Grilled Shrimp w/ Nate's Cocktail Sauce

A few weeks back we made some pretty spectacular OYSTERS and while he was picking those up at Santa Monica Seafood, Nate grabbed some shrimp to go with them! This is just a very simple way to grill shell-on shrimp for peel-n-eat goodness. I love these because the completely scream SUMMER!! Nate whipped up a little homemade cocktail sauce to really take these to the next level.

Grilled Shrimp

12 raw, shell-on shrimpies
2 T butter, room temp
1 t olive oil
2 tsp crushed garlic
2 T minced shallot
sea salt & fresh black pepper

Start by deveining the scrimps, this is pretty mellow once you've done it before...it sounds harder than it is, I promise!




Lay the little gray bastid on it's side and use a super sharp knife to cut a slit (about 1/2a centimeter deep, just piercing through the shell and cutting a bit into the shrimp)
Use your thumbs and first fingers to peek inside the cut and while gently running cold water over the shrimp and your hands, remove the dark digestive tract of the shrimp.
There. Done! YAY!! I got better with practice and by the last one I was an ace- this is not as intense as it may sound all typed out~
Here is a video from YouTube courtesy of epicurious- it does show peeling the shrimp before deveining, but notes that the peeling is not necessary and in fact helps the shrimp retain yummy flavor if left in the shell during cooking...

CLICK HERE TO WATCH


Heat the grill to medium low heat.
Anyhow, now that your shrimp are deveined, mix the butter, olive oil, garlic, shallot salt & pepper in a small bowl until well combined. Rub butter mix all over each shrimp.I skewered them onto kabob sticks to make them easier to flip.
Cook 3-5 minutes on each side until cooked through.


Nate's Cocktail sauce
Catchup, a few dashes Frank's Red Hot hot sauce,black pepper, a dash olive oil, stir all together!

Squeeze a bit of lemon over the shrimp and serve! This is great with tabouli, grilled veggies and of course the GRILLED NAPA OYSTERS we ate with them!!

Dry-Rub Grilled Ribs & Homemade BBQ Sauce

I've been DYING to BBQ. We use our grill all the time, but I wanted to make something that would be messy, delicious and super-bbq-y! Nate and I were in Huntington Beach so we decided to stop at Plowboy's. Seriously, if you live with in a reasonable distance to Plowboy's- get over there ASAP!! Amazing produce at great prices and the best butcher ever. We did not go in with a plan, other than my plan to get a sky-high samich at the deli. As we walked along the long meat cases we tossed some ideas around, but in the end the ribs looked too good to resist.
When we got home I gathered up the dry ingredients to make a yummy rub and learned all about preppin the pork. (read below). This was not too difficult and was WAY BEYOND delicious.



Sweet Life Dry-Rub Grilled Ribs & Homemade BBQ Sauce
serves 2-4 (depends on your hunger level, Nate is a whole rack man on this one)

2 full racks of pork baby back ribs

Dry Rub~
6 T brown sugar
2 T paprika
5 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp salish (smoke) salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne
5-6 twists of cracked black pepper


Homemade BBQ Sauce
2 T butter
2 slice (just under an inch thick) of sweet white onion, finely chopped
1 12oz can tomato paste
3 tsp mustard
6 T white vinegar
2 T Worcestershire sauce
4 T molasses
2 T DRY RUB mixture
6 T water
2 T brown sugar




Removing the membrane~ ok, don't freak out. I know you may be reading that thinking W T F? Well it's really no big deal, and if you remember while @ the butcher, I reckon you can just directly ask to have it pulled right off, right there. In any event if you buy the ribs, get home, whip up a dry rub and then read about said membrane that you never realized existed, then here's what you do....I watched this video on YouTube courtesy of BarbequeWeb.com, and it was pretty easy to do! CLICK HERE TO WATCH

There...that wasn't so bad, was it? OK, now I just set the ribs aside on the paper that the butcher wrapped them up in bony side down. In a medium bowl mix the rub ingredients with a fork and set aside 2 tablespoons to use in the sauce.
Using your hands work the rub over every inch of ribage.
Wrap them back up in the paper and refrigerate 2 hours to all day.

Now, make the sauce!
In a medium sauce pan over low heat combine all ingredients and stir until everything is mixed in. Pour into a jar or other sealed container and refrigerate until it's time for ribs (this will really get the flavors well-combined)

Heat the grill to medium-low (about 300-325 degrees). Place the ribs, bony side down on the pre-heated grill, close the lid and let the magic happen. That's all you need to do to those. Grill them at about 300-325 degrees for 2-2 1/2 hours.

