I’ve been a bad food blogger.

The holidays came as a rush this year and, while I’ve been cooking, I haven’t been sharing those meals here.

Sorry about that.

To make amends, here’s a list of hopes/plans/wishes/resolutions that I’m looking forward to in 2012:

• Tonight’s prime rib – with a recipe inspired by Michael Ruhlman and AmazingRibs. I have big hopes for this meal, and it will be fun to share it with dear friends.
• Blogging more, worrying less – sometimes I over-think things when I should let the food do the talking.
• Catching up on my reading – Michael Ruhlman’s Charcuterie, Smokin’ with Myron Mixon, The Homesick Texan Cookbook, The Gluten-Free Bible, and the Big Green Egg Cookbook are all on my list.
• Learning to code in WordPress - painful but necessary.
• Spending more time playing and traveling with my dear wife.
• Experimenting with the new Lomo lens on my Panasonic cameras (photo of the Big Green Egg ornament above taken with it).
• Weight Watchers – need to keep on keeping it off. Mom’s caramel corn didn’t help over the holidays, but we are in much better shape than we were last year.

Tiz that time of year when folks start looking for gifts for their favorite foodie. Because every cook has different tastes, and because your mileage may vary, this year I’m going to try to avoid making recommendations.

Instead, here are some products that I’ve enjoyed using this past year. I wholeheartedly give them the Food & Fire Seal of Approval (for what that’s worth ). If you think your grill guy/girl might appreciate some of them, go for it and enjoy the great food that (hopefully) may come your way in return!

Steel Grill Roaster from Williams-Sonoma – It’s a perforated stainless steel pan, so the food gets directly exposed to the flame, but it’s raised up a bit so it cooks more evenly. Great for roast veggies and shrimp.

Cholula Hot Sauce - There are now 4 flavors of Cholula: Original, Chili Garlic, Chili Lime, and Chipotle. I’ve been a big fan of their original sauce for years – not much heat or vinegar, but a solid chili taste that works great on almost any Mexican dish. The new sauces take that original flavor and add some very nice accents to it.

Bayou Classic Cast Iron Griddle - I’ve had this for a while, but really put it to work this year. I’ve made some excellent blackened steaks and sizzling fajitas on it.

Thermapen Splash-Proof Thermometer - The new version of my favorite  instant-read thermometer adds a splash-proof seal. It’s fast, accurate, and easy to read. I like it so much I now I have the new one in my grill table and old one in the kitchen.

High-Que Fire Grate Upgrade - I’ve been cooking with this new grate for the Big Green Egg for 6 months and it works as promised. The Egg comes up to temp faster and burns between 25°F and 50°F hotter than it did with the old grate. I’ve not had any problems with ash clogging the grate, even though I usually reuse the lump.

Emile Henry Flame-Top Cookware - I’ve been lucky enough to get to try out Emile Henry’s new line of flameproof ceramic that’s designed to go directly on a live flame. I’ve tried their tagine, Dutch oven, and pizza stone and they all cook like champs.

All-Clad d5 Stainless Pans - My dear wife gave me a nice set of new All-Clad pans almost a year ago. I’ve cooked the hell out of them since then, and continue to be very pleased with them. They heat evenly, respond quickly to temperature changes, and are easy to clean.

Wishing you all a happy and a healthy and a merry!

No recipes this time, just some thoughts on making the most of what’s left of our fleeting daylight and fall grilling weather.

I got inspired to rethink how I plan meals on the Big Green Egg after reading the Kingsford U: Grill Once Eat Twice post over at Nibble Me This. Chris makes the point that it takes the same amount of time and fuel to to cook two chickens as it does to cook one chicken, and you end up with more tasty grilled chicken for future meals.

Even though I’m usually just cooking for the two of us, I put this idea into practice by typically doubling or tripling most recipes on the grill. The extras end up in my lunch, or as dinner later in the week, or they get frozen off  for those nights when nobody wants to cook.

Now I’ve started working on a variation of this that I call one fire – many meals. The idea is that once you’ve gone to the effort to get the grill set up, you might as well try and pass as much food over that flame as you can.

