Tri-Tip

So, each year, the company I work for has a 'morale' fund budget. Usually, this goes to t-shirts or other goodies for the work groups, and the occasional sponsored feed.  My group still had a few hundred dollars left to spend before the end of the fiscal year, and so, a cookout it was.  We have a Traegger at work, and so, I have been the primary cook at feeds before, but, typically, it's burgers/dogs, and maybe chicken...because that is cheaper to buy with the money folks chip in. 

This time though, with the budget we had left, it looked like we were going to be able to afford actual beef.  Maybe not Prime Ribs, but it looked like we would be able to swing Tri-Tip.  I've never really worked with tri-tip, but I've got a reputation to live up to, so, I started planning. 

Cash and Carry had two options for tri-tip, untrimmed, or 'peeled'.  Wanting to save money, I bought a 12 pound bag of untrimmed to see what I was getting into.  The 12 pound vacuum sealed bag had three separate roasts in it...and by the time I had trimmed off the fat cap and silver skin, I was left with 8 pounds of meat.  Redoing the math showed that going the 'peeled' version would probably be cheaper, and it was. I bought a 19 pound bag of peeled, and it had 6 roasts, and I only lost 22 ounces when getting silver skin and stubborn fat/gristle off.

That gave me 9 tri-tips totaling right around 26 pounds, and I'm not sure the Traegger could have handled one more.

 

 

Because I knew the lid was going to be open for a while, and Traegger's lose heat bad, I started out at 325, and kept it there for 15 minutes, before dropping the temp.  They cooked way faster than I thought they would, and for the next two hours, I alternated between 180 and 'smoke' setting.  Right at the end, since I still had to do some chicken and corn, I cranked the temp up to high, so, the tri-tip got a last little shot of heat. 

 

In the end, I'm going to say that the meat came out a little more done that I would have preferred at home, but, with slightly different weights(and even having 4 thermometers), it seemed safer to go to 145ish than 135ish.

 



I was actually very surprised how moist and juicy the meat stayed, especially once I saw how lacking in pink it was.  And the flavor...yum.  I had rubbed the meat Monday after cutting them up with a rub based around brown sugar, salt and garlic powder and cumin, and love. 

Best of all, I didn't even cut into two of them roasts for lunch, so after lunch, I was slicing them as thin as possible, day dreaming of sandwiches for lunch Thursday. 

Oh my...these are going to be worth the work.

While I had plenty of home grown tomatoes, carrots and tomatillos for my canning and sauce making needs this weekend, I had to pick up some jalapeno's for heat.  Cash and Carry had a 5 pound bag, so, yeah...I had some leftover jalapenos to do something with.  I'm not the biggest 'Bring on the heat!' guy, so, I thought this candied jalapeno recipe looked interesting. 

On paper, the liquid to sugar ratio looks daunting.  I made a 150% batch, meaning I needed 3 cups of cider vinegar, and NINE cups of sugar.

I didn't expect how much the volume of the jalapeno's would be reduced by cooking them.  I thought I was going to have a huge amount...but after the softened and shrunk a bit, I only ended up with 6 half-pints of peppers.

The good news is that I followed the hint that was included in the recipe, and I canned up another 3 half-pints of the left over Dragon Juice Syrup.  It is supposed to be the bomb as a glaze on chicken, beef, or pork.

I tried a pepper or two that didn't fit in the jars, as well as licking the spoon I had been using to stir everything. 

I think both these peppers and the syrup are going to be really, really, really good. 

Gobble, Gobble

It turns out that everything worked out fine, timing wise yesterday...the auditions for Rocky Horror were quicker than scheduled, so I was able to get home and get my turkey in the oven in time for dinner.

I follow Alton Brown's recipe, to the letter...the brine, the filling of the cavity with onion, and apple, and cinnamon and rosemary, and sage, then the starting at 500 for 30  minutes, before applying the 'turkey triangle' and finishing at 350.  This was an 18-pound bird and it was done in under three hours, so...yay!

The only not yay about the dinner was it seemed to be a 'fatty' turkey, and we didn't get nearly as much extra meat off it as I hoped we would...just under 5 pounds. I was hoping for closer to a 50% yield...and the turkey sandwich I had an hour after dinner didn't cut into the final tally that much.

