The casserole is pictured below, and is available from QVC for under $40.00.  This is of exscellent quality and is extremely versatile.  In addition to red, it also comes in blue or black.  Direct link to product.

This recipe for Summer Ale Chicken came with the roaster, and I tried it last night.  I cooked it in the oven; it’s a good way to get a dish that is traditionally BBQ’d cooked indoors, with no fear that you’ll set off the emergency exit alarm.  I like this setup for beer can chicken better than using an actual beer or soda can, because it’s more stable, the chicken won’t tip over when you are moving the pan to and from the oven or BBQ grill.

If you do not have this pan and want to try making this at home, you can certainly go ahead and use a beer or soda can.  If you are using canned beer, drink about half of it, never use a full can of liquid for this or else you’ll have a big mess.  Also, use a church-key style can opener to punch a couple more holes in the top of the can.  Then you set the can with the chicken on it in an oven-safe pan, large enough so that you can scatter the vegetables around it.  If you are doing this on a BBQ, the best bet is a large cast iron skillet; cast iron can definitely stand up to the high heat of a grill.

You can also purchase one of many kinds of beer can chicken racks; some of these will hold the can steady.  For some, you don’t need a can at all, you can just pour your beer right into it, much like my casserole/roaster getup.

First, preheat the oven to 350° F.  If using a grill, set it up for indirect cooking.  For a gas grill, turn off one of the burners.  For a charcoal grill, push all of the coals off to one side.  Please note that the grill has to have a lid that is big enough to cover the chicken as it cooks.  Then, you need to make the spice rub:

2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons paprika
2 Tablespoons coarse sea salt or kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1 teaspoon chili powder

Just mix it all together.  Then, take a whole chicken (4-5 pounds), rinse it well inside and out, pat dry with paper towels, rub it all over with 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil, and then rub all over with the spice rub, including inside the cavity.  Reserve a little of the rub to add to the beer.

Set up the beer can apparatus.  If you are using the pan I have or something similar, pour your beer into it, don’t fill it up too high.  This recipe calls for a summer ale; I used Samuel Adams Summer Ale.  If using a canned beer, drink about half of it, use the church-key can opener to poke a couple more holes in the top of the can.  If you are using a bottled beer like Sam Adams, and don’t have the roaster insert as I do, you can just wash out an empty soda can and use a funnel to pour the beer into that.  Put any leftover spice rub into the beer, and then carefully place the chicken onto the can or roaster insert, basically you are sticking it up the chicken’s butt – I’ve often seen this method of cooking referred to as “beer-butt chicken”.  If using a can, stand the chicken up in the center the pan you’re using, using the legs to make sort of a tripod.  If using a rack, it will stay put on its own.

Now, slice up a couple of onions and scatter them around the bird.  Season the onions with salt, pepper, thyme, and add one bay leaf.  Place the whole thing in the oven.  If using a BBQ, place it over the part of the grill that is turned off/coal-less, for indirect cooking.  Also, if using a grill, pour some beer over the onions so they don’t burn.

A four-pound chicken will take about 75 minutes to roast in the oven, or about an hour on a BBQ grill.  My chicken was about five pounds and took about 90 minutes in the oven.  It’s done when the inner thigh measures 165° F with an instant-read thermometer, it will cook a little further as it rests.

While the chicken cooks, slice up one zucchini, one yellow summer squash, and one red bell pepper.  Season with salt & pepper.  About 1/2 hour before the chicken is done, add these veggies to the onions in the pan and stir to combine.

Once the chicken is done, remove from the oven or the grill and let rest for about five minutes.  Then, VERY CAREFULLY remove it to a cutting board  The beer will be NASA-hot; if using a can, the easiest and safest way is to grasp the chicken with wads of paper towels, hold with both hands, and then have someone else use tongs to carefully pull the can out of the chicken’s butt.  If you have the pan that I do, the top part of the insert (the part with the holes in it) will likely still be stuck up the chicken’s butt.  But since it has holes and it s tube, there won’t be any liquid in it, so you can pull it out with tongs when you place the chicken on the cutting board.  Still, a lot of liquid may come out of the cavity, so use a large cutting board to avoid a mess.

Carve up and serve with the roasted summer veggies.  Drink the rest of the six-pack of whatever beer you used to cook this with.  Enjoy!

They’ve had the cold indicator on the labels for a while now, so it’s nothing new.  The box thing, though is fairly new.

