Okie Smokin
BBQ Blunders and Blackstone Tales? The Okie Smokin' Podcast serves up laughter, lip-smacking recipes, and outdoor adventures - all sizzling hot. Join John and Dolores from their backyard studio in Oklahoma as they explore the wild side of grilling, from smoky surprises to lakeside feasts. You'll be hooked in no time!
Okie Smokin
From Philly Cheese Steak Sausages to Smash Tacos: Cooking Success Stories
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We explore recent backyard cooking adventures featuring Philly cheese steak sausages transformed into epic sandwiches and smash tacos while testing our new Vevor griddle against the Blackstone.
• Philly cheese steak sausages from Ranchers' Sausages turned into sandwiches with visible cheese inside
• Added bell peppers, onions, White Lightning seasoning, Dirty Bird Hot, and Blues Hog Jalapeno Lime Ranch
• Vivor electric griddle produces superior smash burgers with better crust compared to Blackstone griddle
• Smash tacos experiment revealed keto tortillas work better placed on top rather than smashed with the meat
• Family cooking quirk: adding cream cheese and jalapeños to nearly everything
• Upcoming live cooking session featuring rice stir fry on Thursday
Text us feedback or questions at the number in our description, or email okiesmokin@gmail.com to connect with us.
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So we got the loaded smash burger. Oh, I didn't talk about that. We did the loaded smash burger. Potato skillet, knife and fork style comfort food video. Holy cow, Now that was a good one.
Speaker 2:That's the one that Time to fire up that grill. From smoked pork to smash burgers, outdoor cooking just tastes better. This is the Okie smoking podcast, and here's your host, john barry all right, welcome in to the ok' Podcast, episode number 45.
Speaker 1:Here, alongside my beautiful wife, dolores, and we are going to be talking some things we've cooked out in our backyard kitchen over the last few days, and one of your favorite ones we cooked was just last night. What was, what'd you think of that? Philly cheese steak sausage.
Speaker 3:It was good. I liked it. I just ate the sausage part. I wrapped it with cheese and ate it that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she just used. I went ahead and cut them up in a dime or not dime, but coin style size.
Speaker 3:He cut them up.
Speaker 1:Oh, I cut everything up. Oh, I stand corrected, so let me just back up a little bit. Uh, dolores went ahead and she does an excellent job at prepping my live videos and we did a live video, and so she went ahead and got the onions cut up, got the bell peppers cut up, had the sausages already cut up in containers for me, had the bread, had the knife. Basically, you were the prep.
Speaker 3:The organizer.
Speaker 1:The organizer, because one thing that I've learned when going live is I'm never prepared and it flows better. Everything works better if I go out there and I have all my ingredients I need. If I'm going to be adding any kind of condiment, I have that. If I have a spatula, if I need everything I need is best right there right then, and we just put lids on them, have the containers out there for the cook, because I've done a few of these and I'll go out there and then I don't have a spatula, or I don't have the cheese, or I don't have the cheese, I don't have the onion or the condiments that I need after the cook or during the cook, or even just as simple as salt and pepper. It's not there. So she has done a great job of when she knows I'm going live. What are you cooking?
Speaker 3:I put it on a board, I put all his stuff on it and it's all organized.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I take it out there, I set it on a table next to me, I have everything I need, I'm able to sit down, I'm able to hit record and everything just goes much smoother that way. So she does an excellent job at that as well. As you know, kind of like when it comes to filming some of my videos, comes to filming, uh, some of my videos. She is uh excellent at that as well, because I used to, and I still do from time to time when she some she don't film them all, but uh, you do multiple cameras and takes and if she's just out there with the camera and can hold it and do the filming just makes things go a lot easier. So dolores is definitely involved in helping everything run smooth, from live videos to the regular filming.
