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What’s for dinner Wednesday: A new recipe and a new Cave Tools cooking tool

8 Aug

This was a favorite new meal of ours, thanks to our new Cave Tools BBQ Grill Pan, and I can’t wait to have it again.

Happy August!

This summer seems to just be flying by. We had just finished the whirlwind couple of weeks surrounding graduation when I last wrote a blog post, and that was followed by two weeks of vacation. We came back from that and went right into the final days of planning and then hosting our second daughter’s 16th birthday party here, a sunflower-themed Sweet Sixteen on a beautifully sunny day. Now that we’re back into a regular routine again, albeit a summer routine, we’ve been trying out some new recipes and even a brand new Cave Tools product.

We were asked to try out a newly launched product, the Cave Tools BBQ Grill Pan in July, around the same time that I kept seeing a recipe go by on social media for Sheet Pan Chicken, which consisted of oven-roasted veggies and chicken all tossed together in a homemade marinade and cooked in the oven. When we agreed to try out the BBQ Grill Pan, we opted to use the inspiration from the recipe we’d seen online, but to do it our own way, utilizing our new pan. It seemed to be made for such a meal because it had a slotted side and a flat side, with the slotted side designed to allow the BBQ flavors and smoke to come up through the grill pan while excess grease falls through, keeping our grill grates clean.

One pan cooking is my favorite, especially for clean up.

We tossed our chicken in some bottled Italian dressing for a quick marinade, and sliced up our veggies: asparagus, zucchini, squash, Brussels sprouts and carrots. We weren’t sure if we had more veggies and chicken than space, but it was a perfect fit, with the veggies on the flat side and the chicken on the slotted side.  We also liked that the stainless steel pan had grips on three sides so that it was easy to handle.

The new Cave Tools BBQ Grill Pan is designed to cook more than just chicken and veggies, though. It’s perfect for other types of meals, including breakfast, which we’d like to try out next. Cave Tools suggests using the griddle side for sautéing peppers, onions, eggs, bacon, cheesesteaks and any other food that would typically fall through the grill grates, but the idea of eggs and bacon really appeals to us, having never cooked like that on the grill before.

Cave Tools 3

This stainless steel grill pan features a flat side and a slotted side, with grips on three sides.

I’m sure you’d like to know how you can get this great new product!

To order your own Cave Tools BBQ Grill Pan, you have two options:

  1. You can order from Amazon
  2. You can order directly from Cave Tools and use the code GRILLPAN15 to receive an additional 15% off your purchase.

As I always say, the Cave Tools products have a 100% money back guarantee, but I’d be surprised if you ever needed it. Their products are second to none. We also saw this post in the information on the grill pan’s website that we thought was worth noting, and that also speaks to the value that Cave Tools puts on the quality of their products for their customers:

A Note From The Manufacturer

We specifically designed this grill pan after seeing the popularity of PTFE (Teflon) Grill Mats. At normal grilling temperatures we concluded that the grill mats were in fact extremely toxic and potentially cancerous. Your health is more important us than the money we could make selling grill mats which is why we designed this safe stainless steel grill mat alternative.

As always, I encourage you to try out this great new product and to enjoy the fun of cooking outdoors. The cleanup is easy, especially with the Cave Tools products, and the food is flavorful.

Have a great rest of your week and keep enjoying this beautiful summer!

*I was given a free product in exchange for my review.

However, as always, my thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.*

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Just in time for the long weekend: beer can chicken and a new Cave Tools product

26 May

This was such a fun meal to make!

It’s Memorial Day weekend this weekend, a time to remember all those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to their country, and to remember their families as well. Over the years I have had the opportunity to cover many Memorial Day remembrances for our local newspaper, and I am cognizant of the fact that this weekend is not just a long weekend made for cookouts and good times, but rather it is a time to remember and be thankful for our service men and women who lost their lives for our country. To them I am grateful.

While I take some time to reflect today, I thought I’d share a new product with you that we tried from Cave Tools. We are big fans of their products and have never tried one that we didn’t like. Although we are given the products to try for free, our opinions and experiences are our own and are not influenced in any way by the company. This product is a great one and I couldn’t wait to share it this weekend.

Recently we had the opportunity to try out the Beer Can Chicken roasting rack and vegetable spikes. We were very excited to give this new product a try, as the method of cooking a chicken over a can of beer was intriguing to us. When we opened the box, we learned that we could either cook the chicken on the grill or in the oven. We opted to try the oven method this time and to utilize the grill method the next time- and I can tell you, there will definitely be a next time!

It said to choose your favorite beer, so our local Narragansett beer was our first choice.

The directions instructed us to choose our favorite beer which we’d be pouring into the can-shaped container that came in the box. We have a great local beer, Narragansett, so that was our chosen beer.

My husband found a recipe online for a rub which he rubbed all over the chicken after he put it on top of the beer can. That recipe consisted of: 1/4 cup paprika, 2 tablespoons salt, 2 tablespoons white sugar, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 2 tablespoons ground cumin, 2 tablespoons chili powder, and 2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper.

