Every once in a while I have some leftover steak, tri-tip or brisket.  Often times it just gets eaten, sometimes on a sandwich or just eaten as a snack.  This time around I needed something quick for lunch and some Frito Pie came to mind.  Not sure why, but I did.

Frito Pie is a simple dish.  Take a bag of Fritos and top them with chili and some toppings.  A great easy dish for camping or tailgating.  Nothing to wash, just eat and toss the bag in the trash can.  I like to top mine with avocado, sour cream, cheese and a little cilantro.  But the skies the limit for toppings.  Maybe some chopped tomatoes, onions or jalapenos.

Let me know what you top your Frito Pie with.

And let me know why it’s called a “pie” if you know.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Larry Gaian

Lot’s of places have Bacon Maple Bars but Twisters has a true “breaktfast” donut. 

Toss in some ham and cheese and you’ve got yourself an amazing meal.  Not sure just how great it is to start the day with this work of pastry art.

Later in the afternoon we took a nice stroll around the Capitol and found ourselves outside of Meconi’s Sub Shop.  So I figured a pastrami sub would be a great way to hold me over for dinner.

Even the kids enjoyed thier sandwich…

I love meat.

I love the flavor and

I love the texture meat gives my food.

Although I have enjoyed the three Meatless Monday dishes I’ve grilled so far, I’ve missed the meat.  So this week I’ve decided to give a soy product a try.  An “online” friend suggested a product called Soyrizo.  I love good mexican style chorizo and was a little skeptical that a soy product was going to give me the flavor and texture I wanted.  I never thought I’d have a product in my house that was labeled “vegan” let alone actually eat it and enjoy it.  But the Soyrizo was very good. For those with delicate taste buds, beware, Soyrizo has a bite to it.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

• 4  Bell Peppers, tops removed and veins and seeds removed
• 11 oz  Soyrizo sausage
• 2/3 stalk celery, minced
• 2/3  carrot, minced
• 1/3 cup onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• salt & pepper to taste
• 2/3 (14.5 ounce) can of whole peeled tomatoes, chopped (I used Rotel already chopped)
• 2/3 cup cooked long grain rice
• Your favorite BBQ sauce
• 1/2 cup Jack Cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese, shredded

Directions:

Pre-Heat your smoker to 300 degrees.  If you are using a charcoal or gas grill set it up for indirect heat.

In a large skillet cook the Soyrizo until almost brown.  (NOTE: Soyrizo doesn’t cook or brown like traditional Chorizo, so just make sure it’s heated through.  Because there is no fat to speak of you’ll need to add some oil or butter to cook the veggies).  Stir in the celery, carrots, onions and garlic and cook until soft.  Season with salt and pepper.  Stir in the tomatoes with liquid.  Add the cooked rice and remove from heat.

Fill the bell peppers with the Soyrizo & rice mixture.  Leave about 1/4 inch unfilled in each pepper.  Top the mixture with a little BBQ sauce.

Place the bell peppers in some type of dish that will handle the heat on the smoker/grill.  I used a metal pie plate.  Place the stuffed bell peppers in the smoker/grill and cook until the bell peppers are almost tender.  Top each bell pepper with the cheese and continue to cook until the cheese is melted.

Remove from heat and let rest for five minutes.  Serve with a salad or other side dish of your choice.

A few pictures:

Stuffed bell peppers topped with BBQ sauce.

Topped with cheese.

Ready to eat.

Cut and ready for the first bite.

I filled the Pro-Q Cold Smoke Generator with some hickory wood dust and placed it inside the "Little Chief." The Pro-Q sits perfectly inside the smoker on the stand for the normal wood chip holder.

There's a door on the side of the "Little Chief" that provides easy access to the "tea candle" used to the light the Pro-Q. I did have to tape over the hole in the door because the wind keep blowing out the candle. (The candle is removed as soon as the wood dust starts to smolder and smoke.

Two slabs each of Pepper Jack and Jack cheese along with a slab of Habanero Jack and some Gouda on the racks ready to be placed in the smoker.

