Christmas Morning Wife Saver

I make this every Christmas day but this could be made anytime for a brunch. It is delicious and can be made the night before. I decided to post this after someone on the FB Serious Eats Water Cooler posted about brunches.

Make this the day before and pop it in the oven in the morning.
16 slices of white bread crusts removed
16 slices of Canadian Back Bacon or Ham
16 slices of sharp cheddar cheese
6 eggs
½ tsp of salt
½ tsp of pepper
1 tsp of dry mustard
¼ cup of minced onion
¼ cup of green pepper finely chopped
2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 ½ cup of whole milk
dash of Tabasco Sauce
¼ pound of butter
Corn Flakes

In a 9X13 buttered glass baking dish, put 8 pieces of bread. Add pieces to cover the dish completely. Cover bread with slices of bacon sliced thinly. Lay slices of cheddar cheese on top of bacon and then cover with slices of bread to make it like a sandwich. In a bowl beat eggs, salt, and pepper.
To the egg mixture add dry mustard, onion, green pepper, Worcestershire Sauce milk and Tabasco. Pour over the sandwich. Cover and let stand in the fridge overnight. In the morning melt ¼ pound of the butter and pour over the top. Cover with Corn Flakes and bake for 1 hour at 350F. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

BBQ Ribs

Last year I switched over from a propane to a charcoal BBQ. So far I have been very happy with my new charcoal BBQ. Last night I made ribs for the first time using charcoal. I was quite happy with the results. I got a pretty good char on the ribs, perhaps a little too much. I will have to watch them a little more carefully next time. The sauce which is simply 2 bottles of Diane's Original BBQ sauce, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1/2 a cup of water, and two teaspoons of instant coffee granules, is super tasty. For the rub I use paprika, salt, pepper, and chili powder. This rub gives the ribs a fantastic taste. I usually begin my ribs in the oven for about 4-5 hours at about 250F. I rub them, put them in a large foil pan, pour in about 2 1/2 bottles of beer then cover with foil. Once they are ready, I then transfer them to the BBQ and begin basting with the sauce until ready.

Fries Cooked in Duck Fat

I have always loved french fries. I remember when I was younger the chip truck would ring its bell as it came down the street and I would beg my parents to give me 75 cents for an extra large fry. Well times have changed and chip trucks no longer ring their bells on their streets.

If you want an extraordinary french fry experience, try making your own fries, fried up in rendered duck fat. I guarantee you will will never go back to chip truck fries.

Just buy some rendered duck fat, get a deep frying pan, bring the duck fat up to frying temperature. Hand cut a couple of russet potatoes and fry away. The taste is amazing. For you health watch people, duck fat is a very healthy fat. It is much healthier than butter. The only fat better is pure olive oil. French fries without the guilt: Priceless.

Parmesan Pork Tenderloin

Here is another super easy recipe that tastes great.

Parmesan Pork Tenderloin

INGREDIENTS
• 1 pound pork tenderloin
• 3 tablespoons fine dry bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 small zucchini or summer squash, thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS
1. Cut tenderloin crosswise into 12 slices, approximately 3/4-inch thick. Place each slice on its cut surface and flatten with heel of hand to 1/2-inch thickness. Combine crumbs, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper; dredge pork slices to coat.
2. Heat oil over medium-high heat in nonstick pan. Saute pork for 2 to 3 minutes per side; remove and keep warm. Add onion, garlic and zucchini or squash to skillet and saute 5 minutes or until tender.

When You Can't BBQ Your Steak Try This

Sometimes it is just too cold out to BBQ but I have found a pretty good alternative for cooking steaks. First, I marinate them in olive oil over night in the fridge and then I take them out and let them come to room temperature. I then get a fry pan good and hot and sear the steaks. I do flip them more than once. I picked that tip up from http://www.seriouseats.com/. I also season with seasoned salt. My favourite is Lowry's. Here is a photo of last night's supper.

Easy Chicken

This is the simplest chicken dish you will ever make. Put chicken breasts in a casserole and pour Kraft Sundried Tomato and Oregano dressing over them. Put in the oven uncovered at 350 for approximately one hour depending on the size of the breast. Serve with a salad and some hot sauce. Super easy and very tasty.

Halibut With Tomato Salsa

After seeing Brian's halibut dish, I decided I would make some for dinner. This really tasted great. The tomato salsa was excellent.

Halibut with Tomato Salsa

■5 cocktail sized on the vine tomatoes, some cut in half and some cut in quarters

■2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
■1/2 of a lemon
■1 tsp finely chopped fresh red chili pepper
■pinch of dried thyme
■two splashes of white wine
■salt and pepper (to season the fish)
■olive oil

The Method

For the Salsa:

1.Heat a bit of olive oil over medium heat in a non stick frying pan.

2.Add the garlic and sautee for a minute. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the tomatoes, chili pepper and juice of half a lemon and sautee for another 4 minutes.
3.Add the thyme and stir.
4.Add the wine and stir until wine is reduced to about 1/4 of the volume, about another 3 minutes.

For the Halibut

1.Rinse the filet, and pat it dry with paper towels. Get it as dry as possible.

2.Season the flesh side with salt and pepper.
3.Heat a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat in a non stick frying pan.
4.When the oil is hot, add the halibut, skin side down.
5.Let it cook skin side down for 6 minutes. Now, the key is not to move the filet, just let it cook. It will look like it’s sticking to the pan, but when it’s ready to flip it will release from the pan very easily.
6.After 6 minutes, lower the heat to medium, flip the halibut and let it cook flesh side down for about 4 minutes (again, don’t move it until it moves easily).
7.Depending on how thick your filet is, you may need another few minutes at this point. If you do, flip the fish back onto its skin side for the remainder of the time. I gave mine another 2 minutes. When the fish is completely opaque and flakes easily it is ready.
8.Plate the fish, skin side down, squeeze some more lemon juice on it and spoon the tomato salsa over it.
9.Serve.

BBQ Challenge Held at Home and Trade Show

It certainly has been a long time since my last post. I have been very busy with a couple of other websites but I am going to turn my attention back to this blog. I attended the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce BBQ Challenge on the weekend. Two of my cooking friends entered the challenge. Sylvain cooked an outstanding quail dish and Brian an equally outstanding halibut dish. You can see how great these looked in the photos below. Neither Brian nor Sylvain placed. Brian was defeated from the beginning. Two of the three judges were allergic to white fish. Go figure. Also strange was that a rib dish placed second. The rules were 20 minute preparation and 20 minute cooking time. Ya can't cook ribs in 20 minutes. The ribs were falling off the bone. They had been cooked for many hours prior to the competition. Seems a little unfair. First place was jerk chicken. I even wonder how chicken with bone in could cook in 20 minutes. Anyhow it was a good event. Hopefully next year the rules will be a little clearer.