Relax. Good steak can be made right in your kitchen and you can still drink beer when you do it, just like in the backyard.

Per usual Alton Brown is my mentor when it comes to cooking and I’m following his lead on this one. The concept is simple and no exotic tools are required. You’ll need a cast iron pan (I used a grill pan but a flat skillet will work too), an oven, and a good pair of tongs. The key to grilling is searing the meat so the outside has that nice texture and flavor while still cooking the inside enough to safely eat. In fact most will start their grill off on high heat and then lower it once the steaks are on. The concept is very similar except instead of a grill, we have a pan and an oven.

Some steak basics: let the meat come to room temperature before you cook it and keep it simple with the seasoning. I like to stick to just kosher salt and black pepper.

I basically followed Alton Brown’s method with a little time change, so here goes. Put your empty pan in the oven and preheat it to 500F. This way you’ll have two hot sources for both direct and indirect cooking. Once the oven and pan are preheated, pull the pan out and set it on the stove over high heat.

Lightly coat your steak with vegetable oil, apply salt and pepper to your liking and set it on your super hot pan and do not touch it! This is where I varied from Mr. Brown a little. Since I was using a grill pan and had less contact with my steak I chose to leave it in the pan for a full minute per side rather than 30 seconds like he recommends. If using a flat skillet I’d say go with 30 seconds.

So don’t touch your steak for a minute (or 30 seconds) then flip it with the tongs and let it go another minute (or 30 seconds). This sears the outside of the meat and if you are using a grill pan, produces those nice grill marks.

Remember the oven? With the outside seared, it’s time to cook the inside. Slide your steak (still in the hot pan) into oven and let it go cook for two minutes. Flip it and let it cook another two minutes. After both sides have had their two minutes, remove the steak from the heat and loosely wrap it in foil to let it rest. I threw a small pat of butter in with the foil for added flavor. Let it rest for a good two minutes before cutting.

Close to perfect if you ask me. I’d call it extra medium rare in my case. The steak was cooked excellent and very even throughout. I was impressed. This was better than most of my outdoor grill attempts. It was missing a little something on the outside texture and it didn’t have that fire aroma that I find very pleasant. That said, this was a very easy method though with minimal work involved and I couldn’t be happier with the results.  Even my roommate liked it (see below).

A couple of other thoughts, I was a stickler with the time but things may vary based on the thickness of your steak. Mine was a good inch maybe inch and a quarter so your results may vary. Remember to let it rest too. The steak will continue to cook even after you remove it from the heat so you actually want it a little less done than desired when you remove it from the heat. However, If you like your steak a little more done than I do, add more time to the oven portion of the cooking, just remember to keep it even between the sides.

Otherwise just cook it to your taste, enjoy it with a local beer, and by all means, don’t ruin a good steak with A-1or some other abomination.

For me the electric griddle is an essential tool for key breakfast staples like french toast or pancakes.  Can these things be made without one?  Of course.  Having a large flat area to work with though really helps when it comes to speed and preparing them all at the same time.  With a griddle you can fix your whole stack of pancakes at once rather than one at time.  This way they all can be served hot at the same time!

They come in a wide variety of models and prices.  I got a cheap Black and Decker one at Target for less than $30 and it serves me well.  The only thing I wish it had was a removable surface for easy cleaning.  The surface is non-stick though so clean up really isn’t a big deal as is.  A removable or even interchangeable surface would be nice though.

I use mine primarily for breakfast but it’s a pretty versatile tool.  Burgers, stir fry, cheese steaks, grilled cheeses, etc can all be done.  You can fancy yourself a short order cook at a local diner and whip whatever you like.  So, while breakfast is its main purpose in my mind, the flexibility a large flat cooking surface gives you makes it a worthwhile purchase.  The griddle isn’t glamorous and it does take up a lot of counter space but I think it deserves a spot in any single guy’s kitchen.

Enjoy!

The store is kept in good condition, cleaner than most grocery stores. Not a lot of fresh food, but they have great deals on packaged and canned stuff.

They have some really great deals although you probably won’t be able to find your whole week’s shopping list here. Today I went in looking for ziploc bags and vegetable oil and here is what I bought:

• Sour Patch Kids (candy) - big bag - $1.79
• Shells & Cheese - Knockoff brand of Velveeta Shells - $1.29
• Vegetable oil - 48 oz house brand - $2.29
• Baby Rays BBQ sauce - 28 oz - $1.59

I think the Baby Rays sauce was a great deal, a huge bottle at only $1.59. I really like Baby Rays sauce and would normally expect to pay 3x for this size in a normal grocery store. This particular item was one of the things they have on the first aisle that are seasonal or hot promotions I think, and not something they regularly stock.

