I love using the Paprika App (www.paprikaapp.com) for saving and using recipes! It’s available for iOS, MacOS, Android and Windows. For years my mom used the MacOS recipe program MasterCook, which became MacGourmet, but she’s had problems lately with it syncing to her phone and updating. Today I helped her export her 1200 recipes to Paprika, so everything is synced with her iMac, iPad and iPhone on Paprika on each device. The export/import process was simple, fast and slick!
Paprika lets you create ‘static HMTL’ versions of your recipes, so I uploaded and linked mom’s recipes to the “Paprika Recipes’ page of our family recipe website. This means anyone in our family (or you) can access and use those recipes if desired. Now that we have college grads in our immediate family and are contemplating the imminent reality “an empty nest” in about a year and a half, providing access to these recipes is a great thing!
I’m sure my mom spent HUNDREDS of hours getting all her recipes digitized over the years. I’ve had access to a small fraction of them via the recipe book she gave me after I graduated from college and started living on my own… and a few others in the intervening years. It’s a little overwhelming now to have access to ALL of her 1000+ library of recipes!
Mom (who is a huge foodie and a MUCH better cook / chef than I’ll ever be) also enjoys using the website Yummly. (These are her Yummly finds and collections.) One of the best things about Paprika is you can VERY easily copy the link to a food recipe online, and then import it into your own collection. I like how the exported versions include those original links for attribution.
Check out the Paprika App, unless you have another recipe app already that you uses and love. In that case, please let me know (via Twitter or my contact form) what you use instead!
My favorite steak is ribeye, Shelly’s favorite is filet mignon, thanks to some good friends who introduced her to that delicacy shortly after we moved up to Oklahoma City from Lubbock, Texas. From time to time I’ll cook different cuts of steak, but normally that’s pretty standard fare like sirloins. Twice, now, however… we’ve had Brazilian style picanha on skewers, and Shelly thinks it may be her “new favorite” way to enjoy steak. The kids have really enjoyed skewer grilled picanha with chimichurri sauce too! I made a cooking tutorial video for cooking picanha back in January, and it’s my favorite cooking video (of 23 so far!) I’ve made and shared over the years. I also included the recipe I’ve used on our (relatively new) “Fryer and Ward Family Recipes” website.
I’ve been on a bit of a proverbial VISION QUEST to find and buy a new backyard smoker and grill, and in that process I’ve watched LOTS of YouTube videos about cooking generally and meat smoking and grilling specifically. (I have a public YouTube playlist of some of my favorites, if you’re interested.) I’ve been cooking steaks over charcoal on our Weber Kettle grill for almost 25 years now, both direct “hot and fast” cooking as well as indirect charcoal cooking. My main grill speciality has been “grilled chicken thighs,” which is also included on our family recipe website. I could eat those once a week (along with tacos) and be totally happy. I suppose this reveals the general LACK of sophistication of my culinary preferences, but I’m working on this… đ
There is a LOT more you can do on a Weber Kettle charcoal grill besides hot and fast and indirect cooking! In the last few months, I have tried techniques like “low and slow smoking” on the Kettle with the “charcoal snake method.” My first attempt at doing this with beef short ribs was NOT a resounding success, but I did learn a lot, and the results were still edible. I made a 9 minute video of those lessons learned, too.
Normally I have purchased our steaks from our local WalMart Neighborhood Market, which I’m sure will shock and disappoint some readers. We have, however, sometimes splurged and purchased grass fed steaks from B.F. Farms. They are based in Enid, Oklahoma, but have a retail outlet in north Edmond about a 30 minute drive from our house. Their beef is AMAZING, but it’s also expensive. I’ve also purchased picha steaks from “The Meat House” in Edmond and from Firebirds Meat Market in NW Oklahoma City. Firebirds is my new favorite butcher shop, but some of their cuts are $$$.
Our family has been using @butcherbox now for about 6 months & really like it. We're on the "every other month plan." Meat is excellent quality & I love playing with the dry ice when it's used in the packing box đ
For the first time, I’ve salted these ribeye steaks in advance the night before I plan to cook them. The video (above) explains that by adding ONLY salt, and doing it the night before, the salt is able to permeate into the meat and will actually help the interior stay more moist during the cooking process. Per the video’s recommendatiions, I’m leaving them UNCOVERED in our fridge overnight on a wire rack. I’m going to dry them off / use paper towels to absorb any moisture from the top before grilling them, and also let them warm to room temperature (about 30 minutes) before grilling them tomorrow night.
