BBQ Sauce

Hey guys! This week's recipe is fairly simple, but homework has pretty much taken over this week. BBQ sauce can make just about anything better. You can put it on pork or chicken, dip french fries or onion rings in, even mix it into baked beans. About ten months ago I came up with a recipe for homemade BBQ sauce; we use it mostly for pulled pork and BBQ chicken pizza. Onto the recipe...


 
What You'll Need...

1 Cup Ketchup
1/2 Cup Honey
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon vinegar (Any kind you have.)
1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
1/4 + 1/8 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
3/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
Hot Sauce (To taste)


Measure out all of the ingredients into a small pot and stir over medium heat for about five minutes. Stir constantly or the sauce will begin to bubble and will make a mess. Once the sauce has cooked for five minutes, enjoy! Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator and use for all of your BBQ sauce needs. 

Pumpkin Roll

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! This time of year almost everyone likes to eat and drink pumpkin flavored things. I know that there are some of you out there that don’t like pumpkin, so this is a recipe for you to ignore unless someone else in your family likes pumpkin. Most people think of pumpkin spice lattes and fraps from Starbucks or pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving dinner. While my husband and I will be having pumpkin pie tomorrow we will also be having my favorite pumpkin dessert, pumpkin roll.

I loved pumpkin roll when I was growing up and I thought that everyone knew what they were. When I got to the west coast I found out that I was very wrong, my husband didn’t even know what they were. I exposed him to them last year and he fell in love. I’m trying to spread the word about these delicious desserts on this coast.

In order to do so I have to share the recipe…

What You’ll Need…

¾ Cup All-Purpose Flour

½ Teaspoon Baking Soda

½ Teaspoon Baking Powder (It can be left out if you only have soda available, I leave it out.)

½ Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

½ Teaspoon Ground Cloves

¼ Teaspoon Salt

1 Cup Sugar

3 Large Eggs

2/3 Cup Pure Pumpkin Puree

Powdered Sugar (Enough to cover the towel.)

Filling…

1 Cup Powdered Sugar (Sifted or not, your choice.)

4oz Cream Cheese (Softened)

4oz Butter (Softened)

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

First, cover a 10 x 15 jellyroll pan (baking sheet) with either parchment paper or foil. Grease and flour the paper or foil. Also, preheat your oven to 375.  Next in a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda and/or powder, cinnamon, cloves, salt and sugar. (You can always mix the sugar and eggs together first, but I just add everything to the same bowl.) To the dry ingredients add the eggs and pumpkin and mix until thoroughly combined. Spread the batter evenly on the baking sheet.

Bake the cake at 375 for 11-15 minutes. The baking time all depends on your oven and the color of the pan you are using. Darker pans bake faster and the cake will be done after 12 minutes. The cake is done when it springs back after being lightly poked.

While the cake is baking sprinkle a clean kitchen towel with powdered sugar. The sugar allows the cake to not stick to the towel when it is rolled up. I find that it works better if the sprinkled sugar is rubbed into the towel a bit. 

When the cake is done baking immediately flip it off of the pan and onto the towel. Starting at the shorter end of the cake roll it up in the towel and allow it cool completely. This takes a few hours.

You can make the icing at any time you like, but I find that it spreads better at room temperature. So, once the cake has cooled completely if you haven’t made the icing already do so now. The icing is quite simple, in a mixing bowl combine the powdered sugar (sifted or not, if will clump up again even if it is sifted), cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Mix the icing until it is smooth. At this point carefully unroll the cake and spread the icing evenly. 

Once the icing is spread roll the cake back up at tightly as possible and cover with plastic wrap. The plastic wrap will help keep the cake rolled up. Refrigerate the roll for at least an hour before serving so that it can set up properly. 

Pumpkin roll is delicious by itself or with a little extra powdered sugar on top. When not being served it should be kept in the refrigerator. To be honest I’m not sure how long they can keep in the refrigerator because we never have one for more than two or three days.

Enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon Muffins With Sunken Crumb Topping

Muffins are delicious, no matter what kind of muffin they are. One morning my husband and I decided to have bunch since we got up late and one of the items we made that day were apple cinnamon muffins. These muffins are amazing. We took a basic muffin recipe, changed and added a few things, and I came up with a topping. So, on with the recipe.

What You’ll need…

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

½ Cup Sugar

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

½ Teaspoon Salt

1 Cup Milk

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 Large Egg

4 Tablespoons Butter (Melted)

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon (More if you like cinnamon.)

