My maternal ancestors grew up as somewhat poor country folk. Whether it was the dust of the Red River basin in East Texas or the farms of Northern Alabama they were people who struggled to feed families through the 1800′s. The simple comfort country foods they ate, to make ends meet, made their way to Southern California where I enjoyed them, not because we had to, but because they just tasted great.
One of my favorite lunches was a simple fried bologna sandwich. Bologna, fried on the stove, slathered in mayo on Wonder Bread it was my “go to” after school sandwich whenever I had a chance. I’m not a huge fan of bologna normally. The flavor just doesn’t appeal to me. But fried, bologna takes on a whole different flavor.
This “enhanced” fried flavor is complimented by mayo, and makes even the cheapest, plain white bread edible. So when I got the craving for a fried bologna sandwich this week I decided that I needed to go a little over the top. Of course it has to be done on the grill. And in this case, the smoker and the grill.
Continue reading Childhood Memory Kicked Up A Notch!
I made my TV debut this morning on Fox40 Live Show. What a treat it was to make MOINK Balls for Sacramento icon Paul Robbins. Here is the Original MOINK Ball Recipe.
Continue reading … MOINK Balls on Fox40 Live Morning Show
I love chicken wings. They are small bite sized morsels of poultry goodness. I’ve smoked wings lots of time and wanted to give something a little different.
I cranked up one of the Weber Smokey Mountain smokers with some avocado wood. Avocado wood is a somewhat hard wood that goes great with chicken and pork. It’s a mild wood that should be treated like you would a fruit wood.
The wings were seasoned with Simply Marvelous Season All and smoked at 225 degrees for about 2 hours. Because it was a busy day I let the wings cool and put them into the refrigerator for eating at a later date.
Continue reading Smoked and Fried Chicken Wings
It was our opportunity to feed the full time Missionaries dinner tonight. With all the work going on preparing for the big Thanksgiving Feast tomorrow we decided some simple burgers and fries would be the easiest meal to fix.
Fresh ground hamburger seasoned with Simply Marvelous Season-All.I love 1,000 Island Dressing on my burgers, but I wanted to kick it up a little so I added some extra pickle relish and good healthy spoonful of Dr. Gonzo's Peppermash. I'll admit it may not be the best looking stuff, but it gave the burgers a little extra heat and flavor.
Continue reading Simply Marvelous Thanksgiving Eve Burgers
Last weekend I traveled to Spring Valley to visit my mother for her 70th Birthday. With a large group of family members I got the job of cooking the birthday meal.
I needed a side dish to go with the grilled tri-tips we were having so I decided to adapt the Trash Bag Potatoes
Continue reading … Product Review: Simply Marvelous BBQ “Season-All”
Gave “Big Brother Smoke’s” Simply Marvelous Poultry Rub a try on some Spatchcock chicken tonight.
Started with a nice sized whole chicken:
Seasoned it up with Steph’s new rub and tossed it on the WSM. The rub has some nice flavors. Not just spices, there’s some herbs in there too:
Continue reading Simply Marvelous Spatchcock Chicken
My maternal ancestors grew up as somewhat poor country folk. Whether it was the dust of the Red River basin in East Texas or the farms of Northern Alabama they were people who struggled to feed families through the 1800′s. The simple comfort country foods they ate, to make ends meet, made their way to Southern California where I enjoyed them, not because we had to, but because they just tasted great.
and I’m going to be using this book for several upcoming Meatless Monday posts.