Speaker 1:So appreciate her for that. Do a great job. Thank you, great job. So, going back to the Philly cheesesteaks that she cut up into a coin size coin sizes there that we went ahead and put on there. You really enjoyed that, didn't you? We've had the burnt ends. This was made as ranchers' sausages and this was made by them, and you preferred this one over the burnt ends.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this one tastes a whole lot better. Mikey you guys had yours chopped up with cheese, but I got to actually taste the whole.
Speaker 1:Instead I just chopped up right, and how was the cheese in there? Because I know I'm pretty sure it was good. But well, you did, you.
Speaker 3:You didn't use a bun, you used your provolone cheese and wrapped it and ate it.
Speaker 1:You just wrapped the provolone cheese around it the keto way. Uh-huh, just wrapped some cheese around the sausage.
Speaker 3:It was really good. I don't know how to describe it, but it was like moist, like when you bit into it and stuff.
Speaker 1:Do? You Was the cheese Because we didn't get a good picture. It tastes like cheddar, because we didn't get a good picture.
Speaker 3:It tastes like cheddar.
Speaker 1:We didn't get a good picture. You know. I've seen some of these that'll say cheese filled and you can't even see the cheese.
Speaker 3:You could actually see it. You could see the cheese in this Like even when you cut it, you could see the cheese.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it had a good amount of cheese in it, and I thought it was really good. I we went ahead and put bell peppers, uh, put some onions, put some olive oil and I used some seasonings, which I used some white lightning yeah, my way lightning. Yeah, that's her zero carb white lightning seasoning. I have a double butter that she don't uh use as regularly because it has some carbs in it, not a whole lot, but she likes it.
Speaker 3:It's like a teaspoon and stuff like that. I just can't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I added that to it and I also added my Dirty Bird Hot from Cosmos, which is one of my favorite seasonings and I mentioned in the video I'm almost completely out and I mentioned in the video I'm almost completely out and I'm going to be looking at some versions of that that I can replicate that seasoning and when I do I'll make a video of it. We're going to try to make that seasoning myself for very similar to it, because it's one of my favorites and I think it'd be cool just to go ahead and make it that one's zero carbs isn't it, I believe so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the dirty bird hot and the other one is not 100 sure, but I think it is. I know the, uh, the non-hot one is so it does have sugar in it, though yeah, how can something be zero carbs and have sugar?
Speaker 1:I don't know, but it says on there yeah, it just don't seem like it should be able to be zero carbs, but I I don't know so. But we did the philly cheese steaks. We went ahead and, after we cooked those up, mixed everything together, all the sausages, you know. We basically used the sausages as what you would typically use the steak and mixed it all up, added the, added a bunch of provolone cheese on it, let it all mix together, mixed it all in, cooked it all on the blackstone griddle out back, did this live for about 30 to 40 minutes and really turned out great.
Speaker 1:Like orion said, it tasted good yeah, yeah, he said it was bomb. Everybody really loved it. It was good. I did also forget to mention there's not a whole lot. I don't make that. Don't have a little bit of a small if if nothing at all, just a small spice. I added some red pepper flakes I did you added some red pepper flakes to it just to give it that slight little heat, that just what was the ranch jalapeno good yes, and I used some ranch jalapeno, jalapeno lime and yeah, it was by uh, what's the name of that hog?
Speaker 1:Let me just grab it. I hear the plane going over. Yeah, it was Blue's Hog Jalapeno Lime Ranch and if you do watch this on YouTube, you can see. We have the video version out, so I'll show you what it looks like right there. If you're not, you can find it.
Speaker 1:It's Blue's Hog Jalapeno Lime Ranch and it actually tastes excellent. I put it. It's blues hog jalapeno lime ranch and actually tastes excellent. I put it on there. You could taste the lime on there brought out some really, really good flavors. And then the uh sausages were great. Now I was thinking because I did this, now this, we got the ideal because this was philly cheese steak sausages, and Dolores said we ought to, you know, make a Philly cheese steak sandwich out of those sausages and I thought, yeah, that's a great ideal and that's what we did. But it got me to thinking a little further. Even if it isn't philly cheese steak sausages, you could make a philly cheese steak or a philly uh hot link steak or, you know, basically use a different type of sausage, maybe some brats, john's, uh, johnsonville brats or I don't like brats, so but hot links yeah ville brats or I don't like brats, so but hot links, yeah.
