Leftovers Supreme: Baked Penne and Sausage

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Baked spaghetti and variations thereof are a fun and easy way to use up leftovers.

Tuesday we cooked a few pans of fire-roasted lasagna on the Big Green Egg for the staff at our Knoxville office.  I'll have a full recipe post coming up for the veggie lasagna that we made because it was killer.  

After making the lasagna, we had extra Italian sausage meat sauce and cheese leftover.  Naturally, I thought of making a "baked spaghetti" dish with the leftovers.

We had some dry penne in the pantry so I boiled that and mixed it with the meat sauce and a bunch of cheese, probably 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar and Monterey jack.  I topped that off with more cheese and some panko bread crumbs. 

Lane's SPF 53 Pork Chops

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My local Food City has been killing it with the bone-in, loin pork chops the past few weeks.  We picked this pair up last night, seasoned them with Lane's BBQ SPF 53, and grilled them directly on one of our large Big Green Eggs. 

If you haven't had it, Lane's BBQ SPF 53 is a fiery BBQ and grilling seasoning but it isn't ridiculously hot.  It brings savory flavor with paprika, garlic, thyme, paprika and the heat is powered by the trio of black pepper, cayenne, and sriracha powder.  It is one of Alexis' favorite rubs.

Normally, I would put the rub on 4 to 6 hours ahead of time and allow the chops to dry brine but it was late and I was hungry.  We put the seasoning on and went straight to grilling.

 

Product Review: Oklahoma Joe's Bronco Drum Smoker

[FTC Standard Disclosure]  I received an Oklahoma Joe Bronco as part of a paid project I worked on; however, this project was entirely unrelated for Nibble Me This.  I have not received any compensation nor have I been asked to promote Oklahoma Joe products on this website or any of my social media channels. 

In the past few weeks, I have seen pictures of ridiculous close-out prices on the new Oklahoma Joe's Bronco drum smoker.  Most of the ones I've seen have been Wal-Mart or other big box stores. I guess that they are just closing them out because they are seasonal inventory items for them. 

I thought I would share my experience with the Bronco, for anyone who is considering buying one.

The Bronco entered Oklahoma Joe's line up of smokers in the past year.  This smoker is a drum smoker, and drum smokers have been a proven design for years. Back then, they were mostly homemade models made out of used 55-gallon drums affectionately called UDS or Ugly Drum Smokers.  The beauty of a UDS was that for $100 you could build a UDS with long burn times and quality smoke.  Drum smokers have seen a surge in popularity because companies are now offering well-designed and well-built commercial options for those of us who have neither the inclination nor the mechanical ability to build our own.

The arrival of the Bronco was a bit of a shakeup to Oklahoma Joe's offerings, which have traditionally been offset smokers.  This year, Oklahoma Joe also added two charcoal grills in the Judge and his little cousin, the Rambler.

Assembly

The unboxing and assembly of the Bronco were straightforward and simple.

• The instructions are clear,
• The parts are well-identified,
• Only a limited number of standard tools are needed, and
• There are only a handful of steps to take.

The assembly of the Bronco took less than 30 minutes at a leisurely pace.  

Features

The Bronco is designed with the average backyard user in mind and is packed with features. 

Spinach Alfredo Twice Baked Potato

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We were going to make the classic steakhouse combination of steak, baked potato, and cream spinach this weekend.  But I had a different idea when I got home with the goods - a spin on a twice-baked potato:  Spinach Alfredo Twice Baked Potato.  

I stuffed it with spinach, bechamel sauce, fontina cheese and topped it with parmesan cheese and bread crumbs.  This isn't a recipe post, it's a free cook where I was just testing out an idea.  The result was a winner.  Here's what we did.  

I started with 4 medium-sized Russet potatoes.  I scrubbed them, washed them, and applied a bit of oil, maybe a teaspoon or so, on each potato.  Then I seasoned them with Kosher salt and wrapped them with foil.

I put the potatoes in a grill set up for indirect heat at 375° f.  The particular grill was a Big Green Egg, but you can do this on just about any indirect grill.  I let them go until they were slightly tender when squeezed, about 1 hour.  Then I let them rest for 30 minutes.

Then we sliced off the top of each potato and used a spoon to scrape out the pulp from inside the potato.  

Grilled Pork Chops with Fontina Cheese Mashed Potatoes

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These chops were so delicious for dinner last night, thick, juicy and delightfully seasoned.  Of course, you can't go wrong with cheesy mashed potatoes and to top it all off, I added a hefty dollop of smoked onion jam.

I did something different with these bone-loin chops.  First I dry brined them and then after grilling I treated them sort of like Memphis-style dry-rubbed ribs.  This is a "free cook," where I'm just cooking for the enjoyment so I won't lay out a full detailed recipe here.  

I used the dry-brine technique on the pork chops to create flavor and retain moisture during the cooking process.  The dry-brine method is applying a salty rub to meat and letting it rest, refrigerated, for a while.  At first, the salt draws out moisture from the meat but then as the concentrations change, diffusion pulls the now seasoned moisture back into the meat.  There's more to it than that, but that's the gist of it.

 

I applied the dry brine before I left for work in the morning, so it had 9 hours to work its magic.

The dry brine was simple but covered the bases - salty, sweet, savory, and heat. 

Midway Sausage, Pepper, and Onion Hoagies

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The Tennessee Valley Fair has been running in Knoxville.  As a kid, I loved the local fair with its bright lights, blaring sounds, and whirring "one loose bolt away from a catastrophe" rides.  Then there was the food - eating brilliant red candy apples, clouds of cotton candy, and fried funnel cakes until you might explode.  

One of my favorite memories of the fair is the smell of peppers, onions, and sausage wafting across the midway.  Here's how I make the best fair sausage hoagie at home on my Big Green Egg.  These are quick and they are also fantastic for gameday food.

So, this isn't as much a recipe, I mean, it's just sausage, peppers and onions, right?  But there are a few key steps in my process that make it better.

1. Toasting the bun
2. Using a griddle or cast-iron skillet 
3. Seasoning the peppers and onions
4. Splitting the sausage
5. Using ultra-thin provolone on the veggies and meat

I like to run the grill about 400°f for sausage hoagies.

I toast the hoagie rolls cut side down without butter or anything.  I skip brushing them with butter or anything because there is enough rendered fat clinging to the sausage and veggies.  

Competition Style Ribs

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I did a couple of racks of competition style ribs and then fed them to our neighbors at the pool a few weeks ago.  My competition rib process hasn't changed that much so I won't rehash it here.

I start with thick Cheshire Heritage Pork St Louis-style trimmed pork spare ribs.  They aren't cheap but I have had the best results with these.