CHAR BROIL MAIDEN COOK WITH MARINATED SHOULDER LAMB CHOPS

My new Charbroil Big Easy Smoker, Roaster, Grill is now put together and seasoned, so tonight I will be using it for the first time, to grill my lone, marinated shoulder lamb chop on the infrared grill, but before I do, I'll be checking some of the You Tube videos for some tips.

This garlic, fresh rosemary, lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, salt and fresh ground black pepper marinade that I use gives great flavor to this budget cut of lamb; and I think the bones in these shoulder lamb chops actually add more flavor to the meat than some of the more expensive cuts. Plus, my dog Bodhi loves chewing on those bones.

The reason I bought this Charbroil Big Easy SRG, was because I could place it one my covered back porch, which is right out my kitchen door; and there's no flame back from grease using an infra red grill, which is a nice bonus, and you can add some wood chips in a little smoker box if you want to add some smoking flavor. I won't bother with that tonight since this chop will cook in less than five minutes, and I may be cooking with the lid open as well. The infra red technology also makes things cook faster and you can get really good, crispy skin on roast chickens in these cookers. A roast chicken will be my next test but that won't be for another week or more since I just had a big roast chicken and two days of leftover this week already!

I also found out from other owners on the Internet's Let's talk BBQ forum, that you can make good pizzas on the grill, which supposedly gets hotter than the average home oven. So now I will have to buy a new pizza stone since my current stone is a one inch thick, 15X15 inch silicon carbide shelf which is too heavy to keep lifting and hauling back and forth; but before I do, I'll use my laser heat gun to double check hot the preheated unit actually gets

My home oven does a great job, but it takes an hour to heat up that big oven and that very thick silicon carbide stone. And in summer, having an oven on that long heats up the house and uses a lot more energy than this Charbroil that can heat up in 15 minutes, or so. 

The veggie garden is giving me a lot beans, tomatoes, kale, zucchini and cucumbers at the moment. The butternut squash is big with more coming, but I won't harvest them yet because I want them to harden well for winter storage. The veggies I planted for fall - snow peas, lettuce, spinach, and the second crop of beans are doing well. The new beans are starting to flower and since there are a lot of them, most will be blanched for freezer storage. The rattlesnake pole beans I planted late are already producing, but not the Asian long beans. The recently planted mixed varieties of beets are up about 1" now, and doing well in their planter. I only wanted enough for fresh eating, so a large, round planter was a good place for them. Plus, I had run out of space in my raised beds, so I'm glad I saved all those big planters from the other house!

The garden also gifted me some volunteer broccolis and collards, so I will be pulling out some of the older broccoli plants and non wintering kale, to make room for these few volunteers.

We've had cooler days the past week, which has been delightful and cut down on my hand watering; but in a couple of days we'll be back to the high 80's with a few 90's right behind, so the basil and tomatoes will be happy; but not so sure how well the beets are going to fare in a week of such hot weather. 

Well, time for me to strain the chicken stock I made last night using the carcass of the roast chicken. I'll keep a quart of the broth for the freezer for a Stracciatelli soup I want to make in another week or two, and freeze the rest with the veggies and a bit of the meat for a future dinner once the cold weather come back.