Presenting our family recipe for European (Jewish?) style sweet and sour meatballs. Makes a great party hors d'oeuvres, or mainstay. Quick and easy to prepare.

Here are the ingredients for one to one and a half pounds of ground beef. Just double it for two or three pounds, or do the simple math.

For approximately one pound of beef (or slightly more), you start with one bottle of Heinz 57 Chille Sauce. Empty the bottle into a deep pot, followed by an equal amount of water. In other words, refill the original bottle with water, shake to get any remaining sauce, and add that to your pot.

Potatoes are a favorite in our household, and we discovered the secret to getting a crispy, yet soft inside, air fried chunk of potato.

Step one is to pre-bake a tray of whole potatoes, such as russet baking potatoes. We usually just brush them clean, trim off any eyes or bad parts, and leave the remainders of the skins on. But you could skin them completely if you want to.

Roasted ravioli: Costco chicken & mozzarella ravioli. Boil until soft, but not quite bursting. Prepare a baking sheet with aluminum foil (to eliminate cleanup). Drizzle pan w olive oil. Spread out the cooked ravioli, one layer only. Don't crowd or double up. Drizzle olive oil over the pasta. Add garlic powder, Italian seasoning, shredded mozzarella cheese and freshly grated Parmesan reggiano cheese. Bake at 375-400 until golden brown. Serve with a thick marinara sauce on the side for dipping.
Instead of baking in the oven, I have also made this by roasting in my smoker!

Add the meat to the griddle, and pull apart or chop as it cooks. Season with salt, pepper, garlic. A pinch of Italian seasoning. Then fold in the onions/peppers to the meat. Add olive oil as needed to keep the meet moist and to add a fat content. Sprinkle a little red wine vinegar for more flavor. Top off with generous slices of provolone cheese, melted over the steak.

Here is Fred Ginsburg’s (aka Sound Q BBQ Team) recipe for his award winning filet mignon. Better than what you will pay a fortune for at a celebrity steakhouse!

NY steak for dinner.... thick cut, NY strips from Costco. Reverse seared with a pronounced smoke ring and crisp bark.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to properly season raw meat prior to cooking without a taste test. But we all know the dangers of sampling raw meats, especially ground meats for meatballs or meatloaf, sliced cuts for jerky, or any kind of poultry. There is, however, a simple solution.

Sound Q "Willy 2" all purpose pork/beef rub.

This is our favorite general purpose BBQ rub. We use it primarily for ribs, pork loins, pork shoulder. But it is also great on chicken or large cuts of beef. Pretty easy and economical to mix up at home.

A party favorite is our smoked roast beef sandwiches. Smoked, thinly sliced, with melted provolone cheese, onions & peppers.

My ribs of choice are the Swift brand vacuum packaged baby backs from CostCo. We prefer our ribs meaty and lean. But you could use this recipe on St. Louis cut spare ribs as well.

Here is the recipe for the smoked, Jack Daniels cedar plank salmon.

Rinse and pat dry the salmon fillets (could be skin on or skin off, I prefer the skinless.

Soak cedar planks in water at least an hour or so, so they won't burn during cooking…

Here is our potlatch (salmon) seasoning which we created to be similar in taste to the original by Williams-Sonoma. Sometimes the W-S is not available, or may be too expensive to use in bulk — so a chef friend of ours engineered this alternative.

f you have ever been to a Cheesecake Factory restaurant, you know that they offer a large variety of “chicken schnitzel” or breaded cutlet dishes, such as chicken parmesan, piccata, lemon, and several other variations — all based out of your primary breaded chicken cutlet. Here is a quick and easy technique for preparing your own breaded cutlets or nuggets that can be finished in myriad ways. Essentially, you are preparing your own procesed chicken patties or nuggets, except that yours are not chemically processed with polysyllable preservatives, enhancers, fillers, etc.

Chicken parmesan, based on Mario Batali’s technique. Everything is homemade: including the tomato sauce and even the breadcrumbs.

The best way to grill steaks is with the reverse sear technique that yields evenly cooked interior with a tasty, but thin, exterior char.

Smoked meatloaf with crushed BBQ flavor potato chips…

Easy to make peach cobbler…

Smoked beef tenderloin, also known as chateaubriand, is the same cut of meat as filet mignon.

We cook it similar to steak, using the reverse sear technique.

Here is the recipe for our general purpose BBQ rub for beef.

Here is the recipe for our favorite homemade sweet BBQ sauce, nicknamed the “super sauce” by our friends.