Vegetable Kabob Marinade

Honestly this recipe also works well for beef and chicken. Lately though I've been eating a lot less meat so I made vegetable kabobs. I love this marinade. I've made it several times and every time I like it more. It's a perfect blend of seasonings and makes a nice grilled meal. It's also easy to make and the longer you marinade the more flavor your veggies (and/or meat) will have. Use what ever veggies are your favorites. We prefer mushrooms, red onions, red bell peppers, yellow bell peppers, and whatever other veggie we have extras of.

Vegetable Kabob Marinade
Allrecipes

1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or I've used 3 minced garlic cloves
1/2 pinch ground ginger or I've used about a half teaspoon freshly grated ginger

In a large resealable plastic bag, mix the teriyaki sauce, honey, garlic powder, and ginger. Add veggies (and/or meat) and marinade 4 to 24 hours. Prepare as desired.

Alabama BBQ Chicken

This chicken was unbelievably good. The BBq sauce used on this dish was just amazing. I never thought I could like white BBQ sauce but it really tasted wonderful. The chicken was smoky with a nice tangy sauce. Simple and very easy to make for something that tasted so good. The recipe calls for whole cut up chicken but as you can tell I used smaller boneless chicken. You'll need to adjust the cooking times if you chose to use something other than whole cut up chicken plus you'll lose some of the smokiness flavor. You'll want to be sure to make extra chicken so that you can make the recipe I am posting next.


Alabama BBQ Chicken
Cooks Country June/July 2006

White BBQ Sauce
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon prepared horseradish
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Chicken
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 (3 1/2 to 4 pound) whole chickens, patted dry and split ( I used chicken tenders since I had thought I had whole chicken and all I had was tenders)
2 cups hickory wood chips

For the sauce:
Mix all ingredients in blender until smooth, about 1 minute. Refrigerate sauce in airtight container for at least one hour or up to 2 days.

For the chicken:
Mix salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper in small bowl. Rub spice mixture all over chicken.

Soak wood chips in bowl of water for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, open bottom grill vents completely. Light large chimney starter filled with charcoal briquettes (about 90 coals) and burn until charcoal is covered with fine gray ash. Place 13 by 9 inch disposable aluminum roasting pan in center of grill. Pour half of coals into pile on each side of grill, leaving pan in center. Scatter wood chips evenly over coals and set cooking grate in place. Cover, with lid vents positioned over center of grill and opened halfway. Let grill heat for 5 minutes.

Dip wad of paper towels in oil and oil grate, holding paper towels with long handled tongs. Place chicken skin side down on center of grill. Cover with half opened lid vents over chicken.

Grill chicken until skin is well browned, 35 to 45 minutes. Flip chicken skin side up and grill, covered until breast meat registrars 165 degrees on instant read thermometer, 15 to 20 minutes longer. Remember the cooking time will be less with boneless pieces.

Transfer chickens to cutting board, brush with 2 tablespoons sauce, tent with foil, and let rest 10 minutes. Remove foil and brush chicken with 1 tablespoon sauce. Carve and serve, passing remaining sauce at table.

Using a Gas Grill:
Prepare recipe for Alabama BBQ chicken through second step. Soak wool chips in bowl of water for 15 minutes, place chips in small aluminum tray, and place tray directly over primary burner. Light grill, turn on all burners to high, and close lid, keeping grill covered until wood chips begin to smoke, about 15 minutes. Oil cooking grate. Turn all burners to medium low. Place chicken skin side down on grill, cover, and proceed with recipe from step 5.

Chinese Barbecued Ribs

Oh goodness these tasted so good. The flavors of the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and ginger really gave the sauce a Chinese taste. The ribs were perfectly tender and sticky. There are a few steps involved and yes it's not a quick meal to make but the time spent on these is well worth the time and effort. Smoking the ribs with tea bags seemed odd to me before I tasted them. It's a subtle smoked flavor that you can't place the flavor of until someone tells you. If you can't find St. Louis style ribs use baby back ribs and check for doneness after one hour.

Chinese Barbecued Ribs
Cooks Country June/July 2010

2 racks pork spareribs (2 1/2 to 3 lbs each) St. Louis Style
8 black tea bags
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup hoisin sauce
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dry sherry
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 cup red currant jelly

Cut rib racks in half. Cover tea bags with water in small bowl and soak for 5 minutes. Squeeze water from tea bags and tightly seal in foil packet. Cut vent holes in top of packet.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Whisk 1 cup ketchup, soy sauce, hoisin, sugar, sherry, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and cayenne in large bowl; reserve 1/2 cup for glaze. Arrange ribs, meaty side down, in large disposable roasting pan and pour remaining ketchup mixture over ribs. Cover pan tightly with foil and cook until fat has rendered and meat begins to pull away from bones, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Transfer to large plate. Pour pan juices into fat separator. Let liquid settle and reserve 1 cup defatted pan juices.

Simmer reserved pan juices over medium heat until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes. Stir in jelly, reserved ketchup mixture, and remaining ketchup and simmer until reduced to two cups, 10 to 12 minutes. Reserve one third of glaze for serving.

