First Night of Camping Steak

I camp a lot. This is always the first night's meal. Serves one.

Ingredients:

12 - 18 oz sirloin steak (Yeh, I know it's big. that's the point, actually.)
some barbecue spiced pepper.
a small can of green beans. Carrots are an acceptable substitute. Spinach is not. Eww.
An onion bagel.

Implements of cookage:
Campfire with good coals and not a lot of flame.
Grille over the fire.
Tongs for grabbing stuff you drop in the fire.
Gloves to keep you from burning the hair off the back of your hand when you grab stuff from the fire.

Procedure:
Let the grill heat up while you're rubbing in a whole lot of spice into the steak. Use a can opener to open the beans, but leave the lid in place. Slice the bagel.

Plop the steak on the grille and enjoy the sizzle. Nestle the can of beans into the coals.

When the steak is cooked 2/3 of the way through, flip it over (once!) and put the bagel on the grille (sliced side down) to toast. Crack open any beverage you like as long as it comes in a long-necked brown bottle and does not include the word "Lite" on the label. Make sure the beans are beginning to boil. Sharpen your steak knife.

When the steak is done, pull it all off the grille and onto your plate.

Consume with enthusiasm. Skip the veggies if you feel like it.

Option: mix a little butter and bleu cheese (the crumbly, real stuff) together and let it melt on top of the steak for the last couple of minutes on the grille. Gorgonzola works well too. Mmm, mmm.

Bacon Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Ingredients: Serves 4:

• 4 Large chicken breasts
• 8 Strips bacon or prosciutto
• 8 Slices aged Irish cheddar (a hard, sharp white cheese)
• 8 cloves fresh garlic
• 4 tsp Mango jelly, or mango preserves
• Chipotle Tabasco Sauce
• Freshly grated parmesian cheese
• Chopped parsley for garnish
• George Foreman Grille

Oven or toaster oven

Directions:
Since I used Costco frozen chicken breasts, I defrosted them in the microwave while I grilled the bacon. When the chicken was thawed, slice them in half horizontally, like sandwich bread. Remove bacon from grille. Close the chicken breasts, and grille with the fresh garlic cloves on the George Foreman grille, in the bacon juices (most of the bacon fat has dripped out of the grille because of the design of the grille). Cook until the center of the chicken breasts are no longer pink.

While the chicken is grilling, preheat the oven to 400 and prepare the rest of the ingredients, which mostly means slice the cheese, and get the rest of the stuff out of the refrigerator. When the chicken is ready, open each breast like a sandwich. Spread 1 tsp mango jelly or preserves on one side. spread a little chipotle Tabasco on the other side. Layer bacon and Irish cheese slices.

Close the resulting "Chicken Sandwich"  and place on a foil-covered tray for baking. Bake until Irish cheese begins to soften. Remove from oven and cover in shredded Parmesan cheese mixed with parsley flakes or chopped parsley and continue baking until the Parmesan is melted.

Serve with Steam Train Porter or a quality microbrewed amber ale. Enjoy with friends.

Review: This may be the best thing I've ever done with chicken breasts. It was inspired by a night of movies and friends, and has itself inspired all the rest of the chicken breast experiments. Don't skip the mango jam: that's what makes this one shine.