Beef Jerky - The Coffee Rub

Eye of Round, sliced thin, dry-rubbed with (proportions, approximate):
Ground Coffee (2 T)
Ground Pepper (2 T)
Ground Cumin (1 T)
Salt (1 T)
Garlic Powder (.5 T)

I'm pretty sure this is going to be spectacular.

Update 8/18/2011:  This is spectacular.  And the rub was all Triangle Girl - it works well for steaks as well.

Pesto Burgers!

Or more like pesto patties, since a burger implies some sort of bun as well, which I'd completely forgotten to consider the other people involved in the bbq.  Ah, well.

Mash together:
1 lb. ground beef
2/3 cup (or more or less) garlic scape pesto

Form into 6 patties, hand to someone else to grill.  When they magically come back perfectly cooked, combine with a salad and some grilled zucchini.  Awesome.

scooter

p.s., the inspiration came from Paleo Gurl's website.

Re-hydrating lunch test

OK - I combined some of the sausage, sweet potatoes, and veggies, covered with about 2x water, and simmered for 10-15 minutes.

Review:
It's pretty good.  I need to slice the sausages smaller, add salt and pepper.  Maybe consider adding other spices or some sort of dried base (broth) to it.  Made enough for 2 servings, but probably not 2 trail servings.

The experiment continues.....

Zucchini-Sweet Potato Patties

These are really just another version of these zucchini patties.

Grate a medium zucchini and 1/2 of a medium sweet potato.
Mix half of this together with an egg, salt, and pepper.
Grease/oil/spray a skillet over medium high heat and spread the mixture out somewhat thin.
Cook for a while on one side (several-five minutes), flip and cook on the other side.

Ate it paired with some leftover salmon and blueberries.

Go breakfast!

Chili (Paleo)

In a large pot, heat up olive oil.  Add:
1 large chopped onion.  Cook until starting to turn translucent.
Then add 1 lb. ground beef.  Cook until not pink.  Add a little bit of minced, dried garlic.
Then add 1 chopped bell pepper, and 1 chopped yellow squash.  Cook for a few minutes.
Add 1 can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, a few shakes of cumin, and a few shakes of chili powder.

Simmer for 20 minutes.

Scooter

Dehydrated Stuff

More dehydrated stuff:

Tonight, I shredded about 3/4 of a peeled, uncooked sweet potato, and spread it out on a sheet for the dehydrator.  Cut out a piece of parchment paper to act as a another sheet and also did 2 trays of frozen veggies (about 16 oz. of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots).  

Decided to try dehydrating pre-cooked chicken sausage.  It was the andouille flavored Amylu (?) brand from Costco, I sliced up 4 links, about 1/4" thick (probably should have done thinner).  I cooked them in the microwave for 1 min, just to heat them up and help release some of the fat, which I blotted with paper towels.  I then put them in a colander, and poured very hot water over them a few times (a tip I picked up off the internet for people who were drying ground beef - it should help get out even more fat).  Blot with paper towels again, throw on the dehydrator, filled up one tray.  

We'll see how this turns out - I am planning on re-hydrating for lunch at work sometime this week to test this whole theory out.  I'll probably combine all the ingredients, plus a few spices.....

Scooter

Cedar Plank Grilled Salmon

Yeah, this is where it's at.  The planks impart an awesome, smoky flavor to the salmon.

Soak a cedar plank for 1-many hours.

Heat up grill, put cedar planks on for a few minutes to pre-heat.

On salmon: squeeze lemon juice, sprinkle salt and pepper, add some fresh chopped rosemary and sage.

Leave on grill until salmon flakes with a fork, something like 30 minutes for the piece we had.

Best.  Ever.

Scooter