For instance – the other night I made steak for dinner. While I was getting the BGE fired up, my dear wife said that there were also a couple of packages of chicken tenders in the fridge that she would like cooked up for salads and snacks. She had planned on baking them, but they would be ever so much better grilled, wouldn’t they?

Fire = good so, of course, they would taste better. My only question was how to go about cooking the steaks hot and fast and then modifying the heat so that the tenders would get a little char on them, but not get overcooked and dried out.

I pondered this while I prepped the steak with some fresh-ground sea salt and black pepper. I had the tenders laid out in a 9×13 pan and was hitting them with a little Dizzy Pig Swamp Venom when an idea clicked – I could leave the heat alone after the steak was done and resting and then cook the tenders quickly over the roaring flame and move then off to a baste á la  Adam Perry Lang, cut the heat, and let them finish there.

Not bad, but wouldn’t the heat move too fast through a metal pan and just scorch the tenders?  Probably. Hmmm, how about a Dutch oven? Yeah that’d work. Or, even better, use the tagine. Genius!

I poured a couple of glugs of olive oil into the base of the tagine and then added about 4 cloves of crushed garlic and about a teaspoon each lemon zest, thyme, and sage.

With the BGE running at about 650°F, I put the steak on for 2 minutes a side and then moved it off to a warm plate, covered it with another plate, and let it rest while I cooked the chicken.

The tenders went on in batches. With the heat this high, by the time I finished putting the last row of tenders on the grate the first row was ready to be flipped. Once they had some nice grill marks on each side (but where still pretty raw on the inside) I moved them off the heat to the tagine, making sure to toss them a bit in the oil.

When all the tenders were in the tagine, I swirled another glug of olive oil over the top, put the lid on, and moved the tagine to the grill.  I closed the lid on the BGE, shut the bottom vent down to reduce the heat, and went inside for a lovely steak dinner.

When I checked on them 30 minutes later, the tenders were done and basting in their own juices. I moved everything inside, removed the lid, and let them cool before packaging.

Cooking this way does take a bit more time and fuel, but not much more effort. You’re essentially letting your downtime and residual heat work for you. For this cook I spent maybe an extra ten minutes packaging off the tenders, but we ended up with a steak dinner, a dinner of tenders and veggies the next night, chicken salad lunches for a couple of days, and about a dozen tenders frozen off for chicken stew the next week.

Not bad for a little extra work.

Both of my grandmothers kept their favorite recipes in their heads, and what few they couldn’t remember, they wrote out in neat script on 3 x 5 note cards and stored then in wooden boxes. For most of their lives, they fed their family foods that they or their neighbors had grown, raised, or made with their own two hands. Their grocery lists were short and the meals were predictable. You knew what you were having for dinner based on what day of the week it was.

Our world is a little more complicated, which I don’t always think is a good thing. While I’m lucky to know the joys of sriracha and tahini, I’m just not always sure how you wade through all of the recipes and food choices out their without getting overwhelmed?

Thankfully, there’s an app for that. Here are some apps and web sites that I’ve found useful in managing the complexity that is our modern world:

OurGroceries – share shopping lists with everyone in your household via smartphones or web browser. My dear wife loves this app. It was one of the first ones she installed on her Droid 2. She can enter her shopping lists on the netbook in the kitchen, I can add things from my phone or computer, and when we go shopping we can just tap on an item to cross it off the list.

Google Reader – a web-based feed aggregator, or (in non-techie speak) a great tool for grabbing content from all of the food blogs that I follow (36 at last count) and dumping them into one place so that I can read them at my leisure. Also try Feedly to put a more magazine-like wrapper around your feeds that makes them easier to read on a smart phone.

Gmail - web-based email from Google. Not only is this the most bullet-proof, spam-free email account I’ve ever had, it’s a great place to store all those recipes you run across online. Use the GmailThis! bookmarklet to send a recipe to your email account, where you can then categorize it with labels and folders. No more recipe boxes.

WordPress – one of the best blogging tools out there. Food & Fire started out as just my way of storing and managing recipes that I’d made. I figured that if I blogged about a dish, then I had not only the recipe, but pics, and notes on how it turned out.