Speaker 1:So hot links would be on your on your list, uh, maybe, uh, italian sausages or something. Just just mix up in there because I thought it was fantastic it time you got it all put on in between that hoagie bun. Uh, it was, it was really really good. So a win for the Philly cheesesteak sausages put between a hoagie bun really really good stuff. Definitely recommend, 100%. Definitely would do it again, no doubt. What else did we cook over the last week?
Speaker 3:we did smash tacos on the v-war, so how do you like your v-war?
Speaker 1:yes, I love it, absolutely love it. Now, when I got this thing, I originally was uh. I joined a facebook group and I watched some uh videos. Uh, checked out red, looked over a few things and everybody said season it first. Be sure you do that. That's critical, but I went against the grain on all of those recommendations and went with Doug from Griddle Cookie and more who said you don't need to season it and more who said you don't need to season it. And the one we have and granted this probably varies based on the exact one you get. The one we got is the 22-inch VIVO or it's the electric model, so you could just plug it in. Yeah, it's right behind her. If you're watching this there, it is, it's on the counter and it is um. You just heat it up 15 minutes, it's ready to go. 300 degrees is what we found, and you just put your burger on there, smash it, because, uh, from what I understand, doug has uh taught me this too. I did smash burgers on it first.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we did smash burgers on it first.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did smash burgers first, but you want the crust to actually stick to it, to burn to it just a little bit. And then you need your sharp scraper of some sort and just get beneath it, scrape it up and don't lose that crust. Flip that over and you've got the true smash burger crust, like from a commercial griddle. And when you tasted it at first versus and you now dolores is loves smash, she absolutely. When you say burger, it's got to be smash burgers. That's almost all the time. Don't want a smoked burger anymore or any other way. Smash that burger, melt that cheese. And what did you think of the Vivor versus the Blackstone?
Speaker 3:A hundred percent way better, like the Vivor hands down. It'd be what.
Speaker 1:So you think it is much better than the Blackstone riddle? Well, yeah, I didn't hear you through there, but we're going to see if the audio comes through here. It all works out Well.
Speaker 3:we always have technical difficulties, but yeah, a hundred percent better than the one outside.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the Vivor is the winner when it comes to smash burgers. It's got a much crispier. You just get that better crust and you've got to have that. It's not dry either.
Speaker 3:It's not like a dry burger. It tastes really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you get the good moistness of it all. Then we went ahead and made the smashed tacos. Now, what did you think of those?
Speaker 3:Those were so good.
Speaker 1:Now I will say she got some keto tortillas.
Speaker 3:You mean, you got them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well.
Speaker 3:You bought me the zero carb ones.
Speaker 1:They sucked when it came to smashing them. I'm just saying that they did.
Speaker 3:It was weird like it became soggy yes, we tried to uh smash her keto tortillas zero carbs what we did is he just made like a smash burger and then we just laid the tortilla on top of it yeah, and, and then we pushed it down and when I brought up the smasher, the tortilla just completely fell apart.
Speaker 1:It was more, I guess, doughy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but the second one that we put on, we just laid it on top. We didn't smash it on there.
Speaker 1:So if you're going to use a zero-carb tortilla, it's probably best to make sure you smash the burger first.
Speaker 3:Yeah, don't smash it together.
Speaker 1:Place the tortilla on top of it and then cook it that way, and then you can flip it because there's different textures or something. It is Something about it. The corn tortilla no problem at all, just smash it right on there and it had no problem and a regular tortilla, it would do the same as the corn yeah, anyway it all, it all worked out and we all enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:now I used some taco seasoning on the meat, we used some cheddar, or now I had kobe jack. You had some zero carb cheese that she used on it On reject cheese on it, and we both enjoyed it. I added some Tabasco scorpion sauce just because I like a little heat to it, and really good. Oh, we also sauteed some jalapeno.
