The perfect combination of foods, pork and garlic.  If you know me, pork is my preference when it comes to meat and you would also know that garlic is one of my absolute favorite ingredients to use.  So when I came across this recipe for a garlic jam from Emeril (posted all over the internet), I knew I had to try it, and it did not disappoint at all.  The flavor and smell of the garlic served with the pork was amazingly good and overall pretty easy to make.

Ingredients:

• 4 heads garlic, roasted
• 1/4 sweet onion, finely diced
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice (fresh)
• Coarse Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 Pork Chops (bone-in)

Directions:

Start off by preparing the garlic jam (can do the night before or even a few days earlier) by taking the roasted garlic and squeezing the garlic cloves into a bowl.  Add in the diced onions and mash with a fork until smooth.  Stir in the Worcestershire and lemon juice until smooth and creamy.  Season with a pinch of coarse salt.  Store in an air-tight container inside the refrigerator.

Prepare the grill for medium–high direct grilling.  Season the pork chops with salt and pepper and grill until the internal temperature reaches 145.  Once done, remove from the grill and let the chops rest for 3 minutes.  Serve the pork chops with the garlic jam.

On the fun side,

I was recently visited by the Fairy Hobmother!  Fairy What??  The fairy hobmother is actually Ian from Appliance Online, who are currently promoting the Bosch Logixx range of appliances.  So what is so exciting about being visited by the Fairy Hobmother, well I received a $40 dollar Amazon gift certificate!  And since I do plenty of online shopping, this definitely will come in handy.

Do you want a visit from the Fairy Hobmother?  Well you can, just leave a comment on this post and you could get a visit from him too!

Time for the Secret Recipe Club again!  This month, I was assigned the blog The Weekend Gourmet.  I feel so lucky to have been assigned another great blog, Wendy has plenty of great recipes on her blog with great directions and pictures.  Trying to stick to my theme of everything being primarily cooked on the grill (with a few exceptions of course) was a bit more difficult this time around, at least until I came across some wonderful taco recipes.  I decided on Wendy’s Tequila-Lime Shrimp Tacos.  The recipe is very easy to make, but packs a good amount of flavor.  The only thing with the recipes I wish I could have done is find good-looking avocados, which I had to omit.  Both stores I stopped at when making this dish had these really disgusting looking avocados that were actually over ripe, so I had to omit them.  In the long run, it didn’t matter, because these tacos were amazingly good.

These tacos were cooked in a skillet with a wonderful flavor tequila-lime sauce and served with a creamy lime sauce on the taco.  Amazingly tasty, but I had to adapt for the grill.  I turned the buttery, tequila, and lime juice into a marinade for the shrimp.  After sitting in the marinade for about 1 to 2 hours, I tossed them shrimp on the grill.  For the creamy lime sauce I decided to add a bit of heat with a Chipotle in Adobo sauce (just like bacon, Chipotles make everything better), and decided to use full fat Mayonnaise and Sour Cream.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Sour Cream
• 1/4 cup Mayonnaise
• 2 Lime, juiced, divided
• 1 Chipotle Pepper in Adobo (with drippings), finely chopped
• 1/4 cup Olive Oil
• 4 tablespoons Butter
• 3 Garlic Cloves, minced
• 1 Serrano Pepper, seeded and minced
• 1 pound Medium Shrimp , peeled and deveined
• 1/3 cup Tequila
• Shredded Lettuce
• 2 Roma Tomatoes, diced
• Coarse Salt
• Tortillas

Directions:

Start of by preparing the Creamy Chipotle-Lime sauce by mixing together the sour cream, mayonnaise, juice of 1 of the limes, and the chipotle pepper in adobo.  Cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to use (let it sit for at least 1 hour for the smoky heat to penetrate).