Also following the advice of the video, I trimmed some of the excess fat from the edges of the ribeyes tonight. I have NEVER done this to a steak before, but it makes sense that the outer fat (as opposed to the inner, ‘marbled fat’) doesn’t render fully into the meat during cooking or add to the flavor. In fact, as I’ve learned watching videos about and smoking my own briskets and short ribs, exterior fat can prevent any applied rub or seasoning from penetrating the meat and therefore adding to the flavor of the final, cooked masterpiece. So, these are my first “trimmed ribeyes,” albeit very lightly trimmed.
Eventually I’d love to order a $100 “Slow ‘N Sear Deluxe” to cook on my Weber Kettle, but it’s not required to cook with two cooking zones. I’m going to try and follow the instructions of the SnS video as precisely as I can tomorrow, and expect to cook indirect for about 50 minutes and then sear at the end about 4 minutes.
With a side of cast iron skillet brussel sprouts and loaded baked potatoes, it just might turn out to be a meal to remember! We’ll see and I’ll add some details about the results here afterward!
What are your favorite backyard steak grilling tricks and tips I should try?
It’s our Spring Break, and today I explored a couple local backyard barbecue stores in Oklahoma City and Moore. Here’s a summary of what I found for locally sourced brisket injection, BBQ sauces, rubs and seasonings. Many of these are also available for online purchase, and in those cases I’ve included links. For more of my food and cooking related recommendations and recipes, check out this playlist of my YouTube cooking videos, and our “Fryer and Ward Family Recipes” website on food.wesfryer.com. There are 11 older posts here about cooking, and I’ve also created a “cooking category” for even older posts (mostly) I shared on my primary professional blog (“Moving at The Speed of Creativity”) before I setup this family learning blog. Cooking is something I’m enjoying more after 5 decades of life on our planet, and I continue to enjoy documenting and sharing about my own journey as an aspiring home cook too. (Frequently now on Instagram too!)
One of the great things about living in Oklahoma and the midwest in the United States is we have a lot of great barbecue choices for both backyard enthusiasts and hungry eaters. Kosmo’s Q BBQ & Grilling Supply is located just north of I-40 west of downtown Oklahoma City a few miles, and has a variety of backyard smokers and grills in stock (including Kamado Joe, Traeger, and Masterbuilt models) as well as their own line of rubs, injection blends and seasonings.
I usually use a simple injection recipe for my Texas-style backyard smoked brisket, which includes about 40% apple juice or apple cider, 40% beef broth, and 10% Worcestershire sauce. I haven’t ever tried a different injection, so I picked up a 1 pound bag of Kosmos “Smoke House Reserve Blend” brisket injection today. To mix it, you combine 1/3 cup with 2 cups of liquid (beef broth, distilled water, or another liquid) and inject it into the meat before putting it on the smoker. The Kosmos employee who recommended it said all their brisket injections include “phosphates” which help keep the meat moist, and this particular injection will add a lot of additional smoke flavor to briskets cooked on a pellet smoker. I’m going to give this a try!
My second find and purchase from Kosmos today was their “Garlic Parm Wing Seasoning,” which is one choice in their “Wing Dust” lineup. I love eating and enjoying chicken wings, but I’m NOT a huge fan of spice heat. Wingstop has become my favorite fast food chicken wing place in the past few years, and I do enjoy garlic parmesan wings, so we’ll see how this “Wing Dust” compares next time I grill up or smoke some wings.
Our second stop on today’s OKC-area backyard barbecue store exploration outing was J. R.’s BBQ Supply Company in Moore. They are easy to get to just east of I-40, in Moore and will be relocating soon just down the road. They have a BIG selection of locally sourced, Oklahoma barbecue rubs and seasonings. They feature a large collection of “Butcher BBQ Stand” creations from Wellston, Oklahoma. I picked up their “Grilling Addiction Dry Rub Seasoning,” which I may try on some steaks or brisket. It does list ‘sugar’ as one of the ingredients, and I’ve heard it’s important to be very careful with rubs including sugar when you’re smoking low and slow. So I may try this on grilled steaks first, in lieu of “my usual” Mccormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning.
a sweet, smoky, Kansas-City-style sauce. It’s the perfect dipping sauce for bbq ribs or for smothering your favorite pulled-pork or brisket sandwich. Brush it on your shrimp, wings, grilled chicken or pork chops for a sticky charred crust, or finish your competition-style ribs in the smoker. Any way you use it, you’ll notice its unique background spices with every bite. Hog’s Bane BBQ Sauce has been praised by BBQ chains, butchers, packers and retailers across the country.
We’ll be trying this with the next pork shoulder I smoke.
