Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

I don't have anything great to post tonight because I just made my 30-20-10 Chicken Wings (teriyaki style), tots and a salad for the kids. Very basic and tasty, but not worth a repeat.

We never know how many "kids" we are going to have from night to night. For example, Saturday we had Trevor (10) and his friends Jack , Olivia and Wrin. Tonight we had Trevor and Brett (21), his girlfriend, and his friend Eric. Sometimes, it's just Alexis and me. Our "family" fluctuates between 2 and 7 on any given night.

It can really be aggravating trying to deal with it, but I'll be honest with you. It keeps us young. Or "youngish". I know the "kids" will be gone before long so when I get frustrated, I just try to remember someday I'll be wishing that they were around more.

So anyway. Here's a quick easy vinaigrette I made the other night for the salad I made to go with our steaks and Spinach Maria. I imported it in 2005 from Southern Living into my BigOven software "to try" and just got around to doing it this weekend. It quickly earned our "favorite" status! If you like blue cheese, you'll love this. If you don't? You'll hate it.

Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

3 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Dash of salt

Whisk together all ingredients. Chill until ready to serve. Yield: Makes 1/2 cup (6 servings)
Southern Living, OCTOBER 2005

Alexis and I both loved it. It reminded us of Brianna's Blue Cheese dressing back before they changed it.

So it took me over 4 years with this in my "try soon" queue before I actually made this. Do you hold onto recipes in limbo that long or is it just me?

Calhoun's Spinach Maria

If Popeye was addicted to spinach then this dish would be like crystal meth for him.


I found a recipe for Spinach Maria when we still lived in Florida and made it back then, so I never realized it was a regional East Tennessee thing until recently. Almost every reference I find about it online refers to Calhoun's or "a restaurant in Knoxville". Have you ever heard of Spinach Maria?

It is a cheesy, creamy spinach casserole with a little kick. I like it because this is a dish you can prepare ahead to a point, then all you have to do is put it on a 350f indirect heat grill or oven for 20 minutes. That works with a lot of roasts that I cook at 350 on the Big Green Egg. It also helps to use the individual ramekins instead of a large casserole dish, so you can fit them on the grill easier.

Here is the original Calhoun's version as posted on food journalist, Mary Constantine's blog, Stirring The Pot.

Calhoun's Spinach Maria

5 (10-ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach
4 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 3/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper
1/2 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
5 tablespoons melted butter
6 tablespoons flour
8ounces Velveeta cheese
8 ounces cheddar cheese
4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese
1 1/2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese (for topping)

Thaw spinach in refrigerator for 24 hours. Squeeze as much excess water as possible out of spinach. Heat milk and spices in 4-quart saucepan on medium heat to just below a boil (190 degrees). Then reduce heat and simmer. Saute chopped onion in 1 tablespoon butter on medium heat for 5-8 minutes. Add to saucepan. Combine 5 tablespoons melted butter with flour in a small suate pan. (This is the first step of making a roux, which will thicken the sauce.) Mix until completely blended. Cook on low heat 3-4 minutes to make roux. Add roux to milk in saucepan and mix well. Continue to cook until sauce thickens.

Cut Velveeta, cheddar and Jack cheese into small cubes and add to saucepan. Continue to mix until all the cheese is completely melted and blended into sauce. Be careful not to burn the sauce while cheese is melted. Remove from heat. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Add drained spinach to cheese sauce, mix until completely blended. Spoon into 11-by-9-by-2-inch casserole dish and top with grated Monterey Jack cheese. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes, until hot and bubbly.

I cut the recipe in 2/5ths and it yielded 6 servings. I also substituted shallots for the onion.

For cheese, I used some of the colby jack that I hickory smoked a few weeks ago and the cheddar was cherry wood smoked. And how did being around such superior cheeses make make processed cheesefood Velveeta feel?

The cheese sauce was so good I could have just eaten it straight out of the pot.


Once you have added the spinach, you can put this dish on hold until you're 20-30 minutes from service.


While that was going on, I tossed a few ribeyes on the Egg. I don't know how I went as long as I did without a cast iron grate, look at those sear marks. I have a full post in development about cast iron grates in general and a review of this specific one from Craycort.


Spinach Maria is the perfect partner for a grilled steak or a half slab of ribs. I would have like the cheese on top more browned but I over filled the ramekins and they were starting to bubble over. Later I realized I should have given them the "creme brulee" treatment.


I'm feeling "calorie regret" (like buyers remorse) this morning but it was worth it and I'll do an extra 2-3 cycles of my stations workout this morning.

