Mississippi Barbeque Princess

Holiday pricing

2011-11-14T10:25:00.001-08:00

We are gearing up for the holidays! Call us at 662.716.7100 or 601.906.4844

Or email leslie@ubons.net

Holiday Orders

Turkey $30

Pork Loin $50 1/2 loin $25

Turkey breast

Full pan of dressing $50 1/2 $25

Sweet potato casserole $50 1/2 $25

Macaroni and cheese $50 1/2 $25

Peas, corn, Lima beans, black eyed peas, green beans $25

Peach, cherry, blackberry cobbler or bread pudding $25

That little duck's bones...

2011-07-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

Here’s what we did with that little duck’s bones…

After most of the meat was pulled we put the duck bones, skin, fat, deliciousness into a stockpot. We topped off the duck with water. Since the skin was already seasoned we didn’t add anything else. The duck stock simmered for a couple of hours and before we went to bed, I placed the stock pot into the oven at 200 over night.

After this reduced overnight we ended up with close to a gallon of stock and a good inch of duck fat. Delicious, perfect duck fat. Heath pulled the meat and we had almost a pound of meat to go into the gumbo.

I used that luscious duck fat to create my roux for the gumbo. As the fat melted, I noticed an almond almost cherry smell that gave so much character to the roux. The nutty flavor was developed as the roux darkened.

I added duck meat, sausage, okra and fresh tomatoes along with onions, peppers and spices and then let the gumbo coast for hours.

2011-07-05T20:02:00.000-07:00

So it went down like this:

I get home from New York all hyped up to attempt to recreate duck from the Peking Duck House in Midtown. I’ve made the plan in my head. I’ve figured out how to southernize it, how to Ubonize it.

And then I went grocery shopping.

Uggh! After Fresh Market, Kroger, Walmart and all my local mom and pop grocery stores had no duck, I decided to beg my hunter friends. No dice, no sharing.

I wasn’t ready to give up. As I headed south on I55 I saw it….the Oriental Supermarket. Now I know I visited this location as a 4^th grader…but then it was a Chuck E. Cheese. Now…next to Cowboy Malone’s (where a cowboy deal is a good deal) there is this fabulous market full of hope…and Duck!

I bought a Peking Roast Duck…I’m not a total moron. I’ve never given this vision of a duck recipe a try; I needed some back up. The roast duck was hanging by its neck and given to me in a brown paper bag. Sigh! Swoon! I also bought a fresh raw duck so I could try out my deep fried duck recipe.

(remove the head and the little feet, coat duck in dry rub and deep fry for 5 minutes per pound…you know, just like you would a turkey.)

The result was beautiful. We tried both the roast and the fried duck. My mom liked the roast duck best. The rest of us were partial to the fried duck. We sliced the meat and served it with cucumber, green onions and Ubon’s hoisin sauce. Now I won’t say that I perfected an ancient and cherished duck dish. But I definitely southernized it.

Here’s how you can Ubonize it:

In a blender:

2 cups Ubon’s BBQ Sauce

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup sweet soy sauce

2 tbsp of regular soy sauce

4-5 drops of sesame oil

Blend well and heat. As the sauce simmers, it will thicken.

Next I’ll tell you what we did with those little duck bones!!!

Summer Optimism

2011-06-23T09:41:00.001-07:00

That is one of the most optimistic sights of all of summer. Look at that sautee pan with those pretty home grown tomatoes. You can see that picture and know that you just eliminated the idea of a bacon tomato sandwich, but that you're ok with that decision. Tomatoes in olive oil...homemade pasta with meatballs, spinach and tomato orzo, summer chili, succotash, summer tomato aspic, oh it goes on forever!

One of the best parts of being in a small town is that our friends, Heath's patients, my dad's friends bring us produce plucked straight from their gardens. Most nights at my house have some kind of tomato based side dish. Last night we had tomato, spinach and asparagus orzo for dinner. Very light, very fresh and just yum.

