Backyard BBQ

Sadly, I did a terrible job of taking pictures of our luncheon and dinner. However, they are all things you've seen before, with one exception: Drunken Apples. 

~Our backyard bbq menu~

Hush puppies

Onion rings

Chips and Salsa (thanks Euge)

Bratwursts (cooked like our other sausages,

then brought out to grill)

Burgers

Spare ribs:

Hot Wings

Chili Tamale casserole

Drunken apples aka Amaretto Apples:

Corn on the cob

Chopped Pineapples

a colorful Salad

Chocolate Chip cookies with a cookie inside

Mini Chocolate Chip cookies

Chocolate Swirl Buns

 Banana Nut Bread

Fruit Tart (thanks Jo)

and lots of various drinks (thanks Nick and Ramsin and Mia)

and thanks to Nargess for dinnerwares

~Om nom nom nom nom~

Chili Tamale Casserole

~Chili~

made with a about a pound and a half of beef, one medium onion (chopped), a can of kidney beans, a bit of taco seasoning, a bit of brown sugar and lots of chili powder.

~Tamale~

made with 1 1/8cup of cornmeal, 3/4 tsp kosher salt, 1.5 tbs unsalted butter and 3 cups cold water in a pot over medium heat. once thickened, place over the chili.

makes chili tamale casserole. Made for tomorrow's backyard bbq. Top with shredded cheese and bake for 40 minutes or until golden. 

Chocolate Swirl Buns #2

This was batch #2. Deeeeeeeeeeee-licious!!!!! Mmmm-scrumptious!!!!!! I just had to make it for the bbq. We only had 8 left by the time the backyard bbq rolled around on 6/30.

In case the original site takes forever to load, these are the ingredients that you'll need:

1/2 cup whole milk (I used 2%)

a pinch of white sugar

1.5 tsp of dry active yeast

1/4 cup white sugar

1 egg @ room temp

3 tbs unsalted butter

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp kosher salt

225grams or 1/2 pound of semi sweet chocolate

1/4 cup white sugar

1-2 tsp cinnamon

3 tbs unsalted butter

crushed walnuts (optional)

My Version of Directions (since I don't have a mixer):

1. Warm the milk in microwave for 20 seconds, stir in pinch of sugar, then sprinkle yeast on top and stir. Let rest for about 5-10 minutes or until foamy.

2. Mix the white sugar with room temp egg. Shave 2-3 tbs of butter into the mixture and stir until only small chunks of butter are left.

3. Pour the milk/yeast mixture into the sugar/egg mixture. This is your wet portion.

4. In a separate bowl, mix flour and salt. Pour 1/3 of the flour mixture into the wet portion and mix well. Do this 2 more times.

5. Stir well and then when it gets too tough to stir, knead the dough for about 5 minutes or until the dough is cohesive... should look like a lump of dough.

6. Place your dough in a buttered bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest for an hour in a warm place.

7. Meanwhile, place chocolate into a food processor along with the sugar and cinnamon and butter. Process until it's a chocolatey mess.

8. Once the dough is ready, roll it out into a rectangle that's about 12in by 20in. 

9. Spread the chocolatey mixture over and if you're using crushed walnuts, sprinkle over the chocolatey goodness. Roll up the dough starting with the 12in side.

10. Cut into 12 slices and place in a buttered cupcake pan (I used Pam instead).

11. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees F for about 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Fried hot wings

To make these delicious fried hot wings, season liberally with chili powder and a bit of salt, then dredge in flour (we used wheat) and fry in oil. Voila! Delicious finger licking hot wings. As usual, we have a side of frank's hot sauce mixed with ketchup for a sweet spicy kick!

Mac n Cheese

Remember the fondue last night? Well, we are now using that to make mac n cheese since the majority of our fondue is cheese. I made pasta, cut up the meatballs, chopped up a half onion, place a couple slices of american cheese, added a sprinkle of chopped cilantro and mixed it together.

And then you've got a somewhat fancy mac n cheese. Turned out pretty delicious!

Fondue

Fondue is made is sharp cheddar cheese, beer, mustard and a little bit of cornstarch. Since this was our first time making fondue so this was a trial by taste...

