Every once in a while you crave a taste of childhood. When i was growing up my mom made us sloppy joes with plain potato chips. They were awesome. You would eat the sloppy joes and whatever fell out you would scoop up with the potato chips. This week I was craving sloppy joes so I called my mother and asked for her recipe. They were just as good as I remembered them.
A childhood favorite, also great on hot dogs
The key to eating sloppy joes is soft hamburger buns and lots of potato chips.
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I have been on a quest for the best chocolate chip cookies for a while. After a while I have figured out the ingredients needed to make a really good cookie. You need to use both butter and shortening. If you use all butter your cookies come out flat and crunchy. If you use all shortening your cookies come out fluffly but don’t spread out. A perfect balance of the two gives you a light and fluffy cookie that is not too thick and not too thin.
I have been getting a few emails regarding the French Bacon Sandwich that I posted on my about page. It is really tasty. I first heard about the French Bacon Sandwich when I was in college. My old roommate Nate and I were watching the South Park DVDs and the intro for Season 2. The intro consisted of a fake cooking segment called Bakin Bacon with Macon. In the cooking segment Trey Parker and Matt Stone teach the finer points of the French Bacon Sandwich. It can be a little hard to watch as they feed bacon to a pig named macon. So if you are a PETA fan or don’t like animal cruelty you may want to skip the link. You can watch it here.
It might be the simplest and greatest sandwich ever.
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Nothing says summer more than firing up your smoker, sitting in the sun and drinking some beer. Last sunday it was 65 degrees and sunny so I decided that I wanted to make some pulled pork. I went to the butcher and of course, he was on vacation. So I had to choose from the meat in the case. They had a pretty good selection including full picnic shoulders, 9 pound briskets and boston butts. I chose a small 6 pound boston butt as I was only feeding myself. I know 6 pounds is a lot. But on the other hand it is still better than barbecuing a 14 pound picnic shoulder for myself. Although, I probably would have eaten it all. Pork is amazing!
Above is some freshly shredded pork, you can see the nice pink smoke ring. Doesn’t it look delicious.
As you can see I am prepping this week for barbecue. Yesterday was some awesome potato salad. Today we are making cowboy baked beans. I wanted to make beans from scratch. Just a word of warning. Making beans from scratch takes longer than barbecueing a whole hog. The end result, was totally worth it. And to my frequent reader Bond, yes, there is bacon and beer in this recipe.
The baked beans were soft, tender and delicious. As you can see from the picture above the beans are laced with smokey bacon and some of the trimmings from my pulled pork. Pork and beans is the best combination in the world.
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If you are like me, no matter how much you cook, you always have a box of Mac n Cheese in the pantry. As much as I want to hate the stuff it is good. So, I have worked to spice it up in more than one way. Honestly, it is not much, but it is enough to transform a bland blue box to a tasty concoction.
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I picked up this book last year and it is the best barbecue reference that I have found. Paul Kirk is the Baron of Barbecue and it shows. I have personally used his brining methods for pork butt and every pork butt since has been perfect. I have also tried his rubs, slathers and mops. Every single recipe that I have tried produced a winner. Even if you do not have a smoker he has hundreds of recipes in here for grilling, side dishes and making sausages. |
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Behind the Man
Paul Kirk writes with pure confidence as he has the hardware to back up his boasting. Paul “The Baron of Barbecue” Kirk has won the highest awards in American Barbeque including: the American Royal, the BarbeQLossal, teh Great Lenexa Barbeque Battle, the National Lamb-B-Que, The best Brisket at the Terlingua contest and the Jack Danial’s World Championship Invitational. So yes, the man knows barbecue. Introduction to Barbecue Kirk teaches advanced techniques but also brings everything right down to earth for the home cook with a backyard smoker. He teaches the difference between grilling (hot and fast) and barbecue (low and slow). He even goes into getting your feet wet in the barbecue circuit. His many tips and tricks are what makes this book great. He even includes a packing list of what to bring when you compete. This list even includes duct tape. As a MacGyver fan this really made me want to barbecue. The Basics of each type of Meat Kirk goes through every detail of how to barbecue each type of meat. Be it pork, beef, chicken, lamb or even sausages. He includes tips and tricks like brining the pork butt to increase the flavor and moistness of the meat. He then suggest heat, times and woods that go with each type of meat. This type of information is invaluable to a newbie and turns you into a master overnight. Recipes His recipes are what makes this book awesome. I made the “Barbeque Pork Rub” on page 124 and “Doug’s Barbecue Rub” on page 128. Both produced a great crust that permiated the meat. Leaving the meat moist, tender and full of flavor. The book includes surprises including recipes for grilling and great sides. His recipe for smoked chicken quesadillas is to die for. Luckily you won’t have to as all you need to do is turn to page 352. Reading this book is like picking through the mind of a barbecue master. I found an answer to every question that I have ever had regarding barbecue in his book. Honestly, I had a lot of questions. Did you know that a whole turkey takes 7 ot 8 hours to barbecue? Well if you had this book you would have known as the smoking timetable is right on page 29. I would recommend that you pick up this book if you are going to be grilling/barbecuing at all this summer. |
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Ahh the elusive 10 minute pizza. I love homemade pizza but it just takes too long to make for the average individual. Dough usually needs to be rested, proofed, and formed usually taking up to and over 2 hours. Below I tried a recipe based on a recipe from Cooks.com for a 5 minute pizza dough that you just mix and put in the pan.
