The Beakfast Burger

Just wanted to do something quick and simple on this quick entry into the old recipe blog today. This is truthfully a delight to eat and very easy to do in 30 minutes or less. You just cook up some burgers, top them with some over easy eggs and some crispy bacon and you are good to go. Place the burgers with eggs and bacon on the burgers on some toast, top with some cheese, and throw them into a really hot oven long enough for the cheese to melt and you've got them made. I personally use over easy eggs because once you cut it in half, all the yolk pops out all hot and gooey and blends into the meat....yummy. Use scrambled eggs if you'd like or even sub the bacon with some salsa for a southwestern type burger. I love good breakfast food so I just incorporated some of those things that i like together on a sandwich and chomped down on the wonderful gloriousness that it was.

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Pork Chops in a Blonde Artichoke Gravy

Got some cheap good old thick center cut pork chops at the store and decided to do something new. Just rub in the italian seasoning and creole seasoning blend onto one side of pork chops and sear on rubbed side in medium high heated skillet. Put seasoning on other side and flip to sear spices into the other side. Take out of the oven, place in a casserole dish or roasting pan, and cook in a 350°F oven for 20-30 minutes or until internal temp is 165. While chops are baking you're going to use the same pan and melt in a stick of margarine or butter. To that your going to mix in about 1/2 cup of all purpose flour and begin mixing it into the butter to make a light brown/blonde rue. Add water until the mixture cooking is just a good thick gravy. Add one jar of marinated artichokes and add 4 shakes each of soy sauce and hot sauce. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer gravy for 5-7 minutes. Add in teaspoon of garlic powder and a tablespoon of fresh cracked black pepper to season. Remove Chops from the oven and pour gravy over the top of the chops and throw them back into the oven for about 5 minutes. Remove chops again and serve. I served these with garlic mashed potatoes and skillet cooked blackeye peas. A good dry white wine would compliment this meal well (perhaps a pinot grigio or a chardonnay). If your going the beer route then a good hoppy pale ale or stiff witbier (wheat beer) would be awesome with this recipe.

The Chili Cheese Onionpatty Melt

Here's a little idea that i took from "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives." I saw the other night that a guy put thinly sliced onions and pressed them into the burger before flipping them over. My mouth watered just watching this dude, but of course i did something extra with it. I decided to them southern style with chili, cheese, and slick yellow mustard on buttered toasted bread. An absolute delight. Here are the things you need.

1 1/2 lb 80/20 Ground Chuck
8 slices of White Sandwich Bread
Yellow Mustard
1 medium size yellow onion
4 slices of cheese
1 can of hot dog chili sauce

start with cooking the chili. Take 1/2 lb chuck and mix in can of chili sauce to make some good quick chili. I do this from time to time to save some time. Of course you can use my recipe for topping chili or4 you can short cut it and do it my way. Once you combine the beef and chili sauce. mash the meat with a potato masher and get it all broken down and let simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes on medium heat. Heat up a skillet on medium heat. Once pan is hot...sprinkle water from fingers into it and if it steams off and sizzles...you're good. Take remaining lb of meat and mix with about a 1/4 cup yellow mustard. Make 4 patties and make them kind of thick. Once you put them into the skillet, mash them down with your spatula. Right before you flip the burgers (approx. 8 minutes). Put thinly sliced onion on top of burgers and mash them into the meat with the spatula until onions become part of the burger. Flip them to the onion side and cook for another 8 minutes. Add cheese and allow to melt a little. brush bread with butter and toast lightly. Key is to put the buttered sides of bread on the inside of the sandwich. Put mustard on both sides of bread. Place burger on one slice, top with chili, and top off sandwich and you're done. Fix these with some oven roasted potatoes or fries and your golden. Enjoy them, i know I did

Marinated Chicken Sandwiches with Portobellos and Garlic Butter Sauce

One of the most favorite things I like to cook with are mushrooms. They go with just about everything and make a pretty tasty sandwich by themselves for a good vegetarian meal. One thing that you're going to have to do is use some good chicken cutlets and pound them out as flat as you can. You then just have to use the marinade you want to use on these...If I'm using Portobello mushrooms I'm going to go with an Italian dressing marinade. So here you go with the things you need. If you want to switch around the marinades a little bit you can always use a Hawaiian marinade with pineapple and soy sauces, Asian with a soy and ginger marinade, or you can do a Carribean style marinade with orange juice, lime, butter, honey, and garlic mixed with teryaki sauce. Enjoy this one...easy fix and will serve many portions.