Speaker 3:Oh, and on our, our kid. He wanted cream cheese on it.
Speaker 1:Remember.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, that was the uh…. He did it on the smash taco too, and also the burger.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you see where our videos come from. Always have cheese, cream cheese, always have jalapenos, and the kids and everybody we just…. He loves cream cheese Every meal. It seems like they want something to go with it similar to that. We're always touching some spice and cream cheese on things. So, yeah, really, really good though that beaver though. Yeah, I mean, I think it's going to be great. I was thinking because we go, you know, in a year or two I'm sure we'll go back out and visit Dolores' sister and brother. We go out there and they're always cooking and we cook and go out and eat and various things. When we go out there, that thing's going to the back trunk and I'm bringing that beaver down there. We're going to plug it up, make some breakfast, make some various things. I think that'd be pretty good, pretty cool. Don't you go out there? And I just think, although it is small, so it's going to take several, cause I have a big family, it's going to be a maybe a bad idea. I'll be sitting there.
Speaker 3:Bake on it first.
Speaker 1:It'll be great. Oh, we could put a bunch of bacon on there and and be able to do it up, smash burgers, and things could probably just be about two or three at a time. Uh, so, no, just love cooking so I'd like to do that. So we'll bring that out there and put some of uh it to the test. Um, really really good stuff, and this is uh the vivor segment, not sponsored or anything like that. Just talking about it. Enjoy it. Bought it with my own money, so, uh, there you go. Let's see, we also went ahead and um made something else. We uh, what else did we make?
Speaker 1:on that no, just this last week it's been it's been raining so much and we didn't at that time have the v-bore we've been having so many floods it's, it's, and I can cook on my blackstone when it's raining uh, because it's under the roof and I can go out there and cook on it, but not when it's this kind of rain. I mean this stuff was, I mean it was. I mean you couldn't even see two foot in front of you. It's raining so hard and blowing sideways and it's you know.
Speaker 3:That's your job. Like he has bought cleanup and it's like it hasn't been getting finished.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we, we, where I work, we do uh, it's big trash day as uh, we, we pick up the trash and we've been behind. So I think we're going to be caught up. I think we are officially caught up. We're going to be 100 caught up next week it's so beautiful outside.
Speaker 3:Today, though it's nice, because, man, this rain has been so depressing, like just pour down yeah, it, it's, it is, and so, yeah, I think we're getting over it now honestly, since it's been raining, so our grass is so pretty it's green, it's tall, it needs mold.
Speaker 1:Uh, probably be doing that tomorrow, if not late tonight. Get out there and do some doing some mowing of the lines and things. So but, yeah, that's been uh what we've been going on. Uh, I did we mention yet or uh talk with uh doug oh no, um, we talked to doug and also the flat top noob, yep ryan over at flat top noob.
Speaker 1:So uh, if you missed it, uh, a very cool talk with uh a doug over at griddle cook, eat and more. Check out his youtube channel. We'll put all of his channel in the show notes or the description of youtube below watch his um where he built.
Speaker 3:What was that? The? What did he build?
Speaker 1:I don't know what it's called the drum oh, yes, yes, yes, the uds, he's got a video out. The ugly drum smoker I mean delores, both like we were watching that. I've got a pit barrel and he actually a buddy of his made a drum and traded that. He talks about that in our last episode as well, episode 44, so you could check out our little conversation.
Speaker 3:We had great, great podcast episode, but you could also check his channel out and he made a channel because he did a replica of long john silver's chicken and that looks really good yeah, it got the crispies too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good stuff, good stuff. He, uh. And another fascinating thing with me was his replica we talked about. This was of his cruise ship, uh, where you put you actually put mozzarella cheese sticks on a burger. Oh yeah, and, and and it's just like a special secret burger from, uh, I forget which cruise line it is, but that's all you do and you can just say you want the secret ingredients. So that's pretty cool stuff. We talked to him. That'll be uh on our next week's episode.