Take those smokin' delicious ribs off the grill and let them rest on a cutting board for about 7 minutes.
Mop them with sauce, cut them if you would like to and get a big pile of napkins, because you're gonna need em.

Grilled Garlic Burgers

You really can never have too much of a good thing. We'd purchased some garlicy Jalapeno Mustard at last weekends Garlic Festival, and I'd been craving burgers all week. This would most def work with fresh chopped garlic, but sometimes after a extra long day of work, you just don't feel like choppin', ya know? I keep Christopher Ranch chopped garlic (from GILROY!) in my fridge at all time, it was fun to see their big presence at the festival. Being way too tuckerd out to get too crazy in the kitchen, we used what we had on hand and made a super delicious, garlic-tastic burger.



4 Garlic Burgers~
1 lb ground beef
2-3 T minced garlic
1 T Jalapeno Garlic Mustard (or go with a spicy deli mustard)
Fresh cracked black pepper
Garlic Salt
Kosher salt
Sharp Cheddar cheese (that's what we had on hand- I would also recommend this with a pepper jack or any garlic-cheese you may run into!)
More mustard & some red onion for the bun
BUNS

Mix all of the above in a medium bowl while you heat the grill (med-high heat).
Form the mix into 4 patties and put em on the grill. We used Nate's 4 flips/no squeezin method (this makes ULTRA JUICY burgers). Grill them 5 minutes after you put them down, then flip and grill 4 minutes on the other side, flip again and grill 2 minutes, flip one more time and grill 1-2 minutes.Do not use the spatula to PRESS down on the burgers at any point while grilling, just flip em gently. Turn the heat off, add sliced cheese, put the lid on for about a minute until cheese gets a little melty.
Serve on toasted buns with some spicy mustard and thin sliced red onion, if you have some time this is a simple GARLIC AIOLI that would be brilliant, or just stir 1 T of the chopped garlic into 2 T of mayo before mixing the meat and refrigerate and use that spread on the bottom bun.

Napa Valley Grilled Oysters

During a recent trip to the Stags Leap District of the Napa Valley. We were BLESSED to be with some dear friends, one of those friends being a bartender at Anchor & Hope (and two other peeps with us being the GM and sommelier of A&H) SUPER LUCKY US.
Click here to see Anchor & Hope SF

So far what I can share with you, as far as wine experience goes, is that it's a glorious, never-ending journey. We visited 6 wineries; Chimney Rock and Pine Ridge were two of them.

More details of the trip to come...If you want to hear about each winery and details of the trip SOONER,click HERE to become a fan of Sweet Life Kitchen on Facebook , I am posting all the edible, sip'able goodness of our PCH trip on the fan page, as I will only be posting here when we open the bottles and pair it with a recipe~ like this one!

This recipe comes from Chimney Rock, where it was passed along by a local and was so simple we didn't even need to write it down...we paired it with the Dijon Clones Chardonnay we purchased at Pine Ridge Winery. The oysters and the chardonnay really brought out the best in one another (not too hard to do) and Nate & I think this was one of the BEST dinner's we've EVER made.

About the vino~ This chardonnay, from 2007, is a super summery wine. It is very light, and full of fruity-ness with out being SWEET, which we really loved.



About the oysters~ This recipe is most often prepared with large, meaty oysters. Nate and I LOOOOOOVE oysters and try to eat them when ever possible...we recently had an INCREDIBLE dinner at Santa Monica Seafood's newer location on Wilshire Blvd and the Kumomoto oysters were seriously divine...so we decided why the heck not- they may not be big but they are DELICIOUS, raw, grilled, delicious.




Napa Valley Grilled Oysters
12 oysters
1/2 cup butter (unsalted)
1/3 a large bulb chopped fennel
1/3 cup chopped shallot
(we pretty much eyeballed this- it does not have to be precise at all.)

Heat up on super low in a sauce pot JUST to melt the butter and mix, turn off heat
Meanwhile put the oysters deep side down on the grill and heat 3-5 minutes or until the shells start to pop open (if one does not want to open- toss it, peace out oyster.)



Remove them from the grill and use an oyster shuckin knife and pop those tops!! loosen up each lil oyster and spoon the super amazing, delicious fennel-butter-shallot extravaganza on to each oyster...
Put the topped off oysters back on the grill for about 3 minutes or until butter starts to bubble and they are all heated through.

