Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Roasted Bell Peppers

 

I'm always on the lookout for a new recipe to try and even change a few things to make it more my own.  This one is courtesy of Chef Curtis Stone as found in People magazine!

I knew when I saw the picture that I NEEDED this in my tummy.  Sweet Harold spent the majority of the day pressure washing the deck, so I was more than happy to feed him this yummy and filling meal in reward of all his hard work today.

The original recipe called for 2 yellow/2 red bell peppers.  I changed it to use the "traffic light" bell peppers:  1 EACH of red/yellow/green bell peppers.

Let's get them ready to go first.  Preheat grill to high (450 - 500 degrees F.).  Coat bell peppers with 1 T. of olive oil.  Place peppers on the oiled grates and grill, uncovered, turning occasionally, until charred all over, 12-15 minutes.

Remove from grill to a heatproof bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Set aside and let steam for 10 minutes.  Uncover bell peppers, remove and discard stems, seeds and charred skins.  Slice into 1 inch strips.

Now we'll make the marinade for them.  You'll need:

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano

2 T. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 t. grated lemon zest, plus 2 T. fresh juice from 1 lemon

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

3/4 t. salt

1/4 t. black pepper

Whisk all these ingredient together in a medium bowl.  Add the sliced peppers and toss to coat.  Set aside and let marinate while you prepare the steaks.

2 (10 oz.) rib eye steaks (about 1 inch thick)

1 1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. black pepper

Place a wire rack inside a large rimmed baking sheet; set aside.  Pat steaks dry with paper towels.  Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Heat grill to 450 degrees F. Place steaks on oiled grates and grill, uncovered, until a thermometer inserted into thickest portion registers between 130 and 135 degrees F. for medium rare.  For me, that was 4 minutes per side.  

Transfer to baking sheet; let rest for 5 minutes.  

**I took a few minutes and made a compound butter just because.  Take a couple tablespoons of softened butter and add 1/4 t. kosher salt, a grind or two of black pepper, and 1/4 t. granulated garlic. 

While the steaks are resting, top with some of the compound butter to just add an extra layer of yummy flavor.

Slice steak against the grain and place on one half of a large platter.  Arrange bell pepper slices on the other half of the platter.  Spoon remaining oregano sauce over steak and pepper.  Serve immediately.

Five Hour Spaghetti Sauce

 On a recent rainy Saturday afternoon, I took to the kitchen for inspiration for dinner.  Y'all know how I love to spend hours making a good sauce for pasta.  I think every time I make sauce there are subtle differences to either my ingredient list or method.  This time was no different.

My secret ingredient for this version was an ingredient from my freezer!  Freezer?  Yes!  During last summer's basil harvest, I made basil, olive oil, and garlic freezer cubes for such a dish as this.  Here's the blog post!

The next time you have some time to cook and want to make your entire home smell ultra inviting, make this sauce!

1 lb. ground chuck

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 small green bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 T. Italian seasoning

2 cans (14.5 oz.) tomato sauce

1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste

8 oz. beef broth or stock

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper to taste

dried red pepper flakes (optional)

5 - 6 basil cubes

In a 3 quart Dutch oven, over medium heat, brown ground chuck.  Drain.

Add in onions, bell peppers, and Italian seasoning.  Continue to cook, stirring frequently, for another 5 - 7 minutes until veggies begin to soften.

Stir in tomato sauce, tomato paste, and beef stock and bring to a gentle boil.  Add in the bay leaf and lower heat to a simmer.

Cover and let sauce simmer away for as many hours as you can spare.  Keep the heat very low and stir occasionally to make sure the sauce doesn't stick.

About a half hour before serving, remove the bay leaf and taste.  Add salt and pepper to taste and red pepper flakes if you're using those.

Stir in the basil cubes and let that delicious basil and garlic goodness permeate through the sauce.  

This is the perfect sauce to serve over spaghetti noodles, ziti, with a meatball sub....you get the idea.

Grilled Ribs - 2 Ways

For our Memorial Day meal, I elected to grill two packages of baby back ribs instead of smoking them over hickory chips.

But what sort of dry rub to use?  I decided that two completely different flavor profiles would be fun and we could compare and contrast.  

At a recent BBQ competition, judges were given a gift bag which included a container of Bad Byron's Butt Rub.  Okay, so one flavor was a given!

Then my eye fell on my beloved Hardin's Seasoning in the cabinet.  Of course that would be the choice for the second rack of ribs!

Always remember to remove the membrane on the back side of the ribs.  You can grasp a corner with a paper towel and gently pull and should be able to remove it completely.  Discard.

