Hilltopper39

Bourbon marinaded Tri-Tip Time for some Tri-Tip! I mentioned earlier that tri-tip has slowly become one of my favorite cuts of beef, and this past weekend I did one a little bit differently than before, bourbon marinated tri-tip. Now you may be wondering what the hell is a tri-tip? I had never heard of it myself until a few months ago when I saw a delicious looking and very reasonably priced 3 pound hunk of meat sitting in the display counter of the butcher shop. Basically the tri-tip steak is a small triangularly shaped muscle usually 1.5-3lbs and is a part of the bottom sirloin. There are only two tri-tips per cow so you don't often see it for sale in normal grocery stores as an whole cut because it usually gets ground up into ground beef. In the 1950's the cut became popular in California when some local ranchers began slow roasting it over open pits of red oak, and it has since grown in popularity due to it's rich flavor and low fat content. Sometime's it is referred to as a poor man's ribeye because of the rich flavor and similar fat marbling though out the cut yet at nearly a third of the price. Enough recycling the tri-tip Wikipedia page (here's more info if you want it Tri-tip wiki, lets get to some pictures! Now a traditional Santa Maria style tri tip is liberally seasoned with a basic salt pepper and garlic rub and then slow roasted over an open red oak pit. I have done the traditional recipe several times and it's amazing but I did this one a little differently with a great recipe I found online for a bourbon marinade. I'm usually a fan of very simple flavorings that let the meat be the star of the show, but this recipe was fairly ingredient heavy and turned out really well. here is my tri-tip, about 2.2 pound the other side, you can see the fat distributed throughout the cut. Here are the ingredients for the marinde. Again a little ingredient heavy for my tastes but it turned out really well. Olive oil, dijon mustard, salt, pepper, garlic (fresh minced and powder), sugar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, white wine vinegar (I was out of red), and of course Bourbon. Bourbon makes everything better! Here are the ingredients whisked up together in a bowl And poured over the tri-tip to marinade over night! The next day i removed the tri-tip about an hour before I cooked it to let it raise to room temp. Also applied a liberal amount of salt, pepper, garlic powder and Tony's (I put Tony's on everything!). Now for the cooking technique. The technique I like to use for this is basically sear the hell out of both sides over direct heat then cook at a lower temp over indirect heat until you reach the desired internal temp. With the Egg that is a little tricky so what I do is first sear each side for about 5 minutes each, then remove the meat and tent with foil and then insert the plate setter legs up with a second grate on it on top of my cast iron grate with both vents closed. The large thermal mass of the plate setter absorbs a lot of heat and drops the dome temp of the egg from 700 down to 350-400 rather quickly. After the temp gets down under 400 degrees while both vents are still closed I put the tri-tip back in the egg and close the lid with a maintained temp around 350 until its done. Egg is hot and ready to go! I like to lay an alluminum foil drip pan face down on the grate for a few minutes before I put the meat on. It kind of super-heats that section of the grate and leaves really nice grill marks. This technique works great on any kind of grill! And on the egg it goes! About 5 minutes per side on the initial high heat direct sear. After flipping you can see the beautiful clean grill marks that were left behind The next picture is of the meat after it's been removed and the plate setter inserted on top of the cast iron grate. I probably let it sit outside the egg tented with foil for about 10 minutes while the dome temp on the egg dropped under 400 degrees F. Back in the Egg over indirect heat Removed at a temp of around 140-145, a nice medium. Sliced across the grain, you can see the crust is charred but the center is still pink and juicy Served with caramelized red onions, crumbled feta, and grill roasted red potatoes. Delicious! Pretty sloppy presentation, but at that point I was just ready to eat and wasn't too concerned with it. This recipe turned out really well! You could taste the bourbon marinade in the finished meat and it lent a fantastic flavor that nicely complimented the natural flavor of the beef. When I initially cut into the tri-tip very little juice ran out but it was still very moist and tender. For me a good tri-tip is pretty hard to beat, it's a lean and juicy cut that has a deliciously rich flavor at half the cost of other more common primal cuts. I would highly recommend it for your next cook out, but remember you may need to specifically request it from your meat counter or go to more of a butcher shop. Again, thanks for reading, enjoy!