Prepare the marinade for the shrimp by melting the butter in a sauté pan, then add in the garlic and serrano pepper.  Cook for a couple of minutes and turn off the heat.  Add in the juice of the other lime, tequila, olive oil, and a pinch of salt.   Let the mixture come down to room temperature and add to a bowl with the shrimp.  Make sure to mix around well so all pieces of shrimp are covered in the marinade.  Let the shrimp marinade for about 1 to 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Prepare the grill for medium-high direct grilling and place the shrimp on the grill.  Grill for about 3 to 4 minutes (until pink).  Remove from the grill.

Prepare the tacos by putting a few pieces of shrimp, tomatoes, and lettuce in each tortilla and then top off with the chipotle-lime cream sauce.

Welcome to this month’s On Our Grills challenge, where we take 4 ingredients and see what we can come up with.  This months ingredients are short ribs, celery, peaches, and gluten-free pasta.  This is definitely a group of ingredients I can work with, and work with them I did.  I enjoyed these ingredients so much, I came up with a full meal that included an appetizer, side dish, main dish, and a dessert.

For the appetizer, I made a grilled celery stuffed with cream cheese and blue cheese.  You may ask, why grill celery, because the grill makes it taste better, just like any vegetable, and it also takes way some of that celery stringiness.  For the celery I dressed it up in a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  Tossed it on the grill and flipped a few times until it was a bit tender, but still had a firmness to it.  The celery then was filled with a cream cheese and blue cheese mixture.  Check out the full recipe at Grilled Celery with Blue Cheese.

The main dish was more of a challenge, not because of the ingredient, but because my smoker had some issues.  I was using a Cookshack Smokette, and there was a bit of moisture in it which was tripping the GFI outlet.  I ended up having to run the smoker on an extension cord to a non GFI outlet and let run for many hours to get it to dry out.  This delayed me a day in cooking this meal, but it could have been worse.  I smoked beef short ribs for about 6 hours with an Asian rub and then glazed them with a tasty Asian glaze recipe for the last hour of smoking.  This ended up being a perfect rib recipe, and something a bit different then what I have done in the past with rubs.  For the complete recipe and details check out Asian Short Ribs.

Served a long side of these ribs was a delicious Asian pasta salad made with a gluten-free pasta made with corn and quinoa (quinoa is a wonderful ingredient).  Besides the corn and quinoa pasta the other key ingredients were baby corn, water chestnuts, green onions, and sugar snap pears and an Asian dressing made from a gluten-free soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, and Chinese Five-Spice seasoning.  For complete recipe and details check out Gluten-Free Asian Pasta Salad.

To top it this great meal, I made a grilled peach cobbler, which just may have been my favorite part of the entire meal.  The peach cobbler was actually very simple to make, but was very tasty.  I used a combination of butter, brown sugar, granola, and cinnamon with the peaches.  The peaches ended up being perfectly ripe, which made splitting and pitting them a piece of cake and the perfect amount of sweetness for the last part of this meal.  For the complete recipe, check out Grilled Peach Cobbler.

Be sure to check out the other members of the On Our Grills 4 Ingredient Challenge:

The BBQ Grail:

Larry Gaian started his blog in 2007,initially to document the author’s quest to find the perfect backyard BBQ experience. Since that time The BBQ Grail has become one of the more popular BBQ blogs on the internet.

No Excuses BBQ:

Paul Haight started his blog in January,2009 as a way to record the author’s goal of cooking outdoors at least once a week throughout the year and showing the results to the world. Somewhere along the way things got out of control.

The Oshawa Ogre:

Wilfred is somewhat of a newcomer to the BBQ scene having only done standard grilling for most of his 50 years,He found and became passionate about Low &Slow about 2 years ago. and that passion also morphed into a second hobby which is writing

Grill Adventures:

Started in March,2010 by Marc Van Der Wouw as a way to document his journey to better and healthier eating. The grill has a special place in Marc’s heart. Everything he makes is an adventure.

