BBQ Sauce

Does anyone remember the local restaurant chain Rib-It. I loved their ribs, especially on Mondays for all you can eat. What made the ribs so good was their BBQ sauce. They even used to sell it in local supermarkets, and it was the only BBQ sauce we used at home. When Rib-It went out of business we struggled to find a decent BBQ sauce until Mom found her mother's (Mommom's) BBQ sauce recipe. Apparently we ate Rib-It's sauce because it was the closest tasting sauce to Mommom's.

Mom and I did some test batches, including a night where we made four different sauces and ate a LOT of chicken, and made some tweaks to the original recipe. I've also made some of my own "unauthorized" changes to get the recipe below. The recipe makes about a gallon of BBQ sauce, which I freeze in quart containers. I use so much I make three to four batches per year. You can easily half the recipe for a trial batch.


Ingredients

• 2 cups minced onion (about 1 large onion)
• 1 cup minced green pepper
• 1/2 cup minced celery
• 2 2/3 cup ketchup
• 4 cups orange juice
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 2 cups cider vinegar
• 2 - 8 oz cans tomato sauce
• 2 - 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes
• 3 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp Tobasco Chipotle sauce
• 1 tbsp liquid smoke
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp pepper
• 1 tbsp celery salt
• 4 tsp garlic powder
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil

Tools

• Knives
• Cutting board
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• 8 qt Stockpot
• 6 qt Stockpot
• Blender
• Wooden spoon
• Ladle

Instructions



Heat oil in 8qt stockpot and sauté onion, green pepper, and celery until soft (about 3 minutes). Add remaining ingredients and simmer for two hours. Liquify in blender and move to 6qt stockpot. Simmer until desired thickness (about an hour or two).
Then get to the grill and Enjoy!
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Grilled Buffalo Wings

It's football season again and, as everyone knows, the absolute best food to eat while watching a game is PIZZA. Buffalo wings, however, run a close second and are the most requested item for me to bring to football parties. Over the years, I have cooked wings every method conceivable. I started by putting oil in an 8qt pot and frying them on my (electric) stove which is very, very messy. Eventually I bought a deep fryer and used that for a long time. At one point, I owned two deep fryers just for making wings. After Wifey came along and complained the house smelled like oil when I fried, I took to baking the wings, but it took forever (over an hour) and the wings never seemed crisp, so I moved to the grill. First I grilled the wings and after they completely cooked, tossed them in sauce, but no one liked them. My cousin Mike told me how he and his brother grilled wings once, and the rest, as they say, is history. The technique is to cook the wings by alternating between grilling and braising, which imparts both the grilled smokiness and sauce spiciness into the wings. My grill is close to my back door, and as long as there isn’t snow on the ground I don’t mind grilling all winter. I make this recipe all the way into December (they are a must for my annual Army-Navy game bash)


Ingredients

• Wings
• Salt
• Pepper
• Hot sauce of choice

Tools

• Grill
• Pan
• Tongs
• Meat Thermometer

Instructions
Tyson, Purdue, and other companies sell bags of individually quick frozen wings in supermarkets. Defrost the wings, and season with salt and pepper, or a dry rub if desired. Heat the grill until it has a medium high heat (350-400 degrees if you have a thermometer on your grill). Grill the wings for about a minute per side directly on the grate. Put the wings into a roasting pan and cover with sauce. Leave the pan on the grill and cook with the lid closed for about five minutes. Return the wings to the grill for another couple minutes, then back in the sauce for five. It usually takes three or four cycles for the wings to get fully cooked. Use an insta-read meat thermometer if you want to make sure the wings are done (160 degrees F).

Notes on sauces: You can use any sauce you want. I like Steve and Eds Buffalo Wing sauce, because it gives some heat, but my mom will eat them.

Homemade sauces can be cooked right in the roasting pan. Just put the ingredients in while the grill is preheating and turn the wings over the first time you put them in the pan.

A note on the thermometer: A good insta-read thermometer is indispensable in the kitchen. I recommend ThermoWorks Super-Fast Thermapen (now Splashproof). Simply the best cooking thermometer I've ever had.

Stephie's Macaroni Salad

My number one, sure fire, guaranteed method of finding great recipes to cook is to ask my mom for her recipe. I know the recipe is extra special when she tells me she doesn't have it written down.

Mom's macaroni salad is legendary in the family. She brings it to almost every BBQ/get together we have all summer long and never there's never leftover to be found. Often, she makes a double or triple batch so Dad can have some for lunch.  Making the salad is fairly simple, but there are a couple tricks to making the salad truly excel. The first and most important tip is the salad needs to be made at least the day before you need it.

Ingredients

• 1 lb Creamette Elbow Macaroni
• 3 ribs of celery - diced
• 5 - 6 scallions - diced
• 1/2 pound cooked baby shrimp
• 2 cans crabmeat
• 1/2 can solid white tuna
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 1 tsp celery salt
• 1/4 tsp celery seed
• Hellmann's Mayonnaise

Tools

• Pot for cooking pasta
• Colander
• Mixing Bowl
• Mixing Spoon

Cook the pasta until just done and rinse. Al dente pasta doesn't add here. Add the celery, scallions, shrimp, crabmeat, tuna and seasonings to the bowl. The second trick for the recipe is to add about a half can of crab juice.  Mix the ingredients in the bowl.

The last ingredient is the most important: mayonnaise.  Throw the Miracle Whip away and get the real stuff: Hellmanns.  Add in a couple large spoonfulls of mayo and mix.  You want to add just enough mayo so all the pasta is coated.  Put the salad in the refrigerator and come back tomorrow.

As the salad sits overnight, the pasta soaks up the mayo leaving the salad rather dry. Add more mayo and mix again until you have a nice sticky but not overly wet consistency.