Easy Tostadas & Gorditas

I have always enjoyed finding different ways to make a work night dinner that is fast, easy to do but also taste great. Many times that consists of not all of the meal being made from scratch but rather pre-made such as last nights Tostadas and Gorditas. Boneless chuck roast were on sale for 1.99 and I hardly ever pass that up, so I stopped by and picked up a couple of 2 ½ lbr’s to grind up for burgers and a 3 lb meat loaf. The extra ¾ to 1 lb of meat got me to thinking about having tostadas for supper. No sooner than I hit the Super Mercado I happened to remember those pre-made gorditas in the dairy section that I have been wanting to try for a year or more and I added that to the cart. The easy supper would be the heavily seasoned course ground beef (chili power, paprika, cumin), enough oil in a very small skillet to cover the gorditas and fry, fresh market made pico de galo and salsa verde, limes, shredded lettuce, a couple deep fried japs (after the gorditas were finished), some canned refried beans, and last but not least and I gotta thank Sis for this one, some Salvadorian style crema. I learned the fried Japs from a very popular taco stand that kept getting complaints about his salsas not being hot enough and started serving these on the plate. Oh BTW, the review on the pre-made gorditas is that they are very good and well worth the try, also I was happy with the pico de galo but I knew I would be as I saw them mixing it up so I knew it was fresh made. The best surprise though was the market made salsa verde which I just knew I would not like because I like my homemade version so much but I thought it was a very good substitute.

Brunswick (Ga) Stew PIZZA

And your saying to yourself "are you sure"! Well I confess that I have this problem when it comes to leftovers and the thought of wasting good food, and this is for sure a result of that little problem. Not too bad of a fault to have though I don't guess, some of the crazy concoctions are actually pretty good as this one was believe it or not. I was going to add more ketchup to the stew so it could serve as both the meat and the sauce but Sue didn't like that idea and we ended up just spooning a little pizza sauce on here and there to fill in. It also has some country sausage and if you look close you can see some kernels of corn and the tiny lima beans that all good Ga Brunswick Stew has in it.

Lenoir City 2009

We really enjoyed doing the Lenoir contest again this year as it gave us the oportunity to spend time with our friends and teamates "Vern (Jose) & Helen Ashbrook at their home in Maryville, Tn both before and after the contest. They are the best host you could every hope to find. I have heard a lot of teams say, "if you think you turned in great meat, you probably won't do well and if you thought you turned in bad meats you probably did much better than expected". It sure seems to play out that way a lot of times as it did this Saturday. I was very dissapointed in ribs, pork, and brisket and thought the chicken was great, but the judges thought the ribs, pork, and brisket were all better than the chicken. Anyway we finished 3rd place out of the 25 teams with a 8th in chicken, 3rd in ribs, 5th pork, 5th brisket. The really unique thing about this is that Adams Ribs (Grand Champion, Team Allegro (Reserve Grand Champion), and myself all used the Backwoods Smoker and what a testimony for this great little cooker.

Chicken Halves

BBQ was served at the wedding Saturday and a quick glanze told me I didn't care about even tasting the pulled pork. So I tried the pulled chicken and spooned on what I'm real sure was the Masterpiece sauce and I was surprised but it was pretty darn good. I've been telling Sue we need to cook some whole chickens for pulling and vac sealing for the freezer, so that became my project yesterday. It was kinda fun actually as I have my trailer at the office and of course everything you need to cook with is in the trailer so I cooked right on the side of Walnut Avenue yesterday while about a million cars drove by. The traffic and the noise was not a problem because I cooked on the opposite side of the trailer and it blocked the noise for the most part. I used the Backwoods Chubby and cooked the six halves in 3 half pans in butter. When they were done I sauced them and took them out of the pans and back on the cooker for 30 min. I cooked them at 275 and had very little red near the bone.

Brie Goes To Wedding

We got to take Baby Brie to her first wedding today. Snapped a few pics before leaving.

2009 LIBERTY TREE BBQ CONTEST - DALTON, GA

2009 AWARDS & PRICES

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: As of 9/14/09 Ten teams are signed on and sign up is planned to be extended to Oct 9th!!! Click on the link at the bottom of this page, print out the form and mail with a check. The official proclaimation by the Govenor was recieved friday so don't get left out!

