Grilled Barbecue and Ham Pizza #Evergriller #sponsored

When I was growing up in the Chicago area, winters meant snow, mittens, freezing cold, and hibernation. When I moved to the Denver(ish) area of Colorado, I found out that winter doesn't necessarily mean "white." It snows here, but most often in the spring than in the dead of winter.

And of course it gets cold, but not as bitter as Chicago winters. And when it's sunny - which it often is - it can be pretty pleasant outside. Not shorts and flip-flops pleasant, but pleasant enough to do some grilling without turning into an icicle.

Yup, if you've got a yen for grilling, the smart thing to do is pick a sunny day, and, well, grill in the sunshine. If you wait until after dark, it feels a lot chillier.

When I got an offer through Clever Girls to work with Kraft on an outdoor, out-of-season grilling recipe, I figured it would be a no-brainer. I love barbecue sauce, and the grill was waiting. They sent along some of their revamped barbecue sauce (which they said features high-quality ingredients like tomatoes, sweet molasses, cider vinegar and cane sugar. And  NO high fructose corn syrup).

I received the Original, Hickory Smoke, and Sweet Honey; the other flavors are Mesquite Smoke (oooh, I need to try that!), Sweet Brown Sugar, Sweet & Spicy, Spicy Honey, and Thick & Spicy.

Besides the sauce, they sent some grilling gear, including an ingenious mitt called the Evergriller Grill 'N' Flip Mitt that has a pocket-like mouth on the front end, so you can insert the handle of your chosen barbecue tool and grab onto it while keeping your hand safe from both the heat of the grill and the chill of winter air. And from the chill of the barbecue tool, if you left it outside in a snowbank, I guess.

Armed with sauce and swag, I tried to decide what to make.

For inspiration, I opened the Hickory Smoke sauce first, because I was curious if I'd like it or not. A lot of hickory-flavored sauces taste fake to me, but this one was pretty darned good. As in, I'll probably buy a whole lot more of it.

I slathered the sauce on chicken wings and baked it onto chicken thighs - got to do some quality control tests, right? I was thinking about buying some ribs for the official test and post, but I thought ribs might be way too simple.

I wanted to do something different. Creative.

Then the idea hit me. Pizza. But not just any pizza. Pizza with HAM.

The idea of combining ham with barbecue sauce came from a sandwich served one of my favorite places in Chicago that served a barbecue ham sandwich. I know it's not traditional, but it's really good.

And I figured that pizza would be a perfect vehicle for my barbecue sauce and ham, because it gave me an excuse to add some melty cheese.

For my crust, I used a flour tortilla, to make a super-thin-super-crunchy crust. I used the smallest ones - labeled "fajita" size - about 5 1/2 inches in diameter. While you could use a larger tortilla for larger pizzas - the burrito size are pretty big - the smaller ones are easier to handle, and you can customize the toppings, if you like. And since these are small, two of them make a nice serving size.

The key to these little pizzas is to prep the tortillas ahead of time, cooking and flipping them on the grill until they've become somewhat crisp. That can be done ahead of time, and then the pizzas can be topped and finished as needed.

Grilled Barbecue and Ham Pizza

For each pizza:
1 flour tortilla, about 5 1/2 inches in diameter
1 tablespoon Kraft Hickory Smoke barbecue sauce
1/4 cup (about 1 ounce) shredded cheese (I used the Kraft Mexican four-cheese blend)
1/2 of a slice of deli ham, torn or sliced

Figure out how many pizzas you're going to need and multiply the ingredients accordingly. You can adjust quantities to taste, but I thought this ratio worked well. Extra tortillas won't go to waste, if you grill them until they're crisp. You can break them up to make crackers, or save them for another day of pizza-making.

Make sure you've got the grill set up with direct heat to pre-cook the tortillas, and indirect heat for finishing the pizzas.

Over direct heat on your grill, cook the tortillas, flipping them regularly so they cook and get grill marks, but they don't burn.

The tortillas are done when you can pick one up and it's rigid rather than floppy. They don't need to be completely solid - just rigid enough to hold their shape.

Remove the tortillas from the grill (if it's freakishly cold out, bring the finished tortillas indoors to prep them.Spread the barbecue sauce on top of each one, almost to the edge. Top with ham and cheese.

Place the pizzas back on the grill over indirect heat and close the lid. Let them cook until the cheese has melted and the ham has warmed - this takes just a minute or two, depending on your grill.

These are nice served with a green salad, but if you want to offer additional toppings on the pizzas themselves, then diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, and pickled jalapeno peppers would work well.