Incidentally, www.barndoorgourmet.com has a variety of other Oklahoma and midwest region food items, including BBQ but also other things. As an example, they offer, “Okie Fish and Chips,” which look like seasoned oyster crackers, by a company called “Over the Fence Farms” based south of Enid in Waukomis, Oklahoma, on Highway 81. These are the kind of locally sourced products I really enjoy finding at local farmers markets. I think this kind of local entrepreneurism and small business food product production is great, and I love learning about (as well as trying) things like this.
Spring is coming and that means “Farmers Market Time” will be here again. I can’t wait!
I enjoy cooking and eating quiche, and as Iâve tried a few different recipes Iâm feeling comfortable making modifications and âremixesâ based on things I have on hand and ingredients I like. Awhile back my mom shared a recipe she called, âChristineâs Quiche,â and that was the basis of the quiche recipe I made today after church. Hereâs that original recipe for âChristineâs Quiche,â I combined screenshots from my Paprika iPhone recipe app, using a Google Drawing document and uploaded this to my Flickr Pro account to share this.
Fork prick the bottom of the frozen pie crusts, and bake them for 15 minutes in a 400 degrees preheated oven. Remove and cool.
Cook bacon and set aside, cut or crumble by hand into small pieces.
Saute chopped onion.
Put half of broken bacon and half of sautĂŠed onion in each pie shell.
Chop up baby spinach and green pepper, put in bottom of pie crust.
Chop up cooked Italian sausages, put 1 in each pie crust.
Evenly sprinkle jack/cheddar cheese in each pie crust. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese too.
In a blender, combine 6 eggs, sugar, nutmeg, and Aleppo pepper. Pour evenly over each pie crust.
Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for 35 more minutes.
Let rest 10 minutes before cutting. Add sliced tomatoes on top before serving.
Turned out pretty good. If Iâd planned ahead more, I would have defrosted the crust instead of cooking it first. The way I prepared it, it was a little overcooked but still tasted good. I also think I might have used a little more bacon, left out the sausage, and added more eggs, so maybe prepared the liquid ingredients with 8 eggs instead of just 6. Next time it will be even better! I love cooking for our family.
This is an amazing recipe my mom shared with us awhile back, and we enjoyed again this weekend over Easter. It’s VERY important you purchase “Duke‘s Mayonnaise” instead of another brand. Fortunately, our local WalMart now carries Duke‘s Mayonnaise. This is as good or better than any cheeseball I’ve ever had, and in case you didn’t know… I’ve had more than a few! Put this on Ritz crackers and you’ll love it. Your guests will too. Thanks Mom!
– 1.5 lb sharp orange cheddar, coarsely grated
– .5 lb Vermont white sharp cheddar, coarsely grated
– ½ jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
– 2 green onions, finely chopped (use both the green and the white parts)
– 1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
– ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
– Dash of Tabasco, optional
–Â Duke‘s Mayonnaise, to moisten & hold it together
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl with a rubber spatula. Cover & chill to let flavors blend. (Do not combine all in a food processor!)
Do not use pre-grated cheeses.
May change cheese proportions as desired & still be “authentic.”
If I’m counting correctly, Christmas 2016 marks the sixth time in my life I’ve been able to cook prime rib for our family for Christmas dinner. I love a good holiday turkey as much as anyone, but NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, can beat a perfectly cooked prime rib supper. I am extremely thankful our family is able to enjoy food like this together. This year perhaps more than ever before, I am extremely cognizant and appreciative of so many blessings in our lives. We are not millionaires, but sharing a prime rib dinner like this together makes us feel like we are. If you have a chance to eat a meal like this, and to share it with others, count your blessings. In this post I’ll share the few modifications I made to the preparation and cooking steps documented in my 2015 post. I’m sharing this both for my own future reference and to help out others. If this post inspires or helps you in your own prime rib cooking vision quests, please let me know via a comment or Twitter reply to @wfryer.
We’re not only fortunate to now live in a city with a Whole Foods grocery store, but also to have them significantly discount the per pound price of prime rib steak on Christmas Eve. We shop at Whole Foods only about four times all year, and always for special occasions and for limited items. (WalMart Neighborhood Market is my normal grocery store.) Whole Foods had prime rib discounted this year on Christmas Eve from about $17 per pound to $12 per pound. For 3 ribs, about 7.8 pounds, we paid $94. This is a $40 savings off the “normal” price. This is a huge amount of money to pay for a piece of meat, but this was for a very special occasion, and the taste in the end was worth every penny. I’m thankful for the sale price. Eating a great prime rib at home starts with buying top quality meat.
