Pasta, Red Peppers, Sausage and Sauce

As you may already know I have 1 single tomato plant and 1 single green pepper plant in my garden this year. They have each produced a massive amount of vegetables. So one unseasonably cool day recently I thought I would make a nice hearty tomato sauce and grill some Italian sausage and sweet red peppers from Donatelli's. What a delight! I grilled the sausage and peppers while the sauce cooked in the dutch oven on the stove. I tossed the sauce with some bow tie pasta and then topped it with the sliced red peppers and sausages. I ate one serving and froze the rest in mason jars! Next time I would mix the meat in with the pasta and sauce rather than layer it on top, so it doesn't dry out when reheating. I did keep one sausage aside and grilled it another day with a green pepper from the garden. I used some of my homemade sauce and provolone cheese with them and made a hoagie.

 

Joe's Amazing Chicken -- First Cook Outs of the Season

Yeah Buddy! Cookouts have returned to Heady Place! (Oh, by the way, some people refer to my house as Heady Place.) Temperatures topped out around 50 degrees a few times last week so I fired up the ol' grill.

The first cookout of the year featured Joe's Amazing Chicken (of course) and vegetable skewers: one of red pepper, one of zucchini. For the chicken, I used giant boneless breasts, marinated overnight in soy sauce and painted four times per side with Joe's Amazing Sauce while slow cooking for about 45 minutes. I sliced the zuke in wheels, sprinkled with coarse sea salt, and lined 'em all up on a skewer. I cut the red pepper in large chunks and skewered them, cooking unseasoned. Red pepper grills so well without seasoning, and the zuke really just needed a light salting. The grill brings out the natural sweetness of the vegetables. 

Joe's Amazing Chicken

This version of Joe's Amazing Sauce included roughly equal portions of: sriracha, teriyaki sauce, corn syrup, and olive oil. The key to Joe's Amazing Sauce lies in the four categories that these ingredients represent: spicy, salty, sweet, and stretch. You want a spicy ingredient (e.g., sriracha or hot sauce), a salty ingredient (e.g., teriyaki or soy sauce), a sweet one (e.g., corn syrup, brown sugar, stevia), and something to stretch the sauce and give you enough to coat the meat several times (such as olive oil, lemon juice, wine or beer). Heat one side the grill to high and the other to low, keeping the meat on the low side. Cook slowly, turning and coating with sauce often. Each layer of the sauce will cook into the chicken, or even start to glaze depending on your choice of sweetener. This re-coating and glazing makes the chicken ... amazing. As you continue to cook and add more sauce, try to drip or spread the sauce down into any crevices the meat might have. Depending on your meat you can find lots of little places to cook the sauce into. For example, bone-in thighs with the skin on make a great choice for grilling with this technique. Peal up the skin and spread the sauce underneath. Repeat every time you turn it, and you will have ... well ... Amazing Chicken. Finish it up over high heat to give you a nice set of grill marks across the meat.

The following day I made a jerk seasoning dry rub for cookout numero dos. You can make a really easy, delicious jerk seasoning with: ground cloves, salt, sugar, black pepper, cumin, and a little chili powder or hot red pepper flakes. Do not skimp on the sugar -- try brown sugar or stevia and little cinnamon too. The salt, sugar, and cloves make up the bulk of the seasoning. First rinse and pat the chicken dry. Then cover the chicken in the seasoning and press it gently into the meat. Turn and repeat a few times -- you want to coat the chicken completely. Grill the chicken as described above, or over a higher flame if desired.

Of course, as the season change comes along, so does my cold. It seems like every year both the Fall and Spring season change knock me out with a major cold. Thanks. Thanks a lot.

Man Breakfast

Man Breakfast!

A couple weeks ago I had these pork chops I needed to cook, and I woke up in need of a Man Breakfast, so I came up with this. I sliced and sauteed a red pepper in some olive oil while I coated the pork chops with flour and Old Bay seasoning. I fried up the pork chops and then cooked a couple dippy eggs in the pan. It tasted amazing.

Cookout with Av and Mick

word to your mother

Avniel decided to drive out to Pittsburgh for a visit this weekend and we ended up assembling an epic cookout feast Saturday night. We got fresh sausage -- 1 pound each of hot Italian and spicy Sicilian -- sweet red peppers, and old style whole grain dijon mustard from Donatelli's in Bloomfield. At the grocery store we picked up all natural chicken thighs, yellow squash, green peppers, and a sweet red onion. I had asparagus, zucchini, and potatoes from the Bloomfield farmer's market, and we used cilantro, oregano, and mint (for mojitos) from the garden.