Garlic Soup

This is a recipe that I found in a MealMaster import on the internet back when a 14k baud modem was a fast connection (this was not too long after the dinosaurs had been killed off, circa 1995). I'd gone from being single to married with two kids and just learning to cook for a family. I really didn't know what I was doing, but we thought it was really good, it was one of our early favorites.


Later that year, I had a nasty cold and my sweet bride, Alexis, decided she'd make this for me to help clear up congestion. She didn't cook much, I did the cooking, so I was proud of her when she offered me a bowl of Garlic Soup when I arose as a zombie from the bed. It was so thoughtful of her to go out of her comfort zone and to make that for me.

I took one spoonful and instantly felt every drop of moisture in my body being wicked out through my mouth. It was like I just put a spoonful of hot seawater in my mouth and the salt was sucking every bit of liquid out of me.

I felt bad but had to spit it back out. Turns out, when she made the "chicken broth" using bullion and she had used Tablespoons instead of teaspoons. Salty? Just a bit.

We got a good laugh out of it then and even to this day, we'll mention it and get a chuckle. While I still do most of the cooking, Alexis has really grown into her own as a cook. The recipes she that she does do, she does very well.

Today, Alexis has been feeling "sinusy" and stayed home from work. I hadn't made this soup in years and I thought it'd do her good. I changed several things and we both agreed that this was the best version ever.


Garlic Soup
4 appetizer servings

Ingredients
2 tablespoons oil
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2-3 slices white bread, cubed
1 ea green onion, sliced, divided into white and green portions
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Instructions
Preheat a 3 quart pan over medium heat and add oil. As soon as oil is heated, add sliced garlic and the white portion of the sliced onion. Stir until the garlic is starting to brown.

Add the cubed bread and toss to absorb the remaining oil. Then keep cooking like you were making the bread into croutons. Some of the garlic will start to get deep brown, don't worry. Just toss the mix around trying to toast all sides of the bread.

Add the broth and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. The bread will start puffing up into big pieces as they absorb the liquid. Add the green part of the green onion and whisk the soup for about 1 minute, breaking up the bread cubes into a smoother mixture. Simmer for 5 more minutes.

Slightly beat the egg in a mixing bowl. While whisking the egg, add in three ladles or large spoons of the hot soup.

Return that mixture back into the 3 qt pan, whisk, and simmer for 1 more minute.

Garnish with whatever blows your skirt up (or kilt for dudes). We topped ours with our home smoked cheddar and green onion.

Chivito....sort of

The chivito is a national Uruguayan dish kind of like a philly cheese steak, only it is way better, is tenderloin instead of ribeye and doesn't have cheese whiz.

The chivito is a thin grilled beef tenderloin sandwich topped with ham, mozzarella, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo. It has an interesting story behind it's origin and is very open to options. Go read Gera's guest post at Erica's My Colombian Recipes, trust me, you'll enjoy it.

Here's what I did tonight. It's somewhere between the Chivito Comun and the Chivito Canadiense versions that Gera wrote about.

I partially cooked bacon and then finished crisping it up on the Big Green Egg.

I toasted some kaiser rolls.

I sliced a partially frozen butt end of a beef tenderloin on the meat slicer into 1/4 inch steaks....steakettes maybe? Seasoned them with salt and pepper and tossed them on the Egg at 450f direct heat for 45 seconds.

Like that cast iron grate? I received it to test out from a fellow BBQ Brethren member and will be doing a full review in a week or so. Right now, I'll just leave it at "WOW".

As soon as I flipped the beef, we started topping them with Canadian bacon (instead of the traditional ham) and mozzarella. Let the beef go 45 seconds on this side too.

Then we topped it with the bacon, lettuce, onion, and tomato. Instead of regular mayo, I used a cumin-mayo. We served it up with some sweet potato fries and some of the cumin-mayo for dipping the fries.

I first found Gera's blog 4 months ago when I was googling for info on how to make the classic Milanesa sandwich, another Uruguayan classic. If Gera keeps this up, I'm moving my family to Uruguay.

FTC Blog Regulations

The Federal Trade Regulation announced this week that they will begin applying guidance for Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising to social media such as blogging.

Here's a quick video that gives a simple summary:

Long story short: If you get free stuff and write about it, say so.

Disclaimer: Neither Mary Engle, nor the FTC, has provided compensation, benefits, free samples, or sexual favors in exchange for posting this entry.

Dino Bones: BBQ Beef Ribs

[Standard review disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, I have no affiliation with and received no compensation from restaurants or product manufacturers reviewed and paid full retail price for the item reviewed.]

The hardest part about making "dino bones" is procuring the dinosaur.

I'd only ever had dino bones once and that was this past summer on our trip to Louisville. They were huge, meaty, but more importantly, had a rich flavor. I loved them and vowed I would make them soon. It took longer than anticipated, but soon is now.

