Posts Tagged ‘Canadian BBQ’

I am putting this in the category of where have you been all my life.

This is a fully biased post. Be forewarned I am in love with this stuff. I will  be gushing and oohhing and awwwing all over this stuff. IT freaking rocks.

Full disclosure….

I got an email from Texas Pepper Jelly owner Craig  Sharry. I had met this gentleman a while back and he had asked me if I would like to try his products. Now they have been around a while but I just had not gotten around to ordering some.  Craig has been working on these recipes forever. Nice to see such an amazing product on the market. I have seen there logo and products on the competition circuit and I had read about them. I jumped on the opportunity. Craig sent me a nice assortment of his items.  Please note he did not in any way pay for this endorsement.  This is just from what I have tasted.

As it is March break I have a bit more time to play on the grills. Today has been designated wing day. 12 lbs of wings to play with.

24 designated to try these 4 items.

I used my Traeger Texas style with oak and hickory pellets for the wings today.

Half were lightly coated in Obie Cues Double Strength Garlic Pepper (another product  I love)

The other half was coated with Dizzy Pig Pineapple Head Rub (this stuff is the bomb) – this will be on another blog post late this week.

They were grilled for 1 hour at 275F (I prefer them crispy)

I then took 6 wings for each sample. I used 1/4 cup of jelly on each batch then returned them to the grill for 10 minutes to set.

Cherry Habanero

Peach Habanero

Strawberry Habanero

Apple Habanero

The colors were incredible. Love how sticky they apply to wings.

SO how did they taste?????

The Cherry by far was my favorite. I love the lingering heat on all of them and the flavors are great.  Surprisingly they are not overly sweet – certainly they have more depth to them than I expected. I have tried the peach and the apple on pork chops as well and they are delicious. The strawberry was ok- but not my favorite on wings. I think Ill have it on ice cream next as it was recommended to me.

My advice. You need to get some. Really. They are excellent. I can’t wait to try them on more items like ribs, a stuffed baked brie and more!

Thanks Craig. You made my wing day a blast. Awesome product. Keep up the great work and winning GC’s!!

Texas Pepper Jelly on Facebook 

Texas Pepper Jelly on Twitter

I love Texas. Hopefully this year I will be able to go back and eat at some of the legendary BBQ joints. For now though I spend a lot of time over at Full Custom Gospel BBQ reading his reviews and experiences.  These ribs were inspired by my last trip there.

One of the challenges that I always have is finding beef ribs that have enough meat on them. It seems that outside of a few locations this is quite a daunting task.  A friend of mine Mike the owner of Big Bone BBQ came to my rescue. His restaurant serves up BBQ Beef ribs once a week at Big Bone BBQ Barrie. I got some from him and I was all set.

Removing the membrane was easy with a clean bar towel. Better grip than a paper towel for this tough membrane.

I also used a spoon to scrape off the large pockets of fat. Whatever you do though don’t discard the fat. Put it aside into a small saucepan and Ill get to it in a bit. After a bit of trimming I had about 2 cups of fat and beef bits.

Decided to keep the rub super simple only 4 ingredients. Granulated garlic, granulated onion, Morton’s Kosher salt & freshly cracked black pepper.

3/4 c Salt

3/4 c Pepper

1/2 cup garlic

1/2 onion

Generously rubbed (I used about half of the rub and stored the rest for future use) they headed to the grill at 225F . I used mesquite pellets for these.

Then I got around to making the mop. The first step was to render out some beef fat from the trimmings. This measured out to be 1/4 cup when finished.  You could also add 1/2 bottle of beer to this Mop if so desired. In addition pay attention to the sodium levels on the beef broth. Some are horrendously high. I used a reduced sodium broth and opted not to use Soy Sauce in this recipe.

Mop Ingredients

2 c beef broth

1/2 c  Worcestershire sauce

1/4 c Apple Cider vinegar

1/4 c Rendered Beef fat

1/2  bottle BV beef upper  ( approx 1.5 oz – you can also substitute Kitchen Bouquet)

4 tbsp Tiger Sauce

2 tbsp Mustard powder

2 tbsp dried onion flakes

Bring all of the Mop ingredients to a simmer. Set aside.

About 4  hours in I started Mopping every 15 minutes. I wanted to wait until the ribs had developed a very thick bark (crust).

Before Mopping:

After mopping:

After two additional hours mopping every 15 minutes the ribs were done.  Rested them covered tightly in foil for 15 minutes.  They were dark and crusted over and absolutely delicious. Some of the ugliest ribs I have ever made and it just didn’t matter. Paired with cornbread, cheesy pasta casserole and green beans they made an excellent meal.

