Memorial Day grilling

  Memorial Day came and we decided to have some people over and fire up the grill.  We had plenty of good food to choose from.

    
  Since it was a special occasion, we decided to make brats the best way we know how. We don't make them this way very often because they are delicious and probably not so good for us. First, we take the brats and boil them in water and butter ( or beer and butter works, too!).  It doesn't matter what kind of brat you get, but we had jalapeno and cheddar along with chipotle chicken brats.

Boil them until they are nice and cooked. Then butterfly them and place them on the grill. 

On an unrelated note: my cilantro is coming in quite nicely.

 

Oh yeah, the brats are looking good. When you butterfly them like this, they are much easier to grill and they fit nicely into the bun. So, get your lovely butterflied brat and place it in the bun like so. 

  Also make sure that your lens cap is not in the picture. Sorry.  

Add some cream cheese to the brat. Remember to make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature or this will be quite difficult to do. Piping bags work great, but if you don't have one, a Ziploc bag with the corner cut off with work just as well.

Here are about three good sized onions that have been chopped and cooked in Coca Cola until they are caramelized. They smell amazing! 

Slap the onions on there and prepare to experience the best brat you have ever tasted! 

     And since I haven't featured enough dishes with cream cheese, here is my Buffalo Chicken dip. This stuff is so addicting that I try not to make it too often.

Buffalo Chicken dip

2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese

1 small bottle of Ranch dressing

2 (10 oz) cans of chunk chicken, drained

1 cup buffalo wing sauce

2 cups of shredded Cheddar

Preheat oven to 350. Mix cream cheese and ranch dressing until combined. In separate bowl, combine chicken and wing sauce until the chicken is coated. Mix everything together along with the cheese and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips and celery.

    

Wilted Lettuce Salad

Words cannot express how much I love this salad. I crave this dish more than any dish I can think of. I have pleasant memories of my mom making a big bowl of this salad and my sisters and I eating it with our fingers. Yeah, it's that good. And forks get in the way.

     To start off, you need a decent-sized head of leaf lettuce. After thoroughly rinsing, tear into bite sized pieces into a large salad bowl.

Get a bunch of green onions, chop them and toss them into the bowl. Put the bowl into the refrigerator to chill. Next, you want to fry up some bacon. You can use anywhere from 6 pieces to the whole darn package. I prefer the latter because bacon is amazing. The reason it helps to use more bacon is because you need to reserve 1/4 cup of the grease for the salad dressing.  Once the bacon is finished, then crumble it and add it to the salad.

 In the skillet, along with the 1/4 cup reserved bacon grease, you add salt, sugar, cider vinegar and salt. Make sure you scrape off all the delightful bits of bacon that was left behind in the skillet. Bring this lovely mixture to a boil and stir it well. Then pour the boiling mixture over the lettuce and toss. Serve immediately!

  The best part of this salad is that you get to eat it while it's warm. This salad obviously doesn't keep well, so be sure to eat all of it. In one sitting. By yourself. 'Cause you're not going to want to share.

         Wilted Lettuce Salad

1 large head leaf lettuce

6 (or more!) slices bacon

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1/2 c. cider vinegar

1 1/4 c. water

3 tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Rinse and drain lettuce thoroughly. Tear into pieces and put into large bowl with onions to chill. Fry bacon and reserve grease. Pour grease into measuring cup. Take skillet and pour reserve grease into it as well as vinegar, water, sugar and salt. Heat mixture to boiling and stir well. Take bacon and crumble over lettuce. Pour boiling mixture over lettuce and toss. Serve immediately!