About that MITT:

If you're interested in winning your very own Evergriller Grill ‘N’ Flip Mitt, along with a year’s supply of Kraft Barbecue Sauce, go to GrillinFools.com between now and January 30. The winner will be randomly selected at the close of the giveaway.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and provided product samples by Kraft Foods, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Country-style pork ribs with maple whisky barbecue sauce

I love country-style pork ribs. I don't recall ever seeing them when we lived in Chicago. Maybe I just never looked. But here in Colorado, they're pretty common. This time I decided to slow cook them on the grill.

But before I put them on the grill, I marinated them in a super-simple marinade. The flavor will be different depending on which ketchup you use, so it's wise to do a little tasting before you slather it on the meat. Many brands of ketchup are sweet enough, but that's up to you. And of course salt is a personal taste.

If you refer a spicy sauce, you could add a pinch of cayenne.

I've been having a lot of fun with the Maple-aged whisky from Crown Royal. I've used in in ice cream a few times, but this time I decided to use it in a savory dish. This was a winner for sure. An it couldn't be any easier.

Country-Style Pork Ribs
--- on the grill with maple whisky barbecue sauce

1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup Crown Maple
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 tablespoon sugar (or to taste)
4 pieces country-style pork ribs

Combine the ketchup and Crown Maple. Give it a little taste and add salt and sugar, if needed.

Put the ribs in a plastic bag and add the sauce. Massage it a bit to make sure the sauce is evenly coating the meat.

Set aside for an hour at room temperature, or refrigerate if you won't be cooking for a while.

Preheat your grill with the fire off to one side or with just one burner turned on medium-low temperature if you have an electric grill. Cook the rib on indirect heat, covered, until the meat is tender. How long this takes depends on how thick the meat is and what temperature your grill is, but figure about three hours. The goal is low and slow cooking. It's mostly unattended, though - just make sure the fire doesn't go out, move the meat around once in a while to make sure it's cooking evenly, and make sure the meat isn't getting too close to the fire, so it doesn't burn or overcook.

When the meat is tender, remove it from the grill and let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

Leftovers make great shredded pork sandwiches.

Oven-Baked "Barbecue" Ribs

Sure, barbecue season is mostly over, but ribs never really go out of season. And they're simple to make in the oven.

Since I'm still spending quite a bit of time at the hospital with my husband, I made these the evening before. Quite often, that works best for things that need to cook for a long time. I can start cooking before dinner, and it's done before I go to bed. The next day, I just heat and serve when I get home.

There are probably thousands of recipes for rib rubs. I used on I bought on vacation. If you don't have a prepared rub, a sprinkle of salt, pepper and some paprika will do. Or seasoned salt if you have that. Sure, you can get all fancy, but that's for another day.

As far as the sauce, use one you like. I've been known to dabble with making barbecue sauce, but there are quite a few commercial ones that I like as well.

Oven-Baked "Barbecue" Ribs

1 rack pork ribs
1 teaspoon rib rub (or as needed)
1/4 cup barbecue sauce (plus more, as needed)

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (for easy cleanup) and preheat the oven to 225 degrees.

Sprinkle the ribs all over with the rib rub. Place the ribs, bone-side down, on the baking sheet. Bake at 225 degrees until the ribs are cooked to your desired doneness - from 3 to 5 hours.

About 30 minutes before the ribs are done to your liking, slather the ribs with the sauce, then continue cooking.

When the ribs are done, let them rest for a few minutes before cutting then apart. If you won't be eating them immediately, let them cool, then refrigerate.

Serve with extra sauce, as needed.

    

Bread Machine (sort of) Brioche

Have you run through all the recipes that come with your bread machine yet? Looking for something just a little bit richer? This isn't quite a brioche, but that's what it was inspired by. It's richer than the typical white bread, but not .

Although I like kneading and shaping bread and baking a loaf in the oven, there are times when a bread machine makes a lot of sense. Making bread by hand isn;t that difficult. Using a stand mixer to do the kneading makes it even easier. But even so, you have to be around at the right times to complete each step.

With the bread machine, you only have to be around to put the ingredients into the machine, and you have to be there to remove the bread when it's done.

A loaf from a bread machine is never the prettiest thing in the world, but if you're making a sandwich or toast, that doesn't matter as much.

This bread is a little rich from the butter, just slightly eggy, and it's also soft and fluffy. It makes a good peanut butter sandwich (which is one of my major criteria for any sandwich bread) and it makes good toast as well. 