½ Teaspoon Nutmeg

1 ½ Apples (Any kind you like, diced.)

Topping:

4 Tablespoon Butter (Softened)

½ Cup Flour

½ Cup Brown Sugar

½ Teaspoon Cinnamon

¼ Teaspoon Nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 400. Before adding anything to bowls, start off by peeling, coring and dicing your apples. A small dice is better so that you can get a piece of apple in every bite and not one big piece in the middle or bottom of the muffin. 

Also at this point either grease your muffin tins or fill with paper lines. In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  In another bowl beat the eggs and then add the milk, vanilla and sugar to the eggs.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, or vice versa,  and mix until combined. At this point add the apples and fold them in.

Before filling the muffin tins quickly make the topping. Combine the softened butter, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. It works a lot better if you use your hands to make the crumbs come together.

Fill the muffin tins, as full as you like, and top with the topping before placing them into the oven. 

Once the topping is on top of the muffin batter bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and a toothpick or fork comes out clean. This makes 12-14 muffins.

Let the muffins cool slightly before diving in. Store the left over muffins in an air tight container in or out of the refrigerator, they last longer in the refrigerator though.

Enjoy!

Chili!

For as long as I can remember I have loved spicy food, and the first spicy thing that comes to mind other than Chinese food is chili. When I was little and my dad would make chili it would be an all-day affair. He would always make one pot of spicy and one pot a regular; I’m glad that I don’t have to do that. I made chili one day last week and my husband made it the time before that, we both make it pretty much the same way. We used to use chili peppers in our recipe, but you can make it just as hot with just spices and hot sauce. Chili is simple to make, it’s filling, and it’s delicious. So, on to chili!

What You’ll need…

1lb Stew Meat

Three Italian Sausages (Optional)

Two Cans Tomatoes (One can stewed, one can diced.)

One Can Beans (Optional)

Two Carrots (Chopped)

Two Stalks Celery (Chopped)

½ Onion (You can use more if you like.)

One Bell Pepper

Three Cloves Garlic (Minced) [You can use as much or as little garlic as you like.)

1-1 2/2 Cups Corn (Optional)

Assorted Spices (Your choice, use whatever you like.)

Hot Sauce (Optional)

Let me start off by saying that this isn’t exactly the traditional way to make chili, but it’s the way that both my husband and I make it. Start out by putting 1lb of frozen stew meat into your Crock-pot/slow cooker (I have been informed that if it does not say Crock-pot on it, it is not actually a Crock-pot.) and turning it on low. Make sure that it is plugged in. Even though the meat is frozen it will cook just fine. On top of the stew meat place the sausages, both cans of tomatoes, and the beans. You can use any kind of beans you like, pinto or kidney work great. You can use any kind of sausage you like, four cheese or hot are what we normally use. You can add the sausages still frozen and cut them into smaller pieces before serving or you can defrost and cut them before adding them to the Crock-pot.

Once the meat and canned items have been added, pop the lid on and move on to cutting the vegetables. Cut the vegetables to whatever size you like. We normally dice both the onion and pepper; the onion a small dice and the pepper a slightly larger dice. I only say a minced for the garlic because if you diced it the clove would only be cut in half.  The celery works a lot better if it is chopped small, no more than half an inch. Lastly, the carrots are delicious when cut into pieces about one inch in length. You can use chili peppers if you like, but we omit this ingredient now. Add all of the vegetables to the meat and walk away for a few hours.

Stir the chili about once every hour, but other than that leave it alone until about two hours before you want to serve it. Two hours before the chili is to be served add all of your spices and, if you want to include it, the corn. You can use any spices you like and whatever you think will taste good. Just as an example, we use basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic powder, pepper, chili powder, cayenne pepper and cinnamon. (Cinnamon is a bit odd, I know, but it is delicious in chili.) I don’t measure any of the spices, just sprinkle them in until you think that it’s enough. Also at this time, if you’re going to use it, add the hot sauce. Again, I don’t measure this. A nice big squirt of Sriracha works nicely. You can use any amount of any hot sauce you like. Add the frozen corn, give the chili a good stir, and leave it alone again.

I normally let the chili cook for six-seven hours on low; on high you can probably get it done in around four hours. Just before you are ready to serve the chili, if you haven’t already, cut the sausages into smaller pieces. Give the chili one last stir and serve. This chili goes great over mashed potatoes, rice, or pasta. It can also be eaten with a slice or two of bread of just by itself. Topping it with a bit of shredded cheese is always a good idea no matter what you have it over or with, though. 

Enjoy!