Grill’n Time

We started a tradition in our house a few years ago called Breakfast for Dinner. My son Riley just has taken the word “for” out and calls it “breakfast dinner”. His favorite food for breakfast dinner is biscuits. This kid is not even five years old and can knock down the same number of biscuits as I do any day of the week. I tend to agree with Riley. There’s nothing like homemade biscuits with some grits, crisp bacon, jelly, and cheddar cheese. The biscuits are by far the star of the show.

One of the reasons Riley likes biscuits so much is that he almost always gets to help make them. Sometimes he just helps roll the dough and cut the biscuits. And then there are times when we let Riley get right into the mixing process. And he LOVES this part of making biscuits. What we end up eating is Four Year Old Biscuits.

Here is how a four year old makes biscuits, with a very small amount of assistance and close supervision of course.

Before you begin: Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 1. Add 2 cups of all purpose flour to a large mixing bowl

Step 2. Add approximately 1/3 cup of vegetable shortening and pinch into small pieces. (Dad helps)

Step 3. Add 2/3 cup of low fat butter milk.

Step 4. Cut loose your your four year old to mix these three simple ingredients together.

Do you think we were having fun at this point?

Step 5. Kneed the dough into a ball and sprinkle with some excess flour. Sprinkle some flour on the counter as well. (Dad helps)

Step 6. Roll the dough out until it is approximately 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick. (Thickness depends on how thick you want your biscuits.

Step 7. Use your favorite cookie cutters to shape your biscuits. A floured rim drinking glass will work too.

Step 8. Place the fun shaped biscuits onto a baking stone and bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until they are golden brown on the outside. I like to bake them even a little longer to get a good crisp outside shell.

Click for a larger view of these yummy four year old biscuits.

Now you are ready to feed the biscuits to the four year old. Enjoy!!!

Our family embarked on a new challenge this Christmas season. We constructed our first gingerbread masterpiece. There are a ton of people doing gingerbread houses. Houses are great, but it is the trains that excite our boys. My wife found the detailed plans for this gingerbread train in Familyfun Magazine.

UPDATE: We plan to do it again. We hope to build a bigger and better train this year.

Below are the results of our first attempt at following the FamilyFun plan for building a train. I will provide pictures that tells the story much better than my words. You can click on any of the images for a larger copy.

Get all the right stuff first!

Find a professional rolling pin operator.

Cut out the dough using the printable templates from FamilyFun.com. We used card stock for durability.

Gingerbread Dough Ready for the Oven

Gingerbread Dough after the Oven

Trim the gingerbread dough while it is warm.

Here Riley is using frosting to glue together graham crackers that were used for edible support.

Always use a professional decorating team.

Make sure the decorating team has some fun.

Applying the finishing touches to the Gingerbread Train.

The finished product.

A close up of the train cars.

A last look at our version of the Gingerbread Train.

We spent a total of three days building this train. That was two weekend afternoons of dough preparation and baking. We then spent about three hours on a Monday evening assembling and decorating the train.

Oh…We have been asked several times already about the snow. The snow is just a dusting of coconut shavings.

You can see another picture of this train on my main blog The Land of Ozz. If you would rather build a gingerbread house then you need to check out Simply Recipes: How to Make a Gingerbread House.

There are way too many variables when cooking with charcoal on the grill. Meat may be a different thickness, the fire might be hotter or cooler, your fire might be closer if you have several adjustments on your grill. How do you get past the dilemma of remembering how you got that steak to come out so perfectly last time? For consistency you need to cook your steak by monitoring the temperature of the meat. You can go over to Hormel Foods and check out this really great chart system that they have for cooking. They give you guidance on grilling, baking, broiling, or pan frying by temperature and time to get the desired result. They have charts for beef, chicken, pork, veal, fish and more.

I favor grilling by temperature using an electronic kitchen thermometer. Given all the variables involved in using my grill, I have found that it is best to use a thermometer to keep an eye on your thick piece of sirloin or tenderloin. The meat comes out perfect every time. I can be a little hotter with the fire or a little thicker with the meat. Either way, the internal temperature of the meat does not lie.

Tips for temperature cooking on the grill

1. Set your steak for a little while before grilling to allow your steak to come to room temperature. Set your meat out on the kitchen counter just before you go outside to fire up the charcoal.
2. Put the thermometer probe into center of the thickest piece of meat before you put it on the grill.
3. Leave the thermometer in until the steak is done. Pulling it out can allow for flavor and heat to escape.
4. Never press or squeeze the meat while cooking. This helps keep the juicy flavor and heat inside the meat.
5. Stick with rubs instead of marinades when grilling thick meat in particular. The marinades often cause burning before the inside it done.

