© 2010, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

There are two holidays that just scream BBQ to me, Memorial Day and Labor Day.  The former being the de-facto start of Summer and the latter being the end.

At our house baked potatoes or french fries are the standard side dish with steak.  This time we decided something else was in order.  After consulting one of our many BBQ cookbooks we decided on a version of “Roasted Smashed Sweet Potatoes” from Ted Reader’s King of the Q’s Blue Plate BBQ cookbook.

First step was to put a couple of sweet potatoes on the Traeger at 350 degrees.

When the sweet potatoes had been on for about 30 minutes I started a full chimney of charcoal.  Lighter fluid is never allowed on the property so a couple sheets of newspaper with a drizzle of vegetable oil get the chimney started quickly.

I’m convinced it doesn’t take any longer to get charcoal ready using a chimney than it does using the “lighter fluid”  shortcut.

At 350 degrees it took about 50 minutes to get the sweet potatoes done.

Once the sweet potatoes were cooled slightly they were peeled and combined with a little butter, brown sugar and green onion.  We adjusted the recipe a little by adding a topping of brown sugar and ground pecans.

The sweet potatoes with the topping was put back on the Traeger and then moved over the the Weber kettle while the steaks were grilling.

A couple pictures of the sweet potatoes:

Plated up the steaks, green beans and sweet potatoes:

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper were the only seasonings on the steaks.  I made a compound butter of unsalted butter and Todd’s Bayou Dirt.  It added a nice subtle extra kick to the steaks.  And a little on the green beans was fantastic too.

© 2009, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

I was in Winco Supermarkets recently and came across Filet Mignon/Beef Tenderloins on sale for $3.99 per pound.  It’s probably needless to mention that I was very skeptical that I could get a good piece of Filet Mignon for that price.  I bought a couple of the whole cryos and cut them into medallions and vacuum sealed them up.

Last night i broke out the Ceramic Pig Grill and grilled up a few of them for dinner.  I have to admit they were mighty tasty.  Was it great…no.  But it was better, much better than I had anticipated for $3.99 per pound.

My Ceramic Pig Grill has developed a crack.

Seasoned the meat with a little Original Wolf Rub. I like my steaks seasoned simply so it doesn't cover up the flavor of the beef.

A couple of minutes on each side and we are almost ready to eat.

Nice, rare and juicy. Just the way I like them.

© 2009, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

Courtesy Cowgirl's Country

One of the great things about the BBQ community is the willingness to share ideas.  I came across this great post on one of my fellow BBQ Brethren’s blog.

Enjoy Cowgirl’s Smoked Baked Steak.

© 2009, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

I love my Weber Kettle!

It’s well over 100 degrees today so we didn’t want to heat up the house with stove and oven so the whole dinner got cooked on the Weber.

A couple of shots of the final product:

And a couple of close-ups.

I’m not sure there is a better BBQ device in the world than the Weber Kettle.

© 2008 – 2009, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

Now that my wife and I are “empty nesters” we are enjoy trying different types of foods and flavor profiles that we couldn’t try with kids at home. We are also trying to eat healthier. Ellie Krieger’s book “The Food You Crave” has given us several great meals that don’t necessarily taste “healthy.”

Tonight we tried her Grill Thai Beef Salad. (You can find the recipe on the Food Network here)

Celeste whipped up the marinade this morning and got flank steak soaking away in what smelled like a fantastic mixture of ginger, soy and garlic chili sauce.

After getting a nice bed of goals on my trusty weber kettle I got to grilling the flank steak:

Check out the close up of the chili sauce and garlic along with other morsels of tasty goodness.

All and all this was a meal that was both satisfying and flavorful. The combination of the basil and cilantro in the salad combined with the chili sauce marinade made of a taste that satisfied my need for a little heat, but wasn’t overpowering.

© 2008 – 2009, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.