..."And so im having a wonderful time but id rather be whistling in the dark..."

     Funny thing is i cant whistle. I found myself humming this little tune, by the amazing They Might be Giants, today as i was prepping some grub for you folks. Many apologies for not posting yesterday. I ended up having to work at Thumbs from 2 till 6 then again 10 to close and i just didnt have enough time in between shifts. 

 

Alright, lets get down to business! In addition to our little bacon wrapped shrimp soldiers, I made a simple hobo pack. "Whats a hobo pack? and where can i find my own hobo to butcher?" is what you may be asking yourself, but no worries. You dont need an actual Hobo for this. Basically, you season some of your favorite veggies and wrap them in foil. Today i decided to use the following: 

Olive oil, spray butter, red pepper grinder, sea salt, garlic and onion powder.
and fingers. yes fingers! its the SECRET INGREDIENT!!! 

Baby carrots, red and gold potatoes, 2 portabella  mushroom caps and halved corn on the cob. 

Season, toss and arrange like so. 

Before tax the total comes out to $17.51

Before tax the total comes out to $5.78

The grand total for this feast is $23.29 before tax. Thats enough food for at least 3 people to share and enjoy comfortably. I told my room mates about my plans for this in advance, but they suck and one of them had already eaten by the time it was all done, another one had to go to work and the 3rd one is upstairs playing Modern Warfare 2 as he gets his NERD RAGE on. Oh well sucks to be them! Just kidding. There are plenty of leftovers for them to nibble at later on in the evening. 

Speaking of leftovers...

Do you happen to be single? Do you walk through crowded malls wondering out loud, "WHY LORD must I be alone?". Do children run from you? Well I cant help you there, but i can help you in not starving to death! Because with these fabulous dishes, you can have plenty of left overs and left over ideas!

Enough counseling, let me show you how it all turned out. That shinny football on the top rack? Thats our Hobo Pack. You want to preheat your grill and get it going to about 300. Place the pack on top and close your grill for about 30 minutes. After your 30 minutes are up, its time to line up your little soldiers. Look how pretty they look. It made me wish for a new species of shrimp to be discovered or genetically engineered which was already wrapped in bacon.

Baconus Shrimpus or the the elusive Bacon Shrimp! Tales of war and love would be written about it and translated to every language known to man. Even Pig Latin, Esperanto and secret twin language. But that is for another time perhaps. 

This is what you're shooting for, Tex. 

Close the lid back on the grill but DO NOT leave the grill unattended. I made that mistake and lets just say some of our little soldiers here faced an earlier demise by fire and consumption. No seriously dude, once that bacon grease starts to drip, it will flare up real good.

Now its Chuck Eye Time! Chuck Eye steak is the steak cut of the chuck, which is located in the shoulder and neck area of a tasty tasty cow. Its tender and cheap too. There small downside of this cut is its rather fatty. So feel free to trim it if you please. I seasoned the steaks with this lil guy on the left, Grill Mates Spicy Montreal Steak Seasoning and some sea salt.  

Dont be afraid to touch your meat. Its already dead. Im aware i just said wrote Dont be afraid to touch your meat. Im giggling on the inside too. So pat your steaks down so that the seasoning really sticks to the surface and make sure you get some of that rub into the crevasse(giggle giggle) of your steaks.

By now your shrimcon, i think ill refer to them as suck, are done and should look like so in a lovely plate. Patience child. Do not bite into them just yet for they are ridiculously HOT! 

I ended up cooking these around Medium Well.

Hobo Pack of awesomeness. 

Alright, now place your steaks on the grill. Cook according to taste. Dont worry I wont judge you. Sometimes i like my steaks still mooing. Sometimes i like them a little bit more done than usual. It just depends on taste and appetite for bovine blood i suppose. After your steaks are done, take them inside and let them rest for a few minutes. You dont want all them juices running out right away when you start cutting. Dont turn off your grill just yet, fella'.

Remove your hobo pack and carefully open it up. Theres gonna be a lot of steam trapped in there so please please do be careful. Remove the 2 portabell mushroom caps and place them back on the grill as shown below. You may be asking why and my answer is because i wanted to! ha!!! take that logic. Im not sure what logic has to do with anything discussed here. I just wanted to give the mushrooms somewhat of a toasted feel and texture to it, thats all. It turned out well.

Whats this?

"It all looks really really really good, but how long did it all take to make? I have to stock my white windowless van with candy and shag carpeting!", is what some of you may be asking yourselves. Well i would say that it was an estimated 20 minutes for total prep work. The total cooking time was about an hour and fifteen minutes.

NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM. 

This is what the final product looked like in the end. It was simple and somewhat inexpensive to make. I had a really good time putting it all together mainly because i just could not wait to eat all of it! Seriously, I was singing myself an happy tune as I wrapped the bacon around the shrimp on Wednesday. One of my room mates seemed genuinely concerned for my mental health because I was having baby talk with the shrimp at one point. "whos a tasty little morsel?" "YOU ARE" "Yes YOU ARE".

But what I really wish to accomplish with this is get you, the reader, to try some of this stuff out. Dont just head for the newest restaurant right away or grab some pre-processed meal in a box from the freezer or the pantry, when you're hungry. Try something new and different or take something you already know how to make and add a twist to it. Most of us have a grill, use it.

Mahalo.