Locavore – based on your location, this app lists what foods are in season and the nearby farms or farmer’s markets where you can buy local food.

Find Me Gluten Free – locate gluten-free resources near your current location. Having celiacs, this app has been a life-saver when I’m trying to find something I can eat in an unfamiliar city.

Epicurious - search for recipes, create shopping lists, and follow step-by-step instructions all from your smart phone. You can also access your personal recipe box.

Recipe Converter – unit conversion and servings yield calculator. You can convert volume and weight measurements and makes scaling servings yields up or down easy.

OpenTable – don’t feel like cooking? OpenTable gets you free, real-time online reservations at more than 20,000 restaurants. If I’m out and about and want someone else to cook, I can book a table and get an email confirmation by the time it takes to drive there.

This morning I shot six holes in my freezer.
I think I got cabin fever…
I gotta go where it’s warm!

BOAT DRINKS, Jimmy Buffett

We’ve had continuous snow cover for over 120 days, 78.7 inches this season, and another 4 inches expected within the next couple of days. I’ve given up trying to clear the deck and have had to satisfy myself with shoveling a path to the Big Green Egg.

It’s supposed to warm up a bit this week, but it’s still a little too cold to do a whole lot of outdoor cooking. So since I can’t do it, I might as well talk about it.

What do you call cooking food over a live flame? Is it a barbecue, grilling, or smoking? It all gets kind of complicated when you realize that what Southerners call barbecue (slow cooking over indirect heat), Texans call smoking. What us Northerners typically call barbecue (tossing brats and burgers on the grill), everyone else rightly calls grilling.  And what Texans call barbecue (slow cooking over direct heat) Southerners also call grilling.

I tend to lump it all under the slightly politically-correct sounding term  of “live-fire cooking.” While the term is accurate, it’s not very descriptive. So maybe it makes more sense to define my terms a little bit:

Smoking - any low and slow cooking where the idea is to preserve or season the food mostly with smoke rather than heat. This includes cold smoking (under 100°F) where the heat source is removed from the smoking chamber, and hot smoking (under 190°F) where you are still primarily smoking the food, but also adding just enough heat to make it safe to eat (think hams).

Barbecue - any low and slow (225-250°F) cooking where the smoke and the heat work together equally. Especially when the goal is to turn a tough cut of meat into something meltingly tender. Ribs and pulled pork are prime examples. Barbecuing may include using a moist heat (via a drip pan or by mopping the meat with liquid) or wrapping the meat in foil for part of the cook.

Grilling – hot and fast (350°F+) cooking over a direct or indirect fire. Smoke plays into the taste a little bit, but it’s usually smoke from dripping meat juices, not smoldering wood chunks. Think satays and carne asada in additional to the previously-mentioned burgers and brats.

So what kind of live-fire cooking do I do? In the end, I guess I’m more interested in how the food tastes than in how I got it there. When I can actually get out to the Big Green Egg, I do a bit of all of the above, plus a good deal of Dutch oven cooking, roasting, planking, and even some baking (the BGE is a VERY versatile cooker).

A lot of my cooks are kind of a hybrid with a raised direct set up – direct heat (no diffuser or water pan), but with a small fire and the grate raised up about 4 additional inches. This lets me grill foods at higher temps without burning them and barbecue foods low and slow while getting both the flavor of wood smoke and meat drippings. It also lets me put a pan of veggies under my chickens and roast both to perfection at the same time.

Well, all this writing about food is making me hungry. I hear we might hit 41°F this weekend! That’s almost shorts and t-shirt weather up here. Maybe Spring could just be right around the corner. I won’t believe it till it happens, but even a thin sliver of hope is welcome right now.

Silicone Prep Bowls – very useful when it comes to measuring and having all of your ingredients ready. They’re flexible, so you can just squeeze them to get sticky ingredients like honey out neatly and they easily clean up in the dishwasher.

Insulated Food Gloves – these are great for handling hot food without getting burned. I use them when pulling pork or carving up a turkey.

Flat Bamboo Skewers – I discovered these this year. They work so much better than round skewers. Threading food into them is a breeze and and they flip a lot easier without the food rolling.