2lbs Boneless skinless chicken breast.
2 full Portobello Caps (scraped and sliced thin)
1 tsp honey
1 stick of butter
1 tbsp garlic
1/4 cream
2 oz White cooking wine
3oz of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Swiss Cheese
Bread of Your Choice (French tolls are really good with these as well as fresh baguettes).

Take your chicken which should be around 4 breasts and place them between two pieces of plastic wrap and beat them flat with a mallet. Fork the meat and place in a bag with Italian Dressing and marinate them for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Remove from the bag and melt a half stick of butter in a skillet and spread liquid butter equally over the pan. Place chicken in skillet and slowly cook on medium heat and be careful not to burn the meat. Cook both sides of chicken for about 6 minutes per side. While chicken is cooking...melt other half stick of butter in another skillet. Take mushrooms and scrape underside meat out until clean. Cut into thin slices and toss in bowl with olive oil. Place strips in skillet and cook on medium heat. Do not burn the shrooms on this or else you will the overall flavor of the sandwich. Once mushrooms start to get a little dark, mix in the garlic, honey, and splash in the wine once garlic begins to toast. Cut the heat off and immediately splash in the cream and start stirring in the cream into the mix quickly and while removed from heat. This eliminates you curdling the cream. Place cheese on chicken breasts and then put on the bread. Place on the mushrooms. Spoon over that with the leftover sauce and top the sandwiches off. Hope you enjoy these. Its not too heavy and has a great flavor. One good beer to have with these is a good old pale ale...you want some strong hops with go with the chicken but not too bitter to go with the beefiness of the mushrooms. Sierra Nevada would be a good one to drink with this recipe.

Rum and Peanut Sweet Glazed Spare Ribs

Well Well Well...Its blog time again and last night was not a difference. I had some spare ribs in the freezer and wanted to do something a little different with them. I am always trying out different flavor combos and one of the ideas was using dark rum with a little bit of Asian peanut glaze. I combined some ingredients together to make a sweet and spicy sauce and came up with a winner. I oven smoked the ribs as I did with the pork butt that I did with the Cheerwine Sauce. So follow the same idea with the hickory chips or mesquite and placement in the oven. Another way is to take a roasting pan wit a rack in it and flip the rack so that the handles are pointed down and the ribs are sitting in the pan at an angle with the wet chips in the pan underneath. Here are the ingredients you'll need.

1 Rack of Pork Spare Ribs or two racks of Baby Backs or St. Louis Style Ribs

The Rub:
Creole Seasoning
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper
Garlic Powder
White Pepper
Celery Salt
Paprika
BBQ Seasoning
Oregano
Rosemary

The Sauce:
Honey
2 tbsp butter
hot sauce
peanut butter
3 oz of dark or spiced rum
Soy Sauce
2 tbsp garlic
Dijon Mustard

The key to doing these ribs in a timely manner is to use a graduated timing and temp in the oven. I rubbed the ribs using the rub combo I listed above and set in the oven over the smoke chips for 30 minutes on 425 degrees. This gives a fast smoke and high heat will sear spices into the meat. After 30 reduce heat to 325 for an hour and a half and then 250 for an hour. Once meat is on the final 30 minutes, start on the sauce.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan and put in 4-5 dashes of hot sauce, 3 oz of honey, 3 oz of Rum and wisk in the garlic. Let this simmer for 5-6 minutes and add the peanut butter and melt that down. Wisk in and then add Soy, and about 3 tbsp of dijon mustard for spice. Once timer goes off on the ribs, start mopping on the glaze.
Add one smathering and put under the broiler for 3 minutes and continue to add layers of glaze in 1-2 minute increments back and forth and layer the glaze until the stuff is gone. The flavor you get from these will kick you in so many ways that you don't know what flavor you'll have next. Great ribs and great flavor. Enjoy these!!!!