ALDI does things a lot different from other stores. In my opionion, most of their differences are good.

To start with, you’ll notice that shopping carts aren’t free. You have to deposit a quarter in order to “unlock” a shopping cart. Upon returning the cart to the rack, you get your quarter back. This discourages people from leaving the carts sitting out in the parking lot, as customers return the carts. Great idea! They also don’t give you grocery bags, you can bring your own if you want them. ALDI focuses on efficiency and cost savings all around. They only accept cash and debit cards for payment.

Here is an intro article to shopping at ALDI.

Credit goes to Bryan S of The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board - you can see the forum post here.

You can use any chicken parts, or even a whole cut-up chicken. This time, I went with all dark meat chicken, quarters and drumsticks.

Here is how the recipe goes:

1. Prepare a marinade consisting of:

1 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs. Sea or Kosher salt
1 tbs. white sugar
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. white pepper

2. Prepare chicken - cut out fat chunks, entrails, and any other nasty bits.
3. Now marinade your chicken parts for 2 to 8 hours. I prepared the marinade before lunch time, so they my pieces were marinading for closer to 8 hours. I was able to fit 3 quarters and 3 drumsticks in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag. Using a ziploc bag also makes it easy to mix the marinade.
4. To prevent contamination it is recommended you make a new batch of the marinade, this time adding in 1/2 cup vegetable oil. This will be used for basting.
5. Heat grill to medium and place your chicken pieces. Discard the used marinade. Here is what mine looked like going on the grill. You can see how the marinade soaked into the chicken.

6. Baste the chicken every 5 minutes and flip approximately every 10 minutes until done.
7. Serve and enjoy!

For added affect, I’ve read that you should really crank up the heat towards the end of the cook to get extra flare-ups, adding to the char flavor that forms on the chicken. I did this cook on a Holland Grill with is completely indirect heat. But I’m itching to try this out on a regular direct grill to get that flare-up char flavor on the chicken.

Vegetable oil is added to the baste mixture which helps it stick to the chicken, building up a layer of flavors. However the vegetable oil is absent from the marinade, as it could block the vinegar and flavors from being absorbed into the meat.

This a Ravioli “Lasagna.” Well, it’s not really a lasagna, more of a casserole I suppose. It’s built in layers similar to a lasagna except the ravioli replace the lasagna noodles. There’s less sauce, no ricotta cheese, more vegetables… so like I said not exactly lasagna like. Despite the confusing name, the dish is quite tasty, so on to the ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans artichoke hearts (in water) - drained and quartered
• 2 small heads of broccoli - trimmed to just the florets or however you like it
• 1 large package frozen spinach (about a pound I think) - thawed and wrung out
• 2 packages of ravioli (about 18 to 20 oz)
• 1 jar pasta sauce (your choice)
• 6 cloves of garlic
• olive oil
• combination of shredded asiago, parmesan, and mozzarella cheese

The dish comes together from three different groups: the ravioli and broccoli, artichoke and spinach, and the sauce. For the ravioli and broccoli, bring a pot of water to boil, salt the water, and add the broccoli and ravioli for about four to five minutes. I used fresh spinach and artichoke ravioli that you can find in the refrigerated dairy section usually. You can pick any type of ravioli you like. You don’t want it al dente but rather a little chewy. This is all going to get put into the oven still so you don’t want to cook the ravioli entirely. I like my broccoli firm so this worked out well for that too.

The other vegetables are cooked in a separate pan with some olive oil. Get the oil (a couple tablespoons) heating and coarsely chop your garlic and add it to the warm oil. Let this go for a couple minutes while you drain and quarter the artichokes. Add your thawed and strained spinach next and then your artichokes. This step can take as little as five minutes or as long as twenty based on what else you are doing. You just want to get everything heated and mixed together. I did the vegetables first so they ended up being in the pan for awhile on low while I got the pasta going. It’s really not a problem, just don’t burn them so keep your heat low and be sure to keep things moving.

With the sauce, just heat it up in a separate pot. You can add any spices if you like but its not necessary.

In a lightly oiled casserole dish, put down one layer of ravioli and broccoli, followed by the vegetables, then the sauce, and finally a couple handfuls of cheese. How many layers you get will depend on the portions you used and the size of your dish. I ended up with a bottom layer of ravioli, the middle filled with all the vegetables, and then just a top layer of ravioli.

I threw this in the oven at 400F with my garlic bread for about 10 - 15 minutes. Just keep an eye on it, make sure the cheese is melted, etc.

