Check Out My Latest Post For Char-Broil - RIBS BABY

As a Char-Broil All Star I am fortunate enough to be around some of the best BBQ people out there and I have to say that a little bit of it has rubbed off on me - check out my latest post - all about the tasty rib - a chocolate and thyme tasty rib with a nice grilled apple finishing sauce -

Don't let winter give you the blues - hit back and cook with color

I don't know about the rest of you but most of us are getting a little tired of winter and here in New York its been the snowiest winter in a long, long time.

Time to get yourself out of that funk and get on the grill. There are plenty of bright and colorful vegetables available this time of year and nothing will make you feel better than a colorful plate. I have been saying it forever and I will say it again - I cook with color! This is a big fat grilled pork chop with some winter vegetables. I have a potato mash, a parsnip mash a little cabbage, apple and carrot slaw along with a little red pepper and some squash. It made my eyes dance and my tummy happy. I think you will agree that when you cook with color everybody wins.

As American as Apple Pie - a 'Stuffed Apple - Pie' for CCC (Creative Cooking Crew)

This months challenge for the Creative Cooking Crew (#creativecookingcrew) the theme was "stuffed" and stuffed I did. I decided not to stuff all the usual things I stuff and I also opted to try and not stuff things too far outside of my comfort zone and while I do have a very broad comfort zone it is still a zone I try and not stray outside of.

I took an apple and I cored it and scooped out the center. I chopped up the apple pieces and mixed them with some chunky peanut butter, golden raisins, dried currants, honey and a little blue cheese for that special extra kick. I then stuffed this mixture back into the cored out apple and covered it with a little puff pastry. I preheated my outside grill and baked the apples right on the grill until the crust was golden and the apples were tender.

I plated my grilled apples up with a little caramel sauce, because who doesnt like a caramel apple, a little chocolate sauce because who doesnt like chocolate, some raspberry coulis because I had it, some powdered sugar because everything is more fun with powdered sugar and then who doesnt want a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream with their apple pie, a little sprig of mint and a nasturtium flower rounded the whole thing out. Stuffed - my summer time version of an apple pie.

Weak End

Time seems to have a mind of its own and when you dont have a camera you cant prove s$%t. Lucky for me my cell phone is equipped with the most lame little snapshot device, Banana has a nice phone with flash and video but no mine it is worse than a photo booth. We went to the Mall - is it supposed to be in CAPS or is it ok to say mall? Anyway we were at the newly fixed up Newport Center Mall in Jersey City, New Jersey. This mall is right after the Holland Tunnel, in case you dont study local geography. We ate cinnamon pretzels and bought kids school gear and assorted sundries, all the while looking for Wahl clipper accessories. See I cut my own hair as I have done since I was a teen and since my clippers comb things were wearing out I thought it would be cheap to go to the mall and get them there instead of paying the 9 dollar shipping to have them delivered. Nobody had them. After going to the 'specialized wig and barber outlet' we went to sears, pennys, khols, you name it. It was 6 dollars to come back to manhattan and 2 dollars to park not to mention gas and snacks - plus the other "shopping" we did- funny you can leave NY for free but no matter who if you come through the major bridges and tunnels its 6 bucks- the cheapest way in - you can try and wing around and do the I95 thing but it still costs you if not in gas, certainly in time and headace and 75 cent tolls. So we came home and ate.

King Crab, Steak and Grilled Corn a la Mushy. This whole meal was inspired by this guy in Tennessee by the name of Mushy. He cooks things his way and most times that is the best way. Whenever you nail a system -stick with it.




Oh did I forget to mention that I ordered the things anyway for 18.99 total - 8.99 for the set and 9.99 for shipping - funny huh?