Football Feast.

The husbands love to smoke, the husbands love to smoke more when it's followed by OSU football and beer.

The well worth waiting for spread.

I don't think I'll make cornbread in any other shape than this from now on. Love it's perfect little size!

The husbands smoked six racks of ribs (beef baby back & pork spare ribs) with their top secret rub and mop sauce. I think this was the best rub & sauce combo to date!

These ribs were excellent! Probably the best they've ever made and certainly the best ribs I've EVER had!

Seriously, check out that smoke ring, that's what six hours in the smoker will give you! Fall off the bone tender.

The husband sampling some of his hard work.

Fresh collard greens, we all agreed these were the best we'd ever eaten. Recipe posted after the pictures.

The baked beans peaking into this picture were *gasp* canned beans, Bush's Grilling Beans - Southern Pit Style. I highly recommend them.

Miss J's fabulous & delicious Halloween cupcakes, complete with bat, pumpkin & ghost shaped sprinkles!

Country Collard Greens

3-31/2 lbs. collard greens or kale, tough stems removed and roughly chopped
1 smoked ham hock (about 1 pound)
4 medium onions, chopped
2 medium green or red bell peppers, chopped
2/3 c. cider vinegar, preferably unrefined
1 Tbs. honey
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbs. coarsely ground black pepper
2 tsp. Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce, or more to taste
2 tsp. celery seeds

Combine all the ingredients in a large pot with 8 cups of water, and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered, for about 2 hours. With a slitted spoon, remove the ham hock. When the hock is cool enough to handle, pick the meat from it in small chunks or shreds and return it to the pot. Reheat the greens briefly, if necessary. Serve warm with some of the liquid, the pot likker. Leftovers keep for several days.

Yield: 8 servings
Recipe obtained from: Smoke & Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the real way to Barbecue by Cheryl & Bill Jamison (If you have a smoker, this cookbook is a must! None of their recipes have disappointed us & have all been awesome!)

What the husband did: We actually bought the greens (we used collards) already chopped, which saved some prep time. The husband also added some salt pork, which added more flavor during the cooking process.

*Oh and if you thought I'd slip up and post the rub and sauce recipes, you were mistaken!

Big Ass BBQ

About 40 some people were in attendance for The 5th Annual Cornhole Tournament & Big Ass BBQ. It really doesn't seem like we've been hosting this event for five years, time really does fly! As always we had tons of food and some great BBQ! The husband went above and beyond in his quest for the perfect beef brisket this year, rising at 2am to start all 15 pounds of the brisket on the smoker - and somehow he still managed to be one of the last people up, 24 hours later!

The winning team this year took home $240, not bad for a few hours work! We hope everyone had a great time & can't wait for year six!

*On a technical does anyone know why Blogger is rotating my pictures when I download them? More importantly how do I rotate them back? Thanks!*

Now onto the food.......... I will post recipes later, the formatting issues on this post was starting to drive me insane!

The Meat

Beef brisket

Brats & burgers

Chili sauce, hot dogs & brats and sauerkraut

Side Dishes

Spinach artichoke dip with rosemary crackers

Kelly's famous taco dip

Vidalia onion peach salsa & beefy cheese dip

Fresh vegetables & dip

Fresh salsa & mango salsa

Jalapeno roll-up's

Ramen noodle salad

Roasted potatoes with squash & zucchini

Potato Salad

Macaroni & cheese and cheesy potatoes

Guacamole & my award winning salsa

Desserts

Zucchini bread

Tim Horton's Tim-bits

Brownies

Strawberry crunch cake

Giant chocolate chip cookie

Peanut M&M's

Gooey butter bars

Chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles

No pictures of - Asian style coleslaw, red skin potato salad, pesto with grilled garlic toast & brownies.

Random party pictures

Turmeric Honey Wings & Spicy Potato Wedges.

