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Posted Today, 06:02 PM Howdy KKers! So last evening was a nice night to try a cook that I only do occasionally ... planked salmon. I found these Canadian Sugar Maple planks at the local BBQ Speciality Shop and they were on sale ... at $14.95! I'm a sucker and got a package as I had a nice couple of pieces of salmon marinating in an olive oil, garlic, a tad bit of lemon juice, red pepper flakes, etc. Here is that cook. I soaked the planks about 2 hours as prescribed on the packaging and here it is going on the grate. This picture shows the salmon placed on the plank after the plank had heated for about 45 minutes and was flipped. I decided to use the marinade and poured it on top of the salmon. Here is a top view immediately the salmon went on the plank. This is a shot of the salmon right before I pulled it. Now the table shots ... This is a salad a Friend made for me; her's was about a third this size! Pete The Salt Pig likes seeing me eat salad instead of his kin! Here are a couple of money shots. This was a really nice cook. I'm a big fan os fish and I'll cook fish just about any way you can imagine. In every previous cook, I've always tossed the plank but this time the Canadian Sugar Maple came through the cook in great shape. I washed it off and put it back on the grate to sanitize and dry at the direction of the guys at the BBQ Speciality Store. We'll see how that works out. Have a wonderful and safe 4th of July Holiday. Please don't drink and drive!

Howdy KK Cookers! Last night I did something a little unusual and thought I'd share with you good cooks. I had a pineapple sitting on the counter that needed to be sliced and used. I also had a couple of pork loin chops that I needed to cook. So, knowing that pork and pineapple go together well, I did the following. I sliced off the sides of the pineapple and laid out my pork chops on them, covered both sides with a little butt rub, and tied everything together with butchers' string. All trussed up and ready to put on Beauty! my 19" KK. On Beauty! @ 400F with a nice FOGO fire in the KK. Temps were rock steady at 400F the entire time of the cook ... about 40 minutes. Here are the pineapple pork chops after about 40 minutes @ 400F. Just a slight char of the strings which never really threatened to burn. After about 40 minutes the pork loin IT was 135. Dadgummit, I let the temps get away from me. I was looking for about and IT of 120-125F. The lesson learned was that the pineapple didn't provide much insulation and the pineapple pork loins cooked much quicker than I anticipated. Next time I'll reduce the heat in Beauty! to about 300-325F and not be in a rush to head out to a meeting up at church. Here's a pic of the pork loin that has been pulled and untrussed. The pork loin here is essentially cooked through and through. So, even though the pork loin was cooked, I decided to finish the reverse sear and let them rest. The pork IT going back on Beauty! was 120F and Beauty was rocking along at 550F. Here are the pork chops on Beauty! right before I pulled them to let them rest and plate. Here are the pork loin chops on the cutting board with a final IT of 140F. And finally here are the pork loins slides open. and ready to plate. There are s few tips that I would pass on after this cook. First, the pork loin chops should have been marinated in a solution of pineapple juice, soy sauce, minced garlic, minced ginger, and a little crushed black pepper. Second, I mistakenly thought that the pineapple skin slices would provide more insulation than they did. Third, running Beauty! at 400F was an attempt to hurry the process along; future cooks of this type should be done between 300-350F. The pork loin chops were tasty, not as juicy as I like, and you could taste a slight flavor of pineapple. Marinating the pork in the above marinade would have helped the flavor. I also think that I'll score the pineapple flesh that comes in contact with the pork to insure a better pineapple flavor. All in all, this cook, while interesting and tasty, could have been much better if I had not tried to do so much in such a compressed time frame as I allowed. This was my first time doing this cook and I should have known to leave some slack in the rope. Thanks for looking.

Dear MacKenzie - you wanted meager, here it is, especially for you! I wouldn't want you to feel cheated! Ok, let's set the record straight. In my previous post, some of you thought I eat like a king or that my definition of "meager" was a little skewed. Yes, I did cook all that food, but I purposefully left out the merely prosaic. Nothing could be further from the truth. How many burger, brats, and dawg cooks can you look at before you doze off. But just to prove a point here are more of the everyday cooks here at ChezChef. So, without further ado, here is my homage to the Merely Meager Cooks here at ChezChef! Some Juicy Lucies Pulled pork on TheBeast Pulled pork It doesn't get any more common that pulled pork and corn chips Here are the burgers, brats, and dawgs Here's something for the waistline More burgers and brats on TheBeast And comfort food ... the humble chicken pot pie Ready to serve See? There really isn't a big production every evening here at ChezChef! Thanks for looking (again).

Howdy KKers - I've seen so many really wonderful cooks documented by Wilbur, MavKenzie, ckreef, and a whole host of others that I've got to post a few of my meager cooks. I've done all these since I returned from my various trips. I'm not much on verbiage, I'll just let the pics speak for themselves. it may take a few posts to get all this in, but ... Quiche Roasted yard Bird and corn FOGO One HUGE pan of lasagna Lasagna plated Smoked & Stuffed pork chops Stuffed Pork Chops plated Grilled salmon Plated Salmon More to follow soon.