Father's Day Menu: Steaks, Potatoes & the Wedge

Men are so easy to please. Give them a good steak, potatoes and a cold beer or a glass of red wine and most of them are happy campers. Here's the menu I'm planning for Father's Day. It's simple and delish. In less than one hour,  you're ready to make some man very happy.

Martie's Steakhouse Steak

Steak of your choice

Kosher Salt

Fresh cracked pepper

Butter- 2 tablespoons for the skillet and 1/4 cup for the herb butter

Olive oil- about two tablespoons

Fresh finely chopped herbs of your choice--- basil or rosemary both work well-- chives are stronger but also nice. About a tablespoon is all you need but that's up to you if you want more--- add more.

For the herb butter, place 1/4 cup butter at room temp in a small bowl and use a fork to sort of mash and whip it until soft. Add your finely chopped herbs and mix well. Line a small ramekin or bowl with plastic wrap and spoon the butter mixture into it. Wrap the plastic over the butter and chill well. You can unmold this when you are ready to use it.

Get the cut of meat you like. I got a nice thick porterhouse--- but any steak cut will do for this recipe. Also, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. You will have to vary your cooking time based on the degree of doneness you want for your steak.

Let a large cast iron skillet begin to heat over low flame. Add a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of good olive oil to the pan and let them melt together. You may need more depending on the size of your pan.

Season both sides of the steak really well with salt and pepper.

When the butter is melted-- it burns easily so watch out---and the pan is hot, put in your steak and sear it well on both sides. Do not pick up the steak or move it around. Let it caramelize on one side before turning it--- about 3 minutes per side depending on the heat and the size of your steak. After you've seared the steak on both sides, carefully move it to your oven. I like my steak medium so I cook it in the oven for about 6 or 7 minutes or until the meat thermometer reaches about 140-145 degrees. Rare is about 120-125 degrees and medium rare about 130-135 degrees. 

After the steak has been in the oven for about 3-4 minutes, open the door and put a large slice of the herb butter on top of the steak-- it will melt down over the steak and add a wonderful flavor during the last minutes of cooking. Serve the remaining herb butter on the side or with the potatoes. Soooo good-- this is my favorite way to cook a steak. And no grilling required.

To round out the menu, serve your man's favorite potatoes and a salad wedge. 

For the wedge-- cut our old friend iceberg lettuce into equal size wedges. Chill until serving time. Sprinkle with bacon, cheese, toasted almond slivers or your favorite toppings. Serve with this delish faux-thousand island dressing my mom used to make.

1 cup mayo

1/4 cup ketchup

the yolk of one hard boiled egg

1 tablespoon dill relish or to taste

salt and pepper to taste

Mix together well and chill until serving time.

This easy to make, easy to love menu will soon become your go-to favorite for the men in your life! Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there and a special shout out to the men who step up and act like a dad for a kid who needs one.

Ask Martie: Help! My Supper Club is soooo BORING!

Teresa from Nashville, TN (one of my favorite cities!) asks:

Hi Martie, our monthly supper club has gotten so boring. It's always the same thing. Any suggestions to change it up a little? I want to do something different, maybe a theme? Our supper club is all couples and every time we get together, the girls end up in the kitchen and the guys end up in front of the TV watching whatever game is on. How do we turn this from a dinner to a party? We love your website, it is wonderful to have a place to get ideas just for parties.

Hey Teresa from Nashville-  thanks for the question! One thing I know for sure. Good food and drinks are the foundation for any good party. Since everyone is cooking at home more these days--- and since the girls are already hanging out in the kitchen, why not host a "TOP CHEF" party? This one is really fun and it gets everyone in on the action.

Couples draw a course--- drinks, appetizer, soup, salad, entree, dessert. If you have 10 couples, add several drinks, appetizers, entrees or desserts so everyone gets a course. Couples arrive with their dishes already assembled or with most of the ingredients prepped and ready to go. If kitchen space is  limited, ask guests to bring their dishes already done or open up some additional space by firing up your grill. They can use slow-cookers or whatever they need. Set up folding tables to give everyone room to work. The teams have a timer and everyone has to complete their dish by a designated time.