Prepare to have your socks knocked OFF.

Mango Flank Steak Tacos

This was an improv dinner that turned out better than I could have imagined. The steak was amazing, this marinade rocks the heezie.
We made this after work and work-out and still ate before 8pm, it was fabulous. This will be a go-to recipe for us from now on, easy to make in large scale for get togethers too!!

Mango Flank Steak Tacos
By Beth & Nate
Serves 4

1 lb flank steak
1 mango
1 lime
1 tomato
1/4 red onion
Fresh cilantro
Kosher salt
Soy sauce
1-2 T fresh grated ginger
garlic powder
crushed red pepper


Chop the mango into little cubes, toss them in a medium sized bowl...put the flank steak in a freezer bag and throw the mango core and a a few of the mango cubes. Add soy sauce, a lil less than 1/4 cup, ginger a few dashes of garlic powder, the juice of 1/2 a lime and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Seal the bag and massage it all together- let marinate 30min-1hour.
Dice up the tomato, onion and cilantro and toss with the mango. Add a pinch of salt and juice of 1/2 a lime. Toss together, cover & refrigerate 1 hour or more.
Grill marinated flank steak on medium heat for about 3 minutes each side...longer if you prefer medium to well meat. Take the meat off, add tortillias and grill for about 1-2 minutes. Add steak to tortilla, top with salsa and additional onion or cilantro if you'd like~ YUM!! Amazing taco heaven.

Lamb Kabobs

We were having some pretty nice weather around here circa Thanksgiving and I thought it'd be fun to do something different than the usual burgers or more turkey leftovers!! This is great to prep the night ahead or right when you get home because .:*the lamb needs to marinate for a minimum of 2-3 hours*:.

Beth's Grilled Lamb Kabobs

1 lb ground lamb
1/2 a sweet onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
a pinch of kosher salt and some fresh ground pepper
skewers
Combine everything in medium bowl and cover in plastic wrap, refrigerate 2-3 hours.
Form long patties that are equal in thickness. Oil the grill surface so the lamb does not stick. Grill over medium heat about 4-5 minutes each side, flipping once with a spatula or plastic tongs (don't pull them by the stick!).

Serve with warm pita bread and hummus~

Hummus
1 15 oz garbanzo beans (1/2 the liquid set aside) drained & rinsed
1 Tbsp tahini paste
Squeeze 1/2 a lemon (about 2 Tbsp) lemon juice
Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp olive oil

Combine all in the food processor, add reserve garbanzo bean juice to achieve desired texture. Refrigerate, covered with saran wrap at least 1 hour before serving.

Also yummy with my Cucumber Salad

Grilled Lamb Pita Pockets & Garlic Yogurt Sauce

This summer we drove up to Lake Tahoe for a weekend away and to celebrate a good friends birthday. While we were there we spent nearly 3 hours floating in tubes down the Truckee River and drinking beer in the sun. It was glorious. One of those days that you think couldn't possibly get any better. Then, we got to dinner. A fabulous local had recommended we hit up THE RIVER GRILL, and we were SO glad we listened!! Not only was it a beautiful night out on the patio with the river we'd just floated down moving slowly by, the food was exceptional. I ordered the lamb, which was one of their specials that night and it was the best lamb I'd ever had. A week after we got home I was still craving it, and decided I was going to make something lamb-tastic, even though I'd never cooked lamb before.
Nate picked out these chops and I improvised a marinade and crossed my fingers. We were both happy with how this turned out and look forward to making it again and marinating it longer (we only had time to do about an hour).
Nate also wants to do homemade pita bread the next time we make this- so stay tuned!



Grilled Lamb Chops
1 package of lamb chops
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tsp/cloves chopped garlic
2-3 T olive oil
kosher salt
pepper
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp thyme


Mix the garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, cumin and thyme in a medium bowl.
Place the lamb on a large plate (or baking pyrex)and massage the spice mixture all over it. Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator at least one hour and up to 8 hours.

Over medium heat, grill the marinated lamb chops 3 minutes then flip it, grill another 3 minutes and remove from heat. (for medium rare)

Let sit 3-5 minutes before slicing up.




