So it was a pretty crazy week. Spring is finally here and I have been pretty busy getting the herbs outside and planted. There is also the fact that kids have been having half days at school this week. Basically things have been non-stop.

This of course does not relinquish me from my cooking duties (unless I am feeling reckless and let my wife cook 🙂 ). I had some chicken that really needed to get cooked and originally my plan was to fire up the grill and barbecue it with my normal recipe. There just wasn’t enough time to cook all of that and have it on the table at dinner time.

So I decided to whip up this barbecue sauce from scratch and just tasted it as I went along. It came out wonderful and I cannot wait to try it on the grill, but this recipe and technique is for the busy person who really only has time to cook it in the oven (and stove).

Sauce:

1 cup of ketchup
1/4 cup of Grey Poupon or other such Dijon mustard.
1 heaping tablespoon brown sugar.
1 small red onion (or shallot), chopped fine.
2 cloves of garlic, minced.
2 tablespoons of Canola oil.
Pinch salt & pepper.

Put the oil in a large skillet and heat to medium. Cooke the garlic and onion until the onion is clear. Cool on a plate (discarding oil) for about 10 minutes.

Add the – (More…)

I am always trying different things when it comes to leg of lamb. Sometimes it can be hard to find just the right taste with such a flavorful cut of meat. Many of the recipes you find for leg of lamb involve some sort of mint spice, but recently I decided to try something a little different.

I have read about people using Juniper berries with lamb but I am one of the few who does not care for that particular berry so I decided to go with cranberries instead. I use a well trimmed leg that has had most of the shank removed but still has the bone in higher up.

1 leg of lamb 4-6 pounds.
1 can of Guinness.
1 can of cranberry sauce (the whole berry version).
3 tablespoons honey.
Canola oil.
4 bay leaves.
2 sprigs of rosemary whole.
1 medium yellow onion, quartered.
5 cloves of garlic minced.
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

Preheat oven to 250.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the beer and honey. It will take a couple minutes if the beer is cold as the honey will temporarily harden. It will be easier if the beer is room temperature. Add 3/4 of the can of cranberries to the mixture. Set aside.

Liberally salt and pepper the leg of lamb. In a medium skillet, add enough canola oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Heat to medium high and when the – (More…)

The final piece in our cast iron upgrade was the dutch oven. Since we have thrown out all of our Teflon, we have upgraded much of our cookware to cast iron for many reasons. Although we also use stainless steel and ceramic cookware, cast iron is by far my favorite. The Lodge Logic dutch oven is an absolute pleasure.

I have had the dutch oven for a month or two without a real chance to use it. I ordered it from Amazon (for less than $30) along with some other cookware. As usual, this Lodge Logic cast iron product came pre-seasoned. Not that seasoning cast iron is hard, it is just to be able to use the dutch oven right out of the box.

When I finally got some time, I cooked a couple stews and a pot roast in it. You instantly appreciate the even heating when browning meat. The lid is pretty heavy so it sits on the pot firmly. My wife commented the other night that this dutch oven was the easiest to clean out of all of our cast iron cookware. Before I get any grief from some of you, I clean up much of my own mess when cooking, but what is left after we – (More…)

A few weeks ago I posted an article on how it was time to start your herbs for the season. Normally at the beginning of March this is the case, however if you live in the Northeast, this year seems to be a bit different.

As I look out my window in my New York home, I can’t help but feel a little depressed that it is April 12th and it is snowing outside. With all of this talk about global warming, I find my large picture window in my kitchen packed with pots with all of my started herbs. I swear that my basil plant is about one day from shouting “I want to go outside!”

I have had to attach a light over the large window sill so some of the herbs have enough light so they avoid reaching and stalk out too much. I have all my planters sit at the ready to be filled with dirt and put into the sun.

I can’t imagine what the local garden shops are going through right now. By now I am usually buying bags of potting soil, picking out herbs that I either forgot to start or for some reason just didn’t take. There really is no point yet as I just do not have enough sun inside to host all of them.

Checking some of the weather sites on-line gives no hope either. Most – (More…)

I think just about every cook in America has their very own meatloaf recipe. Meatloaf is the ultimate comfort food. I think it is impossible to spell out just one recipe for meatloaf as I change mine constantly.

There are some constants that I always use such as ground beef, bread, breadcrumbs, and onions. But really, you can add just about anything you want to meatloaf. Here is the version I have been making lately that the family just loves. If there are any leftovers, they do not last very long.

2 pounds ground beef.
1 medium yellow onion, chopped.
3 medium stalks of celery, chopped fine.
1 large carrot minced. I use a small food processor to mince.
3 large cloves of garlic, minced.
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce.
1/2 tablespoon Tabasco Garlic Hot Sauce.
1/2 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar.
2 large eggs.
3 slices of bread.
1/2 cup Italian flavored bread crumbs.
Olive oil.
1/3 cup ketchup.
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar.
Salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Add enough olive oil to a medium skillet to coat the bottom, about two tablespoons. Heat to medium and cook the carrot, onion, celery and garlic until the onion starts turning clear. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, add the meat, Worcestershire, Tabasco, and Balsamic. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the cooked vegetables, and eggs and mix with your hands until combined.

Quickly soak the three slices of bread in water and then squeeze the – (More…)

In our home, we generally have Easter dinner a week early. This started a few years ago when we always got that free ham from the grocery store, but we would spend our Easter with the relatives. So the weekend before, we would have an Easter dinner with friends and family that would not be at our traditional Easter dinner.

The store usually lets you select from a few different types and I almost always get a smoked pork shoulder with the bone. The smoked flavor really makes it easy to flavor the dish in interesting ways.

Over the years, I have used a few different techniques and recipes, but by far this one works the best.

1 large smoked pork shoulder.
8 cloves of garlic.
2 1/3 large sprigs of fresh rosemary.
4-5 large fresh sage leaves.
2 tablespoons Olive oil.
About 10 slices of Pancetta

In a small food processor, add the garlic, rosemary sprigs (not the stem) and the sage. Add the olive oil and chop/process until it makes a paste. One of those small electric choppers work great for this.

Salt and pepper the ham (go light on the salt). Rub the mixture all over the ham. Place the slices of pancetta all over the entire ham (except the bottom) using toothpicks to hold into place.

Now I normally will cook the ham for about 6-8 hours in my Crockpot BBQ Pit on low, but you could cook this – (More…)