Bonus: Spicy, Crunchy Tailgatin’ Wings

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.

Asparagus Blue Cheese Soup

Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Soup

Pickled Brussels Sprouts

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

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.

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.

Grapefruit bourbon sour

Ginger + apple + bourbon

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Mmmm.

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

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.

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.

Chocolate Pots-de-Creme

Blue Cheese & Bacon Purple Potatoes

Toddy. They’re better with bourbon, IMO.

Maple Milk Eggnog

Ice cream bread.

The opening shot, starring yours truly. I was not 100% certain, from the directions, if I had it together right. And given the amount of pressure from a .50, I wasn’t going to take the chance that I did it wrong and have my head anywhere near the part that goes boom.

Pics and a report from Richard, including a nice fireball.

Les Jones: I learned something about using a Surefire light on a 12 gauge

In other news, I need to stop reading about food early in the morning.

And where else can you learn to butcher a chicken and make hot wings.

Via Breda.

I also kind of like to make up my own on occasion. The other night, I made this concoction:

1 cup of mayo
1/2 of milk
2 tablespoons of cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of shallot salt
A few sprigs of fresh dill

Mix ingredients.

It was delicious.

From Home Life

Green peanuts, unsalted
Chicken stock or bullion works
Beer
Kosher or sea salt
Creole seasoning

This is a small batch. Usually, over a campfire, do five pounds or so. But it’s hot out (105 currently), so I won’t be starting a fire. And I’m just cooking for the family.

Crack open a beer and have some if you want. Then get another and poor in a large pot. Add peanuts. Add about two cups of chicken stock then fill the pot half way with water. The nuts float so you can’t really cover them completely. Add 1/4 cup of salt and three or so tablespoons of Creole seasoning:

From Home Life

Boil for three hours. Taste the stock mixture occasionally to see if you need to add salt or anything else. And add water or beer as needed. When done, let cool. You’re not eating the shells, though. Just crack open and enjoy.

Now, I must wait for three hours.

And, via MKS, comes bacon marmalade.

Uncle says iced tea should be sweet with lemon. While I don’t mind sweet tea, you can always sweeten it yourself, but you cannot un-sweeten it.

No, you cannot. And you also cannot sweeten iced tea with sugar. It just goes to the bottom of it. It must be sweetened when it’s brewed or not at all.

For instance, chili has no beans. Chili with beans is called chili with beans.

Cornbread is cornbread if it has sugar in it or not (I like my cornbread with a bit of sugar but not much – of course, I also put bacon flavor in it). It’s a matter of degree. And it’s cooked in a frying pan in the oven. A johnnycake is cooked on a skillet and it is thin like a pancake.

Barbecue is meat cooked over a fire. The sauce is a regional thing.

Bonus round: Iced tea. Being in the South East, when I order tea, there should be no follow up questions. It comes sweet and with lemon.

From Home Life

Update: Next time, needs bacon.

From Home Life

For my pickling spice, I use the following:

2 tablespoons mustard seed
2 tablespoons coriander
2 tablespoons peppercorn
1 broken to bits cinnamon stick

In each jar, I put one to two tablespoons of this concoction depending on jar size. Then I put in a couple cloves of garlic, one cayenne pepper, and 3 to four sprigs of fresh dill. Then, fill the jar with whatever you’re pickling. Pack it as tight as you can. In the pic above, from left to right, are cucumbers, garlic and cayenne peppers (with a few serranos thrown in).

Then, bring to a boil a mixture of 3:1 water to white vinegar ratio. Add kosher salt to taste (about 3 – 6 table spoons). Once it’s boiling, fill jars up with the mixture and put the lid on it. Let them cool and place in the refrigerator. The vinegar and spices will steep the veggies. Will be ready in 3 to 7 days. Keeps for months.

From Home Life

Noms commence in a week or so.

Also, the latest creation is, and I am not making this up, cucumber popsicles. Our cucumber plants are out of control and, frankly, we can’t go through them all, even giving them to our neighbors. This is a bit more work but is delicious. Put a quarter cup of lime juice and a half cup of sugar in a pan and heat it up. While the sugar is dissolving, seed and peel 3 whole cucumbers. Put them in the blender and add your sugar and lime juice mix and hit the juice setting. Freeze in popsicle trays over night. No need to strain these.

Here’s mine.

I have two bags of Three Rivers cornmeal left. I’m going to bronze them for bookends.

Via Shane.

This is a post about making your own barbecue sauce. This is a recipe that started based on a concoction my brother in law J-Lo (who has been featured here before) discovered. It has since gone through several iterations. This is the current version which will no doubt change as it does often. Fire up your smoker (optional but if you’re cooking some food on it, may as well cook the sauce there too). Phase one:

8 pieces of thick cut bacon
1 large onion, finely chopped
8 teaspoons minced garlic
5 tablespoons chili powder
1 – 2 chopped cayenne peppers. Note that these can be fresh or dried. I grow my own and the plants produce a lot. So, I hang the excess peppers from a string and let them dry out in the garage. They’ll keep for a very long time.

