Ask Jo: My Griddle

Awhile back I did a blog post about making cheesy rice in the pressure cooker.  In the post I wrote this…”I adore my Instant Pot.  If it came down to that I could only have two kitchen appliances, I would take my Instant Pot and my Heritage Grill.  I’d take these over a microwave and even over the stove…the oven I’d want…but the stove I could give up.  I like them that much.”

After that I had a couple people ask about my Heritage Grill.  Well here is what one looks like.

They are listed, and toted, as being a grill for lefse.

Well here’s the story of mine and how I got to using the grill for EVERYTHING.  I had long wanted to learn to make lefse.  I had thought to try but never had the equipment.  A grill like is around $100 depending on sales and such.  At the time, which five kids at home, that was too much money to spend.  Well as luck would have it, I went to the thrift store and they had one there for $10.  I asked if it worked.  The clerk said they plugged it in and it got hot.  Well that was enough for me to give it a try.  I bought it.

Well it sat in the cupboard while I used up excuses to not learn to make lefse…then one day, my griddle broke in the middle of making pancakes.  I was bummed then remembered that this was in the cupboard and I’d finish the batch using the lefse grill.  Well one pancake later and I was sold!!

This is an awesome product!!  With my old electric griddle that I got at Wal-Mart there were heat coils in it and those heat coils were super hot right under the coil but on the rest of the pan…not as hot.  Well that made pancake that weren’t cooked evenly and it never seamed quite hot enough.  This “lefse grill” was completely different.  There are no coils.  There is even heat and it works fabulously.

We use it all the time now…all the time.  I use it a minimum of six times a week.  We make lots of grilled sandwiches for a quick meal.  Ruebens and grill cheese…here are some amazing peanut butter and banana sandwiches grilled.  YUM.  If you haven’t tried it do.  The peanut warms and is super creamy.  Here Kayla made them with raisin bread….even better.

I grew up on raw fried potatoes.  Mom made them all the time.  I never got the hang of it until I tried them on the grill.  I simply put some butter down then slice up washed raw potatoes.  They fry nicely and evenly.  I cut up an onion and fry that along with it.  We both love these.

Sometime I sprinkle a little shredded cheese over the top…even better.

Then if we are having a steak or pork chop once the potatoes get about this far along I push them to one side and plop the steak or pork chop down and they fry while the potatoes stay warm.  It’s a VERY typical meal for us.  We have it at least once a week.

I make hamburgers and sausage patty burgers on it.  They are all so good….want to know why?  (It’s not particularly healthy I am sure but) the meat grills in it’s own juices.  That is the exact way most “greasy spoon” joints cook their meat.  We prefer our meat so much this way that we got rid of our outdoor gas grill.  We don’t need or want one anymore when we have the “lefse grill”.   We so much prefer the grill.

Another thing I do is use my Instant Pot to make potatoes.  I wash and cook the potatoes…water on the bottom and 18 minutes of manual pressure…

I always cook enough for about three meals.  We eat the potatoes like this for one meal.  The rest of the potatoes are cut up a fried throughout the week…sometimes with a steak…sometimes with some eggs.  We love fried potatoes with some onion and a little garlic powder.  They are the best.

Whenever people come over and make fried potatoes people always ask…what do you different.  The answer, potatoes in the presssure cooker and then fried on the griddle…nothing other than that!

Here are brats on the grill.

We use it for fried potatoes, Philly Steak Sandwiches, Breakfast Sandwiches, Pancakes…grill cheese…stir fry…everything.

Kalissa make some great breaded chicken with it too.

YUM.

It heats up super fast so that makes meal prep quicker too.

When Kalissa moved out she actually told us that one of the things she was going to miss the most when she moved out was the griddle.  So for Christmas that year we bought her one.  Can you believe she started crying when she opened it and saw what it was?  Yep, my daughter is in love with a grill…She LOVES her!!  We later went on and bought one for Karl too.

Kalissa uses hers so much and has counter space for it that she typically leaves hers set out…me, I put mine away between uses.

I can’t tell you how much I love and how often we cook with the griddle.  I used my original one so much and the cord ended up burning out.  The second I realized it, I walked directly to the computer and order another one off Amazon….I will do that again in a heat beat.  It truly is the most used small appliance in our home.  If I was just starting out, I could feed us for a long time with only an e Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Pressure Cooker and  Heritage Grill.

Wondering if I ever did use it to make lefse…the answer is still no.  Someday maybe…but for now, I have a steak and potatoes wanting to be cooked for supper so I’m off.