Voila! Spinach and artichoke ravioli “lasagna.” Note the “two buck chuck” in the background. It’s good.

This turned out really well I think. It’s not a real sauce heavy dish so if you like a lot of sauce plan on adding another half jar at least. You may want to vary the ravioli filling unless you really like spinach and artichoke too. One last variation, I would use fresh spinach rather than frozen. I really dislike working with frozen spinach and the texture does nothing for me. I think fresh spinach wilted in the pan would be a lot better.

Overall I was really satisfied with this. If you noticed this turned out vegetarian but it does not have to be based on the ravioli choice. I like vegetarian dishes like this. There’s no attempt to substitute for meat, it’s just a good vegetable dish that stands on its own legs.

I hope you enjoy and as always, comments are always welcome.

The recipe is simple. You take a whole chicken (often times called a fryer chicken), smash a beer can up its butt cavity, and sit it on the grill for awhile. The beer acts as a magical cooking catalyst, delivering tender goodness throughout the chicken.

Sounds simple right? Here’s the breakdown:

Ingredients

• one whole fryer chicken
• one can of beer
• aluminum foil and/or foil disposable cooking sheet
• onion (or a clove of garlic)
• spices - a combo of any of these will do: salt, pepper, cayenne, chili powder, italian spices, etc

Directions

1. Take whole fryer chicken, remove from packaging and place in sink
2. Go light your grill, putting on medium heat. It will warm up while you are doing the chicken prep.
3. Put your trash can beside the sink
4. Wash the chicken’s insides, use your hand to remove all innards (heart, and whatever other pieces you find).
5. If the neck is hanging out, chop it down.
6. Thoroughly wash the chicken inside and out again.
7. Turn off water, shake the chicken violently to get most of the water off
8. Pat chicken dry with paper towels
9. Apply herbs spices, salt pepper etc to outside of chicken. If you can shove some under the skin, thats good.
10. Cut down an onion so you can snugly fit it in the neck cavity of the chicken. This will help keep the steam inside the chicken. A clove of garlic can also work here.
11. Take a foil cooking pan, or a sheet of aluminum foil with the edges folded up and place on grill.
12. Open a beer can (Natural Light preferred) and drink 1/3 of it. Quickly. Chug it. Now go open another beer for you to drink, and set aside the first beer with 2/3 remaining.
13. Place first beer on the foil you setup on the grill.
14. Carefully wiggle the chicken’s butt cavity down on top of this beer. You should be able to adjust the chicken so it is balanced between its legs and the beer can.
15. Grill for approx 1.5hrs until skin is crispy and meat is tender
16. Remove chicken from grill, let it rest for a few minutes. Then slice and enjoy!

Grilling notes: I have only done this recipe on a Holland Grill. It is a gas grill but cooks only with indirect heat. It doesn’t have a temperature control but I would guess it is equal to “medium” on most grills. The 1.5hrs is an approximation, I would check to see how it looks after 1.25hrs and expect it could grill until 1.75hrs. (This would be a good time to use a meat thermometer! -Zachary)

DO use aluminum foil or something underneath the chicken on the grill. Otherwise your grill will be pretty messy.

BE careful when removing the bird from the grill as the beer can will be incredibly hot. Don’t try to pull it out with your bare hand, tongs are a good thing.

Science Factor: I’ve read somewhere online that certain components of the beer act as a special catalyst in cooking and tenderizing the chicken. I’m not sure if thats true or if its just the water from the beer makes a steaming effect inside the chicken. Either way, I’ll continue using beer just so I can pretend there is a magical effect. Besides, what else would any self-respecting bachelor use?

I have made this recipe a few times. Each time I’ve been pleased with the results- the chicken turns out very tender and juicy. Leftovers the next day have also been supreme. The best leftovers I’ve ever had in my life were beer can chicken pieces on a Country Style Pillsbury frozen biscuit. No lie. (Living the high life - Zachary)

The good parts:

• Tastes awesome
• Only ~10 min prep work
• Not many ingredients to buy. I get the chicken and an onion at the grocery, everything else I can expect to already have in my minimalistic kitchen.
• Reasonable cost, ~$6 and feeds 4 people.

The only negative points are that this will take well over an hour to grill and its a little messy when you bring it off the grill. To counter this, I recommend cutting it outside.

What do you think?

