It’s Memorial Day weekend in the United States and most folks are gearing up to break out the grills for the first time this year and fire them up for a barbeque in the backyard with friends and family. I cleaned up the backyard tonight and pulled the dusty cover off of my huge gas grill in preparation for this weekend. Tomorrow, I’ll clean it up real good, use a grill cleaning brick (made from lava stone) and hook up the gas tank and test it for leaks (this is very important!). Once that’s done, it’s time to oil it down and give it a test run with some burgers and grilled corn. Here’s a picture of my grill, it’s a Charmglow that I bought last year and I am very happy with it:

My Charmglow Grill

It’s important to clean your grill before cooking. While some believe that keeping some of the burnt food on the grill irons adds flavor, it’s simply not true. That will cause more headaches instead as food sticks to the burnt leftovers and chars the outside of the food before the inside is cooked, which forces you to keep it on longer, burning the outside even more. Make sure to oil down your grill before cooking on it as well so that food doesn’t stick and always remember – SAFETY FIRST!

Check out some of these great grilling tips from my site: Grilling Tips from Professional Recipes

On the menu this weekend, I’ve got:

• London Broil with a smoky mesquite marinade
• Grilled Corn on the Cob
• BBQ Chicken marinated in my near-famous barbeque sauce (not giving out that recipe yet)
• Steak and Shrimp Kabobs
• I might do these again this year too: Grilled Chicken with Walnut Sauce

Are you looking to try something different this year, like a gourmet hamburger? I might give these a try, from 2 chef friends of mine:

• Greek Burger with Beetroot Relish
• Chef Newmans Newman Burgers

I wrote some posts last season as well for Memorial Day and Tips for Grilling in general and keeping the grill clean, check them out if you get a chance:

Memorial Day Weekend, so What’s Cooking on the Grill?
Grilling Tips for the Backyard Gourmet

I found this article today about enjoying wine at the backyard BBQ, check it out:
Burgers and Beyond, Wine Comes to the Barbecue

I just read this article on ForbesTraveler.com about the 10 most spiciest foods in the world. I’ve heard about the Hot Suicide wings in Chicago where you must sign a disclaimer before you eat them. A friend and I were just talking about it actually. It brought back some memories of using Dave’s Insanity Sauce working at Ye Olde Temperance House. I was working late one night, closing the kitchen and keeping the bar patrons happy with our late night menu. I remember it was a busy night and I had a bunch of orders up and going, just me by myself and a dishwasher.

This smart guy comes into the bar and starts bragging that anywhere he goes, the wings are never hot enough. He and bartender get to talking and the wonderful barkeep says, Jeff can make you some seriously hot wings. The guy brags that he can eat anything I can cook up and orders a dozen wings as hot as I can possibly make them. Into the kitchen comes the barkeep with the order along with a few other items for his friends. He tells me about the guy and says to make them as hot as I possibly can. I said, “Are you sure about that? Are you really, really sure? I told him to go back and make sure the guy would agree not to sue us or get angry. He comes back and says “do it up!” Ok buddy, you asked for it!

So I base the hot sauce with pure Tabasco first – it had to have some flavor and some actual sauce to it – anyone who has used Dave’s Insanity knows that it’s nearly as thick as molasses. I fry up his wings in the meantime and cook the other orders. Out comes the Dave’s Insanity and into the sauce goes about 10 drops of the stuff. Enough to make me tear up cooking it!!!

To make a long story short, the guy, to his credit, ate about 5 or 6 of the 12 wings and then proceeded to run to the bathroom and I think he got sick from pounding beer to make the burning stop! Bad idea! Carbonated beverages only make it worse – milk is the best thing. I grabbed a gallon of milk out of the back and gave it to the bartender and told him to make the guy a smoothie or something. The guy did not get mad, did not sue the restaurant and complimented me on the hottest wings he had ever eaten, no comparison. He even left the bartender a nice tip!

Here is the link to the story:
The World’s Spiciest Foods

I’ve added a new section to the website all about different types of food and ingredients with more articles coming over the next few weeks. It’ll have information about where the ingredients come from, how they are used, recipes to prepare using those ingredients and other interesting information.

There will be a Food and Ingredients home page listing the food items alphabetically and as new articles are added, this page will be updated. Here is the link:

Food and Ingredients Home Page

At the moment, there are articles about the following:

• Garlic – a favorite of mine!
• Ginger – more common than you think!
• Kale – one of the healthiest foods around.

