 Gloria Corral has written an interesting book about the world of BBQ in Central Texas with a Barbecue Lover’s Guide to Austin . Anyone interested at all in BBQ knows this area of the country is famous for the BBQ offerings available. Austin and the 30 miles surrounding this city is a mecca of BBQ goodness.
Gloria took an interesting approach to writing this book. It really is just what the title states…it’s a guide…nothing more, nothing less.
Each entry consists of two pages. One page with the restaurant logo, hours of operation, address and phone number along with the website. The second page is a short concise “review” of Gloria’s visit(s) to the restaurant.
You’ve got to give the author some credit. She ate a lot of BBQ compiling this list. Her “reviews” are not overly critical nor are they overly favorable. Just some simple words to describe the food and her dining experience.
I like the approach used in this book. I found it interesting to read about all the different BBQ restaurants and their individual approaches to cooking and serving BBQ. I’ve already made notes in the margins and marked the places I’m going to want to eat at during my “bucket list” BBQ adventure in Central Texas. When I eventually make that trip I will be depending on Gloria’s book for some guidance.
Continue reading Barbecue Lover’s Guide To Austin
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 The Big Ranch, Big City Cookbook is a proudly Texan collection of more than 100 recipes from chef Louis Lambert’s popular restaurants. The signature cooking style is unapologetically refined but not fussy, impeccable but with a hearty, rustic flair—what he calls “elevated ranch cuisine.” Each dish showcases Lou’s classical French training and sure-handed facility for combining crowd-pleasing, soul-satisfying flavors.
If you’re serving up a down-home feast fit for a cattle rancher’s table, you’ll want to try the Achiote-Seared Chickpeas, Spicy Oak-Smoked Chorizo, Wood-Roasted Chicken with Mexican Chocolate Chile Rub, Hot Smoked Pecan-Cured Salmon, Crispy Wild Boar Ribs with Fresh Plum Barbecue Sauce, and Fried Green Tomatoes with Crab Rémoulade.
The Big Ranch, Big City Cookbook is a lot like the great state of Texas itself—if you don’t already call it home, you’ll want to return again and again. — Cookbook Description from Ten Speed Press
It’s not often I come across a cookbook that I enjoy as much as I do this cookbook. Louis Lambert and June Naylor has come up a collection of “Recipes from Lambert’s Texas Kitchens” that may actually replace Adam Perry Lang’s “Serious Barbecue” as my favorite cookbook. And if it’s going to do that, it must be a good cookbook because I love “Serious Barbecue.”
Continue reading Review: “Big Ranch, Big City Cookbook” by Louis Lambert
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 (NOTE: As a Featured Publisher for FoodBuzz I participate in their Tastemakers Program. Every once in a while I receive product, for free, from advertisers to use and possibly review. This is the case with the KC Masterpiece Buffalo Marinade.)
There is a school of thought that soaking meat in a marinade doesn’t do all that much. I pretty much subscribe to that thought process. A lot of times when you buy a bottle of marinade it suggests a 30 minute marinade time. That’s the case with the KC Masterpiece Buffalo marinade. I went with a 2 hour soak time and don’t think it imparted a great deal of flavor in the meat. Certainly not as much as you’d like in a “buffalo chicken” dish. But, there was away around this little problem. I not only did the marinate thing I used it as a glaze too.
Continue reading KC Masterpiece Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
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If you’ve read this blog for very long you know that good reviews of BBQ restaurants are few and far between. As an official “BBQ Snob” I just don’t come across restaurants that warrant praise very often. This weekend I’m in Des Moines, Iowa for the 14th Annual Niman Ranch Hog Farmer Appreciation Dinner and tonight I had the good fortune to eat at a wonderful BBQ restaurant. Smokey D’s…
Smokey D’s has everything a good BBQ restaurant should have. You can smell the wonderful sweet aroma of good BBQ from a block away and you can smell the wood smoke in the parking lot AND the restaurant smells like BBQ. Everyone that knows good BBQ knows you can tell you’re going to have at least a decent dining experience before you’ve left the parking lot.