But looking at that picture now...I'm almost ashamed I ruled out the bacon tomato sandwich. there's always tonight.

Father's Day at the Lake

2011-06-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

As always, my sweet sister, Jennifer, hosted our family for a father's day at the lake. We swam! We sunburned! We grazed! Ok so we grazed until there was nothing left but crumbs and Rory winning the U.S. Open. Father's day at the lake seems to be our summer opener. It's been so horribly hot and dry around here, so I decided to keep things light as far as my contributions to the grand graze.

I should point out that I'm stuck on mango right now after my recent trip to NYC. After a couple of long days filled with smoke and meat and smoke and meat we snuck into Eataly for treats. My new personal anti-BBQ food is proscuttio and mango. I can't even begin to tell you how ridiculously awesome that place is. I won't try in this post.

I've digressed, as usual. Mango.

I made this fruit salad for my daddy and I want to hang on to this recipe in case I ever decide to diet. ha.

2 mangos diced
1 pint strawberries quartered
1 pint of raspberries
1 pineapple, cored and diced
1 cup of green grapes

Dressing: 1 cup of Sprite Zero, 2 tablespoons of honey, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and 5 chiffonade mint leaves. Pour dressing over fruit and allow to sit for at least an hour.

I watched my dad drink the juice from his paper plate when he thought no one was looking. This leads me to think that all this needed was the juice drained and a little vodka for a nice spritzer! This was really quick to throw together and really pretty to look at AND it was tasty to boot!

This I believe

2011-05-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

This I believe…

I believe in wood smoke and charcoal fire. I believe in the light and the heat and the passion that come from a barbeque grill. Smoke should be gentle, subtle and sweet. Heat should be low and cook slow. Fires should be tended with care. I believe in the bonding that comes with shared fires. In my world, secrets are kept AND shared; recipes are handed down through the generations; and slow cooking is assumed.

I believe in the flavor of smoke, the sweet and the spicy, the marriage of flavors that inspire words, understandings and disagreements. I believe in tall tales told around the fire; the friendships that are forged in flames; the mingling of minds when ideas finally become feasts.

I believe in the power of food and drink. I have seen and felt old wounds heal, equality achieved, families created from sharing a table. I have associated tastes and smells with people I love and cherish. I have captured years in the span of a bite. I have found common ground with hundreds of people in a shared love of food and drink. The strongest conflicts arise from choosing a favorite, and those conflicts simply lead to delicious conversations

I believe that barbeque can spark conversations, grow relationships, and establish traditions. I believe that barbeque is an international language, breeching stereotypes, prejudices, and restrictions. I have felt walls fall when people begin to talk about their favorite barbeque region, their favorite flavors and their favorite joints for good barbeque. Pit fires spark passions and stories and smiles.

But. Sometimes when it’s raining outside, when I am tired from a long day, when my own family is hungry and cranky I believe in my stove top gas grill, some vegetables and meat and the quiet that descends when my family is sated.

I believe in barbeque.

Barbequesuperstars included us!

2011-05-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

Great interview with Daddy and I. Except we're not Ubones...ha!

Ubon's and Vlasic: One of the World's Greatest Partnerships!

2011-05-15T15:18:00.000-07:00

Special thanks to our partners for the weekend, Vlasic. I'd call the #7 pork shoulder in the WORLD a successful partnership!

Meet the Pros on GrillingwithRich.com

2011-05-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

We got to know Rich and Michelle from www.grillingwithrich.com over the weekend. I am always excited to see someone's reaction to a bbq contest, but watching the reaction of some REAL BBQ enthusiasts is awesome! Especially when their first contest is Memphis in May

Please check out our interviewwith Rich as well as his review of our Ubon's Dipping Barbeque Sauce.

Thanks Rich and Michelle!