Bacon apple chestnut stuffed pork loin

Ingredients

3lb pork loin
10 slices bacon

For the stuffing

3 c large seasoned croutons
2 ½ c diced apple
1 c reduced sodium chicken stock
1/3 c chopped parsley
¾ c chopped roasted chestnuts
6 slices bacon chopped
2 onions diced
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp black pepper

In a medium sized pan on medium level heat fry bacon until crisp. Using a slotted spoon or bamboo strainer remove the bacon and set aside.

Add chopped onion, thyme, salt, pepper and garlic to the residual bacon fat. Stir often scraping any bacon residue from the bottom of the pan. Sauté until the onion has softened. Add the diced apples and reduced sodium chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and add the croutons. Mix thoroughly cover and remove from heat.

Butterfly the pork loin using 3 cuts to open like a book. See this video for instructions -

Cover the pork loin with plastic wrap. Pound the pork with a mallet to make it a uniform thickness. Remove cover from the stuffing and fluff with fork. Add parsley to the stuffing mixture.

Spoon the stuffing mixture onto the pork loin leaving a 1 inch frame around all of the edges.
Starting at one end – roll the pork and stuffing together to make a tight roll.
Wrap pork with bacon lightly overlapping each layer. Secure with butchers twine.

Grill indirect at 275F until a digital thermometer reads 155F. I used oak and hickory wood pellets. Rest for 10 minutes then slice. Feeds a crowd.

Not quite sure where to begin and where to end this post. Good Gracious what a ride though.

Friday was a busy prep day on site. We all worked on our entries for the categories of Dessert, Taste of the Homeland and the 4 main categories, Chicken Ribs Pork and Brisket. I got a bit behind as I was prepping my pork and we missed the parade for the teams.  No worries though as we walked with the uber talented ISS (I Smell Smoke!) up to the distillery.  The bus ride up to the Dinner on the Hill was uneventful but completely packed with people.  Got to see some friends, have some fried chicken and come right back down.  I wasn’t interested in having any cocktails on the hill.

Friday night at the Jack I was as focused as I could have been, however, I still got to see some really great friends as they popped by for some “pops” and a chat or two :

Our friends Bill Gillespie, Shaune Connolly and Alan Burke from Smokin’ Hoggz came by and we had a blast with them. The night previous we had been having a lot of fun at the hotel. There may have been some cocktails involved. Then some other folks showed up from Michigan (Steve Coddrington) and NY folks Moffats and  our great friends from England !! Miss Piggy BBQ !!! Got to see our beloved friends Smoke on Wheels and their entire gang as well. Got to see my sisters in Smoke  - Angie Quaale and Jenny Lawler Windsor and their boyz David and Jack ! (Didn’ spend nearly enough time with them!)

Everywhere I turned there were folks I wanted to spend some time with ! Big Wayne and Jay Prince, Joshua all made a stop in and it was great to see these guys!  From out neighbors next door – Big Bob Gibson to every other corner. Quau right across from us, Tommy Kelly Mike and the list goes on and on. Then the International teams !! Belgium, the UK, Grill Ueli and more!! Nancy & her daughter from Team Top Chick and just getting a hug from her is special. There just isn’t enough time to see all those amazing people. Missed spending time with my Sister in Smoke Angie and David Gassaway

We did however receive many very kind gifts throughout the weekend from some very generous people- Gorgeous shirts from Miss Piggy’s BBQ, Lots and lots of Apple Pie from (Thanks so very much!!) from quite a few teams and friends, wines, coffee and cheese from Buzz, cookies, candies and cakes. An uber cool Diva shot glass from Momma Prairie Smoke & Spice! The list could go on and on. Good gracious I know I am forgetting a whole lotta folks! I am so lucky to have so many great friends.

Jessie and I with help from Jamie worked right up until 3am on the dessert then I crashed out for a couple of hours. We had a Mack Daddy site! Greg and Debbie Talley from Sam Dog BBQ  brought their 5th wheel out for us to use. It just goes to figure that the one time I have every luxury in the world I get the least amount of sleep. LOL    The boys kept watch until 5 am in between power naps – they rocked!! It was cold as heck out and they kept the fire burning all night!

Dawn came and I took a walkabout with my teammate Patrick – got to see some folks power cookers lighting their pits and getting ready for their day. It was a beautiful start to the day !!