In a skillet, fry up your bacon. Eat bacon for breakfast because if you’re smoking some meat, you probably started early. Retain the bacon fat. You can substitute a stick of butter for bacon fat but why would you? Unless you’re a vegetarian. But if you’re a vegetarian, I imagine your need for barbecue sauce is low. To the bacon fat, add the onion, garlic, and peppers. Cook until the onions become tender. Add chili powder and stir. Cook for a few minutes longer. Remove from heat and allow to cool. You’re only going to allow this to cool because getting hot stuff on you can burn. After you’re satisfied that you won’t burn yourself, pour the mixture into a food processor. Hit frappe and allow it to run until the mixture is mostly liquefied.

Transfer the liquid to a large pot and put it on the stove. To the mixture, stir in the following:

4 cups ketchup
1 cup yellow mustard
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup dark molasses
1/2 cup honey
2 cups brown sugar
2 tablespoons of ginger powder
1/4 cup Soy sauce
ground black pepper to taste (I like mine peppery)
Kosher salt to taste

Bring mixture to a gentle boil and reduce heat. After a few minutes on reduced heat, transfer to your smoker. And let it cook all day. I said the smoker was optional. If you do not plan on using one or don’t have one, no worries. Just keep cooking it on the stove. If you do not use a smoker, I recommend adding a bit of Liquid Smoke to add some smoky flavor. And keep it on your stove on low for an hour or so.

I like mine a bit spicy so I’ll also add some hot sauce on occasion.

You can use the sauce on any thing you’d put barbecue sauce on. Once the sauce cools, I transfer my sauce to a large and clean ketchup bottle and keep it in the fridge. It will keep for several months.

Speaking of mom, I generally like to make my own salad dressing. Here’s one of my faves from Mom: Hawaiian Dressing. And, so, it seems appropriate to start this new endeavor with a new favorite of mine: Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing (quick and easy).

1 cup mayo
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Quarter cup of milk

Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Whisk until smooth.

Update: For you purists, no there’s no anchovy paste. Mostly because I don’t usually have any around.

Perhaps worthy of the list is my brother in law’s Italian Redneck Hotdog. Grill up some Italian sausage, put it on a hotdog bun with some spaghetti sauce of choice and mozzarella. But I’m leaving it off the poll because you probably haven’t had one. But you should.

Mongolian beef from a blog that has a great name.

Blueberry dump cake because even survivalists like dessert.

Update: I didn’t know it was a survival garden.

Coincidentally, compost is easy to get when you share a border with a cattle farm.

From Home Life

Weave complete:

From Home Life

Almost ready:

From Home Life

All done:

From Home Life

Quite good, I have to say. Even better was the next day when I put a slice on a sandwich with some spicy mustard.

For our next artery clogging trick, we’re probably going to try the Double Bypass Burger.

Mmmmm.

Greg couldn’t help himself.

Heh: The moral of this story is, if you don’t like Martinis, then just call it a Vodka Rocks with olives and be done with it

Robb offers his $0.02. Heh.

To say I like my martinis dry is an understatement. My recipe is simple. And my friends will attest that this is the recipe I follow:

Put three olives (good ones, not cheap ones – all preference really) on a toothpick. Stick said toothpick into a cocktail glass.

In a cocktail mixer, add ice and vodka of choice (I go with Grey Goose). I use vodka because gin tastes like ass err Pine-Sol. Look at mixer and say the word vermouth. Shake. Pour into glass over olives.

There you go.

Mmmm. I do like butts of all kinds.

Update: BTW, all this butt talk has Junior confused. We’ve told her that butt is a bad word. So, whenever I reference a butt she reminds me we don’t say that because it’s a bad word.

While we’re discussing food, Loubie Bzeit looks very good though unpronounceable.

Uhm, Ok.

What to do with a turkey carcass? Make stock. I do that too. It’s awesome. And Turkeyocaust? Why not a carrotcaust?

These are the cries of the carrots.

Also, don’t rule out the juice you buy at the store. Mix a bit of juice with vodka for Pometini (yummy) and (my favorite for a refreshing summer drink) is to mix some juice with a bit of vodka, a little sugar, and some carbonated water over ice for a pomegranate spritzer. Garnish with an orange slice.

1 clove of minced garlic
5 green onions chopped – white and thick green part only
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar (cooking sherry will do in a pinch)
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
5 or so cups of chicken stock
1 pound of fresh, clean spinach
2 cans of chopped clams – drained (you can use fresh but they weren’t in season)

In a pot, add the oil and saute the garlic for a minute or two. Add four of the five green onions and saute another minute. Add the rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and the sesame oil. Stir until it’s adequately mixed. Add the stock and bring to a low boil. Add clams and spinach and cook until spinach is cooked (about 10 minutes).

Garnish with your remaining chopped onions.

Mmm, tasty and fast.

Update: disagreement on using sherry in lieu of rice wine vinegar. It’s what I’ve heard but I always have the rice wine at home. Also, you can make it without the clams or substituting a variety of greens. Still, yummy.

