Episode 009 is the third in the What We’re Grilling series. Taryn brings on a guest, her friend Susie Weinrich from Mom’s Dinner, and the two discuss recipes they have grilled over the last couple of weeks to give you some grilling inspiration. In this episode, Taryn and Susie focus on fun, family-friendly recipes to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, including smoked skirt steak, grilled quesadillas, chili lime turkey burgers, and grilled tomatillo salsa.
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.
Recipe links from this episode
- Taryn’s Smoked Skirt Steak
- Susie’s Chili Lime Turkey Burgers
- Susie’s Grilled Tomatillo Salsa
- Taryn’s Grilled Onions
- Authentic Mexican Grilling Recipes from Isabel Eats
Connect with Susie from Mom’s Dinner
Transcript
Taryn Solie: Hello, and welcome to another What We’re Grilling episode. In these episodes I talk about some of the recipes my family and I have grilled over the last couple of weeks to give you some ideas of what to grill for your family and friends. Typically, I do these episodes by myself, but I want to make sure you’re hearing from lots of different voices in the food space.
So we’re going to switch things up a little. Today I’ve got my friend, Susie Weinrich from Mom’s Dinner to have a fun conversation about what we’ve been grilling over the last couple of weeks. Susie, welcome to the podcast.
Susie Weinrich: Thank you so much for having me, Taryn. I’m super excited to be here.
Taryn Solie: I am super excited to have you here. I think it’s going to be so fun. Um, before we jump in, I’d love it if you could give people, uh, kind of a brief rundown or background, um, of, well, of your background in food and grilling.
Susie Weinrich: Absolutely. So, um, you know, as far as food goes, I’ve kind of been in the food industry for a very long time, whether it was, you know, working in restaurants, bartending, um, doing food sales, like corporate food sales, um, and then also doing events.
And then that just all transitioned like accumulated together and it was like, oh, I could be a food blogger. So then I actually started Mom’s Dinner. It’s Mom’s Dinner dot net that’s where I blog all of my recipes. And, um, I do recipe development of really easy dinner recipes that are made with easy to find ingredients that’s crucial to me. Cause I’m not trying to go to four different grocery stores to try to find my groceries. I want to be able to go to one place and find what I need and be able to make dinner for my family. So that’s where you can find me Mom’s Dinner dot net.
Taryn Solie: Awesome. And then you’ve got, you have several grilling recipes on your site, but you guys are grillers for sure.
Susie Weinrich: Absolutely. Yes. We love to grill. Um, we live in Kansas. So, for me, I have like a, a window of spring through fall to grill and then winter, eh we kinda take it off. Cause I’m a wimp.
Taryn Solie: Well, I mean, to be fair, Kansas winters are not for the faint of heart. I mean, you know.
Susie Weinrich: Yes, definitely not. So, um, in that time we do a lot of like burgers, grilled chicken, um, skewers. We even grill pizzas, all of that, but I mainly grill on a charcoal grill. That’s that’s what I know. That’s what I’ve always used. Um, I understand a gas grill, but charcoal is what I do.
Taryn Solie: Okay. Perfect. See, and I am in a gas and wood pellet grill. So we have got lots of expertise between the two of us. I love it.
Susie Weinrich: Excellent.
Taryn Solie: So yeah. So today we’re gonna – we’re – I’m just going to jump right in because we’re both moms and we’re both busy and we both love to talk about food. So.
Susie Weinrich: Yes. Exactly.
Taryn Solie: So this- we’re going to- this episode is going to have a little bit of a theme because Cinco de Mayo is this week. And we have, Susie’s like waving her hands in the air.
Susie Weinrich: Doing a little shimmy.
Taryn Solie: And we both been cooking some recipes that I think would be fun for people to make on that day, if they’re going to celebrate and I’m going to start because I just made just like last week I made this, um, skirt steak. That was so good. It’s essentially like a carne asada, right. Which is just like, grilled steak over high heat.
