A New Grill and a Favorite Meal

I am not a handyman…nor am I even slightly able to perform even the simplest mechanical, structural or electronic repairs, assemblies or installations.  Hanging a painting is just about the maximum achievement given my limited abilities… Laurie is more capable around the house than I am.

So when our old 3-burner Weber Grill stopped working, I gave up and it went to a local resident who was handy and who could make the necessary repairs.  Then, while Laurie’s sister Bonnie and her husband Bill were here, we stopped by a local Ace Hardware and bought a new grill.

The good news is that our new 2-burner Weber Grill was assembled and delivered by Ace Hardware.  With me ‘supervising’, Bill tried to install the grill but we couldn’t figure out the connection required to hook up the grill with our 500 gallon propane tank.  So…the grill sat in our plant room for a couple of weeks.

We’d given our grill to new neighbors Mike and Ann and I knew he was handy.  I also knew that he’d need a unit to connect the grill we’d given him to a portable bottle of propane gas.  It dawned on me that since he was handy, perhaps he’d hook up our new grill in exchange for the necessary propane connection.  Voila…our new grill installed! 

I do not claim to 'barbeque'…but rather to just grill my food.  I don’t have the right temperament to slow cook anything so I just crank up the grill and slap down whatever meat that’s on the menu. (Due to my lack of patience chicken isn’t something I grill)

This was the first thing that I grilled this year!  It’s a cut referred to as country style pork ribs.  There were 4 of them.  We each had 1 rib and it was sided with roasted potatoes, half a toasted buttered hamburger bun and a few artichoke hearts. (The latter isn’t pictured)

Best of all, I had 2 left over country ribs for another meal!

More pork!!  This time it was all about a couple of huge pork steaks we’d purchased at Food Lion.  I seasoned them with some rub from our collection of spices…and then, with the grill turned all the way up, on the grates they went!  

This was one of the finished pork steaks… Lots of nice char!  When I flip them, I lightly brushed on some Famous Dave’s Devil’s Spit spicy BBQ sauce.  Repeated the action when I turned them over again.  Despite the high heat, they cook so fast that they’re still moist when they’re done.  That light coating of sauce helps too…

When we lived in the St. Louis Missouri area, pork steaks were a staple meat item, especially in the summer time.  That was because they were ‘invented’ by a Florissant Missouri resident in 1956 in honor of his son’s birth.  He’d asked a local butcher in a Tomboy Grocery Store to cut steaks from the hogs shoulder.  Large local chain Schnuck’s Grocery picked up on the idea and this cut quickly grew popular with area residents.  When we moved to Chicago in 1981, local butchers had never heard of a pork steak!  We resolved that problem…

This is one of the salads that we had with the pork steaks… It was just iceberg lettuce with shrimp, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, blue cheese crumbles and an Italian dressing.

The pork steaks were excellent and since Laurie couldn’t finish hers, once again I had leftovers!  

Here is yet another grill favorite!  In this instance it was all about a pair of ribeye steaks… I cut a minute off each side of the recommended times in the chart we have on hand from Omaha Steaks in order to achieve our ideal finished product…at medium rare.  If I follow the times provided for the thickness of the steaks, they come out medium or medium well…not a good thing!

Yes…We do have meat thermometers but I don’t like using them with grilled meat as I just don’t trust my ability to insert them correctly and get the correct reading.

The steaks were perfect…no leftovers this time as I promptly ate what Laurie couldn’t finish.  Two ears of corn each.  Excellent!

I’ve rarely grilled vegetables.  In the past, I have grilled Portobello mushrooms for Laurie.  However, in this instance Laurie suggested that I grill a huge zucchini that our friend and gardener Norm had gifted us with.  So I sliced it in quarter inch lengthwise sections, then we prepared a mix of virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, crushed garlic, pepper and rosemary.  Laurie supervised and she slathered the mixture on the zucchini as I grilled them.

This was the end result of our zucchini grilling efforts.  It came out very nicely and it was very tasty too!  The next time, just to change things up, I may try a different recipe, topping the slices with melted parmesan cheese.

I didn’t remember to take this photo until after we’d served up our portions.  Laurie makes an amazing meatloaf using 1.5 lbs. of ground beef, 1 lb. of hot Jimmy Dean sausage with a variety of seasonings and spices.  She tops it off with a thick crust of parmesan cheese…

This shows both the meatloaf and the grilled zucchini together on Laurie’s plate.  It was an excellent meal… That meatloaf is one of my top 4 or 5 home cooked meals.  Beyond the fact that it is amazing is the ‘absolute’ that there are always leftovers.  Her meatloaf is one of the few leftovers that Laurie will eat…and there is still plenty for yours truly!  As for all that zucchini, I just had to finish it at one sitting!

 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave