Easy One Pan Fritata

Breakfast all in one pan.........equals easy peasy clean up and still a delicious meal!

Melt 3 TBS Butter

Add in leftover baked potato from last nights dinner, along with, diced ham, red onion, red bell pepper, garlic, salt and pepper.

Cook over medium heat until potatoes are golden and the onion and pepper have begun to sweat.

Add in cheese...all I had was American, so that's what I used.  Any cheese will work fine.

Crack and whip 8 eggs.

Pour over potato and ham mixture while the pan is still hot.

Place into the oven at 350º for 30 minutes or until the eggs are set and the top is golden. 

Remove from pan and let cool for 5 minutes.

Slice.

Add your favorite hot sauce, I use and love Sriracha!

Enjoy

Friday Night New York Strips

I had a BEEF craving, so I picked up a couple 1lb bone in New York Strip steaks.  Did a 'Naked Sear' on these, (the steaks were naked, not me), basically what this means is you don't season the steaks until after you sear them.  This will prevent burning off your rub or seasoning you put on the steaks.  Especially if you're cooking over high heat, 500º+, which these were cooked around 550º. 

2 - 1.5" roughly 1lb New York Strip steaks

Onto the grill at roughly 550º, along with a red onion that was cut in half and marinated in Zesty Italian Dressing.  (TIP: If you leave the root end of the onion in tact, the onion will not fall apart and through the grate while you're grilling it.)

I like to spoon more dressing over top of the onions while they're grilling to continue to add more flavor and produce steam, which helps cook the onion.  Notice how they kinda expand while they cook!

After 4 minutes of searing on each side, I moved the steaks to indirect heat and seasoned my steak with Wolfe Rub Bold and my wife's with Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and a touch of cumin.

My steak was smaller and finished to a medium rare, so I removed it and added some trimmed asparagus that had also been marinated in Zesty Italian dressing to cook while my wifes steak finished to a medium finish.

Asparagus only takes a couple minutes. You basically want to grill it for 3-4 minutes max and NOT overcook it unless you like mushy asparagus.

Dinner is ready.

My plate with an added sweet potato that has butter and Wolfe Rub Original on it. WRO is fantastic on sweet potatoes, the cinnamon, sugar, along with the spices are a perfect combination for sweet potatoes!

First bite being enjoyed, 'nom nom nom'......mmmm

Onion Soup

This is one of my favorite soups to make and is super simple, just takes a bit of time to do it right.

Here is what you will need
6 - Big Vidalia Onions, peeled and sliced thin
4 - Garlic Cloves minced
1 Quart - Beef Broth
3 TBS - Olive Oil
2 TBS - Worcestershire Sauce
2 TBS - Flour
2 - Bay Leaves
1 TSP - Thyme
Gruyere Cheese - If you can't find it substitute with Fotina, Provolone or Swiss
1 - Baguette Sliced
Salt and pepper

Slice onions about 1/4"-1/2" thick.

Add olive oil in a heavy pot or skillet along with the onions, garlic, bay leaves and thyme and cook over medium heat. Once onions begin to soften, add salt and pepper to taste and contine to cook until the onions are fully caramelized and soft, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

 Once onions begin to soften, add salt and pepper to taste and contine to cook until the onions are fully caramelized and soft, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

 

Once onions are soft and caramelized, add flour and continue to cook for approximately 5 minutes or until the flour is fully incorporated with the onions. Slowly add in beef broth stirring constantly and scrapping all of the goodness off the bottom of the pan and bring to a light boil. Reduce heat and add Worcestershire and salt and pepper to taste and let simmer 30 minutes or until ready to serve.

Add soup to oven safe crocks and add sliced baguette and cheese on top and put under the broiler until cheese is melted and golden.

Add cheese on top and put under the broiler until cheese is melted and golden.

Dinner is served!

Old Bay BBQ Wings

I was cooking for just ME last night and I wanted wings!  Had a craving for Old Bay and butter on them, but ended up making an Old Bay BBQ sauce for them and used just what I had on hand......they ended up pretty good. 

Old Bay BBQ Sauce
1/2 Cup Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce
1 Cup - Apple Cider Vinegar (I only had white, so that's what I used, Apple Cider would have been better)
2 TBS - Old Bay Seafood Seasoning
1 TBS - Dehydrated Minced Garlic (Fresh can be used)
1 TBS - Dehydrated Chopped Onion (Fresh can be used)
2 TBS - Butter
Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil.

Combine sauce ingredients

The star of the show!

Since it was only me tonight, I used my Smokey Joe. This is only my third cook on the little fella. NO I didn't eat all these wings!!

They're cooking!

They're almost ready for the sauce.

In for a quick bath in the sauce and then it's dinner time!

Dinner is ready!

Dinner is done!  It was kinda funny I ate chicken wings and washed them down with Miller Lite's while watching a DVR'd episode of the Biggest Loser!  Burp....

Holiday Smoked Ham with Rum Butter Sauce

This is a family favorite and extremely simple and delicious!

Pick up a 6-8lb 'Ready Cook' ham, which is a ham that has been cured and very lightly smoked, but is NOT 'ready to eat' and must be cooked.  I like the 'butt section' of the ham, but either the butt or the shank portion can be used.

Rum Butter Sauce
1 Stick - butter
1/2 Cup - Honey
1/2 Cup - Dark Rum
1 Cup - Brown Sugar
1 TBS - Cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a heavy sauce pan, bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Trim the excess fat and skin from the ham and 'score' about 1/4"-1/2" deep slits in on direction, the turn the ham 180º and repeat until you have a nice uniform scoring.  Place ham into an aluminum pan and onto your grill or smoker.  Smoke over indirect heat at 235º with apple wood (hickory, or other fruit woods can be used) until the internal temperature of them ham hits 125º.

Baste the ham with the Rum Butter Sauce, every 10 minutes until the ham hits 145º.

   

Once the ham hits 145º, remove from the smoker and lightly tent with foil and let rest 15-20 minutes before slicing.

After slicing, baste the slices in the sauce or leave as is.

Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken and dumplings are one of the easiest, yet delicious comfort foods to make and is one of my daughters favorite meals to help Daddy cook! 

Start off with a 6lb all natural roasting chicken, cover with water, add salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. 

Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cover and cook until the chicken is tender, approximately 1 hour.

Remove chicken from pan.

 Add in 2 medium onions (diced), 6 ribs of celery (sliced about 1/2" thick), 5 whole carrots (sliced about about 1/2" thick) and a couple bay leaves.  Continue to simmer until the vegetables are almost tender. (The carrots and celery sank to the bottom, but they're in there!!)

While the vegetables are cooking, shred the chicken.

Once the vegetables are almost tender, separate and add in regular Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits. I used 4 packs in this pot.  (Not the Grands, they have too much butter and will make the broth too greasy.) 

The biscuits will initially swell, just continue to simmer until the biscuits sink.

 Then add the chicken back in to warm up.  You don't want to over cook the chicken or it will get stringy.

Dinner is served.  I like the consistency more like a soup versus a gravy.  If you prefer a more gravy like consistency make a slurry our of 2TBS corn starch and 1/2 cup of water and drizzle in 5 minutes before serving.