This weekend we decided to take a trip to Oceanside to see our daughter and son-in-law. On Saturday night, I decided to make some Air Fryer Chicken Breasts. Our daughter has an Air Fryer, bit has not quite figured it out yet. It’s a very simple recipe, I start by getting the Baked Potatoes ready – simply rub them with Olive Oil and sprinkle Salt and Pepper on them. Then I put them in a 425 degree oven for 50 minutes.

While they were cooking, I started the preparation on the Chicken Breasts. I first sliced them in half – in thickness – so that the will cook faster.then I prepared a mixture of Flour, Panko Bread Crumbs, a little bit of Cayenne, Salt, Black Pepper, Cumin, And Paprika. I brushed on a like coating of Olive Oil, and dredged the Chicken Breasts in the mixture – then out them – 2 at a time – in the Air Fryer for 10 minutes at 390 degrees for 19 minutes – flipping them after 6 minutes.

Then I made some Whole Kernel corn, Baked Beans, some Bread, and a garden salad. Everyone really enjoyed everything. The thing I like most about the Air Fryer is that the Chicken (or other kind of meat) comes out very tender, but yet, still juicy. The Baked Potatoes were cooked to perfection – very easy to slice, and to eat. This Bread that we got is called “Artisan” Bread – and it is AMAZING! And this come from a guy that is not crazy about Bread.

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So, today – even with all of the restrictions due to the Coronavirus – I still cooked an Easter dinner – even though it was a bit different than normal. Since we don’t mind leftovers – it was still worth cooking plenty of meat. I cooked 2 Tri-Tips in my smoker, and made some BBQ Chicken, and some Pork Steaks.

That is the Tri-Tip – now for the Chicken – I marinated the Chicken overnight in beer, and my BBQ Sauce starts with a base of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce, then added some beer, and a little Chalula Hot Sauce. Then I baste the Chicken several times while cooking.

Then. I cooked some Pork Steaks – which I cut in half before I season and cook them. I put them in the smoker as well – with Apple Wood.

I also made some Baked Potatoes – with an Olive Oil rub, and some Salt and Pepper. Then I cooked them in the oven at 425 degrees for 45 minutes. They were cooked to perfection – with some butter and cheese – perfect!

Then we added some Whole Kernel Corn, Bush’s Baked Beans Garlic Bread, Salad – and some amazing desserts that my wife made. It was an absolutely amazing meal.

And, here is my final plate:

I neglected to take pictures of the 3 desserts that my wife made – but, they were amazing. And, here is the miracle in this – I only ate the one plateful – lol.

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I like Tri-Tip – especially when it is cooked properly. I buy my Tri-Tip in bulk, when on sale, season them, and wrap them individually. That way, I never have to pay $4.00/pound (or more) for Tri-Tip. So, with that being said – the other day I took 2 Tri-Tip out of the freezer and I smoked them using Apple Wood.

I use a rub made with Black Pepper, Salt, Onion Powder Garlic Powder, Ground Mustard, Ancho Chili Powder, Cummin, Cayenne Pepper, and Brown Sugar.

First, I get my charcoal hot, and get my Apple Wood Chips soaking in water. The reason I soak the wood chips in water is that makes them less likely to “burn” – they just “smoke.”

Now that the Tri-Tip is on the Smoker, I get out my Charcoal Chimney and start the next batch of Charcoal cooking.

I keep an eye on the Tri-Tip while it cooks, and try to maintain the temperature around 300 degrees. The Brown Sugar helps to get a nice char on the outside of the Tri-Tip as it carmelizes. Also, I cook the Tri-Tip a bit on the rare side – as you will see later.

As soon as I take the Tri-Tip off the Smoker, I cover it with aluminum foil and let it rest. Within an hour, I put the entire pan in the refrigerator to cool. The reason I do that is that is much easier to slice when it is cold. After it is cold, I brought out my electric meat slicer and sliced the Tri-Tip into thin slices (I did this off camera).

We have a Cast Aluminum “flat top” that I put onto the Gas Grill – and once it is hot, I start putting the strips of Tri-Tip onto the flat top. This finishes off the cooking process, plus it browns the meat at the same time – it definitely adds to the flavor.

Then I liberally apply butter to both halves of a French Roll, and put it on the griddle to get a nice “toast” on it. This, in my opinion, completes this sandwich.

Then the fun begins – assembling the sandwich. For me, it is pretty simple – some Cheese and some Creamy Chipotle Sauce that a friend of mine, Cliff Smith, made.

I started out eating one of these sandwiches, but had to make myself a second one – they are sooo good. This has definitely become one of my favorite ways to eat Tri-Tip. When it is sliced thin like this – it is so amazingly tender, and easy to chew and eat. We have all had Tri-Tip Sandwiches that were sliced thick – and it was more work to eat it than it was worth – not so with this sandwich.

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About 6 months ago, I saw a sandwich on tv that look very good – and intriguing – so, yesterday I decided to give it a try. It is a classic French sandwich, called a Croque Madame. The Croque Madame starts out with Sourdough Bread, Ham, Gruyere Cheese, covered with a Bechemel Sauce, and topped with a Sunnyside Up Egg. There is also a sandwich called a Croque Monsieur – with the only difference being that a Croque Madame has a Sunnyside Up Egg on top of it. The significance of the Sunnyside Up Egg is the fact that some women wear fancy hats – which is what the egg represents.To start with, I made the Bechemel Sauce – which to me, looks like a fancy gravy – but tastes like a cheese sauce. I put 1/2 pound of Butter in a sauce pan and melted it. Once the Butter was melted, I added 3/4 cup of AP Flour and wisked until it had turned brown and had clumped up. Then I added half an onion, some Salt, Peppercorns, and a Bay Leaf, and added milk and wisked until smooth. I then added the Nutmeg. I let it simmer until the starch had cooked out (or until it no longer tasted like flour) – about 12 minutes.Then I started to build the sandwich. I applied a liberal amount of Butter on one side of each of the pieces of Sourdough bread, then added 3 slices of Deli Ham, then some Shredded Gruyere Cheese, then the other slice of bread. I put it on the griddle at a Medium -High heat, and cooked until golden brown. Then, I strained the Bechemel Sauce, and covered the sandwiches with it.Then I put it in the oven on the Broiler setting until it started to Crisp over, then I removed it from the oven.Then I cooked the Sunnyside Up Egg, and layed it on top of the sandwich. Now, it is time to give it a whirl.

This is an amazing sandwich – well worth the time and effort. You definitely are not going to pick this sandwich up and eat it – it is a knife and fork sandwich, lol.

It was a lot to eat – I probably should have only eaten half of it – but, I couldn’t resist – I ate the whole thing, lol. This is a sandwich that is definitely worth making again. As you bite into it, you get the nuttiness of the Gruyere Cheese, the crispness of the Sourdough Bread – along with the “cheesy” taste of the Bechemel Sauce (even though there is no Cheese in it).

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