Garlic Yogurt Sauce
1/2 of a large container of fat-free plain yogurt
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 T olive oil
3 tsp raw sesame seeds
Kosher salt (about 1 tsp)
1 Tbsp Dill

In a small skillet over medium low heat cook the oil and seeds, stirring pretty constantly for about 5-6 minutes (until golden brown but not burnt) add the garlic and satuee 2 more minutes. Place the yogurt in a medium saucepan over medium low heat and add the salt and dill, stir in the garlic, seeds and oil, whisking/ stirring until smooth and well combined. Remove from heat and let cool serve room temp or refrigerated.

Weeknight dinner-Spicy Pita Burgers

OH YES- those ARE tater-tots in the photo...and it's not my fault, it's my offices fault for starting a conversation about delicious tater tots...right before I left work for the grocery store.

We'd been looking forward to grilling, but wanted to mix it up just a bit. So after picking up a big ole bag of tater-tots I mixed up some spices and ground beef, grilled up burgers topped with some yummy provolone and grilled onions, served in whole wheat pita (along side tots).


Spicy Pita Burgers
Serves 4
1 lb ground beef
3/4 tsp Cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
a pinch of Kosher salt
a pinch of Dried chili flakes
A dash of hot sauce
2 toasted pitas cut in half
4 slices provolone cheese
1/2 a sweet onion sliced
Spicy brown mustard & horseradish sauce

Mix the meat and spices in a bowl, form patties. Cut the onion and place in a foil pouch (made by folding a sheet of foil around the onions) Put the foil packet on then grill and put patties on the grill for about 6-8 minutes each side, flipping once. Cut the pita's in half and lightly toast them in the toaster. Top the burgers with the provolone slices once they are finished cooking (I like to put the cheese on, turn the grill off, close the lid and let sit 1 minute). Take patties and onion packet off the grill. Slice up some pickles if you want, then put a little horseradish in the pita. Put the burger into the pita, top with the grilled onion, sliced pickles and spicy brown mustard.

Chili Cheeseburgers

Hooray for football! We had some friends over to watch the USC game this weekend and decided on making some burgers. I'd made My Crockpot Chili a few weeks ago and froze a few servings. So we cooked that up and made these chili cheese burgers.
They were sooo good. I couldn't even finish mine, but one of our guests liked them so much he ate two! YUM!

Chili Cheese Burgers
Serves 6
Click HERE for my chili recipe or just heat up a can of your favorite chili.
Shape 2 lbs ground beef into 6 patties.
Season both sides with garlic powder & season salt
Grill (about 7 minutes per side) until cooked to your liking
Top with some Tikamook sharp cheddar cheese
On the bottom bun I put spicy brown mustard and Clausen pickle, then the cheese burger patty, then chili, some shredded cheese, sliced onion and the top bun.
Huge, messy and DELICIOUS!!!!!

Pumpkin Ale Beer Brats

I love making beer brats when we're watching football. These were super yummy because we boiled them in Pumpkin Ale before grilling...Normally I don't ever poke holes in sausage before grilling, because it will let the juices OUT, in this case I was trying to get the yummy Pumpkin beer IN to the sausage so I poked each 2x with a fork.

I boiled one package (5 bratwursts) in 2 pumpkin ale beers for about 7 minutes, then cook on the grill for about 10 minutes.

We ate them on toasted buns with grilled sweet onion, jalapeno jack cheese and some spicy brown mustard.

They were a perfect game watchin meal and went well with the pumpkin cheesecake bars I made for desert!

Black & Blue and Good All Over!

I love alllll cheese, but Blue Cheese is one of my favorites. Last night I made Blue Cheese Burgers (sometimes called Black & Blue's because of the black pepper and blue cheese) This was a super easy meal that took very little time and was oh so delicious!





Burgers (recipe by ME)
1 lb ground sirloin
Whole Wheat Buns
4oz Blue Cheese (this is the size of the container, I used almos all of it but not quite)
Fresh Ground Black Pepper (to taste)
Chopped Green Onion (2 of them)
Worcecstershire Sauce 3-4 big dashes
Pinch of Kosher Salt
3 pieces fully cooked bacon crumbled or chopped up
(I usually make bacon in the oven of easy clean up) line a baking sheet with foil lay bacon on sheet and back at 350 for about 15 minutes or until as well done as you'd like it :)
Avacado for the top :)

Knead everything but the buns and the acvacado in a medium bowl and form burger patties. Grill over medium low heat for about 7 minutes each side. Lightly toast buns on the grill for about 2 minutes. Top burgers with avacado slices & dijon mustard or condiments of choice and served (in this case) with Sweet Potato Fries~

On the Side
Sweet Potato Fries
This was so simple! I just ran one large sweet potato through the mandoline, put them on a foil lined baking sheet, sprayed with Olive Oil using my Misto and sprinkeled lightly with kosher salt. Bake at 325 for 20-25 mintues

Beer Can Chicken~

Oh MY! This is every bit as good as everyone says!! We saw it for the first time several years back when Bobby Flay did it on the Food Network and I've been dying to try it for ages! There are a million differnt rubs, sauces in-can ingredients, possibilities to how you make it and I'm sure eveyone does their own thing a bit so here is what we did...

