Island Bloody Marys

 I finally put together what I think is my Bloody Mary recipe for my camping trips! You can tweak it to your taste. Mine always seems to come out just a little different each time based on the brand of hot sauce, pickle, etc. I guessed on the quantity of pickle juice, salt, and pepper. It should be close.

Damon's Island Bloody Mary

2 Quarts Clamato Juice. 3 oz lime Juice 1 tablespoon Inglehoffer Cream Style Horseradish 2 Tablespoons Tapatio hot sauce 1 tablespoon Worchestershire 1 tablespoon celery salt 2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons pepper 1/4 cup dill pickle juice 1 and a half Cup Grey Goose Vodka

I double the ingredients for 2 - 2 quart bottles of Clamato.

Mix the lime, hot sauce, Worcestershire, and pickle juice with the horseradish and wish until the horseradish breaks down then add the remaining ingredients.

I added 10 olives, 10 cocktail onions, a dill spear, and a pepperoncini pepper. I added Wisconsin beef sticks too. You can add whatever you like.

I mix it all up in a larger container then pour it back into the Clamato bottles. 2- 2-quart Clamato juice makes like 5 quarts. I save an empty Clamato juice bottle when I know I need to make Bloody Marys for an upcoming trip for the extra.

Enjoy!

Lo Mein On The Blackstone Griddle

Well for my second cook on the Blackstone I wanted to try something different. I chose Lo mein!

We make enough for dinner and lunch for the next day.

Ingredients:

Bamboo Shoots

Water Chestnuts

Mushrooms

Green Onion

Snow Peas

Pork Tenderloin

Sesame oil

Water

Sauce

I would love to say we do some special secret sauce mix but we don't. We just use a recipe form a Chinese cookbook. Find one online or look in your book. it is really easy to make.

Prep your veggies and start your noodles to boil. Noodles will boil for 15 mins then take them off of the heat and put in a strainer. I dumped the water and put the drained noodles back in the pot to take to the griddle. I also used the pot to transport the finished dish back inside the house.

Basically, you just cook the ingredients in order of the ones that take the longest first, move them aside as you go finishing up with the meat. Once it is all ready, make a ring/bowl out of the mix so that you can add the sauce without it escaping. Once you pour it in you can start mixing it up. add more sesame oil or water where needed. You want to make sure the griddle top does not dry out on you. 

I missed the pic of Water Chestnuts, I cooked those after the Bamboo Shoots.!

Once all mixed up add the noodles and a bit more oil, possibly a squirt of water, and mix that as well. Once it is all mixed up you are done. 

Remove it from the griddle into your pot and take it in the house to plate up.

Enjoy!

While the grill was still hot I did a quick clean and re-seasoned it.

Simple Steak & Cheese On The Blackstone

Just a simple steak and cheese on an outdoor griddle.

For 2-3 servings

Ingredients:

1-Angus Ribeye

Provolone Cheese

3-Mushrooms

1/2-Red Bell Pepper

1/2-Yellow Onion

Tame Jalapenos

Salt

Pepper

Garlic

Cooking Oil

Butter

Hogie Buns

I kept this simple but feel free to marinate your steak and add or remove ingredients to your taste. The griddle I used is a 22 inch Blackstone. 

Place your ribeye in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes so that it firms up. This will allow you to slice it very thin. If you like a thicker cut you can probably skip that step.

While that is freezing, cut up the vegetables you plan to use. I listed what I used but you can do it up the way you like it.

Remove the steak and slice it thin.

Open the rolls and spread on some butter then cover with plastic wrap so they do not dry out before you need them.

Since this is my first cook on a griddle, I will not be giving failproof details for times, etc. If you have a griddle you will be familiar.

I set my grill to med/high initially then turned down one side to low to hold food and keep it warm once cooked. 

Oil the grill, then toss on the vegetables and cook them how you like them, then push them to the warm side of the grill.  Add seasonings to taste and toss frequently.

We also had frozen fries so I put them on just before the vegetables were the way we like them. The frozen fry bag should have skillet instructions, that is what we used.

Once the fries were about halfway done I moved them over (still on the med/hot side) and added the sliced steak. Cook it the way you like it. It will not take long since it is so thin. Maybe 4-5 minutes depending on your heat. 

Once everything is about ready, move it all to the low side. Now, place your buns on the grill, butter side down, so that it will toast.  

NOTE: Here is where my inexperience came in. I toasted the buns then flipped them, added toppings, and topped with cheese. I placed my cover over them to melt the cheese. This did not happen fast enough so the bread touching the grill started to burn. I had to remove my sandwiches before the cheese was completely melted. When I do this again I plan on using a griddle safe rack to hold the sandwiches just off the surface. I will experiment to see what works best.

Other than that issue, they came out pretty good! I would definitely do it again.

Spatchcock Chicken On the Grill

This was my first time making a Spatchcock Chicken and as it turns out it is fairly easy to do.

So, first off what is this odd word Spatchcock?

spatch·cock| ˈspaCHˌkäk | noun a chicken or game bird split open and grilled. verb [with object] split open (a poultry or game bird) to prepare it for grilling: these small spring chickens can be bought already spatchcocked.     Late 18th century (originally an Irish usage): perhaps related to the noun dispatch + cock

    Now that that is out of the way, let's get to it!

    First, clean your bird and remove the giblets. Then cut out the back. Just use kitchen shears and go up each side of the backbone to remove. Then make a small cut on the breastbone at the neck end. 

    Once this is done lay the bird breast up and press down to completely flatten it out.

    Once you have that completed, it is time to season your bird. You can do this with whatever you like. I rubbed mine with olive oil and then put liberal amounts of Webers Beer Can Chicken Seasoning on it. Be sure and do both sides of the chicken.

    At this point, you should be ready to grill. Some people like to foil the wing and leg tips, I chose not to.

    Now, some things may be different for you. Grills all seem to have a unique personality as well as various sizes and temperature ranges. With this in mind, adjust the cooking to how your grill behaves.

    I used my trusty Weber 3 burner preheated to 450 degrees. You want to grill the chicken with indirect heat if you can. If using a charcoal grill keep the coals on one side and grill on the opposite side. For my grill, I turned off the back burner and just used the middle and front. First, I tested the temperature with just the front burner and the grill did not want to get up to 450. So I turned on the middle burner and slowly turned the knob until it settled on 450. That ended up being a medium-low setting on my Weber. 

    Once heated to 450, place the chicken breast side up on the indirect heat side of your grill and bring it up to about 140 degrees. For me, this was about 30-35 minutes.  Since my bird sat pretty close to the flame of the middle burner, I turned the bird once to put the side further away to the hotter side after about 15 minutes so it would cook more evenly.

Once you reach 140 degrees you should be able to flip the bird breast side down on the direct heat side of your grill to crisp up the skin and finish cooking it. 165 Degrees measured at the thickest part of the thigh.

The perfect internal temperature is 165 degrees for dark meat, 160 degrees for white. If you don't have an instant-read thermometer, you can always do a little cut into the middle to check that it's just about opaque in the center.

Once done, remove and let it rest for 5-10 minutes and serve.

We had ours with red potatoes, carrots, onions, and mushrooms roasted in the oven with olive oil and a garlic herb seasoning.