Juicy Lucia Burgers

We've been making the same ol' normal burgers lately, so it was time to get fancy again. Opened up Adam Richman's Straight Up Tasty and found the "Juicy Lucia".

Mix a pound of sausage with a pound of ground beef, salt, pepper, and garlic. The recipe calls for liquid smoke (I'm giving a very judgmental stare right now).

Roast a red pepper.

On the side I made the grilled fingerling potatoes from Melissa Cookston's Smokin' Hot in the South. Slice the potatoes and then add salt, pepper, olive oil, tarragon, and garlic and mix up.

I added a little tinfoil pack of pecan wood chips and then threw them on the grill.

Once the patties are made add basil, mozzarella, and the chopped roasted peppers before adding the top layer of meat to seal in the goody.

Looking back, maybe I should have made the patties and filling a little thinner.

I'm not a big pepper fan because I don't feel they add a whole lot to most things. I was picking up pieces of the roasted red pepper that would fall out and stuck them back in/on by burger to eat. They added a little sweetness kick to all of the flavors from the beef and sausage patties. I did cook them a little further than I would have liked. Being as thick as they are, it was really hard to get a good idea on the cook. Even with that, I would say this is a top 5 burger that I've ever cooked. The flavor is amazing.

As for the fingerling potatoes, they were absolutely delicious. I wish I would have stirred them while they were cooking. Some potatoes got more smoke than the others, so it would have been better to even that out.

Second cookbook creation of the year, and second meal that will be created again.

Go-To Food - Pizza

Since we were going to be home all weekend over Memorial Day weekend, I decided to check out BBQ-Brethren to see what Throwdowns were on the board. The first one that I saw that caught my eye was the "Your Go-To Food" Throwdown. Fairly simple concept, it's your go-to meal or meal mostly requested by others. We usually just do our pizza in the oven, but love any excuse to throw it on the grill.

Started by getting the toppings going.

Brought the stone up to temp on the grill while everything else was getting ready.

While I did the toppings, the wife stretched out the dough ...

and added the sauce with fresh herbs from her garden.

Pepperoni covering my side, and some slices on hers along with onions.

Then added the bacon ...

and sausage ...

before covering with a healthy portion of Mozzarella.

To the grill.

The grill just gets the crust so much crispier than cooking it in the oven. We use the same stone and everything, but it just cooks so much better out there. I can't wait for left overs tonight.

I Have A New Toy

I realized I haven't shown off the new member of the family.

My old grill was starting to get rusty, so I was looking for replacement parts to put it back together. While cleaning one day, the wifey found a gift card, and said, "If you're having to buy all that to fix this one, why don't we just get a new one?" Now you understand why I married her. SHE suggested that I get a new grill.

I had been wanting one, so with the help of a sale and the gift card, I finally got my Weber.

Of course my first cook would be New York strips.

In Honor Of The Braves Final Season At The Ted - A Tomahawk Ribeye

After the final game at Turner Field, I decided to pay a little homage. Ok, so the wife and I were walking through our new Lowes Foods and I saw these beautiful, massive Tomahawk Ribeyes and I justified it because of the Braves.

I seasoned it with some Worcestershire sauce and my new Moe Cason Beef Rub (that you can get at his website Ponderosa BBQ).

First I fired up the smoker, and let it sit in there for an hour.

Then moved it to the grill, and had it over the sear station.

This was one of the most delicious steaks I've ever done.

New York Strips with Tequila-Chipotle Butter Sauce and Loaded Smashed Potatoes

Checked out the BBQ-Brethern Thursday to see if there were any throwdowns that were interesting and would give me some ideas for dinners. I saw that the Steak and Potatoes throwdown was expiring on Monday, so did some searches and found a couple of new recipes to give a shot.

The first thing to do is to make the tequila-chipotle butter. To do this take 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, 1/8 cup of parsley, 1/2 banana pepper seeded, 1 tablespoons of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, 1 tablespoons of silver tequila, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of brown sugar.

All all of the ingredients into a blender and puree until smooth.

Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap and place the butter in the middle and roll tightly creating a log. Once it's rolled and the wrap is sealed, place the log in the freezer while you're making the rest. If you want to make this the night before, you can just put this straight in the fridge.

For the loaded smashed potatoes, I cooked an entire pack of bacon (ended up not needing that much, so I just ate the extra bacon while I was grilling the steaks). Then sliced and boiled 12 small red potatoes till three quarters done. Brush the potatoes with olive oil and place them in a baking dish and bake in a 425 degree over until fully cooked. Once ready, smash the potatoes and top with crumbled bacon, fried onions, and cheese. Throw it all back in the oven for about 5 more minutes to melt the cheese. Add a little sour cream and chives on top.

Grill the steak to perfection and create some sexy grill marks.

Every now and then I got a hit of spice from the butter, but it was absolutely delicious. We will definitely be saving the butter for steaks in the future.

4th of July 2k15

Similar to our Christmas Eve Steaks have become a tradition, our 4th of July Celebration isn't complete without hotdogs.

If you follow my Facebook page (I feel cool, I just linked 3 things in 2 sentences), you saw the spiral hotdogs a few days ago. I figured I would give that a try this year, but didn't want to stop there.

Got some thick cut bacon precooked in a pan.

While that was going, I added some Patriotic Rub to my crinkle fries and the wifey's sweet potato fries.

She didn't want her boring turkey dogs spiraled, so I just did my Ball Park bun length franks. You know what Michael Jordan says ... "It's just not Summer, till you've had your Ball Park franks."

Ok, back to business. So I took the precooked bacon and wrapped it around by dogs, holding it with some toothpicks (tip, wrap the toothpicks with tin foil so they won't catch on fire). I think did something completely wild and crazy ... I sprinkled the Patriotic Rub on top of the dogs.

(The bacon and seasoning were my wife's idea....because she's amazing.)

(You can probably figure out who wanted that line in here.)

The only way to make this picture more American, is to have the bottle filled with British tears.

Brought the dogs in and added a little cheese to the top. She also added some chili to hers.

I sprinkled some shredded cheddar jack on top of mine and left it alone.

I don't know if it was the spiral, the bacon, the rub, or the cheese that made these amazing ... but these were some of the best hotdogs I've ever made.