2- Digital Probe Thermometer
As I noted in my 2015 post about cooking prime rib, a digital probe thermometer is absolutely essential. This is the number one thing I’ve learned to use in the past three years which has helped me cook great tasting prime rib that is perfectly cooked, and not too rare. The $20 “Oneida Digital Probe Cooking Thermometer with Timer” from Bed, Bath and Beyond is my tool of choice in this category. I was lucky to have an extra AAA battery in my work backpack, since last year’s battery had gone dead. Like last year, my cooking procedure was:
Cook uncovered 15 minutes at 450 degrees
Turn down the oven to 325 degrees and keep cooking
Remove prime rib when the interior temperature reaches 130 degrees (This year it took 1 hour and 40 minutes, about 15 minutes less than in 2015. I think that is because I got the prime rib out of the fridge about 4 hours before I cooked it, which let it more fully get to room temperature before starting cooking… which is also an essential.)
Completely cover the prime rib with foil and let it rest for at least 20 minutes. This year we let ours rest about 30 minutes, until (as we did last year) the interior temperature reached 143 degrees.
We like our prime rib medium and medium rare, but not rare – and these cooking temperatures were absolutely PERFECT for those requirements.
2 years ago I used âHerbes de Provence Seasoning Saltâ as a prime rib rub from our Oklahoma City âSavory Spice” store. This year I used three tablespoons of “Mt. Evans Butcher’s Rub” from Savory Spice and three tablespoons of kosher salt as my rub. As recommended by my guiding Prime Steak House recipe, I made several cuts (about 1/4 of an inch deep) around the roast before applying the rub. I also rubbed about a 1/4 stick of soft butter on both ends. I did NOT open the oven to brush the drippings back onto the roast during cooking, as some recommend. It turned out great (again) not doing this. My custom spice rub worked well and tasted great this year, but I’ll probably go back to the âHerbes de Provence Seasoning Saltâ next time I cook a prime rib.
This year I served the plates in the kitchen and then brought them to the dining room, and carved smaller pieces for everyone than I have in the past. This worked well, and several folks opted for seconds. In the past it’s been a bit overwhelming to have such a huge piece of prime rib on the plates… and I definitely liked serving smaller pieces this year.
The creamy horseradish sauce this year also turned out really good. I mixed half sour cream and half “Bubbies Prepared Horseradish,” which we also bought at Whole Foods. It tasted amazing and I’d definitely get this brand again and make it the same way.
As our primary family chef, responsibility fell to me today to cook something yummy at home after church. We’d run through the meal plans I had for last week, but I knew we had a bunch of ingredients that could be used to make something yummy. I turned again to the free website Supercook.com to enter the ingredients we had available in our pantry, and then explore recipes which we could make based on those items. Out of over 2000 available recipe options, I opted for Grilled Potato Skins.
The only modifications I made to the original Food.com recipe were to use five slices of bacon instead of three, and to forgo the chopped green onions since ours turned out to be mushy and a little too old to use. This turned out great and is definitely something we’ll have again!
(Not shown: Sour cream which we used as another topping!)
If you haven’t already, give Supercook.com a try! I’ve used it several times now with great results. This is a FANTASTIC way to use an Internet website in a transformative way, providing a yummy meal for your family which you otherwise wouldn’t have thought to cook! Thanks to my mom who told me about Supercook awhile back.
I used @super_cook to find this recipe I could make with on hand ingredients: Inside Out Stuffed Pepper Casserole http://t.co/1G3tO08720
This is the fourth time I’ve cooked prime rib for our family for Christmas dinner. My wife thinks tonight was the best meal we’ve ever had at home in almost 20 years of marriage, so whatever we did this time I want to remember and be able to repeat again! In this post I’ll recap what we did, the changes I made from previous times I’ve cooked prime rib, and what I want to do again if and when we have an opportunity to prepare another amazing meal like tonight.
I wrote two previous family learning blog posts about cooking prime rib, back in 2013 and in 2011. Like I did in 2013, I used this recipe from Prime Steak Houses as my primary guide. Here are the three things I did differently this year which helped make this a remarkable prime rib dinner.