Bread Machine (sort of) Brioche

1 teaspoon instant yeast

3 cups (13 1/2 ounces) bread flour

1/2 cup nonfat dry milk

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg plus water to equal 1 1/4 cups liquid

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Add the ingredients to your bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer - they're all a little different. If you have optional settings on the machines, set it for a standard loaf, large, and dark crust. 

Start the machine. When the bread is done, remove it from the machine and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing.

If you're curious, this is the bread machine I use:

Gadgets: Blacktop 360 Party Hub Grill-Fryer

The Blacktop 360 Grill-Fryer is marketed as the grill you'd bring along when you're tailgating, and it comes with a handy carrying case. So it's portable, right? Right. Which probably means it's tiny, right? Way wrong. This thing is about 30 inches in diameter, total, with the cooking surface just about 24 inches in diameter, so it's not a backpacker's grill.

What makes this portable is the legs that fold compactly, and the carrying case that makes it easier to haul around. I wouldn't want to lug it up a mountain on my back, but it's very polite about getting in and out of the car.

A small cutting board attaches to the side of the grill. I haven't used it for cutting, but it's great for holding spices and small items you'll be using at the grill. There's also an insulated cup with a cover - like a travel mug for coffee - that's meant for draining oil from grill so you can take it with you safely and conveniently.

The center of the grill is a like a bowl that you can use as a deep fryer or to boil water for steaming - thus the need for a way to get rid of oil. Around the bowl are three sections - an infrared grill, a griddle, and an unheated section that gets warm just because the rest of the grill is hot - that last section is used for warming.

There's also a lid that's designed to fit any one of the three outer sections and hanging hooks for grill tools.

The grill uses propane. A small propane tank will screw directly into the port on the grill. Or you can buy an adapter hose and use a full-size tank. That would be a less expensive alternative if you're going to be using the grill at home.

Before I tried this grill, I had no idea what an infrared grill was, except that Alton Brown seemed to think they were a big deal when they were added to the Iron Chef kitchen. After I got the grill, I still wasn't entirely sure. 

But it doesn't matter. The grill heats up quickly, and it gets very hot. If you want a good sear, you'll get one. And not just over the infrared section - the griddle heats up amazingly fast and gets blazing hot as well.

How hot? I have no idea. I tried to check the temperature with a laser thermometer, and the grill got too hot for the thermometer to measure.

The very first thing I tried was boiling some water in the center section. I turned it on, walked away, and I had a rolling boil. Woah. That's impressive. I haven't tried it yet, but I think it might also work well for stir-fry. Not exactly tailgate food, but great at home. Or, you know, stir-fry a big bunch of onions for burgers. Or heat up chili for chili dogs. No pots needed.

The one downside to this grill is that because of that bowl-shaped center section, you can't cook anything very large - so no big pizzas or oversized racks of ribs.

However, you can cook a whole lot of smaller things. I cooked an entire meal  for four people on the grill - with plenty of leftovers - and that included an appetizer, an 8-rib rack of lamb, potatoes, and grilled vegetables. 

Since the grill cooks at such a high temperature, it would also work well for continuous grilling of burgers or other relatively quick-cooking items, so you could feed a crowd that way. I mean, a barbecue isn't a plated dinner, right?

While this is marketed towards tailgaters, I think it's also great for small families - with the right planning, an entire meal can be cooked on the grill, and the warming section is perfect for keeping vegetables warm while you're working with the grill and griddle. Or for warming tortillas or buns.

The top of the grill comes off which makes cleanup easier, but it's a tad big for a standard kitchen sink if that's your plan. It can be done, though. But since you're outside, a sponge and a hose will do the trick, as well. Since that top is made from thin metal, not only does it heat up quickly, but it also cools down quickly, which is great if you're packing the grill up and taking it with you when it's done.

I received this grill from the manufacturer for the purpose of doing a review on Serious Eats.

Chef Salts - not too salty

I recently received some samples of a new salt product - Chef Salt.

First, let me admit that I have a salt fetish. I've got flavored salts, finishing salts, pink and gray and red salts ...

And then of course there are all those herb mixes that include salt.

As much as I like salt - and using the right salts - I don't like my food oversalted. I want my food to taste like food, and not like a salt lick. Sure, I use salt when I cook, but we don't eat a lot of processed foods, so I'm willing to bet we eat less sodium than someone who hides the salt shaker but eats a lot of processed foods.

What really annoys me is when a spice mix has so much salt that by the time you've got enough of the spice flavor, you've added way too much salt. What's the point of that? You'd need to use a salted herb mix, then an unsalted one in order to get the amount of spice you need.

Chef Salt, on the other hand, has a good mix of salt and flavor.

