Damsel bought a couple of really nice beef tenderloin steaks (a.k.a. Fillet Mignon) at the supermarket this morning, so we decided to break out the camping cookout gear and grill ‘em up. All of the appliances are installed and working but we like steaks cooked outdoors, so this was the setup depicted in the image. Click to enlarge.

Damsel also bought some microwave steamed veggies and some microwave macaroni and cheese. We usually prepare our meals from scratch, but we don’t have all the cookware and utensils to do a good job, but in a few weeks we will.

So, for today’s sumptuous cuisine, we sat on camping chairs, ate from plastic plates served on a fold-up table. Despite all the improvisations, today’s first dinner at the new house was a huge success.

These get the term “hybrid’ because of the two methods used to cook the ribs. We slow cook them in the crock pot for several hours and transfer them to the grill for the final basting. Cooked this way, the meat almost literally falls off the bones.

We cut the rack of ribs in half so they can fit in the crock pot. Then they go in a plastic zip bag to marinade overnight. The marinade consists of fruit juices (apple, pineapple, orange) and a home grown BBQ sauce. The orange juice, by the way, came from oranges harvested yesterday from our backyard dwarf navel orange tree.

Damsel’s killer BBQ sauce is a key to this delectable entrée. It is vinegar based with brown sugar, savories (onion,garlic) tomato sauce (I used catchup), mesquite (or hickory) smoke flavoring and your favorite chili powder (cayenne, ancho).

We served the ribs with maple flavored baked beans and broccoli slaw marinated in Damsel’s tangy dressing. The image shows the final grilling stage of cooking. You can click on the image to enlarge it to drooling dimensions.

I can’t believe I ate the whole thing . . .

Turkey breast with all the trimmings: mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, cranberry jelly, Damsel’s killer dressing, candied yams, steamed broccoli and a buttermilk dinner roll. Thanksgiving dinner plus 3 NFL football games today equals thankfulness in our household.

We hope you enjoyed your day as much as we have. Click on the image to enlarge.

Damsel and I did some last-minute grocery shopping today to throw together a weekend meal. We typically don’t go to the supermarket on the weekend, but today is an exception due to having been in Arizona on shopping day.

Image: On the grill today - click to enlarge.

Damsel spotted a couple of little bacon-wrapped tenderloin steaks in the butcher case, so we grabbed them and some other stuff and headed back to prepare our meal. I cranked up the grill and roasted the ears of corn for a half hour before shucking them and putting them on the grill basted with butter and fresh ground black pepper. We also put some broccoli on the griddle with olive oil and pepper. The tenderloins cooked to perfection over the last burner

It was an awesome meal, if we do say so ourselves! In addition to the faire above, we had a southwestern-style salad with home grown tomatoes and a sliced cucumber thrown in - equally as awesome. We were stuffed and still have enough steak left over for a salad during the week.

Please do not drool on your keyboard.

We enjoyed our hybrid* BBQ ribs for the Fourth of July Holiday entreé. Damsel prepared steamed cauliflower, Mediterranean pasta salad and baked beans as side dishes for this tasty treat. Click on the image to enlarge.

*Hybrid refers to the way we prepare them. After we cut the rack into two halves, they go in the crock pot slow cooker along with two six ounce cans of apple juice and one six ounce can of pineapple juice, salt and pepper to taste (we don’t use salt). They cook on high for two or three hours and are then transferred to the grill where they get browned while basting with Damsel’s homemade barbecue sauce.

We wish everyone a safe and enjoyable 4th of July. We will be barbecuing, watching fireworks and we’ll put on a DVD after that. Click on the eagle to see a larger view.

Today’s dinner menu was one of my favorite meals. We had Chicken Fried Steak with mashed cauliflower/potato medley, savory home grown green beans and bacon and Damsel’s killer white gravy.

The steaks are actually made from Fillet Mignon (beef tenderloin) pounded flat. The steaks are coated with flour and seasonings and pan fried to golden brown. The same pan is used to prepare the gravy. Damsel uses the pan drippings and adds a little extra virgin olive oil and flour. after simmering the flour, some milk is added to combine with the other ingredients.

The mashed potato medley actually is half cauliflower, half red potatoes with a few cloves of garlic thrown into the pot. During the mashing, butter, shredded Romano cheese and a little milk are added to the mix.

Our green beans were home-grown Kentucky Wonder beans cut into one inch pieces and boiled until tender. The beans are removed from the pan and drained and a couple of bacon strips chopped into bits are browned in the pan. Savories (chopped onion and minced garlic) are added in and carmelized. When that’s done, the beans are added back into the pan, a little granulated sweetener and a splash of red wine vinegar is added to deglaze the pan. It’s my job to prepare the green beans.

It was an awesome meal. I was tempted to clean my plate, but I saved some of the steak for a lunch this coming week. I enjoyed Fathers Day dinner a lot.

I just picked this nice heirloom tomato from our garden today. I took this photo of it while is was still on the vine. Click on the image to enlarge.

This will probably wind up in a tomato on rye sandwich later this week.

I blogged a few days ago about our so-called Artichoke Farm. I was joking, of course, about Damsel’s first backyard garden artichoke crop ever. Today, while we were running several errands, some road construction caused me to detour through a residential area where we found a house with artichokes growing in a planter along the sidewalk.

I counted at least 20 artichokes in Damsel’s photo (click image to see the entire photo) of just part of the artichoke patch in front of the house. It made me laugh to see this mature artichoke patch growing literally dozens of pods.

As of a few days ago, there were two artichokes growing in the garden after all. I didn’t spot the second, smaller pod because it was hiding under one of the large leaves the plant grows. The two pods are currently softball and tennis ball sizes. I was hoping that we would get a second one since we decided to let the first one become an artichoke thistle flower.

Yesterday, I discovered a third ‘choke growing on the second artichoke plant. We haven’t decided on it’s fate yet, but there is a better than 50% chance that it will also become a flower. Today, I found a forth ‘choke in the third plant. The jury is out on the fate of that one.

This means we can have our ‘choke and eat it too! Click on the image to enlarge.