I was foiled again. For the life of me I can not get chicken wings to retain their flavor without resorting to flour and oil, a la the deep fryer. One day I'll get it right and when that happens I'm coming back to this recipe for Malaysian turmeric honey wings. The flavors were tasty, with the honey providing just the right amount of sweetness to offset the other spices. This would be a good marinade for grilled chicken too.

Along with the chicken wings I tried out another new recipe for spicy potato wedges. While the flavors were good, I would probably never make these again. I have a better way to roast potato wedges and they just weren't all that spicy.

Spicy Potato Wedges

1 lb. large, firm potatoes, such as round white, round red, Yukon gold or russet

3 Tbs. vegetable oil

1 Tbs. paprika or 2 tsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. cumin seeds

1 tsp. turmeric

Salt & pepper

Chopped fresh cilantro, to garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Scrub the potatoes, then cut each in half lengthwise and then in half again until you have 8 even-shaped wedges. Put into a large pan of salted water, bring to a boil, and boil for 3 minutes. Drain well and return the wedges to the pan.

2. Ad the oil to the pan and toss the potato wedges in it until coated. Add the paprika, cumin seeds, and turmeric, season to taste with salt and pepper, and mix well together.

3. Spread the potato wedges out on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until tender and golden brown, turning 2-3 times during cooking. Serve hot, sprinkled with chopped cilantro to garnish.

Yield: 4

Recipe obtained from: Spices: A Cook's Guide to Spicy Recipes

Our dinner tonight was a delightful shade of yellowish brown thanks to all the turmeric. Be careful if you've never used turmeric before, it will stain everything it touches.

Simple and delicious.

It's been awhile since I've looked at other food blogs, so this past weekend I devoted some Internet time to seeing what others have been making in the last few weeks. I found several new recipes and ideas for future recipes, but one recipe in particular stayed with me. I love meals that not only taste delicious, but are very easy to prepare and the recipes for Mojo Crock Pot Chicken & Healthier Taco Rice from A Taste of Tina fit the bill perfectly.

Essentially I followed Tina's recipes exactly as written. I made a couple of modifications, but those were mainly for personal preferences. I omitted the onions in both dishes because I don't like them, though I did add a few shakes of dried onion to the chicken mixture. To the rice I added some frozen corn and a can of died tomatoes. I wrapped the chicken in a flour tortilla and topped it with black beans, Monterey Jack cheese and lettuce.

I had some problems with the rice, simply because for the life of me I can not make rice. During my take two with the rice, the husband even told me I shouldn't make rice anymore. Eventually, I did finish the rice and I thought it was good (the husband isn't a fan of brown rice anyway, so his opinion doesn't count). And perfecting the art of cooking rice has shot to my list of goals to complete for 2008!

A Birthday Feast.

Tomorrow is the husband's 30th birthday and we celebrated tonight, as we have all weekend, with the husband's favorite foods - meat & beer, this time in the form of steak & Guinness. It was a fabulous meal, better than the vast majority of steak houses we've been too - certainly much cheaper. We've got some extra steak which will make a great steak salad later in the week. There aren't any real recipes, just some minimal flavoring which enhanced the natural flavor of the meat & vegetables.

The husband grilled some thick NY strip steaks, which were perfectly seasoned with some seasoning from Old Hickory (a steak & rib place in Dayton). Accompanying the steak was grilled asparagus seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, Kosher salt, pepper and chopped garlic, baked potato, salad and some olive oil bread with a dip of olive oil, Kosher salt, basil & red pepper flakes. For dessert, which may be eaten tomorrow as we're pretty stuffed, I made the classic Southern banana pudding layered with 'Nilla wafers & banana's.

Our meal was washed down with several different kinds of beers, one of which has already been profiled on here & another that any true beer connoisseur should already be intimately familiar with. The new beer of the evening was a Red Hook Long Hammer India Pale Ale (6.5% / $7 six pk.). Brewed in Portsmouth, NH, this IPA has an incredibly smooth & mild flavor, which went well with dinner. The vast majority of IPA's have a distinctive bitter aftertaste, which this one did not. We both agreed it tastes a little watered down, but overall I think it's a great beer that will at some point be worked back into the rotation.

