Over the weekend, we had some gorgeous sunshine and warm temperatures! It felt fantastic to be sweating while scrubbing our back deck’s railings.

I took out a flat iron steak from the freezer with visions of making grilled flank steak with fresh veggies and a starch. It didn’t happen. Martin invited us over for a pork roast dinner and a game of cards called 5 Crowns which is super fun and addictive. My winning streak came to an end last night. 

We always have dinner with Martin when he invites us because he is a chef and cooks excellent food. He is also fun to watch cook; I learn a lot from watching him being a visual learner. 

Martin’s wife and my friends Eileen passed away suddenly two years ago. Whenever he invites us, he has a craving for something and would never make it for himself. It’s always last minute, and we rarely have to decline. 

Most widows may agree they don’t want to cook a big meal just for themselves. So he cooks for us and others, which is a great deal for us! We always have such a good time while we are at it. 

Usually, I cook whatever I had planned to make before his invite the next night. Today is a rainy and nasty day, not suitable for grilling a summer steak and veggies.

I decided to make a trifecta of old-school classics, perfect for a shitty weather day like today. 

Last year, I wrote about each of the meal components I made tonight. There is a separate blog post with recipes included.

Older or foodie people always laugh when I mention the names of these dishes, and they always add an “I haven’t thought about that dish for years!” Lol 😂 

Steak Diane is one of my major league hitters that is a home run every time. It is Sam’s favorite. His eyes get glossed over when I tell him I am making it. Here is my blog link for Steak Diane if you aren’t sure what it is and want to make it.

I used my grandmother’s cast iron frying to sear and cook the flat iron steak. I have found that cooking steak intimates many people, and it doesn’t have to be.

Before I got good at making steaks both indoors and outdoors, I watched many YouTube chef videos. The biggest fear I had was killing the meat in other words overcooking it and ruining it. We like our steak medium-rare and not well done. Steak is too damn expensive to screw up.

What took the fear away for me was a thermometer. Clever huh? I have no shame using a temp probe to watch the temperature of my steak. All that touching the back of your hand to check for doneness is a bunch of bullshit for home cooks. Seriously, get a thermometer and decide how you like your steaks done. 

This is how easy it is. I pull my medium-rare steaks off the grill when it reaches 130-degrees. The steak goes up 5-degrees in temperature after it comes off the grill or out of the pan. A perfect medium-rare steak is 135-degrees. Nailed it! 

Rare 120-degrees 

Medium-rare 130-degrees

Medium 140-degrees 

Medium-well 150-degrees

Well done 160+ degrees

I used to keep my steak on the grill until the thermometer read 135-degrees, and it was always overdone. Once I started pulling it off 5-degrees before I had perfect steak.

I don’t use this method for poultry or pork. I don’t take it off the grill or out of the oven until it reaches temperature or a bit over. You can’t fuck around with chicken, or everyone will get sick. Chicken must always be cooked to at least 165-degree and for pork 145-degrees.

To go with the Steak Diane, I pulled three twice-baked potatoes out of the freezer I made a couple of months ago. Whenever I make them, I double the recipe for another night, like tonight. The oven does all the work.

People forget about twice-baked potatoes even though everyone goes nuts for them. They are a perfect side dish for steak. Here is the link to Twice Baked Potatoes.

I decided on Green Beans almandine since I had green beans that needed to be used. I was going to quick char them on the grill when I was cooking them outside, but these would do.

Green beans almandine is an old-school veggie side dish that you never see on a plate anymore. It’s a shame because they are easy to make and delicious. 

Here’s the Green Bean Almandine post to learn more about them. It’s funny that the post reads a lot like this one; you’ll see if you read it.

I love these dishes, and they are my go-to’s whenever I have the ingredients on hand, and I am not sure what to make. 

These old-school classics are just that because everyone loved them, and they were on every restaurant menu back in the day. I like to bring these dishes back and share them with people or, in some cases, introduce them to people.