Crab Pimento Cheese

2011-04-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

Last month while I was visiting Greenville, South Carolina, I had the luxury of dinner at Rick Erwins Nantucket. Truly some of the best oysters I've ever had. But even the best oysters I've ever had didn't come close to one of the greatest things I've ever eaten.

You see, in the south we pride ourselves on our Pimento Cheese. My friend Beeve calls it "Minna Chee" and he likes the simple cheddar variety. My mom likes hers with extra black pepper.

My dad and I like the kind my grandfather, Ubon, used to make...velveta pimento cheese with pickle relish. If I'm fancy I'll mix several kinds of sharp cheeses for my Uncle Steve to take to his in laws in Tupelo. (They like the velveta kind too.)

I once worked with a woman who told me that she made "the world's best pimento cheese." Meh, it wasn't bad but world's best? She did point out that if she proclaimed it the world's best, I wouldn't forget her, even if it was just normal. (Obviously she's right.)

I've made Pimento Cheese with chilies, with strawberry preserves and with pecans. Today I think I've found the magic recipe I've been looking for.

In case you're wondering why I started this post with .">The Nantucket, well it was there that I had the greatest pimento cheese ever. If you're there...get the Spicy Crab and Pimento Cheese Dip. Then call me and tell me thank you. If you're not headed to Greenville, SC...try this. It's pretty dang good.

2 bags of shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese go into a bowl, 1 wedge of brie with the rind removed and smooshed into the cheddar. Add a large jar of pimentos, a teaspoon of whole grain mustard, a half cup of mayo (don't go with the whip...and DO NOT go with the low fat, promise me!), salt, lots of black pepper, a table spoon of your favorite all purpose seasoning (like seazn'tup) and a few tablespoons of your favorite hot sauce. (I used texas pete wing sauce tonight). Add 8oz of lump crab. Mix everything together with your hands. Taste and adjust your seasoning. Serve with crackers, bagel chips.

And again, you can call to thank me when you give this a try.

Gourmet Chicken Tacos

2011-04-19T20:20:00.001-07:00

To say my mom and I had a large time in NYC this past weekend would be an insult to the word "large." We made new friends, we visited old friends, we saw shows, we drank drinks. Fact of the matter is that we really didn't eat anything spectacular. Part of that was my fault: I had a 4 day hangover that prevented anything but water.

On our way home we stopped at some little taco stand in the Charlotte airport and grabbed a couple of tacos. Honestly I've never eaten anything as good. I'm even a little embarrassed to admit that. I decided that it would be necessary for me to recreate these at home so here's what I did.

We'll start with the chicken. I placed a whole chicken in a big pot. around the chicken I stuffed a few lime and lemon wedges, a handful of cilantro, some salt and pepper and filled with water. This cooked for about 2 hours on med. When the chicken was done I put it aside and reserved liquid. Once the chicken could be pulled I heated a tablespoon of chili oil in a pan and added chicken, some of the reserved liquid, about a table spoon of chili powder, a teaspoon of paprika, a dash of cumin, some all purpose seasoning and salt. Close to the end, I added a pat of butter and let this simmer.

On to the cheese sauce:

I melted 2 t. of butter and added 2 t of flour and cooked until my child hit her head and everything got put on hold. When I resumed, I added strained cooking liquid and then cheese. I used mexican quesadilla cheese and some other unidentified white cheese. This was allowed to simply simmer for about 20 minutes until everything melted.

Chili sauce:
1 can of tomatoes, 1/2 cup of vinegar, 1 cup of sugar, jalapenos to taste. cook until tomatoes are shiny and delicious.

Tortillas

turns out that these are best if steamed over the last of the reserve liquid.

to assemble:

steamed tortillas, cheese mix, stewed chicken, shredded lettuce, sprigs of cilantro, squeeze of lime, spoon of sour cream, tease of chili sauce.

Seriously. The best ever. I'm going to substitute pulled pork next. I think it's going to be AWESOME!

This ain't yo hamburger helper!