And it was so freaking good, Susie. It was, I smoked it. So I put it on my Traeger and I did a smoke on it. And then I did a reverse sear. So, well, first I’ll say what we put like, on the steak itself, because – it wasn’t just salt and pepper.. We did, like marinated in like lime juice, some spices, like cumin and coriander and chili powder, put some garlic in there and like skirt steak’s really thin, right? Like, I’m sure I’m assuming you’ve cooked skirt steak.
Susie Weinrich: I don’t know that I’ve actually cooked a skirt steak. I think I’ve cooked more of a flank steak, which I know is not the same thing, but I think that they’re a little bit similar.
Taryn Solie: They are – they’re-
Susie Weinrich: Is that right?
Taryn Solie: Yes, that is right. So flank steak tends to be a little bit, I mean, obviously it’s like different parts of the cow, right? Um, flank steak tends to be a little bit thicker. Skirt steak is very, very thin, right? I mean, like, a quarter inch or less thin typically from what I have seen. So it just, cooks and smokes really quickly, which is one thing like, you know, we’re both moms, if you need to cook something quickly, like skirt steak is where it’s at. Right.
Susie Weinrich: Great. That’s good to know. I’m putting that in my recipe box now.
Taryn Solie: Yeah, for sure. So, yeah, so I j- I marinated it and then I put it on- so I have a Traeger. I put it on the Traeger. I set the Traeger to like the smoke setting. So like, for me, that was 225F. And then I smoked it for about 40 minutes until it reached. Like internal temperature is everything when you’re cooking on the grill, meat on the grill, right? Like-
Susie Weinrich: Oh my gosh. Yes. We cook to temperature not time.
Taryn Solie: Right! I mean, generally you want to know how much time it’s gonna take, but like you have to do internal temperature. So I cooked it to about 115F and then I took it off the grill.
I cranked the Traeger up to like 450F and I got a sear and then seared the outside, just like two minutes a side. I mean, like hardly anything because it just like cooks so quickly when it’s at that high heat, and let it rest. And then, you know, just like slice it up and it was. Susie, it was so good. I was like, shocked by how good it was, which don’t you love that when you cook something and you’re like, oh man, yes, I nailed it.
Susie Weinrich: Yes, especially if you’re just like a middle of this and a little of that. And you’re like, oh my gosh, this turned out amazing. What did I put in here?
Taryn Solie: What was that again? I forgot to write this down.
Susie Weinrich: Oh my gosh. So how did you eat it? Did you eat it in like, um, like a corn tortilla or just as is?
Taryn Solie: I ended up doing two different things. So I did a- I actually tried out smoked nachos, which is interesting. And I’m not like, you know, I mean, it’s, it’s just like sheet pan, chips, the steak, and then cheese and some, some beans.
I had some black beans on there. Um, and then, you know, on the Traeger and you just kind of basically let the cheese kind of cook, right? Like it just kind of like melting things. It wasn’t. I need to like perfect it a little bit because it got a little bit, it felt kind of dry. So I don’t know. I think I would do maybe more grilled nachos next time, or like just crank up the Traeger and do it like an oven where you’re making oven nachos.
Susie Weinrich: Yeah, that cheese, when you make nachos that cheese can dry out kind of fast. So yeah, that is a, that’s a tricky point to hit.
Taryn Solie: Yeah, exactly. So I need to work on that. And then the other thing we did was, um, grilled quesadillas. Which were lovely, um.
Susie Weinrich: Kid-friendly.
Taryn Solie: Kid friendly, but you know, what’s funny about this is. So I put, it was the steak, which was my kids, like love the steak, which is like, okay. Yes, thank you. Because I loved it. And I was like, please like this, because it’s good. And I want to make it again, you know, where you’re like, you love something and then you’re like, please children like this so I can make it again.
Susie Weinrich: Yes, I, oh, I know that all too well. Well, I know that all too well.
Taryn Solie: Yes. Um, so I, I put black beans, I think some like Monterey Jack cheese, and some pico de gallo in there. And I did it knowing full well that my kids don’t really like tomatoes and they, one of them doesn’t like black beans. So this wasn’t, like, for them, it wasn’t super kid friendly. For me, like, I, it turned out great. Like I loved it, but they were like, eeh it’s okay. And you’re like, oh, you guys just don’t get it.