The Basics
1 4-5 lb whole chicken (not frozen, giblets removed)
1/2 full can of Bud Light beer
Disposable baking pan/dish for the grill
A Grill

In the Can
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 spoonfull spice rub * recipe below
2 sprigs fresh rosemary

Spice Rub (not exact measurements, just made aprox 1 1/2 cup total of the stuff)also I had some leftover...
Kosher Salt about 1/3 c.
Black Pepper about 1/3 c.
Onion Powder about 1/4 c.
Garlic Powder about 1/4 c.
Cayanne Pepper about 1/4 c.

1/2 stick of butter cut into thin slices

Or use any spice rub that you want! :)



Instructions:
Crack the beer and drink half of it- I love recipes that start this way!

Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towel & put it on a plate
Mix all the rub ingredients together in a bowl.
Use a spoon to spoon rub mix onto the chicken and rubdown until completely covered
Add Garlic, Rosemary and a spoonfull of rub mix to beer can
Insert beer can in backside of the chicken and stand it up in the pan (as shown above)

On the Grill on low heat, roast the chicken for 3 hours.
Basting and adding little slices of butter to the drippings every 30 minutes for first hour, every 15-20 minutes for second hour and every 10 mintues 3rd hour.

Remove from grill & let sit for 5 minutes
Using tongs and a helper hold the chicken and lift up, the helper can poke with the baster through the neck hole to push the beer can out- be really careful, the liquid is all VERY HOT!

Quarter the chicken using a very sharp knife and kitchen shears.
Here are Food Network's Instructions:
How To Quarter a Chicken


We had this with garlic mashed red potatoes, and grilled corn on the cob. I can't wait to make it again. Moist, delicious and WONDERFUL!

Steak & Cake

The weather is absolutely beautiful! Last night we cooked out and had the last of the lemon cake I made last week. I got a big ole tri-tip from the store and did a rub/marinade with spices & olive oil. Then grilled it sloooooww & low on med-low heat for about an hour & 15 minutes.

Rub/Marinade
(Sorry these are not exactly precise measurements, I kind of eyeball stuff like this!)

In a bowl large enough for the steak
aprox 2-3 tsp Kosher Salt
aprox 1-2 T Black Pepper, I prettty much lightly coated both sides of the tri-tip, not sure exactly how much
Garlic Powder same as above
Paprika same as above
Finely chopped garlic 3-4 cloves
Olive oil drizzled a bit over it and rubbed it all into the steak- let marinate for 30+ minutes, grill to taste (medium rare is 130-135 degrees)


Lemon Cake
Here's the deal with my oven- IT'S TERRIBLE!!! We've been trying to get the landlord to replace it since we moved in, no luck yet. If a recipe for says 350 for 30 minutes it really means 225 for 22-26 minutes- I am finally starting to learn it's tricks, it isn't 100% consistent in it's suckyness. Therefore since the disaster that was my usually super-fun Christmas baking (we moved in Thanksgiving weekend, this has been a nightmare) this lemon cake is the FIRST thing that hasn't burned in some way shape or form. It's barley even a recipe since I was really just continuing to experiment with the temp and also I got a new Williams-Sonoma bundt cake pan keeper and wanted to use them! So....here's the UN-burned Lemon Cake
(I will double this next time because it made 1/2 a bundt!)

1 Box of yellow cake mix (also the oil, water & eggs)
2 tsp lemon extract
1 Lemon (for zest & juice)

Prepare cake according to box, except after adding the oil squeeze the juice of 1 lemon and add 2 tsp lemon extract to the measuring cup- then add water to equal the correct amount (did that make sense?)
Then after eggs are mixed in add the zest of the lemon
Bake according to box

I frosted it with cream cheese frosting (my fave) and most of it went down Friday night after a celebratory dinner with friends.