Lightning Nuggets Firestarters – since we got our new deck I’m leery of flying sparks. I just have to touch one of these with the MAPP torch and in 20 minutes the Big Green Egg is roaring.

Egg Rite Egg Timer – no guesswork, just boiled eggs exactly like you like them no matter now hot the burner, what size the pan, or how many eggs are in it.

Pickapeppa Sauce - Jamaican ketchup, a spicy/sweet/savory blend that’s somewhere between jerk seasoning and Worcestershire sauce. Wonderful on chicken wings or thighs.

Pasta de Aji Amarillo/Hot Yellow Pepper Paste – this South American pepper brings a mild, fruity flavor to the table. It’s essential for the highly addictive Crema de Ají.

Tiger Sauce – a wonderful sweet and spicy hot sauce that I love on shrimp and salmon.

BBQ 25 – Adam Perry Lang’s simple and straight forward guide to putting more flavor into your grilling. This book has dramatically changed my cooking style.

Serious Barbecue: Smoke, Char, Baste, and Brush Your Way to Great Outdoor Cooking – I’m hoping Santa is listening and I find this other Lang book in my stocking this year.

Happy Holidays and Happy Grilling to all!

© King Features Syndicate, Inc. Written by Francesco Marciuliano and drawn by Craig MacIntosh.

With Thanksgiving approaching and all of the other holidays coming quickly behind it, lots of folks have huge anxiety about entertaining.  Some may let fear stop them from hosting a big food event. That just can’t happen – anyone can do this. Here’s a guide to pulling it together and pulling it off for the holidays:

The Head Game
I know – your in-laws are super picky eaters, your Uncle Fred is a bit of an ass, and your sibling practically channels Martha Stewart – and they all want to come to your house for the holidays! Having the confidence to cook for others grows with time and experience. Go into it with a sense of humor and remember what it’s all about – food and fun (oh, and fire).

Nobody is going to be as critical of the food you make as you are, so give yourself a break. And if someone is, you don’t want those kind of friends anyway. As for Uncle Fred, you’ll find a way to deal with him :}

Perfect is for Martha, and she probably has a staff of about 400 and a prison tattoo. There is no reason you need to try and compete with her. Relax, enjoy the ride and your company.

Decorating
Not everything has to match; you don’t have to have the perfect house. Shabby chic is in right now, with mixing dishes up to make a pretty table. Or, if you’re just starting out, consider plain white dishes. They’re very versatile and make food look delicious.

Less is more – guests won’t be roaming the entire house, so focus on the dining table, the entryway, the bathroom, and the living room. Make sure it’s clean, and a bouquet or two of grocery store flowers gives a big punch for not a lot of cha-ching.

Get Your Mise En Place
You don’t have to do it all, but you do have to be organized. Think through the meal, what you want to make and what you can ask others to provide. Lists are your friend. When a guest asks “What can I bring?” don’t be a hero – take them up on their offer!

If you’ve not made Thanksgiving dinner before, consider starting with a pre-holiday meal, say the weekend before, with a few friends as a warm up. Your friends will appreciate the effort (and the food) and it’s a great chance to try out some new recipes.

Ask about food allergies and preferences early on. Having Celiacs, I can’t tell you how much easier having a pro-active host makes my life. If you need to accommodate some serious dietary issues, have them share a favorite recipe or bring a dish that they can have.

Clean out the fridge early so you have room to store everything for the big day. I know it’s boring, but do go through your recipes ingredient by ingredient a few days before to make sure you have what you need and sufficient quantities – you’ll save yourself unnecessary stress.

Do as much pre-cooking as you can – cook the potatoes, chop the veggies, assemble the relish trays, etc…  Set the table ahead of time so you won’t be digging for the water glasses at the last minute.

At least at our house, the meat is the star (oh, and gravy too). If you can get a properly cooked hunk-o-meat on the table and hopefully nail the gravy, nobody is going to bitch about the cranberries. Go with good but simple sides that can take some reheating. Stuffing is better if you let it sit uncooked in the fridge overnight and casseroles don’t care when they get cooked. Line a cooler with some beach towels and use it to stash dishes that are finished cooking and just need to stay warm.

