Written by: Roscoe

Pure Italian Goodness

Ingredients (to serve 10):

Italian sausage (whatever kind you like: sweet or hot) 10 links, or about 2 1/2 lbs of a wheel

2 red onions

1 red pepper

1 cubanelle red pepper
1 cubanelle green pepper

2 or 3 (or 4) big cloves garlic (sliced thin or chopped)

olive oil
Worcestershire
Cholula
salt and pepper
red wine
vegetable spices (whatever kind you like)

large sheet of tin foil

Good rolls, scooped (hot dog buns will work, but try for a good Italian roll with sesame seeds)

Chopped veggies w/the good stuff

Grill the sausage till it’s crispy. Rough chop the veggies (julienne works well here), douse with the liquid ingredients and spices, stir together in a bowl, then transfer to the sheet of foil. Seal the foil and put it on the hot grill, turn every few minutes. When the sausage is done, so is the foil pack.

Grilled sausage and foil pack

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Written by: Roscoe



Get Grillin’

Roscoe never quit grilling over the winter, and we hope you didn’t either. But if you did (yes, some guys are scared of the Michigan winter, and are just now thinking about grilling again this summer, and you know who you are; and those of you who are, ask yourselves this: where would the Cave Man be if he didn’t cook over an open flame all winter? For that matter, where would WE all be? Probably not here), so we’ll forgive and forget, and pretend it never happened (those of you that are married know that’s the way to go anyway).

Portobellos Are Big

Yes, they’re the biggest of the mushroom family, and hold up best on the grill. In fact, they’re so good by themselves, you don’t even have to stuff them. Just rub ‘em down with a mixture of olive oil, Worcestershire, and Cholula, and throw ‘em on the grill till they’re cooked all the way through and have some nice grill marks on both sides. They’re great that way.

Use Whatever Stuffing You Like

This is the great thing about stuffed mushrooms: everyone has their own favorite stuffing, whether it be a simple bacon, mushroom, breadcrumb stuffing, or something a little more fun, say with chopped sun-dried tomatoes added to the usual stuffing, or salami, or pastrami, or some great sausage and corn bread stuffing. Whatever you put in a turkey or chicken, you can put in a portobello, and it’ll be good.

Roscoe Recommends: Caramelized Shallots, Garlic, Spinach, Almonds and Cous Cous.

Hey, if you don’t want to do shallots, use red onion. Slice it up, saute’ it in olive oil, Worcestershire, and Cholula, and a little wine, white or red, add the chopped garlic, then the spinach and almonds, and mix it all with some cous cous. This makes a great side dish on its own, so if you have left over stuffing mix, just serve it up the next day with dinner, it goes with just about anything.

Cover With Cheese

Pecorino Romano works well here, or maybe some aged Provalone, shredded and sprinkled over the top of the stuffing.

Grill It Up

Takes about ten minutes on high heat to get good grill marks on the bottom and the cheese melted on the top. When you see that, pull ‘em off and have a feast.

A Meal By Themselves

Try different stuffings – or have a mushroom throw down – and you’ve got enough for a whole meal. Or serve with your main dish – pork chops, tenderloins, or ribs. You can’t go wrong, ’cause you’re…

Cookin’ With Roscoe

Written by: Roscoe

A Fish Taco For Everyone

So now we’ve discovered, through the diligence of the Club Roscoe Test Kitchens, that just about every kind of fish will make a good fish taco. Not every fish is good for grilling, though, so if you like Cod, you’re better off frying or baking. Same goes for Trout or any of the other delicate fishes out there.

Salmon On A Taco? You Bet!

Not only is Salmon a good grilling fish, but when you put it on a tortilla with avocado and salsa, it becomes an explosion of flavor in your mouth!

An Omega 3 Extravaganza

That’s right, put salmon together with avocado, the way Roscoe does, and you just might end up living forever, it’s so good for you. But remember, we’re promoting taste here, because let’s face it, the longer you live, the more bills you have to pay, and no one really wants that.

So Do Yourself A Favor

Pick up a slab of salmon the next time you go to the local fish store, oil it up, season it as much as you like (you can’t do too much) – Roscoe recommends salt, pepper, smoked paprika, smoked garlic, and some powdered Cholula). Throw it on the grill with some oiled tortillas (sprinkle a little cheese on at the end, pepper jack or aged provolone is good), get a ripe avocado, dice it up and mix with olive oil, Cholula, salt and pepper, and top it all with your favorite salsa.