The history of the India Pale Ale is an interesting one, it's also fitting to mention here because not only did we sample some tonight but I've just finished up a unit with my 8th grade American History class on the early colonists, British mercantilism, triangular trade, etc.. I'm sure many of you are wondering what this has to do with the history of the IPA, so I'll boil it down for you. The British had somewhat of a problem when it came to transporting beer around the world. Their beer didn't do well on long voyages, especially in more tropical locations such as the East Indies. As you can see from the map to the left (obtained from On Tap), it wasn't a short trip from England to India and as a result the beer was often sour & flat, and likely didn't make for a happy crew. I know I'd like to enjoy a beer after a journey that long! Many experimental tries later, it all came down to some tweaks on a recipe and a way was finally found for beer to make these long voyages and for eventual retail sale in the East Indies. George Hodgson, of Bow Brewery in London, altered a recipe and began shipping Hodgson's India Ale in the 1790s. Considering the sun never sat on the English Empire, this likely made British sailors, explorers & merchants very happy. Falling out of favor in England, the IPA has made a tremendous comeback in the U.S., with many micro brews producing new and distinctive flavors all their own.

Faking It.

Lesson #1 - You can always add more, but you can never take out.

This recipe was supposed to be part of a soup I sort of just threw together. Of course sometimes when one throws stuff together, it doesn't come out well and this soup was an example of one of those times. It should have been delicious and it was until I added one too many jalapenos without thinking or tasting. I'm talking four-five worth - stupid I know. I de-seeded them so I wasn't anticipating them being that hot, um yeah, they were.

In addition to the the massive amount of jalapenos, the soup included: black beans, pinto beans, tomatoes, radish, tomato juice, s&p, cilantro, basil, chicken & vegetable broth, avocado & the Chipotle rice - I think that's it. Really I just added a whole bunch of stuff I thought would be good in a soup and blended it all up in the food processor. Oh and in case you're wondering we sort of salvaged the soup, we just took two ladle's full and added more broth - vegetable because it was all I had left. It was still pretty spicy, but at least eatable and it really was pretty good.

Now even though the jalapenos took center stage, the star of the soup was the knock-off Chipotle rice! Yeah, this stuff was good. It wasn't the exact consistency of the actual restaurant's, but I was impatient, hungry and certainly frustrated by the time it was finished. If you think Chipotle's rice is somewhat crack-like, I urge you to try this recipe out.

As a PSA, I'll advise you to steer clear of the nutritional content link on the Chipotle Fan website, if you'd like to remain in the dark about what a trip to Chipotle will cost you! You've been warned.

Chipotle's Basmati Rice
1 tsp. Vegetable oil or butter
2 tsp. Fresh cilantro
2/3 c. White basmati rice
1 c. Water
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 Lime


1. In a 2-quart heavy saucepan, heat oil or butter over low heat, stirring occasionally until melted. Add rice and lime juice, stir for 1 minute. Add water and salt, bring to a full rolling boil. At boiling, cover, turn down to simmer over low heat until rice is tender and the water is absorbed, about 25 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork.


Yield: 2-3 servings
Recipe obtained from: Chipotle Fan


What I did: You'll notice the recipe calls for cilantro, yet it's not added in the instructions. When I made this, I didn't even add the cilantro - since the rice was a base for soup. But I think I'll add it right at the end next time. Other than the cilantro, I followed the recipe exactly and was rewarded with delicious "almost" like Chipotle style rice.

Vacation Wrap-up.

The husband & I, along with six of our friends headed down for a week on Lake Cumberland last week. We all had a great time lounging in the water, skiing, tubing, wake boarding and of course drinking! The Grandparent's came over a few nights for dinner & to hang out around the campfire. Everyone had a great time and we're already starting to look forward to next years trip!