Hosting
Make your guests feel welcome and useful, and keep them out of your hair until the food hits the table. Put somebody in charge of greeting folks at the door and putting coats away. Provide noshies and beverages that encourage guests to help themselves as they arrive, so you can focus on last minute prep.

As the host, do have a special few words to say at the beginning of the meal, and encourage your guests to share a thought. It’s good for everyone to take a minute of (painful?) reflection before digging into 5000 calories.

Guests enjoy being able to contribute their specialties, and it’s a great conversation starter. For example, asking the guest who brought an amazing salmon dip “So, you say you caught this salmon yourself?!?” led to amazing stories about Alaska trips like I’ve always dreamt of doing!

And, I’ve met no one that will turn down a care package of Thanksgiving leftovers on their way out the door. That is, if there are any.

When it’s all over, congratulate yourself on a fun experience and go take a nap. The dishes can wait!

This is my 200th post here at Food & Fire. Can you believe it?  Yeah, me neither. A lot of things have changed since March of 2008 – new theme, bigger and (I hope) better pics, a subscription service, and the ability to print individual posts. A lot of things haven’t changed – the blog is still mostly about live fire cooking, I still love my Big Green Egg, we still eat with a camera at the kitchen table, and my dear wife still encourages (tolerates?) all of this food foolishness.

For my 200th post, rather than a specific recipe, I’d like to talk about something I’ve been working on for a while – the whole idea of going by feel when cooking.

While I’ll often follow a recipe exactly the first time I make it, after that I try to cook more by feel – “guesstimating” quantities by eyeballing them rather than whipping out the measuring spoons. I’m not to the point where “glops” are going to replace tablespoons in my written recipes, but getting to know how much of something you have without measuring really helps to make cooking faster and more fun. This also allows me to adjust the recipe based upon our personal tastes – you already know about my penchant for Penzey’s spices and hot sauce!

Alternate Measurements

When you don’t have time (or inclination) to reach for a measuring spoon, a timer, or a thermometer, here’s an alphabetical list of other ways to measure:

About a beer – a measure of time, as in “How long until the coals are ready?” “Oh, about a beer.” Roughly 20 minutes.

Dash -  the amount you can pick up with your thumb and first 2 fingers, about 1/8 teaspoon.

Dollop – the amount of sauce or thick liquid that you can get out of a container with a dining spoon, about 1 1/2 teaspoons.

Glob – the amount of sauce or thick liquid that you can get out of a container with a serving spoon, about  1/2 cup.

Glop – the amount of sauce or thick liquid that you can get out of a container with a soup spoon, about  2-3 tablespoons.

Glug  – from the sound liquid makes when pouring out of a bottle, about 2 tablespoons.

Handful – depending on whose hands you’re using, 1/3 to 1/2 cup.

How Long Until Sunset -  important to know so you don’t end up grilling in the dark.

Pinch – 1/2 a dash, or the amount you can pick up with your thumb and forefinger.

Shot – as in shot glass, 1 1/2 ounces, or a healthy glug.

Squeeze – 1 squeeze of a lemon or lime wedge gets you about 1/2 teaspoon of juice

Smidgen – 1/2 a Dash, about 1/32 teaspoon.

Spoonful – see Glop.

Approximate Yield

Do you want to measure out 2 cups of chopped onion? I sure don’t, so I’m slowly but surely converting  my recipes to call for whole units rather than a specific amount.

Apple – 1 large apple yields about 1 cup chopped

Bacon – 1 slice cooked  yields about 1 tablespoon crumbled

Cheese – a 4 ounce chunk yields about 1 cup shredded

Eggs – 1 large, uncooked is about 3 tablespoons

Garlic – 1 medium-size clove of garlic yields 1 teaspoons minced

Lemon juice – 1 lemon yields about 3 tablespoons of juice

Lime juice  – 1 lime yields about 2 tablespoons of juice

Onion – 1 medium onion yields about 1/2 cup chopped

Orange juice – 1 orange yields about 4 tablespoons of juice

Potatoes - 3 medium white or russet yield about 2 1/4 cups peeled and diced or 1 3/4 cups mashed

Tomatoes – 1 medium yields about 1 cup chopped

Heat

Put your open hand, palm down, about 5 inches from the grate and see how long you can comfortably hold it there (comfortably being the operative word, no G. Gordon Liddy’s here, please):

2 to 4 seconds – high heat, 450°F to 550°F.

