Grilling Good Eats

By Mike Thayer

A bun doesn't make or break a great burger, the meat does.

Here's a recipe that makes for a great burger, a patty so full of flavor, not only is the bun not required, neither is lettuce, tomato or other toppings.....

Sweet Heat Burgers

Ingredients:

• One pound of Sweet Italian sausage
• One pound of 80/20 ground beef
• 1/2 Tablespoon of seasoning salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded Buffalo Wing cheddar cheese

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients.  If you can't find shredded Buffalo Wing cheddar cheese at your favorite grocery store, regular sharp shredded cheddar and some Louisiana Hot Sauce is a nice substitute.  Form meat mixture into patties.  When your grill is ready to receive, place the patties over the hot spot to get those great grill marks and a good sear. Keep the lid off and watch for any flare ups. When you see red juices flowing to the top of the patties, flip those burgers over to the lower heat side of the grill and get ready to put the lid on. Before ‘lidding‘, place some butter and garlic in a grill safe dish to melt down on the low heat side of the grill next to those great smelling burgers. Check after about five minutes. The garlic butter should be melted and the burgers should be about ready. For well done burgers, wait to see the juices run clear.  Top burgers with the garlic butter just before plating.

It's another dose of YUM!

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By Mike Thayer

This is another excellent red blend from WineShop at Home and a new offering in the Broadmoore Estates brand.

From the website:

This new 79% Ruby Cabernet, 11% Ruby Red and 10% Syrah blend of Broadmoore Estates Red Trails is very fruit-forward.

This sweet red wine displays blueberry, blackberry, strawberry and raspberry aromas, as well as light notes of pepper and toasted oak toward the end. The star of the show is the sweetness, which bursts out of the glass and onto the palate. The attack, the mid-palate and the finish are rich with fruity characters. Hiding behind this wine’s sweetness is a fair amount of fruit tannin for structure.

Serve chilled, suggested pairings are pizza, savory pastries, tacos, spicy pasta, smoked gouda and pepper jack cheeses.

The Broadmoore Estates Red Trails is an EXCELLENT red and it's available exclusively at WineShop at Home!  Contact Lori and get some great wines today!

Family Ranch Heritage is the product of a winemaker’s favorite activity: blending. This off-dry to sweet white wine showcases a pale yellow blend of 40% Colombard, 35% Chenin Blanc and 25% Muscat Canelli in the glass.

Beginning with lime and lemon aromas, grassy notes then emerge. Pear, honey and apple characteristics are present in the finish. The aromatics and citrus notes extend to the front palate and behind its light sweetness, this wine is refreshing and crisp on the mid-palate.

Chilled, this light to medium-bodied wine will pair well with egg bites, pasta with seafood or light desserts.

The Family Ranch California Heritage is an EXCELLENT white and it's available exclusively at WineShop at Home!

By Mike Thayer

So you are grocery shopping, you're looking at that package of 4 boneless pork chops going for around $2.50 a pound.....   Don't buy them.

Buy a pork loin instead.  It may cost more out-of-pocket at the time, but I bought a 10 pound pork loin at Costco the other night for just under $17.  Now I've got a freezer full of chops, not just four.

Be your own butcher for this kind of thing.  The convenience of buying something all ready for the frying pan is great, but it comes with a cost.  Cutting your own chops from a pork loin - THE most under-rated cut of meat on the planet - saves you a lot of money and really doesn't cost much in terms of time at all.  Just weigh the financial comparison - 4 grocery store butchered chops @ $2.49 a pound (2 meals?), vs. about 16-20 chops (depending on how thick or thin you want them - 10, 12 meals?) @ $1.69 a pound. 

Cutting the loin down into chops and some stew meat didn't take much time at all, maybe 10 minutes and now I've got everything portioned out for meals and in the freezer.

TIP:  Don't trim the fat when cutting the loin and creating the chops!  Fat means flavor during the cooking process.  Trim it before serving.

For some great pork recipes go to my grilling blog:  www.grillinggoodeats.com