Fall Off The Bone Rib Perfection

There are people out there that say you can't make great ribs on a gas grill. I am here to now tell you differently. These ribs that I made today were every bit as good as those smoked on a charcoal grill, or dare I say a Big Green Egg (BGE). Only difference were that these ribs lacks some of the smokiness that you will find with those latter methods. These were prepared and cooked the same exact way as you would via charcoal, but instead was cooked over indirect heat on a gas grill.

I prepared these ribs by first removing the silver skin on the back and trimming away some of the excess fat. Once that was completed, I then rubbed down the pork ribs in a little honey mustard before applying the the dry rub to every inch of the rack. The honey mustard was an experiment, since I was out of regular mustard, and it proved to be a nice compliment to the spicy bite of the dry rub.

After a lot of tinkering with the heat on the grill I was able to get it set to just a little over 250 degrees. This was barely having on the flames on the 2 outer burners. I then places some soaked apple wood chips in the middle in hopes that I could get that flavor up to the ribs. I knew I wouldn't get the smoke that I normally would get with a charcoal grill, but that didn't matter as I got tons of flavor into the ribs as is. The smell from the ribs and the apple wood chips were amazing and this couldn't have worked out better. I also sprayed down the ribs every 30 min or so with a 50/50 combo of apple juice and apple cider vinegar.

Cooking time was pretty easy as well thanks to the heat being perfectly regulated. I let these go 2 hours on the top rack, 2 hours wrapped up in foil, and then one more hour back on the rack as I applied the sauce. Two applications of the sauce did the trick and these ribs were done.

As you can see by the pics these ribs were not only a thing of beauty but were also cooked to perfection. The meat fell right off the bones, was moist, and had flavor for days.

If you are one that has been afraid to try and cook ribs on a gas grill, I am here to tell you that it can be done and be done easily.

Memorial Day Cookout - Meats on Sticks

Memorial Day is a time to pay honor to those that have served before us and for those that currently do everything that they can to protect and serve our great country. However, the holiday does mean one more thing and this is cookouts. It is the "official" start to the summer cookout season. All across the country grills were fired up and meats were smoked or grilled to perfection. My house was no different on this Memorial Day.

This year I decided to go the meats on sticks route and went with beef and chicken kabobs. A good kabob is a thing of beauty and will leave you plenty satisfied. Some like to put their meat and veggies on the same skewers, but I choose to have the meat on their own and the vegetables on another. Only reason for this is because of the cooking times. Everything was marinated in the same Gourmet Warehouse of Hilton Head's Low Country Marinade. This stuff goes great with anything and played perfect with this selection of meats and vegetables.

As for the rest of the meal, I decided to make a pasta salad and then bought some potato salad from Publix. Just wasn't in the mood to make the potato salad this morning and the red skin homestyle one at Publix is pretty darn good. The pasta salad was just pasta, peas, onions, garlic, cherry tomatoes, feta, and Newman's Own Light Lime Dressing. Just a little of this goes a long way and this salad was perfectly dressed. A few hours chilling in the fridge gave the pasta salad time to get to the right serving temp and for the flavors in the dressing to work their way into every bite of the salad.

Nothing tops off a cookout quite like fresh ice cold watermelon, and this cookout was no different. Seedless might be on the label, but I don't think I have ever run across a watermelon that was 100% seedless. This was pretty close, but still no cigar.

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Super Bowl Sunday Grub

I tired to keep this years Super Bowl feast simple but still with some good elements involved. The menu included:

Some easy to pop in the oven stuff:
TGiF Potato Skins & Cheese Sticks

Pre-made cold dips:
Cajun Krab Dip
Hummus
Salsa & Sour Cream

Hot Dip:
Buffalo Chicken Dip

Dipping Materials:
Tostitos
Wheat Thins
Pita Chips
Fritos
Celery

Meal:
Grilled Flank Steak (Marinated in Italian Dressing)
Grilled Veggies (My own Balsamic Marinade)
King Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

Dessert:
Publix Super Bowl Cupcakes

Drinks:
Crown & Ginger

Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 (10 ounce) can chicken, drained(or equivalent rotisserie or freshly-cooked, chopped chicken)
1 cup ranch dressing
3/4 cup red hot sauce
shredded cheddar cheese, you decide how much
Frito corn chip, scoops

For this recipe I chose to boil 4 breasts of chicken and then diced them into bite size pieces.

Directions

1 Beat cream cheese, ranch dressing, and red hot sauce.
2 Fold in shredded chicken.
3 Spread mixture into pie plate sprayed with Pam.
4 Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
5 Add cheddar to top and bake an additional 10-15 minutes.
6 Serve hot with Frito scoops.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/buffalo-chicken-dip

Main Course: Flank Steak & Grilled Vegetables

New Years Eve Surf & Turf Dinner

Steak & Lobster, does it really get much better? 2010 was dismissed in grand fashion with these 2" thick ribeyes and lobster tails.

The steaks were seasoned in a little olive oil & Chicago Steak Seasoning. Ignore the char on the steak as they were medium well inside and tasted amazing.

The lobsters were split on the underside and I carefully separated the meat from the shell. The meat was then basted in drawn lemon butter with garlic. These were then grilled a couple of min on each side until the shell turned red and the meat was no longer translucent.

For sides I grilled up some zucchini that I marinated in balsamic along with some secret spices. We then baked some potatoes and the plan was for them to be loaded with butter, sour cream, cheese, scallions, and bacon bits. The Crown & Ginger was going down very easily last night and I forgot to pull the scallions & bacon bits out of the fridge. Oh well...it was still good.

Dessert was cannolis from The Fresh Market.