A few left over ingredients from meals over the holidays made a rich and delicious pot pie. Onions and baby portabellas were sauteed IN BACON GREASE with freshly pressed garlic. Trimmings from our holiday beef tenderloin was then added along with a couple pats of butter. Once the browning process was well underway, raw spinach was tossed in to wilt.

Once everything was browned, wilted and fully cooked through, flour and heavy cream were added to make the rue. Pre-blanched carrots and diced potatoes were folded in at the end, off of heat. The stuffed went into a Pilsbury premade pie crust in the oven at 375 on the middle rack until the top crust was brown.

Growing up in Iowa we had these seasoned, ground beef sandwiches called MaidRites. MaidRite was and still is a chain decades and decades old. The sandwich goes by different names depending on where you grew up. We didn’t have MaidRite restaurants in NW Iowa, so sometimes they were called Taverns or Loose Meats. From what I understand, they are a Midwest thing, but they were/are very popular in Iowa.

My wife, who grew up East of Kansas City in Missouri had never heard of them until she came home with me to Iowa. Now she loves them. We made a big batch this weekend here at home. A slice of American cheese is acceptable, but the only true condiment for a MaidRite is yellow mustard. Having some CheeseWiz still around from making Philly Cheese Steaks, I made my own version of the Iowa Cheese Steak.

Like bacon, Cheese Wiz makes everything better.  No one beats the Wiz!!

French toast made from croissants with half/half, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, dash of sugar and pinch of salt. Loaded with peanut butter, pecans, mini-chocolate chips, real maple syrup, and a dusting of powdered sugar.

It was as good as it looks. Yum-oh!

This Christmas was spent with just the four of us at home.  The boys hauled in several “dirt diggers” and Transformers, so all was right with the world with them.  For me, a holiday is a good one when I get to cook.  When you have time, it is fun to try new and challenging dishes.  For me, this was it.

• Chateaubriand stuffed with caramelized onion, mushrooms and spinach
• Creamed Spinach with Parmigiano Regiano
• Wild Mushroom Risotto with Carnaroli rice and cremini mushrooms
• Candied baby carrots with ginger and cinnamon
• A fine California Cab to finish

Chateaubriand is an old French dish using the center cut of the beef tenderloin.  The cut itself has become known as the same name.  The piece above was trimmed from a whole packer beef tenderloin.  This is the same cut that the famous filet mignon comes from.  This could have been cut into steaks instead of used as a roast.

With a sharp knife, the roast was butterflied open into thirds by making two cuts.

The caramelized onions and mushrooms were prepared the day before and left to cool.  The stuffing was spread evenly across the roast with spinach, Kosher salt, and fresh cracked black pepper.

Rolled and seasoned with more Kosher salt and black pepper, the roast is rolled and tied.  It was quickly seared in basil infused grapeseed oil and real butter.  Then off to the Big Green Egg to finish to 125 degrees internal temperature.

Took me three hours of non-stop cooking and stirring, but the comments from my wife was worth it.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all a great bite!!!

Meet Muffaletta Burgers! These are a tribute to the Muffaletta sandwich created in New Orleans at Central Grocery. The sandwich is named after the bread, but the at the center of it all is the olive salad/compote. Its got it all onion, olive oil, carrots, red peppers, and both black and green olives.

This half pound burger (I swear there is one in there.) is topped with melted provalone and my own olive compote. Yardbird seasoned curly fries and a Christmas cocktail make the best compliments.

Oh, and my Egg was frozen shut. Took me an hour to get the lid open. But it is nice and warm now.

I’m still trying to figure out what I want to make for Christmas. Been wanting to do a stuffed salmon, but this time of year, all you get is farm raised. I did one tonight to practice and see if it is worthy of the coming of our King (and I don’t mean Obama).

Stuffing is goat brie cheese, crab, mini shrimp, fresh ginger, fresh pressed garlic, lemon, and Yardbird Rub. Since brie is a soft cheese, it doesn’t grate very well. In order to grate it, I put it in the freezer for a bit.

A pocket is cut into a 2 pound farm raised salmon filet for the stuffing. You really want to pack it in. The salmon is seasoned with Yardbird Rub and wrapped in Phyllo dough. I used four sheets, but I think six or seven would have been better. Brush the top with butter. For more browning, try the broiler setting on your oven.

At 350 degrees, it cooked for 30 minutes. The cheese will be really melty in the middle, so give it a rest for about five minutes. It smells awesome, so this will be tough, I know. In the Phyllo, the salmon comes out like it was poached.

My wife just ate two huge pieces. Don’t know if it is worthy of the King of Kings, but my queen liked it.

Made a Shepard’s pie for dinner tonight and had more filling than would fit in the casserole dish. The Hot Shepard’s Sandwich was born!!!

I’m pretty sure three wise men will be showing up in a few days.

I understand that this is a big statement, but this may be the best pork I’ve ever made or ever had.  Then again, may be it is something different than the same old pork I’ve made a thousand times for catering and competition.  Either way, my wife and I just licked our plates clean.

The Injection

• 1/2 cup of pineapple juice
• 1 T Dizzy Pig Jamaican Fire
• 3 good shots of Pickapeppa Sauce

The Rub

• Dizzy Pig Jamaican Fire - applied liberally

The Wrap

• 1 cup of Apple Cider
• 1 T Dizzy Pig Jamaican Fire
• 3 good shots of Pickapeppa Sauce
• A little somethang-somethang   (aka Secret Ingredient)
• Topped with brown sugar

Smoked on the Big Green Egg at 300 with apple wood and lump for about 6-7 hours flipping occasionally.  Wrapped at 175 so as to have a good crust.  Pulled at 190 and set to rest for one hour.  The money muscle was mine.

The Rice

• Bacon rendered with half yellow onion, two cloves garlic, 1/2 habanero pepper (de-seeded and de-viened)
• Basmati Rice
• Black Beans

• 1 18-1/4 ounce yellow cake mix
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 mini choc chips
• 3 eggs
• 1-teaspoon maple or vanilla extract

• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup chopped, toasted pecans
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour tube or 12-cup Bundt cake pan. Mix cake ingredients in a large bowl. Pour half of the batter in the prepared cake pan.

Mix filling ingredients. Sprinkle half on batter in pan. Add rest of batter to pan and top with filling.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes on wire rack. Remove cake from pan and serve warm.

36 Teams
Overall - 6th
Pork - 3rd
Brisket - 8th

An average contest in size, but not in competition.  Of the current top 50 teams in the country, ten were at this contest.  Placing in any category at this one was going to take some skill.  In talking with the other teams, they all recognized this fact.  I was pleased at my two calls in Pork (3rd) and Brisket (8th).  Ribs were a very close 11th place, just one position out from an award.

The chicken turned out great, in my opinion.  The flavor, moisture, and color was all there.  I thought they were worthy of a top 10 finish, but it was not meant to be.  Instead of the normal Yardbird Rub, I thought I’d try our new Plowboys BBQ Bovine Bold rub.  It works!  The flavor was there.  I left my normal sauce at home.  I like to mix Blues Hog with another sauce.  If I had to be disappointed in anything, it was the sauce.  I should have stayed with 100% Blues Hog.  Next time I’ll know.

Speaking of next time, the season is over in this part of the country.  It will be four and a half months until we do it all over again.  Looking forward to a lot of practice this winter.