Kabobs

The warmer weather has arrived and with it comes fresher produce at the store. Which makes everybody happy and kabobs are a smash hit at our house. I love fixing them because their so simple to put together and even easier to cook. The ingredients in our house is pork tenderloin, because it's really tender and loaded with flavor, bell peppers, usually red and green, and an onion. When it comes to assembly I just mix and match to what ever hits me and then season it up with my favorite BBQ seasoning. Then it's on the grill direct over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes each side. To serve we slide the meat off the skewers and eat buffet style. The great thing is their kid approved and there is rarely any left overs.

Fiesta Beef & Black Bean Enchiladas

I love my Kraft Food & Family Magazine, in fact I keep every issue just in case I feel the need to look back though them and try something new. Which is exactly what I did here, this one comes from their Holiday 2010 edition and it's a great family recipe that we all loved.

Prep 20 minutes
total 50 minutes
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. Velveeta pasteurized Prepared Cheese product, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, divided
1 1/4 cups Taco Bell Home Originals Thick 'N Chunky Salsa, divided
1 cup rinsed canned black beans
12 flour tortillas (6 inch)
1/2 cup Breakstone's or Knudsen Sour Cream
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Directions
Heat oven to 350ºF.
Brown meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in half of the Velveeta and 1/2 cup salsa; cook 5 min. or until Velveeta is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring frequently. Stir in beans.
Spoon 1/4 cup meat mixture down center of each tortilla; roll up. Place, seam-sides down, in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.
Bake enchiladas, uncovered, 10 min. Top with remaining Velveeta and salsa. Bake 20 min. or until enchiladas are heated through and Velveeta is melted. Top with sour cream and cilantro

Grilled Asparagus with Balsamic Syrup

I have tried a few grilled veggies before, but mostly peppers, onions and green beans. But when I received a copy of Weber's Charcoal Grilling The Art of Cooking with Live Fire and saw this recipe for grilled asparagus, I figured I should give it a try. My wife and I have been wanting to try asparagus for some time and since BBQ does make everything better why not try cooking it on the grill? I'm glad we did, because it was delicious and the whole family loved it. The end result is a very delicious complex flavor of sweet and sour that really had my  tongue hungry for more.  I will be repeating this one and will likely be making a double batch since the little bundle of asparagus we bought was not enough for three people.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Grilling time: 4 to 6 minutes

1/2 cup inexpensive balsamic vinegar
2 pounds medium asparagus (40-50 spears), each about 1/2 inch thick at the stem end
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Prepare a two-zone fire for medium heat.
2. If you plan to do this next step on an indoor stove, turn on the fan in the stove's hod. The simmering vinegar creates a pungent aroma. In a small saucepan bring the vinegar to a simmer over medium heat, then reduce the heat until a few bubbles are just  breaking through the surface. Cook at a slow simmer until about 1/4 cup of vinegar remains. As you get close to 1/4 cup, the vinegar will cling to the back of a spoon and it will coat the bottom of the sauce pan when you rock it back and fourth. The total cooking time will be roughly 10 minutes, but keep an eye on the vinegar. If it cooks to quickly or it reduces to much, it will turn bitter rather than sweet. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let cool to room temperature (the syrup will continue to thicken as it cools).
3. Remove and discard any tough, woody ends from the asparagus spears. Peel the ends of the asparagus, if desired. Lightly coat the asparagus with the oil. Season evenly with the salt and pepper. Brush the cooking grate clean. Lay the asparagus perpendicular to the bars on the cooking grate. Grill over direct medium heat, with the lid closed as much as possible, until lightly charred and crisp-tender, 4 to 6 minutes, rolling the spears a couple times and swapping their positions as needed for even cooking.
4. Arrange the asparagus on a platter or individual plates. If the syrup is stiff, wam it briefly over medium heat. Drizzle some of the syrup over the spears (you may not need all of it). Season with more salt, if desired. Server warm or at room temperature.

