Tuscan Cannellini Beans

Posted on by June 3, 2026

This dish turned out great. It was easy to make and Mary enjoyed it as a thick soup and I had it beside Jasmine rice. This was the first time to cook cannellini beans but will not be the last. We found them at Rouses.

We will make this again. It roughly followed the recipe by the same name here. The original ingredients from that recipe we did not include are shown struck through. Their Directions were quite different than what we did here. If we did not have the ham bone then their process would be best but would have yielded a somewhat different dish based on chicken stock rather than ham stock.

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Smoked Turkey Gumbo

Posted on by March 5, 2022

11/26/2021 – Followed our first cook here fairly closely although began with the carcass from a turkey that, the day before, had been spatchcocked and seasoned under the skin and top with about our Creole Poultry Seasoning.  This was a bit different than before in addition to the turkey having been smoked on the new Rec Tec. It was very good.

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Smoked: Ham, Stuffed Poblanos, & Armadillo Eggs

Posted on by November 19, 2021

11/17/2021 – Bought a small Smithfield ham, ground beef, ground pork, and Rouces’ Armadillo Eggs with Butt Rub.

Set the RECTEC (RT) on 300°.

Ham

  1. Trimmed off all outside fat and split it along the muscle seam. Cleaned out the fat and junk from the seam.
  2. Shook on a liberal coating of Stubb’s Hot Pork Rub we made.
  3. Put the two pieces into the RT on the right hand end.

Rouces’ Armadillo Eggs

Chicken breast stuffed with creme cheese and some sort of sausage then wrapped in thick-sliced bacon.

  1. Shook on moderately Creole Poultry Seasoning
  2. Put them in the RT

2:00 PM – Put the above in the RT.

Stuffed Poblanos

  1. Partially browned the ground meats then added onion and garlic chopped small. Continued simmering until the onions were soft. The meat was barely done.
  2. Filled the poblanos that had been cut in half, seeded and stemmed.
  3. Put them on the RT

The Smoke

2:45 PM – Put the poblanos in the RT.

3:45 PM – Seemed like it was too hot so turned the RT down to 280°.

4:30 PM – Pulled the Aermadillo Eggs that had and internal temp of 160-170° and let them rest for about 20 minutes. Ate them for dinner and they were great.

Dirty Rice by an Opelousas Grandmother

Posted on by November 9, 2021

11/92021 – From Cajun Creole Recipe Circle on FB as made by a woman in Opelousas whose daughter-in-law said is ” a fabulous Creole and Cajun cook.”

Jane Hall Harmon Cajun & Creole Recipe Circle

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground beef and 1 pound ground pork
  • 1 cup chicken livers browned in 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 large sweet onion
  • 1 green bell pepper
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 1 bunch green onions
  • 4 toes garlic
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 32 ounces beef stock
  • 1 beef bouillon cube
  • Lea & Perrin Worcestershire Sauce
  • Sugar
  • Lowery’s Seasoning Salt
  • Black pepper
  • Cayenne
  • Tony Chacherie’s or your favorite creole seasoning
  • 2 1/2 to 3 cups uncooked rice

Preparation

  1. In a small saucepan brown the chicken livers in the butter, very brown. Cool and food process until a paste. Scrape the bottom of the saucepan with a little boiling water and add to paste.
  2. Brown, very dark, the beef and pork together…no oil needed. There’s enough fat in the pork. It’s okay if it sticks a little.
  3. Add the chopped onion
  4. Add 3/4 of the green bell pepper, chopped…save 1/4
  5. Add 3/4 of the red bell pepper, chopped…..save 1/4
  6. Add 4 cloves of garlic, pressed
  7. Add the white part of the green onion chopped…save the green part
  8. Add the chicken liver paste
  9. Add the 32 ounces of beef stock
  10. Add bay leaves
  11. Add the beef bouillon cube
  12. Turn to high heat and bring to a boil, stirring and scraping bottom
  13. Turn down to simmer, lid on
  14. Simmer 2-3 hours until veggies disintegrate
  15. Next:
  16. Taste while adding seasoning:
    1. Worcestershire….2 tablespoons
    2. Salt, black pepper and cayenne
    3. 2 teaspoons sugar
    4. Lowery’s and Tony’s
  17. Remove 2 bay leaves
  18. Cook the rice using directions on package minus 4-5 minutes cooking time. Drain well and add to the meat mixture a cup or two at a time, stirring, and adding until you have the consistency that you like. Some people like it served all stuck together like an ice cream scoop was used. I like it as in my attached photo.
  19. When ready to serve sprinkle with chopped, raw red and green bell pepper and snipped green portion of green onions and fresh chopped curly leaf parsley. Check for seasonings! This is so good with a good bit of black pepper!

Note – You may use yellow or orange bell peppers. If you’re going to place in a big bowl for self-serve stir in all the chopped raw toppings.

Smoked Stuffed Poblanos

Posted on by March 5, 2022

11/8/2021 – We had the new REC TEC going for Butt pieces and a pile of nice size poblano peppers from the garden. Found a good-sounding recipe by Malcolm Reed and used it as a go-by. They turned out very nice but could have been a little hotter.