Everyone votes for their favorite. Have prizes for the top three winners. Gift cards from Williams-Sonoma, a set of measuring cups, spatulas, ice cream scoop, cocktail shaker, cookbooks, spices, a good bottle of vanilla or liqueur you can cook with like a bottle of Grand Marnier. Any prize is great.

We did this party one time--- it was a blast.  We all took pictures and exchanged recipes after the party. Even the guys loved it and the TV never even came on, not even Food Network!

Hope this help! If you have a question or party problem, email me!

Affordable BBQ Party Recipes: Beer Can Chicken

Planning a party this weekend? Well, it's summer and as far as I'm concerned, that is reason enough to have a party. You don't have to go all out--- just invite a couple of friends over and fire up the grill. There are lots of easy grilling recipes that look as good as they taste. Your friends will start calling you Grillmaster when you bust out my Beer Can Chicken! Beer Can Chicken is juicy, tender and full of smoky flavor---plus it looks festive and fun. The bird stays moist from the steam created from sitting perched atop an open beer can. You want the bird to sit squarely on the can so smaller birds tend to fit better. Since whole chickens are a pretty good buy at the store these days, you can stretch your party dollar and feed a big crowd with ease and originality. I use the actual beer cans for grilling my chickens but you can find a vertical chicken roaster that is more stable than trying to keep the birds balanced on a can. If you don't want to use beer-- you can use a can of lemonade--- the fizzy kind of lemonade works best.

Here's the recipe:

Big Bud Beer Can Chicken

Start with your favorite BBQ rub or make one. Here's my recipe:

2 T. Brown sugar

1/4 c. Paprika

2 t. Cayenne pepper

1 t. Granulated sugar

2 t. Kosher salt

1 1/2 t. Dry mustard

1 t. Black pepper

1 t. Garlic powder

1 t. Onion powder

1 t. Celery salt

1/4 t. Chipotle pepper (optional but gives a nice smoky flavor)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl or plastic Zip loc bag.

Other ingredients:

1 large can Budweiser beer per chicken

1 T.  Vegetable oil per bird

Trim excess skin or fat from each bird. Remove and do whatever the heck you want with any "giblets" or disgusting packages you sometimes get with a whole bird. Wash and rinse the chickens under cold water and pat dry. Do I have to tell you to wash your hands after handling raw poultry? Didn't think so.

Rub each bird with one tablespoon vegetable oil. This helps the skin crisp and holds the rub.

Spoon a tablespoon of the rub mixture into the cavity of the bird and rub it in well. Rub another tablespoon of the rub mixture into the flesh of the bird by gently lifting the skin. Rub another tablespoon of the rub mixture onto the skin of the bird. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before grilling. Remove the birds as you get ready to light the grill to take the chill off before you put them on the grill. Open the beer and drink about half. If you have several birds, you may need some friends to help you with this step so you won't get a G.U.I. (grilling under the influence) or blow yourself up lighting the grill. Now, grab a bird and push it down onto the beer can so it looks like it is dancing. Put some music on because it is more fun to dance (and grill) with music.

LOW & SLOW GRILLING ON INDIRECT HEAT

Light the grill. Once coals are about medium heat, push the coals around the edges of the grill leaving the center open. I always put a grill pan in the middle. Since we're cooking LOW & SLOW, you may need to have extra coals available if you are using charcoal. I keep mine in a chimney style charcoal starter.

Place the dancing beer can birds on the grill. Push the birds down onto the can so the legs help prop it up sort of like a camera tripod. Close the lid.

The birds will take about 1 1/2 -2 hours to cook depending on size and heat. The bird is done when it reaches about 165 degrees in the breast. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before carving the bird.

Need some cold beverages for this party? Try my new fav, Spiked Sweet Tea or lemonade that is best spiked with a little bourbon and Grand Marnier. Check out the Farmstand BBQ article and slideshow for more grilling ideas!

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Favorite Summer Drinks: Pomegranate Spiked Sweet Tea

We're getting lots of cool drink recipes for our Summer Drink Contest! Keep 'em coming-- the contest ends June 14. Here's one of my newest and by far, easiest favorite summer drinks. You won't believe how delish and refreshing this one is!