Susie Weinrich: You know what? Kids are so hard to please. But I feel like with quesadillas, you can almost customize them. Like if each person is eating their own quesadilla, you can customize everybody’s. So if somebody doesn’t like black beans, then you’re not getting black beans, you know? So that’s, that’s not bad.
Taryn Solie: No it wasn’t too bad.
Susie Weinrich: A great idea.
Taryn Solie: Yes. And I think the thing, the tip that I would say if, for you or anyone else who’s going to grill quesadillas, and it was, it was like a fun thing to grill because I think normally we just cook them in the microwave because I’m like fast, easy kid friendly, you know, just like boop 30 seconds and you’re done.
But, um, the thing that I would- the tip that I would tell people is be sure and cut anything that’s going into the quesadilla very small, because I typically cut steak like a bite size, like adult bite size. Right. Which is actually kind of large. You know, it’s like a half inch, half inch cube maybe, or a third of a third of an inch.
And that’s really too big for a quesadilla. You need to cut it quite small because otherwise you get those bumps in the quesadilla and it’s like falls out and it’s hard to contain.
Susie Weinrich: You try and flip it and everything comes out and falls into the fire.
Taryn Solie: Yes, right! And you’re like, well, I need to clean this grill. So-
Susie Weinrich: Start over.
Taryn Solie: Right. Exactly.
That’s a great tip.
So those, I mean, so that was like, those were kind of like my recipes for the week and it was, it was really fun. It was kind of something a little different, especially with the grilled quesadillas were something a little different. Um, and I think that that would be a really fun, kind of like different thing to do for Cinco de Mayo.
Susie Weinrich: Absolutely. Definitely. And add some margaritas for the adults.
Taryn Solie: You know, I would never pass up a margarita on the rocks.
Susie Weinrich: Me either!
Taryn Solie: With some salt. Like I don’t, I don’t typically have more than a couple of drinks then I let my husband finish it, but I just want that like, taste. It’s so good. I love it.
Susie Weinrich: Absolutely. Yes.
Taryn Solie: So now what, what have you been grilling the last couple weeks?
Susie Weinrich: Oh my gosh. So yeah, last week I was bound and determined to get my grill out and I swear it rained every day. Even if rain wasn’t in the forecast, it rained. It was wild. So this weekend though, it’s like the clouds parted and the sun came out and it was gorgeous.
So I whipped that grill out really quick and I started by making my chili lime turkey burgers. So this is, this is a recipe that my husband and I love. I think my kids maybe like more of a just classic turkey burger.
Taryn Solie: Yeah.
Susie Weinrich: Um, they’re not super adventurous. Um, but we love this turkey burger. So the key to making turkey burgers though is to oil your grill grates.
Have you ever grilled a turkey burger and the whole thing sticks to the actual grill?
Taryn Solie: Yes, I have. And I did it multiple times before I was like, oh, I need to like really oil this well. Because for whatever, like turkey is a leaner meat.
Susie Weinrich: Yes, yes.
Taryn Solie: And I’m sure that that has something to do with it where it just like, does not, does not want to come up off the grill.
Susie Weinrich: Yeah, it does not have enough fat content to release itself. But what I do recommend is for this recipe that you use a 93%, really with any turkey burger recipe, that you use a 93% lean ground turkey instead of that 99, that 99 can, I mean, it can dry out like that on the grill. It’s crazy. The other thing about this recipe is you start by making a panade.
Are you familiar with a, like a panade in a-
Taryn Solie: I don’t think I am.
Susie Weinrich: -a burger recipe? So a panade is basically like a starch and a liquid that’s mixed together to keep a ground, ground meat recipe juicy basically is what it is. So in this one we use bread and we use milk and then diced green chilies. And you mix that together. So it makes this like mash and then you add garlic, lime zest, um, chili powder, kosher salt, onion powder, all of those seasonings. Mix it up. And then you add the ground turkey and that keeps your turkey burgers super moist while they grill on the grill.