It’s interesting to think about what current food trends will be considered old-school classics in 40 years. What do you guys think? 🤔 

I am going with avocado toast! Definitely!

I triumphantly achieved the success of some damn good bbq chicken. It may have been the best bbq chicken I have ever eaten, that’s why I called it dope-ass chicken. Dope=good.

That’s a big, bold statement, but it may be true. I know chicken, and I love chicken. Roasted chicken is one of my favorite dishes; it’s the first thing I would eat after setting foot in Paris.

Bbq chicken and smoked chicken are two different things. We can use the same ceramic smoker grill for both. The difference is using wood or charcoal. Another difference is if you are smoking low and slow or grilling your proteins quickly.

I made smoked chicken thighs at the end of the summer last year, and they came out delicious. I made a sticky & sweet glaze for them, which made them even tastier.

This time I grilled the chicken thighs using lump wood charcoal. We set the grill up with a hot side and a cooler side. This is also referred to as direct and indirect heat.

Since this is all new for me, I researched tons of bbq chicken blog posts and recipes. Everyone has their way when it comes to using a rub or brine. Both are used to add deep flavor to the chicken, not just coasting the skin. 

When using a rub, it is applied for several hours or overnight to the chicken. This is called a dry brine; a new cooking terminology for me. I don’t associate the words dry and brine together since they are opposite things.

The other method of getting flavor into the chicken is brining. Brining poultry is submerging the poultry in a solution of water, salt, sugar, spices, and herbs for 24-48 hours.

I think back to the old days when people’s mothers and grandmothers soaked their poultry in saltwater before baking it. They were brining back then and didn’t even know it. Here comes the but; they baked the living shit out of it, leaving it dry as fuck out of fear of food poisoning.  

Brining poultry didn’t become popular until the early 2000s when the magazine Cooks Illustrated introduced and endorsed the brining method. It caught on and became all the rage. After two decades of brining being the golden child, some chefs like Alex Garnaschelli are “over it” even though the internet is flooded with her famous turkey brining recipe. 

I decided to use a rub for the dry brining method for the chicken. I looked up various recipes for chicken rubs and picked one. The one I chose was a home run, so I am glad I went with my instincts.

Here is the link to the rub recipe I used for my chicken even though the title of the recipe is Barbecue Pork Rub Recipe.

I dry brined my chicken for 9 hours which was plenty of time for the flavor to penetrate the chicken thighs. 

While the chicken was dry brining, I looked up different bbq sauces recipes. They are millions of them, just to let you know. I filtered through many and decided to make an “old-fashioned” bbq sauce. I didn’t realize there was a difference, but there is. 

One blog explained how old-fashioned bbq sauces aren’t cooked like most but have melted butter in them. Butter in bbq sauce may seem a bit odd, but what do I know I am new to this.

I picked the sauce recipe called Old Fashioned Bbq Chicken and Sauce from the blog that explained old-fashioned bbq sauce. After I made the sauce I tasted it, I was surprised by how bright it was. Old fashioned bbq sauces also have lemon juice in them; that’s where the brightness comes from. 

For the hell of it, I added the lemon juice last because I wanted to see if it made a difference in the sauce. It made a huge difference! It made the sauce.

Grilling chicken goes fast and can overcook quickly something I didn’t want to happen. I got out the temperature probe so I could keep an eye on things.

The chicken is placed skin side down over the hot direct heat for 3-5 minutes I did 4. I was shocked at how dark the skin got so quickly. One was a little too black, so I took the skin off that piece. It didn’t matter in the end.

The chicken is flipped over the direct heat side for another 3-5 minutes. I did 3 this time.

The chicken is then moved to the other side of the grill to the cooler indirect heat. I had the meat probe set for 175 degrees to make sure the chicken was done all the way through. 

The probe goes through the thickness part of the chicken part but away from the bone. I inserted the probe until I hit the bone, then backed it up. I saw that trick on YouTube.

