Panini Love and I am Giving Up Smoking

My SIL and MIL love Brussels sprouts.  When I was meal planning for our lunches this week, I thought I would add some brussel sprouts to a couple of her meals.  I tried them again, still not a fan, but Erica, I know I need to give your Brussels sprout recipe a try!

I didn’t really eat breakfast since I was taste testing our lunches.  The sprouts were tossed in 1 tsp. olive oil, salt and pepper, then baked for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

One of my SIL’s dishes – 1 cup cooked cavatapi pasta with jarred butternut squash sauce and oven roasted sprouts:

My Mom was actually given the squash sauce from a gift exchange at Christmas, but she hates butternut squash.  She gave me two jars which each normally sell for $9 each!  Score!

Another reason I didn’t eat much for breakfast?  Because I was dreaming about my panini sandwich.  The star was this pesto that my brother gave me for Christmas (can you tell I cleaned out my pantry and found these goodies?!)

I put that on both sides of my bread, then provolone, sandwich pepperoni and a slice of buttery mortadella.  I’d never had that lunch meat before meeting Tony – did I miss out on that for so many years!

I love this panini press – its super quick to get to temperature and super easy to clean too.

I made lots of dishes – one that I really needed to work on was the Chicken Vindaloo recipe from Epicurious.  The sauce was watery, no flavor.  I’ll be posting my recipe for it later this week though – it came out delicious!  And to people who responded that they use their panini presses a lot (including my cousin Pam – hi Pam!), I agree that this will be a regularly used appliance.

My store had baby back ribs on sale and I had every intention of smoking them.  I smoked a lot of stuff last summer, but for some reason, the last two times I’ve used it I’ve overcooked the meat.

So my goal was low and slow – I was going to smoke them for four hours around 200-225 degrees.  But as I was adjusting the coals about an hour in, disaster struck.

I gave up and ended up finishing them off in the oven at 225, with a broiler pan of water underneath. 

I used America’s Test Kitchen dry rub mix, and K.C. Masterpiece for the BBQ sauce.  I skimped on the cayenne, barely a pinch, so it wasn’t too spicy for Tony.

So even though the ribs didn’t start out the way I wanted, they ended up being delicious.  They cooked for about 4 hours at 225.  Then I put K.C. Masterpiece on and finished them up under the broiler.  Kinda looks like a 4th of July picnic dinner, doesn’t it?

And for corn in April, it was awesome too.  I usually boil a pot of water and when it comes to a boil, take it off the heat and toss in the corn – its ready in 5 minutes and never gets overcooked.

Alright I am off to do my 30 minute stretch and put my food together – I have a mini bacon zucchini pepper casserole for breakfast . . . here is a sneak peak . . . you’ll have to come back tomorrow for the recipe.

Make it a great day!