It’s That Simple

When You’re Cookin’ With Roscoe

Written by: Roscoe

Not Just Any Fish Tacos

The Throwdown champ (that beat Bobby Flay) makes his with Catfish. And truth be told, that’s usually the way to go. Unless you can get Mahi Mahi. A fairly expensive fish, you usually get it in high priced restaurants or maybe cook it up for a fancy dinner party.

Not Roscoe

Roscoe wants to know what’s best. Here at Club Roscoe the test kitchens have gone into overtime testing different fish for tacos, and now we have a winner.

Yes, Grill It

Mahi Mahi is a sturdy fish, perfect for the grill. Just oil it up, season it: Roscoe recommends salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and smoked garlic, but use whatever you like. Get the grill nice and hot, gently place the Mahi Mahi on the grill, and close the lid. Let it get nice and firm on the one side before you turn it, about four or five minutes, then the other side will only take two or three.

Keep The Toppings Simple

It’s usual to go with some kind of slaw. Roscoe’s idea is simpler than that…

Dice An Avocado

Sprinkle on a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and some Cholula Chili Lime. Mix gently, and spoon it over the grilled tortilla and Mahi Mahi, then top that with a little tomato salsa, whatever your favorite is, Better Made Medium is an excellent salsa, and pretty good for tacos.

It’s That Simple

Wait, you thought there was more? Nope, that’s it. Simple and delicious, cause…

You’re Cookin’ With Roscoe

Written by: Roscoe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs ground turkey
1/2 link Kielbasa
seasoning: salt, pepper, smoked garlic, smoked paprika
Worcestershire and Cholula
Horseradish cheese
Roscoe’s Red Cabbage
Good buns (Roscoe recommends onion rolls)
Favorite mustard

Turkey Doesn’t Have To Be Boring

Yeah, yeah, it’s supposed to be healthier than ground meat, but as we’ve said before, we’re not the Food Police here at Club Roscoe, we make things that taste good. And turkey can taste good, as long as you do certain things. Like…

Mix It With Kielbasa

About a pound and a half of ground turkey to a half link of chopped kielbasa does the job. Mix it all together and season it – Roscoe recommends smoked garlic, smoked paprika, salt and pepper, and of course… Worcestershire and Cholula. Form your patties and toss ‘em on the grill till you get good grill marks on both sides. Melt on a couple pieces of horseradish cheese and toast your bun. What could be better? Well, maybe a little mustard, and…

Roscoe’s Red Cabbage Puts It Over The Top

If you’ve been around this site for even a little while, you know about Roscoe’s Red Cabbage. It makes any sandwich, or any meal, for that matter, better than you can imagine. So get the recipe from the archives, or pull some out of the freezer and top it on. Now, that’s a sandwich.

Now You’re Cookin’ With Roscoe

Written by: Roscoe

God’s Perfect Meal

There’s a reason The Earle invented The Sandwich. Yeah, yeah, everyone thinks it was a matter of convenience, the guy was hungry but he needed to get going so he put some meat between two slices of bread and hit the road, could eat with one hand while he was driving (wait, they didn’t have cars back then; okay, he was riding a horse). But that’s not really what happened.

The Earle of Sandwich Had A Vision

Let’s face it, even God gets impatient on occasion, so he gives us a little nudge to get things going in the right direction. No one had invented the sandwich yet, and it was past time, what with the advent of fast food just around the corner (time is relative, to God), and the Earle was one of the more open minded guys of his time, so he got the nod, and the rest is history. Needless to say, the sandwich thing caught on, and the meat industry will be forever grateful (let’s face it, where would McDonald’s be if people just carried around two all-beef patties, cheese, lettuce, tomato and secret sauce in their hands? They’d be in the napkin business, that’s where).

The Leftovers Are Sometimes Better Than The Original Meal

Hey, meatloaf and mashed potatoes can be pretty good, but nowhere near as good as a meatloaf sandwich. Same goes for roast beef. And brisket. And that brings us to the real issue…

The Corned Beef Sandwich

Sure, some prefer pastrami. Hard to argue that. But on St. Patrick’s Day we go for the corned beef.

Slice It Thin

You’ve roasted up your corned beef in beer and broth for hours and hours, you pull it out and serve it with the potatoes and cabbage and carrots, and already you’re thinking about a sandwich. So sharpen your knife again and get that corned beef as thin as you can.