We dipped meatballs, bagel bits, and chips into the fondue. The best dipper were the bagel bites. Turns out our fondue was a bit salty so dipping meatballs and chips that are already salty turned out waaaaaaay too salty. Hello mac n cheese tomorrow night!

Ribs

Marinate with secret rub and let set in fridge overnight. Then braise in white wine and apple cider vinegar in the over for 2-3 hours at 250 degrees F. For the sauce, take the remaining liquids and mix with honey, a bit of white sugar, more secret rub, splash of orange juice and a bit of liquid smoke. The ribs should be fall off the bones tender and with the sauce, even more extraordinary.

Enjoy with a Marzen. Yum!

This was a perfect trial run for our ribs recipe for our upcoming backyard bbq on 6/30 with friends.

Chocolate Swirl Buns

This is super duper freaking delicious! I HAVE to make this again, even though it takes a bit of time. (It's possible it takes awhile for me to make because I don't own a mixer). Totally worth it though!!!

Go here for the recipe.

Eggplant Fried Shrimp Rice w/ Watercress Soup

Here we have lightly browned onions, sauted chopped eggplants, chopped fried shrimps (in a food processor) and scrambled eggs. Add all of these with brown rice and a bit of canola oil...

...and you've got eggplant fried shrimp rice! There's watercress soup on the side. Just note that you should use fresh watercress otherwise the soup will be bitter.

Honey Fried Shrimp and Walnuts

With deveined and deshelled shrimp, pat dry and cover with cornstarch (I ran out and used potato starch).

Dunk in beer batter and fry for about 3-4 minutes

Til they come out looking golden n delicious.

Then place in pan and saute. Add walnuts. And drizzle some honey til nicely coated and crunchy.

YUM!

Chicken and Onion Rings

!!!!HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!

For tonight's special dinner, we have chicken, a tower of onion rings, garlic bread topped with broccoli pesto and a side of ketchup and frank's hot sauce and sliced cucumbers.

The chicken was brined overnight and then baked in the oven until internal temp of 165 degrees F was reached then broiled for a nice brown crispy skin. 

The onion rings were made with a simple batter of one 12oz beer (we used Sierra Nevada @ room temp), 1-1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 1-1/4tsp kosher salt, and 1/4 tsp ground pepper. Cover onion rings with batter and gently drop into hot oil and take out when lightly browned. 

Garlic bread was store bought from Food 4 Less for 98 cents! Then we topped it with a broccoli pesto, which was made with broccoli, olive oil, kosher salt, black pepper, honey and a bit of parsley and cilantro.

(Not Shown) For dessert, we have a slice of tiramisu (bought from pavils), a mini pineapple upsidedown cake and 1-2 cream puffs. 

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Father's Day! I'm sure my daddy enjoyed his Father's day scrumptious foodiestuffers.

French Toast n Sausage

Happy Father's Day Weekend Luncheon!

Polish sausage pieces 

(store bought Hilshire Farm version, pre-cooked, so just panfry til nicely browned - do NOT add oil)

French Toast 

(Scramble three eggs, add 1/3 cup of milk, whisk some more, cut potato bread slices in two triangles, drop in scrambled egg mixture, make sure the entire bread is covered, place in non stick pan that's on medium heat. Cook til done.

Add a cuppa joe and a bit of green grapes for an enjoyable luncheon. Enjoy with good company or a great tv show. :D

London Broil Taco and Cake

Place a piece of London Broil into a pot with a can of beer (we used Sierra Nevada) and a generous amount taco seasoning and some ground pepper. Bring to boil then let simmer until tender (about 2 hours). Place tortilla in pan, add shredded colby cheese, some of the meat, some shredded broccoli and more shredded colby cheese and then pull the other half over for a nice sized taco. Super tasty and super delicious!

And for dessert, we have fresh pineapple and a slice of orange chiffon cake with bits of peach in the cream filling (cake is from King's Hawaiian Bakery). Even more super deliciousness in our tummies! :)

London broil on a Salad bed

Broiled a piece of top round London Broil for approx 15 minutes on each side (let cool for about 5-10minutes), then sliced and placed on top of bed of lettuce with sliced cucumbers and chopped tomatoes and a couple of olives with bleu cheese dressing. Om nom nom nom.

