That's right, food.
Ya'll know we have a culinary education, so we're been known to cook now and again, and post about it.
Inspired and excited by talking with James about owning a farm, and raising animals, and growing a garden, and making food stuff and products with the harvest, both animal and plant, we excitedly (
excitedly? Sure...why not) made dinner, which we had started yesterday.
We made a BBQ sauce and marinated some rib steaks yesterday. We`d have a precise recipe if we were any good at writing down, or measuring, what we throw together. The important thing to remember about cooking is it`s mostly to taste. Meaning maybe you want a stronger flavour than the recipe calls for, or a thinner sauce, or sweeter, etc. When it comes to reading a recipe (
for cooking, baking is a completely different situation, baking is practically a science) the measurements aren't that important, tasting, and texture, is. So we`re giving you our recipe, but we`re not giving you measurements, because we don`t have any. Fun. Right?
Well, we have some rough measurements...you can play around with it as much, or as little, as you like.
~
Frankie's BBQ Sauce:
- Canned Tomatoes (1 can 15oz-ish can) <-hey, a measurement!
- Apple sauce (about 20 oz)
- Vinegar (about 1/4 cup)
- Brown sugar (a small fist full)
- Worcestershire (about 1 tbsp, or to taste)
- Garlic (2 cloves, smashed)
- Smoked Paprika
So, you just mix all those things. You can blend it till smooth if you want, or keep it chunky - whatever you like. Throw in a few ribs, or rib steaks, and marinate for about 8 hours, or longer.
Treat like you would any other BBQ sauce, shake off the excess and throw the meat on the grill, baste as desired while the meat cooks.
All that extra leftover sauce? Reduce it and use it for other things, make sure to boil it hard to kill any pesky meat germs, or toss it out if you like to be wasteful. We boiled ours down and put it in the fridge for another day.
With dinner we also had grilled corn, vinegar coleslaw, and potato salad.
~ Grilled corn? If you have never done it try this:
Don't shuck (meaning don't take the outside [husks] off) the corn on the cob, wrap it all in tin foil and throw on a hot grill for at least 20 minutes. Remove tin foil and husk the corn. Enjoy! So juicy and retains all the flavour. We dare say all you need is a little salt...maybe. It's not normal for us to not recommend butter, but if you're watching your weight...just sayin'...
We made mayo from scratch too, because we happened to be out of it, and Miracle Whip (which The Mother has in the fridge) is just crap.
Home-made mayo is easy peasy (oh Lord, we're channelling Rachael Ray)
~ Our Whole Egg Mayo on the fly: (why whole eggs? We don't want to waste the whites, which are pretty fat free anyway, and didn't feel like making meringues, so it won't hurt to keep 'em in there)
Whisk together:
3 whole eggs
3 Tbsp white vinegar
Splash of Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp salt
Add in, by DRIZZLING oil slowly and whisking:
1 cups olive oil
2 cups vegetable oil
What you are doing here is called emulsifying. If you add too much oil too fast it will split - meaning the oil will separate from the rest of it, it will make an oil slick, and then you'll have to toss it out.
We opted for trying to use our Kitchen Aid mixer with the whisk attachment, and judging from our past with emulsified foods (such as hollandaise sauce), we would have gotten better results using a little elbow grease and pulling out the hand whisk.
Make sure you taste it, sometimes you can end up tasting the oil too much. It's important to use fresh oil. Oil stored for too long after being open can go rancid, and that is not a nice taste.
NOTICE: This makes about 1 QT of mayo...so, maybe do a version with 1 egg, because what the fuck are we going to do with all that mayo now?!
So here was dinner....
The dressing on the Slaw, which consisted of red cabbage, green cabbage and carrots, was simply vinegar, honey, salt and pepper, to taste - we mixed it last night and stirred it occasionally for 24 hours. It was a nice accompaniment with the heavier foods, cut the fat, so to speak.
So there you have it. We hope to work on some more food entries, but we have lots of other things to do too. Still have to get to the canvas and finish some paintings before we start another, and it looks like this week we're going to look at a big plot of land in the country, about 4 hours from where we currently are. Should be fun.
~Ivy et al
Looking for other food stuff on this blog?
Have a Happy and Safe St. Patrick's Day! Drink responsibly.