5 to 7 seconds  – medium heat, 350°F to 450°F.

8 to 10 seconds  – low heat, 250°F to 350°F.

Is it Done Yet?

These aren’t the optimal temps for tasty chow, but when in doubt, the USDA says cooking to these minimum temps will keep folks from getting the gleep:

Chicken – 165°F, juices will run clear and the legs wiggle freely in the joint.

Steaks & Roasts – 145°F, has a large pink center, yields only slightly when pressed.

Fish – 145°F, flesh is opaque and flakes easily.

Pork – 160°F, brown/gray center, no pink.

Ground Beef – 160°F, uniformly brown throughout, no pink.

Many thanks to all my readers!  I appreciate your support and comments. Here’s to another 200 posts!

After 4 years of cooking on my large Big Green Egg, she finally has a name – Bella.

I know, “Naming a grill? You’re nutz.” But this stout girl has made quite an impression around here. She’s cooked hams, turkeys, pizza, paella, bread, steaks, ribs, chops, roasts, burgers, brats, salmon, tuna, chicken, chili, bacon, pork butt,  lamb, shrimp, oysters, crab, and all manner of veggies – all with no complaints and a minimum of glitches.

Performance like that deserves a name.

To go with the name, I also have a new handle courtesy of the Lawn Ranger. Mike did a great job. This is one very pretty piece of oak and it fits the grill perfectly.

Barbecue is all about the combination of smoke, heat, and meat.

Here are some of the smoking woods that I’ve used and what flavors they impart…

Alder has a light, sweet flavor that goes well with fish and poultry. I prefer alder to cedar for planking salmon as it adds a nice touch of smoke without overwhelming the fish.

Apple is mild with a slightly sweet and fruity flavor. Good with poultry. Great with pork, particularly ribs.

Cherry has a nice sweet and mild flavor that goes great with virtually everything. Very popular smoking wood. Can turn  meat a deep red.

Grapevines are good for a lot of tart smoke. Fruity, but can be heavy. Use it sparingly with poultry, game, or lamb. I like it for paella.

Guava is a fruit wood from the tropics. Very versatile. Its semi-sweet aroma goes well with beef, pork, lamb, poultry, and fish. My go-to wood for most smoking.

Hickory is the most commonly used wood for smoking. Sweet and strong, great for that heavy bacon flavor. Good with pork, ham and beef.

Maple is mellow and slightly sweet. Good with pork, poultry, wild game, and cheese.

Mesquite has a strong earthy flavor. Can be overpowering, so it’s better for shorter cook times. Good with beef.

Oak is versatile and goes with just about any barbecue meat. Strong, but lighter than hickory and not overpowering.  Very good wood for beef , lamb, or pork.

Pecan is sweet and nutty, kind of a softer version of hickory. Great with beef, pork, and poultry.

Just in time for thanksgiving, Fred the SmokinGuitarPlayer shows us how to roast your turkey to perfection on the Big Green Egg. Part 1 of 2.

Casual Kitchen’s discussion on the  The Pros and Cons of Restaurant Calorie Labeling Laws

Tasty-looking  Chickamauga Chicken from Chris at Nibble Me This who is guest blogging over at OuR KrAzy kItChEn.

Gluten-Free Tuesday: Gomasio from our gluten-free girl Shauna James

So, we’ve hit 100 posts with the Food & Fire blog. I say “we,” because while I do most of the writing, photography, and cooking;  my dear wife does the shopping, editing, and food styling (you have to have an odd number of things on your plate and everything looks better with a little parsley). She gave me the Big Green Egg for our anniversary. Without that gift, her love, understanding, and tolerance for my geeky foodiness, this blog never would have happened.

I’ve been blogging for just over a year. In that time we’ve covered all manner of meat, a bit of veggies and fruits, more than a little seafood, and a few book and product reviews. I’ve made some new friends in the food blogger community and enjoy reading their posts. I’ve been interviewed by the Charlotte Observer and by a researcher for NYT food writer Molly O’Neil.

