Posts in Entrees
“Over The Top” Chili

“Over The Top” chili gets its name for cooking the meat on a rack over the pan with the chili in it, so as the meat cooks, it drips juices into the chili. If you choose to cook the chili in a BBQ instead of the stove or oven, the chili picks up the smokey flavors from the charcoal adding a deeper flavor profile. For this recipe, I prefer red onions to add “punginess” and use a mix of beef and pork meat.

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Smash Burger Chili

This recipe combines two great dishes - smash burgers and chili. Substituting typical meat choices for chili with crumbled smash burgers makes for an interesting and unique flavor since most chili meat is either browned or slow cooked. The key to success is adjusting the spice combination for the smash burgers to work with your spices for the chili recipe.

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Crockpot Beef Short Ribs

Slow cooker, crockpot recipes are solid weekend meals when you have time for a long cook. They also have the added benefit of making the house smell great while you wait for the meal to get done. This recipe features Crockpot Beef Short Rib, which is a naturally tough piece of meat. Slow cooking with broth and vegetables breaks down the muscle fibers in the rib leaving a tasty, tender dish.

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Championship Pork Chops

If there was a “pork chop championship,” this recipe would win it. Described as “the best pork chop ever” in our house, I highly recommend this recipe. Few ingredients, simple, and a relatively quick cook. This recipe relies on just a few seasonings allowing the meat and heat to do the work. Due to high cooking temperature, you will need a strong fan to keep the smoke detector from going off.

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Greek Rotisserie Chicken

Greek rotisserie chicken has a great combination of a lemony taste coupled with Greek spice and a fire-grilled taste. Grilling chicken with a rotisserie set up, such as the Kamado Joe JoeTisserie, is surprisingly easy and the rotisserie ends up doing the hard work. If you don’t have a rotisserie, simply grilling the chicken in a charcoal grill or baking in an oven is also good.

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The Fat Burger

Smashburger. Smashburger. That seems to be the burger de jour for the last few years. Here’s our attempt to bring back the Fat Burger — juicy, thick, and tasty. Instead of a thin, double-patty stack, these burgers rely on a thick single patty, which gives you more options for combining vegetables such as onions and jalapeños into the meat. Read on to reclaim the joy of the fat burger!

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Venison Lasagna

This is what happens when lasagna levels up. Rich venison, homemade noodles, and just enough cheese to make you feel rebellious. The spirals look fancy, but it’s all surprisingly doable—and wildly delicious. Bonus: zero risk of boring dinner conversation when this hits the table.

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Cap’n Crunch® Fried Chicken

I had hoped this recipe it might be an old family secret passed down from generation to generation originating in the old country. But I suppose the star ingredient of  “Cap’n Crunch” was a giveaway of its more recent origin.  While it was passed down to my wife from her mother, that is the extent of its history. It is my mother-in-law’s recreation of a Planet Hollywood appetizer.

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Award Winning Chili

The name for this chili comes from the fact that this recipe was my first chili dish to win a chili cookoff as “best in show.” Previous attempts successfully took home the “hot as hades” award. This is a pretty straight forward recipe that you can make in 15-20 minutes. Note that option to include kidney beans in this chili recipe. You can also easily adjust how hot it is with just a few ingredients.

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Easy Saturday Chili

Easy Saturday Chili is my go to chili recipe, which works for our whole family since I can level up or down the heat by modifying a few of the ingredients—jalapeños and Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. Most Texans frown on the thought of adding beans to chili. But if you promise not to tell anyone, a can or two of kidney beans won’t hurt this recipe.

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English Pancakes

Growing up, we would have English Pancakes on the weekends.  My grandmother’s family was from England, and my mom had these as a child too.  The powdered sugar and bit of lemon juice made them seem like fancy crêpes, though the recipe is super simple and cooks up quickly.

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Sausage and Artichoke Dressing

This recipe was created after a venture to make a new, non-boring stuffing recipe without eggs - not a fan of them in stuffing.  This recipe combines a couple recipes found online with some of my favorite ingredients added. The use of croissants is key!  It is a hearty side dish that can work as a main. 

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Three-Hour St. Louis Ribs

While brisket is the keystone meat in Texas BBQ, pork ribs (baby back ribs or St. Louis spare ribs) are also serious BBQ meat. I have tried several ways of cooking ribs, including the ubiquitous 3-2-1 ribs method and have landed on the 3-hour rib method by Chef Eric Gephart. As he said, “3-2-1 takes too long.”

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Chili Everyone Likes

I have experimented with dozens of chili recipes over the years. This particular one appeals to a wide variety of tastes and has room to accommodate folks that like hotter chili or somewhat bland chili. Also, this recipe being originated in Texas is without beans, but you certainly can add kidney or pinto beans to this recipe. Just don’t tell anyone.

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