The Dutchess Cooks:

After years of cooking,grilling,baking and reading other people’s blogs,Hanneke Eerden thought,“why not start my own blog?”,and she did,in 2010. It’s not her goal to publish or come up with fancy and difficult recipes:just good and delicious food with an international twist!

Nibble Me This:

Chris North started his blog so he could share the misadventures of live fire cooking. Mark has no culinary training,he’s just entertaining himself with fire and food.

Kristina Vanni “The Daily Dish”

Kristina has been writing “The Daily Dish” for www.BetterRecipes.com for the past two years. The blog covers a wide variety of recipes, but firing up the grill truly lights up her passion for food! She was named “America’s Next Pork Personality” by Guy Fieri for one of her grilled pork dishes, won the outdoor grilling division of the National Beef Cook-Off, and her winning grilled lamb-burger took her all the way to the land Down Under with Meat and Livestock Australia. The “4-Ingredient Challenge” is a fun and exciting way to get creative on the grill!

This is a great little quick and simple appetizer.  Many may ask, why grill celery, well why not?  It definitely seems to help the texture, as a lot of people do not like the stringiness of celery and grilling helps to reduce that stringiness.  For this recipe, I stuffed it with a mixture of blue cheese and cut the flavor a bit of the blue cheese with some cream cheese.

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of Celery, cleaned and cut into 2 to 3 inch pieces
• 4 ounces Blue Cheese, crumbled
• 4 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon Coarse Salt
• 1 teaspoon Black Pepper

Directions:

Prepare the grill for medium-high direct grilling.  As the grill is warming up, mix together the cream cheese and blue cheese in a bowl and set to the side.  Toss the celery with the olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Place the celery on the grill over direct heat, rotating every minute or 2 and grill until softened, but still firm, still want that crunch.

Remove the celery from the grill and stuff with the blue cheese/cream cheese mixture and server immediately.

Every good BBQ, needs a good pasta salad right?  This one is absolutely amazing and is also gluten-free.  I have usually stayed away from gluten-free pastas, as I am a lover of all things gluten.  However I did find a unique pasta in the health food section at the store (yes I do occasionally hit that section of the store) that was made of quinoa and corn, so I had to give it a shot (plus needed to use a gluten-free pasta for the 4 ingredient challenge).

Ingredients:

• 8 ounce box Quinoa Rotelle
• 8 ounce package of Sugar Snap Peas, cut in half
• 1 4 ounce can (think it was 4 ounces) of Baby Corn, cut in half
• 1 can water chestnuts
• 4 green onions diced
• 4 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons gluten-free soy sauce
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Chinese Five-Spice

Directions:

Prepare the dressing by combining the garlic, salt, soy, olive oil, and Chinese five-spice together in a bowl, whisk together until all ingredients are well mixed.  Set the dressing to the side.

Prepare the Quinoa Rotelle as directed by the package and as soon as you drain place in a bowl and toss with the dressing.  Goal is to do this right away when the pasta is still warm as it will prevent the pasta from sticking and get the flavor of the dressing into the pasta.  Add the sugar snap peas, baby corn, water chestnuts, and green onions.  Toss well and set in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

You know I have never smoked beef ribs, at least until now.  I have always just stayed away from them, as I am a pork loving fool, specially when it comes to ribs.  However, this definitely was a winner as it didn’t remind me of the beef ribs I ate growing up (sorry Dad).  These weren’t nearly as tender as when I smoke pork ribs, but they were still full of flavor.  The Asian rub and glaze go perfectly with the beef and really transformed the ribs.

Rub Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon Dry Mustard, ground
• 3 teaspoons Kosher Salt
• 2 teaspoons Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 2 teaspoons Anise Seed, ground
• 2 teaspoons Ground Ginger
• 1 teaspoons Ground Allspice
• 1 teaspoon Ground Chipotle

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and store in air-tight container.