Taryn Solie: Okay. And that makes total sense because I do that. I just didn’t know the name of it.
Susie Weinrich: Okay. Yes, it’s called a panade for fancy people.
Taryn Solie: Okay. Is that French? Or we just, do we know? I don’t.
Susie Weinrich: I think it is French. It sounds French. We’ll say it’s French.
Taryn Solie: Okay. I like that. I think that’s good.
Susie Weinrich: Good.
Taryn Solie: Yeah. No, that sounds great. And of course, for sure, even, I mean, I know people will do that with particularly like meatloaf is what I think of when people do that. But for turkey burgers, that makes perfect sense because of how lean the meat is.
Susie Weinrich: Oh, my gosh. Yes. It keeps them from drying out and you, and because with turkey you have to cook it all the way through. It’s not like ground beef where you can cook it to, you know, 145, you have to cook it to 165 to get it safe to eat basically.
Taryn Solie: Right, exactly.
Susie Weinrich: So, um, yeah. So then, like I said before, you’ve got to oil the grill grates. And then I also oil the patties, the outside of the patties, just so that they don’t, they’ll release when you need them to. Um, and then you let them rest for about five minutes and here’s the Cinco de Mayo part of this recipe.
We top it with like pico de gallo, guacamole, um, like pickled jalapenos, red onions. And so it’s more of a like Mexican style burger. Really, really tasty.
Taryn Solie: Do you, do you put any cheese on there or do you just let it rock?
Susie Weinrich: No, you could totally melt, um, pepper jack cheese on there, or have you ever had queso fresco?
Taryn Solie: I have. It’s been awhile, but I have, yeah.
Susie Weinrich: Oh my gosh. It is so good. It’s like, the texture of feta cheese, so it’s kind of crumbly like that, but still maybe a little bit creamy. But it tastes a little bit like mozzarella, but really salty. It’s the best. So good. It is so good. Yeah. So that’s really good crumbled on top of the burger too. If you want it more cheeseburger style.
Taryn Solie: Ooo, I love that.
Susie Weinrich: That was one of the first things I grilled. And then the next recipe that I grilled this weekend, um, kind of goes along with that because it’s a grilled tomatillo salsa.
Taryn Solie: Yum.
Susie Weinrich: And my mouth is already watering just thinking about it.
Taryn Solie: That’s why you had to pause for a minute. You were like, and let saliva just kind of come back.
Susie Weinrich: Totally. I’ve been eating this on repeat. It’s still in my fridge and I just keep digging in with a few, uh, tortilla chips. But it’s so simple. If you’ve ever made a tomatillo salsa. So basically it’s a verde salsa. It’s made with those tom- tomatillos that kind of look like little green tomatoes in the paper husks. They’re kind of interesting looking. But you just peel that, that paper husk, and then you’re going to grill the onions. You’re going to grill the tomatillos, the jalapeno. And I even grill the garlic because, you know, when you grill garlic, it gets, um, well not-
Taryn Solie: Caramelized almost.
Susie Weinrich: Yes, if you roast garlic, it gets sweet. It takes out that really hard bite. So I’ll make like a little foil packet, um, and put the garlic cloves in there, still in their paper husk, pour a little bit of olive oil in there and close it up. And then when I put everything on the grill, then I just kind of set that off to the side and they soften up so nice and yummy.
Taryn Solie: Oh that sounds so good.
Susie Weinrich: When you’re grilling the tomatillos, um, you definitely want to stay near the grill because they’ll char up really fast. In about 10 minutes everything’s done. So you just kind of move them around the grill and make sure that they char on all sides and then throw it all in a blender together with some cilantro, lime juice, kosher salt, um, and that’s it. And then get your tortilla chips.
Taryn Solie: And get ready to like dig in. So for the tomatillos, cause I don’t. I can’t think of a time where I’ve actually cooked with tomatillos. It’s just not a food that I normally cook with. Are you- when you’re grilling them I’m assuming you’re taking them out of the husk.
