My Top Ten Food Picks for Super Bowl Sunday

Bonus: Spicy, Crunchy Tailgatin’ Wings

Super Bowl Meat Stadiums!

The super bowl of bacon

My new favorite and, almost, made up adult beverage:

On a recent outing, I had dinner at the Dancing Bear Restaurant. They have a signature drink called the whiskey cask, which seems to be some sort of ginger liquor mixed with Prichards. I tried one and while it was good, I thought it could be better. So, here’s what I came up with.

Take one slice of ginger root and place it in the bottom of a whiskey glass. Add a splash of water and muddle for a bit.

Add about a teaspoon of honey and two shots of bourbon and stir vigorously.

Fill remainder of glass with ice. Then take a spoon and, with an up and down motion, churn the ice.

Enjoy. It’s delicious. I think next time, I may add a sprig of mint with the ginger.

I must try this.

Les is cooking a steak in a cooler. This, I must try.

Clara’s kitchen, 90 year old woman who lived through the depression on cooking frugally. And she has a book.

A placeholder of recipes I need to try:

Asparagus Blue Cheese Soup

Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Soup

Pickled Brussels Sprouts

Sofya rounds up her favorites.

One of my favorite food blogs now has a book out: Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round.

A round up.

And, hey, 86,000 calories for Christmas. I was into it up until the cheese wiz.

Spicy

Made some last night and someone wanted to know the recipe. Since I typed it up for facebook, may as well post it here:

From Home Life

These are refrigerator pickles and should be made in small batches. I usually do four at at time but the recipe is, roughly, per jar:

4-5 pickling cukes cut how you like
3 cloves garlic
2 dill sprigs
2 peppers of choice (usually jalapenos, but thai chilis here)
1/4 large onion chopped
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon peppercorns
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water

Cut the cukes, in this case some spears and some chips. Sprinkle some salt and put in the fridge for a couple of hours. While doing that, boil the garlic for about 30 minutes to soften. You can skip this step but it makes the pickled garlic taste bad if you try to eat it. After two hours, take the cukes out and rinse them thoroughly. Mix 50/50 water vinegar and bring to a rolling boil and add a little salt. In the bottom of the jar add 1 dill sprig, 1 tablespon salt, peppercorns, mustard seed, peppers and onion. Stuff the jar as full of cucumbers as you can, add another dill sprig on top. When the vinegar/water is boiling, ladle it in and fill the jars as full as you can. Let sit on the counter for about an hour, put the lids on them, turn them up to get the brine flowing, then put them in the fridge. Ready to eat the next day and will last about a month in the fridge.

The onions, peppers and garlic at the bottom are the best part.

Or clearing out greader notes.

A placeholder for stuff I need to try:

Everything on this blog, specifically the white barbecue sauce.

Bacon wrapped squash bites

Bacon and bourbon collards

Fig, Caramelized Onion, and Bacon Jam

Muffins.

Pickled grilled vegetables.

Homemade mustard

Boiled peanut hummus.

How To Make Flubber, Glurch and Other Homemade Art Supplies at Home

Dill Pickle Soup

Crock pot blue cheese steak roll ups

One ingredient ice cream

Chimichurri.

101 fast grilling recipes.

And now, google reader is uncluttered.

As you were.

For some bourbon drinks to try.

Grapefruit bourbon sour

Ginger + apple + bourbon

A list of yummy.

I don’t know that I’ve blogged it but my facebook friends know that I have taken to making my own beer and making wine for the wife. I don’t drink wine myself. Anyway, tomorrow, I’ll begin making my first pumpkin beer. It will contain roasted pumpkin, brown sugar, and some molasses. Should be good, in theory.

This looks handy to know.

I love cock sauce. Wait, what?

I love the stuff. It’s flavorful and goes with everything from chicken nuggets to pizza. I decided to try my hand at making my own based loosely on this DIY recipe. First, you’ll need a pound of Thai chilies:

From Cock Sauce

Up next, I removed the green ones because, well, Sriracha is red, right? This will come up again later. After, I assembled the ingredients, which are 3 table spoons of minced garlic (forgot to buy fresh), 1/3rd cup of rice wine vinegar, salt to taste, and a couple table spoons of oyster sauce. Adult beverage in a kitty cup optional but recommended:

From Cock Sauce

Next, cut off the stems:

From Cock Sauce

Turn on the stove and add a bit of oil to a sauce pan while you mix the ingredients that aren’t chilies in a bowl:

From Cock Sauce

Add peppers to sauce pan and cook for a minute or two on medium heat then add mixture:

From Cock Sauce

Cook for a few minutes, just enough to make the chilies tender. Allow to cool for a bit. Then put that concoction in a blender and hit frappé:

From Cock Sauce

Place contents into jar or bottle or whatever and allow to sit for about an hour:

From Cock Sauce

Put a lid on it and keep it in the fridge. A few notes:

I took out the green chilies trying to preserve color. That was a waste of time since it turned out orange anyway. No matter, it’s still delicious and better than the store bought kind. Next time, I’ll just include the green ones.