Bbq sauce shouldn’t be applied to the chicken too early, or it will burn from the sugar in the sauce. All my dad’s friends applied theirs too soon ruining the chicken. I hated eating the bitter burned chicken; I ate it though because I had to.😖

I waited until the chicken reached 155 degrees before adding the sauce to one side of the chicken. I let it cook for 10 minutes and flipped it over and brushed the sauce on the other side. 

I repeated this a couple of times ending with the skin side up and a final brushing of sauce. I pulled the chicken off when my 175-degree temperature alert went off on the remote.

I let the chicken sit at room temp for 10 minutes to let the juices redistribute themselves. Wow, did this work! The chicken thighs were so moist and juicy. The insides were glistening like Marty’s brisket did. Yum!

The skin was done just right. Even the one piece that lost its skin at the beginning of the cook tasted perfect because the sauce still coated the skinless chicken thigh like the other ones. 

This morning, I ate a piece of cold chicken for breakfast. It was still moist and had a better flavor than two nights before. 

So I made dope-ass bbq chicken. The real question is can I do it again? We will see. 

Here is the blog post “Meet me at the Reo“

Last summer, we tried teaching ourselves how to use a smoker. We had many failures and a success or two by the end of the summer.

Smoking meats is not grilling. Grilling is predictable and manageable like cooking. Smoking meats is getting the wood fire to a perfect low temperature and keeping it that way for hours. 

Keeping that low temp wood fire is much more complicated than you think. Airflow is a significant factor in temperature control. I find this part tricky because my fire always gets too hot.

Last summer, I incinerated a gorgeous brisket, a pork shoulder, and chicken parts beyond recognition. So damn annoying and wasteful, but we learned what not to do, so there’s that.

We found out that professional temperature probes are essential for smoking meats. Sam gave me a set of probes with digital remotes for Christmas. 

I used the temp probes for different meats I roasted over the winter, and guess what? Everything came out perfectly done. Go figure! 

Marty wanted to try smoking the brisket this time; I was okay with it and glad he wanted to take charge. I made the sides—no pressure for me.

He used the temp probes, putting one in the smoker and one in the brisket. The brisket was seasoned with only salt and pepper, as the pros do—no other rubs.

He kept an eye on the brisket during the 5-hour smoke. It was a small brisket, only around 4 lbs, so he was careful to go slow and low as they tell you to do.

After 2 hours into the smoke time, he wrapped the brisket tightly with foil and put it back in the smoker for 3 more hours. He kept checking the temperature on the remote he kept with him, which was better than constantly running back and forth to the smoker.

After taking the brisket out of the smoker, he kept it wrapped up for a couple more hours, sealing in all those juices.

Unwrapping smoked meats is like when you take a soufflé, popovers, or cream puffs out of the oven. You can’t open the oven to check on soufflés or pâte à choux (cream puffs) because they will deflate. This is a hold your breath moment. A moment that can go from cries of joy to what-the-fucks in a blink of an eye. 

When we unwrapped the brisket, it was gorgeous! It was soft and moist. It had the right amount of smoke taste and a beautiful red smoke ring. Marty was like a proud peacock! He should be because he nailed it! Woot woot!

It sliced easily and glistened. It had the right amount of fat and wasn’t dry at all. BBQ we’ve gotten out the last few times had been a disappointment. 

The disappointing briskets from a couple of bbq joints were extremely dry, flavorless meats that required copious amounts of sauces and a big beverage to choke them down. We almost gave up hope for good brisket again.

Every year I can remember my “best bite of the year” for years to come. These “best bites” become incredible food memories for me. This brisket was my “best bite of the year” so far.

I wished I could have had my stomach stretched so I could have eaten more. The sides I made complimented the brisket like a symphony. Salty, sweet, creamy, tangy, crunchy, smokey, and delicious.

The brisket was perfectly smoked and had an incredible unctuous mouthfeel. What the fuckity is unctuous, you may be asking yourself?

Unctuous is a word that describes how moist, slippery, or fatty something is. It’s often used to describe foods rich in fat. It’s sexy food.