Makes 6 servings

As seen in Weber's Charcoal Grilling The Art of Cooking with Live Fire

Grilled Pizza

I have been bouncing around the idea in my head for a while and I finally got around to cooking a pizza on my Ugly Drum Smoker. My first attempt was not with out incident, I managed to burn my hand pretty good while trying to get a good fire going in the fire basket. I believe I will go ahead and do some more work to the basket so i don't do that again. Anyways back to the pizza, it was delicious! It had a wonderful touch of smoke and a very nice crispy crust, the three of us devoured this pizza. I do believe I will be buying a pizza stone specifically for the grill so I can get even more of that wood stove flavor. 

I did also learn that you will either want to let your wood chunks burn down or simply use plain lump  charcoal, the smoke coming from even one small piece of wood could be to much when baking breads this way.

Pizza dough

1 package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornmeal

Directions

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cups flour. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Turn to Speed 2 and mix about 1 minute.

Continuing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl, about 2 minutes. Knead on Speed 2 about 2 minutes longer.

Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour until doubled in bulk. Punch dough down.

Brush 14-inch pizza pan with oil. Sprinkle with cornmeal. Press dough across bottom of pan, forming a collar around edge to hold toppings. Add toppings as desired. Bake at 450ºF for 15 to 20 minutes. 

As seen in the Kitchenaid Instructions and Recipes book.

Calzones

We love Calzone's, well my wife and I do, my daughter wasn't so big on it. I think it was due to not being a big fan of crust, and Calzone's are pretty much all crust. We did have a blast making these and I am definitely going to be buying a pizza stone exclusively for my UDS, because I would love to have on of these wood fired. I followed the pizza dough recipe, but simply put all my toppings on one half of the pizza dough and folded it in half to make a calzone. Then baked for the same amount of time, I believe I will try doing either an egg wash next time to try and brown up the outside a little more, I like a nice crunch to the crust on my calzones.

Pizza dough
1 pachage active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal
 Directions
Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cups flour. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Turn to Speed 2 and mix about 1 minute.

 Continuing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl, about 2 minutes. Knead on Speed 2 about 2 minutes longer.

 Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour until doubled in bulk. Punch dough down.

 Brush 14-inch pizza pan with oil. Sprinkle with cornmeal. Press dough across bottom of pan, forming a collar around edge to hold toppings. Add toppings as desired. Bake at 450ºF for 15 to 20 minutes. As seen in the Kitchenaid Instructions and Recipes book
 

Double Smoked Ham

Every Christmas the fire department I work for buys us a holiday ham, which usually doesn't excite me much as I'm not a big ham person. Well when I was in the mood to do some cooking on the UDS I had this huge ham staring me in the face every time I opened the freezer. I decided I would cook the ham on the UDS and see how it turns out, I was not disappointed. I cooked the ham for about 5 hours at 350º, which the temp was perfect but it was a little long and the ham began to dry out and lose some of its cure. I had taking and wrapped it in foil for the last hour and put a nice thick cap of brown sugar on top of it. The end result was a very delicious ham and I'm pretty confident that I will be cooking the hams for most of the family get holiday parties.

Sun-butter Rice Krispy Treats

I love peanut butter Rice Krispy Treats! But as with many things I have had to find other ways of enjoying some of my favorite recipes, and it's been incredibly easy with the wonderful Sun Butter product. I know everyone is raving about Nutella right now, but it's not peanut allergy safe so I won't be jumping on that bandwagon. I do hope that more people will catch on to how delicious Sun Butter is and that it's 100% peanut allergy friendly!

Ingredients
2/3 cup white corn syrup; light agave nectar works great too!
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup Sun Butter
2 T margarine
6 cups Rise Krispies or cornflakes
3/4 cup sunflower kernel, optional

Directions
Combine corn syrup ans sugar in a saucepan, bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Add SunButter, margarine and sunflower kernel. Spread in a 9x13 pan. Cut into bars

Recipe found at www.sunbutter.com/recipes