Crispy Bacon on the Grill

We love bacon. But we don't always love how the house smells like bacon for days afterward. So, grab your cast iron skillet and make bacon on the grill! You'll get delicious bacon and the house still smells clean and fresh. And you might make some new friends in the neighborhood!

Enjoy your crispy bacon with a homemade biscuit and fried egg! You can get my easy biscuit recipe here.

Bacon On the Grill

What you'll need:
Thick Cut bacon
Cast Iron Skillet
Aluminum foil
Paper Towel
Plate

1. Cut a sheet of aluminum foil to place under your skillet on the grill.
2. Heat up your skillet on the grill for a few minutes to get it hot.
3. Cut bacon slices in half and add to skillet. Ok to crowd the bacon. It shrinks!
4. Cover the lid on the grill and let it sizzle!
5. Check the skillet every 2-3 minutes and flip when it starts to brown.
6. Remove bacon from the skillet and let rest on a plate lined with a paper towel.

REMEMBER: PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE SKILLET!! hot, hot, hot!!

TIPS:
Skillet - if you don't have a cast-iron skillet you can probably use another skillet. Just make sure it's heavy-duty and has edges high enough that the grease will not drip in the grill. You don't want to start a grease fire!!
Foil - what's up with the foil? Well, I don't want to ruin my skillet so I figured it would protect it. And it did!

Three new recipes. One great. One good. And one ok.

So, since this blog is called "What's Cooking?" I figured I should share some food stuff every once in a while.

Last week I was really stressed. I was at a photo shoot for three days and Don has some "stuff" going on at the store that has my stomach in knots. So what do I do when all this is happening? I cook. It takes my mind off my troubles. It gets me focused on something other than all my worries - for a little while anyway. And we get to eat some good chow! (Hopefully.)

I was in the mood for salads that could be served as an entree. A one dish kind of meal. So, I opened this cookbook and started looking at all the pretty pictures. I picked out three totally different salads, made my shopping list, went to the store, and was set for the week. It really was as easy as that.

Recipe #1  is Pork with Mustard Lime Vinaigrette, served with a Napa Valley Merlot.

Now in hindsight, I don't really recommend trying to cook meals at home after you've been at a photo shoot all day and are EXHAUSTED. Perhaps frozen pizza or burritos from High Tech Burrito would have been a better choice. But oh no, I don't do anything the easy way. That's too sensible and normal.

Me? I walk in the house and in a complete flurry whip out dinner. And whip the kitchen into a fricken disaster zone. Which I have to clean up, because no one else wants to enter the danger zone.

Anyhoo, on to the first recipe. It was easy and pretty good. It's the "good" recipe that is in the title. The main meat is pork tenderloin, but it would work well with chicken or beef. If you like pork tenderloin you are in luck. Because you know how they always sell you two tenderloins in the package? We never eat two at one meal. So I always freeze the other. Well now you can grill both and SAVE the second one for this salad. It's genius my friend. Like two meals in one!

Pork With Mustard Lime Vinaigrette Recipe (Click photo to read recipe.)

The key to the salad dressing is this. Use really good olive oil. Not the kind you cook with. Something light and tasty. And the second thing is to incorporate the oil VERY, VERY slowly into the lime juice. I mean SLOWWWWWWWWLY. Like the smallest drops and drizzles. It will taste much, much better if the oil and lime juice can incorporate slowwwwly. TRUST me on this. I learned this at cooking school. (So I'm a pro now.) You do not want to make the chef wince. I saw this happen and it's NOT pretty.

I tossed the pork and dressing with mixed greens. It doesn't say that in the recipe. But it's a salad. Hellloooo?

So there you go. Oh, and bonus, it tastes great the next day as a light lunch. Woo hoo.

So remember earlier I mentioned there are two tenderloins in most packages? Here's what you do. Grill both. Two different seasonings. But you can handle it. And they both taste different. So it won't feel like you're having leftovers. Because you aren't!

Night #1 - Grilled Pork Tenderloin
Night #2 - Pork Tenderloin Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Here's the recipe for the first night. If any of you happen to have the FCA China Cookbook it's on page 188. If not, here you go.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin
1/4 cup Kentucky bourbon
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger, or powdered
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup oil

Mix all of this in a Ziplock. Add 1 or 2 tenderloins. Marinate all day, or overnight. Cook on hot grill 16 minutes. Baste and turn every 4 minutes. Take off grill. Let sit covered in foil 5 minutes. Slice in rounds. Serve with rice and a grilled veggie. The meat should be a teeny bit pink.


For the second tenderloin, smother it in Dijon mustard, salt and pepper and grill 16 minutes. Turning every 4 minutes. Refrigerate once cool for the next nights salad.

There you go. Let me know if you try it!