I got time recommendations of 2 and 3 hours so I choose 2 1/2 hours. The smoke seemed a little strong when it first came out of the smoker. But since I also got recommendations to wrap the cheese in plastic wrap and let it sit for a little while I'm thinking the smoke taste will mellow a little.

NOTE:  After further discussions with cheese smoking experts I’ve got the cheese wrapped in plastic and in the refrigerator.  A few people have suggested giving it 2 to 3 weeks of aging for the smoke flavor to mellow.  Stay tuned…

Tonight was another of those defining moments.  Pizza without meat!  I’m sure I broke some obscure law of nature with a veggie pizza.  It has to be so.  But what’s worst of all is that I actually enjoyed it.  This will have to be our little secret.  Now before anyone thinks I’ve gone off the deep end and become a vegetarian I’d still prefer a pizza loaded with sausage but for Meatless Monday this was one darn good pizza.

The recipe I used was the “Very Veggie Grilled Pizza with Marinated Artichokes from Grill Every Day: 125 Fast-Track Recipes for Weeknights at the Grill by Diane Morgan.  It was flavorful and I really didn’t feel the need for meat at all.

Very Veggie Grilled Pizza with Marinated Artichokes

(Courtesy “Grill Every Day 125 Fast-Track Reipes for Weeknights at the Grill” by Diane Morgan.  Published 2008 by Chronicle Books)

• 1 16- to 18-ounce package of fresh or frozen dough
• 1/2 small Walla Walla or other sweet onion, cut into thin wedges
• 1 small yellow or red bell pepper, halved lengthwise, seeded, deribbed, and cut into long, narrow strips.
• 1 large clove of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoons extra-vergin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• vegetable-oil cooking spray
• All-Purpose flour for dusting
• 1/4 cup store-bought marinara sauce
• 1 jar (6 ounces) marinated artichoke hears, well drained and halved
• 2 plum tomatoes, cored and thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup pitted and halved canned ripe olives
• 2 cups (8 ounces) coursely shredded whole-mile or part-skim, low-moisture mozzarella cheese.

If using fresh dough, remove it from the refrigerator 30 minutes before you roll it out.  If using frozen dought, transfer it to the refrigerator a day before you plan to make pizza, so it can thaw slowly, and then let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes feore you roll it out.

Prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill or preheat a gas grill on hight.  If the grill has a built-in thermometer, it should register between 500 and 600 degrees.  Have ready a 14-inch, non perforated pizza pan, preferably an inexpensive aluminum one.

While the grill is heating, place the onion, bell pepper, and the garlice in a bowl.  Toss the vegetables with the olive oil, oregano, red pepper flakes and salt.  Set aside.

Coat the pizza pan with vegetable-oil spray.  Remove the dough from the plastic bag and place on a lightly floured work surface.  Lightly dust the dough with flour.  Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 10-inch road without rolling over the edges.  Lift the dough occasionally to make sure it isn’t sticking to the work surface.  Shake the excess flour from the dough.  Lay the dough on the prepared pizza pan and gently stretch it into a 14-inch round.

To top the pizza:  Spread the marinara sauce over the crust, leaving a 1-inch border.  Arrange the mixed vegetables evenly over the sauce.  Scatter the artichokes over the top.  Arrange the tomatoes in a single layer over the vegetables.  Strew the olives over the top.  Evently distribute the cheese over the vegetables.

Place the pizza in the center of the grill directly over the hot fire and cover.  (Work quickly so the grill temperature doesn’t drop too much.)  grill the pizza until the crust is crisp and golden brown and the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 9 minutes.

Using a pizza peel or think oven mitts, remove the pizza from the frill.  Slice the pizza into wedges and serve immediately.

To make life easier you can use store bought or frozen pizza dough but with a wife who bakes having homemade dough is a great addition to any pizza.

With sweet onion, bell peppers, olive, tomatoes and marinated artichokes the pizza was loaded with flavor.

I used a pizza stone on my Traeger smoker instead of a grill. This pizza can be grilled very easy using an indirect method on a kettle or ceramic smoker

By cranking the smoker up to 425 degrees I got a nice browning on the crust. Not only did I never think I'd eat a meatless pizza but I never thought I'd eat a thin crust pizza. The cracker like texture of the thin crust was fantastic with the veggies.

