two birds
but the wait was worth it. (click the link below for recipe)