Heat It Up

30 seconds in the microwave, don’t want to dry it out (unless, of course, you’ve roasted up your corned beef specifically for sandwich making, in which case you’re ahead of the game, and can forgo the microwave).

Assemble And Toast

Good rye bread, maybe marble rye. Then your favorite mustard (just about any mustard goes good with corned beef), then some Swiss cheese. Put it in the toaster oven, open faced, for about 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted, then pull it out and finish it with some good cole slaw. Put it all together, slice it in half, add a pickle to the plate, and you’ve achieved (simple) perfection. It’s easy when you’re…

Cookin’ With Roscoe

Written by: Roscoe

Winters Were Brutal

You think it was easy to keep a cave warm all winter when they hadn’t invented the furnace yet? Sure, Cave Dudes invented fire right away, they had to, but it was still a major pain to get one going because the match was a ways off (a couple of centuries, to be exact).

One Good Thing Came of it, Though

Since it was difficult to keep warm, and activities were limited for the Cave Family because no one had invented the television yet, there were only a few things they could do to get them through a cold night, and the best one actually helped to keep both the Cave Dude and the Cave Babe warm. You’ve probably guessed it, the same thing we do today when we have a power outage and can’t watch TV. And the proof is in the population explosion every nine months after a major power outage. That’s right, more kids are born. Well, Cave Dudes and Babes did the same thing.

Spring Was A Happy Time

Whether they were happy about the change in the weather, or the new arrival of the Cave Baby doesn’t really matter (probably a little of both, though we’ll never really know for sure, because but no one was taking polls back then). But they had to be happy. Who wouldn’t be? The ice was melting and they could get out of the cave and do things. The Cave Dude could get his clubs ready for golf (golf was around back then, though they didn’t call it that – mostly because they didn’t have language yet – but even back then guys couldn’t wait to get out there and hit some rocks with the clubs they’d been staring at all winter). And Cave Babes could get out and go shopping. Oh, it wasn’t called shopping yet (yes, the language thing), but that’s what it was: women wandering about picking out new things for the cave, tired of looking at the same stuff all winter. Unfortunately for the Cave Dude, this was the precursor to jobs, because once you’ve got shopping, there’s got to be a way to pay for the new stuff.

Spring Cleaning Hadn’t Been Invented Yet

Yes, they had a lot of dirt, but that’s about all they had. No hardwood floors, no wall-to-wall carpet, and certainly no vacuums. They didn’t even have a broom back then (brooms were invented quite a bit later, right after floors). So cleaning wasn’t really a priority, though it wasn’t too far off (as soon as Cave Dudes got jobs and went off to work every day, Cave Babes had to have something to complain about when their Dude returned, so they invented cleaning, as in: “Sure, you come home and expect supper on the table like I’ve got nothing else to do but cook for you. Who do you think cleans this place all day while you’re gone?” Even though you couldn’t really tell, because, well… there was still dirt everywhere. But it worked. Pretty soon someone invented housekeepers, and the Cave Dude had to get a second job). Read the rest of this entry »

Written by: Roscoe

Ingredients:

Leftover pork chops
Leftover kielbasa
Cheese (Swiss or Provolone)
pickle
red cabbage or cole slaw
mustard
A good roll

What’s The Ultimate?

Hey, a Pork Chop Sandwich can be as easy as a pork chop between two slices of bread. It gets better incrementally as you add mustard, cheese, pickle, dressing of some kind, maybe cole slaw, or, in the case of Roscoe’s Ultimate: red cabbage and kielbasa.

That’s Right: Kielbasa

There are those that might quibble about a Pork Chop Sandwich with kielbasa not really being a pork chop sandwich at all. And those quibblers might have a case. To that we say…

Get Your Own Web Site

We’re Cookin’ With Roscoe here, and if you’ve been around any amount of time, you know that Roscoe believes in kielbasa, so get over it. And those of you that have been around even a little while also know that Roscoe is usually right (despite the hysterical claims of various ex-wives). Like Roscoe’s Trilogy (olive oil, Worcestershire and Cholula), kielbasa always makes things taste better (witness Roscoe’s turkey/kielbasa chili, or the world renowned Kielbasa Reuben, hard to beat either of those).

So Don’t Settle, Go For The Ultimate Read the rest of this entry »