Culinary Sundays

With my eldest son away for camp, I am missing the biggest foodie in the house. This summer, my daughters weren't hearing it and wanted a spot on dinner for Sunday that would make great leftovers during the week. Steak and Shwarma Sandwiches, Cottage Fries, Carmelized Onions, and fresh corn.

Purim Is Better BBQ

After last year's snow challenged my BBQ efforts, I made sure that I stayed home to devote my time and efforts to make sure my BBQ shaloch manos would go off without a hitch. Thankfully the weather participated and made Wednesday a great day for BBQ. The holiday continued with Thursday where I made food for my Purim Seuda that carried enough leftovers for Shabbos because who doesn't love leftover BBQ

Special Shaloch Manos for RL-44

Thanksgiving 2015

Thanksgiving was different than in previous years. Family was pulled in different directions, and my wife decided to try and hit Black Friday deals one day early. That left me with the kids and to figure out dinner plans, which also means my good friend Weber would be helping out. I decided to smoke some chicken and throw on some hot dogs. It reminded us once again that Thanksgiving is not about the food, but rather the company and family time that is spent together.

Chicken Shwarma BBQ Style

To say that my kids are picky eaters is an understatement. Shwarma is a staple in my diet and considered one of my four basic food groups with Coffee, Steak, and Pancakes being the other three. Convincing my children that this is a must style dinner meal would be a foodie's greatest challenge. This weekend, I decided it was time to introduce my children to new culinary delights.

Like any other Sunday, the morning began with, "What's for Breakfast?". This was an easy one, since I would be able to utilize leftover Challah from Shabbos. "French Toast" came the reply from the kitchen.

As the day wore on and errands were run in preperation for the start of school this week, the dinner question started to come around. The mysterious answer was "Middle Eastern Chicken". And with that, the adventure began. As today got hectic, I had to settle for fresh bakery pita over making it myself.

Recipe:

Israeli Salad

1 Cuccumber

1 Tomato

2 Sour Pickles

Chicken Shwarma

6 pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs

1 onion sliced thin

Marinade

4 Tablespoon Olive Oil

2 Tablespoon Cumin

2 Tablespoon Tumeric

1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder

1 Tablespoon Onion Powder

1 Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Black Pepper

Cayenne Pepper (to taste)

8 Pita Bread / Hogie Rolls

Tehina Sauce

Skin and debone the chicken thighs and place in a bowl with olive oil and the marinade. Mix well and let sit at room temperature.

Fill 3/4 of a Charcoal chimney and light it.

While the charcoal is going, dice your vegetables for your Israeli salad.

And start sauteing your onions

Once your charcoal is hot, grill the chicken thighs on both sides until cooked through

When the chicken is cooked, bring inside and dice into small pieces. Add the pieces to the onions in the pan and heat through, stirring to combine the flavors and ingrediants

To assemble: Cut the top off one pita bread, fill the cavity with the chicken and onion mixture, top with tehina and the Israeli Salad and even more tehina as you like.

Here is another way of doing it in a hoagie roll

Once the kids heard this was really shwarma, they voted this one of the top 5 dinners.

#smokalicious Shabbos

A work from home Friday means a #smokalicious Shabbos. My son has my same culinary BBQ tastes and always appreciates when I bring some smokiness to the Shabbos table. Since this was the official BBQ month, it was go big or go home. For this Shabbos, I did some smoked ribs with cherry and pecan woods, and smoked chicken with hickory wood.

Started chimney with about 30 charcoals.

 Minion method with cherry and pecan woods

 Beef Flanken Ribs marinating with spice rub and brown sugar

Ribs Smoking

Ribs coming off to be sauced and wrapped (sorry for the shadow)

Chicken Smoking at 250 Farenheit

Chicken smoked with hickory wood

 Apple Bourbon Vanilla Kugel

First Day of #BBQMonth

May is the official BBQ Month. In our house, every month is BBQ Month, but it's hard not to get into the festivities. To truly embrace the the month of May, I also decided to try my hand at my first BBQ video recipe. For this May 1st BBQ, I did smoked chicken and turkey legs on my Weber One Touch Gold. This meant that we would see crispy skin with smoked chicken on a high heat, versus the low and slow method that yields more smokey flavor, but rubbery skin.

Starting the chimney

Searing the chicken and turkey

Finished Product

BBQ Leftovers

Some of the best part about BBQ are the leftovers. Granted, most times, there isn't much left after a #bbqfest and #smokefest, but when there are, they taste as good as the day I made them. I call this the #EIBG version of Chopped.

A few weeks ago I made BBQ where I smoked a few pounds of chicken. The next few nights we had a wedding one night and went out for dinner for the next. Before we knew it, it was Wednesday and we hadn't had an opportunity to utilize the leftovers from the weekend BBQ.

I turned that weekend smoked chicken into Spicy Smoked Chicken Salad and ate it for lunch for the next couple of days until my daughters noticed it in the fridge and attacked it until there was none left.

This past weekend I made the all American classic of hamburgers and hot dogs. Earlier in the week the left over hamburgers and hot dogs were finished by the kids

On Wednesday night I went to CrossFit and after doing exercises like this for an hour, I was hungry!!

Looking through the fridge, I found 2 hamburgers from the weekend hiding behind some pickles in the fridge and decided to pair it with an avocado and tomato salad.