I’ve been gluten-free for a year and as trans fat and high-fructose corn syrup free as is humanly possible. It hasn’t always been easy, but I feel a lot better and that makes it all worth it. I will continue to make sure all of the recipes here can be easily made gluten free.

Looking down the road, there are some changes I’d like to make to the site. This has never been a commercial venture. It’s always been just me writing about what I enjoy doing, and that isn’t going to change. I’d like to post more often, but some weeks it doesn’t feel like I can run any more food through the Big Green Egg, so I’ll probably start adding posts with links to food news and other recipes that have caught my eye. I’d like to do more product reviews, since god knows I don’t own nearly enough cook books or barbecue sauces .

I’m taking some steps to improve my photography (hello early Christmas present) and will post about the changes I’ve made. I want to tweak the look and feel of this site a little. I’m looking into taking a WordPress development course.  Right now I just know just enough to be dangerous.

So, happy 100th post and thanks to my wife and all of the folks who read and support this site!

My name is Dave and I have a Penzeys Spice problem.

It started out innocently enough – just a little container of black peppercorns. Then before you knew if I was craving turmeric and juniper berries and scoring Ceylon cinnamon in the 1 pound bag.

As the title suggests, the book focuses on wild game dishes – crayfish, rabbit, elk, boar, etc., prepared in ways that enhance the natural flavors, not cover them up.

The book is organized into nine sections: Sea, Stream, Air, Land, Not-So-Wild Game, Campfire Cooking, Showstopping Dishes to Impress Your Friends, Sensational Sides, and The Sweet Finish.

While the focus is on the entrees, care has been taken to ensure that all of the side dishes and desserts are designed to “fit with what you’re fixing.”

Now, there are lots of great game recipes out there, but this book is more than that. There’s a strong theme that runs through every recipe of doing the best with what is fresh. I’ve always thought that the best way to test a cookbook is to make a full meal from it, so I (and my dear wife) put together five recipes to create a feast for some of our foodie friends.

Grilled Oysters on the Half Shell

1 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Tabasco sauce to taste
12 oysters on the half shell
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
French bread

Set your grill up for a hot, direct cook.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and then add the garlic, thyme, salt, and Tabasco. Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for about 5 minutes.

Arrange the oysters on a grill rack. Spoon half the butter sauce over the oysters and top with half the cheese. Grill briefly – 2 to 4 minutes and serve hot off the grill with the remaining garlic sauce, cheese, and bread.

Juniper Berry-Grilled Elk

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon juniper berries
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon herbs de Provence
2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 ounces fresh blackberries
2 teaspoons sugar (we used a finer baker’s sugar)
2 tablespoons oil
1 1/4 pounds of elk sirloin, cut into 4 steaks (we grilled the loin whole and sliced it thin)

Set your grill up for a hot, direct cook.

Combine the blackberries and the sugar in a small bowl. Mix well and let sit for at least ten minutes for the berries to macerate and release their juice.

Combine the juniper berries, peppercorns, and herbs de Provence in a spice grinder or small blender. Give them a whirl until you have a coarse powder. Add the salt and give the mix another spin.

Oil the elk steaks and season both sides with the spice rub.  Grill 3 to 4 minutes a side until just barely medium-rare. You want the steaks no more than 135°F internal, so they are mostly pink inside with a hint of red center.

Roasted Beet Salad

1 1/2 pounds beets
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons cane vinegar (we used red wine vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon truffle oil (we decreased this to 1 teaspoon)

Coat the beets with vegetable oil and season with salt and pepper. Place them in a baking dish and cover tightly with aluminum foil.  Roast at 400°F for about 1 hour or until tender.

Uncover the roaster and let the beets cool. Cuts the ends off and rub them or use a vegetable peeler to remove the skins. Cut them into 1/4 slices and toss in a bowl with the remaining ingredients. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Andouille Spoonbread

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
1 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 cups milk (the mixture was pretty thick, so we added another cup of milk to this)
4 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup (about 3 ounces) diced andouille sausage
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Combine the corn kernels, milk, andouille, butter, and Creole seasoning in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Whisk in the cornmeal and cook for 5 minutes, until the mixture is mushy. Add more milk at this point if needed. Set aside and let cool.