Have any suggestions for new articles? Leave a comment here and I’ll be sure to update the site. Cheers!

Finally, Andrea has been kicked off! I never thought she was good enough to make it this far in the first place. With as many mistakes as she’s made with food being under or overcooked, not seasoned properly and just plain being slower than the other chefs on the show, I really thought she would’ve been gone early on.

I will admit that she has improved though and she seemed to do well running the kitchen in the last show, despite pissing off Chef Scott, though she missed a few things early on like the Dory trick they pulled on her for quality control.

Danny was good, though could’ve been more vocal when he was running the show. Paula has impressed me through most of the episodes and I think she’s going to win this in the finale and be the new head chef of the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, NJ.

Who do you think is going to win, Danny or Paula? Cast your vote here:
Vote for the Winner of Hell’s Kitchen!

Update: Now that the winner has been decided, here are the results of this poll: Poll Results

Recently for Easter dinner, I made a batch of Hollandaise sauce from scratch to go with the blanched asparagus that was one of the surprises I had planned for my friends and family. I haven’t made it at home or professionally in quite some time but the process came back to me easily and despite forgetting that I had no lemon juice in the house (horrors!), it came out pretty nicely after sending my daughter to the corner market!

Making Hollandaise Sauce with egg yolks and a whisk.

It does take a little work to make correctly and to be quite honest, the powdered/packaged variety is a good substitute for most home cooks, but nothing beats freshly made hollandaise.

Check out this article on making hollandaise from scratch: How to Make Hollandaise Sauce!

As Easter is already upon us and of course, dinner is at our house so I decided to pull out some of the old favorites and use them for dinner tomorrow night. The Pineapple Stuffing is made and in the refrigerator and I’ve gathered the ingredients for the Pineapple Ham Glaze, but that comes tomorrow while the ham is cooking.

For vegetables, I’ve got fresh asparagus and will be making a hollandaise sauce from scratch tomorrow to go along with it and glazed carrots using brown sugar and butter. Fresh mashed potatoes and croissants will finish everything off nicely along with a bottle of white zinfandel and fruity Robert Mondavi wine. For dessert, well, we’re heading over to my grandmother’s house for dessert and to give her the Easter flowers I bought for her today.

Try this glaze for your next ham:

Pineapple Ham Glaze

Servings:
1 5 lb. ham

Cooking Time:
60 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 small can of crushed pineapple
• 1 can of sliced pineapple
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 3 tbsp prepared mustard
• 1 small jar of maraschino cherries (optional)

Instructions:

• Whisk together everything but the sliced pineapples in a bowl, mix well.
• In the last hour of cooking, pull out the ham and glaze the ham with the mixture using a brush.
• Layer the pineapple slices across the top. Use wet toothpicks to stick them in. If using the cherries, do the same with these in the middle of the pineapple.
• Baste every 10 minutes. If needed, you can add a little water to the bottom of the pan if getting dry.

And this Pineapple Stuffing is to die for:

Pineapple Stuffing

Servings:
5

Cooking Time:
Prep: 5-10 minutes, Cook: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

• ½ cup margarine
• 1 cup white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained
• 5 slices potato bread, cubed
• Can substitute 5 slices of white bread for the stuffing instead

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C) and grease a 9 inch baking pan.
• In a mixing bowl, cream margarine and sugar.
• Beat in the eggs one at a time.
• Add the pineapple and bread cubes to the mix.
• Bake at 350° for 1 hour.
• Let the stuffing cool for about 5 minutes before serving to firm up.

Have a favorite recipe you’d like to share? Leave a comment below! Happy Easter and Happy Passover!

I’ve updated the main site, as hopefully you’ve seen, and just added a new survey about one of my favorite topics here, the show Hell’s Kitchen. I enjoy watching it and can sit back and laugh at some of the mistakes, seeing and doing some of them. Other times I am simply appalled at other mistakes… mistakes that just cannot be made in a professional kitchen.

I’m not sure who I like at this point, but Carol has shown some promise and is a favorite in my mind. Giovanni has gotten better of late with a nice team effort on the red team and a winning dish for the red team in the challenge the other night. The others really haven’t shown a lot of promise and there is no other clear favorite that I can pick out.

So, who do you think is going to win Hell’s Kitchen and the head chef position at the Borgata in Atlantic City (somewhere I can actually visit relatively easily for once!)?

Cast your vote here: Survey: Who’s Going to Win Hell’s Kitchen?