Backyard Barbecue With McCormick Grill Mates

This post was sponsored by McCormick and is the second in a series of three posts featuring McCormick Grill Mates and Lawry's. The opinions expressed are my own.

A couple of weekends ago, we had some friends over for a little backyard barbecue featuring McCormick Grill Mates products and concepts from the McCormick Grill Mates and Lawry's Flavor Forecast: Grilling Edition. I spent days planning and re-planning the menu. I thought about all of McCormick's trends as I planned: Flavors to Watch, Breads on the Grill, 5-Minute Marinating, Smoke & Spice Pairings, Charred Fruit Drinks, DIY Condiments, and Social S'mores. McCormick offers a lot of ideas and recipes for these different trends.

Skirt Steak Tacos With Mango Guacamole

I'm back with another great Cinco de Mayo worthy dish: steak tacos with mango guacamole. The National Mango Board recently sent me a box of mangos, and while I ended up eating most of them just cut up and mixed with strawberries, I did use one in a flavorful guacamole, which I put on top of some tasty grilled steak tacos.

Trying Joan Nathan's Brisket Recipe

My first experience with brisket (besides corned beef brisket, which I've eaten every St. Patrick's Day for as long as I can remember) was the first time Jeff brought me home to meet his family. It was Rosh Hashanah (back in 2008). This was also my first time experiencing a Jewish holiday, potato kugel, and homemade challah bread. I won't say the evening wasn't intimidating -- Jeff has two sisters and a brother, and all of them have significant others and kids, so there were a lot of people there -- but I look back on that day and remember it as the first day I met my now in-laws and am amazed at how life just happens.

But anyways, back to the brisket. My mother-in-law had made brisket as part of dinner (I've come to learn that she makes it for every holiday and it's always popular), and of course I had to try it. She makes hers with mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, and onions, and I really enjoyed it. These days, I'm right there with everyone fighting for the platter when it gets set on the table.

Ringing In 2013

Happy New Year! How did you ring in 2013? I spent yesterday afternoon braising beef shanks for a wintry dinner of beef shank sauce over polenta. I'd never made beef shanks before and wanted to try something new to ring in the new year. I picked up about 5 pounds of them from Whole Foods (and the butcher very kindly cut them 2 inches thick for me), got them home, and set to work. Following this recipe from Food & Wine, I seared the shanks, created a luscious tomato-wine mixture for them, and placed them in the oven to braise for 3 hours. I took them out and threw some polenta in the oven to bake for an hour. While the polenta baked, I shredded up the meat and added it back to the sauce. Then I left the sauce on a low simmer until dinnertime.

The Best Ribs I've Ever Made

When summer rolls around, most of us want to cook outdoors on the grill and eat copious amounts of corn on the cob, tomatoes, and other summer veggies. I am no exception. Until this summer, though, I didn't have a grill to use. Now that I do, I've been focusing on finding grilling recipes to try. One thing I had never made was barbecued ribs. So when I saw a recipe in Bon Appetit for Best-Ever Barbecued Ribs, I flagged the page and planned to make them.

Jeff went to Whole Foods to get everything we'd need for them, specifically some racks of ribs. The recipe said to use baby back pork ribs or St. Louis-style spareribs, and the butcher told him baby back were better, so that's what he got.

Typically, ribs require some time in the oven prior to grilling to ensure that they get fall-off-the-bone tender. I planned dinner for a Friday night, so on the Wednesday before, I rubbed the ribs with some spices (salt, pepper, dry mustard, cayenne, and paprika), wrapped them in foil, and baked them for 2 hours, according to the recipe.

When the ribs were done, I poured off and saved the juices, let the ribs cool, and then rewrapped them and tucked them in the fridge until Friday.

On Friday evening, I whipped up some buttermilk biscuits and Jeff went out to heat up the grill.

To make the sauce for the ribs, I combined the rib juices (rewarmed slightly in the microwave) with chicken broth and barbecue sauce (store-bought for convenience).

Then we took the ribs outside and Jeff grilled and basted them, flipping them frequently, for about 10 minutes. This gives them that nice charred crust and warms them through.

Back inside, Jeff cut the ribs between the bones, and then we served them with warm biscuits and corn on the cob. It was the quintessential summer meal. (The sort of thing you follow up with juicy wedges of watermelon.) The ribs came right away from the bone. They were so tender and nicely flavored. And they were incredibly easy to make. This was definitely a low effort/big reward kind of meal.

Since I'd never made ribs before, I halved and then followed the recipe exactly. You can find it here.

Have you ever made ribs?

Hope you have a happy, safe, and fun 4th of July!

Balsamic-Marinated Flank Steak

Hope you all had a fabulous Memorial Day Weekend! I had an amazing one -- from a mini bachelorette party, which I will definitely tell you all about soon, to a day of shopping with my future mother- and sister-in-law. 