All purse levels are dependent upon team entry numbers and are subject to change. But a purse of $7500 is guaranteed.
Prizes
· Grand Champion: $2,500 + Trophy
· Reserve Grand Champion: $1,000 + Trophy
Each of the four categories will have a 1st – 4th place cash prize winner!
· 1st place: $400
· 2nd place: $300
· 3rd place: $200
· 4th place: $100
People’s choice award: $100+Trophy

2009 SCHEDULE

Friday Night Ancillary Event:
Dessert: $100 to the winner
BBQ Sauce: $100 to the winner
Brunswick stew:$100 to the winner
Friday October 16th
Parking Opens up at 7am with entrance on the MLK BLVD side of Selvidge St.
· Must be setup by 12 noon
· Meat inspection from 10am-3pm
· Rule meeting 4pm
FRIDAY ANCILLARY EVENT:
· Brunswick Stew 7pm
· BBQ Sauce 7:30pm
· Dessert 8:00pm
Saturday October 17th
· Half Chicken 2:30pm
· Pork Spare Ribs 3:00pm
· Pulled Pork 3:30pm
· Beef Brisket 4:00pm
· Awards Show at 7pm
Times are subject to change!!!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE LIBERTY TREE WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION

CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR LATEST COOK "Extreme Breakfast Makeover" (Steak and Eggs)

Blues Hog Chicken Sauce, American Fries, Caramelized Onions, & Cheese

Trimmed up 10 thighs Saturday afternoon and brined them for 3 hours, seasoned them and held in fridge overnight for cooking yesterday morning. The brine worked way too good and the thighs were dang near too salty to eat. Being the kind of frugal guy I am and not wanting them to go to waste I trimmed the meat off the bones, chopped it up skin and all put it in a small sauce pan with 50/50 Blues Hog and Blues Hog Tn Red and added the same amount of water, cooked real slow till all the liquid was gone and we had a kinda chicken confit to which I added back some sauce (no water this time). Cut up some baking taters into strips and fried (Sue did) for 3 min and drained on paper sack and then on paper towels and let completely cool. They were fried again this time a little hotter, till crisp and browned, placed on pepper towels. While she was frying I was suppose to be caramelizing some onions and took my eye off of em at the end and burnt em pretty good which ruined the looks of the dish but they still tasted alright. Now it was time to plate it and we piled all the fries on first, a good layer of the Blues Hog Chicken Sauce, Caramelized Onions, and then the cheese which was some pizza blend followed up with a lil fresh moz. Placed under the broiler for 3 or 4 min till cheese melted. Shake a good amount of Texas Pete on there at the table and life was pretty good.

A Good Day For Golf And Nice Supper

I don't know when I've hit the ball any better than yesterday. I turned in a 38 on the front (one birdie) and 40 on the back. Just seemed to magically be there and I keep telling them guys that Jane Fonda ortta be worth something and that stick she sold way back when I have at the gym really helps me out even if I don't play very much. These burnt ends were a little over done as they were off the side of the brisket and not really the point, but them splatter beans (butter beans) were enough for me. Great day.

Fresh Hams 2 Ways

My wife's brother Tommy raised him 3 pigs and had them processed all at the same time and wanted me to smoke the hams. I suggested he just cook a couple and freeze the rest for the holidays, so our weekend project was smoking two fresh hams using our Backwoods FatBoy pit. The cooker performed like a champ and gave no problem with the 14 hours burn time needed on one load of natural briquets. I injected them with pork injectable marinade and trimmed very little fat as the cap had already been removed. They went into the cooker at 6:45pm Sat afternoon and the first one was pulled and placed in the cambro when the internal reached 185 which was around 4am. This ham was sliced with our electric slicer and turned out very well and I'm sure he will enjoy plenty of roast pork sammies or bbq sammies with it. The second ham was pulled and placed in the cambro when the internal temp reached 195 and rested in the cambro for 2 hours before pulling it and it pulled every bit as good as a boston butt, if not better. I have said before that the hams make excellent pulled pork. The pulled ham is how my folks all cooked hams for the holidays usually with a coca cola recipe and we do em now days more often than not the same way except using the smoker.

Boneless Hot Wing Pizza

Everywhere you look the fast food craze now days is boneless wings. Of course they are not wings at all and the only justification for the name is that hot wing sauce is used on them. Chicken nuggets with hot wing sauce would be less misleading and much more accurate in the description, but what do I know. I did some last night using some nice chunks of thigh meat (wonder where those came from) and made pizza with them. Hence – BONELESS HOT WING PIZZA. Used some bleu cheese dressing for sauce and well you can see the rest. Next time it will be regular pizza sauce with a mixture of the bleu cheese and texas pete for a dipping sauce.