A pressed sandwich is a thing of beauty. The actual italian word for a single grilled sandwich is Panino, but the plural word Panini is more widely used to describe this fantastic and trendy “American” food group. I call this an American food because of how popular it has become since the turn of the new millenium. Panini pans and electric grills have sold by the hundreds of thousands in this country in the last half dozen years. For Valentines Day last year, my wife and I both bought Panini presses for each other. Since she bought an All Clad pan, we kept her’s. That woman knows I love quality cookware.

You don’t need a $200 specialty panini pan to enjoy a grilled sandwich at home. A regular non-stick pan with a bacon press would work. Other alternatives to the bacon press could be another pan with a brick or a brick wrapped in foil. Any BBQ works: sausage, chicken, smoked turkey, brisket, or pulled pork. Even grilled foods like beef tri tip, left over steak, shrimp, eggplant, portabella mushrooms, or an all American hamburger. Cheese is a must… whatever you enjoy, but its fun to mix it up. Sauces can be grilled on the sandwich or served on the side: salsa, marinara, roulade, bbq sauce, aioli, or a stone ground mustard. Don’t just reach for the french role at the market. Get a good crusty bread or a couple. Better yet, make your own. Fresher is better. We like having Panini parties where we have several types of breads, meats, cheeses, sauces and ingredients to choose from. We grill sandwich after sandwich while guests sample each grilled creation. Here are just some of the ideas…

• pastrami & swiss on Jewish rye
• corned beef and cabbage on soda bread
• sausage & sauerkraut with spicy mustard
• grilled shrimp & shrimp with pesto on sourdough
• grilled eggplant or veal cutlet & mozzarella with marinara
• apple smoked pulled pork with bacon, swiss, and bbq sauce

Ready to grill a sandwich yet? Panini presses also double as wonderful bacon pans and grilled cheese makers. Grilled Cheese Tip: Add ANY jelly or jam to the inside of your grilled cheese. You can thank me later.

Never has a side dish ever been worthy to be called an entree unto itself.  We sold dozens of Loaded BBQ Spuds at a barbeque contest last fall.  Our creation was a huge Yukon Gold potato (an Idaho spud, of course) with cheese sauce, pulled pork, chopped brisket, a drizzle of Blues Hog BBQ sauce, and sour cream.  Replacing the potato for tortilla chips and we had a second dish: Loaded BBQ Nachos.

The Loaded BBQ Spud can have virtually anything on it.  The toppings are endless, but two basic ingredients must remain: a potato & bbq meats… well, I guess beans would work for a vegetarian version.  Some ideas for loading your potato:

• sausage
• chicken
• chopped brisket
• pulled pork
• salsa
• marinara
• bbq sauce
• jalapenos / hot peppers
• bacon bits
• onions
• cheese
• butter
• of course… sour cream

Michael wants Pizza for his 3rd birthday. So we did a trial run. Today he made peanut butter cookies with mom and then pizzas with dad. He did so great! Audrey and I were recalling all of our found memories of helping moms and grandmas in the kitchen as kids. Cooking with kids is such a connecting thing.

Did a whole wheat pizza on the gas grill. Then two regular crust pizzas: one on smoker and one on gas grill. Used some left over BBQ sausage as well as peperoni & mushroom. The crust was a simple dough recipe from America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook. Makes 3-4 pizzas depending on size.

4 1/2 C Bread Flour (Suggest Bread Flour instead of AP, but AP would work)
1 3/4 C warm water
Package Instant Yeast
1 1/2 t salt
2 T Olive Oil

Cooked on hot pizza stones on both the grill and smoker. Of course the grill was better since I could get over 500 degrees. Smoker was only running 340 max tonight. Because is was below freezing out.

On New Year’s Day I made a batch of Whatever Chili. The recipe is pretty simple. Put in WHATEVER you can find: brisket, leftover ground beef from last night’s nachos, leftover tamale fixins, an onion, a red bell pepper, diced tomatoes, sugar, chili powder (Cain’s dark, Chipotle, New Mexico Hot), beans, a little of this, a little of that. Stewed for four hours while Michael and I went to Cabela’s. A little hotter than I wanted for the family, but tasted great.

A new BBQ creation from my kitchen is BBQ Empanadas. Randy tried a few the last time he was over to our house. Called a couple days later to get the recipe. Well Randy, they are pretty simple. Here’s what you need.

- Leftover BBQ: brisket, pulled pork, pulled chicken, etc.
- BBQ Sauce (optional)
- Cheese (optional)
- Pie Crusts
- 1 Egg White

Start by cutting circles from a premade pie crust. A mason jar lid makes the perfect size.

I use one of those fold and crimp tools to make my empanadas and ravioli. Place your circle in the tool and brush some water along one of the sides that will be crimped together. This will help the two surfaces bond together. Add the cheese, sauce, and leftover barbeque and fold.

These can stay prepared in the icebox for a few days. They freeze well, too. We recently made about four dozen and ate them throughout the week. To cook, preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Brush some egg white on the top of each empanada. Cook for 15-18 minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy!