Coors has also been bragging about how their beer is brewed cold (duh, it’s a Lager, aren’t all Lagers cold-brewed?)  and is kept cold.  I suppose they keep it in one of those steel buildings in the middle of the Rockies, until it’s ready to ship, that way they could save on refrigeration costs.  Why not, they skimp on everything else, most notably beer quality.  The only thing they DON’T seem to skimp on is spending money on stupid advertising gimmicks.

Also, contrary to popular belief, many beers are at their best when they are NOT ice cold, for many, a temperature of 40° F is about right…not completely warm, but cold enough so that you can still taste it.   But since Coors Light is watered-down swill made with cheap ingredients, it might as well be ice cold, because there’s nothing to taste.

Too bad they don’t spend all of this advertising money on actually making a good product.  But that’s okay, I don’t have to buy the crap!

If you guessed something dumb like Cakester, you are dead wrong.  Maybe Nabisco thinks that it’s a good name for their Oreo product, but I don’t, and probably neither does anyone in New England.

They’re WHOOPIE PIES, dammit.  If you’ve never seen the Oreo Cakesters, go and Google it.  I’m not going to link to it here because I don’t feel like having some jerk from Nabisco find it and give me hell over this post.

Anyhoo, whoopies pies are yummie and pretty easy to make at home – that is, if this heat wave ever lets up and we can turn on the oven.  Here is a great article from the current issue of DownEast Magazine, which contains a couple of recipes.  There is also a cute little book all about whoopie pies, I’ll have to pick it up next time I’m in one of those touristy shops up in Maine.

Just remember that if you are looking for quick weight loss, do not eat whoopie pies.

And now, he is running a new Twitter contest!  Each Monday, he will post a recipe from his new book, Fiesta at Rick’s, on Twitter, 140 characters.  To get a chance to win, make the recipe, take a picture of it, and email it to his office by the following Saturday.  Rick will choose up to 10 winners per week, each lucky winner will get an autographed copy of the new book.  Contest info here.

Hmmm, this could be a bit of a challenge.  140 characters does not allow for details of a recipe, so unless you go and look at a copy of the book for further details, you might have a hard time making it, unless you are a REALLY good cook!  But if you already have the book, why would you enter a contest to win a copy…unless you wanted the autographed version.

I did look to see if it’s available for the Amazon Kindle (affiliate link).  It’s not, but if so, I might have bought that and then tried each week to win the paper book complete with Rick’s John Hancock.  But as it is, I’ll just try to make the recipes from the Twitter posts!  I think that’s the whole idea, anyway!

Good luck to all who enter!

You can download the recipe card HERE, as well. (.pdf reader needed)

I used sweet Italian sausage for this, but you could use all hot, or a combination of the two.  I also just used plain canned tomato sauce, one 8-ounce can = 1 cup.  Kind of annoying that the bigger cans are just 15 ounces, just under two cups, but three of those cans will still work just fine.  Of course, if you have your own recipe for homemade tomato sauce, as Carrabba’s most certainly does, you could use that as well.

For the fennel, we’re not talking about seeds here, but the actual vegetable.  It looks like a big round bulb, with stalks that look like celery growing out of it, and it has little fine leafy fronds on top.  The pretty green fronds would make a nice garnish for this dish, or just save them for some other purpose.  They are also good in soups.  At many stores, fennel is sold in the produce section as “anise”, as it does have a mild licorice flavor to it.

This is a quick, easy and satisfying dish, so quick you will certainly not have to worry about looking for the best age spot remover while waiting for it to cook. Not unless you have the same stove that I do, that is!  Yeah, it’s the same sears one, and it still sucks; in fact it sucks even more now!

Enjoy this dish!

For example, check out these Corn on the Cob Cupcakes.  This recipe was featured on Mr. Food’s nationally syndicated TV cooking segment, the video to which is available at this link.  Don’t they look SO like real corn on the cob?  Forget the Lipofuze and other weight loss stuff for once, and have some fun!

To enter to win a copy of this book, all you have to do is go to the contest page and fill out the form.  You can gain extra entries by blogging about the contest, Tweeting about it, or linking to MrFood.com on your sidebar or blogroll.  The deadline to enter is July 11, 2010 at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time.  Good luck!

And that’s when I saw this really cool casserole getup.  It was the TSV sometime last week.   I immediately wanted it because it’s a multi-tasker.  I’d seen vertical roaster getups that did only that, no removable insert, only good if you’re making beer can chicken or otherwise roasting a bird vertically.  But this one is great because  it does have a removable insert, so you can use the pan as a regular casserole.  Since I’ve been in need of a nice stoneware lidded casserole, and the price was right, I went ahead and ordered it…in red, just like you see here.

