Ooooh yeah!

Yet again, Manny's can kiss my butt!

Ha!!!

Why I love Widmer's Meats

There are two great reasons why I buy lots of meat from widmer's in
Saint Paul (corner of St. Clair and Prior).

1) they dry age all their meat. And they dry age it themselves.

2) you can order a dry aged rib eye cut to requested thickness, as
evidenced by tonight's election celebration dinner.

If only the Internet could convey aromas...

Use #1 for bacon fat

Of course the best thing about cooking bacon is the leftover fat. Here
I took this morning's fat and covered a beef roast with it (and added
salt, pepper, and garlic).

I love bacon so much!

I really do. Talk about one of the greatest pleasures in life... A
pound of thick sliced cured pig! Wow!

Bison top round, simply prepared

Check out that color! Great looking cut of lean bison, prepped with
SPG (salt pepper garlic).

Ch ch ch ch check it out!

Roast chicken, tomatoes, and Angela!

For tonight only, Lee is The Grilling Man

All I can say is DAMN!

Manny's can kiss my ass!

This is a prime dry aged boneless ribeye topped with truffle butter. My brother Lincoln gave this to me for my birthday and it's quite possibly the greatest gift I've ever received (after the birth of my son, of course).

Grilled over hardwood charcoal for about three minutes per side.

Prime steak with truffle butter!

Whole salmon stuffed with fresh herbs!

Rib and zin night

I love the blue smoke

Four rib racks and four shoulders

The ultimate burger

It's 94 degrees outside, and I'm hungry! 2/3 pound local beef (80/20)
with home grown herbs and parm reggiano mixed in. Served on a toasted
kaiser roll. Damn!

Oooh yeah

La valentina cerasuolo rose with rosemary smoked chicken breasts

Open face dried beef sandwiches

Mom makes the best simple food, and here we have the best dried beef
in the world (from the local butcher in Pipestone, mn) with Philly
cream cheese and pumpernikel bread. Man is this good. The wine is
Ledgewood Creek PQ Red --- one of the best summertime reds around!

Grilled chicken on a hot day

With 2006 Saladin Haut Brissan. Wow!!!!

Family hot dogs

Sorry you can't see what we grilled ... It's in our tummies (mainly
Spencer's). Natural casing hot dogs over the campfire. Classic!
We're about to do Kallsen smores: le petite e'colier extra dark
chocolate cookies with roasted marshmallows. Good times.

Bacon roasting on an open fire...

And i'm licking at my chops.
Everytime, everyday
Merry bacon
To you

Now THAT'S a meal!!!

Yes!!!

Portabella mushrooms too

Covered in butter and my famous pork rub spice mix. Oooh yeah!

Ooh yeah

Copper Salmon is on the fire!

Peppers are on, too. Wish blogs could convey aromas!

Copper River Salmon with Daniel Rion Chambolle-Musigny 1995

Live from site 33 at Jay Cooke State Park! Tonight is our 20th
anniversary of being together, so we're doing it up RIGHT!

That was really good! ...

Ooooooh yeah

My brother is, without a doubt, the French fry king. You go, Lincoln!

Linc (my brother) putting really good brats on the grill

My dad and a kitten

He just asked "I wonder if it's disconcerting for a cat to look up at
something 30 times its height!"

Ooh yeah

A three pound sirlion roast, organic potatoes, and fresh sweet corn

Does it get any better than this? Yes, it does ... When you grill
everything over coals!!!

Delicious!!!!

Ooh yeah

Spencer's 6th grade graduation party

... And my boy wants kebabs! What a smart kid!

Lunch at the office

It's not grilled, but look at that JAMON!!! Annette is doing a
Spanish presentation and I'm about to get HAPPY!!! Yeah!!!

My new favorite salsa

This stuff is so incredibly good!!

Shashmi grade swordfish with asparagus

Yum. Couldn't pass up perfect swordfish!!!

Oooh yeah!

Almost forgot to tie up the bird!

Gotta always tie those legs!!!

Roaster chicken stuffed with onions!

Crusted with fresh oregano, rosemary, garlic, and some salt and pepper (and olive oil, but of course). Red potatoes on the side. We finished the backyard garden work today, so this is in celebration.

Burgers are done!

With lunds and byerly's fire roasted corn salsa --- GREAT stuff! New
favorite! Beverage: Yalumba Barossa Shiraz-Viognier 2005. Great stuff.

Half pound burgers

Simple stuff, but oh so good. Toasting the buns with butter and
tarragon, ala bar lurcat. Yum.

Salmon is done - a smudgy photo

A wee bit of grease was on the lens of my phone, so it's not a sharp as I wanted. The fish was fantastic, only missing a squirt of lemon juice. Always remember, don't forget the lemon!

Ooh yeh ... Salmon is cooking!

That's a chunk of apple wood in there with it. Kind of hard to see, but it worked well. Lots of good sweet smoke permeated the fish.