2011-04-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

Heath has monthly medical staff meetings. Sometimes he comes home with tales of tenderloins of beef or delicious pasta full of juicy gulf shrimp. I stopped cooking big supper on those nights. My kids don't have really discerning palates. Occasionally Jacob has been known to ask for "The Chef," and I'll be damned if he doesn't mean that canned junk by that rascal Chef Boy-ar-dee. He's also been known for compliment gems like "mama, you make the best microwaved bacon," and that old standby "it was so good that I want a peanut butter and jelly instead."

When not asking for "The Chef" Jacob has been known for requesting a "Hand Meal." Of course he means that adorable glove that asks you to trust what he's got in that packet of yellow powder. Tonight I decided to beat him to the punch and make homemade "hamburger helper" and you know what? It's just as easy and utilizes all those random bags of shredded cheese you've got stuck in that drawer.

Brown 1 lb of ground turkey. (It doesn't really brown, I know.) Add about 1/2 cup of chicken stock to the turkey so that the texture will be pretty fine. To this mix add 1 tablespoon of flour and stir. once it's a gloppy mess, add 1.5 cups of chicken stock. I also added about 2 cups of velveeta water at this point. Add salt, pepper, seasoning of your choice. Once the liquid is starting to boil, add wagon wheel pasta. after about 6 minutes add your cheese board. We used cheddar, white cheddar, american melt mix (whatever that is!) and an errant chunk of. That's right. I have that in my house. What's it to you?

I poured this into a dish and cooked uncovered at 250 for about 30 minutes. It would have been great topped with cracker crust, or more cheese, but the starving kids wanted it just that way.

it was actually pretty swell.

Mama 1, Chef, 100....but my luck's changing!

Breakfast for supper

2011-04-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

I just needed breakfast for supper. I'm not out of ideas, but I am so tired of almost everything I cook. So I threw something together and it turned out pretty good.

I'm going to call this a griddle frittata. One of our local markets has some really great fresh ground sausage. I started out with browning about 1/2 lb of the sausage. Since I'm lazy I went the easy route and added a bag of frozen shredded hash-browns. I topped with butter and this was stirred up (think Japanese Steak House..Hot for you Baby!) and left to brown. I covered the top with fresh baby spinach and then put a pan over so everything could steam. After about 5 minutes I poured over 6 or 8 beaten eggs and topped with cheese. and covered for another 2-3 minutes. This sliced beautifully an will keep nicely in the fridge.

We loved it. Jacob ate waffles.

Cheers to my Champ!

2011-04-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

Want to see proud? Look at the lady behind that winner. Want to see super proud? Look at Jacob's Poppy, Garry Roark.

We've recently been talking about the standard Memphis BBQ Network team lineage. So many teams are a product of another team. Thank goodness for those teams. We wouldn't have a network without teams teaching other people and instilling in them the confidence to branch out. My dad has done his fair share of teaching. He's always been very open about what his process is, and how he achieves a winning product. As one of the longest running competition teams still cooking, we're still trying to evolve. What I've noted is that your best bet is to focus on your own flavors instead of chasing someone else's.

Early last week I helped Jacob make his sauce. My rule was...this is my kitchen, so what I say no to, means no. (Example: bbq sauce doesn't contain cheese.) But that's where it stopped. I didn't make suggestions, although I did buy ingredients that would complement each other. Jacob chose his flavors. He loves his mamaw's kumquat marmalade, and he will always include that.

I suppose my point is that BBQ...real BBQ...is sharing and learning and evolving. I want my son to love BBQ. I want him to have his own idea of what tastes great and I don't want it to just be what I cook. As a parent I'm proud of the win. As a competitive BBQ cooker, I'm proud of his spirit and his individuality and his working toward perfection. As a loser...I'm jealous!

Good job Buddy!

