Earl Gets a Leg (and Thigh) Up on Lunch

My wife brought home a lovely rotisserie chicken so I could make a homemade chicken noodle soup. One of the best deals in most supermarkets and warehouse stores are their rotisserie chickens. Whether you use them for soup or one of the myriad of other dishes, or even just sit down and eat them caveman style, you cant go wrong. For my soup, I need the meat to place in my vegetable broth for a quasi-homemade chicken soup. Just one thing...my wife doesn't care for dark meat!  This is a win for me because I do! I set the chickens hind quarters aside for me for lunch later and this post is the result.

I don't care much for proteins heated in a microwave — especially if the are bone-in, and chicken NEVER! A microwave changes their flavor and textures to something I consider inedible. So I have these hind quarters from the rotisserie chicken and I have decisions to make. My first thought is chicken salad, always a great lunch, but no, I want to eat them as I did in my youth, when we would all scream for the legs, so I decided to heat them up whole. Not in the microwave, on my stove top grill! I heat the grill up, place them on it and use a bacon press to give it some nice crispiness and lovely grill marks.

It takes a bit longer to get them warm, but the flavor is worth it. If you don't have a grill pan, you can place them on a wire rack in the oven or even a skillet. 

I ate them caveman style and enjoyed every bite. 

Earl Cooks Smoked Brisket & Veggies for Sunday Dinner

Roast Beef was one of my mom's favorite Sunday dinners to cook, because it was a one-pot meals that could cook while we were at Sunday Services. On the TV series "Big Bang Theory Howard Wolowitz's mother makes a nice brisket, and of course for St. Patrick's Day corned beef brisket becomes corned beef & cabbage. We never had brisket growing up, just whatever roast was on sale. This last summer I was introduced to Capt. Len's Smoked brisket, and fell in love!

In years past when I had brisket in other BBQ places it was okay, but often dry and not real flavorful.

But the Captain's is Special. Shown Right is a whole smoked brisket after the Captain's rub, developed over years, and then smoked for many hours. Below is the piece I was working with for our dinner.

I placed the brisket in my favorite slow cooker, to bring it up to temp. I don't need to add additional seasonings and it is fully cooked, so I line the slow cooker with onion slices to provide moisture and protect the brisket. Quartered Yukon Gold potatoes are placed on top of the onions and the juices from the brisket will run down and make them brown and luscious. A few carrots are placed around the crock-pot. I made a simple Au Jus to drizzle over all and leftover brisket becomes an awesome Sunday dinner.

I always want to have extra brisket on hand for this and many other meals. It goes great in Ramen, stew, sandwiches and I made some Jerky that was a real hit and I will share in an upcoming post.

Earl Eats Wendy's Giant Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger Meal - A Review

It seems to me that when I see an ad for a new food product, I take it as a challenge! I don't know why but I want to compare and contrast whatever they are offering with their prior offers or similar offerings from their competition. This post is no different. Wendy's advertised a limited time offering of a GIANT Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger, I had to give it a go. The pictures on the left show mine on the top with a side view. And below the picture Wendy's has. I am no food stylist, but you can see the difference. This combo is only $5 and includes 4 chicken nuggets, a small fry, the Giant Jr. and a drink. My break down is $1 for the fries, $1 for 4 nuggets $1 for a small drink, making the Giant Jr. $2.

Results & Conclusions:
First let me say that I will buy this again if the limited time isn't too limited. Next let me tell you that the Wendy's original JBC has always been one of my favorite bargain burgers because, well, BACON! And while this did not look like the advertised burger, it was good and relatively tasty!. You can get bigger drinks at other fast food places and you can get 10 nuggets for a buck at Burger King, though Wendy's are the second best (the best being Chick-Fil-A), and fries are, well fries.

When compared to the other $5 combos out there, this is at the top of the pile and blows away Taco Bell's $5 offerings. If you like Wendy's burgers, you should try this.

One of the things I like about this burger is that it has leaf lettuce and a nice slice of tomato. Their meat is never frozen and I think that shows, mostly in the texture. They say it is twice the beef and twice the bacon, and it tastes like it!!

Earl Eats Beyond - Way Beyond!

For my first post of the year, I never expected this! Let me clarify that this is NOT a move toward a vegan or vegetarian way of life. In my household we are meatatarian all the way, but events came together and voilà! I found myself eating a meatless burger at a fast food joint!
Let me explain the events that created this collision.
We had a family wedding reception to attend and didn't have time to eat beforehand. Just as we left, the weekly load of junk-mail arrived and I noticed something strange...Carl's Jr. is now offering MEATLESS burgers! I put that tidbit of knowledge in the back of my mind and we went to the reception. At the reception we could have loaded up on pastries and punch, but I decide we should stop somewhere on the way home to get a burger. There was a Carl's Jr. en route, and I decided I wanted to try their meatless marvel. They call it the "Beyond Meat Famous Star". It isn't cheap at $6.50 for the burger alone, but I decide to give it a try, and was I ever surprised! It looked like a burger, had all the condiments of a burger and even the almost melted slice of American cheese was there! (Yeah, I know that part isn't vegan, so sue me...or leave it off). Now for the tests...taste and texture. The taste was much like every fast food burger and surprisingly beefy for a no-meat burger. The texture was a bit off, but I don't think I would have noticed if I hadn't know it wasn't beef. It had a graininess to it, but better than most dollar burger offerings. It does have a bit of a preformed look to it but no worse than most fast food burgers.

And now the nutrition numbers. I normally don't post this kind of info because normally I don't care. But I thought I it was interesting on TWO points. The numbers are almost identical except for #1-Iron The Beyond has more than DOUBLE the iron of the beef #2-Cholesterol, the Beyond has NONE. 

I should note for anyone who might be vegan, that the Beyond Burger Patty is certified VEGAN, but the Carl's Jr. burger is NOT. It is prepared with mayonnaise (eggs) and is not produced in a vegan facility, something I didn't know was even a thing! Of course the American cheese makes it non-vegan too, although the jury is still out on whether their is really dairy in many of those slices😏.

You can now buy the patties in most large supermarket chains. The plant protein comes from peas, which was a surprise because, as I stated earlier, I have never cared about alternate sources of protein because I am perfectly happy with eating chicken, pork, and beef in all of their forms.
In Conclusion:
Go try this! It is tasty and filling. I won't be replacing burgers with it anytime soon, but a surprise is always welcome! Next time I may try it without cheese and add sliced avocado instead!