With  the turkey, my wife had bought some small white potatoes that were on sale for cheaper than the red's, or even the russets.  Score.  I know that there are different things you can do with different potato types due to starch content variances. One web site I found had these fateful words: Grilling whites brings out a more full-bodied flavor.

What the what?  Grilling potatoes?  After just grilling lettuce a few weeks ago?  Sign me up.

 

 

I thought they came out really, really good...like a smoky French fry.  The secret for this recipe is parboiling first.  Slice the potatoes (about 1/4-1/3 inch), boil for 10-15 minutes.  Drain, and coat with a mixture of 4 parts mayo, 1 part mustard, 1 part garlic, 1 part honey, and I added some ranch dressing too...paint it on the taters, and grill them up.  Since they are parboiled, they only need 3-5 minutes on a side depending on heat. 

 

This is something I will come back to at some point when I need to blow a mind or two. 

Red Wine and Chocolate

For Valentine's Day, instead of trying to pick a spot for a fancy, romantic dinner, my wife and I decided we would go on a day-time date instead, taking advantage of the 'Red Wine and Chocolate' event that was being conducted at a lot of the wineries in the Columbia Valley.  Basically, you could buy a 'Premier Passport' that got you around the normal tasting fees at some of the wineries, and then  you had some chocolate based tasties matched up with some of your wine samples.

It was a great idea for a date...and I actually remember like 90% of it.  Unlike the East Coast, our weather the last week has been pretty freakin' perfect...mostly sunny, highs in the 55-60 range...and it continued on through this weekend, which meant my wife could dress all kinds of cute and spring-like.

So...let's see if I can remember all the stops:

Started at Kestrel, then went to 14 Hands, and then DavenLore, which deserves a post all it's own.  After that, things moved in a hurry, with us wrapping up our time in Prosser visiting Airfield Estates, Milbrandt Vineyards, and Thurston Wolfe, before heading back towards Richland, and stopping in Benton City at Chandler Reach, Tucannon Cellars, and Terra Blanca, which seemed to be a good place to stop. 

Wait a minute...only 9 places?  I could have sworn it was closer to 14-16.  I was doing really good up until the very end.  Most of the places early on were doing samples that were closer to 'splashes' then full on samples...which was nice, and my wife was being responsible and setting a good example by using the dump bucket to dispose of wine that she didn't want to drink.  But gosh darnit...Tucannon and Terra Blanca make such good wines that I told her to stop dumping her wine and give it to me!  Huge Mistake.  Also a huge mistake was not accepting the occasional rice cake that my wife packed in the car, and that she was eating in between stops. 

She is SOOOOOOOO much smarter than me...and so gosh-darn pretty it hurts to look at her sometimes. 

I'm not sure I can put my finger which wine was the best...there was a lot of variety, and it's tough to compare things that be as varied as wine to one another.  I do know the ones that stuck out in my mind: Kestrel's 2012 Port, DavenLore's 2012 Tempranillo, Thurston Wolfe's Sweet Rebecca(a white desert wine), and Terra Blanca's 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon.  Oh wait, and look...most of those are on my dining room table!

10 bottles of wine from 9 wineries is not bad for me.

As for the tasty treats...one of the most common offerings were some of the gourmet chocolate covered cherries and other fruits from Chukar Cherries...and the most surprising of those were the Tangerine Cherries...a tart cherry covered in chocolate with citrus essence in it.  Yummy...but the best treat of the day was early on, at Kestrel...they made a flatbread with Nutella and Strawberries on it...AMAZING...especially since it was served with their 2012 Port.  Great combination. 

After that fun day we had a nice dinner at home with the kids, including our traditional heart-shaped pepperoni pizza from Papa Murphy's.  And there was no wine drunk with the pizza or after dinner.

Any excuse for cookies.

Way back in the summer, my wife took advantage of the price of peaches to pick up a few 25 pound boxes, but then because of 'life', a few things came up before we got the chance to can them...so instead we chopped them up and threw some of them in a couple of gallon bags in the freezer. 