Susie Weinrich: Yeah. That’s the first step. Definitely. You peel that husk off and then you actually completely discard it. You’ll kind of take the stem kind of pops off and the husk goes with it. And the, the tomatillo is actually super sticky. It’s their natural defense against bugs.
Taryn Solie: Oh, okay!
Susie Weinrich: Yes, I know.
Taryn Solie: Nature show as well as food show
Susie Weinrich: Yes, food science. Um, and so you rinse them under warm water, but not all the stickiness comes off, but that’s okay. I mean, it’s edible. Um, but you, you know, you’ve rinse them and that’s it. You don’t have to skewer them. I’ve seen some recipes like where they’re skewered, but really you could just use tongs to, to maneuver them on the grill.
They’re big enough not to fall through the grill grates, but I do skewer the onions cause those, oh my gosh, those will fall right through the grill.
Taryn Solie: Yes they will. And I do that too. I have a grilled onion recipe on my site where I just, I put like, I do it just like with toothpicks, because you just need something to kind of like, hold it together enough. And then when you, because otherwise your onions are ending up in like, the bottom of the grill, for sure.
Susie Weinrich: For sure. Definitely. Even if you leave, you know, some people say, leave that little stem end on to hold them together. Some of the little inside bits don’t, they’re not connected to that stem. And so it all just, it doesn’t always work that way. So a skewer definitely works better.
Taryn Solie: Yes. I agree. Now, how do your kids feel about this tomatillo salsa?
Susie Weinrich: My kids actually love salsa. So I also have just like a restaurant style, like red salsa recipe on my site that when my daughter was little, I’ve been making it for years. When my daughter was little, we’d just give her a bowl and a spoon and she would eat it with a spoon.
So my kids will definitely eat salsa. And that’s why I’m like, oh, you’re grilled quesadillas with this grilled tomatillo salsa. My kids would be all over that. And that’s a win because kids are so picky.
Taryn Solie: Yeah. Well, I mean, I feel pretty lucky because our kids are not. There’s a couple, like they won’t eat mushrooms and they don’t eat tomatoes, although they love ketchup. So I don’t know how that works.
Susie Weinrich: There’s no rhyme or reason.
Taryn Solie: No rhyme or reason. It just is what it is. But for the most part, they will eat things. They don’t like spicy things. And that, and I think that’s pretty true for a lot of kids, but it sounds like the tomatillo salsa- I mean, is it very spicy or no?
Susie Weinrich: No. It, and it has jalapeno in it.
Taryn Solie: Yeah, that’s why I asked.
Susie Weinrich: I will sometimes, I will sometimes put two jalapenos in because when it, when the jalapenos are grilled, it’s like the flavor just makes it so much more mild. And then I also choose just to cut out the green flesh and not put the seeds in. Yeah.
Taryn Solie: Because the seeds are, if you get one of those seeds, man, goodnight, because it can be really – it can be really spicy.
Susie Weinrich: Yes, definitely. Definitely.
Taryn Solie: No, I love that. I think that’s so great. And I’m, I’m- now I may have to try doing your grilled tomatillo salsa, because my kids also love salsa, mild, very, very mild salsa. Um, again, don’t like tomatoes, but will eat salsa. I don’t know what the deal is, but.
Susie Weinrich: Yeah, leave the jalapenos out completely and maybe even cut the onion back a little bit. And I bet they would love it.
Taryn Solie: Yes. Good idea. Oh, I love that so much. Well, this has been so much fun. I think we’ve given some like really good, fun, kind of family friendly Cinco de Mayo recipe ideas. Um, Susie, I do want to give you a chance to kind of let people know where they can connect with you online.
Susie Weinrich: Wonderful. So, um, I do a lot over on Instagram, actually. I’m on Instagram stories almost every day. So my handle on Instagram is @momsdinnerinsta. So you have to put the insta on the end because somebody else had mom’s dinner. Um, and then-
Taryn Solie: Quick question for your stories. You were having issues where you’re upside down. So are you now right side up?