Using the word unctuous is describing something with total gluttony and not caring. We don’t eat unctuous foods every day, so when I do I enjoy the texture and richness; guilt-free.

Back to the brisket, I didn’t want this meal to end; it was that amazing. I reheated some brisket by steaming it this morning for Sam when he got home from his overnight shift at the hospital.

He got a huge smile on his face and couldn’t believe how moist and delicious the brisket was. “The smoke is perfect,” he said. I am smiling because the two of us are so much alike regarding food.

Marty’s delicious brisket was the last thing I thought about before I fell asleep last night; I kid you not! It was that good. Marty is now the head bbq smoker in the family. 🙌🏼

I was thinking last week that for someone who has a cooking and living blog, I haven’t written about food for a few weeks.

For three weeks or so, our business, The Vermont Spätzle Company, was rocking. We had spätzle orders from our wholesale accounts out the ass. We worked hard, pulling double production days to fill all of those orders.

It was almost like the universe dumped all the orders on us at once in that short time period because right after we were done, we got covid. The universe has a funny way of doing those types of things. I always acknowledge those situations and am grateful.

Did we eat while we were busy with production? Of course, we ate but nothing to write home about. A few years ago, a friend of mine asked me on Facebook if we “ever ate the same shit like everyone else?” I am not sure if my friend Randy or his twin brother Ray asked, but it still makes me giggle when I think about it.

Tonight I went with Thai cuisine. I love Thai food and how flavorful everything is. When I say flavorful, I don’t mean spicy; that’s what my timid eating cooking students thought. They learned when you are making any cuisine; you have control over the amount of spice you put into a dish. Just because a recipe calls for a certain amount, you can add a little at a time or none at all.

I used a popular recipe on the internet, one that a million food bloggers call their own when they are copying and pasting. Come on, people, this is your business for Christs’ sake; at least change things up to make it look like your own. They all even use the same photo! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I’ve learned a trick or two when preparing Thai cuisine that makes such a difference. Things once again they don’t tell you in recipes. For instance, whenever I make a Thai curry dish, I slowly poach whatever protein in the curry sauce. This gentle cooking method doesn’t dry the protein out like if you stir fry it first as the recipes instruct doing.

I have most of the curry dishes down when it comes to Thai cooking, but I still haven’t made a Pad Thai dish I am happy with. It’s a work in progress that is taking years. I order it sometimes when I go out to remind my palate what I am shooting for.

The recipe I made tonight is easy, even if you’ve never made Thai food before. Here is the link to the recipe I used. If you don’t like spicy food, start with a tablespoon of curry paste instead of the 4 Tbsp the recipe calls for.

Speaking of curry paste, where can you find it? Thai curry pastes are available in the ethnic section of most supermarkets; you don’t have to make a special trip to an Asian market to find some. If I can find curry paste up here in Vermont, you can find it anywhere.

I served my pork peanut curry with jasmine rice which I always use a rice cooker for. This small appliance is invaluable to me because I hate babysitting rice while it’s cooking. It’s tough to make a perfect pot of rice, believe it or not. All Asian people own a rice cooker and use it every day.

I also roasted some brussel sprouts and tossed them last minute with a bit of Thai sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil and threw them back into the oven for a few minutes. They became caramelized and tasty.

Today we picked up a brisket that we found on sale when we went grocery shopping. The cupboards were pretty bare after being in isolation for ten days. We needed to do a big shop even though Sam picked up a few important essentials like milk and chocolate pudding cups for me. 😜

Since we will still be home from our farmers market tomorrow, we will fire up the smoker and make our first brisket of the year. We learned a lot about what not to do last year, so hopefully, it will turn out smokey, juicy, and delicious. I’ll report back. Smoking meats is no easy task, even though they make it look easy on tv.

Happy Friday! Enjoy your weekend, everyone. I will be doing some outdoor projects taking advantage of the nicer weather with sunshine in the forecast! 😎