Grill some Italian sausages (hot for me, mild for The Mrs.)

Put them on a bun and add some of your favorite leftover spaghetti sauce, some mozzarella cheese, and some fresh basil. Onions optional.

Smoking a couple of Boston Butts today. Here’s how. The night before, buy some butts, remove them from the package, run water over them then dab with a paper towel to remove excess moisture. Do not remove the fat. It adds moisture and prevents burning in the event your fire gets out of control. Make your rub. Here’s mine (I use rough percentages because who knows how much you’ll make):

30% Brown sugar
10% Kosher salt
10% Garlic powder
10% Mustard powder
5% Cumin
5% Cinnamon
10% Paprika
10% Chili powder
10% Red pepper (powder, not flakes)

And some fresh ground black pepper to taste.

As you can see, it’s largely brown sugar. Next, rub your butt. Well, rub the, err, rub on the meat. You can even slap your butt a few times for good measure. Do both sides. Place them in a large dish, cover in foil and place it in the fridge over night. This lets the rub really sink in. While your at it, take some mesquite or hickory logs or chunks and place them in a bucket. Cover with water and let them sit over night as well.

The next day, get up and make a fresh pot of coffee (this will be important later). Have a cup or two. Then, fire up the smoker. I like to use charcoal and add my soaked wood chunks every couple of hours. The soaked chips make a lot more smoke.

Now, take one 12oz can of your favorite beer and pour it into a bowl. Add roughly equal parts vinegar and the left over coffee you just enjoyed. Add a bout 1/4 cup of minced garlic to that. This stuff works wonders at both keeping your butts moist and adding a tangy garlicky flavor. Once your smoker settles between about 250-300 degrees (never over 300), put your big butt on there. About once every half hour, I take about a quarter cup of the beer/coffee/vinegar mixture and just pour it over the top of that big ol’ butt. I cook my butts for between 7-12 hours while drinking beer, and lounging around. An empty beer is a good reminder to go and pour some mixture over your butts.

Here we are about three hours in.

Yum. Notice they’re dark from the rub, which is now starting to crisp up a bit. After about 7-12 hours, sample a piece. If satisfied, remove from smoker, chop up or pull apart. Use your favorite mop sauce to have barbecue sandwiches or pulled pork. Also, if you buy one, you may as well buy 2 or 3. You can freeze any leftovers and they’ll keep for months.

ETA: And the garden shovel is to remove coals as needed.

ETA 2: And I rarely flip mine. If I do, I do it once about half way through.

I could give my chili with beans recipe but just listing the ingredients will cause your cholesterol to rise by 10 points.

super easy, fast and tasty

2 cups frozen or fresh chopped broccoli

1 medium onion, diced

1/4 cup flour

1 to 2 cups milk depending on desired thickness

14ish ounces of chicken stock (homemade or from a can)

Pepper to taste

1 cup of grated American cheese (or Velveeta – am I the only one concerned about a dairy product that isn’t refrigerated at the grocery store?)

In a large pot, bring to light boil onions, broccoli and chicken broth. Reduce heat and simmer for 8 or so minutes. In bowl, combine flour, pepper and milk mixture. Stir milk/flour mixture into broth/veggie mixture. Stir regularly for several minutes to allow mixture to thicken.

After mixture has thickened, gradually stir in cheese. Cook until all cheese melts. Good stuff!

Can be substituted for shoe polish for a short time.

My yard looks like shit. The crab grass is still winning.

But some perfect ribs:

I hear some folks like the baby backs. Not me. I like my ribs to have enough meat that you bite into them and taste, you know, meat. So, I use plain old pork ribs. Actually, I personally prefer beef ribs but I am apparently the only one on the planet that does so I make concessions for guests.

Yeah, they’re good too. I’ll take the Pepsi challenge with any of ya.

Update: Junior concurs:

Slice and dice up nicely a green or red bell pepper and an onion(yellow is best). Until they are about the size of the side of an individual die(dice). I made a mistake once of slicing thin french fry size cuts of bell once and getting them out of the dang jar was a major pain, so make sure the cut pieces will slide out when aged.

Then hand mix equal parts and pack into your jars. After adding two good tablespoons full of pickling salt(non-iodized) fill with hot cider vinegar(standard white vinegar will work). Cap and then let them set for two months or more.

After draining most of the vinegar add the seasoning according to taste to the dried beans in your crockpot or bean pot. I normally add about one full cup of this type of seasoning to 2 pounds of brown beans or a package of 15 bean soup bean mix. It is all to taste here people.

The aged/pickled aromatic add a nice kick to the pot of beans and is easily noticeable. You can get a good pot of beans with fresh onions and peppers but I find that this quick pickling of them adds a whole new realm of flavor in the finished product.

I use three variants.

1 the standard as mentioned above
2 one good banana or Jalopeno diced and added per two pint is also good
3 Minced Garlic according to taste

I have four bottles aging as I write this. It makes a pot of dried beans have a nice flavor when you might be tired of just adding the standard ham flavor or ham hock.