Speaker 3:We've also talked to ryan, as she mentioned, from uh the flat top noob now my husband and him had, like you guys had, connection and I don't, because I don't know anything about computers. So that was, that was like his dream.
Speaker 1:I have been into computers quite a bit. I've built some computers, several. My son, me and him built a gaming computer. So we have done some of that, and you know I've done some websites and various things. So tech is something I enjoy as well. So while we talked about the Flattop Noob so well, we talked about the flat top noob.
Speaker 3:I didn't even get to like really talk much to him because my grandson and my kids were bugging me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so she wasn't in it a whole lot, but we went on talking about cooking and all the way to some tech life and a few other things. So a great episode, a lengthy one too. You'll be able to check that out. That's going to be episode 46. I've been in the process of getting it prepared to launch next Monday.
Speaker 3:It's already already talked to him.
Speaker 1:So that's going to be fun.
Speaker 3:He's really funny too. Yes, like his stuff is hilarious.
Speaker 1:Um, he, he is a very entertaining guy. So you want to be sure and check out Ryan and check out his, his channel, the flat top noob and so great, great stuff there we'll also be getting, and a rob from poor guy outdoor cooking. I think he'll come on the channel here in the future which he sent in a text, by the way, uh, to the channel that said great job guys. So thanks for the text. I appreciate the fan mail we get from everybody. Had someone from georgia also mentioned, uh something about. They listened to our pizza video. Uh, so appreciate that as well.
Speaker 1:You can always text us, uh in the show notes or in the youtube description. You may need a mobile mobile device. When you click it, it'll send you straight to your text app. Don't change anything. Send your message, we'll get it. We can't reply back, but we will definitely get it and talk about it in a future episode. Uh, what else uh did we got on the agenda today? Did we look at some comments? What do we got going on here? Let's check out the youtube uh community, the uh oaky smoking community, and let's go and see. So we got the loaded smash burger. Oh, I didn't talk about that we did the loaded smash burger, potato skillet, knife and fork style comfort food video. Holy cow, now that was a good uh that's the one that jacob put cream cheese right on his.
Speaker 1:Well, he had a bun so I'll read this comment and I'll tell you about about that video. This is from my old guy, high barbecue. He said that sure does look fantastic. Love me some jalapenos. I'm not into the super spicy anymore too much like you are, but I love jalapenos on lots of foods. Just the right amount of heat for me. And that one.
Speaker 1:We went ahead and smashed some burgers. But before we did that I took some frozen hash browns from great value walmart. I put those on the blackstone, heated those up, brown them for a bit, just laid them down and then smashed some burgers next to them, cooked those just like I would a regular smash burger, added some cheese to the smash burger. We did put some jalapenos in with the potatoes, mixed all that up, then put the smashed cheeseburger on top of the potatoes and I did a knife and fork smash burger. So so good. And my son Jacob decided to take it a step further and actually put it between a bun and cream cheese on both sides of the bun. I mean, are you kidding me? This thing was, it was just a next level. It was, it was completely next level. Annie smoking pot also mentioned uh, who doesn't like a good smash burger? And now you've taken it to the next level. Always appreciate that.
Speaker 1:So look at some other comments here. Um, a little bit back our smoked pineapple ribs. I think we may have touched on that in a previous episode. The way those bones pull out of the meat is amazing. Had a comment from Shaquilla's Kitchen 2022. And Aaron Robert I think that's Aaron Rohert made a good point Pineapple would make a good adult beverage garnish. So when we made those ribs, I went ahead and I was eating the pineapples and those went well with it, and there was something you had said to make with that. I said we should have made salsa with it Pineapple salsa I would have been good with, I would have been good with, and he had the heck. They had the great ideal of going ahead turning that into an adult beverage. Uh, so a good stuff there. Let's see what else we got here.