Then we were off to the races as they say. Sauce went in and it was yummy. Cooking from the homeland dish went in and it was delicious then came the meats!! Chicken went in without a hitch its looked amazing and there was loads of flavor throughout. Ribs went in. They looked fantastic but were average. Nothing spectacular.  Pork went in and it rocked on flavor however presentation could have improved. Brisket went in and it was the bomb -awesome flavor in every bite! If you had asked me then I would have had high hopes for our brisket, then pork then chicken. Not so much for ribs.

Dessert went in and it was a 100% team effort. We all helped with the plating the carrying and the blocking to the turn in table. Its always a worry that someone will jostle the tray from your site to the turn ins at the Jack. Over 25,000 people are walking about !!

We got cleaned up as best we could had a whole lotta apple pie and cocktails and loaded up on bevvies for the awards ceremony.  Took some pictures at the staging area:

My husband and I finally have a picture of us at the Jack.

My sister in Smoke Jenny & I

We had a blast at the awards ceremony so cool to see so many of our friends!! Then we got our first call !! Happiest Home in the Hollow!! We need to thank our friends at Brown Forman Canada for helping us with some incredible Jack merchandise to show our love for their brand!! This is the second time we have won this award!!

We watched with great pride other teams from Canada get their names called !! Well Seasoned & the Black Pig BBQ for their taste of the Homeland Dishes!!! Awesome to see.

Then our beloved friends from Kansas Smoke on Wheels won Cooks Choice!!!!!!  Uber awesomeness!!

Everything passes by so fast at the Jack that its hard to keep up

We didn’t receive a call in Chicken or ribs but we got to see so many terrific people take walks. My phone was completely dead and I was sad not to be able to update peeps with Jack results and take pictures.

Then pork came and we cheered on Prairie Smoke and Spice for their 2nd place win!! Everything after that is pretty much a blur. We got called for 1st place PORK! At the Jack. Oh my flip I thought I was going to have a heart attack. They almost had to call a medic cause this Canadian chick lost her mind.

Head to 1:25 and you will get a better idea of what I am talking about.

The rest of the time and the night were a dream. We had quite the party after the awards!! Seeing our friends from big Bob Gibson get the RGC and then Smokin’ Hoggz win the GC was incroyable!!!

I left my team to party and I went and crashed for a few hours. I was done in. I had come with some goals and had achieved them. Wired BBQ at the beginning of the Jack gave me an interview asking what I wanted to come out of the Jack with. I told them a 1st in Dessert a 1st in Happiest Home in the Hollow and a 1st in pork. Other than dessert I achieved my goals!! The big one for sure!

World Champion for pork. That’s freaking amazing. We could not have done it without our friends and sponsors:

Traeger Canada
Basques Charcoal
BBQ Guru
Ontario Gas BBQ
Smoky Mountain Smokers
Butcher BBQ
Sam Dog BBQ
Brown Forman Canada

Novelis

City of Barrie Ontario

Patrick Brown Office

Big Bone BBQ Barrie

MY ENTIRE TEAM ROCKED!!

Jamie Parisi

Jessie Sweeney

Patrick Weir

Mike Miller

Vlado Dimovski

Jason Rees

Thank you to everyone who supported us. You are all awesome.

The road to Lynchburg. Its been 3 years. You know you have to pinch yourself to see if it is real. As we left our hotel and headed to Lynchburg it was almost surreal. Wow. We are heading back to the Jack. It is incredible to be here again. The last couple of days have been so overcast and rainy. As we drove towards Lynchburg the weather brightened the sun was shining and it was just lovely. I got goosebumps seeing the Lynchburg signs. Exciting at the same time.

As we approached the competition area we took it all in. Traffic jam at the entrance gave us a chance to see our friends from MR. Bobo’s travelling all stars BBQ team and the Burnside BBQ team from Canada.

We got to our site and we were introduced to Jim Johnson who was doing an International dinner in the pavillion where our site was to be. We set up what we could and we headed to the town square where we picked up our Jack merchandise. I could drop a lot of coin at the store. So many fun Jack Daniels items.

At 1pm we had reservations at Mrs. Mary Bobo’s

The meal was delicious and we had a great time. It was the first time the entire team has been together. There are 8 of us and since we all live in different cities etc. it is hard for us to get all together prior to the Jack.

The rest of the evening was a great get together with all of the International teams as they chowed down on catfish fries and a whole lot of other food from Jim Johnson. It was a lot of ppl to feed.