Ready to eat!

We cooked our chicken in the oven until the temperature reached or exceeded 165 degrees, about an hour and a half. We opted to add baked potatoes to the stands which were included with the product and we were thrilled that there was absolutely no mess in our oven. We had placed the whole thing on a baking sheet covered in tin foil, just in case, but the tray included in the box contained any slight dripping that may have occurred.

The end result was amazing: fully cooked, tender, juicy chicken that was delicious and easy to make. This was such a different way for us to cook a chicken, and we would definitely do it again in the future. The entire product is dishwasher safe, so after dinner we loaded it in and cleanup was a breeze.

In my personal opinion, this would make a great Father’s Day gift for the men in your lives who seem to have everything and are looking for something fun to try over the summer months. I hope you’ll give it a try.

The mess was self-contained.

You can order this product two ways: through Amazon by following this link. or through the Cave Tools Website, utilizing the coupon code BEERCAN15 for an extra 15% off.

As with all Cave Tools product, they are high quality products that come with a lifetime guarantee. The product is made from stainless steel and the spikes can be used to hold ears of corn or potatoes, or anything else you can think of. The canister can be used for Beer, Wine, Cider, and any other liquid or herb combination you’d like to try.

Fully cooked!

Tender and juicy.

DONE!

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Barbecued roast beef and a new Cave Tools product

20 Mar

New recipe and new tool!

Recently my husband and I ate dinner in a local restaurant that was new to us. We shared two meals, one of which was a barbecued beef brisket. It was similar to the pulled pork that we often make at home, but yet it was different because of the beef that was used, and the flavor was intense. We loved it so much we decided to try to make it here at home, using our Instantpot to cook the beef.

Luckily, we had a new Cave Tools product to try out, a set of two stainless steel shredding meat claws. They were going to be perfect for the meat that we would be making that night. The handles were sturdy and strong, and came with textured non-slip handles and plenty of space for our hands, thanks to the extended knuckle space. Interestingly, they are shaped like a bear’s paws, which provides a really good grip on the meat you’re working with.

We used the claws to hold the meat with one hand and a knife with the other to slice some of it off.

The claws can be used in a variety of ways and we definitely made us of them when we lifted the meat out of the Instantpot, when we shredded it, and even when we decided to slice off a portion to taste, we used the claws to hold the meat with one hand and the knife with the other.

These meat claws were fantastic for shredding the roast beef.

They’re also great for shredding the meat, which we did for most of it, since we were looking for a pulled beef consistency at the end and we planned to shred it, return it to the Instantpot for a bit longer, and then take it back out for serving.

Once the shredded meat was finished cooking, having the claws in hand for removing it from the Instantpot was key. They were helpful in scooping out good-sized amounts of meat at a time from the pot.

These stainless steel claws are available two ways. You can find them on Amazon.com here, or on the Cave Tools website here, but be sure to use the discount code MEATCLAWS on the Cave Tools site to receive a discount of 15% off.

 

Putting the meat back into the Instantpot was easy with the meat claws.

Be sure to read all of the care and safety information in your box when you get your tools. You’ll be sure to smile when you read the reference to “Wolverine” in the safety instructions!

As with all of their products, this one comes with a Lifetime guarantee and you can return it at any time if you are not 100% satisfied. Although we love a company that stands by their products, we won’t be utilizing that any time soon, as we already have plans to make use of these meat claws again soon. They’re definitely going to be a go-to tool in our kitchen from here on in.

To make the barbecued roast beef, saute an onion on the saute setting with olive oil and garlic. Add in a cup of your favorite barbecue sauce. Add in 1/4 cup of water to cut the sauce a bit. Whisk the sauce for consistency. Put in your roast, cook it on the manual setting for an hour. Do a quick release, remove the roast beef and shred it with your metal claws. Place the beef back into the Instantpot for another ten minutes on manual. Remove when done. This can be served as a sandwich or just as is. We did a little of each.

Ready to eat! There were hardly any leftovers and we can’t wait to make this again!

 

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A new Cave Tools product review: Stainless Steel Wood Smoker Box

28 Jan

My husband ranked these ribs as being some of the best he’s ever had in his entire life.

We recently had the opportunity to try out another product from one of my favorite companies, Cave Tools. This time, my husband was very excited to review the new tool because it was something he’d been wanting to try for a long time. The Large Capacity Stainless Steel Smoker Box allows you to smoke meat and fish on the grill and it was a cooking method we’d never tried but had always wanted to.

Smoking is an interesting method of cooking, and it takes some time, so you need to make sure you can devote the time you need in order for everything to cook properly. Because we live in an area of the country that gets cold and snowy, and it’s wintertime, we also had to make sure we were going to use our grill on a day when there wasn’t a blizzard and it was above freezing. Finally, this past weekend was the perfect day. We chose Saturday as our day to smoke a rack of ribs.

This box was a great size and fit well between our grill grates.