Glaze Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons Peanut Oil
• 4 tablespoons Fresh Ginger, finely chopped
• 6 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup Asian Chili Garlic Sauce
• 1/2 cup Honey
• 1/4 cup Soy Sauce, low sodium

Directions:

Heat oil in a small sauce pan, add in the ginger and garlic.  Once the ginger and garlic is soft add the chili garlic sauce and cook for a couple of minutes. Whisk in the honey and soy sauce until combined and the honey has melted.

Rib Ingredients:

• 4 pounds Beef Short Ribs
• Asian Rub (above)
• Asian Glaze (above)

Directions:

The night before smoking, prepare the ribs by removing the membrane on the back.  Coat the ribs with the rub, cover and place back in the refrigerator over night.

Prepare the smoker to smoke at 225 degrees and plan to smoke for at most 6 hours.  Place ribs in the smoker and at the 3 hour mark check the ribs.  If the meat is starting to pull back from the bone, place coat the ribs with the glaze.   If the ribs have not started to pull back from the bone, wait another 45 minutes to 1 hour and check again.  Continue glazing the ribs every 30 minutes until the meat has really pulled back from the bone.  Remove from the smoker and serve immediately with remaining glaze.

Time for some dessert!  This is a great and simple dessert that uses fresh peaches, grilled, combined with butter, sugar, cinnamon, and granola to make a flavorful and simple cobbler.

Ingredients:

• 6 ripe peaches, halved and pitted (make sure they are ripe as un-ripe peaches are nearly impossible to cut in half and remove the pits).
• 1 stick butter, melted and divided
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar divided
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
• 1 cup cinnamon raisin granola

Directions:

Prepare the grill for direct grilling over medium heat.  Place the peaches cut side down on the grill until softened and slightly browned.  Remove from the grill and cut peaches into wedges.

Toss the cut peaches with half the butter, sugar, and cinnamon.  Split the mixture across 4 ramekins.

Toss the granola with the remaining butter, sugar, and cinnamon and top each ramekin with the granola mixture.

Bake for about 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven (or grill).  The granola should be slightly browned when done.

After the last 2 posts using bacon, not the greatest for you, but mighty tasty, it is time to post some healthy recipes (yes I do grill healthy).  Better get use to this, because of the next many weeks there are going to be more healthy recipes posted here.  I will be posting more on my health kick a little later, but in short, I want to lose a few pounds, run a 5K, and just have more energy.  So majority of my meals will be healthier, but don’t worry I will be making plenty of not-so healthy meals still.

This recipe is perfect, no processed sugars, all natural ingredients, full of flavor, and simple.  When we think of chicken with a lemon flavor, we generally think of a Lemon Pepper seasoning from a jar.  Well most of those aren’t the greatest for you as sugar is added along with probably some not so wonderful processed ingredients.  This recipe is not only a lot healthier, but also more flavorful than those seasonings that come from a jar.

To go along with the chicken, I also grilled up some green beans.  The green beans were very simple to prepare.  Combine with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and place on the grill over medium-low heat.  Grill until soft.

Grilling primarily healthy with lean meats, no sugar or processed foods is a tough challenge at times, so I am looking for more healthy recipes.  If you have an idea, please post it at Looking For Health Grilling Recipes.  If I try the recipe, it will definitely be featured on my blog and appropriate credits given to the person who passed it on to me!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Lemon Juice (from fresh Lemons)
• 1/4 cup Water
• 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3 Garlic Cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons Fresh Italian Parsley, chopped
• 2 tablespoons Fresh Oregano, chopped
• 1 tablespoon Lemon Zest
• 1 teaspoon Coarse Salt
• 1 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 2 pounds Chicken Breasts

Directions:

In a bowl combine all ingredients, except the chicken breast, and mix well.  Add in the chicken breast, cover, and refrigerate at least 4 hours (night before works great).

Prepare the grill for medium-high direct grilling.  Add the chicken breast to the grill and grill about 4 to 5 minutes per side over direct heat, juices should run clear.

