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):

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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:

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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:

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

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Cook on medium or low until tender, stirring regularly:

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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):

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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:

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

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

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

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Now, we have what looks like baby food:

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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.

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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:

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Whisk away until nice and smooth:

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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:

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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.

So here’s some things:

Chocolate Pots-de-Creme

Blue Cheese & Bacon Purple Potatoes

Toddy. They’re better with bourbon, IMO.

Make your own canned bacon.

A place holder:

Maple Milk Eggnog

Ice cream bread.

How to Make Bacon Bourbon and Other Flavorful Spirits

Make your own.

First, Mike’s chili recipe. It is awesome. And has beans, to annoy the purists.

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

TD tells you like it is.

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

Another recipe for hot wings.

The Girl’s Guide to Guns and Butter is probably my new favorite blog. Nice photos and recipes. I’m going to have to make some Bulgarian Cold Cucumber Soup.

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

Via Breda.

Bacon cups. Though I don’t see how they can hold your bacon bourbon.

I like to make my own salad dressing. I make Hawaiian and imitation Caesar (not real Caesar if there are no anchovies). Real easy to make, generally. The bases of them are either oil and vinegar or mayo and milk/cream.

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.

If you’re a redneck like me, odds are you’ve had these while tailgating or from a street vendor in the mountains. But our yankee friends probably haven’t had them. They’re tasty and easy to make. Most folks just do this with salt and water. I like to kick it up a little bit. Assemble ingredients:

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.

Bourbon Bacon Jam

And, via MKS, comes bacon marmalade.

These are delicious. Made some yesterday.

Mmmmmm.

Greg:

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.

It is always interesting to check out the regional differences in food and what defines food depending on where you are. LabRat has a look. So does Chris. Being that I live in a different region, I can say, without reservation, that they get quite a bit wrong.

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.

Best part of Thanksgiving good: a sammich. One slice of dad’s honey ham. One slice of my turkey. My homemade pickles. Swiss. American. Mayo. Between some of Kevin’s beer bread:

From Home Life

Update: Next time, needs bacon.

Mmmmmm.

Kevin’s Beer Bread. Had some last night with some turkey soup. Very nice.

Politics, religion, and barbecue. No good can come from this.

Coming soon to a restaurant near you. I make these and they’re quite good. And fries need ketchup so I usually mix some sour cream, brown sugar, and honey to dip the fries in.

Makes me hungry.

Someone asked for my pickle recipe, and I answer.

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.