Now, we need something to do with those frozen peaches...and at the same time, I was in the mood for peaches, so why not combine those two things.  While I found quite a few recipes that called for 'dried peaches', recipes calling for fresh(or frozen) peaches were tougher to come buy...but I did find one that looked promising. 

Peach Drop Cookies

They came out really good, and I liked them.  Instead of peach preserves, I used some nectarine jam...close enough.  Since I am a big fan of 'soft' cookies, these were right up my alley...melt in your mouth soft. 

The only thing I might try different next time is subbing out some of the flour for some oats...maybe play up the 'peach cobbler' feel.  Also, on one of the batches, I gave a second sprinkle of cinnamon-sugar once the cookies came out of the oven...and that was a nice touch.

Sweet translations.

Had a pretty poopy day at work today.  So poopy that my 'must eat something bad for you' jones was acting up.  I crushed it down though, and by the time I made it home, the jones had shifted from something bad for me, to something baked and sweet...and it wasn't going away.

Foodgawker to the rescue!  A quick search for easy deserts revealed this tasty little recipe for Chocolate Muffins with Peanut Butter! 

But, to my horror, the website with the recipe was in Polish!  Luckily, it was internet technology to the rescue!  Near the bottom of the right hand sidebar, there is a button you could click on to translate....but I still had to do some math to translate ml into cups for measuring milk and oil.

The only problem I had(and it didn't effect the flavor) was that the peanut butter didn't wamt to stay on the bottom like it did on the Polish website.  I'll just have to try it againand again until I get it right.

Ask a question, get an answer.

As we settled in for dinner tonight, my youngest daughter surveyed the spread on the table, and those around us, turned to my wife and asked:

'Mommy...why does every dish have meat on it'?

My wife, in one of the great all time answers said: 'Because, we are in Montana, honey.' 

That kind of sums it up...the place even had Montana in the name: The Montana Ale Works. 

In an attempt to be good, both my wife and I had salad...but because neither of us were THAT good, she had chicken on her salad, and I had steak on my caeser salad.  The girls had chicken fingers and fish and chips.  The chicken strips were REAL pieces of chicken, and I can't vouch for the fish, other than to say that my daughter inhaled it, so it must have been good.  As a side dish, the pepper parmesean fries were outstanding.  Both of our salads were good, and hit the spot as something half-way healthy after two days on the road. 

Of course, since it's called Montana ALE Works, we had some beer...once again, three of them, which is one for her and two for me, which is the most I dare drink learning a new town.  Unlike Tamarack, MAW doesn't brew their own beer...but they carry a lot of stuff from local breweries. 

My wife had an OB-1 Organic Ale...and it was more of a brown ale than an amber...it was quite tasty, and very mellow.  It might have been better than my second beer, Bitteroot Belgian Wit, but not better than my first beer, Jack's 90 Scottish Ale.  I like the kind of smokey flavor of a good scotch ale. 

If I lived in Bozeman, I would have no problem visiting Montana Ale Works on a regular basis.  $3 for any pint is a great happy hour deal...much happier here than I was at Tamarack the night before. 

Tamarack

The Tamarack is a variety of larch tree.  Up until a few months ago, I had never heard of a 'Tamarack', but this year I have visited Tamarack Cellars, in Walla Walla(highly recommend their Firehouse Red), The Tamarack a pizza place in Republic(next to the Republic Brewing Company, and most recently Tamarack Brewing, which has a place in Missoula to go with their original place in Lakeside, Mt.

Over dinner last night, I was trying to discuss why this might be with my wife.  In the end we both decided that it was a good name...slightly unique, but deffinetaly having a slightly nouveau west feel to it.  Kind of the slightly hipper 'We Do Too Have Culture' and 'Anything the East Coast can do We can do Better' crowd. 

Let me start by saying Tamarack Brewing didn't blow me away.  There was nothing unique or special about it...a fairly standard representation of the Brew Pub Genre.  I have nothing to complain about, but also nothing that would cause me to eat here a second time before trying out some of the other places in town.  From Yelp research, Missoula has at least 7 or 8 breweries, but not all of them serve food.  Kit recommended I check out Bayern, but with swinging into town on Sunday afternoon, a lot of the choices were already closed, or would have needed me to ditch my family.  Maybe when I swing back through on the 4th...