Pizza on the grill

Making home-made pizza at home is not easy. Before you start laughing, I'm not talking about throwing a frozen pizza in the oven. I'm talking about home-made dough and home-made sauce. The dough is my challenge. I know it shouldn't be as hard as I seem to make it. Yet somehow it is. Our favorite pizza place, Pizza Antica is right across the street. We could just go there. But that's too easy. The challenge of perfecting the dough has me obsessed. At the moment.

It never comes out crispy. I've bought pizza stones and pizza pans. What I really need is a pizza oven that heats to a high temperature with a surface you can lay the pizza on to give the crust the crispiness it deserves. Well, I don't have a pizza oven. And as much as I would like to build a fabulous grill and outdoor oven in my backyard, I can't do that either. We don't have a backyard. And our back patio is about the size of a shoebox. But I will not give up.

I've decided I'm going to grill the pizza. Forget about trying to make it like a PIZZERIA. Light up the grill!

I'm using Tyler Florence's recipe for the dough and the sauce. This is my second attempt. I messed up the dough the first time. Sigh....

First the dough. I'll spare you the details. Let's just say that for the first time EVER it's perfect. It's spongy, doughy, and a bit like heaven in a bowl. I'm super excited.

Next, the sauce. It's really easy to make. It looks good, and tastes good. Excellent.

Now it's time to grill. I'm making three pizza's. One for each of us.

And guess what?!! Voila! They're done! They're tasty and delicious. I DID IT!!!! I'm dancing around the grill and our kitchen like I won a marathon or something. Battle Pizza Dough is a success!!

Phew. I can now check this one off the list and move on to mastering pie crust. Another one of my obsessions.

Pizza on the Grill

Dough:

1 package active dry yeast 
1 teaspoon sugar 
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
3 cups of all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

Sauce:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch fresh basil leaves
2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, drained and hand crushed
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Toppings:

1 package of sliced pepperoni

1 yellow pepper, sliced in rounds

6 button mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 jalapeno diced
1 package low-fat mozzarella grated (or 8 oz buffalo mozzarella sliced)
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

For the dough

1. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the yeast, sugar and warm water; stir gently to dissolve. Let the mixture stand until the yeast comes alive and starts to foam, about 5 to 10 minutes. 
2. Turn the mixer on low and add the salt and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. 
3. Add the flour, a little at a time, mixing at the lowest speed until all the flour has been incorporated. When the dough starts to come together, increase the speed to medium; stop the machine periodically to scrape the dough off the hook. Get a feel for the dough by squeezing a small amount together: if it's crumbly, add more water; if it's sticky, add more flour - 1 tablespoon at a time. 
4. Mix until the dough gathers into a ball, this should take about 5 minutes.
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and fold it over itself a few times; kneading until it's smooth and elastic. Form the dough into a round and place in a lightly oiled bowl, turning it over to coat. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let it rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
6. Once the dough has risen and is kind of spongy, turn it out onto a lightly floured counter. Roll and stretch the dough into a cylinder and divide into 3 equal pieces. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes so it will be easier to roll out. In the meantime, make the pizza sauce.

For the sauce
1. Coat a saute pan with the olive oil and place over medium heat. When the oil gets hot and a little smokey, add the onion and garlic, cook and stir for 5 minutes to soften. 
2. Stir in 1/2 bunch torn basil leaves. Add the tomatoes, cook and stir until the liquid is cooked down and the sauce is thick, about 10 minutes; season with salt and pepper and then take it off the stove.

Preheat your grill to get it very hot. 

Time to make the pizza
1. Roll or pat out each piece of dough into rustic, oblong shapes, about 1/4-inch thick – do this directly on a lightly floured cutting board.
2. Brush the dough with a thin layer of olive oil, and lay oil-side down onto the hot grill. 
3. Once the dough looks set, in about 2 minutes, turn the dough over. 
4. Spread the tomato sauce evenly on the dough with a ladle. 
5. Rip the mozzarella into pieces with your hands and distribute them on top; layer on the toppings: pepperoni, mushrooms, jalapeno, peppers all over the pizza. 
6. Close the grill cover and cook until the cheese is melted and bubbling and the crust is golden and crisp, about 5 minutes. 
7. Remove the pizza from grill and sprinkle with some fresh basil leaves and a good dusting of freshly grated Parmesan.

Now that you have home-made pizza, you might as well whip up a quick salad dressing to serve on the side. How about a nice home-made Balsamic Vinaigrette? I'm not in a Caesar mood today.

Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
1T. Dijon mustard
Shake of salt
Few grindings of pepper
Pinch of sugar
1/4 cup, really, really good, extra-virgin olive oil

1. Mix all ingredients in a jar and shake, shake, shake it up. 
2. Dance around the kitchen one more time.
3. Now it's done.

Ok. Now it's done. Pour over your favorite lettuce and some sliced cherry tomatoes.

Enjoy!!

ps. You don't have to kill yourself making dough. You can pick up dough at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. About an hour before you are ready to make the pizzas take the dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. This will make it easier to shape. I like to flour a cutting board, take the dough out of the wrapper, set it on the floured board and cover it with a damp paper towel.