^^yeah it's pretty much always like that, at least always has been every time I've been. For me it's not necessarily the "conga line" that ruins the scares because the actors do a good job of utilizing multiple scare locations in each scene to keep you guessing. I hate the workers that aren't in costume in the houses with flashlights pushing everyone through the scenes if they fall behind the pace a little.

I wonder what the cost of one of these systems is? it would appear to be more expensive than the budget of a park like Six Flags or Cedar Fair handle, and not quite up to the capacity and quality standards of a place like Universal or Disney (who tend to manufacture their own dark ride systems anyways). So even if it's amazing, and reliable, and really works well I still don't know who would buy one on the price alone. Actually now that I think about there will probably be about 14 of these built in China over the next decade.

I still have no idea what this place really is but it's awesome and I want to go there when whatever it is is finally finished. Love these updates Larry, thanks for keeping everyone updated.

I've never really been that impressed with the Pandora's box concept. Looks like it would be a very blah ride experience for the complexity of it (and I'm sure the cost) technically. Seems like it does a little bit of everything (dark ride, motion simulator, drop tower) but nothing really really well. I might be completely wrong about it, and it might kick ass if used properly, but there is probably a reason this thing has been on the market for 5 or 10 years without a single installation.

And a Styx cover band .

^I know about the walk through in Hollywood, but does it have actors in it? I walked through it once on my only visit to the park and don't remember any live actors in it, but do remember it being pretty cool. ^^Yeah, and I heard good things about Morey's Ghost Ship haunt, but I'm not sure if it's an upcharge or not. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for a 3 story combo Moe's/Panda Express/Burger King with a salsa fountain and a ketchup slide in the play area.

There's no reason a haunted house can't get 1,800-2,000pph if it is designed right. This. Go to HHN and see what kind of capacity those things have, they can easily easily do 1,500-2,000 pph. Some of your smaller regional haunted houses probably don't get that kind of capacity because they don't send people through in a constant "conga line" like at HHN, but they probably don't need a capacity of 2,000 people an hour through either. I've always though that for a reasonable price any park could build and empty building, build a haunt inside the building for regular operation during the year, plus the house with more actors and more atmosphere for the Halloween event, then every couple of years completely re-theme it and create an all new house. It would be an easy way to have a "new" attraction for a regional park every couple of years. Universal could probably easily do the same kind of thing, and make it work really well. However I doubt that his will be anything other than a major new attraction instead of a permanent haunt.

^I agree, but I think that to casual fans of the event, or "GP" if that's what you wanna call them, the licensed properties are a big draw. It would be interesting to compare attendance figures for the event from years with and without licensed properties. Then again the event has gotten so popular in recent years it probably doesn't matter what they use, they'll still draw huge crowds.

I've always thought that a year round haunt,if done properly, could be a great hight capacity attraction for ANY park yet very few exist. Hopefully if Universal decides to use this space for just that they will set the new standard for in park year round haunts and maybe more will pop up around the world.

Yeah I got nothing against Kiffin, he does come off as a Douche but whatever most coaches at the level are some sort or an ass/douche/prick, it's just the nature of the business. From all of the reports I've read he actually handled leaving Tennessee the right way and told the AD he was interested in the job, and that he was interviewing for the job, he wasn't doing it behind everyone's back Bobby Petrino Style. And yeah, it's USC, Tennessee is still a great job but it't not USC. If I were good enough that I had offers from everyone in the country and could pick anywhere to play, USC would have definitely been at the top of my list. It was the perfect fit for Kiffin, and as long as they don't go on probation or lose he will be there for a long time.

^They will, I'm picking USC and Bama/LSU as my early early early pre season pre summer camp National Title Game matchup. I think the The Pac12 will be down (even though it's a much better conference than most people on the East coast like to think) and USC should be able to go undefeated or have only 1 loss. In the future, depending on the selection format they finally decide on, I'd bet 2 of the 4 spots will normally reserved be for the Big 10 and Pac 12 champions barring some kind of fluke upset in the Conference Championship game. Your head coach is still Lane Kiffin, so there is a certain level of uncertainty that will accompany each season......