Dino bones are huge beef ribs barbecued for hours. I was confused about what cut dino bones were actually from. Some people and places say they are beef back ribs, the part cut off of a prime rib to make ribeyes. Other folks and sites said that dino bones come from beef short ribs. So I consulted the good folks over at the BBQ Brethren and found out that either is acceptable.

Beef ribs are hard to come by in Knoxville. Mainly because true butchers are hard to come by in Knoxville. So I went and saw Scott Lynam at Lay's Market. I told him what I was looking for and he knew exactly what I needed, finding us a very nice uncut beef short rib. Lay's Market is 12 miles from our house and by no means convenient, but he treated me like a regular and has won my family's business.

This also gave me the perfect opportunity to try out the free sample (see disclaimer at top) of Big Bold Red Soppin' Sauce that I received from the folks at Fischer and Wiesner.

Dino Bones (BBQ Beef Ribs)

Ingredients
1 ea 3 bone beef short ribs, untrimmed
2 Tablespoon Grove's Cajun Beef Rub (or commercial cajun rub)
1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 Tablespoon Black Pepper
6 ounces Big Bold Red Soppin' Sauce (separated into 3 or 4 portions)

Instructions
Rub the ribs with the salt, pepper, and beef rub.

Place ribs bone side down on a cooker set up for indirect heat at 225f grate temperature with a moderate amount of smoke. I like using Jack Daniels Oak Chips for beef. (On the Big Green Egg, that would be a dome temperature of 250f, with the DFMT closed with the dial open, plate setter in legs up, and drip pan.)

Cook for 4 to 6 hours. Using a clean brush, baste every hour with a portion of the Big Bold Red Soppin' Sauce. The purpose of using separate batches is to prevent cross contamination. The ribs will shrink back on the bones very drastically, don't panic. It's supposed to do that.

When you're ribs have pulled back about 50% on the bones and have an internal temperature of 195-200f, they are done. Remove and let rest for 15 minutes. Slice into rib portions. Unlike pork ribs, one beef rib is a normal serving size.

Servings: 4
Source: www.nibblemethis.com

I seasoned both sides of the ribs and then left them out while I got the Big Green Egg up to temperature.

Shrinkage can be a good thing, when it comes to BBQ. That's the toughness leaving and all the goodness staying! I placed the fork in the picture for scale, these are some pretty big assed ribs, kind of like the ribs that flip the car in the opening credits of The Flintstones. Hence the name.

Much like brisket, these will turn very dark. They will be mostly blackened but not burned at all.

The Big Bold Red Soppin' Sauce was not a thick, tomato based BBQ sauce. It is a thin and beautifully tart sauce to be applied during the cook. In fact I used it more like a mop, than a sop and that worked, building multiple layers of flavor instead of one big "hit" of it during the last few minutes of cooking. There are not too many sugars in it so it doesn't burn like BBQ sauce would. The sauce would actually be a good marinade for steaks and a sopping sauce for brisket too. You can order Fischer and Wiesner products online or find them in retail locations. I know that Earth Fare in Knoxville carries some of their products.
For more information on soppin' sauces and recipes for making your own, check out this page.

We were very happy with the ribs. The flavor was excellent. I had just the right about of smoke on them. Alexis and the boys loved them.

Things I'd do next time? I'd probably take them to 200f internal, I pulled them off at 193.8f and there was still a little collagen toughness in one or two spots. I might also try slicing them into individual ribs before smoking, that's how we got ours in Louisville. I'd be tempted to try foiling them for an hour during the cook, but I've just now gotten weened from using the "texas crutch" for pork ribs and don't need to pick up bad habits again:)

European Street Style Beer Cheese Soup

This was the first recipe I ever posted in this blog when I started it in January of this year. You can read the full recipe and the whole story in that post, but long story short, this was my attempt to replicate my favorite soup of all time, Beer Cheese Soup from European Street Cafe in Jacksonville, FL.

If you're EVER in Jacksonville, do yourself a favor. Go to one of their locations and have a beer from their vast selection, a smokerschmitt (or one of their other signature sandwiches), and a cup of beer cheese soup. Gawd, I miss that place!

This time, I used some of the smoked colby/jack, edam, and muenster cheeses from this weekend in addition to the standard ingredients. I also only had a cheap, American beer on hand.

This is the first time I made it without any cheddar at all. While it was still very good, it wasn't as great as usual. It didn't have that edge that cheddar brings. I'd recommend keeping your cheese mix to include at least 50% mild or sharp cheddar.

This is one of those rich soups that will warm you to the bone. It is "Oh my God, it's so good" good.