I watch very few blogs as closly as I watch Simply Recipes. This blog is outstanding and I wish I had the time to cook and write the way that Elise Bauer does.  She seems to be a blog junkie just like me.  She has almost as many active blogs as I do.
Here is a link to one of Elise’s awesome looking reciepes called Mom’s Pan-fried “London Broil” Steak.  I can’t wait to try it.

This candy is one of those childhood concoctions that really never got a proper name. I have come up with many different ideas for the name but I just can’t get the original name out of my mind. The original name was was Candy where the was filled in with a four letter word beginning with T that rhymes with bird. Here are a couple of names that I have considered:

• 3Muskabutter
• PooButter

This childhood concoction has been a big hit with everyone who has tried it over the years. I usually have to sample a bit in front of my new taste testers just to prove it is not something I collected out of the back yard.

	What’s Needed? The items shown in this picture are all that you need for this recipe.- Three 3 Musketeers® Candy Bars - Jif® Creamy Peanut Butter - A Non-stick pot - A Table Spoon - A Wooden Spoon
	Add Ingredients You add the three 3 Musketeers candy bars to your pot and one heaping scoop of peanut butter.
	Heat and Smash Place the pot over medium heat and begin to smash the candy bars with a wooden spoon.
	Remove Heat Remove the pot for the heat after you get the mixture to the consistency shown in the picture and continue to mix. The total time on the heat should take approximately two minutes to reach this consistency.
	Mix to a Ball Continue to mix until you get the consistency shown.
	Chill and Serve Spread onto a plate. Chill for 30 Minutes in the refrigerator and then cut into squares and serve.

All of this comes together fairly quickly and easily. It feeds me, my wife and my 30 month old. Yes, my 30 month old little boy loves his steak. He can put down sirloin or filet at about the same rate I can bite for bite.

The steak is a top sirloin cut a little less than a half of an inch. Is is cooked over a medium hot grill after a little run of your choice. About a third of a stick of butter or margarine is melted over it just before removing it from the grill to add flavor and moisture.

The onions are a must. Plan old yellow onion are cut into slices. The slices are cut into bite size chunks and added to a small foil pan. Approximately a half stick of butter or margarine is cut and placed over the onions. A moderate amount of garlic salt is spread over the top. The foil pan is placed over a medium to hot grill until the onions begin to turn translucent.

These are baking size potatoes sliced using a food processor to desired thickness.A pan with approximately 1/4 inch of vegetable oil is heated to medium high heat. The oil must be up to temperature before adding the potatoes to prevent soggy fries.

I will start my equipment list by introducing a reference book. It helps with more than just picking out equipment, but it does a pretty good job of that too. The book is DK 101 Barbecue by Marlena Spieler. You can purchase it from Amazon.com via the link on the side bar of this page in the Equipment section.

The book recommends several of the following items that I find to be essential when grilling with charcoal. I list them in no particular order with approximate prices. Many of these items can be purchased through ads on this page.

Chimney starter ($12 and up)

Fire starter lighter (less than $5)

Grill cover ($20 and up for large grills)

Dedicated bottle of vegetable oil for grill maintenance and upkeep ($3)

Grill grate cleaning tools ($3 and up)

A dry charcoal (fuel) storage place (under $20)

At least a weekend subscription to local news paper whether your read it or not (less than $2 per week and may provide some useful reading once or twice per year)

An endless supply of cold beverages (Priceless in Hot Humid Charleston, SC)

Not all of the are required, but most will make your job much easier when grilling with charcoal.

There is the age old debate over the choice between gas and charcoal grills. If you are a serious about the taste of your food and are not restricted to only using gas then the debate is over because charcoal wins hands down. Gas grills are fine and are better than not grilling at all. I still have my old gas grill and may fire it up from time to time to help get through some big meals. If you are in a apartment that restricts the use of anything but gas then you will not be out of your element here. Now that we have got that over with let’s talk about what drove my choice in grills.

I am not going to endorse a particular grill or brand but I will tell you what I had on my list of features when searching for the perfect charcoal grill. Here they are in no particular order:

Sturdy construction over all

Two separate cooking surfaces for cooking at different temperatures

Adjustable fuel gate that can be adjusted while the grill is hot

Temperature Gauge for each cooking surface

Access door to allow hot coals to be added or removed during cooking with out moving the cooking surface

Removable cooking surfaces for easy cleaning and easy fire starting

Large cooking area for cooking more than just the meat for a meal

Easy access to clean ashes

That’s about it. I was able to find such a grill for under $250 and was able to assemble it in less than an hour one evening after work. You can find other tips on choosing a grill in the books listed in the side bar of this page.

Coming up next are some tips on other equipment that I find to be essential to grilling with charcoal.