^Yeah you're probably right about that, I'll admit that those were pretty awful. My point is that it seems like these days people would rather complain about an attraction/ride/section/park/restaurant/ for what it's not rather than embrace it for what it is. It's just something I've noticed lately (and in lots of other fields besides coaster fans too), and I'm just tired or hearing it all the time. Off my soap box and back to Disney now.

Maybe it's just me but it seems like every new coaster these days gets complaints about the restraints. I don't remember people complaining about restraints 5 years ago, or 10 years ago, or whenever, I never remember complaints until here recently. Maverick, I305, Skyrush, Wild Eagle, and now Matterhorn.

Those climbers and the musicians on the mountain are really nice touches. Disney should make climbing the mountain an up-charge attraction, I'm sure enough nerds would want to do it (myself included)!

I guess we can start a 2012 thread with the recent news about the 4 team playoff to likely be instituted in 2014. Personally I like the idea, it won't be perfect and a lot of teams will still feel like they are left out but it's a nice step in the right direction. I'd rather see 4 teams with a chance to win the title than 2, and hopefully it will eventually evolve into 8 or 16 teams. There are still quite a few issues to iron out (locations, selection committee, how will the money be divided, etc) but but Major College Football will finally have a playoff (for the SEC to win every year)!

Griffin is way more one dimensional and overrated that Howard in my opinion. Howard can atleast contribute a little on each end of the court instead of just dunking on everyone. I feel like I'm defending Dwight Howard a little to much here lately even though I personally hate the guy and think he's going to single handedly ruin Orlando's organization. The Heat won the championship, probably no surprise to anyone there. To their credit they really did look like the best team in the league for the last two series and they deserved to win it. But on to more important things, the NBA Draft (or as I like to call it the 3rd Annual University of Kentucky Alumni Showcase)! The NBA draft will be taking place next Thursday and this is years Draft Class is one of the deepest in recent years. Other than Anthony Davis as a lock at #1 to New Orleans, all of the other picks seem pretty wide open. So who do you want your team to draft? What players do you think will be successful at the professional level and who will flop? Who should Charlotte take at #2? Who will wear the most ridiculous suit at the event? Your thoughts on the draft.

Haha, that picture is hilarious! Between this and that video on Furious Baco it's almost like Intamin's engineers designed their restraints to minimize rider comfort and maximize potential on ride boob removal! Haha

^Yeah that map is great, but I'm kind of surprised that all of the pictures of the new Carsland section don't have any people in them. I know the ride just opened but I figured Disney would have had some photo shoots during testing for promotional material. Every picture on that web site makes Carsland look like a ghost town.

Yeah I don't know, your probably right but that dude is so talented that someone will take a huge risk on him. Off and on the court issues aside he's good enough to almost win a couple playoff games by himself. You know you'd like to see him in Boston with Rondo, and if anyone in the league can manage him it's probably Doc Rivers ...... (Who am I kidding, Boston is the future home of Kevin Love in 2015, and then NBA champs in 2016)

^Yeah, the Bulls might be down next year but they'll be fine once Rose is back. The real threat to the Heat or Thunder in the future will probably be who ever Dwight Howard ends up with. I really have no idea who that's going to be at this point should make for an interesting off season.

I'm almost pulling for Miami a little at this point just so people might get off Lebron's case a little bit. I know he made some dumb mistakes in the past but come one, the guy will probably go down as one of the top 5 players of all time lets all try to enjoy it just a little while he's still in his prime. It's been a competitive series, but I think Miami will wrap it up on Thursday. I was wanting it to go 7 games but don't think that's gonna happen. I also have a feeling that we might see Miami and OKC in the finals together 4 out of the next 6 years or something like that. They're both gonna be good for a while.

That opening crowd is ridiculous! Glad I wasn't there that day, but for DCA's sake I hope they keep it up!

Shock looks awesome! I've always thought it would be really cool to have a major coaster with a single car train, the forces on that thing must be insane! Now someone build a 200ft wild mouse....

This could never work, all of you arm chair engineers obviously have no idea how big of a difference .01 hectares makes......