When making a decision to invest in any pellet grill, it should take into consideration price and quality. MAK Grills is a US based company (out of Oregon) that takes the best of design and cooking consideration and created one of the best engineered cookers in the pellet smoker category. We have been cooking on…
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Reverse Sear Ribeye Steak
Learn how to Reverse Sear Ribeye Steak for the greatest steak you’ll ever have! Reverse sear is an incredible way to cook a steak. Smoke at a low temperature for that unique wood smoke flavor, and then finish your steak hot and fast on your grill for the perfect crust at the perfect temperature every…
Guide to Pellet Grills – Common Q and A
If you are looking for the best pellet grills, there are a number of factors to consider. This summary highlights the considerations to think about when selecting the right pellet smoker for you. While this post is LONG it is important, because we’ve scoured every forum, question, and consideration that people were asking when it…
Smoked Pork Shoulder (Pork Butt)
A complete guide to making incredible Smoked Pork Shoulder (Pork Butt) and crowd-loving Pulled Pork. Learn the tips and steps for tender pulled pork on your smoker. Plus a full video tutorial on how to smoke pork shoulder. We’ve cooked A LOT of pork shoulders, hundreds for our own personal consumption, as well as through…
How To Use A Charcoal Chimney Starter
Find out how to safely and quickly light up a charcoal chimney starter without the use of lighter fluid. We get this question a lot. It seems simple, but many people fear the charcoal grill because of tasks like lighting it. This step by step approach to using a charcoal chimney starter makes lighting a…
Holiday Gift Guide for Wine & Cocktail Lovers
Our Holiday Wine Gift Guide is perfect for the Wine and Cocktail Lovers on your list this year. This is part 2 of our Holiday Gift Guide. See our Gift Guide for BBQ, Grilling, and general foodies here. In part 1 I discuss my love/hate relationship with most gift guides and why we like to…
Wine Storage and NewAir 46 Bottle Dual Zone Cooler
Wine Storage is important. Between the financial investment in wine, and the fact that some wines benefit from aging over time means that the storage of wine and how to store wine are important factors. This post details what you need to know in regards to wine storage plus a full review of the NewAir…
Holiday Gift Guide for BBQ and Food Lovers
Our holiday gift guide for the BBQ and food lovers on your list! Tis the season for giving! I also have a love/hate relationship with most holiday gift guides. My heart beats at an unhealthy rate when I see gift guides that contain “100 stocking stuffers under $15,” or “150 gifts for him,” or “75…
Holiday Gift Guide: Food, BBQ, and Wine Lovers 2018
We’re chiming in today with some of our favorite gifts from the year. A few of these have been on our gift guides in the past, but that’s because year after year they remain our favorite gadgets or tools, always useful in the kitchen (indoor our outdoor kitchen). They are items that have made our…
Morning Routine and Brewing Better Coffee with OXO Brew Line
How to get started brewing a better cup of coffee, and three great tools to help you make a perfect cup. This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of OXO. I’m going to be fully honest about something here. It took me a long time to start to appreciate coffee the same…
Your First Smoked Turkey – Advice from the Pros and Joes
With Thanksgiving coming up, I’ve crowdsourced from pros, hobbyists, friends, and anyone who loves to do Thanksgiving outside for their best advice on smoking your first Thanksgiving Turkey. This is the information you need to be a Thanksgiving hero (or shero!) this year! I didn’t grow up on smoked turkeys. My mom would always cook…
Smoked Ice Cocktail
This cocktail is a twist on a classic Old Fashioned using Smoked Ice. Yes, that’s right, Smoked ice. We’ve talked about smoked ice before, but we thought we’d bring it up again because it’s that time of year! You know what I’m talking about. The holidays (aka the time of year you’re going to need…
Simplified Smoked Salsa Verde Chicken Soup
A quick, easy, soul-soothing, cold-calming, delicious Smoked Salsa Verde Chicken Soup for when you’re not feeling well. And three ways to prepare in advance of cold season. This post was sponsored by Albertsons. As always all opinions, statements, and recipes are my own. I have bad news, friends. Cold Season is here! Have I ever…
Smoked Pulled Lamb Sliders
Lamb Shoulder is slow smoked to perfection, and then tenderly pulled making incredible smoked pulled lamb sliders. You are familiar with using a pork shoulder, which is usually slowly smoked to perfection and then used to make delectable pulled pork sandwiches. But have you tried the same method with a lamb shoulder, and using that…
Favorite Tools for Grilling Season on AM Northwest – and a Giveaway!
We went back on AM Northwest this week to talk about our favorite tools for grilling and cooked up a simple recipe for a marinated flank steak. You don’t need a million gadgets to get started grilling. We we’re so stoked to go back on AM Northwest to talk about the most wonderful time of the year. Yeah…
Smoked Honey Butter
Smoked honey meets butter to create an incredibly elegant and delicious Smoked Honey Butter spread for rolls, toast, sandwiches, and so much more. Because we like to experiment with everything on our smoker we had the idea earlier this summer to smoke honey, just to see what would happen. The combination of sweet and smoky…
17 Genius Uses for a Teeny Tiny Miniature Cast Iron Skillet
Ever wonder what you could do with a miniature 3.5-inch cast iron skillet? Here are 17 Genius uses for that teeny tiny miniature cast iron pan! This past Christmas my mom gave me one. A super teeny tiny miniature cast iron skillet. It is small. Really small. Like 3.5-inches wide small. It’s just like this…
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
These Extra Virgin Olive Oil Chocolate Chip cookies are made with olive oil instead of butter, and taste rich and incredible. You won’t even know they’re butter-free! Chewy, chocolaty, indulgent, delicious, and entirely butter free. Oregon Olive Mill cookies (left), My version (right) These came out exactly how I remembered them the first (and second) time…
Learning about Olive Oil at the Oregon Olive Mill…
… and discovering the many uses for Extra Virgin Olive Oil! A few years ago a good friend gave me a gift pack of fancy artisan olive oils and vinegars for Christmas. When she presented it to me she mentioned that she gave the same pack to several friends and predicted we’d probably be the…
A St. Patrick’s Day Irish Cheese and Wine Pairing
A much better alternative to dying your food green on this festive day. I met a chef recently who said pairing food and wine is really quite simple. “If you have good food and good wine people will be happy. There’s really not much more to it.” While he has a point, I would argue…
Red Ridge Farms Annual Harvest Dinner, and why you should explore olive oils
A few years ago a good friend gave my hubby and I a gift pack that included several locally made olive oils and vinegars for Christmas. When we opened it she mentioned she gave several other friends and family members the same pack and joked that we would probably be the only ones to actually…
Friday Favorites – Oregon homecoming
A weekly roundup of some of my favorite things this week in the categories of wine, food, travel, and lifestyle. I have officially been back in Oregon one full week now, and what a week it’s been. Our movers ended up being, oh, 5 days late, which left us with an empty house and a…
Friday Favorites – Celebrating a big announcement, and a special Oregon-themed giveaway!
This is a special edition of Friday Favorites here on the blog. Instead of listing out all of my favorite discoveries of the week like I usually do, this news encompasses all four Friday Favorite themes. Plus I have a special giveaway to go with this week’s announcement! This past weekend my husband and I announced…
Championship BBQ Secrets for Real Smoked Food — Book Review
In our house, both my husband and I cook. He’s the outdoor cook and loves to grill and smoke (food that is), and I love to do almost everything else. So when I was sent a cookbook to review on all smoked food recipes I couldn’t think of a better person to review the technical…