Bachelor Life with Victor

In this group I belong to on Facebook dealing with Traeger Smokers, I have been seeing a lot of people lately cooking crab legs!  So, I wanted to try it.  Just as a note, I do not have a traeger, I have a Pit Boss Pellet Smoker, but Traeger does have some amazing recipes, and its nice to see what people are making.   Today I decided to make snow crab legs in the smoker.  Basically all you have to do is heat it up, since they are pre-cooked.  But, I wanted some of the smoky flavor.  Tasted great!!!!!!

I am always trying to come up with ideas for cheap, healthy, and good meal prep ideas.  In this case, I cooked it for dinner, but it is definitely a great option for meal prep. I bought chicken breast tenderloins and diced steak.  I cut the chicken up in to smaller pieces.  The chicken was thrown in a gallon size bag with olive oil, chicken seasoning, and chili powder.  The steak was put in a gallon size bag with Worcester sauce and steak seasoning.  After each bag was thoroughly mixed and marinated I heated up the griddle.  After prepping the griddle I put the chicken and the steak on.  Cooked them thoroughly, which was about 10 minutes, and then took them off and put them on a big plate.  Mixed them in with salad, or just eating them alone was great!  And cheap!  

On Sunday mornings, I like to cook breakfast on the griddle.  Bacon, sausage, and eggs.  It is quick, and easy, and best of all, tastes great!!!!  So, I did that this morning.   However, I also, while I cooked the breakfast enjoyed a few cups of coffee, and listened to a church service from Lighthouse Church.  It wasn't a live streaming of a service.  I just randomly picked one, and turned it on while I made the breakfast.  Let me first say, I am not one of those people that goes to church every Sunday, or really ever.  I don't feel the need.  I commend those that do, and I commend people that call themselves really "religious."  I believe I can be religious and believe in God without ever going to church.  Not everyone believes that, and its OK.  Anyway, this church service, happened to be on the issue of stress, working too much, etc.  Again, it was a random service that I picked to listen to.  I had no idea th...

 I love steak.  I will eat chicken, and I will eat pork, and I like both of them, definitely pork on the smoker, but steak, steak is where it is at.  Give me a medium rare grilled steak and I am in heaven.  With my grill officially gone I cook the steak on the smoker.  The smoker essentially doubles as a grill if you turn the temperature up higher, so that is what I do.  I turned it up to 475 degrees and put the steak on.  Before I put it in the smoker, I put worcester sauce, McCormick steak seasoning, and Lawrys Garlic salt on it.  Anyway, put it in the smoker, 10 minutes cook time, and it comes out amazing.  There is no need to add steak sauce because it is tender, juicy, and full of flavor. 

Originally started the day thinking that I wanted to make a shrimp fried rice.  Ended up deciding on a stir fry.  Stir fry with shrimp, green onions, broccoli, pasta and soy sauce.  Pre-cooked the pasta.  Broccoli and green onions were cut.  Shrimp was peeled.  I threw it all on the griddle.  Added some soy sauce to it all, and boom, within a few minutes it was all done.  Good meal!

Every year, just for a fun, I always complete a bracket. I love watching college basketball and college football. Well, actually, I love watching most sports. But, college basketball, and especially March Madness has always been a favorite. With that being said, the bracket is posted. Please comment and tell me where I am wrong. Did you make one? Share me your thoughts on the final four and the championship game.   

The other day I started the grill to use it to make a hamburger. Then after it started cooking, I noticed flames shooting out the sides and the back of the grill. I shut everything off, and let the flames go away. Then, I started looking at the grill interior. I then noticed that my burners had disintergrated. It was a sad day. That grill had been good to me. While I have the smoker, I love having a grill. Just start it up, cook, and turn it off. With the pellet smoker, it takes a while to heat up and then die down when you are done with it. If I just want something quick, like a hamburger, then the grill is the way to go. However, after thinking about it more and more, I decided to not get a grill. The smoker works just fine for that. I went and got a griddle. It can make some amazing breakfast, and I want to be the japanese steakhouse chef at home! I made breakfast on it today. Bacon, eggs, and sausage. As a friend would say, its an old mans breakfast. Well, I am get...

As I have said, I love to cook. The smoker the has been great! In this case it was about an 8 pound pork butt. I smoked it for 6 hours and then turned it up to about 300 degrees for another 3 hours. Cooked it to an internal temp of 204. It pulled apart amazingly! Some of the best pulled pork I have ever had.  I bought another one recently. It is 17 pounds. I am thinking this will have to smoke overnight. Never have done that. Any thoughts?

Ever had a wood fired pizza? Much, much, better than pizza made in the oven! Pizza made on the smoker is like a wood fired pizza!  Grab a dough, or make a dough. Put the sauce on the dough. Add the cheese, and add any extra additions to it. Get the smoker to 400 degrees and cook the pizza until the cheese melts. Oh my, awesome tasting pizza.

As I said in my introductory post, I love cooking, especially with the smoker.  I love all kinds of meat.  Pork is amazing on the smoker.  Though beef is great too.  More on that later.   A food that I love is seafood!  A groomsman in my first wedding, and my best man in my second wedding totally got me into oysters, clams, and mussels.  I could write a whole series of posts on him, but I will spare you (and him). Anywho!  Yesterday I decided I was going to do mussels on the smoker.  Yes, I could have just steamed them, but I wanted to try it.  I cooked them in a cast iron skillet in butter and minced garlic.  Mussels taste great with no extra flavoring like butter and garlic, but, still.  I cooked them at 400 for 10 minutes.  First I melted the butter, and added the garlic.  After that, I added the mussels and cooked for 10 minutes.  Flavor was amazingly good.  If you have a smoker, and like mussels, I...