I skewered and brushed the potatoes with olive oil and Old Bay seasoning: 

Av chopped the onion, green peppers, and squash into large kabob chunks and tossed them with olive oil, coarse sea salt, fresh ground rainbow peppercorn medley, and fresh herbs from the garden. I used my Amazing Sauce on the chicken. 

I sliced the zucchini lengthwise and just brushed it with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

I grilled the asparagus in foil with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and just cooked the sweet red pepper plain and whole on the top rack of the grill. The chicken of course I cooked slowly, turning and re-applying sauce half a dozen times.

I made more mojitos with the mint from the garden.

JoeSoGarden Update!

I need to give an update on the garden. A month has passed since I first planted a few seedlings. Things look good overall, but it seems like a slow start. It really just warmed up this week, so I expect things to take off a little bit soon. But I've noticed that the box doesn't get full sun -- close buildings casting shadows, etc -- so we'll see...

The broccoli -- slow going at first -- has started to flourish. 

The row of carrot seeds has sprouted nicely!

My neighbor gave me a big chunk of mint -- need to make sure it doesn't take over the area -- and a chunk of oregano. They both rooted nicely in that little triangle section I have. It has pretty rocky soil, so I don't know.

She gave me some flowering plants and a flowering shrub -- orange and/or yellow or something like that. I planted those in a little pattern in the triangle part as well. So far it looks great -- healthy leaves, new growth, etc.

Back over in the planter box, the coriander/cilantro seeds I planted have sprouted. I only need a few of them to supplement the plant I put in originally. 

from the seeds planted a couple weeks ago

original plant

The row of onions looks fantastic! I keep loosening the soil around them. I think I'm doing it right.

Nicely organized!

I planted a banana pepper seedling and a red pepper seedling, and neither of them has grown at all. I mean seriously nothing -- not a single new leaf. They look fine, but they just look the same as they did the day I planted them. So I had this red pepper that I was about to roast on the grill. I collected the seeds from it and planted them next to the slow-growing seedling -- just in cast. Then I had a banana pepper that I got to make Italian sandwiches, and I did the same thing - -collected and planted the seeds. We'll see how that turns out...

red pepper seeds on the left,
banana pepper on the right

Is this growing at all?

Showing no signs of growth...

Grilled Hot Sausage Sandwich with Red Pepper

You gotta love working from home on a Friday afternoon, cracking a bottle, and grilling hot sausage patties for a late lunch. You really do. I threw on a piece of corn and a red pepper as usual, and sliced up the pepper to eat with the sausage. I made the sandwich on a soft, whole grain roll with yellow mustard, relish, lettuce, and of course the red pepper on top of the hot sausage patty. Delicious.

Cooking Out Often Lately

I've already dipped balls deep into cookout season over here, so I want to share some pictures from recent meals. 

I'll do a full recipe post for my Amazing Chicken some time soon. You just need chicken and four other ingredients of your choice to make an amazing sauce. 

sweet n spicy chicken

I like grilling my vegetables raw, especially when I have high quality veggies. Red and green peppers, corn, and other veggies supply their own great taste when grilled properly, in my opinion, and don't need anything else.

Hebrew National hot dog grilled corn and green pepper

I make a flavorful curry paste for mixing into burgers, which I really enjoy. I use curry powder, hot sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, and a few other choice ingredients. I should do a post for that as well. When I moved into the apartment on Penn a couple years ago, and we got the gas grill, I started working on my own recipes for burgers, chicken, pork chops, etc. So I've had a lot of practice with some of these.

Joe burger with avocado and banana peppers

cheddar cheese, avocado, banana peppers

relish and yellow mustard

When I grill corn I leave it in the husk. If I have a chance, I soak it in water for a little while before grilling. I actually peal away a few pieces of husk, leaving maybe 2-4 layers rather than, say, 6-8. I firmly believe in slow grilling -- for almost everything. You can make the corn quickly in about 10 minutes, or go slowly for 20 or more.

grilled corn on the cob and Joe Chicken

sweet and spicy Joe Chicken

For an almost instant meal that takes no preparation, try grilling chicken sausages and whole red peppers. I get the peppers at Donatelli's Italian grocer in Bloomfield for like $1.19 for a bag of 8. Throw them on the grill for about 10 minutes over medium to high heat. I cook the red peppers whole then cut 'em up and serve with the sausage on a roll.

chicken sausages from the store

sweet red pepper -- perfect grilled plain