This was a great pizza.

The recipe calls for store bought marinara sauce.  If your house is like mine you often times have a jar of store bought marinara sauce, but on those occasions when you don’t here is a simple, easy to make marinara/pizza sauce recipe you can use in a pinch.

Quick And Easy Marinara Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes in puree

• 1/2 teaspoon each dried basil and oregano
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• Pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a medium-size saucepan. Stir in the chopped onion and sauté it for about 8 minutes, until translucent. Stir in the garlic and sauté for another 30 seconds.
2. Stir the remaining ingredients into the pan, then cover the sauce and bring it back to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Cook the sauce for about 10 minutes, stirring often. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Makes about 4 cups.

Ingredients:

• 4 Portabello Mushroom caps, cleaned and gills removed
• 2 Red Bell Peppers, seeded, de-veined, roasted and sliced
• 8 Fresh Basil Leaves, hand torn.
• 4 oz mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
• 4 or 8 tortillas

Instructions:

Rub the bell peppers with a little olive oil and roast them over a hot grill (either charcoal or gas grills will work). It only takes a couple of minutes so watch them. Don't be afraid to char them.

Place the hot roasted bell peppers in a plastic bag. The steaming of the peppers will make it easier to remove the skin. Once the skin is removed, thinly slice the peppers. If you do the peppers first they can steam in the bag while you grill the mushrooms.

After you clean the mushroom rub it with a little olive oil and put them on your grill for about 4 to 5 minutes per side. After they are done, remove from grill and let them cool while your peel and slice your bell peppers. Once cool thinly slice the mushrooms.

I used a cast iron griddle for heating the quesadillas. Place a tortilla on the griddle and place some mozzarella cheese on each one. A lttle roasted bell pepper on top of the cheese.

Next the thinly sliced mushrooms. Don't forget to add the basil. Cover with a little more cheese and another tortilla.

Add some salsa, avocado and spanish rice and you've got a filling meal without meat.

You can cut down on carbs by using one tortilla and just folding it in half.

Decided to enter the BBQ Brethren Quesadilla Throwdown this week.  Competition is steep so I had to come up with some just a little different in hopes of pulling off the win.

Here’s my entry:

Started with the usual ingredients:

Decided to use a little lemon juice, lime juice, cilantro and garlic for a marinade:

I recently bought a Foodsaver and thought I would seal the marinade inside and see what kind of fast process I could get in a five hours. The marinade was strong, and penetrated the meat really well.

I tossed the Sirloins and the Anaheim on the grill:

As the steak was resting I made a couple of cheese quesadillas:

When the quesadillas were nice and brown I cut rounds out of them using a small round mold.  I placed one of the rounds inside the mold on the plate and then added the diced up steak and some diced avocado. On top of that I placed another quesadilla round.  After unmolding I added a little sour cream, tomato and some friend corn tortilla strips. A dusting of chopped cilantro and some salsa and you have:

A couple more shots:

I smoked a bunch of chicken thighs rubbed with DDog’s “Apple Rub.” After the thighs cooled I removed the skin and pulled the meat off the bones. I then used the food processor to chop the chicken meat into a really fine consistancy.

Threw some neufchatel cheese into a bowl:

Added some onion and a good dose of additional “Apple Rub”

After adding the smoked chicken and mixing very throughly I put the mixture into a mold and let it set. There is also mayo, lemon juice and some tabasco added.

When it was time to serve the “pate” was unmolded and sprinked with a little more “Apple Rub” and then drizzled with “Blue Hog” sauce.

This nice little appetizer was simply fantastic.  Give it a try.

Smoked Chicken Faux Pate

1 1/2 cups smoked chicken thighs, rubbed with your favorite rub.  (Use something sweet) Chopped very, very, fine.

Mix smoked chicken with 8 ounces of Neufchatel Cheese, softened.

Add 3 tbls finely chopped onion

2 tbls  “rub”

2 tbls mayonaise

2 tsps lemon juice

Hot sauce to taste

Combine all the ingredients.  Transfer to a 2 cup mold coated with “cooking spray.”

At serving time, turn out onto serving plate and sprinkle more rub and drizzle with your favorite bbq sauce.