I tried the Bacon BBQ salt on grilled pork chops and I was pretty impressed. I used it as though it was salt and it had just the right amount of spice and the right amount of salt. It also added some nice color to the meat, which is a plus.

To make the chops, I just sprinkled the Chef Salt on both sides of the chops and cooked them as usual on the grill. Nothing fancy. No recipe. Just meat on the grill.

I've tried a couple of the other flavors on vegetables and other meats, and I've been just as happy with those as well. I mean, what's not to love? Its salt and a nice spice blend.

I was going to come up with a recipe for the salts, but really, no recipe is needed - pick a flavor you like, sprinkle it on whatever you like, and you're good to go.

I got samples of Chef Salt at no cost; I was not required to write a favorable review - or any review at all.

Crock Pot BBQ Pork Sandwich

This is fantastically easy, and it feeds a crowd. Sure, the bottled sauce is a cheat, but if you usually make your own sauce, use that instead. The water is just to thin the sauce enough so it doesn't burn or scorch while the pork cooks.

The amount of pork isn't critical. Another half-pound or pound more or less isn't really a big deal - if the bigger packages are a better deal, go for it. You could easily make 5 pounds of pork, as long as it fits in your slow cooker.

This is a two-day recipe, but there's not much work involved. You could cook the pork the first time overnight, refrigerate it in the morning, and finish for dinner.

You could also opt to cook this in a Dutch oven on the stove top or in the oven - whatever works for you. The one key here is knowing your equipment. The slow cooker I used for this holds the moisture in really well, so I didn't have to worry about the liquid evaporating out. With different equipment, you might need to add more water during cooking.

Slow Cooker Barbecue Pork Sandwiches

3 pound boneless pork shoulder or country-style ribs or boneless country-style ribs
1 bottle barbecue sauce (about 15 ounces, plus more as needed)
1 cup water

If your slow cooker has a browning setting, brown the pork on all sides. If your slow cooker doesn't have a browning setting, you can do the browning is a separate pan, Or, just cook without the browning. You'll get enough flavor from the sauce, so you might not notice the difference.

Add the barbecue sauce (use your favorite) to the pork in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low until the pork is fork-tender, about 8 hours.

Put the pork and all the liquid into a storage container and refrigerate until well-chilled. It's true that braised meats are better the next day, and it's not about time - it's about chilling the meat.

The other advantage to the chilling is that the fat rises to the top of the liquid so you can scrape it off and get rid of it.

Pull the meat out and shred it or slice it (your choice). Put it in a pot or saute pan, add all the liquid, and cook until the liquid is mostly evaporated and you have the meat swimming in a thick sauce. Taste for seasoning, and if you want more barbecue sauce flavor, just add additional sauce and let it simmer down some more.

Serve on buns. Pass more sauce at the table, if desired.

Ribs on the Grill

When we drove to Chicago for a family get-together, I stopped at stores all along the way looking for interesting regional products. Since we stopped in both Kansas City and St. Louis, barbecue sauces and rubs landed in my cart with alarming regularity.

Babyback pork ribs were on the menu, the grill was standing ready, and I randomly chose one rub and two sauces to sample.

The rub was Zarda Barbecue Rub, and the two random sauces were Gates Sweet and Mild and Maull's Sweet and Mild. I didn't purposely pick two "sweet and mild" sauces, but they were the first ones I grabbed from their respective cities.

I sprinkled the ribs generously with the rub about an hour before I was ready to cook, and put the ribs into a plastic bag and tucked it into a fridge.

When it was time to cook, I seared the ribs on both sides, then moved them to a cooler part of the grill and turned the heat down, and left them cooking for about 90 minutes. When I pulled them off, they were soft, juicy, and very pretty.

I decided not to sauce them on the grill so we could sample them with just the rub and then sample the sauces separately.

The taste test? The rub added nice flavor, but confirmed that I'm a saucy-rib kind of gal. The Maull's had a definite tomato flavor, and the label didn't lie. It was sweet and it was mild. It was like a thin ketchup with a little more flavor. The Gates sauce had a little more smoke and spice, but it also was sweet and mild. Neither were bad, but neither were amazing.

The goal of my sauce-buying binge was to find the sauce of my dreams and then recreate it. I've made sauces before, but it always seems like something is missing when I actually use them. The problem is that the sauces always taste different when they're being made than the do when they're being used. So I figured that if I could find the bottled sauce that hits the right notes when it hits the meat, I can use that as my example when I build my own sauce.

Meanwhile, the ribs were really good. Sauced, not sauced, it didn't matter. They were just what I needed to remind me that although summer's officially over, there's still some good barbecue weather ahead.