I'LL be Hornswoggled (or you were)... I DON'T SUCK AT GRILLING...Stuffed Peppers wrapped in sausage wrapped by bacon

OK, to really appreciate this post, you MUST first read my post from Thursday,I Suck at Grilling - Stuffed Sausage Wrapped Peppers. You can reach that post by clicking HERE. You may even feel my pain if you remember yesterday's post...After finding out how much I suck as a Grill Chef, I have lost the will to cook. Which you can reach by clicking HERE. Really, read those before continuing.

I can wait...

Still waiting...

Come on, click the links, the story will be better if you remember the set up...

Still waiting...

All right, I assume everyone has read the terror of disintegrating sausage and flat peppers with stuffing ruining my grill.

OK, from the beginning, I knew I was going to revisit this recipe.
For several reasons,

1. I KNEW I didn't really suck at the grill
2. I knew I could do better
3. My loving wife went to our local underpriced grocery store and found some sausage on sale for just 89 cents for a hunk... She bought 20 hunks. I either had to get this down right or piss that money good bye (and long time readers know how cheap I am). I have a glorious freezer filled with her cost cutting efforts, and my cooking efforts beeded to honor her efforts,
   

So, I considered what I did, what went wrong, and also checked over the comments from Thursday, where there were several great suggestions...

So here's what happened yesterday...

As always, I assembled my ingredients in advance. Notice that instead of just the three ingredients I used on Thursday (Peppers, Cream Cheese and sausage), I added some goat cheese, some Swiss cheese, some bacon and my home made Chinese 5-Spice Rub I made up earlier in the month. I also did away with the bigger Poblano and Anaheim peppers, and instead went with spicier but much smaller Jalapeno Peppers and some very mild long narrow sweet peppers.As I described in Thursday's blog (See you really should have reviewed those earlier blog posts, of course I am going to continue referencing it), I cut the top off the peppers, deseeded them and cut the white meat out of the peppers (that's the REAL spicy stuff).
Now I started to improve the crappy stuff I did Thursday. I added a rub. The rub will not only flavor the meat, but help to add a bark that will hold everything together better.

I LOVE this home made Chinese Five Spice rub that I got from Steven Raichlen's Book, HOW TO GRILL. It has a great flavor, and smells amazing. So I did a bunch (most of all the hot jalapeno peppers which I would be eating), and one of the sweet peppers. The 5 spice rub has become a new passion of mine. It really is amazing, and making your own is something I was very proud of. The spice adds a great unusual flavor...

I also did most of the sweet peppers with some of my stock coffee rub with chipotle accent. Here's a side tip, I had a cheese shaker from a pizza parlor. It is a great thing to help sprinkle the rub with.And then I wrapped in bacon...So I had cheese, wrapped in peppers, wrapped in sausage, wrapped in bacon. If this worked, and these catch on, it would become legendary in cardiac care centers around the world. Notice those handy dandy cooking bands that are reusable, will hold everything together, are dishwasher safe and are color coded if you do a lot of mixing...

Which i forgot to mention, I stuffed some with just goat cheese, some with cream cheese mixed with the Swiss cheese. Good thing the bands were color coded so I knew what I was doing...

Things were coming together...
Looking good...

They hit the grill... Indirect heat, side burners only, chamber heats to about 275 degrees
Left em on for an hour, turned em (even though it is indirect heat, in a grill, you will still get them more done on the bottom than on the top...

Left them in the grill for another half hour...
Oh yeah, forgot to mention, I had a couple peppers left over without enough sausage thawed, so I just stuffed em and wrapped em in bacon...still GREAT eating...
And look at what I ended up with...
Cooked throughout, held together nicely, was easy to cut without the peppers collapsing and the cheese oozing out.

Just a tiny amount crusty on the outside, but that added a little texture. These were exactly what I had in mind!

Success!

I don't suck on the grill!!!!

I'M BACK, BABY

Of course, my wife was worried, since her meal on Thursday sucked so bad (except for the heart shaped pancakes (don't you wish you really had clicked that link back at the top of this post now, just to see heart shaped pancakes)). So she made up some amazing macaroni and cheese, just in case.
It was really good (Yes, I agreed to let her use my kitchen, but only if she put everything back where it belongs).
Made a nice presentation
Of course, I worked extra hard, so I got more!

So, what did I learn...

1. If at first you don't succeed, think about what you need to do to make it right
2. Don't be afraid to admit your failures, one of my commenters recommended the bacon, and I really do believe that made a big difference.
3. Bigger is not always better (sorry Buffalo Dick). The smaller peppers worked much better
4. When I do a post like yesterdays...After finding out how much I suck as a Grill Chef, I have lost the will to cook. Which you can reach by clicking HERE. Which I could have called "3 simple tips to make a better burger", I should make it clearer when I am doing a tongue in cheek funny post. But if you have to explain the funny, is it really funny???
5. Good ideas sometimes take work.

OK, all worked well, and I love cooking on the grill! Sunday night is going to be another big grilling session, more lamb chops, grilled portabello mushrooms, grilled eggplant and a new dessert, chipotle cremes brulees on the grill!

Wish me luck, and thanks for sticking with me through the rough times.


;)