Choose YOUR favorite dry rub or seasoning and place the rack of ribs on a tray.  Pat the ribs, front and back, with a paper towel to dry them as much as possible.  This will help the dry rub adhere properly.

Thoroughly coat the ribs on both sides and let them rest for 15-20 minutes.

Preheat the gas grill and clean grates.  You'll want to cook the ribs to as close to 325 degrees F. as possible.  The secret to grilling ribs is to cook over indirect heat.  I have a three burner grill.  When the temperature reached 325 degrees, I turned off the middle burner and lowered the heat of the two outside burners to the lowest heat setting.   Then I placed the ribs onto the middle of the grill.

Now the fun wait begins!  Close the lid and keep an eye on the temperature.  Low and slow is the thing for tender ribs.  After about an hour of cooking, I gently brushed the ribs with apple juice using a silicone brush.  That helps to keep them moist and juicy.

After about 3 hours, the internal temperature of the ribs stood steady at 187.  The sweet spot for grilled ribs is 198-203 degrees F.  

I increased the heat slightly and began applying the sauce to both sides of the ribs.

After about another half hour of cooking, the temperature was 202 degrees F.!  We are ready to eat!

 Those are some pretty ribs!

Our favorite seasoning?  Hardin's hands down!  These were great ribs even if I do say so and here's the proof that the "one bite out of the middle without the meat falling off the bone" was achieved!

2025 Alabama BBQ Tour: Jackson County - KC's BBQ, Scottsboro, Alabama

 

Jackson County is the northeasternmost county in the U.S. state of Alabama. The county seat is Scottsboro. The county was named for Andrew Jackson, general in the United States Army and afterward President of the United States of America. It is the site of Russell Cave National Monument, an archeological site with evidence of 8,000 years of human occupation in the Southeast.

Jackson County was established on December 13, 1819, after the federal government arranged a treaty to remove the Cherokee from the area and extinguish their land claims. The hilly and mountainous terrain of the Appalachians made the area unsuitable for the plantation-style agriculture of the lowlands and coastal area. It was settled largely by families from Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The county is crossed by a number of rivers and waterways; the most important is the Tennessee River, which drains most of the county. The current county seat of Scottsboro developed along the river, and was also the site of a railroad station when railroads reached the area.

KC's BBQ is located directly on the water of the Tennessee River.  Here are some photos taken on a very rainy and dreary Saturday afternoon.

Now on to the food.  I always pay attention when we exit the vehicle at these BBQ tour stops.  Y'all know the drill:  1)  do I smell hickory smoke?  2) do I see smoke?  3)  do I see hickory wood stacked outside ready to be smoked.  I'll admit it was a sign that I answered no to all of three of these questions.

Ordering is at the counter with a fix your own drink and go to a table of your choosing.  Your meal is delivered to your table.

Please note the "premium sides" listed on the left side of the menu board.  This will be important in a few minutes.

We questioned if it would be possible to get a "combo plate" because we wanted to try all of their smoked meats.  There was some discussion among the staff, but it was finally agreed we could and another staff member came over to the cash register to accurately ring up our order.

Sweet Harold chose the 1/2 smoked chicken and ribs (4).  He selected beans and slaw as his side dishes.

That's a nice looking plate of food and just check out the gorgeous golden color on that smoked chicken!

The chicken was definitely the star of the entire meal.  He thoroughly enjoyed the juicy white meat and the tender dark meat.  

Unfortunately, the ribs did not come close to the chicken in terms of tenderness or flavor.

There was four large and meaty ribs on the plate.  But there was almost no smoke flavor.  The phrase "fall off the bone tender" is a misnomer.  If the meat falls off the bone like these did, that rib meat is extremely overcooked and mushy.  

You take a bite, half the meat falls back onto the plate, you have to pick it up and it literally disintegrates into mealy and tough meat.  This is not a good thing.  We were both very disappointed in the ribs.

The BBQ beans were somewhat of redeeming side dish as well as the mayonnaise based slaw.  The beans contained a slight amount of pulled pork and the slaw had a nice flavor and consistency.

My turn!

I chose the pulled pork and beef brisket combination plate and decided I'd chose my sides from the "premium sides" portion of the menu.  This was a mistake.

Let's start with the pulled pork.

Extra points for this actually being "pulled pork" and not finely chopped, not doused with sauce, and that it included some nice bark.

But even though the meat was tender and not dried out at all, there was absolutely no smoke flavor that I could taste.  No aroma of smoke on the pork.  Disappointing.

