Camping Weekend Coming Up!

Greetings Foodies! I'm really excited today because I'm planning out the meals for my camping trip to Wisconsin this weekend! It's going to be an awesome one, and I absolutely can't wait! Friday, I'm off work at noon (Thanks Dan "The Lobster Man"!) and I'm leaving directly from the office for the Illinois/Wisconsin Border. This is where we are spending Friday night, and Friday night is going to be AWESOME. Why do you ask will Friday be so awesome??? I'll tell you why dear readers...Friday is going to rock my socks because I get to make Camp Fire Roasted Surf & Turf!!! There is NOTHING I love more than a great meal around a crackling fire in the woods. It's just so peaceful and serene. I wish I had more weekends to get out and camp, but living in the Midwest kinda puts a damper on that whole late fall/winter camping thing.
At any rate, I will be making Maine Lobster Tails and probably our Filet Mignon as well over the campfire withe Cheddar Stuffed Fire Roasted Potatoes, and Campfire Roasted Caramel Stuffed Apples. Both the Cheddar Stuffed Fire Roasted Potatoes and Campfire Roasted Caramel Stuffed Apple recipes came from a fantastic blog I follow called Food & Passion- The Diary of a Food Enthusiast.
Wish I could take credit for the apple and potato recipes, but I'm content to riff on someone's genius for a few minutes if it will allow me to enjoy an incredible meal. I did adapt the apple recipe to include caramel instead of Nutella. The boy who follows me is not a big fan of Nutella, or at least that's what he says. in all honesty... I don't think he even knows what Nutella is.
He had lead a sheltered food life until he met me. Believe it or not, it was a BIG fight just to get him to try ribs. Yes...tender, flavorful, BBQ Ribs... somehow he ended up convinced he didn't like them. Once I got him to try it, it was all over. He was suddenly angry he had lost 30 years of eating ribs to sheer ignorance. Oh well...better late than never!
Anyway...I digress. Back to my weekend plans. Friday will be the Surf & Turf feast, and Saturday I'm going to the Reconnaissance Fair!
For anyone who has never attended Ren fair...go. I'm sure there is one near you, so don't be afraid to let your freak flag fly and get there! The food rocks (Giant Turkey legs, beef ribs and ice cream crepes), the people are awesome and it's just an all around great time.
After a day of Renaissance fun, it's off to the area of the Wisconsin Dells where my best friend is currently living. It's been like a month and a half since I have seen him so I'm excited and he is planning a pig roast Saturday night. Who does not love a pig roast?
Well, that's my little rant about the upcoming weekend...anyone else have big food plans for this weekend?

Ham Recipe Sent Via Comment

Good Monday afternoon foodies. I hope all of you had a great weekend! This morning I received a great Ham recipe comment on my Niman Ham post. This recipe sounds so good, I felt it should be a post of it's own. So here it is...I can't wait to give this one a shot.
And thanks again to @diella and @jeffallennyc !



Here's what we would do:
a) make a paste of mustard, minced garlic, paprika, fresh herbs (thyme is nice) and black pepper.
b) score the surface of the ham all over. Slather with mustard paste.
c) Drain and rinse a bag or two of sauerkraut.
d) In a roasting pan put sliced yellow onions, kraut, some garlic cloves, bay leaves, fresh thyme, whole peppercorns, some cloves, and a couple bottles of light German style beer.
e) add some smoked pork Kielbasa cut into 1-2 inch pieces
f)Place the ham on top of the kraut, cover the whole thing with foil and bake in the oven the right amount of time for the size of your ham. Then uncover and cook for additional 30 minutes or until a nice crust forms from the paste.

We like to slice and eat with rye bread, some of the kraut, sliced pickles and spicy mustard. Pairs nicely with beer or an off-dry Riesling. It also goes excellently with breakfast. Fry up some eggs and add thin ham slices to the pan and fry at the same time. Put on a bagel or English muffin, add a little Swiss or cheddar, etc.

Enjoy!
@diella and @jeffallennyc

Images from making the Niman Ham at Lobster Gram

Good Friday afternoon to all my Foodies out there! It's been a super busy week for me here, but I wanted to share the pictures from our LG lunch this week when we prepared our NEW Niman Ranch Ham. Didn't even need a recipe for this baby...It came with it's own PERFECT brown sugar glaze. The whole process couldn't have been any easier. Just mix 2 tbs water to glaze powder and heat until sugar dissolves, slather the gorgeous ham in this aromatic glaze, wrap in foil and heat 10-12 min per lb on 325. Easy Peasy people...I can't believe I had never tried this before.
The ham was incredible, and everyone who passed through the test kitchen exclaimed "It smells like Christmas in here!". I kept telling them it was because I had a big oven full of Christmas cooking, but no one believed me. I guess that's the drawback of being sarcastic most of the time haha.
Anyway, enough of my pointless Ham rantings (It's making me hungry to even talk about this ham) Here are the images. Hope everyone has a rocking weekend!

