Ramblings From Justin Penney

Today marked the 2009 opening of the grill. After a good cleaning and a test run we set about making our dinner.

We ended up with four items on the grill: potato packets, corn on the cob, potabello mushroom, and bacon wrapped 5 oz. sirloin.

Potato Packets

This is Jacey's signature grill dish. It's simple, fast and always tasty. There's a lot of room for variations, like the carrots that we added today.

• 3 medium russet potatoes
• 1/2 of a large vidalia onion
• 4 small carrots
• Butter
• Mrs. Dash
• Sea salt
• Black pepper

The potatoes, carrots and onion were cut in to small pieces and placed on squares of aluminum foil. She sprinkled the salt an Mrs. Dash on them laid about 1 Tbsp of butter (real butter by the way) on top and folded the foil up into little packets. These were on a medium high grill for about 50 minutes. They could have come off around the 40 minute mark.

Corn on the Cob

It's a pain, but full ears of corn are so good on the grill. Having the intact husk keeps the corn nice and moist.

Remove all but a few (3 to 4) layers of husk then open each ear and remove the silk. Place the ears in cold water for a while, they were in water for 45 to 60 minutes today. After soaking, brush each ear with olive oil, add any seasonings, then fold the husks back over the ears. Today I made a mix of sea salt, paprika, and black pepper that I sprinkled on each ear before closing them up.

Place the ears on a medium-high grill for around 20 minutes. Make sure to put out any flaming husks.

Portabello

I'm pretty hit and miss on the preparation of portabellos. This one appeared to be a hit. Unfortunately, I didn't taste it.

After cleaning the mushroom, I drizzled some Worcestershire sauce into the ribs then placed it into a plastic bag with Italian dressing. I let it sit in the refrigerator for a little over an hour. I grilled it for around 4 minutes a side on a hot grill then moved it to the warming rack.

Bacon Wrapped Sirloin

These 5 oz. sirloins were pre-wrapped with bacon. I augmented the seasoning used for the corn to use as a rub:

• Sea salt
• Paprika
• Black pepper
• Garlic powder
• Parsley

After applying the rub, I placed these on a very hot portion of the grill for 3 minutes a side creating a nice sear on the outside. I then moved the steaks to part of the grill that had medium heat and brought them up to 150 degrees as this was right between rare and medium on my meat thermometer.

Upon further reading of doneness and temperature, 150 is pretty high being in the medium-well category. Maybe I wasn't measuring deep enough or my thermometer was off, but these were solidly medium-rare with a red, juicy center surrounded by just graying outside.

Impressions

I overcooked the potato packets. I usually check these pretty frequently but failed to do so today. I received the most burnt packet. Jacey and Lily were very happy with their potatoes.

The corn was amazing! There was a little char character from a couple husk flare ups but the kernels were firm but easy to bite. The olive oil and spices added so much flavor that I didn't add anything to mine. Jacey and Lily both added butter.

As I said earlier, I didn't taste the mushroom but Jacey was very happy with it.

The steak, the first steak that I have ever prepared, was amazing. It was a good decision to carry on the seasoning theme from the corn as the two dishes blended nicely. The outside of the sirloins were rich with the flavor of the rub while the inside was warm and juicy. These were very tender sirloins. The size, 5 oz., was about perfect. Lily was full with just a bit left on her plate and I was completely satiated. These were also a great deal, $2.50 per steak.

This was a pretty frugal meal overall costing around $10 for the three of us to eat.