The Stainless Steel Smoker Box is very typical of Cave Tools’ superior product quality. Their products are always solidly made and durable. Cave Tools notes that this particular product has several features that make it stand out from the rest: Its stainless steel is 25% thicker so that it prevents warping. It has a hinged lid and large wood chip capacity for thicker smoke. There are no bottom holes, so the wood chips smolder and don’t catch fire, and its thinner profile fits perfectly between the grill grates and flavorizer bars, if you choose to use them.

As our Saturday dawned bright and sunny, Don spent the early afternoon hours preparing the rack of ribs. He created a dry rub consisting of a cup of brown sugar, a quarter cup of kosher salt, a teaspoon of garlic powder and half a teaspoon of pepper (approximate measures). He rubbed it all in and refrigerated it for four hours. When he took it out at 4:00, he rinsed it off, patted it dry and then placed it on the grill.

Following the directions that were contained in the box, he filled our smoker box with 100% natural hickory wood chips and set it on the grill over the heat, and waited for it to start smoking. He then placed the rack of ribs on the opposite side. It took approximately 15 minutes for the box to start smoking. He never flipped the ribs over, but rather rotated them every so often to make sure they were cooking evenly.

After two hours, barbecue sauce was added to the meat for the final 20 minutes.

 

 

 

As the cook time neared the end, barbecue sauce was added to the meat for the final 20 minutes of cook time.

Throughout the evening, we could smell the smoker cooking the meat outside, and the aroma was heavenly. We could not wait to try the ribs. The anticipation was exciting and we were very much looking forward to our dinner.

As we dug into dinner, we were thrilled with our results. The ribs were incredibly good. My husband ranked them as being among the top five best rib meals he’s had in his lifetime, and that’s saying a lot, as we’ve had a lot of ribs in our time!

The meat came right off the bone and the flavor was just delicious. We savored every bite and we each had seconds. When we finished eating, I was so glad that there were still more ribs left on the tray for leftovers later this week, as I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to them just yet.

If you’re looking to try out smoking on your grill, I highly recommend the Cave Tools Stainless Steel Smoker Box. If you choose to buy it from Cave Tools directly, you can use the code SMOKERBOX15 to get 15% off your purchase and order here. Should you choose to go through Amazon.com, instead, you can use this link.

Like all the Cave Tools products, this product has a lifetime warranty, should you have any issues with it. I know we can’t wait to use ours again!

The meat came right off the bones of the ribs, just as it should.

*Although I was compensated for this review with a free product, all thoughts and opinions are my own.*

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Cooking with our newest Cave Tool: Stainless Steel Vegetable Grill Basket

27 Nov

The latest and greatest new Cave Tools product for our collection.

If you’re a long-time reader of The Whole Bag of Chips, you know by now how much we enjoy the cooking tools that Cave Tools sends us to try out. Last week we had the opportunity to give a new one a try and it might just be our very favorite one yet, the Stainless Steel Vegetable Grill Basket.

Cave Tools products can’t be beat when it comes to durability and quality and it’s one of the things we like best about them, especially because we cook at home on a grill and on a campfire when we are camping away from home with our camper. Their products are great for both. We also love that their tools are affordable and budget-friendly for consumers because those things are important to us too.

For our latest product trial, we opted to grill some fresh zucchini, squash, red onion and eggplant to go along with some grilled salmon and pesto that we were having for dinner. Coincidentally, the salmon was being grilled utilizing a Cave Tools product too, the small fish basket, and we were able to fit them side-by-side on our grill, which was so convenient. Even though we were using our vegetable basket to grill vegetables, it could also be used to grill other foods as well, such as shrimp or chicken, as well as other vegetables, fruits and meats. The fact that this tool is truly a basket, vented to let the grilled taste in, made for more flavorful veggies than if we’d tried grilling them in a foil pack. They were easily contained thanks to the depth of the basket, nothing fell out, no ripped foil packet, and no veggies dropping through our grill grates.

We loved being able to grill all of our veggies at the same time, in the same basket and on the same grill as our fish. No need to try to cook indoors and outdoors at the same time.

The Vegetable Grill Basket is a great size, at 13.5 x 11 x 2.5 inches, has great depth and is able to fit a good amount of vegetables in it, more than enough for all of us to eat, and even enough for leftovers too. One of the best things about the basket was the handles on the sides that were angled and a good size for being able to carefully lift the basket off the grill with our pot-holders.

The Vegetable Grill Basket is available for purchase both on Amazon.com and on the Cave Tools website. To purchase on Amazon, visit this link. To purchase it on the Cave Tools website, visit this link and be sure to utilize their special discount code to receive 15% Off: VEGGIE15  while you’re there.

As always, this Cave Tools product has a Lifetime Warranty with 100% of your money back, even if you’re not satisfied with your product at some point down the road. Although we’ve never needed to use this warranty, we love a company that stands behind its products forever.

I’m craving these all over again!

**Thanks to Cave Tools for sharing their product with us.

Although I was given the product in exchange for this review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.**