Ingredients

Tiberon Poblano Peppers from the garden. About 10 cut in half from stem to tip to make 20 stuffed peppers.
1 pound Ground Beef
¼ pound South Alabama Speciality Meets’ Hot Sausage
½ red onion diced
1 pint of Mushrooms diced
½ cup of shredded Mexican blend Cheese
4 sandwich-sliced pepper jack cheese squares
1 bunch of Flat Leaf Parsley
4 cloves of fresh garlic minced
1 cup rice
1 cup of tomato/poblano relish made a few days ago
Note – Struck-out items were in Malcolm’s recipe.

What we did.

  1. Cut the peppers in half, remove the stems and seeds.
  2. Dice the onions.
  3. Brown the ground beef and sausage that had been removed from the casing and cube. The sausage cubes fell apart and that was good. Seasoned the meat with salt and pepper adding the onion and garlic. Once brown remove the grease.
  4. Combine the meat, tomato relish and cheese in a large bowl.
  5. Stuff the peppers by filling each Pepper cavity with the stuffing level with the top.
  6. Smoke in the REC TEC at 225° for 75 minutes.

Original Recipe – Just before the peppers are done, top with shredded cheese. As soon as the cheese melts, the stuffed peppers are ready to take off the cooker and serve.

First Pork Butt on the RecTec

Posted on by March 5, 2022

11/7/2021 – We had two small pieces of a pork butt that would not fit on the Kettle last spring so we vac-packed and froze them. They had been dry brined and rubbed with 6POGS in March of this year; i.e. 8 months ago. They turnedout great with the dark un-burnt bark being the best we ever achieved.

  1. Preheated recteq to 225ºF.
  2. The two pieces smoked for 4 hours
  3. Pulled, double wrapped in thin aluminum foil but first shook on more 6POGS and poured in ACV. Wraped tightly in the foil then put into the oven at 250°.
  4. Turned off about 2 hours later and went to get Mary’s new glasses.
  5. Back home about 4:45. Pulled, poured off a lot of juice, and they were very tender but not falling apart. Bark was tasty and not burned tasting. Great!!!

Very moist maybe due to the very long brine and seasoning in the vac pack in the freezer. Maybe also due to the tight, double layer, wrapping

Fire Roasted/Smoked Salsa

Posted on by November 7, 2021


11/5/2021 – Inspired by Chef Greg at REC TEC Grills here. We did not follow his recipe close enough as the veggies were smoked naked. But, the salsa is good with a lot of potential. Next time put the olive oil on the veggies with the 6POGS so the oil holds the seasoning and catches the smoke.

Ingredients:

Red onion was in the SS perforated bowl.
  1. 2 lbs. of Roma tomatoes. Recipe called for Campari tomatoes.
  2. 3 small Tiburon Poblano Peppers from the garden
  3. 1 red serrano and 1 Pepper Chile G76, both from the garden
  4. 1 avg size red onion
  5. 6POGS
  6. Olive oil
  7. Salt
  8. Pepper
  9. about 2 cups stemmed fresh cilantro
  10. Fresh lime
  11. Honey
  12. Hot sauce. Chrystal

Method:

  1. Cut tomatoes in half and removed seeds and pith
  2. Cut peppers into quarters and removed seeds
  3. Cut red onion into quarters, then cut them in half and broke into 2-3 layer pieces
  4. Should have “Mix ingredients 1-8 in bowl” but just put the veggies in the heated REC TEC
  5. Set grill to 350ºF
  6. Smoked for 30 minutes
  7. Place ingredients into food processor
  8. Add ingredients 9-12 into food processor, adding salt
  9. Pulse ingredients in food processor
  10. Let sit overnight

Dbl. Smoked Ham On New RecTec

Posted on by December 4, 2021

11/4/2021 – This is the second smoke today on our one-day-old RecTec 700. We removed the heavy fat and cleaned up a small ham partially splitting it open between muscles to get rub and smoke into the center. Rubbed it moderately with Stubb’s Hot Pork Rub we had mixed likely back in Houston. It has been in a glass jar with a tight lid.

Put the seasoned ham into the RECTEC that was set at 235°. There was more smoke than earlier today with the thighs when it was set at 350°.

Pulled the ham after 2.5 hours and it was great. The time in the Rectec made an average ham something special.

Smoked Chicken in New RecTec

Posted on by December 4, 2021

11/4/2021 – The RecTec RT-700 wood pellet grill arrived yesterday. Today we smoked chicken thighs and legs with the Ultimate Blend all-natural food-grade Red Oak, White Oak, and Hickory hardwood pellets that came with the smoker. The chicken was part of a 10 lb. bag that we had cleaned up a few days ago and dry brined. They have been waiting for this smoke so had a long time for the salt to work.

Set the PID to 375° and let it come to temperature. The ambient temperature was 60°.

  1. 10:15 – Placed the meat on the righthand half of the grate. Insert both probes into the two largest thighs. Closed the lid.
  2. 11:55 – Probe A was at 173° in the smaller thigh near the center of the grate. Probe B was at 166° in the back righmost position. Pulled them to rest about 15 minutes.

The thighs and the leg were very moist and had a light smoke flavor.

Next Time – Try the Extreme Smoke setting for the first 30-45 minutes then turn it up to 325°.