1 – Digital Probe Thermometer
One of the Christmas gifts this year I am most excited about is a probe thermometer that shows the temperature inside meat when it is cooking in the oven. My wife and son bought me a Oneida Digital Probe Thermometer with Timer. Bed, Bath and Beyond sells it for $20. The oven thermometer I used previously had a minimum temperature of 140 degrees, but that’s a problem since the Prime Steak House recipe recommends removing the prime rib from your oven when the interior temperature reaches 120 degrees. So in past years, when I removed our prime rib from our oven, I was just guessing that the meat was ready based on recommended cooking times. Unfortunately, ovens can vary considerably in the cooking time they require, and the result in the past has been prime ribs which weren’t cooked long enough. This afternoon after putting a rub on the meat, I put the thermometer probe into the center of the prime rib. Instead of 120 degrees, which is the low end of rare meat, I set the target temperature for 130 degrees. Our prime rib tonight was 6 pounds, so I initially set the timer for an hour and a half of cooking time to follow the initial 15 minutes of cooking at 450 degrees.
This is the cooking procedure and times I ended up using tonight for our 6 pound prime rib:
15 minutes at 450Â degrees (uncovered)
1 hour, 55 minutes at 325 degrees (uncovered, with no basting, till the internal temperature reached 130 degrees)
Removed from the oven, about 15 minutes covered with foil, until the interior temperature reached 140 degrees. The top temperature it reached after removing the foil covering was 143 degrees, before we served dinner.
The second thing I did differently this year when cooking prime rib was to get the meat out of our refrigerator about three hours before I started to cook it. This allowed the meat to warm up, closer to room temperature. This is something included in the Prime Steak House recipe, but a step I hadn’t taken the time or care to follow in the past. According to my thermometer, our prime rib started cooking this year at a temperature of 50 degrees.
This is the clear instruction given by the Prime Steak House chefs:
It is crucial that you allow the roast to come to room temperature to ensure even-cooking. This means leaving it out for up to two full hours right before roasting.
Following the Prime Steak House recipe, I made a series of half-inch cuts in the meat, and rubbed the seasoning salt all over it. before putting it in the oven.
That’s it! Those were the three critical things I did tonight which helped me our prime rib dinner a smashing success. If these tips prove useful to you, please leave a comment or contact me via Twitter @wfryer.
Sarah and I collaborated last night to cook some homemade fried pickles using this recipe from Paula Deen. They turned out delicious! I was able to fry them in the new wok I received for Christmas.
Some images and video from our wondering experiences cooking and eating LOBSTAH in Maine yesterday! I shot this with my iPhone5 and edited it using Pinnacle Studio for iPad. Many thanks to chef Jonathan!
This week I’ve been gearing up for tonight’s Chili Cook-off at our church in Edmond, Oklahoma, and I’ve prepared a “New Mexico Green Chili Chili” inspired by Dan Tubb’s creation last year. I based my recipe on “Karen’s Classic Old-Fashioned New Mexico Green Chili” with a few modifications. Last Sunday I ‘practiced’ for the first time, and yesterday I made my second and ‘real’ batch. In the initial attempt I used tomatoes, but in today’s version I did not.
I used six Anaheim green chilis in addition to 4 small (4 oz) cans of Hatch green chilis.
I roasted these in the oven using these instructions, basically turning them every 1.5 minutes under the oven broiler for a total of 10 minutes cooking time.
Then I covered them with saran wrap for 15 minutes and they were ready to peel.
I added about a tablespoon of oregano to my recipe, which wasn’t called for in “Karen’s” version. I also added some sliced and sautĂŠed new potatoes, which Dan had encouraged me to use.
Now we’re off to church to see who wins and taste everyone’s creations! For more inspiration, check out the video I made last year at the Chili Cook Off! I may try to make another documentary this year.
Update: My chili was well received, but there was not NEARLY enough of it. No prizes this year. Next year if I make it again, I’ll double or triple the recipe.
This video (just over five minutes long) was Sarah’s final presentation for her 5th grade enrichment class at Chisholm Elementary in Edmond, Oklahoma. She learned more about how cupcakes are made professionally and started a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, selling cupcakes. My apologies the audio is quiet in the middle of this video, I may have covered the iPad2 microphone with my hand inadvertently. đ
3 cups Bisquick
1 pound uncooked Jimmy Dean pork sausage
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary leaves
1/2 tsp parsley flakes
Steps:
Cook the sausage in a pan, breaking it up into small pieces.
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl âmeatloaf style.â
Form mixture into small balls, and place them evenly on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Share and eat!
We need some other participants to make this project truly an “international cooking show” rather than the “Oklahoma cooking show!”
I recorded episode 1 with my Sony GSC-1 Netsharing Cam (flash-based camcorder) in multiple takes. Sarah edited that episode herself with iMovie ’09. We recorded this episode all in one take, using an iPhone 3GS, and uploaded it directly to YouTube with the free application PixelPipe. For some reason the iPhone’s built-in upload to YouTube feature kept timing out, but PixelPipe worked like a charm.