Susie Weinrich: I literally recorded myself right before you and I started recording and it uploaded right side up.
Taryn Solie: Oh good!
Susie Weinrich: I was fully celebrating. Yes, I think I’m right side up again. So yeah, follow me over on Instagram would be awesome. And then of course you can also find me at mom’s dinner.net, where I post, you know, the easier, easy dinner recipes.
Taryn Solie: And you also have an email list, right? People can sign up for your email list.
Susie Weinrich: Oh my gosh. Yes. So I send an email out every Sunday. Uh, it usually goes out around 7:30 in the morning and you can sign up for that when you go to my website, moms dinner.net, right up in the, uh, menu, there’s a subscribe button and you can just subscribe through that little button there.
Taryn Solie: Good. I think I’m on your email list. It’s a great email. So I will plug that because I think it’s a fun, it’s a fun one to get every Sunday. So.
Susie Weinrich: Thank you. Thank you so much.
Taryn Solie: Yeah. Thanks for coming on. This was like a super fun conversation. I’m really glad we did this.
Susie Weinrich: Absolutely. I love this. This is my first podcast. So thank you for having me on.
Taryn Solie: And you are going to come out with a podcast. We should mention this.
Susie Weinrich: I am. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to talk about it, because I’m super excited about this new adventure that I’m going to have. Um, I have a podcast coming out on May 31st and it’s called Let’s Make Dinner.
Um, you won’t be able to find it yet because you actually have, have to have episodes uploaded before, um, anybody can find you. Um, but I do have a page on Mom’s Dinner where I talk about the podcast and basically it’s a recipe centric podcast, similar to this, but I’m not doing interviews on mine. Mine are more, um, me talking about the recipe.
So each recipe will have two episodes. There will be, the first episode will just be a really short, like three minute, here’s what the recipe is. This is how it’s made really quickly. This is what you can serve it with. Um, you can kind of think of it as like a audio library of recipes that you can make for dinner.
And you can consume that, you know, while you’re in the car line. To pick up your kids, on the way to Target or whatever. Cause they’re just three little, three minute little episodes. Um, and then the following episodes will be a little bit longer and it actually will be me cooking in the kitchen. So if you, um, aren’t as experienced in the kitchen or you want to have a kitchen companion, maybe you’ve got an Instant Pot and you want somebody to kind of walk you through using it the first couple of times, those will be great episodes for, um, for someone to listen to.
And, um, it’s called Let’s Make Dinner and it comes out May 31st.
Taryn Solie: Yay. So the end of this month coming up soon.
Susie Weinrich: Coming up soon. Yes. Yes. I’m very, very excited.
Taryn Solie: Yeah, it will be great. So if you enjoyed this episode, then you’re definitely gonna want to check out Susie’s podcast and once that’s up, I will put a link. So I’ll put a link in the show notes page to the recipes that we talked about. The recipes on your site, Susie, and to like your Instagram. And then once the podcast is live, I will put a link to the podcast on the show notes page as well. So people can find it there if they’re listening, um, after May.
Susie Weinrich: Yay. Thank you so much. I appreciate that so much.
Taryn Solie: You’re so welcome. This has been fun. Thank you for coming on Susie.
Susie Weinrich: Yes, absolutely. It was my pleasure.
Taryn Solie: And that’s it for this What We’re Grilling episode! We covered some fun recipes you could make for Cinco de Mayo, but I did want to say before we wrap this episode that these are certainly not authentic Mexican recipes, nor do we claim them to be. They’re just recipes we like to feed our families!
If you’re looking for more authentic Mexican recipes for on the grill, check out Isabel Eats dot com. I know Isabel and she puts out amazing recipes, many of which are done on the grill.
To get to those recipes, or any of the recipes we talked about today, click over to the show notes page – you can either go to my main website at www dot hot pan kitchen dot com and click on podcast in the main menu, or you can click on the link provided in whatever podcast app you are listening with.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and a review! As a newer podcast, it helps spread the word and I would really appreciate it.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep grilling like a mother.
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