Continue reading Smokey D’s: Great BBQ and Cornbread Crack!
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 The term Easy Peasy comes from a 1970′s british TV commercial for Lemon Squeezy detergent. They were with a little girl who points out dirty greasy dishes to an adult (mom or relative) and then this adult produces Lemon Squeezy and they clean the dishes quickly. At the end of the commercial the girl says “Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy”. — Urban Dictionary
Barbeque Insurance. Now that’s just downright cleaver. There’s no guarantees in BBQ life but it’s always good to have a little insurance. And the two products from Easy Peasy Foods can give you a bit of insurance. It’s not going to keep you from burning your food but it should give you a little peace of mind on the flavor side of things.
I’m going to admit right from the start that I’m not one of those haters of corn syrup. In my book corn syrup is an important ingredient in a good commercial BBQ sauce. Don’t know what it is, but I like it. I try to limit the amount of corn syrup in other things I eat, but when it comes to BBQ sauce I just don’t mind it at all. So when I received my free sample of BBQ sauce from Easy Peasy and noticed that it contains no corn syrup my expectations dropped.
Barbeque Insurance BBQ Sauce is a good sauce. I liked it. The flavor is a little different than normal. Not to sweet and the flavors are somewhat neutral and complimented a couple different rubs I tried. And it definitely matched up perfectly with their BBQ Insurance Chicken Marinade.
Continue reading Good Chicken Can Be Easy Peasy
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 Skeptical. That’s the word I’d use to describe my entire thought process about reviewing Shirley J’s BBQ Sauce Mix. I mean really, powdered BBQ sauce that you just add water to. How good could that possibly be? And did I want to really invest some meat in testing this stuff. I’ve sat on this stuff for some time for those two reasons. I figured it was time to give it a try. The weekend cooking schedule was for ribs so this was going to be a good test.
Shirley J is a Utah based food company that develops and sells quality “no fail, just add water” food products. I’m not sure about any of the other food products but the BBQ sauce rocks. I love this stuff and no one is more surprised than I am. The first time around I followed the directions and mixed the powder 50/50 with water. I can’t wait to do some experiments by mixing with other liquids. Fruit juices, tomato based products and the possibilities with Asian flavors is endless.
“Shirley J BBQ Sauce is as simple as it is savory. Just add water, and use with meat or vegetables, as a rub or marinade and on burgers and fries. Sugar and spice and flavor to your liking, or serve the BBQ sauce as-is; Shirley J always promises a no-fuss process.
Shirley J BBQ Sauce can be mixed as an ingredient or dressed as a condiment. Try our flavor varieties below!”
Continue reading Powdered BBQ Sauce? You Bet!
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One of the fun aspects of getting an iPad has been exploring the variety of applications available that weren’t available or practical for use with my iPhone. I came across the “On The House – Great Backyard Grilling” application recently and have enjoyed using it for a week or so. At only $3.99 it provides users with an amazing amount of features.
 Features:
- 50 great grilling recipes (with more promised)
- Easy recipe sharing via Facebook and email
- Great illustrations and photos
- Event planning and invitation preparation
- Shopping List generator
- Grilling Videos (coming soon)
- Grilling timer
- Ability to add notes to each recipe
- Ingredient calculator, sizable to the number of guests
- Saving of recipes, favorites and shopping lists
One of the best features in the app is the info screens. When you’re looking at a recipe most of the ingredients have a little yellow info button. Pushing the info button will give you a pop-up screen with a picture of the ingredient and an explanation of exactly what that ingredient is. This feature, not mentioned much by the developers, is extremely helpful and if I were them I’d be making a huge deal of it.
Continue reading A Great iPad App For The Backyard Griller
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Gloria Corral has written an interesting book about the world of BBQ in Central Texas with a Barbecue Lover’s Guide to Austin
