What are you BBQing?

Before we talk BBQ, I want to thank the men and women who serve and have served. You are the reason we have our Independence. Thank you!

As this wonderful, holiday weekend approaches where fireworks light the sky, parades entertain, and friends and family celebrate, I thought it would be fun to talk BBQ. I mean seriously, who goes out to eat on July 4th?

What will you be grillin' or smokin'?

Hot dogs, burgers, chicken, ribs? Maybe some pulled pork or beef brisket?  Any of the above will soothe my growling tummy. As long as it is on a wood-fired grill or smoker and not one of those fancy gas or electric dohickeys. It just ain't the same.

Do you do a fruit salad? Or just go for the slices of watermelon WITH seeds? Give me a good old-fashioned watermelon and a seed spitting contest any day.

What's for dessert? Cookies, cake, or my favorite...Strawberry shortcake WITH whipped cream!!

Have any great recipes that you will be using this weekend for your family and friends BBQs? I am not a fan of bottle barbeque sauce so when I grill or smoke some meat I pull out the ingredients and slave over a hot stove and make homemade sauce. Yummy!

I mean truly, isn't homemade anything the best?!

Here is the recipe I use and friends and family have come to expect and enjoy. I like my sauce like I like my men...hot and spicy. The best part about this recipe is you can make the sauce hot and spicy or not.

Sauce Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup cider vinegar (vinegar is the best part of the recipe and key to a good BBQ sauce)
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar (I actually use Turbinado sugar)
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1-1/2 tablespoons yellow mustard (I actually used dry yellow mustard and the kind you put on a hot dog)
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon chili powder (use Mexican chili powder if you want more heat to your sauce)
Tabasco sauce to taste (I use habanero Tabasco sauce)

To make the sauce:
In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the vegetable oil. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the remaining sauce ingredients, including Tabasco sauce to taste, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Set aside. Pour some of the sauce in a small bowl to use for basting the ribs. (I don't actually baste. I leave sauce to everyone's taste.)

Have a Happy 4th of July! May you and your family eat and enjoy each others company all weekend long.

Denise

While Mondays are for work, Sundays are for...

lazing about and grilling out.

I spent Sunday afternoon lazing about on my hammock in the backyard and smoking my first pork babyback ribs.

I told you I would share my homemade BBQ sauce with you so here you go.


The Sauce:
1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup cider vinegar (vinegar is the best part of the recipe and key to a good bbq sauce)
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
1-1/2 tablespoons yellow mustard (I actually used dry yellow mustard and the kind you put on a hot dog)
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon chili powder (use Mexican chili powder if you want more heat to your sauce)
Tabasco sauce to taste (I use habanero Tabasco sauce)

To make the sauce:
In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the vegetable oil. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the remaining sauce ingredients, including Tabasco sauce to taste, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Set aside. Pour some of the sauce in a small bowl to use for basting the ribs. (I don't actually baste. I leave sauce ro everyone's taste.)

The Ribs:
2 to 3 slabs baby back pork ribs

I went ahead and soaked the ribs the night before in a brine, the same brine I used on pulled pork. You don't have to do this but what the heck.

Make sure to remove the membrane from the back of the baby back ribs. It's totally disgusting but definitely the right thing to do. Then use the rub from the recipe I shared last week. Click here for rub recipe.


Cook the ribs for at least 4 hours at 200 to 220 degrees. The longer you cook the more tender and the more smokey flavor you get.

I like my rub the same way I like my men. . .

Hot and Spicy!

The 4th of July holiday weekend I decided to try my hand at smoking meat. Pork butt to be specific, AKA pulled pork.

Let me start at the beginning. First, I had to get a smoker. I did.
Then I had to put it together. That took two days! Note to self: Don't try following directions and pictures after drinking a margarita or three. (Click here Perfect Margarita Recipe.

Sunday morning I managed to take the smoker apart and put it back together again so by late Sunday morning I was ready to cook some meat.

First step in smoking pulled pork is soaking the meat in a brine.

Brine Recipe:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sea salt
4 cups water

Soak meat in brine for 4 hours upto overnight.

Then you have to rub the meat. Now be careful here. If you rub the meat right, uh, wrong, this could cause excitements and giggles. Oh! And it will definitely be messy.

Pork Rub Recipe:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika (half regular paprika/half smoked paprika)
3 tablespoons sea salt
2 tablespoons black pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 tablespoons Mexican chili powder
1 teaspoon white pepper

Once you have throuroughly rubbed your meat, you then are ready to smoke it.

To smoke the meat you heat up the grill to 220 to 230 degrees. The charcoal (which is the only thing I use...no gas for this girl) is heated up to the side of where the meat will be placed to cook. This is indirect heat. No flames are allowed to kiss this butt.

Depending on the size or weight of you meat you will be slow cooking AKA smoking the pork for at least 4 to six hours. The key to making this fun is to invite a few friends over to keep you company. That and bring out the beer.

About the time you finish one beer you will want to go back and check the heat, more than likely add some more charcoal to the fire. Sometimes my heat got a little too hot, well, duh, we are talking about me. Of course the meat got overheated.

Not to worry, just walk away slowly, no swish in your hips, have another beer and the next time you visit the meat its temperature will be back down to warm and not smokin' hot.

The pork is ready when it's meat thermometer says 160 degrees or when you can pull the meat apart with your bare fingers or a fork, whichever you prefer.


When the meat is done, Pull it apart and chop it up and serve it with homemade BBQ sauce and coleslaw. Something I had to teach a few friends this weekend. You cannot have southern style pulled pork without having coleslaw. It's a MUST!

Stay tuned and I will share the BBQ sauce recipe on Saturday.

This weekend I will be trying my hand at pork ribs. Going to use the same rub and sauce, so I'm all set except for cooking the meat and making some fresh coleslaw.