In Search of the Perfect Ham Recipe for The Niman Ranch Ham

Yesterday I was given a task for Thursday by the President of our company. The orders: Get someone to organize the office for another office lunch date (taken care of by the ever efficient Dr. Proctor) and cook the 10 lb Niman Ranch Ham in the fridge for the office for lunch.
Yes...that's right.
A 10 lb Niman Ranch Ham. I'm salivating at the very thought of it.
This year is the very first year Lobster Gram is teaming up with legendary Niman Ranch. A small selection of Niman meats will be available in the Lobster Gram 2010 catalog due to be released early this fall. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Niman Ranch and their superior meats, here is a link to their web site.
They raise their animals with NO added hormones, antibiotics or animal by-products, and humane practices. The result renders some of the finest meats ever to grace the tables of such legendary eateries as Gibsons Bar & Steak House right here in sweet home Chicago...and Chicago is a leading authority when it comes to meat.
The next step...trying to find a great simple ham recipe that will appeal to all of my coworkers, and not force me to spend my day dieing in the heat downstairs.
So here is my issue. My family sticks with a great easy recipe for ham. Drench it in 7up and bake it in a oven bag. It's always flavorful and tender beyond all belief, but I'm wondering if this way might be a little too simple for use on a great ham like this.
I realize being what it is, the flavors and tenderness will be there even if I spear the ham and cook it over a 55 gallon drum with a fire burning in it on the corner of Wabash & Michigan...so why mess with perfection?
On the other hand...such a beautiful ham deserves the very best gourmet treatment we can supply for it, and our test kitchen is more than capable of doing just that.
So I pose this question to you my dear readers. What would you do with a 10 lb Niman Ranch Ham?
Leave me a comment and let me know! If you have a great recipe for ham, simple or otherwise, feel free to share it! I only have about 24 hours till cooking time so I need to figure this one out fast!

Lobster Gram BBQ

Good morning Foodies! As I am back in the office again...it's time to share the pictures from our Lobster Gram BBQ we had here in the office last week. Had a lot of cooking to do for it, but it was a lot of fun and great to prepare our new Angus burgers for the first time. Man are those things tasty! We also served some of our giant franks, a bunch of great Lobster Gram desserts, and every employee brought a side dish, chips, fresh fruit or condiments for the food. All in all, it was a great way for all of us to enjoy a fantastic meal together and cut some of the stress out of the week, and we are doing it again this week Thursday with a 10lb spiral cut Niman Ranch ham. Hopefully I can talk my Mom into making a huge batch of German Potato Salad to bring with...nothing goes better with ham than warm German Potato Salad. Tomorrow night is the Beauty Brands and Trends expo at NoMi so it's going to be an exciting week of food and blogging!
And with no further rambling....here are the pictures from the Lobster Gram BBQ!

Images from Roasted Dungeness Crab with Orange Dipping Sauce

A feast for the eyes!

Oven Roasted Dungeness Crab with Orange Dipping Sauce

Good Wednesday morning foodies. It's a slow start for me today, I can't seem to wake up! Last night I made Oven Roasted Dungeness crabs with orange dipping sauce. I made just the legs of the Dungeness this way, and the body meat I threw into an Alfredo sauce that went into the freezer for dinner some other night. Yay for planning ahead!
My camera man/ Sous Chef/boy was cool enough to use the awesome new pasta press to make home made noodles to have with the crab. I would have liked to serve it over a green salad or something like that, but he was DIEING to try it out and hand made pasta is always friggen awesome. I won't turn down home made pasta/help because I'm not insane...(no comments from the peanut gallery on that one please)thankfully everything turned out excellent.
We both enjoyed the orange dipping sauce so much I went back to the stove and made a bowl of it to bring to the dinner table. What we had drizzled on the crab was never going to be enough. I even used the reduction to dip my bread into. I wish I would have had enough of it to freeze some for later use. That would be an awesome marinade for a lot of different seafood dishes.
Enough of my rambling...I do that when I'm tired.
Here is the video and the recipe for last night's seafood adventure! Later today, I'll be downstairs in front of the Lobster Gram warehouse preparing our NEW Angus Steak Burgers, our Giant 7-8 oz Bratwurst and Giant 7-8 oz Hot dogs for the office. It's another one of our famous BBQ days and that's always a blast. I'll definitely have some great pictures to share with you all from that! Happy Eating foodies!


Ingredients
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/4 cup olive oil (Use Orange)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 1/2 teaspoons dried crushed red pepper
|2 large Dungeness crabs, cooked, cleaned, and cracked (about 4 1/4 pounds)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme, divided
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, divided
1/2 cup blood orange juice or regular orange juice
1 teaspoon finely grated blood orange peel or regular orange peel

Directions
Preheat oven to 500°F. Melt butter with oil in heavy large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in garlic and green onion. Add crabs. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon chopped thyme and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley over crabs. Stir to combine.
Place crab legs in oven dish and pour melted butter mixture over crab. Roast crabs until heated through, stirring once, about 12 minutes. When Crabs are roasted, pour crab drippings from roasting dish back into the skillet you used before and add orange juice and peel to same skillet; Add the other tbs of Thyme and Parsley. Boil until sauce is reduced by about half and serve drizzled over crab and along side it for dipping.