POMEGRANATE SPIKED SWEET TEA

You already know I love Pama. And in the south, we love "sweet" tea. It's an iced tea that is pre-sweetened with plenty of sugar. It is truly the only thing that will quench your thirst on a sweltering hot summer day. When you go to a restaurant in the south and order "tea" you will get the follow-up question: "Sweet or unsweet?" Southern sweet tea is what inspired this drink because we always have plenty of sweet tea around and you already know how much I love Pama Liqueur. I combined the two and viola! The perfect summer drink you can sip all afternoon. 

Here's the recipe:

2 ounces chilled PAMA Liqueur to 5 ounces sweet tea. Serve over ice. Done!

In some areas, you can buy tea in gallon jugs at the store but it is simple (and cheaper) to make it yourself. Here's a great recipe for Southern Sweet Tea from MyRecipes.com if you don't already know how to make it. When I make sweet tea for my friends from other countries, they absolutely love it! Sometimes, I prefer to make a big pitcher of unsweetened tea and provide simple syrup on the side so guests can sweeten their tea to their own taste. Always serve sweet tea with lemon slices and fresh mint if you have it. You can even do a variation on sweet tea. Make it with peach, mix it with lemonade-- that's called an Arnold Palmer. I love this one with chamomile and lavender-- so delicate and delicious. Make your simple syrup with a unique flavor like strawberries, lemon, basil--- you get the idea!

Back to the Classics BBQ for Memorial Day: Dessert Ideas

Don't forget the dessert! For this year's back-to-the-classics Memorial Day BBQ, you're going to need some refreshing old-school desserts to round out the menu. Here are a few easy suggestions: 

WATERMELON FREEZE

Everyone loves watermelon at a summer BBQ so I always have it on the menu. In addition to big wedges of watermelon, I've added a new favorite I call Watermelon Freeze. You can make this with or without the alcohol but we loved it with!

Use a small melon baller to scoop out about 10-12 melon balls per guest. Put them in a large mixing bowl and add 1 cup lemon-lime soda and 1/2 cup Limoncello liqueur. (I substituted Orange liqueur once and it was good, too) Toss well to coat the melon. Allow it to absorb the liquid for about an hour in the fridge then you can pop the melon balls into individual serving cups or you can transfer to large freezer bags if you need to transport. Place into the freezer allowing the melon to freeze for at least 2 hours. To serve, carefully scoop the frozen melon balls into serving dishes and top with a drizzle of the Limoncello- I keep my Limoncello in the freezer so it is really cold. Delish!

ICE CREAM DREAMS

I dream about ice cream, do you? Homemade ice cream is not as difficult as it was when I was a kid; there's no cranking these days! My mom made the best homemade ice cream so we never really complained about the cranking--- it just took too darn long to get to the good stuff! Here's a recipe I found on MyRecipes.com that is very close to my mom's fresh peach ice cream, which was one of our favorite treats every summer. Make ice cream sundaes, or just add a bunch of sweetened, fresh berries to your double scoop. Here's a whole ice cream slideshow to help you find the perfect recipe for your crowd.    

OH MY---PIE!

How about an ice cream pie? I've seen tons of beautiful cherries in the stores lately--- so perhaps your should pick this Cherries Jubilee Pie as your sweet ending? Yum.

So, you don't want to cook this holiday weekend? Then I have a little secret for you. Costco has the most amazing apple pie! It is soooo good and it is beautiful, too. I have served this several times and guests thought it was homemade. (I may or may not have corrected them) Take a look at this Costco apple pie topped with ice cream-- the ultimate old school dessert for our back-to-the-classics BBQ.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Update on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 9:14PM by Martie Duncan

Hey! I made the Watermelon Freeze again yesterday for a backyard BBQ with friends Sam and Carolyn--- two of my favorite foodie friends and most reliable recipe taste testers. Sam made his famous ribs and BBQ sauce-- more on that tomorrow!! Yum!

A few more tips for Watermelon Freeze:

If you don't want to fool with a melon baller, watermelon chunks taste just as good!

Save your watermelon juice to make Watermelon Mojitos--- recipe to come!

Use 1/2 of the amount of Limoncello to the lemon-lime soda. You can always add a little more if you like.

Leave it in the freezer for about an hour before serving--- max. Tastes best just slushy.

It looks really pretty when you add the lemon-lime soda-- it fizzes up. You might add a little at the table for show just before serving!

If you want to make it for the kids, skip the Limoncello and add a little sprinkle of lemon-lime Kool-Aid mix, and stir in the soda.