Pineapple Upsidedown Mini Cakes

I was inspired by Giada De Laurentiis to make these lil cakes. You can find her recipe here. However, since I did not have plain box cake available or mini bundt pans on hand, I pretty much did a spin off of her recipe.

Pineapple portion: 20oz of pineapples, half from fresh really ripe pineapples, half from canned pineapples, 2 tbs pineapple juice, 5 tsp brown sugar (pineapples were really sweet already) and 2 tbs unsalted butter. Crush pineapples in food processor then place all ingredients into a pan on high heat. Bring to boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes til all juice is mostly evaporated.

Cake portion: Mix 1.75 cups of all purpose flour, 1.25 cups white sugar and 1.75 tsp baking powder. In a separate bowl, mix 1/3 cup water and 2/3 pineapple juice (from the canned pineapples), 1/3 cup oil, 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg. Then mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add 2 tsp orange extract and stir well.

Preheat over to 350 degree F. Spray cupcake pan with Pam and dust with flour.

Place pineapples into the cupcake pan, then pour the cake batter over til it reaches the rim. The cake batter will rise slightly but then sink back down after it is done and cooled. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted and pulled out clean. Then enjoy!

Hush Puppies

Hush puppies and more bbq spinach burgers with ketchup and frank's hot sauce on the side. Hush puppies are surprisingly easy to make! It's just one and a half cup aunt jemima's yellow corn meal, 1/2 cup all purpose flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 3/4 cup milk, 1 large egg, 1 medium onion, chopped fine. Mix all the ingredients together and then drop rounded teaspoonfuls into hot oil (375 degrees F) for about 3-4 minutes. It's super delicious and super filling.

BBQ Spinach burger

This burger is just as yummy-licious as the classic burgers we make but with a bbq flavor, spinach leaves and shredded colby cheese. Om nom nom nom nom... In our classic burgers, we usually just use salt and pepper with fresh ground beef. In our bbq burgers, bf used his bbq rub with the fresh ground beef. It's quite delicious!

Tamale Pie

I feel like I hit the jackpot with this rich, savory scrumptiously delicious tasting meal!!!! Tamale pie is like the holy grail of mexican food for me. :) And it turned out oh so beautiful too!

Cook 1.4lbs of ground turkey until almost finished over medium high heat with 2-3 cloves of minced garlic. Sprinkle a 1/2 tsp of kosher salt and some freshly ground pepper. Then add 1 chopped medium sized onion (I used white here) and 1 chopped red bellpepper and 1 chopped orange bellpepper (about 2 cups). Cook until veggies are tender. Sprinkle another 1/2 tsp of kosher salt. Then add about 16-20oz of prego sauce, a can of corn, 1/2 cup of quartered black olives and 3 tbs of chili powder (I only used 1.5tbs because I was afraid it'd be too spicy, but it wasn't). Mix well and simmer over low heat until the consistency is thick.

The cornmeal mixture spread over the meat mixture is made with 3/4cup of cornmeal, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1 tbs unsalted butter, 2 cups cold water. In a bowl, briefly mix the dry ingredients. Take a pot and fill it with the cold water. Pour in the flour mixture. Turn the heat on medium and stir frequently until the mixture thickens. Turn off heat and stir in butter. Spread it over the meat mixture.

Top with shredded colby cheese. Place in preheated oven of 375 degrees F and let sit for 40 minutes.

It should come out with a light orange/golden look that is just gorgeous and should smell amazing too!

Serve with salad and eat til your tummy hurts!

Chicken, Corn n Salad

I think the picture speaks for itself when I say this was yet another enjoyable meal.

Rice, Chicken n Corn

The last of the fried rice, more brined-then-baked-then-broiled chicken and corn.

The chicken was cooked slightly different than usual because it was baked until it was almost cooked through, then sat in the oven at really low temp for about an hour. This made the chicken fall-off-the-bones freakin delicious. Then broiled for a crispy outside. Another amazing meal. 

Fried Rice

Lots of different leftovers and old food mean more fried rice in this house. Leftover stale brown rice, leftover shrimp and snow peas, leftover half an onion, an old bag of chinese sausages sitting in the fridge with scrambled eggs and minced garlic and salt and pepper to season. Pretty tasty for old foods!