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.

Happy Lasagna

For Christmas the wifey asked for The Happy Cookbook by Steve and Kathy Doocy. We really hadn't been cooking that many new things lately so that's part of the reason I haven't been posting, but with the new cookbook I thought it was time to get back to both. First up is what's called "Engagement Lasagna".

I'm obviously out of practice of taking pictures for posts since I didn't do a full ingredients picture, but we'll just have to explain on the way through.

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a skillet add EVOO, garlic, and diced onion. The recipe calls for an entire onion I believe, but I only went with half. I may have also intentionally not cleaned out all of the bacon fat from breakfast. Cook on medium-high head until the onions are cooked (translucent).

Once the onions are done they go into a stockpot (see below), and the sausage and beef goes into the skillet to cook.

In the stockpot add 4 more cloves of garlic, tomato paste, red wine, basil, can of crushed tomatoes, tablespoon of sugar and Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper.

Add the yummy delicious meat, stir, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat and let simmer for 30 minutes.

In a separate bowl combine ricotta, Parmesan, parsley, mozzarella, salt, and a quarter of the meat sauce.

Start with a light base layer of sauce on the bottom before adding a layer of noodles. Then spread meat sauce and top with ricotta mixture before adding another layer of noodle. Repeat and top the final layer of noodles with mozzarella.

Cover with a sheet of tin foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Let it sit for 10 minutes, and then chow down.

We made our Mexican Lasagna for years now, but I believe this is the first time I've ever made real lasagna. Heck, it may be the first time I've ever eaten real lasagna. I do know one thing, it won't be the last. This stuff was good. 

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.

Vaughn Packing Co. Brisket

There's a local butcher shop/meat packing company that I found a couple of years ago. I say I found it, because it's about 2 miles from my Papa's house, and they've been in business for 60 years ... maybe I'm really bad at finding things. I've been meaning to go by there and picking up some meat to cook, but they're not in the direction we usually go, and I just kept forgetting.

We were out running a few errands, and Rhett was having his annually check up so we were trying to kill a little time. As we were in the grocery store, D looked up at me and said, "Hey, would you want to go over to that butcher shop place to see what they have?"

When your wife not only says you can go meat shopping, but suggests it, you do not pass up on that opportunity.

We had no clue what we were wanting. As we were looking over the price sheet, we heard one gentleman order a 2lb bone in brisket for a stock that he was making, and we both looked at each other and said "aahhh, brisket."

We went with a 10lb cut, and you could tell it was fresh.

It was a little more fatty on top than you tend to get in the grocery store, but the trimming is part of the fun, so I had no issues with that.

Trimmed most of the fat, arteries, and all of the other gunk off, and cut a piece off the corner so I'd know which direction to slice once it was finished.

Did a mixture of Oakridge BBQ's Habanero Death Dust and Black Ops Brisket Rub.

I didn't feel like waking up super early, so threw it on Bullet Bill (WSM) and set my BBQ Guru to 275 degrees.

After about 10-11 hours, I pulled it out and let it rest for an hour.

This was one of the most tender briskets I've ever cooked. I know it sounds cliche, but you could taste the freshness of the brisket. One of the best compliments D can give my cooking is when she takes a bite and goes, "mmmmmm". I don't think she said a word the entire dinner other than "mmmm".

The next time I do a big cook, I will definitely be going back to Vaughn's ... I just may go a little lighter with the Habanero Death Dust.