Open bottom vent on grill. Light about 100 coals; when covered with fine gray ash, carefully pile on one side of grill. Arrange foil packet directly on coals. Set cooking grate in place and heat, covered, with lid vent open halfway, until tea begins to smoke heavily, about 5 minutes. (For gas grill, place foil packet directly on primary burner. Heat all burners on high, covered, until tea begins to smoke heavily, about 5 minutes. Leave primary burner on high and shut other burners off.) Scrape and oil cooking grate. Arrange ribs, meaty side down, on cool side of grill and cook, covered, until ribs are smoky and edges begin to char, about 30 minutes.

Brush ribs with glaze, flip, rotate, and brush again. Cover and barbecue, brushing glaze every 30 minutes, until ribs are fully tender and glaze is browned and sticky, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Transfer to cutting board, tent with foil, and let rest 10 minutes. Serve with glaze.

Garlic Pork Shoulder

I can't even begin to explain how good this pork shoulder tasted. I will say every person in my house plus the neighbors house at this dish and there were no leftovers. The original recipe calls for it to be cooked in an oven. I did mine on the grill. It was too hot that day to leave the oven on for hours plus I thought using the grill with some smoke would add to the flavor and it did. Next I wrote down cilantro as the herb needed and after shopping and prepping the dish I realized it called for basil. The change didn't really matter as it turned out very tasty. I don't think I could use basil for it now.

Garlic Pork Shoulder
adapted from Relish Magazine

1 garlic head, separated into cloves and peeled
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
2 cups chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 (4 to 4 1/2 lb) bone in pork shoulder

Place garlic, salt, peppercorns, and cilantro in the bowl of a food processor. Process until garlic is chopped. Add olive oil and vinegar and process to form a thick paste. Score top of pork with knife all over. Rub garlic mixture over meat, place in a large bowl or bag and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight.

Prepare grill. Once it is heated add a packet of smoking chips, I used hickory, and place over the fire. Cook over indirect heat for about 3 hours, turning every thirty or so minutes. Once the pork is fork tender and has reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees F place the pork over the heat and brown all sides.

Let pork cool slightly and then chop or tear into large chunks.

Brian's Awesome Steak Marinade

Yummy! The smell and the taste of these steaks were just plain yummy! I made 6 steaks with this marinade and I should have made more. The kids ate one steak each which is almost a miracle these days. My husband ate his steak and said don't even think about ever trying another marinade this has topped any recipe I had tried before. The recipe calls for an overnight marinade but I did not catch that so my steaks only marinaded for about 6 hours but they still had great flavor. You might want to give this recipe a try before grilling season is over.


Brian's Awesome Steak Marinade
Melanie at My Kitchen Cafe


1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup pineapple juice
3 garlic cloves crushed or finely minced

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and use as marinade. If marinading steaks, I marinade the meat overnight (about 12-14 hours) before grilling.

Grill Roasted Ham and an Award

First off, Lynette from Netts Nook gave me this award. If you have not been to her blog you really need to go. She has daily themes for her posts and they are great! I love her movie reviews. She has a little of everything over there so head on over and check out her blog. Lynette, congrats on receiving the award and thank you so much for passing it on to me.

I would like to give the award to Sallie and Julia of My Sister's Kitchen. Its a blog run by two sisters who love to cook. I have several of their recipes on my to make list. They have a recipe for chewy cinnamon cookies that are to die for!
Also I am giving the award to Heidi at Tried and True cooking with Heidi. She posts kid friendly meals and includes how much the recipe cost her to make. I've loved everything I've tried from her blog. One of our favorite recipes from her is the Little Cheddar Meat Loaves.
Goodness the smell of this ham cooking was unbelievable. Sorry the picture does not contain much meat as I totally forgot to take a picture until we had eaten almost all of the ham. The meat was very tender, which says a lot since most ham I make is pretty dry and tough, and the charred outside was delightful to eat. The recipe is pretty simple and easy to make with most of the time done in waiting for it to cook. All three boys ate the ham up and asked for seconds. The original recipe called for more paprika and some cayenne pepper but I wanted a little more sweet rub for mine so I changed it.

Grill Roasted Ham
adapted from Cooks Country April/May 2009

1 4-5 lb cured bone-in ham preferably shank end, skin removed and fat trimmed to 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ginger

Score ham at 1 inch intervals in crosshatch pattern. Combine sugar, paprika, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and sugar in a small bowl. Rub spice mixture all over ham. Transfer to a V-rack and let stand at room temperature 1 1/2 hours. Thread ham with two metal skewers on both sides of the bone.

Heat all burners on high for 15 minutes, then leave primary burner on high and turn off the other burner. For charcoal grill, open bottom vent on grill. Light 100 coals; when covered with fine gray ash, spread over half of grill. Set cooking grate in place and heat, covered, with lid vent half open, for 5 minutes. Scrape cooking grate. Arrange v-rack over cooler side of grill. Cook ham covered, until meat registers 100 degrees, about 1 1/2 hours.

Turn all burners to low. For charcoal grill, light about 25 coals. When coals are covered with a fine gray ash, remove grill grate and scatter over top of spent coals. Replace grill grate and position v-rack directly over coals. Grill ham until lightly charred on all sides, about 30 minutes, turning ham every 5 minutes. Transfer to cutting board, tent with foil, and let rest 15 minutes. Carve and serve.