I really didn't do any cooking this weekend, but a couple weekends ago, I found a great new recipe for the grill (in Food & Wine magazine). On these hot, hot days we've been having lately, I've been so grateful that Jeff's parents' have a grill for us to use. It's so nice to be able to hang outside and make dinner instead of being stuck in a hot kitchen. And even better that Jeff helps out with a lot of the grilling so we spend more time together, as opposed to our usual arrangement of me cooking and him cleaning. (Of course, this means there's one downside: I have to help clean sometimes. It's worth it though.)

This particular recipe was for flank steak marinated in a homemade balsamic dressing. The picture of the perfectly grilled flank steak caught my eye, and when I showed it to Jeff, he was interested as well. 

I started by making the marinade: I mixed garlic, fresh rosemary, dried oregano, mustard, and balsamic vinegar in the blender and then drizzled in olive oil until the mixture was creamy. Then I seasoned it with a little salt and pepper.

I poured the marinade over the flank steak, turned the steak to make sure every bit of it was coated with the flavorful mixture, covered it, and refrigerated it for about 4 hours.

Then I had Jeff take the steak out of the marinade (simply letting the excess drip off) and throw it on the grill.

While he grilled the steak, I lightly oiled some baguette slices, zucchini halves, and scallions and added those to the grill. I also wrapped some halved grape tomatoes in foil with a little olive oil and salt and pepper, and let those warm and soften on the grill.

When the steak was ready, we let it rest for about 5 minutes, and then Jeff thinly sliced it against the grain.

I plated it with the grilled bread and veggies, and we dug in. I had reserved a bit of the marinade to serve with dinner, and it really added a lot of flavor to the steak and veggies. Flank steak isn't the most tender cut of meat by any stretch, but not overcooking it and thinly slicing it helped with that.

While this dinner had a lot of components, the whole thing came together very easily, and we were able to make everything on the grill, so there were no pots and pans to clean.

Have you been enjoying any easy meals lately?

Orecchiette With Pork And Broccoli

I'm never at a loss for inspiration when it comes to cooking and baking. Besides reading and editing recipes all day every day at work and reading numerous food blogs, I subscribe to a whole bunch of food sites so I'm constantly bombarded with emails from them with new recipes to try. The other day I got one of these emails from Real Simple; it featured a quick and easy recipe for pasta with turkey and broccoli. Something about the picture sucked me in, and pretty soon I was tweaking the recipe in my head and making a mental shopping list.

The dish looked like it could end up being a little dry (there was only oil used to moisten it), so I figured some crushed tomatoes would fix that (and enable me to cut some of the oil). I also wanted to add another veggie and chose to throw in an orange bell pepper. I haven't gotten Jeff into ground turkey yet, so I swapped in some ground pork instead. For extra flavor, I added an onion. In the end we had a pasta dish that was still quick and easy to make but turned up a notch with lots of veggies and flavor.

Orecchiette With Pork And Broccoli (adapted from Real Simple)

Ingredients

1 pound orecchiette
1 (14.5-ounce can) crushed tomatoes
1/2 pound broccoli crowns, cut in florets
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, cut in strips, then in thirds
1 pound ground pork
1 garlic clove, minced
Kosher salt and crushed red pepper flakes
Shaved Parmesan, for serving

Preparation 

Cook orecchiette according to package directions. Drain and return to pot. Stir in crushed tomatoes, and set aside.

Steam broccoli for about 3 minutes. (You can also throw the broccoli in with the pasta during the last minute of cooking. I preferred steaming the broccoli so I could be sure it would stay crisp.) Set broccoli aside.

Meanwhile, heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, and cook for 1 minute. Add bell pepper, and cook for 1 additional minute. Add pork and cook, breaking up with a spoon, for 3 minutes, then stir in garlic. Continue cooking until pork is no longer pink. Season with salt and red pepper flakes.

Transfer orecchiette to a large bowl, and toss with pork mixture and broccoli.

Serve with Parmesan and season with salt to taste.

Where do you get your recipe inspiration?

Grilled Pork With Peppers And Onion

I do not claim to have any sort of skills when it comes to grilling; it's actually one of the cooking methods I'm least familiar with. But since we're living with Jeff's parents and they've got a grill and grilling seems to be a quick and easy way to get to dinner on the table (not to mention that it keeps the kitchen clean), I've been giving it a try.

I decided to start small. Jeff made burgers a couple nights, and the first time he did, I laid some asparagus spears on a piece of foil, drizzled them with olive oil, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and placed them on the grill along with the burgers. A little while later, we had nicely charred, flavorful asparagus to go with our burgers. The next time I got a little more adventurous and tossed some mini peppers and onion slices with olive oil, salt and pepper, and a little garlic powder. It was another success.

Call it a confidence booster. I was ready for something a little more complicated and seasoned some boneless pork chops with salt and pepper. If I had more time, I would have brined them (and hopefully I'll get around to trying that soon.)

Then I decided to make mini peppers again, this time with wedges of Vidalia onion, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I put the mixture on a sheet of foil again. At some point I'm thinking I'll be brave enough to put veggies right on the grill grate, but I'm not quite there yet.

Once the grill was good and hot, I set the pork on one side and the veggies on the other.

I flipped the pork after the bottom side got charred and then cooked it a little longer before transferring it to a plate to rest.

Some of the pieces were perfect and some were just about a minute overdone--I'll have to work on that--but they were all well seasoned and still juicy.

The veggies took a little longer, and I tossed them with tongs occasionally to get charring on all sides.

I was pretty pleased with the final outcome.

Do you grill? What do you like to make? I really want to try making grilled pizza.

Braised Lamb Shanks With White Beans And Tomatoes

This past weekend I hosted my final lamb dinner sponsored by the Tri-Lamb Group. I've really enjoyed getting a lamb shipment every couple of months and trying new lamb-based recipes. The first shipment was a leg of lamb, which we grilled up with friends. The second shipment was ground lamb, which I turned into lamb pizza and shared with even more friends. And this last shipment contained four hefty lamb shanks, which I braised with white beans and tomatoes and served as a dinner for four. It's been a lot of fun trying these different recipes and sharing them with friends.

I hope throughout the course of my lamb dinner posts you've been inspired to make lamb at home too. It's no more complicated to cook than chicken or beef, and it's actually a pretty lean protein boasting tons of nutrients. We loved this last recipe, which is a heartier, more wintry lamb dish.

Braised Lamb Shanks With White Beans And Tomatoes (from the Tri-Lamb Group)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 lamb shanks, trimmed
Salt and pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
2 celery ribs, sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 tablespoons herbs de provence
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes and juice
1 (19-ounce) can cannellini beans

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season lamb shanks with salt and pepper. Add the shanks to hot oil and cook, browning each side, about 4 minutes per side (if necessary, cook in batches). Transfer shanks to a clean plate and set aside.

Add onion, carrot, celery, tomato paste, herbs de Provence, garlic, 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add wine, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan.

Add broth, tomatoes and beans; bring mixture to a simmer.

Nestle browned lamb shanks into broth mixture; cover, transfer to oven, and cook until meat is tender and easily falls off the bone, about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours depending on size of shanks.

Serve. (I suggest cutting the meat off the bone and combining it with the vegetables in a serving bowl, so everyone can take a little of both. The shanks are huge and, I think, easily serve more than one.)

The best part of this dinner is that after we were done eating, my friend turned to me and said she would definitely make something like this at home. It looked easy. And it was really good.

Thank you to the Tri-Lamb Group for providing me with the lamb and other ingredients for this recipe and for inviting me to participate in the supper club.

How often do you eat lamb?

Deconstructed Pork Dumplings With Snow Peas

I was looking for an easy dinner idea one night and came across a recipe for inside-out pork dumplings on Whole Living's website. It basically looked like a stir-fry with ground pork and wonton wrappers. I liked how simple and light the dish sounded, and most of the flavors appealed to me. What didn't appeal was all the bok choy (I've never been much for bitter greens) and white vinegar (it seemed like it would be too harsh). So I made a few tweaks and came up with these deconstructed pork dumplings with snow peas.

Jeff and I both really enjoyed this, and it comes together pretty quickly--besides that the wonton wrappers need to be boiled individually for a minute each. The original recipe calls for 24 wonton wrappers, but I cut back to 12, just to save time. I used snow peas because when I was shopping for the other ingredients, they caught my eye and I thought their crunch would be a nice addition. I can definitely see making many versions of this with different vegetables.

Deconstructed Pork Dumplings With Snow Peas (adapted from Whole Living)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
3 scallions, whites and greens separated, sliced thinly on bias
8 ounces ground pork
8 ounces snow peas
1 cup shredded carrots
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
Kosher salt
12 wonton wrappers

Preparation

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.

Heat oil and red pepper flakes in skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, and scallion whites. Cook, stirring, until scallions are tender, about 1 minute.

Add pork, breaking up with spoon, until cooked through, about 3 minutes.

Stir in snow peas. Cook until bright green, 1 to 2 minutes.

Turn off heat and stir in carrots and vinegar, and season with salt.

Cook wonton wrappers in boiling water, one at a time, until al dente, about 1 minute each.

Using tongs, transfer cooked wontons to skillet as they're finished.

Once all wontons are cooked, toss everything in skillet together and top with scallion greens.

Serve.

What veggies would you use in a dish like this?