I’ll admit it took me awhile to warm up to the Whole Foods phenomenon.  I had never really lived in close proximity to one before though and I always associated it with exorbitant costs.   Is Whole Foods more expensive?  Yes, but for the quality of the goods I don’t think it is anywhere near exorbitant and if you stick to the Whole Foods brand then it is reasonable.  Publix is still the reigning champ of store brand price/quality ratio in my mind.  Whole Foods is close though.  Trader Joe’s is pretty much all house brands and it really excels in this area too.  I’m looking forward to sampling more of what they offer.  I know I’m late in the game, but “two buck chuck” is definitely as good as advertised for the price.

What do you like about your favorite grocery store?  Is it the selection, the location, staff, other factors?  I’d like to know.

The plan was to stir fry the tofu so it was important to buy the extra firm tofu. It will usually say something on the package like “good for frying, etc”. Other softer varieties can be used for other things such as smoothies.

Tofu is packed in water so you’ll need to drain it out. I recommend opening a small corner and letting it all drain out. Tofu is packaged as just one large block. It is typically served cubed and that’s easy enough to do.

Tofu doesn’t take long to cook and but you’ll want to give it enough time to absorb the flavor of the dish it is being served in. In this case, the vegetables were lightly cooked in oil and then the tofu was added.

The flavor wasn’t that satisfying at this point so rather than mix the black beans in just before serving, we decided to let them cook with the tofu and vegetables. This gave the tofu more flavor and a nice color. Alternatively marinading the tofu would be a good option. Due to the recent move though the kitchen is limited and we didn’t have any soy sauce.

So how did it taste? It tasted like black beans and rice normally tastes. Like I said before, the tofu does not add flavor. It does have an interesting texture though, almost sponge like. Texture can be a big barrier for some people but I think in this case it worked out very well. This dish already had a large variety of textures with the rice, beans, and different vegetables so the tofu fit right in. It did make the dish more filling and added a lot of protein.

Will there be more tofu cooking on Single Guy’s Kitchen? Given Sandy’s status as a vegetarian, I’d say definitely so. Tofu is also fairly cheap. Our package was $2.50 and will probably stretch to at least three different meals between left overs from this dish and whatever else we use the tofu for. I hate to say it but that’s a much better deal than most meats.

Cooking with tofu might sound intimidating but it is actually rather simple.  It is cheap too so it’s a good thing to experiment with.  It can be adapted to almost any meal and take on any flavor.  It is commonly used a meat substitute or as the “fake” meats you see in the grocery store.  Don’t worry, there’s nothing to fear when it comes to cooking with tofu.

What do you like to have to drink in the A of M?  Is it a traditional beverage, prepared in a Time-Honored-Traditional-Manner? As has been stated in an earlier post, HTJ likes a hot cup of tea - preferably Darjeeling brewed from loose tea.  Such is definitely the Traditional way to drink this historic beverage, and we know that Tradsters are students of history

Full Post

He goes into a lot more detail on the specifics of tea and I think it’s definitely worth the read.  It ties the enjoyment of tea back into American tradition and those who observe it.

My favorite food network personality, Alton Brown, almost always specifies a temperature rather than a time on his show when cooking meat. Why is that? Well, temperature is the only way to really know how much a meat has been cooked and for some meats there is a specific temperature or range of temperatures to aim for. Beef has a range based on the desired level of “doneness” while things like pork and chicken have a “safe” temperature. A quick Google search will get you whatever temperature for whatever meat you like. This one popped up first for me.

Obviously you need a meat thermometer in order to read the temperature of the meat you are cooking. There are generally two types, the instant read probe and the remote probe. These are pretty self explanatory. With the instant read type, you simply stick the probe in and the temperature is displayed back to you fairly quickly. The downside is these are typically small and you have to have to close to the meat and thus the heat source. The remote probes are meant to be used in an oven cooking scenario. With these the probe is inserted prior to cooking and left in during the cooking process. The temperature is read at a remote source outside the oven and is usually set to alarm at a certain temperature. Some modern ovens even have a probe feature like this built in.

So which one do you pick? I think a properly stocked kitchen really needs both. Sure the remote probe can sorta work as an instant read in a pinch, but it’s not the same. A good instant read thermometer is great to have when grilling and the remote probe is invaluable when working with the oven, slow cooker, etc. I think this is also a case where you want to spend a little bit for a good thermometer. You want an instant read probe to be as instant as possible and you want the remote probe to have an alarm feature and be durable. Remember, it will be spending a lot of time in a hot oven, so look for a braided metal sheath over the wiring.

There’s a trick to inserting the probe as well. You want the probe close to the center of the meat to make sure the center is done but you don’t want to contact any bones as that will throw off the reading. Inserting the probe at an angle usually helps. This just takes a little practice really.

Cook your meat with precision and eliminate the guesswork.  When you monitor the temperature you will never produce a dry, over cooked roast again.