Whole Smoked Prime Rib!

Roast Beast!

I tried my hand at whole Prime Rib for the first time the other night and it turned out awesome! We started it on the smoker for about 3 hours and then finished it in the oven for another 45 min. The wood smoke added so much great flavor to the beef it was incredible.

Quality Cuts!

The spread!

Tomato salad, pasta pesto salad, roasted potatoes, creamed cucumbers, and of course the meat.

Wrapped it up for the fridge to chill the day before.

I painted the beast with a paste of mustard, garlic, chili powder, and various pepper the day before so it could marinade and suck up all those flavors.

Yeah that's good Marbling!

I cut a couple steaks off the end for Dad and myself before I started the roast project.

20 lbs of USDA Prime Grade Moo-Cow Ribeye Roll!

Grilled Veal & Garden Goods

Baby Cow!

Silky smooth and tender as can be. Three ribeye chops and one t-bone. I marinaded these babies in a blend of olive oil and seasoning salts overnight, then put em on the grill. I used a cast iron griddle to sear them in butter for a nice crust, then transferred to direct flame to get some grill marks. We finished it with a dressing mix of olive oil, parsley, fresh garlic, lemon and black pepper. The meat sucks up all that goodness while it rests.

Carnage! Look how white this baby meat is, you'd think it was pork.

Potatoes grilled with olive tepanade.

This was an interesting recipe we tried for the first time out of an Argentinian cookbook I just picked up. I made a great olive tepanade with fresh kalamata olives and then topped these smashed potatoes with it before charring them on the cast iron pan. Basicaly you get this great combination of smoky charred spuds with the briny citrus flavor of the olives. It turned out great! The potatoes came from my dad's garden too.

Tomatoes & Cheese with Basil.

A nice assortment of various home-grown tomatoes chopped up with some fresh basil then toped with herbs and fresh hot chilies to give it some zip. A couple of balls of fresh Mozzarella since I think cheese is always a good addition to anything.

Pork Tenderloin & Garden Salad

Here's a simple meal we put together one night a couple weeks ago. Pork tenderloin seasoned with a spicy rub then grilled and served over rice with a home grown salad on the side. Easy and delish!

Cedar Planked Salmon for a Crowd!

This is an old photo from the 4th of July, but I just downloaded it to my computer so I though I should throw it on here. Those are two, 10 lb. sides of fresh Northwest King salmon on cedar planks so big I had to buy them at Home Depot. We did one with a asian style soy based marinade and the other got a brown sugar & paprika rub with dill & lemon.

We fed this to a crowd of about 100, along with 12 chickens, 14 whole racks of BBQ ribs, a 10 lb. beef brisket, 5 gallons of sloppy joes, and a potluck of all kinds of sides & salads. I was barley able to put a plate together before it was all gone.

Lemon Chicken, with Chorizo Potatoes & Butter Lettuce Salad

I got this chicken recipe from a Jamie Oliver cookbook. We stuffed the chicken with lemons & parsley, then roasted it over a bed of potatoes & chorizo so they suck up all the chicken fat that collects in the pan as it renders. It's topped with a mix of lemon, garlic, & parsley when it comes out of the oven hot.

The salad is one of my favorites that I stole from Bouchon restaurant. It's butter lettuce tossed with a ton of different herbs, like tarragon, thyme, dill, chervil, and parsley. The dressing is a mix of canola oil, dijon, and red wine vinegar. Minced shallots on top for some zing. We had a great bottle of Ridge zinfandel with it.

Halibut & Tomatoes

Wednesday night we put together a nice assortment from our garden. The first tomatoes of the year! We mixed about 4-5 varieties of home grown tomatoes with a fresh cucumber and some basil. Another salad of greens made with arugula, dill, and shallots in the wood bowl. Then for the main course a nice filet of halibut from our Alaskan fisherman friend Matty B. I poached it in some vegetable stock with carrots, celery, onions, thyme, parsley, and some little hot red peppers I picked earlier in the day. We served it over some rice.

This turned out to be one of the better spreads we've made in quite a while. It's crazy to think that almost everything came from my shoddy little garden.

Yankee Pot Roast

I think it's only fitting that we chose the classic family meal to kick off our food blog, Pot Roast. We made this roast with a big hunk of beef raised locally at my friend Chad's farm, and almost all of the veggies like the carrots, peas, beans and turnips came from my own garden.