I was a bad food blogger and only took a few food related pictures, but my excuse was I was on vacation! So using pictures & recipes where I have them, here's the food wrap-up for the week.

Monday

The Grandparent's came over to the cabin and we had brats & sauerkraut, baked beans, and Paula Deen's pasta salad. I think the pasta salad needed to sit a lot longer, which was our fault for not making it earlier, and I thought it needed more of the sauce.

Tuesday

We had the Grandparent's over for dinner again and had steak, macaroni & cheese, marinated cucumbers & tomatoes and grilled French bread.

Wednesday

I made Paula Deen's overnight French toast casserole, it was really good and easy to make.

It's somewhat of a confusing drive through Deliverance territory to make it back to the cabin, combine that with it being pitch black & no cell phone coverage and we thought it best to meet our other two friends at a restaurant in town. We were the only people there at the time and everything seriously took for-ev-er! We should have just went to McDonald's. Some liked their dinners & other's didn't; the Grandparent's have eaten there before and never had that problem. Oh well.....

Thursday

K & J made awesome breakfast biscuit muffins with sausage, cheese, egg and tomato. This recipe is pretty similar to what they did. The muffins seemed easy to prepare and were delicious to eat!

For dinner they grilled pork chops and we had baked potatoes & corn. A delicious meal!

Friday

E & M made one of my favorite breakfast's, bagel sandwiches with scrambled eggs, cheese and ham. If my metabolism would allow it, I could eat one of those everyday!

Their dinner was delicious and is going to find a new spot in my 'go-to' meals! They made grilled blackened chicken, which for some reason I've never made before, Spanish rice and chili beans. Personally, I thought this was the best dinner of the week!

Saturday

B made another one of my favorites, sausage breakfast casserole. This isn't the exact recipe, there was also a can of cream of mushroom soup, but it's pretty close.

For dinner the husband & I made grilled ham & Swiss burgers, herbed potato salad with green beans & tomatoes, sauteed squash & zucchini and marinated tomatoes (which we had at every meal, since we had about 30 pounds of tomatoes).

Aside from your bathing suit, which I forgot to pack - thank the lord for Kmart, stocking up at Liquor World, or the Sam's Club of beer & liquor as a friend calls it, is the most important thing to bring to Lake Cumberland. All of the counties surrounding the lake are dry, though some restaurants are starting to serve alcohol. Stopping here, to stock up for the week is always a production and this trip was no exception! Needless to say we had many bottles of liquor - including a new favorite Sailor Jerry Rum and lots of cases of beer. We even picked up a few cases for the Grandparent's! The important thing is we didn't run out. This story doesn't involve Liquor World, but it's amusing.

Many of the drinks we made were random concoctions of various liquors & mixers we had on hand. We did have Bloody Mary's one morning and a batch of pineapple mojito's one night - they were both delicious. For the mojito's just add pineapple juice to your regular mojito recipe

Quick & Easy Turkey Tenderloin

In a continued effort to try and use up all the food we have in our house, I pulled out some frozen turkey tenderloin's for dinner. Wanting to also use up the grilled corn, cilantro and tomatoes, the path of the meal seemed to be heading down the ol' Southwestern highway. The turkey tenderloin was extremely simple to prepare, which was a plus since we spent most of today looking for a puppy. Along with the tenderloin, I threw together some zesty rice & beans and a few tortilla chips and our meal was served. This meal was simple & quick, delicious and pretty healthy - ole!

Southwestern Stuffed Turkey Tenderloin

approx. 3/4 -1 lb. turkey tenderloin (two tenderloins in package, weighing close to 2 lbs. total - I only used one)
1 tomato, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 lime, juiced
salt to taste

Butterfly tenderloin. Combine tomato, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice and salt in bowl. Stuff tenderloin with mixture. Roll up and secure with string. Grill for 30 minutes, or until done.

