Okay, let me admit this right at the beginning.  I love Paula Deen!

There’s a couple of reasons why I love Paula Deen.  Certainly one of those reasons is we share a devotion to butter.  Another reason is an admiration of how she’s worked her way into the a position of respect in the TV food world.  The other is her restaurant, Lady & Sons, in Savannah, Georgia.  A couple of years when I was in Savannah I had to get in line, 5 hours in advance of our hopeful dining experience just for a chance to eat lunch there.  I got in and ate myself into a southern food coma.  It was simply marvelous.

Any, I digress…

Mrs. Grail was watching a recent episode of Paula Deen.  I didn’t pay a great deal of attention to the show because, quite frankly I wasn’t all that interested in learning how to cook Mexican food from Paula Deen.  But when she got to dessert she got my attention.  The dessert quesadilla was something that I immediately knew I had to try on the grill.  So here’s my take on Paula Deen’s Dessert Quesadilla.

Banana Dessert Quesadilla

Ingredients:

• Nonstick, nonflammable cooking spray
• 2 (10-inch) flour tortillas
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 medium banana, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
• 3 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar, plus more for top
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Vanilla ice cream
• Caramel sauce
• Dark Chocolate, grated
• A pinch of Chipotle Powder

Directions

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Pig Candy is very simply made by smoking bacon after it’s been coated in a mixture of brown sugar.  Sometimes the brown sugar contains a little chili powder for an added kick at the end.

Normally I like to use thick cut bacon for Pig Candy.  It makes for a much chewier and tasty treat.  This time though I got used Burger’s Bacon Steaks.  The slices of bacon from Burger’s Smokehouse are just thick cut they are thickerer cut.  The slices are 1/4 inch.

To give you some idea of how thick this bacon is there are only 8 slices per pound.  Regular slices bacon is usually about 15 slices per pound and thick cut bacon is about 10 slices per pound.

I had the bright idea of using wooden skewers  so the Pig Candy could be eaten like “state fair” food.  I mean what’s more “state fair” food like than bacon on a stick?  However, brown sugar melts real nice and coats the bacon real nice but it also glued the bacon to the stick so it didn’t come off the stick like I hoped.  Not going to try that technique again.

As I was pulling the Pig Candy off the smoker I noticed Mrs. Grail was melting dark chocolate for some dessert she was making so I borrowed a little and drizzled the Pig Candy with the chocolate.  Chocolate and salt goes together and the dark chocolate added a nice touch to the Pig Candy.

The next time you’ve got some spare space on your smoker lay some bacon on the grate and cover it with brown sugar.  Smoke the bacon until the sugar is melted and turn the bacon over, cover with brown sugar and smoke until it just starts to get crisp.  Remove from smoker and let it cool.  You’ll have some the tastiest pork you’ve ever cooked.

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I know what you’re thinking.  But it was a challenge I just couldn’t pass up.  You’ve see some of my BBQ Brethren Throwdowns before but this one might just take the cake as the oddest to date.  The challenge was to take Chicken, “dough in a tube,” and limes and come up with something.  The added option was to pick a fourth ingredient, I chose pecans.  Now, I was supposed to use peanuts but my reading skills appeared to be a little off.  Here’s my entry before I fixed it with a peanut topping.

I opened my mouth and said I was going to make a dessert out of the ingredients.  The problem was how do you turn chicken into a dessert.

For some reason the thought came to mind that I should use gizzards.  From my youth I remembered that gizzards had a chewy consistency.  I figured if I grilled them up nice and “done” I could get some crunch out of them to go along with the pecans.

Gizzards are secondary stomachs used by birds to grind their food before digestion. Because birds don’t have teeth, they must fill their gizzards with small stones to achieve the same goal. Gizzards contain a very tough inner membrane, surrounded by a muscular pouch which provides the grinding action. Gizzards are part of the group of foods called offal, which also includes beef tripe, chitlins (pork intestines), and hearts. –WiseGeek

I seasoned the gizzards with “Chili-Lime Rub” thinking a little heat along with all the brown sugar that was going to end up in this dessert would be a nice complement.  I could have used twice as much rub as I did.  It almost got lost in all the sweetness.

I grilled up the gizzards on my RED gasser.  After grilling them I let them cool a minute or two and then cut them into small “pecan bit” sizes.  I was careful to try and remove as much fat and other “parts” as I could.  I was looking for all gizzard meat here.

Once I cut the pieces I realized they weren’t nearly as crunchy as I wanted so I pan fried them a little to try and get more crispness.  Next time I’m going to deep fry them (if there actually is a next time).

I mixed up the chopped pecans and gizzards with brown sugar and butter.  The canned biscuits were cut into quaters and sprinkled with a little cinnamon.  Since cinnamon is a great flavor to go with chili I figured this would be a nice addition.  The dough and brown sugar mixture was layered in a small springform pan and placed in the smoker for about 35 minutes. 

After removing from the smoker I let it cool a couple of minutes, removed the springform and poured the remaining brown sugar/pecan/gizzard mixture over the top.  Then the creation was drizzled with a glaze made from powdered sugar and lime juice.

Yes I ate some!  It was tasty.  The gizzards a little to chewy still, but the flavor was nice.

Would I make this again?  Not likely, but it was fun to play.