The rest of the night was spent drinking and fraternizing and having a really great time with so many folks we don’t get to see often enough. (No pictures LOL)

Now we head off to the hollow overnight to BBQ our very best. Ill catch the blog up on Sunday since Internet in the hollow is not that great. Make sure to check the twitter feed for updates throughout the next 24 hours. …

Road trips !! Love em or hate em they are necessary if you need to haul all your BBQ equipment to a competition.
We left my house at about 230pm and started our adventurous trek to the Jack.

 Let me introduce you to my friend Jack!

 One of our important stops !! Duty Free!

The weather was grey and overcast the entire trip.. Mass pockets of rain hindered what is usually a beautiful scenic drive.

Getting to the Jack and our hotel as fast as possible was our goal. We had decided that it would be in our best interests if we drove through the night as much as we could safely.

Vlad – drove 99% of the way he is a trooper! 

There were four of us in the truck from the team – Vlado, Jamie, Mike and myself. Lets just say the ratio of testosterone to estrogen was a bit skewed. The boys talked about sports and argued the validity of their teams. Jamie had downloaded a lot of 80′s music that was great to listen to. Mike was in charge of candy procurement and snacks.

With all the rain and fog and mist we didn’t take a lot of pictures but how cold you miss this Dinosaur LOL 

It seemed like it took forever to get here. It almost did – almost 28 hours after we left we arrived in Nashville.

Now I am a very superstitious BBQ lady and I believe if you have done something in the past and it has worked then you should repeat the process. SO off to Jack’s BBQ for some food and a slice of chess pie. Just like I did 3 years previously.

At Jack’s I made sure to pet his pig at the front.  Then we grabbed a couple of plates of food to share with each other.  I think it is really important to try as much BBQ as possible wherever you are. I think it is a lifetime of learning about the different ways ppl make BBQ.

The guys about to Chow down!  

It was a good meal and a great kickoff to our time in Tennessee.

Texas Sausage, mustard greens and sweet potatoes all of it was delicious. 

Great memorable beans, cornbread, delicious brisket also ribs, pork and mac & cheese. 

After Jack’s BBQ we finally got to our hotel in Tullahoma TN and after cleaning up it was time for a few cocktails and talking to some of the teams that had already checked in.

We love Motts clamato caesars and Yeungling and we are well stocked for the next few days! 

That’s it for day 1 !! (well that’s all that can be published lol) Today we are off to the legendary Mrs. Mary Bobo’s

We went to this contest as a family. It was a super nice change from the Royal. I love being with my family at BBQ contests. The route to and from PA was spectacular with all of the fall foliage.

Vlad the happy driver!

The contest was a KCBS & MABA event. KCBS categories Chicken Ribs Pork and Brisket and MABA categories Weavers Bologna, Bell Evans Chicken Wings Bell Evans Leg and thighs plus dessert.

I got the shock of my life when we received our products to use in the auxiliary categories.  The Lebanon bologna was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It is much closer to a sweet summer sausage. I had no idea what to do with it. My plans went out the window as soon as I saw it. I had never entered a bologna contest ever. Both the bologna and the wings were submitted on Friday night so it was a busy evening.

 So I cubed it up and slathered it with Sam Dog BBQ Mustard Sauce and a few other ingredients. Placed it in one of the Traegers and let it smoke for 4 hours until all the sides were caramelized. Lets just say it wasn’t pretty, but it was super tasty. We put it in our individual containers added a shot of Forty Creek whiskey as a chaser and sent it off to the judges.

We also competed in the wing category.  I love categories with open plating and we had a lot of fun with this one. We decided to give the judges some of our Yeungling beer as a side to the wings. I mean really who doesn’t love wings and beer?? I wish we could have tried one of teh wings but we had so few to work with (Meat was supplied) that we just had enough to barely fill the plate.

The rest of our Friday night was spent socializing. There are a lot of teams we got to catch up with including one of my Sisters in Smoke Jenny from Black Cat BBQ.

I believe there may have been some tequila involved. Really really good tequila from the fine folks Chip & Sally at Red Lion Spicy Foods one of our neighbors.

After a few libations I headed off to bed for a couple of hours. It was a lovely albeit cold evening.  Perfect for me.

When I woke up one of my other neighbors was up and stoking the fire in his Jambo. Mike Richter is an uber BBQ competitor. Currently ranked #3 in the KCBS TOY. He is super kind and nice to chat with I am glad to call him a friend.  I don’t get to see him or Barb often enough.