*This recipe was originally for a 3 pound pork tenderloin, with a grilling time of 25 minutes.

Recipe obtained from: Quick & Easy Grilling: Over 100 Fast & Furious Timesaving Recipes.

Zesty Rice & Beans with Corn

1 can rice & beans
1 tomato, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
approx. 1/2 c. corn
handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 lime, juiced
kosher salt
cumin

Combine ingredients and refrigerate until ready to serve.

What I did: I used Eden Organics Caribbean black beans & rice. You could add or delete any of the ingredients, I just threw together what sounded good at the time. This would be good heated as well and think I might do that with the leftovers. Would also make a good base or filling for taco's or anything like that.

While the husband always comments on whatever I've made, his comments are generally pretty basic - as in "it's good" or "I don't like it," things like that. Which is what made me think this exchange was the husband kidding. Or a result of watching to much Top Chef, as he claims.

tH: Wow, that's some good flavor, it's like an explosion in my mouth!
me: Are you for real?
tH: Yeah.

One good thing about hosting parties is the leftover beer people leave behind! One of the leftovers was Leinenkugel Summer Shandy, which I'd never seen before. This is a Weiss beer with lemonade flavoring, and probably something I'd never buy on my own - the husband doesn't think it's beer if it has fruit in it. He tried one last night and said it was ok, but didn't think it tasted like beer. I agree, it doesn't really taste like beer, more like fermented lemonade, though with each sip it sort of changed in flavor and my impression of the beer changed as well. It's not a bad beer, especially since it was free, but not something I think I'd buy again.

Ho-hum BBQ

I don't like to spend hours in the kitchen only to have a meal turn out "ok." In fact, it generally makes me mad - especially at whoever came up with the recipe - Rachel Ray you now have strike one.

Let us focus on what tasted good.....

Root Beer BBQ Beans
5 slices bacon, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 (36 oz.) can baked beans, preferably Bush's
1 c. root beer (regular - not diet)
2 Tbs. dark molasses
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp. lemon pepper
2-3 whole ribs celery

1. Cook the bacon with the onions in a medium saucepan until the bacon is brown and crisp, and the onions have become transparent and are just starting to brown.
2. Add all the remaining ingredients.
3. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring often, until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 20 minutes. Remove the celery and serve the beans hot.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Comments: First I should state I love bacon, love it. I exercised my will power and only cooked the five slices called for and only had one bite in the process. That was some will power I exercised. I don't like onions, so that was out. I did however, add some dried onions and only two ribs of celery.

Recipe obtained from Chow - www.chow.com

Barbecued Chicken Thighs
1/2 c. ketchup
1/2 c. canola oil
1/2 c. maple syrup
1/4 c. vinegar
2 Tbs. yellow mustard

Whisk ingredients together.

Yield: not sure, maybe 2 c.

Comments: This recipe originally called for baking the chicken, but we grilled the thighs instead. I marinated the chicken for about an hour or so and brushed the chicken while grilling. The husband said he didn't like dark meat, but said this was good - whatever that means. While I normally don't like dark meat either, it looks funny to me, I think grilling might be the way to go - it was very moist and the sauce was simple to make and tasted great.

Recipe obtained from The Fresh Market - www.thefreshmarket.com/recipes/recipes_details_review.aspx?RecipeID=116

And for where it went all wrong...or at least didn't taste that great.

Double corn cornbread muffins - not sure what it was about these, I thought they tasted oily and the husband decided the additional corn was to much for him.

Rachel Ray received her first strike with me for her herb fritters recipe. In theory I believed
these fritters would be delicious and thus a great way to use up my out of control herb garden. Luck wasn't on my side for this one though. First they stunk when cooked and there was something about them that creeped me out, I only ate two bites. The husband eventually decided he didn't like them either. The dipping sauce however, was good (mayonnaise, hot sauce, lemon zest, lemon juice).