KCBS Strawberry Shortcake

2011-03-30T21:50:00.000-07:00

The Ubon's crew is headed to the wild of Pelahatchie MS for a KCBS cookoff. This contest is so cool. It's located inside a campground that has a ton of things for the kids to do: fishing, swimming, boating, exploring. We'll be inside the Jelly Stone Park...that's right...Yogi Bear the picnic stealing SOB will be on hand to sample some great BBQ.

This particular contest has a kid's cookoff and this weekend will be my son's first stab at competition BBQ. Now, he's going to be getting up in my grill, but I suppose I will have to agree to it. Earlier this week I got to look on as Jacob made his 1st BBQ Sauce. He used Ubon's as a base but added his "secret ingredient"...his Mamaw's kumquat jelly. To this mixture he added his own flair...honey, brown sugar, salt, red pepper, cherry preserves and peach preserves.

This mama's heart was swole plum up!!!

We'll be cooking in the dessert category and I think I'm going to make my new amaretto balsamic strawberry shortcake with candied balsamic strawberries. Here you go:

Macerate strawberries with sugar, a little water, some amaretto, and a dash of GOOD balsamic vinegar. while that chills mix together 2 containers of marscapone, a little cream, a touch of amaretto, some powdered sugar. chill. dip store bought lady fingers into the strawberry liquid and layer lady fingers, marscapone, strawberries, and repeat. when i get the candied strawberries down, i'll update. for now....who knows how i did them before.

If you're in Pelahatchie, come by! We'll have a beer, or a sippin' drink, for sure some awesome BBQ.

National BBQ Association and Vlasic

2011-03-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

I guess I've finally decided to believe that my awesome partnership with Vlasic is for real! I'm honored to let you know that Ubon's is working with Vlasic. I've just gotten back from Greenville, South Carolina. If you hear that there's been a shortage of tonic water in SC, well, you have me to blame. I've decided that peer pressure isn't just for teenagers!

Vlasic was a sponsor for the National BBBQ Assn. Conference and I got to attend as their rep. There's a couple of things you need to know: 1. a jar of Vlasic pickles kept in your beer cooler could save the day if the day happens to have been one full of bbq smoke. 2...and this may come as a surprise but there are people who don't like mayonnaise in anything especially in their slaw!

Here's the Pickle Slaw recipe I made to sample this past weekend. Keep in mind that you can always find other recipes at www.vlasic.com including the much more accurate version of this slaw. As always, I've personalized the recipe to have a Ubon's touch.

Vlasic Pickle Slaw

Open 2 packages of thinly shredded cabbage and pour into a bowl. Season liberally. As always I used Season't up, but you could use some kosher salt, some black pepper, and some seasoned salt. Let this work it's magic while you chop 3 stalks of celery, 3 or 4 green onions and a LOT (I used a jar) of chopped Vlasic Baby Kosher Dills. Pour about a cup of light balsamic vinaigrette (just off the shelf salad dressing.) (and of course I splashed in some Ubon's sauce. Mix together and cover and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

This particular salad is low carb (according to your salad dressing choice), very crunchy and most important to my Jubon's friends, free from evil mayo.

Now as I mentioned, I also found time to have a few cocktails and "network" (that's what we're going to call it) with friends. I always like to rub elbows with famous folks and this one is top notch! (As if you needed more proof that I'm awesome.) I really enjoyed spending some time hanging out with Chris Lilly from Big Bob Gibson's.

Yummy night at Babalu

2011-03-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

Mark this down. I don't blog about restaurants often, but this place was recommended by my ole pal Beeve and it is worth talking about!

Babalu in Jackson is such a great place. My only wish is that our table had been bigger. Doc and I had fish tacos, fried oysters on roumalade slaw, tuna tartar on fried avocado, tables side guacamole, and scallop ceviche. Doc had a couple of Indian Summers and I fell into my new favorite cocktail of all time. Babalu's Pepe O'Malley.