This is another article that wrote for GetYourGrillOn.net as a series called Monday’s Leftovers. I have a young family so we have a lot of leftovers when I fire up the smoker. Then there’s all of the leftovers from a BBQ competition. Its called Monday’s Leftovers because after a weekend of BBQ you want a simple meal to use up whats left in the fridge.

One of the staples around my house is BBQ nachos. Pretty basic really, its just your favorite nachos with BBQ (chicken, brisket, pork, sausage, etc) and a drizzle of BBQ sauce. Another is bbq pot pie. A little more work, but pretty easy and well worth it.  Watch for my BBQ  Pot Pie in a future  Monday’s Leftovers.

After a weekend of smoking BBQ and grilling, there’s often leftovers. The classic brisket or pulled pork sandwich is always great, but there’s a lot of ways to reuse that leftover barbeque. A great way to use leftover pulled pork is Pulled Pork & Veggie Soup for a cold winter Monday family dinner.

One of my wife’s favorites is vegetable soup. I usually make a couple of huge batches each winter. We’ll eat 3-4 bowls the first night. With a few Alton Brown and America’s Test Kitchen episodes under my belt, my soup is getting better and better.

I start with my two beef soup bones the night before, simmering for about 4 hours. Add 2 tablespoons of minced garlic, half an oinon rough chopped, 4 tablespoons of kosher salt, and of course a 5 quarts of water. Strain well and put in the fridge overnight. The next day I pull out the fat that has seperated and risen to the top. NO MORE GREASY SOUPS!!!!

During a recent beef and veggie soup creation, my soup bones didn’t yield much meat so I went in search of some brisket in the freezer. Found a small freezer burnt package of what I thought was brisket. Turned out to be pulled pork from some comp last year. This was one of those mistakes that turns into a new favorite. The pulled pork was great in it. The spice in the rub added a flavor to the soup and a little hint of heat.

I add ingredients in my veggie soup in stages…

Stage 1 - Simmer for 1-2 hours
Pulled Pork (Brisket would work great, too.)
1/4 C Barley
1/4 C Parsley
2 T Oregano
3 T Black Pepper
2 C Fresh carrots
2 C Fresh turnips - The carrots and turnips are my favorite part of the soup.
1 C Fresh celery
1 C Frozen corn
1 C Fresh/frozen green beans

Stage 2 - Simmer another 30-45 min
- Since these ingredients are softer, you don’t want them to totally disolve. This is why I add them in toward the end.
2 C canned/fresh potatoes (The canned potatoes work just as well for this.)
1 C Frozen peas
1 C Lima or Butter beans (your call on the beans)

A tip I learned from a recent Good Eats episode is to not rapid boil your soup bones. It should be an easy, steady simmer. Your soup bones will release more of their marrow and flavor that way.

Veggie soup is always better the second night, too. Why is that? The best starter, IMHO, for a beef & veggie soup is Ox tail. My grandfather swears by ox tail soup and I gotta agree. Some pulled pork, I learned, is a great meat filler. I’m going to have to try a little hot sauce in my next bowl!!

Pulled Pork & Veggie Soup = Good Eats

Preparing a big holiday meal invariably pushes the capacity of your kitchen. A master conductor is required to cook the turkey, rolls, gravy, potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, and all the sides so that they all magically appear on the table at the same time. The oven can only hold so much, so you end up using the oven of the neighbor or relative as well. Does this sound like your holiday?

In recent years, cooking the bird has moved from kitchen to outdoors. Deep fried, trash can, and smoked birds have become as much the staple of the holiday table as the traditional oven roasted bird. Since you are already cooking outside so that you have room in the kitchen for the sweet potatoes and corn, why not bring some of your side dishes out there as well? I’ll show you how to cook two traditional side dishes in one and make more room inside your kitchen.

Acorn squash just looks like it was made to be stuffed with something. That perfect center cavity is great for meat, rice, or bread stuffing. The fact that they can be roasted on the grill or in the smoker means that your squash and stuffing can come out of doors with the bird.

You can be creative with what you stuff in your acorn squash, but I’m using a simple sausage and bread stuffing. First, I grabbed some sausage that I had previously smoked earlier in the week. Jimmy Dean Bold was what I had on hand, but a sage sausage product would fit well with the holiday themed meal.

1. Mix a bit of bread stuffing with water just to dehydrate slightly. You don’t want a wet stuffing as the squash will release a lot of liquid itself.

2. Combine the sausage and stuffing. More sausage is better. 2:1 is a good ratio.

3. Cut the very bottom of the squash so that it will sit upright. Cut the top crown of the acorn to reveal the cavity and remove the seeds.

4. Add a pat of butter to the bottom of the cavity and fill with your stuffing mix. Cover with your acorn crown.

5. Place in your smoker or on your grill until the squash is fork tender. Depending on squash size, figure 30-45 minutes on a 400 degree grill or 60-90 minutes in a 250 degree smoker.

Stuffed acorn squash can be used as a side dish or an entrée of their own. Experiment with your own ingredients and let us know by use of comments how you stuffed your squash.

Enjoy!