Root Beer Baked Beans

From Epicurious. Easy to make and very tasty.

Ingredients

4 slices applewood-smoked bacon, cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces
3 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 15-ounce cans cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed, drained
1 1/2 cups root beer (preferably artisanal)
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons mild-flavored (light) molasses
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cook bacon in large ovenproof pot over medium heat until crisp, stirring occasionally. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels. Add onions to drippings in pot; cook until beginning to brown, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Add garlic; stir 1 minute. Add beans, root beer, vinegar, molasses, tomato paste, mustard, chili powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper; mix. Stir in bacon; bring to boil. Transfer to oven; bake uncovered until liquid thickens, about 30 minutes.

Grilled Scallops and Nectarines

Made this Scallops dish for dinner last night. Turned out really god.

Pork Gyros with Yogurt-Tomato Sauce, Red Onion, and Arugula

Another recipe from Bon Apetiti...my favorite magazine and food web-site. This turned out really good. I've have Gyros in Germany, Czech, England, Malta, as well as here at home. It's very good and kind of fun to watch how they are made.

The kids were all over this, so something we'll definitely be making again.

Ingredients

Pork

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil


• 1/4 cup dry red wine


• 3 garlic cloves, minced


• 1 small bay leaf, crumbled


• 1/2 tspn (packed) fresh oregano leaves


• 1/2 tspn salt


• 1/4 tspn freshly ground black pepper


• 2 1 lb pork tenderloins

Sauce

• 1 1/2 cups plan Greek yogurt or whole milk yogurt


• 2 tbls chopped seeded-tomato


• 2 tbls chopped fresh dill


• 2 tbls drained capers, chopped


• 2 garlic cloves, minced


• 1 tbls tomato paste


• 1 tbls red wine vinegar

6 7" diameter pita breads
1 red onion
24 arugula leaves

Directions

For Pork

Combine first 7 items in large resealable plastic bag; shake to blend. Add port and marinade. Chill overnight.

For Sauce

Stir first 7 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and chill until ready to use; up to 1 day.
Prepare BBQ. Remove pork from bag. Grill until thermometer registers 145 degrees F, about 18 minutes. Transfer to work surface; let stand 10 minutes. Thinly slice into rounds.
Grill pitas until warmed through and softened, about 2 minutes per side. Cut pitas in half. Fill pita halves with pork, drizzle sauce, then tuck in onion and arugula. Serve, passing remaining sauce.

Black Pepper and Parmesan Shrimp

A few years ago, Deedy found a salad dressing called "Black Pepper and Parmesan Dressing". Unfortunately, it's been a long time since we've seen this particular dressing. We like to marinate shrimp with this dressing and throw it on the BBQ. I bought a mixer last year that came with a recipe book and lo-and-behold, a recipe for the dressing. It's not exactly the same, but it's definitely our favorite way to cook shrimp.

Not all shrimp work with this. We always look for the shrimp that is cleaned, uncooked, with the shell on. Some shrimp we get with the shell on, the shell is too soft. Others are just right. The shells, after cooking, are nice and hard and easy to peel off of the shrimp. The other problem is that not all people we've shared this with have had shrimp with the shells on. So they chomp away, make wierd faces, spit out shrimp parts, and wonder what in the world is the deal.

For the shrimp, we've found the best ones at Trader Joes and Safeway in the seafood section.....frozen.

Here's our favorite recipe:

Ingredients

2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
1 oz Reggiano Parmesan, cut in 1/2" or smaller cubes
1 shallot, about 1oz, peeled, cut in 1/2" or smaller pieces
1 clove garlice, peeled and smashed
1/2 tspn kosher salt
1 tbl Dijon-style mustard
1/4 tsp Wocsestershire sauce
2 tbl light mayonnaise
1/4 cup wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup canola or other flavorless vegetable oil

Directions

Place the whole peppercorns in a blender jar. Blend for 10 seconds. Some peppercorns will be pulverized, some will be cracked and crushed; remove and reserve. Place the Parmesan cubes in the blender jar; blend for 20 seconds; scrape sides of blender jar. Add shallot, garlic and salt. Blend for 10 seconds; scrape sides of blender jar.

Add remaining ingredients in order listed; blend for 10 seconds. Add reserved black pepper; blend for 5 seconds. Transfer dressing to a resealable container and refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer to allow flavors to develop. Keeps for one week in regrigerator.

BBQ Part

This is the part that's not in the book. We cook the shrimp directly over hot coals that has a few pieces of hickory or misquite that's been soaked in water. The shrimps cooks fast, but with the shells on, it protects the meat from burning. So, don't worry if the shrimp gets black. That's only the shell. The shrimp will cook in minutes, turning once or twice. Put the shrimp in a bowl and serve hot.

Make sure you've got wet towels nearby, your hands will be dirty while eating these.

London Broil

This is one of our favorite BBQ's for a nice slab of beef.

Ingredients

2 lb London broil or your favorite cut of beef

2 tbs freshly ground pepper
2 tspn kosher salt
1 tbsl italian seasoning

Directions

Fire up the grill. I use mesquite wood chunks to put on top of the charcoal for that extra smoke flavor Soak the wood chunks in water for an hour before cooking.

Mix the pepper, salt, and seasoning together. Cover both sides of the steak with the mix seasonings. When the coals are ready and when the wood chunks are smoking on the grill, sear the steak on both sides directly over the coals. I did this for a little over a minute a side.

After that, cook the steak with indirect heat.

Steak will cook for about 1/2 hour at indirect heat. Flip every 10-15 minutes.

Rob's Garlic Bread

I like garlic. Lots of garlic. Especially on bread. This is a garlic bread recipe I concocted that uses a ton of garlic and goes great on the grill.

Ingredients

Sourdough Bread
Bulb of garlic - chopped
Olive oil
Butter
Shredded parmesean cheese
fresh basil, or you can use dried.

Instructions

Heat olive oil in pan. Cut bread in half, length-wise. Lather the bread with butter....lots of butter. When the olive oil is hot, saute the garlic until just golden. Take off of heat and let garlic cool for a minute, not too long. Put the garlic on the bread. Yes, the butter will melt. Spread the garlic on both halves of the bread. Cover with cheese, then top with chopped basil.

Wrap bread up in tin foil. Okay, alumninum foil, but I still call it tin foil. Leave top open. Put bread on BBQ for about 10 minutes or until crust gets crusty.

You can broil this as well, but I've never had luck with the broiling. Baking the bread at 350 works good if you do it for 10 minutes or so. Make sure the cheese is melted and the bread is crusty.

Slice and eat.