Here's the recipe I'm going to use for my version of Pepe O'Malley's cocktail.

simple syrup (sugar and water boiled to a syrup)
sparkling water
juice of one whole lemon
Hendrick's Gin
ice
cucumber
mint

I'm going to muddle cucumber, mint, lemon and simple syrup and add equal parts gin and sparkling water.

I'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: I used a jigger of gin, sparkling water, added lemon juice to my simple syrup. holy smokes it was good.

BBQ Brussels Sprouts? Huh?

2011-01-10T20:02:00.000-08:00

Ok. So winter doesn't have many super duper vegetables so they flaunt the ones that they have. I've been watching trends, and it would seem that that the lowly brussels sprout is very popular at this time of year.

Most of you know that I don't sleep well or much, so I'm required to talk a lil something to get me to sleep. that lil something also makes me HONGRY. I think this nighttime eating has led me to brussels sprout perfection:

Begin with a bag of frozen sprouts in a steam fresh bag. microwave for 2 minutes. in a pan heat a teaspoon of basil olive oil. (or just olive oil has worked). pour in par cooked sprouts and add salt and Worcestershire black pepper. don't stir...be a chef! flip those things!!! when they are starting to have some golden brown spots add about a tablespoon of honey and a table spoon of balsamic vinegar. I've been known to add a tablespoon of Ubon's...but how could I not.

Wow...next time I find people who like these little sprouts i'm going to try them out. for now, it's my new favorite food.

Merry Snack-mas!

2010-12-18T20:38:00.000-08:00

We're in the middle of holiday party season. I haven't had a chance to finish my shopping and I've had to *gasp* work! I like to have something new each season so that my people using us for party catering can expect something exciting. Here are a couple of things we've done this season.

BLT Cheeseball

Alright so the "L" is really parsley. Cut me some slack. 2lbs cream cheese, 1/2 lb of crispy bacon, crumbled, 1/4 pint of grape tomatoes diced 1 bunch of parsley chopped. Mix together with some kosher salt, a lot of black pepper, and some of your favorite seasoning. Serve with crackers and pretend like it took forever. If you're lazy, you could use the bacon crumbles (not bits!) from the salad section. (Ok. I know this works because I am lazy. There I said it.)

Cranberry Relish

I've added this to balsamic vinaigrette and used it to top my little goat cheese tarts. In a food processor combine 2 cups of fresh cranberries, 6 or 7 basil leaves, 2 whole oranges (not peeled, not de-seeded, whole) pulse until it's pulverized. Add about 1/2 cup of rice wine vinegar, 2 cups of sugar and let it rest for a few days. for the world's easiest pick up food spread gingersnaps with goat cheese and then top with a dollop of cranberry relish.

This week holds a few more parties before our own family celebrates. Hope your holiday is awesome.

Family Traditions

2010-11-24T20:21:00.000-08:00

My extended family wholeheartedly believes in tradition. Do something twice and it's considered a tradition. Easter holds the promise of traditional BBQ Chicken. July 4th...more BBQ. We had to break our long standing Christmas Tradition when our families grew to include new babies. So we started our own. Ham and biscuits for breakfast. White beans and home made chili sauce on christmas eve. Wine beginning early Christmas afternoon. My sister's husband drinking enough to be sweet to me by 6:30.

But the ultimate in tradition in the Roark Family is Thanksgiving. Nearly 30 years ago my aunt Ginger began preparing Thanksgiving dinner for the Roark family after she lost her mom on Thanksgiving day the year before. We are seated at a long table with perfect linens, beautiful china, and shiny silver. Each person has an assigned seat that only is adjusted when someone is born or marries into the family. The food. Oh the food.

We'll start: cold cranberry salad, cornbread dressing with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy (both giblet and faux giblet), english peas, corn casserole, asparagus casserole, sweet potato casserole both with pecans and with marshmallows, sherried fruit, and, of course, turkey.

Perfection. Ginger and her family work for days on the food, and weeks on the silver. It's one of the most perfect days. After lunch we take turns telling what we are thankful for from the past year.