Do all of your cooking and prep with stain resistant kitchen tools (i.e., steel or glass). The peppers will stain.

Do not touch your face while chopping chilies and make sure to wash your hands thoroughly after. And do not go and, uhm, relieve yourself without washing hands first.

Watercress (and Papaya) Bisque

How to make canned and refrigerator pickles.

I’m a fan, even though my cucumbers are doing poorly this year.

A twist on hot dogs.

I’ve done similar with my former brother in law’s Italian Redneck Hotdog.

Simple and delicious. Get some romaine hearts and cut them in half, lengthwise. Brush with olive oil and add some salt and pepper (or Cavender’s Greek Seasoning):

From New Grill

Toss on the grill with some meat (here we have pork wrapped in more pork):

From New Grill

Give it a couple of minutes and flip it to flat side down. Take it off the grill when it looks about like this (probably 10 minutes at 400 degrees):

From New Grill

Cut it up and eat. Or use it as greens for a salad.

Here.

I’m told it’s not at all like a schnitzel.

Smoky Mountain Cafe. The Lost Cajun of East Tennessee brings you Salmon Patties with Spicy Caper Remoulade Sauce

Mmmm.

A few more varieties of one of my favorites.

Cooking some barbecue sauce today, need a supply now that the weather is warm. First step is get up in the morning and have some bacon for breakfast and keep the bacon grease. Important later. Then, assemble ingredients. Organizational skills are key (note: dog in the background knows something is going on):

From Sauce

Mixing it up this time, I added some mangoes and an apple to the usual combination of onion, ginger root, tomato and peppers. Gives it a nice sweet flavor. Now, chop all those veggies up and set aside:

From Sauce

Remember that bacon grease? You left it in the pan, right? Well, heat it back up to medium and toss in quite a bit of minced garlic:

From Sauce

After the garlic gets a bit of a browned look, toss in all those cut up fruits and veggies:

From Sauce

Cook on medium or low until tender, stirring regularly:

From Sauce

Now, you can skimp on a lot of things in this recipe but not on the spices. Don’t buy cheap chili powder or paprika. I like the Spanish paprika and medium chili powder from Penzeys. Here, we have some paprika, chili powder, and black pepper (ground in a coffee grinder):

From Sauce

Add enough chili powder to soak up some of the moisture, probably about half a cup. Add paprika, black pepper and some kosher salt to taste:

From Sauce

Stir it up to get those fruits and veggies coated in a nice layer of spicy goodness. Cook for about 5 minutes:

From Sauce

Let it cool, or the next step could be painful. While you wait, you can read you daughter’s book on Samoyeds.

From Sauce

Drop that concoction in the blender and hit the liquefy button:

From Sauce

Now, we have what looks like baby food:

From Sauce

Trust me, it gets better looking. Add the rest of the ingredients, which are (approximately – use your own judgement):

You could puree up some tomatoes and sugar and vinegar or read the ingredients on ketchup and use about four cups of it.
1 cup yellow mustard
1.5 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup dark molasses
1/2 cup honey
2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup Soy sauce
Some hot sauce if you want. That jalapeño was kinda mild so I added a few dashes.

From Sauce

Now, if you happen to have your smoker going, you can cook this on it in a big pot. But I’m feeling lazy today so I’ll add a bit of Liquid Smoke and finish it in the Crock Pot. Not much Liquid Smoke, a little goes a long way:

From Sauce

Whisk away until nice and smooth:

From Sauce

And, now, that baby food looks like sauce. Leave on low heat in the Crock Pot covered all day and stir every once in a while:

From Sauce

Stuff Zucchini with a Power Drill. Because everything is better with power tools.

Leftover Chicken Shepherd’s Pie, from a blog I always make the mistake of reading when I’m hungry.

How Canadian troops in Afghanistan make coffee. It apparently involves gratuitous use of F-bombs.

stop boiling your vegetables, America!

About the only veggies I boil these days are greens, veggies in soups, and potatoes if I’m making mashed potatoes. Other than that, I roast, sauté, or grill them. People are used to some veggies tasting awful because they were probably boiled. Try roasting parsnips some time with a bit of olive oil and garlic.

Beef and Noodle Soup and Homemade Stock. Yum.

Via John, comes the manliest candle in the world. Seems like a waste of bacon fat to me. I strain mine and put it in a jar that I keep in the fridge. It’s great for cooking.