CJ2K

 

< I started with the freshest ingredients I could find.

< Then I broke out the new roaster that I got for Christmas.

This is Bobby Flay's Chicken with Sherry Vinegar - Brown Sugar Barbecue Baste. This recipe is from Boy Meets Grill page 42. Bobby's recipe calls for you to butterfly cut the chicken, but I wanted to try out the new roaster that Dorothy gave me for Christmas. It features a stainless steel extension arm that holds the chicken (or turkey) suspended over a tray. The extension arm has a compartment that can be filled with liquid. I used some beer so the whole thing was a variation on "beer can chicken." In the tray below I prepared Bobby's Mesa Grill Potato Salad (page 225 of Boy Meets Grill) and I added chopped broccoli.

The chicken roasted in mid-air made it possible to put on the Brown Sugar Baste earlier than normal since I was not worried about the sugar burning on the pan. The chicken was tender and the baste flavors fantastic. Dorothy said it was the best Bobby meal yet. I partially cooked the potatoes ahead of time and hoped they would become tender during their time in the roaster tray- I underestimated the time and in the end the potatoes were not as done as I like - another lesson learned.

What was on? I prepped the Brown Sugar Baste and dressing for the potato salad during the Titans game. Congratulations Chris Johnson on a great 2,006 yard season. Ed Hochuli, the ref that called the "phantom" holding penalty on Ahmard Hall, must have been a nostalgic Dickerson fan - because he is too good a ref to have made that bogus call. Without that flag, CJ would have been within 50 yards of the overall rushing record and at least four minutes would have been saved off the clock. Ed, do less curls at the gym and do more reading of the rule book!

With the Titans eighth win I also lost a bet. Back in October when the Titans were 0-6, I looked at the remaining scheduled and declared that the best they could possibly do was end 6-10. Dorothy, who knows all the players better than most and has met many at training camp, understood that it would take great character to turn the season around. She knew the team had such character and predicted an 8-8 finish. Now no team in NFL history had ever started 0-6 and ended 8-8, so I figured she was crazy. I saw an opportunity to display my football knowledge and profit in the meantime.  So we bet a steak dinner (one cooked by a real chef). She would pay if the Titans ended 6-10 as I had predicted. We would go "dutch treat" if the final record was 7-9, and I would pay if they ended with her long-shot prediction of 8-8. This was a sucker bet, right? Wrong. The Titans won eight of the last ten games and now she is selecting between Morton's or Ruth's Chris.

While the chicken was roasting there was only one program to watch - the Food Network's Iron Chef America event from the White House. Michelle Obama told the competitors that the secret ingredient for their contest was "anything from the White House garden." In the end, Bobby Flay and teammate and White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford were named the winners - no surprise! You should check out the video of Bobby grilling steaks with President Obama. You can find it on the Food Network's website.

Weather Report - The cold continues in the mid-south. Tennesseans don't think of themselves as being from the deep-south. That would be Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. When I lit the grill it was 20 degrees and clear. Without cloud cover to act as an insulating blanket, the temp continued to drop to 11 overnight. It would have been a great night to go flying, if you could get the engine started. Wings create the best lift in the think, cold air and the winter stars provide a much better show than the ones out on a summer night. Its a risk/reward kind of thing. If you pay the price of braving the cold you get rewarded with the best flying on a winter's night.

What to drink? The barbecue baste and the potato dressing were filled with chipotles, cilantro, cayenne, green onion, shallots, paprika, and garlic. With that much flavor we needed something that could stand up to this meal. Dorothy brought out the bold flavor of a Diseno Malbec from Argentina and it easily met this spice challenge.

Congratulations Bobby for some more great grilling ideas and congratulations again to CJ and Dorothy for their victories!

Paul