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.

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.