It arrived the other day, but I have yet to use it.  I’ll post a full review and a recipe once I have tried it.  But it’s a good-sized, good quality cooking vessel.  The insert is non-stick is that means it would be easy to clean.  Unlike other stoneware, this can be used on the stovetop, in the oven, and even on the grill…some of the recipes that come with this call for putting this on the grill for stuff like beer-can chicken.  But it also gives oven instructions for those who do not have an outdoor grill.  The vessel is also fridge, freezer, and dishwasher safe, although I would not take it directly from the fridge or freezer and putting it on any hot surface, not until it reached room temperature.  To do so may cause the stoneware to crack.

Anyhoo, I need to stay off the Q website for a while.  Next thing you know, I might see some good deals on something like plasma mounts, and order, when I don’t even have a plasma TV! I will try to be good!

I first got into Mr. Food in the early 90′s, when I saw him on QVC.  Money was very tight back then, and his books were the ones I most often reached for.  The recipes are very easy to make, tasty, and consist only of ingredients that are very easy to find in most supermarkets.  No having to go to fancy gourmet shops, and none of his ingredients are very expensive.

Mr. Food Cooks Like Mama is one of his older books, and is sadly out of print.  However, if you click the link, you will be taken to the Amazon page for the book, where many sellers are offering it, both new and used.  This and his other older books are well worth seeking out.  His newer books that are still in print are available at Amazon, as well as at MrFood.com.  He also still appears on QVC.

Here is a recipe that I made for tonight’s dinner from this book.  Just seven ingredients, most of which you probably already have in your kitchen.  If you don’t have the “seasoned salt” called for, just use regular salt instead.  If your pork chops are larger (what I had weighed twice as much as what the recipe calls for), double the sauce ingredients and maybe cook the chops for a few minutes longer.  But whatever you do, use a large enough pan.  Don’t crowd the pan, or else the chops will steam, and not brown. I also like to turn the chops halfway through the simmering process.

Dijon-Honey Pork Chops

1¼ – 1½ pounds pork loin chops, about ¾-inch thick
Seasoned salt for sprinkling
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/3 cup orange juice
1½ tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Sprinkle both sides of chops liberally with seasoned salt. In a large skillet, heat oil; brown chops for about 2 minutes per side. In a bowl, combine remaining ingredients, pour mixture over chops. Cover skillet, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until done.

I served this with rice pilaf and lima beans, spooning the tasty sauce over the pork and the rice.  YUMMIE.

You stick the probe into the meat, set the thermometer to time, temperature, whatever, and leave the digital part outside of the oven.  You don’t have to keep opening the oven to check food for doneness, as you would with a regular instant read thermometer.  Something like this is truly a must-have for any serious cook.

This item has a retail value of $39.95.  But you can win one for free, if you go ahead and enter the contest.  The contest page is HERE.  You can also earn extra entries by Tweeting and blogging about the contest, as well as linking to Mr. Food on your website or blog.  I’d love to put a permanent link to Mr. Food in my sidebar, but my WordPress is screwed up and won’t let me edit my files.  Maybe I’ll just put it on one of of other blogs where I don’t have this problem for now.  Hopefully, I can get this WP problem resolved soon!

You have until June 9, 2010 at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time to enter, so do it now, before you forget!

The *recipe* I used is very loosely based on Alton Brown’s Bird To The Last Drop, mostly in that I used Old Bay seasoning and thyme to season it, as he does.  But I didn’t have a turkey carcass, as I’d already used what bones I had for the slow-cooker stock.  I also prefer noodles to rice in my soups.

So basically, what I did was dump the stock into a large pot.  The stock was very highly concentrated to the point that it was thick and gelatinous.  I had cooked it down like that on purpose, to save space in the fridge/freezer.  After it was done cooking in the slow cooker, I strained it into a pot on the stove and boiled it down that way.

So naturally, I had to add water, enough to make about four quarts of broth.  Brought it to a boil and threw in a bag of egg noodles.  When the noodles were nearly cooked, in went the leftover green beans and a package of mixed frozen veggies, along with the Old Bay seasoning and thyme.  When it came back to a boil, in went the leftover diced turkey.  Bring back to a boil, and simmer until it’s all nice and hot.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Nomnomnom…

Exact amounts are not important, use what you have.  The way I did it, it made a LOT.  But remember, NOTHING was wasted, not even the turkey breast bones.  And it’s good for the soul, especially on a rainy icky day like today…much better than medical treatments for depression!

Enjoy!