It is time for the next On Our Grills, 4 ingredient challenge.  The ingredients were a strange combination this time, but I definitely have a dish that turned out better than I ever imagined (especially since the first attempt did not work out as planned).  The ingredients that must be used were hot dogs, dill pickles, blue berries, and baked beans.

Cockiness definitely almost got me on this months challenge.  I had it all planned out, thought nothing could go wrong, so I waited till the last possible moment to actually create the dish, unfortunately things did go wrong.  I attempted to transform the hot dogs and baked beans into a bean burger.  In the back of my head, I knew there was chance it would fall apart on the grill, but either way I held off till the last possible second.  That’s OK, because I ended up with an awesome bacon wrapped hot dog topped with a blueberry  chili served with cheesy dill pickle chips, and was finally able to enjoy dinner at about 11:30 last night.

Ingredients:

• 8 Hot Dogs (All Beef)
• 8 slices of Thick cut bacon
• 8 Hot Dog Buns
• BBQ Rub
• 1 pound Ground Beef
• 28 ounce can Baked Beans, drained  (don’t rinse)
• 2 tablespoons Chipotle Chili Powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, diced
• Blueberry Mustard Sauce (Recipe follows)
• Dill Pickles
• Shredded Cheese
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil

Instructions:

Prepare the blueberry mustard sauce as instructed below.

In a skillet, heat up the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add in the diced onion and garlic and sauté until the onion is translucent.  Add in the ground beef and cook until the beef is cooked thoroughly.   Add in the baked beans, chipotle chili powder, cumin, and blueberry mustard sauce.  Mix the chili thoroughly and heat till warm through out.  Once heated, reduce to a low simmer as you prepare the rest of the dish.

Prepare the grill for medium indirect heat.  Wrap the hot dogs in the bacon and season liberally with BBQ rub.   Placed the wrapped dogs on the grill and cook until the bacon is crisp.

As the bacon is getting close to crisp, start preparing the cheesy dill pickle chips by placing as many dill pickles on the grill (using a vegetable grill rack) and top each one with a bit of cheese.  In 30 seconds they should be ready, carefully remove them with a spatula and set aside to cool.

To serve place the bacon wrapped hot dog in a bun, top with the blueberry chili and serve with the dill pickle chips.

Blueberry Mustard Sauce Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups Blueberries, pressed through a sieve
• 1/2 cup Whole Blueberries
• 1/2 cup port wine
• 1 Shallot, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 3/4 cup Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 cup Whole Grain Mustard
• 2 tablespoons Yellow Mustard Seeds
• 2 tablespoons White Wine Vinegar

Directions:

Combined the mustard seeds with the white wine vinegar in a bowl and set aside.

In a sauce pan, combined the sieved blueberries, whole berries, port wine, shallots, and sugar over medium high-heat.  Once boiling, reduce to low and simmer for 20 minutes.

Let the sauce cool and mix in the Dijon mustard, whole grain mustard, and the mustard seeds.  Place in refrigerator until ready to use.

About this month’s “On Our Grills” 4 Ingredient Challenge Bloggers

The BBQ Grail
The BBQ Grail website was created in 2007, initially to document the author’s quest to find the perfect backyard BBQ experience. Since that time The BBQ Grail has become one of the more popular BBQ blogs on the internet and is listed on Alltop.com as one of the top BBQ blogs.

Bob’s Brew and ‘Que
Bob started Bob’s Brew and ‘Que in August of 2009 with the intent of sharing his views on food and drink. Originally focused on BBQ and Homebrew, it was inevitable that the influences of his upbringing in the San Francisco Bay Area and it’s wealth of ingredients as well as his heritage as an American of Japanese ancestry would help focus his blog, as it has his approach to food and drink.