Then as the sun rose I took a bit of a walk about. Got to visit with the Smokin Gnomes, Tim, Tiny’s BBQ, and a whole lotta other terrific people.

The time got away from me a bit and I put on my Bell Evans best legs contest meat a bit late. Grill Grates came to the rescue and we turned in grilled chicken. It was tasty chicken. Much different from our normal KCBS chicken.

I can blame the time getting away from me on one thing. Donuts. Seriously damn good donuts. The biggest box of donuts ever that was provided to the teams along with coffee too!  Like a moth to a flame I was entranced….

The rest of the entries including dessert last went off without a hitch. They went in the boxes fine but the brisket was dry and I tried a couple of new presentations that I was thinking of doing for the Jack next weekend.  I figured if the brisket came in above DAL well then the judges were going to be very generous.

The awards ceremony time came and we headed off.

To my absolute shock we got a 1st place in bologna. LOL still makes me giggle.

We also took a 3rd in dessert 4th in wings and a 4th in Pork. The judges were uber generous and gave us 39/47 in brisket. They didn’t like our ribs 23/47 or our chicken 24/47 overall coming in at 21/47. Ugh. The Bell Evans BEst legs I am not sure where we ended up as they only reported to 5th place.

Huge congratulations to Aporkalypse Now (aka Myron of the North) for their GC and to Lo & Slo BBQ on their RGC and to all who competed!

So that’s it for regular comps for the year for us and we are now packing for the Jack next weekend. Hopefully we come home with at least 1 of these again that would be spectacular !

I just need to get through catering a wedding and a baby shower this weekend plus a couple of soccer matches with the kids- a presentation at school and then driving there for 18 hours. I’ll sleep when I am dead. God bless the staff at Starbucks. They are keeping me upright with all the caffeine I am consuming.

Wow. What a trip. What a challenge. I am still sleep deprived and catching up on blog posts……

I flew into Kansas to compete in the American Royal Invitational and the Open. It was a blast. Absolutely exhausting and completely absorbing.

My illustrious site. One 10×10 tent 1 table and a really cool Q Kitchen equipped with an FE and a mack daddy char-broiler.

I am lucky to have some great friends all over. Truly once again let me repeat BBQ people are awesome. They do anything and everything to help. So with friends like Andy & Kim Groneman and the Early family, I had everything I needed to compete. Bare bones but all of the essentials. A complete kitchen with an FE and a charbroiler, a Tent a cot, some coolers and friends to help. I had stocked up the previous day with Kim at BBQFans, Liberty Fruit and the hen house and I was all set.

However I will say my site had to be one of the worst possible locations ever. Horrible would be an understatement. I was right along the end of the entrance (AKA  HALLWAY OF HELL! – see below)  for the folks heading into the dark side and when they wanted to drag their drunk obnoxious loud asses home they had to go right by my site again.

Then there was the lovely* cleaning crew located right around the corner that seemed to take great joy every morning at 3am waking all of us up with their noise. They didn’t stop till well past 7 or 8 am.

Total sleep for 2 days less than 6 hours. Total times I wanted to throttle someone ————- I can’t count that high.

My super comfy cot with Big Poppas Smokers Sweater pillow.

Just an example of two of the drunks that stumbled by.  Freak clowns. I should have just set up a video camera.

Sleep deprivation aside it was a challenge. I have only cooked on an FE 3 times prior to this. Thank fully I had taken Butcher BBQ and Plowboys class and they covered how they run their meats in their FE’s In addition Andy was uber helpful. Anytime you do 2 contests back to back it is a challenge

I got to spend some time socializing with friends and thats a big part of getting to go to the Royal

I also had a couple of Texans – Chris Jones and David Henry plus Neil Strawder with me to run boxes and to help where they could. That was a really fun part of the weekend. Loved hanging with the guys.

I also got to spend time with a Legend and dear friend of mine Dave Raymond from Sweet baby Rays. I love this guy. He rocks.

The Royal is an interesting contest. On day one for the Invitational I came in 88th out of 141 and in the Open 81st out of 498 . Not stellar by any means. It was a challenge and I am really glad I did it no matter what the results.  It was an excellent personal challenge just to get through it all. I know I made some good BBQ.

Another huge highlight for the weekend had to be participating in a steak throw down as part of the KCBS tour !I got to compete against Heath Hall of Pork Barrel BBQ Fame. We had a blast with this and it was tons of fun!!