Separate the egg, putting the yolks into a large bowl and the whites into a stand mixer. Whisk together the egg yolks and baking powder for 1 minute, then stir in the cornmeal batter.

Beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Pour into a greased 8-inch round souffle dish. Bake at 325°F for 25 minutes, until the top is brown and puffy and the center is cooked through.

Upside-up Cup Custards

2 cups heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract (we used a 1/4 teaspoon)
5 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons Steen’s pure cane syrup (we used Grade B Maple syrup)
1/2 cup sugar

In a medium saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl for 2 to 3 minutes until they thicken. Then slowly whisk in 1/2 cup of the hot cream into the yolks. Return the saucepan to low heat and slowly whisk in the egg/cream mixture into the cream.

Cook the custard mixture until it thickens, whisking all the time. Once thickened, strain the custard through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl and add the vanilla.

Divvy up the custard into four 6-ounce ramekins. Put the ramekins into a baking dish large enough to hold them without touching. Fill the baking dish with water halfway up the sides of the cups.

Bake at 300°F for 40 to 45 minutes, until the custard is set but the centers still jiggle a little.

Remove the custards from the water and set them to a wire rack to cool. Drizzle the syrup over the custards before serving.

The Consensus

It was a great dinner in many ways. We found the recipes to be well-written and easy to follow, the dishes all worked well together, and everyone really enjoyed the meal.

Grilled Oysters on the Half Shell – fresh oysters are a hard act to beat, but this recipe takes that wonderful fresh and briny taste and enhances it with garlic and smoke. These were the hit of the evening and disappeared in moments.

Juniper Berry-Grilled Elk – Elk is lean meat with a big flavor and the juniper, pepper, and blackberries brighten it up with spicy, evergreen notes. We served it on the rare side of medium-rare and it was remarkably tender.

Roasted Beet Salad – you wouldn’t think anything this simple could stand out, but this earthy dish got a big boost from the vinegar and truffle oil.

Andouille Spoonbread – this recipe produced more of a souffle than the usual a pudding-like casserole. It was light and the andouille added great spice. This is a side dish we’ll be serving more often. I think it would work particularly well with pulled pork.

Upside-up Cup Custards – rich with eggy goodness, this came out as a more rustic version of creme brule. It was an excellent finish to the meal.

We look forward to trying many more recipes from this collection.

In celebration of Earth Day, I’d like to take a break from talking about grilling meat to talk about, well… grilling local meat.

Becoming a localvore – a person dedicated to eating food grown and produced locally – is one of the best ways you can contribute to a healthier environment. Eating locally:

• Creates less pollution – fewer fossil fuels are burned getting the food to you.
• Benefits the local economy – a dollar spent with a local farmer generates twice as much income for the immediate economy.
• Is more sustainable and self-sufficient – when our community can grow its own food, we are less vulnerable to being manipulated by the big guys who don’t always have our best interests at heart.
• Is healthier – locally grown food is fresher and requires fewer preservatives.

Even if you ignore all of the global/geopolitical/environmental issues – local food just tastes better. In my own experience, you can’t beat the quality of locally produced beef, pork, and chicken. We’re fortunate enough to have a number of local producers, and there’s no comparison between their product and the stuff that’s available commercially. From within 10 miles of us we can get eggs with deep yellow yolks and chickens that still have dark meat. The pork that my nearby brother-in-law produces is dark and flavorful, not pale and watery. And the grass-fed beef and buffalo that we get is simply outstanding both in terms of taste and nutrition.

Where can you get local meat products? Try the Eat Well Guide. Just enter your zip code and they’ll provide of list of farmers in your area. Eatwild provides a similar service along with an interactive map to help you find local grass-fed meats. Foodroutes provides links to co-ops, farmer’s markets, and restaurants that feature local foods. LocalHarvest is another good resources that lists local alternatives for organic products.

Want to learn more about the localvore movement? Read Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally or In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.