Grilled Chicken Drumsticks and Smallwoods

Tonight I was tired and I wanted something that required little effort, little mess and clean up, and I didn't want to sacrifice taste, so we grilled up some drumsticks and made a Smallwood.  I started by preheating my gas grill,  the 3 left burners on med and the 2 right on low.  I would've used my charcoal grill, but I was out of charcoal, and like I said I was tired.  You know when I was a kid I hated the dark meat of chicken, but now it's my favorite.  I love thighs and drumsticks they just cook up so juicy and flavorful.  Don't get me wrong I do like a good breast, but it has to have the skin on and bone in. So I pulled my drumsticks from the frig, a stick of unsalted butter and my veggies for my Smallwood.  I melted 4 tbs of butter in the microwave.  I rinsed and dried my drumsticks, placed them in a large bowl, poured 1/2 the butter over them and sprinkled them with S & P and then I just worked it all into the flesh.  I sat those aside and started chopping up the veg for the Smallwood.  If you don't know what a Smallwood is, it's just your favorite veggies roasted in a foil pack with butter or oil and your favorite seasonings.  I learned this little trick on a rustic camping trick.  You know when your camping primitively, which I seldom do now, everything tastes great.  Especially over an open fire.  Camping for me today consists of setting up camp in Hocking Hills and using my Coleman Stove, Coleman Grill and just about Coleman everything.  We save the campfire for smores. I failed to mention that we sleep in the trailer that we haul our ATV's in with a queen size blow up mattress, fans and heaters and electric.  I have to say it's pretty cushy.  We just lack running water and a toilet, but who needs a toilet when you have the woods and a shovel.  Right?  OK, back to the Smallwood- tonight I had on hand garlic, poblano, red and jalapeno peppers, asparagus, zucchini, yellow squash and red skin potatoes.  I chopped the veggies and quartered the potatoes and left the garlic cloves whole (they roast up so nicely).  I placed in a bowl and remaining butter and some cajun spices mixed it all up and just placed in a foil packet.  I placed the Smallwood on the low heated burner side and the chicken drumsticks on the medium side.  I grilled it all for about 25-30 minutes, turning the chicken occasionally and basting it with the butter that was leftover in the bowl. Always check your chicken with a thermometer, there's nothing worse then serving up bloody chicken. I also shook the Smallwood occasionally, so that everything inside cooked evenly. That's pretty much it and look how it turned out.  Looks good doesn't it?  Well it's not difficult so give it a try.  Bon Appetit!

Grilled Pork Chops with Smallwoods

I'm very sorry to say, but my dad past away 2 weeks ago Saturday morning.  Obviously not really interested in posting lately, been so busy, so tired, so everything!!!  Although, yesterday Will and I did have a really nice day, we rode the bike to Yellow Springs and had lunch at Peaches Grill.  Love Peaches, great biker joint with great burgers and over 20 brews on tap.  Anyway, we spent most of the day riding and later stopped to visit with his folks.  My in-laws are great people, I'm blessed to have them.

I failed to mention that my parent's gave Will and I this really kick @#$$ charcoal grill.  I've never been much for charcoal grilling,  but I'm a convert!!! Love it.  So when we got home we grilled up some nice pork chops (no brining-trying to cut back on salt).  I just seasoned them with some Cajun spices and little EVOO.  I guess it took them about 20 minutes to grill.  We also did something referred to as a "Smallwood".  A Smallwood consists of taking your favorite veggies, garlic, your fav herbs/spices w/ butter/evoo and place them into a foil packet and grill them.  I don't puncture the foil.  Just let the veggies steam in their juices.  If you add potatoes, sweet potatoes or carrots you will have to steam for a least 25 minutes.  Oh, but when it's finished, it is oh so yummy.  What I love about this dish is that you use seasonal veggies and they are SOoooo good.  Give it a try, it's so easy and very little mess and clean up.  BTW, in our Smallwood we had asparagus, green beans, mushrooms, whole garlic cloves, red skin potatoes, red bell pepper, zucchini, squash, jalapeno and flat leaf parsley.    Bon Appetito!!!  Will be back soon.

Grillin' and Chillin'

OMG!!!  Tonight I was inspired by this crazy salad (which isn't a salad at all) that I had at the Acapulco Mexican Restaurant down the road.  Anyway, the salad consists of grilled peppers and onions, beef, chicken and shrimp.  I took it up an notch and added some chorizo sausage that I grilled too.  I think the picture explains it all.  Absolute yumminess.  Anyway, this is how I did it.  I took 1lb of chicken tenderloins, 1/2 lb beef sirloin steak, cut into thin strips, 6 large shrimp, 1 chorizo sausage, and 1 red pepper, 1 grn bell pepper, 1 jalapeno and 1 red onion and just cut them into large pieces.  I found this awesome marinade in the mexican section of the market, it's made by Goya.  Anyway, I placed each protein into separate large plastic bags and the veggies into a plastic bag and just evenly poured the marinade into each of the 5 bags.  I also liberally sprinkled cumin into each bag and I let them marinade for about 1 hour in the refrigerator.  In the meantime I turned my gas grill to low and let it heat up.  I placed my grill pan on the grill and I let that heat up as well.  I started grillin the veggies and the chorizo sausage first since they take a while to cook through.  As those were grillin I placed my chicken tenderloins on the grill, honestly they only took about 10 minutes took cook through.  I removed the chicken and then placed the beef on the grill and those only took about 5 minutes to cook thru and removed them.  I then added the shrimp and grilled them about 2 minutes on each side.  At this point my veggies and chorizo where cooked thru.  I cut my chorizo into slices and had everything on a sheet tray and we could pick what we wanted.  While everything was grillin I cooked up some basmati rice in chicken stock and tsp of turmeric and cooked up some of my pinto beans that I had frozen.  This was so much fun to do and everything tasted great.  I will definitely do this again.  You should try it, it's so easy.  I think the key is too keep your grill on low heat, so you don't overcook the protein.  Awesome Eats!!!