Positives: Nice looking place.  Friendly Wait Staff.  The beer, especially after two days on the road was good.  Between my wife and I we tried three of them.  The cheese pizza my kids split was good...nice crispy crust.  My wife had a Baked Brie Salad she liked...plenty of bacon, walnuts, spinach and house vinagrette.  My beer batter french fries were also good.

Negatives: My Reuben.  It looked VERY promising...a thick pile of pastrami, lots of slaw...but it was very very peppery.  First, there were bell-peppers diced up in the cole claw...kind of neutral on that one...but the pastrami was very, very peppery.  Distractingly so.  It would not have made my top 10 reuben list. 

Beer: Like I said, my wife and tried 3 of them: The Wakeboard Wit, an Amber Ale, and an Oatmeal Stout.  I tried to get the Sip and Go Naked Apricot Ale, but they were out.  They were all pretty good, and tasted like beers should taste.  I'm not going to try to describe the individual flavor notes...can't do it wine, can't do it with beer.  I found the stout to be the most pleasing. 

 Don't expect a similar review of the Wingate's Continental Breakfast...

That's a tasty burger...

If you ever find yourself cruising through Couer D'Alene, Idaho and think, Boy Do I Need  a Hamburger, then the place to go is Scrud's Gourmet Grub. 

After our afternoon took a zig yesterday, we then had to zag on our dinner plans, and instead of one of Spokane's finer brewpubs, we had to scramble to find someplace in Couer D'Alene.  Since my wife seemed to be in a hamburger mood, Yelp research lead us to Scrud's. 

Even if you serve tasty food, which Scrud's does, you need a gimic in the restaurant business, and Scrud's has two of them: 'Stuffed' burgers, and vintage soda's. 

If you are like me, and you watch a lot of M vs. F, and DDD(Man vs. Food, Diners, Drive-in's, and Dives), you might have seen 'stuffed burgers' before.  Basically, you take two thin patties, and put your fixin's inside those two patties.  Scrud's had about 7 'permenant varieties' and then a few specials for the 4th of July week.  They both terrified me: The M-80, with Ghost Chili Cream Cheese and jalapeno's, of the All American...1 pound of beef with bacon, bratwurst and american cheese in the middle.  The M-80 sounded terrifiyingly hot, the All American burger seemed certain to kill me(and if it didn't, my wife would). 

They also had several other One Pound Plus, or Spicey challanges so you could write your name or get your picture on the wall...but in the end, I passed on those.

I ended up ordering their Bo Sox burger(bacon and blue cheese in the middle) while my wife got the Zeus(feta cheese, and gyro meat in the middle, with tzatziki sauce on it.  After ordering it, she said it is never something she would have thought of ordering on a burger.

In her words...Best Burger She's Ever Had.  If I have had a better burger than my Bo Sox, I can't name where it was from. 

I would have taken pictures, but that would have required me to put down the burger...and it was one of those burgers that was soooooo juicy, if you set down, you weren't going to pick it back up in one piece.

The fries that went with it was good too...you could see the cook in the back putting potatoes on the french fry cutter as orders came in.

Fabulous. 

The vintage sodas were neat also...they had about 10 bottles soda selections, each made back when you put real sugar in soda.  I had a Moxie, my wife had Dad's Root Beer, and my older daughter got an old fashioned Orange Soda...she couldn't believe how much it actually tasted like orange.

After that dinner, I didn't really argue with my wife when she suggested we just eat the continental breakfast at La Quinta this morning...

Fresh Bread.

The other day at the local food co-op, I picked up a great looking bunch of kale, and some nice hot Italian sausage, with the thought that I would whip up a pot of wanna-be Zuppa Tuscana.  Life happened, so instead of making it Friday, it ended up sliding until today. 

Along with the soup, I set out to find a new bread recipe to try, and settled on this Ricotta Bread recipe that sounded pretty okay. 

The end result was better than satisfactory.

The only confession I need to make is that I DID NOT make the ricotta from scratch...I had my wife pick some up at the store. 

Even so, the bread was good...very light and fluffy, with only a hint of ricotta flavor.  My only hick-up during the process was I needed a LOT of extra flour to form the balls/loafs after the first rising period...the dough was very sticky.