Jason’s BBQ Adventures
Jason is the latest victim, er… blogger to join in on the fun. He’s been food-blogging for a while, but no one thought to ask him for his biography in time for publication. But that shouldn’t stop you from checking out his offerings…

Oshawa Ogre’s Views, News & BBQ’s
Wilfred is somewhat of a newcomer to the BBQ scene having only done standard grilling for most of his 50 years, He found and became passionate about Low & Slow about 2 years ago. and that passion also morphed into a second hobby which is writing. Oshawa Ogre’s Views News & BBQ’s has been a project that has taken on a life of it’s own and blessed him with many many new friends in the BBQ community on Twitter, Facebook and through the blog.

Nibble Me This
Nibble Me This is Chris Grove’s blog about his misadventures in live fire cooking. ”I have no culinary training….I’m just entertaining myself with fire and food”.

The Dutchess Cooks
After years of cooking, grilling, baking and reading other people’s blogs, she thought “why not start my own blog?” And she did, in 2010, but after a short period of time a blog wasn’t enough and the she started her own website. In her own words: “It’s not my goal to publish or come up with fancy and difficult recipes: just good and delicious food with an international twist! Straight from my plate to yours!”

Grill Adventures by Broadcast Marc
Grill Adventures by broadcastmarc was started in March of 2010. According to the author, he started the BBQ thing when he was 30, before that they ate a lot outside and had fun, but when kids came into their life they started serious cooking. Most of it is really healthy. The grill has a special place in his heart because they love to do things outside. Everything he makes is an adventure, and sometimes they use the books. They try to grill as much as they can year round.

It is time for the Secret Recipe Club and I definitely had a challenge with this one, but the result was a fantastic tasting appetizer/snack.

I was assigned the blog Lite Bite, a fabulous looking blog, with very tasty recipes from India.  The author Sanjeeta is a fabulous cook that focuses on easy, light, and healthy recipes for the busy family.  Something in the United States that we can definitely take a lesson from.  Our idea of a fast and easy meal is a drive through, which is probably why we rank generally in the top 10 on the list of most obese countries.

I definitely found lots of recipes that I wanted to try on her site, but had a hard time to find something that I can do on the grill.  Lucky for me, the day I was assigned her blog, the latest post was a perfect one for me, Peanut Butter Stuffed Okra and Ridge Gourd.  Okra has been towards the top of my grilling bucket list, so I was able to take care of the Secret Recipe Club post along with crossing an item off my grilling bucket list!  Of course, I am going to do what every American BBQ person does when stuffing a vegetable and grilling it, wrap it in bacon.  Yes, yes I know I mentioned America’s obesity problem, then I do the typical American thing, wrap something in bacon, but I just couldn’t resist!  Now I did have some reservations about wrapping these in bacon, I was definitely worried that I was going to ruin the taste of the wonderful little bite, but at the end I was definitely glad I did at the end.  This was a fabulous appetizer to our dinner and will be grilling these again and again in the future.

Here is my take on this recipe:

Ingredients:

• 12 Okra
• 4 tablespoons Peanut Butter
• 1 small Onion, grated
• 2 teaspoons Ginger-Garlic Paste
• 2 teaspoons Chipotle Chili Powder
• 2 teaspoon Ground Coriander
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• Thick-cut bacon

Directions:

Prepare the grill for medium-high indirect grilling (don’t want the flare-ups from the bacon).

Prepare the stuffing for the Okra, by combining the peanut butter, onion, ginger-garlic paste, chili powder, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and salt in a bowl.  Make sure to mix thoroughly.

Wash and dry the Okra, chop off the heads and tail ends and make a slit from the top to the bottom end.  Place the stuffing in a piping bag (or Ziploc bag, with a small hole cut on one end).  Stuff the peanut butter mixture into the slits of the okra.  Wrap each okra with bacon, cut off any excess, and secure with a toothpick.

Place the bacon wrapped okra on the grill over indirect heat and grill till the bacon is nice and crisp and the okra has softened up.

Have a food blog and interested in joining the Secret Recipe Club, head over to: sign-up for the Secret Recipe Club.