Grilled Pork Chops

Ingredients

• 4-6 thinly sliced, bone-in pork chops
• Backyard Southern Style Seasoning [Buy on Amazon]
• Dale's Steak Marinade (Low sodium if desired)
• Charcoal grill

Prep time: 30-60 minutes
Cook time: 10-20 minutes
Total time: 45-80 minutes

Instructions

Place the pork chops in a large enough cookie sheet or large pan so that they all lay flat, or use the container you may have purchased them in, if big enough. Pour Dale's Steak Marinade over the chops, enough to get a light coating on all the chops. Sprinkle a liberal amount of Backyard Southern Style Seasoning on the chops, and let sit uncovered for at least 30 minutes, an hour at the most.

Prepare charcoal grill and place chops on grill, and cook for about 3-5 minutes. Flip and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Remove from direct heat (if you have a larger grill, place away from fire) and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Goes really well with grilled asparagus, roasted vegetables, or just baked beans and potato salad. I have receieved so many comments from everyone I cook these for, and they all agree they are the best pork chops ever. Super markets such as Kroger have their own brand of steak marinade that will also work as a substitute for Dale's. You can also use an all-purpose seasoning in place of Backyard, but the flavors that the Backyard seasoning is unmatched.

Chicken Alfredo that doesn't suck

The key is the chicken. You have to have great chicken, else you have Alfredo sauce and fettuccine pasta with protein chunks. Add a contrasting flavor in your seasoning of choice, and learn how to cook some mean chicken.

I prefer boneless, skinless chicken breasts, fresh, not frozen. They cook way better when they are fresh. Also, get a simple Alfredo sauce. No need for a garlic or mushroom, unless you want to add that from fresh ingredients.

First, get some extra virgin olive oil in a pan. Just a light coat of the bottom, we aren't deep frying the chicken. You want the pan hot enough for a sear, or a quick, high-heat cooking of the outside of the chicken, in order to preserve the natural juices of the chicken. The seasoning you choose is important. I use a combination of all-purpose season (Lawry's) and a cajun seasoning (Tony Chachere's) and a sprinkle of garlic salt. Give a good coating of the all-purpose seasoning on one side of the breast. Add a touch of the cajun seasoning and garlic salt, and lay that side down in the pan, and season the other side.

I recommend covering the pan, that way the entire chicken breast heats up, making it easier to cook thoroughly. The sides of the breast will begin to white, and a few minutes after that, the first side should be ready. Flip it and repeat on the other side, covering again as to get the internal temperature up.

Preheat your oven to about 350. After a few minutes with the chicken, pull it off the pan and onto a baking sheet in the oven for about 5-7 minutes. This will keep the inside cooking without burning your outsides.

Now with all that goodness still in your pan, dump your Alfredo sauce in, along with an equal amount of milk, and turn your heat down to about low-medium (4-5). Mix until your oil and sauce come together, although they will separate some once you stop mixing. You can add your cooked noodles in the sauce as well.

If you prefer a lighter taste, use a lighter olive oil. Extra virgin does wonders to the chicken that the light stuff can not.

Now, pull your chicken, and give it a stab in the thickest part of the thickest piece. If there is not juices gushing out then you should be ok. Now slice up your breasts into pieces you see fit. If you see parts of the chicken not done, don't panic. Just slip it back in the oven for a few minutes.

During the chicken cooking process, add some freshly pressed garlic and mushrooms for some added flavor. Before adding the sauce to the leftover oil, get your garlic and mushrooms sauteed, and then your mushrooms will absorb the garlic and oil and really kick with the sauce.

You can substitute the thinly cut breasts, but they tend to overcook for me before the outside gets a thin layer of golden color.

Spicy Garlic Shrimp

A recipe I stumbled upon while looking for something to do with some medium sized shrimp:

1 pound of uncooked, peeled/deveined shrimp (medium size)
1 cup Buffalo Wild Wings Spicy Garlic sauce
3 tblsp of butter/margarine

Heat large skillet to medium heat. Soften then mix butter and sauce in a medium bowl. Add shrimp to bowl, cover with lid or aluminum foil/cellophane and shake until shrimp is coated in sauce. Sautee shrimp until pink and firm, 2-3 minutes on each side, while adding additional sauce to the skillet. Remove shrimp and spoon additional sauce over shrimp and serve.

A slightly spicy but very good and tasty shrimp dinner that takes little time, little effort, but lots of compliments!

Brats in the Oven

I love to grill, but without the necessary equipment, e.g. a grill, you have to come up with other ways to make some good food that is normally cooked on the grill. I am a huge fan of sausage, be it smoked, Polish, Italian, bratwurst, etc. I picked up two packages of brats, one beer and one Italian mild, along with some white onion, bell pepper, shredded kraut, pickled jalapeños. Second best way to cook sausage is wrap it in foil and bake it. Here is my take on oven-cooked brats.

Bratwurst of your choice (4-5 links)
1/2 can sauerkraut (or freshly made, somewhere between 1-2 cups, according to your liking)
3/4 cup white onion, chopped
1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup jalapeños, sliced

Preheat oven to 360-375, depending on how long you want to cook and how juicy you want the brats. I started about 350 and ended up around 400 just to get a idea of where to place it in the future. It took me about 30-40 minutes to cook under 350, and I cooked a few more minutes at 375 and 400. I would suggest about 25 minutes at 375 and 30-35 minutes at 360.

Lay out a big enough piece of aluminum foil to wrap the brats and other ingredients on a cookie sheet or baking pan. Place brats about two inches apart on the foil, and garnish ingredients over the brats, and wrap foil on top, leaving just a small vent at the top. Salt and pepper if you'd like. Place in oven after preheated.

Check after about 25 minutes to see if meat is a paler color than before. The casing, depending on what kind of brat you got, should be a white color or something lighter than the uncooked brat. the inside should be a very pale color throughout when cooking in completed.

I didn't need any additional ingredient, such as spicy brown mustard, ketchup, etc. I placed it in a bun, and enjoyed some of the juiciest, robust, and flavorful brats I have had in a while.

Luckily, I now have a grill I can cook my remaining brats on. I am also going to grill the onion and bell pepper, and warm the kraut over the grill, along with roasting me some beer brats.