Grilled Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:

• 4 sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cut into “fries”
• 1/4 cup cilantro or any other fresh herb, finely chopped (Todd’s Dirt Seasoning works well too!)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup  olive oil
• Kosher/Sea Salt
• Pepper

Directions:

Pre-heat your grill to medium-hot.

Mix all ingredients together.  Make sure sugar is some what dissolved with no clumps of sugar.

Grill potatoes on all sides until done.  About 15 minutes.

Serve immediately.

One day while fighting with a particular clumped up bottle of rub I remembered an old trick I saw once in a little diner.  They had placed saltines in their sugar and salt shakers to keep them from clumping.  It works with your rubs too!

Place a saltine or two in your big bottles of rubs and they will be much less likely to clump.  Over time you might need to change out the saltine, but it’s a rather easy process.  If you’ve got the smaller rub bottles use those little “oyster” crackers.  They’ll fit in the bottle and not interfere to much with your shaker top.

Saltines will work well with most rubs but if you’re using a rub that is high in brown sugar toss in a slice of bread instead of the saltine and it will help to keep the humidity from turning your rub to concrete.

We don’t shop on Sunday so I was limited to what I had in the pantry for the brine.  Thankfully, we always have plenty of Kosher salt and brown sugar.  But what was I going to add to the brine to give it a little POP?  This is what I came up with:

BBQ Grail’s Smokey Pepper Poultry Brine

Ingredients:

• 2 quarts water
• 3/4 cup Morton’s Kosher salt (if you use Diamond Crystal Salt use 1 cup)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons McCormick Sweet & Smokey Pepper Blend
• 1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces

Heat the water and add all the brine ingredients.  Stir until salt and sugar is dissolved.  Cool brine mixture to at least room temperature.  Place brine mixture and chicken in a container.  Make sure all the chicken pieces are submerged.  Brine in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours but not more than 8 hours.

Remove chicken and rinse well.  It’s important to make sure you remove as much of the salt as possible.

Grill on a medium/hot grill until 165 degrees internal.

Rest for five minutes.  Serve.

The McCormick’s Sweet & Smokey Pepper Blend added a great little bite to the brine.  Combine with the brown sugar it gave the chicken a nice flavor.  I got some of the ‘smoke’ flavor I wanted while giving the family the grilled chicken they wanted.

For my birthday my son bought me a copy of Andrea Chesman’s  The New Vegetarian Grill, Revised Edition: 250 Flame-Kissed Recipes for Fresh, Inspired Meals and I’m going to be using this book for several upcoming Meatless Monday posts.

I’ve been thinking about my Meatless Monday posts and I thought it would be a good idea to have a dessert to go along with the previous and future posts.  This post is inspired by Andrea’s recipe.  The recipe is her’s except I used a special ice cream instead of whipped cream.  If you are all interested in grilling meatless dishes I can’t recommend a better book to guide you.

Maple Grilled Pound Cake With Peaches

By Andrea Chesman

• 8 firm ripe peaches or 16 canned peach halves
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1 8-inch pound cake cut into 1-inch slices

If you are using fresh peaches, dip them into boiling water for about 30 seconds to loosen their skins.  With a sharp paring knife, pull away the skin and discard.  Halve and pit each peach.  If you are using canned peaches, drain well.

Prepare a medium fire in the grill

Combine the orange juice, butter and the maple syrup and mix well.  Brush onto the peaches and both sides of the cake slices.  Grill the peaches and cake slices until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side for the peaches and about 3 minutes per side for the cake.

Place a slice of cake and 2 peach halves on each plate.  Drizzle additional maple syrup over the cake and peaches, if desired.  Serve at once.

I wanted something different to eat with this dessert and I wanted something a little savory to contrast the sweetness in the maple syrup and peaches.  My friend Stephan Franklin has come up with a couple of great rubs and his “Simply Marvelous Sweet & Spicy” rub I thought would compliment this dessert.  But how to turn it into a dessert was the question.

The answer was:

Simply Marvelous Brown Sugar Ice Cream

• 4 egg yolks
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup (packed) brown sugar
• 3 cups half-and-half or light cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon Simply Marvelous Sweet & Spicy Rub (more or less depending on your taste)

In heavy, medium, non-aluminum saucepan, whisk together the egg yolks and brown sugar until thick. In another medium saucepan bring the cream and half and half just to a boil over moderate heat. Gradually whisk the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon about 6 minutes.   Do Not Boil.

Immediately strain the custard into a medium bowl. Stir in the vanilla and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Cover and refrigerate until very cold, at least 5 hours.

Pour the cold custard into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Let the ice cream soften slightly before serving.

This ice cream recipe is adapted from a recipe on www.inmamaskitchen.com

I can slave over a brisket or pulled pork and my friends will be thankful for a taste.  But if you ask many of them what one item they’d me want to make for them the answer is Pig Candy.  Who would have thought that combining bacon with brown sugar and a little chipotle powder would be such a hit.

Start with a good amount of brown sugar and chipotle powder to taste. Mix it up good, you don't want a clump of chipotle powder to hit your tongue.

I prefer good thick bacon. The thinner stuff works good to, but it cooks really fast so watch it.

Lay your bacon out on the grate

Put a good coating of the brown sugar/chipotle mixture. Cook at your desire temperature until it starts to get a little crisp. I use 245 degrees with apple wood.

When it starts to crisp up I like to turn it over and give it another dose of the sugar mixture.

Let it cool and enjoy!