Speaker 1:We've got, uh, from our loaded, uh, the same video. Uh. This person said I do the same thing with ground sausage and eggs stuffed in corn tortillas with hot sauce. Now don't that sound good? Wow. And then it also goes on to say cheap to. Food in my country has become outrageously high priced in the past five years. I'm not sure where they're from, didn't say but a great comment there. And yeah, food is, is uh coming quite pricey. I mean you've got to figure out how to uh make things and stretch your meal so you can feed everybody for less.
Speaker 1:I'm looking into some other comments here. Uh, coop the grill said uh, on our v-board video that we did on the smash tacos, I've got to get one of those griddles that looks great. They are. Uh, they turned out great. And also the davish kitchen that looks so good I have to get. Uh, I have to give them a go on those smash tacos.
Speaker 1:Lots of great comments coming out here and oh, on our latest one, uh, poor guy out door said love it guys. One of these uh days I'll be able to jump on when you're actually live. That was our philly cheesesteak video we just did a day ago. So appreciate all the comments, keep them coming. We'll bring some of them on the podcast and enjoy doing the show. If you'd like to be on it or want to email me for anything okiesmoking at gmailcom, you can reach out. Let us know and we'll see what we can do to get you on the show. And be sure and check out our live videos. We will go ahead Next week. We're doing another live on Thursday. It's going to be a rice budak. How do you say that? Can you pronounce that? I have no clue. I had to.
Speaker 3:Bullduck.
Speaker 1:It's B, I can't remember how to spell it now. I got some rice in the freezer and it's a little bit spicy. I'm going to make it stir fry with it. I'm going to be making. I'll probably put some chicken, maybe some beef.
Speaker 3:I say steak, you should cut up thin steak and put it in there.
Speaker 1:Maybe some steak put in there. So I'm going to be cooking this on the Blackstone. Looks like it's going to be Thursday evening. I'll put a link to the time that it's going to be and I'm going to cook this up. You think I will have any taste testers for this, is it?
Speaker 3:only going to be me.
Speaker 1:Well, there's jacob now see if he can do a live taste test. Good luck, yeah, it probably just be me, but we're going to test it out. And uh, yeah, I'll see if we can get any live taste test. So we're going to do some of that rice on the blackstone. That'll be thursday night and then we got I've got a trip coming up this weekend. I'll try to get maybe some footage out there on a little fishing trip. We'll talk more about that. And, of course, don't forget our next episode. Uh, monday the 12th. I want to say let me take a look at the calendar here. Yep, monday the 12, 12th. Ryan from Flat Top Noob will have his video launch that week and then me and Dolores will be back for the week after as well. Always fun stuff there. Anything else you would like to bring up in this episode, miss Dolores?
Speaker 3:My weight loss. I'm 171 pounds now. Okay, I was 170, but'm 171 pounds now, okay, I was 170, but I came to pounds somewhere.
Speaker 1:She's too hard on herself. I tell her she's just fine as is, but she's always wanting to look at those numbers a little bit and trying to keep her keto going. And really her keto meals are pretty darn good. I've had several of them. A lot of it is just remove the bread. Remove, you know, if you're cooking something. A good tip here is instead of breadcrumbs, use pork skins.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like the fish. Oh my gosh, it's kind of like.
Speaker 1:When I see a recipe that says cayenne pepper, I always add habanero pepper. That's just what I do. When she sees bread breadcrumbs, she just changes it into crunching up some pork rinds and that's how she'll do it. So little things like that, and she enjoys, uh, doing her keto and I have fun experiment with it as well. But I think we're going to go ahead and sign off. I hope everybody has a great day. We'll be back here. It'll be after Mother's Day, before we're back on, because we've got ryan. Uh, the ryan noob will be on the monday episode after mother's day and then we'll be back here. So I appreciate everybody. So, uh, yeah, better said now happy mother's day to everybody and we'll see you then thank you for listening to the Okie Smokin' podcast.
Speaker 2:Episodes drop every Monday. Don't forget to follow this podcast or you might miss out on some delicious creations. You can also find us on our website, okiesmokincom, and on YouTube and other social media platforms. Until next time, keep firing up that grill.
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