The brisket was also tender and juicy, and included a nice bark, but little to no smoke flavor.  I believe that my portion was one slice cut to make two pieces.

Let's talk about these premium sides.  I do not mind paying extra for sides that ARE premium.  I unfortunately thought the onion rings would be homemade with a nice crunchy batter and maybe served with a dipping sauce.  Nope.  These were once again, disappointingly, a generic grocery store type frozen onion ring that was then fried.  These would have been fine as just a generic side of onion rings, but please don't call these a premium side.

Even more disappointing was the hashbrown casserole.  Again, as a premium side, I envisioned a ultra cheesy gooey hashbrown casserole like I make for my family.  Three days prior to my ordering this side, it may have been.  But this serving was a dried out, crunchy, bland pile of shredded potatoes.  This should not be considered a premium side.

I couldn't get a good taste on the BBQ sauce either.  We both discussed it and thought there might be a touch of mustard?  Or Heinz 57 Sauce?  When Sweet Harold returned to refill our tea, he asked the cashier if she could tell him about the sauce.  Her response, "I have no idea."  It would have been nice for her to maybe ask someone in the kitchen, but his inquiry was dismissed with a quick comment.

But lo and behold, there was a jug of the sauce sitting on the counter.  Being a great assistant (!), he snapped this picture of the ingredient list.  You be the judge as to what you think the flavor profile is.

I noticed this sign as we were leaving.

I don't mind spending money on good food and especially good BBQ.  Sadly, this was not the case on Saturday.

Standouts:  smoked chicken, BBQ beans, and slaw.

Point Takeaways:  Sytrofoam plates and cups, bland pork and brisket, overcooked ribs, uninspired premium sides.

Our Score:  82.

Easy Baked Macaroni and Cheese

While we've been on the bbq tour this year, we've had a lot of mac and cheese.  Some pretty good, some fair, some not good at all.  So for our Memorial Day meal, I wanted some honest to goodness, cheesy baked macaroni and cheese that was rich and delicious.  This fit the bill perfectly.

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

2 T. butter

2 T. all-purpose flour

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper

1/2 t. dry mustard

1/8 t. ground nutmeg

3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (divided)

8 oz. elbow macaroni (cooked for 5 minutes and drained)

paprika

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Microwave milk/cream for 1 1/2 minutes.  Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; whisk in flour until smooth.  Whisk constantly for 1 minute.

Gradually whisk in the warm milk, and cook, whisking constantly for 5 minutes.  The mixture will thicken.

Whisk in the salt, black pepper, dry mustard, and nutmeg.

Stir in 2 cups of the shredded cheese until the mixture becomes smooth.  Next, stir in the pasta and remove from heat.  When the pasta is completely coated, spoon into a lightly greased 2 quart baking dish.

Top with remaining cheese and sprinkle with paprika.  Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

 

Pulled Pork Baked Beans (on the grill)

Today, instead of smoking ribs, I chose to cook them on the gas grill.  I decided while the ribs were grilling, I'd mix up a batch of baked beans and cook them in a cast iron skillet alongside the ribs!

I started with a can of these!

Now these would have been perfectly acceptable to put in a pan and heat on top of the stove.  If you're pressed for time, enjoy them as is and get on with your life. But if you have time, a few extra ingredients, and something on the grill, give these a try.  

I had some leftover pulled pork in the freezer, so I added about a cup of that to the mix.

You'll need:

1 - 2 T. bacon grease

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 t. dry rub bbq seasoning

1/2 t. dry mustard

1 cup of leftover pulled pork, chopped

1 (28 oz. can) Bush's homestyle baked beans

3/4 - 1 cup of your favorite bbq sauce

4 slices thick cut bacon, cut into thirds

few drops hot sauce (optional)

Heat the bacon grease in a cast iron skillet over medium heat.  Cook onions, bell peppers, and garlic for 5 - 7 until they begin to soften, but not brown.  Add in bbq seasoning and dry mustard.  Let cook another minute or two.  Stir frequently.

Stir in pulled pork and let cook a few minutes.

Lower heat to low and stir in the can of beans and bbq sauce.  If you're adding the hot sauce, now's the time to stir it in to the mixture.

Remove from heat and top with sliced bacon.

If you have the grill going, place the skillet directly on the grill grates and let the beans cook over medium indirect heat until they're bubbling and the bacon is cooked.

In the alternative, you can bake in a 375 degree F. oven for 30 minutes or so until the bacon is cooked through.

These were deliciously decadent.  There are so many layers of flavor beginning with the bacon grease to sauté the vegetables to the bacon topping giving an extra boost of yumminess.