Unusually nice weather for this season of the year (in the south it's called Spring, we call it Mud), so time to brush the bars and light the fires. Grilled chicken was the order of the day, and given the daughter was not off at camp, encampment, or some other out of town activity, it was not going to be with a BBQ sauce. For some strange reason Beverly does not like chicken in a red BBQ sauce, strange, very strange.

So, Grilled Chicken, Greek Style was the way to go. Worry not (if anyone is actually following my ramblings), I do have a recipe for a red, southern style BBQ sauce, and will get it online soon.

When we first moved to the North East corner of Pennsylvania, well it was actually months latter(springtime) we would notice signs "Chicken BBQ Saturday". These were advertising what seems to be a favorite fundraiser for organizations during the warm months. Having spent many years in the south, I am a big fan of BBQ of all sorts of meats. So one busy day I said to Lori, "Why don't you pop down there and pick up some chicken, and we won't have to cook." Seemed like a good idea, support a local charity and save some effort (and get to eat BBQ!).

What she brought back, was well, disappointing. Laying limply in a Styrofoam container was a chicken half, browned in places, darker in others. That's it. No sauce??? Flavor, well there was a sense that salt had been involved, but aside from that nothing to spoil the pure taste of chicken. Later I found out that some organizations baste the chicken in a mix of vinegar and salt as it cooks on the grill. Now that's fine dinning.

Friends of mine that owned a local restaurant, came up with a great improvement on this local fare. They had a large gas fired pit, about 25 feet long and would cook up hundreds of halves of chicken for organizations using their facility for fund raising. Their method depended on basting the chicken with a mixture that contained many herbs and spices imparting a wonderful flavor. The kicker was that the baste had eggs, beer, vinegar and oil. The egg protein (and beer to an extent) give the skin and meat an even brown crust. The salt and vinegar helped dry the skin and make it crisp. The oil helped transfer the flavors and lube the flesh not covered by skin. Their product was many levels of magnitude better than the local style. So, I had to hijack their recipe.

I was after a specific flavor, Greek, but wanted to take advantage of the mechanical properties that their baste provided. So here it is Greek Marinade and Basting Sauce.

It's Friday and with all that is happening with our economy and nation we needed a little treat. And you can't beat beef for less than 2 bucks a pound, which is if you don't have to spend an hour beating it to make it palatable. Not the case with Nebraska Steak.

Steak from Nebraska, sounds expensive you say. Well that's a bit of a misnomer. The name does not refer to the state that the beef used to roam. Instead it refers to the question I got from my Dad when I served this dish to him and Mom. He asked after a few bites, "Is this steak from Nebraska?" First of all, Dad is a "steak on the grill guy", so the thought of cooking it in an oven sounds like crazy town. Well until his comment, in our house we always called it "restaurant method" steak. This comes from how chefs will often finish a steak (or fish or whatever) in the oven so to control the amount doneness and the color of the outside of the meat. After that our family always calls this "Nebraska Steak"

For this dish we use boneless chuck roast, well marbled and at least 1.5 inches thick, thicker is better. Also the thickness needs to be consistent or it will not cook evenly. So when it is on sale, we rummage through the pile and find one or more with good proportions and thickness, cooked immediately or frozen this always turns out great. For most, the only way you will believe that a chuck roast can come out as tender and juicy as this is to try my Nebraska Steak recipe yourself.

Most of last week and this one (and I think part of next also) I've been working on assembling a recruiting presentation for my daughters Civil Air Patrol Squadron. She shet up the outline, focus and we collected together a bunch of movie clips and stills, and the text. I got to assemble it all together so that it made sense and had flow.

Anyhow this brings to point, my point, you need to have something to eat on busy weeks that does not take hours to make, and tastes good. We love tacos and burritos. You can quickly heat up shells or steam wraps. Dispatching a tomato or slicing some lettuce, quick. So where is the time, well good meat filling. Yea, yea, taco packet and brown some meat, but that misses the point of great south of the border food. You have some fresh ingredients, tomato, lettuce and maybe some avocado. You have a simple starch product like shells or four wraps. So what carries the taste? The meat! So here is my recipe for making Taco Meat. Yep it also works for burritos, tostadas, etc. but you got to call it something.

How does this relate to a busy week? Well when I make this up I do so 4-5 pounds at a time. Then I freeze it up in sour cream containers. Then on a night when we need a quick meal, out of the freezer, into the microwave, minutes later its taco time!

Ever notice that with some groups, when they have pot lucks, almost all the dishes you see is meat free and way too healthy. My daughter's school(private) graduation parties were that way. Cold salads, cheese pizza, vegee platters, oh my! Science says we are omnivores, some folks claim to be vegetarians, so to balance the universe some of us must declare, we're carnivores.

This recipe for oriental meatballs is one of my favorites to bring to a pot luck. They say warm in a crock pot without becoming dry, and most folks love them. These meatballs are very rich, so even one or three hits the spot. My daughter and my friend Bill agree, a couple of plates full hits the spot. Because you can make them ahead and finish at the last minute, means you can spread the work over a few days. This is really important if you need to bring multiple batches.

Pork picnic's are on sale again. Today its two for the freezer and one for the pot. Pork shoulders (aka picnic) are a great meat for a slow cook, whether it be BBQ'ed (smoked) or roasted or braised. While it is still a bit cold to use the smoker, braising brings both heat and moisture into our house.

This Pulled paprika pork uses Hungarian paprika and tomato paste to make a rich dark sauce that is both great with the meat, and useful later too. My wife and daughter like the shredded pork over toast with the sauce. That's good, but I can't pass up a pulled pork BBQ sandwich mid winter. If you have any (or all) the sauce/gravy left you can freeze it, then pull it out later for use over some mashed potatoes on a night were you don't want to go to the trouble of making gravy.

Another variation of this uses the pork and the gravy as a start to make a rich stew to warm your insides on a cold winter day.

The other day I was st airing forlornly at a small package of chicken thighs in the fridge. There were far too few to just cook as chicken, and feed the whole family (or freeze), yet they would not last much longer in the fridge. So what to do?

Looking around we had a good deal of shredded cheddar cheese, and some unused cilantro, that was trying to decide if it would turn brown or just rot. I always keep a variety of canned bean products, was there an idea here? Bowl of refried beans with chunks of chicken? No...

Lucky for me the wife was still up in the Binghamton area so a quick call later and I had some canned enchilada sauce (did not have the time to make it) and wraps on the way.

The idea here was that chicken plus cheese, refried beans, and wraps equal enough food to cover the main course. We also had a small amount of unused mozzarella cheese (from French bread pizzas) and I felt that plus the cheddar would yield a much more creamy texture, and leave one less small package of stuff in the fridge.

Turned out great! I guess I lucked out on the sauce, that could of ruined the enchiladas, but one could always make it from scratch if you can't get canned. So here is the recipe:Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

At the last foray for 2008 of our mushroom group SVMS I wanted to bring a hot soup. The weather had cooled and soup seemed to be the thing to bring. Being a mushroom club foray, wild mushrooms would have to be involved.

As a child I always hated sweet potatoes. They would invariably make their appearance around holidays, stuffed into a casserole dish, loaded with sugar and topped with marshmallows. I am not a big fan of sweets, never have been. last year my father made us a sweet potato pie that tasted more like a pumpkin pie. Hmm, I like cooking with pumpkins. Maybe a sweet potato based soup with chanterelles?

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