I had a huge surge of patriotic Canadian pride seeing 2 of my fellow countrymen Tim Brown and Daryl Maybanks from Can’t Stop Grilling take Reserve Grand Championship in the open!! They had a rough Invitational and came out on top HUGE congrats to them both and for also using Kingsford as it doubled their prize money!! WTG guys!!

Congratulations to all who got their name called and to everyone who just survived the Royal again!!

Results for both Days Invitational (Congratulations Tippycanoe BBQ Crew GC!) and Open (Congratulations Motley Que Crew GC!)

I am a big believer in using a grill to its full capacity when you light it up. No reason to do these one at time. One of the things I like to do is stock up my freezer with smoked garlic for the winter. It freezes really well and its super handy to have on hand to add to soups stocks dips (try making an aioli with it) and even served as is on toast points or crusty bread drizzled with a good quality olive oil.

Smoked Garlic

Ingredients

• 20           bulbs garlic
• 1c            Extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ c          black pepper
• ¼ c          kosher salt

• Hickory wood chips
• aluminum foil

Directions

1. Preheat grill medium high heat creating an indirect fire zone.
2. Using a knife, cut off 1/4 inch of the top of bulbs, exposing the individual cloves of garlic.
3. Place the bulbs in a half size disposable aluminum pan
4. Drizzle the olive oil on the bulbs.
5. Sprinkle the black pepper and kosher salt on the bulbs. You can also substitute blended salts like chipotle or porcini for an added flavour bonus.
6. Take 1 handful of hickory wood and create a smoker packet using foil or use a smoker box.
7. Place the pan of bulbs on the indirect side of the grill. Add smoker packet to direct side of grill.  Replenish smoker packets ever 30 minutes.
8. After 1 hour cover the pan with foil. Continue until the cloves are softened and light brown in color.
9. Remove from grill and cool completely. Package the bulbs individually in for the freezer.  Use within 3 months.
10. Use in soups, stocks, on toast points and anywhere you love garlic.

   

This morning its all about veggies (and tofu too!) on Ontario Morning with Mike Ewing (Filling in for Wei Chen) here are a couple of the recipes I talked about

Grilled Brussel Sprouts

• 1 lb Brussel sprouts cleaned and trimmed
• ¼ cup butter melted
• Salt
• Pepper
• Granulated garlic
• Fresh thyme sprigs
• 1 BBQ buddy™ pan

On a charcoal grill with a medium heat (300F) place bbq buddy ™ pan.
Fill with brussel sprouts and sprinkle on granulated garlic, salt & pepper.
Brush with butter. Turn after 5-10 minutes then brush with butter again.
Remove when brussel sprouts are just starting to turn soft (approx 15-20 minutes)
Garnish with sprigs of thyme.

Optional : drizzle with a very good quality Balsamic vinegar or truffle oil just prior to serving.

BBQ Spaghetti Squash

• 1 large spaghetti squash halved
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Brush cut sides of spaghetti squash with canola oil and pierce multiple times with a fork. Sprinkle on thyme, salt and pepper. Grill indirect on medium high heat for 3/4- 1 hour until squash is softened.  Using tines of fork scrape the squash to create strands. Top each half with 1 tablespoon butter and Parmesan cheese. Serve warm

Diva Q Sweet Potato Casserole

• 5 lg. sweet potatoes
• 1/2 c. butter, soft
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/3 c. milk
• 1/3 c. Butter

Topping

• • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• • 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• • 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions.

Heat grill to medium high heat.  Poke washed sweet potatoes with a fork multiples of times. Wrap in foil and place on grill.

When potatoes are fork tender (depending on size anywhere from 30-45 minutes) remove and set aside to cool a bit.

When cool enough to handle use a paring knife and remove skins. Mash 1/2 cup butter with sweet potatoes.

Add brown sugar, vanilla, milk and butter mash well. Pour all of this into a well greased oven proof 9×12 dish

In a bowl mix together the sugar, flour and cut in butter till a coarse crumble. Add the pecans and sprinkle this mixture over the sweet potatoes.

Place back on the grill indirect at 350 degrees for approx 30 minutes. Serves 8.

Portobello Veggie Heaven Cheddar Burger 

Cheeses that can be grilled:

Halloumi –  Halloumi is the traditional white cheese of Cyprus . It is delicious when grilled .

Guernsey Girl - Upper Canada Cheese Company    Delicious and fun to grill.

Great products to use with grilling veggies-  Alcan BBQ Buddy available all over Canada at major retail chains and supermarkets.

Weber Veggie Basket available from Ontario Gas BBQ 

Frogmats - Great for indirect cooking