We are blessed. Hope your Thanksgiving is filled with as much food and love and family as mine will be.

Best of the Best

2010-11-17T19:23:00.000-08:00

Imagine: over 100 of the best barbeque teams in North America. Smoke filling up the air. The smell of alligator frying. Some old guy with a microphone hollering: get your peaches and cream corn! fresh off the farm! fresh off the grill! And in the background...the Ubon's team doing what can only be considered a performance art piece. Bohemian Rhapsody.

Ok, so we don't know all the words, but we can improvise guitar solos and piano solos and achieve really loud operatic-esque vocals when pressed.

Truth of the matter is that on Friday we had a really awesome hog. It netted us a 7th place. Out of 7. Friday night when it was time to get hog number 2 rolling in as many days, well, we weren't so thrilled with the process. You see, my friend, Beeve retires from BBQ every single time he doesn't win. Sometimes he retires even when he does win. Beeve retired around 6:00 pm and was forced out of retirement like a pig smoking Brett Farve at 6:15. My dad slapped the hog around a little, threatened it. Gave it the Christopher Walken treatment. We performed Bohemian Rhapsody. By 6:30 that hog was on the grill and smoking. 8:00 and we were headed to the Japanese Steak House in Waycross Ga.

Saturday evening brought us a long awards ceremony. Top 10 apple pies. Top 10 Pecan pies. Top 10 Macaroni and Cheese. Top 10 quail egg based mayonnaise. You get the point, right? The thing is, all of the backyard teams were given their awards. and that crowd left. I wanted to stand up and scream: hey! I listened to your kid play the clarinet you stay and listen to mine! (Sorry, I digress.) After nearly 100 awards, we were finally given a trophy for a 1st place hog.

Excited isn't the word! Worst to First!

I'm sad that Beeve and Blondie, Viv and Allen weren't included in the picture above. But my, ain't that bell pretty!

Mr. George's Tomatoes are in!

2010-07-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

I got home one night this week and found a plastic bag full of tomatoes hanging on my door knob. So after a couple of days of tomato sandwiches and tomato gravy I started worrying about my tomatoes turning. We spent today hanging out and watching cooking channel and Jamie Oliver gave us an inspiring show on tomatoes. So here's what we had for dinner:

Tomato Orzo Gratin

Wash and place in a roasting pan 3 pints of tomatoes. add 3 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp of rice wine vinegar salt and pepper. Roll tomatoes around to coat and roast for about 30 minutes at 350. Peel tomatoes (it's ok if you don't get all the skin...I call that "texture") and put into an oven safe baking dish. Add a handful of chopped herbs (I used basil and parsley). Strain tomato leavings and discard the seeds. Mix a tablespoon of flour into the tomato "juice." Add 1/2 milk, 1/2 cup of gouda and 1/2 cup of chicken stock. Add 1/2 cup of orzo and pour over tomatoes. Cook covered for about 20 minutes. Uncover and top with mozzarella and prosciutto and bake for 10 minutes.

This would have worked without the prosciutto...but what the hell, it was delicious.

Grilled Veggie Orzo

2010-07-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

My friend Michele is a massage therapist, yoga instructor, Reiki Master and *gasp* VEGETARIAN! I know..I know. We've found common ground without me force feeding her bacon. She's a beautiful person and an amazing friend. I made tonight's recipe with her in mind.

While red bell pepper, zucchini and yellow squash are roasting on the grill, cook 1/2 cup of orzo pasta (I used whole wheat). Mix together 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar, 1 tbsp lime juice, salt and pepper. Dice 2 tomatoes and the roasted vegetables and toss with the dressing. Add drained orzo. Toss in a hand full of herbs (I had basil and parsley) and allow everything to get friendly for about an hour.

We had this with a grilled cheese sandwich...provolone, cheddar, jack and havarti. Perfect summer dinner.

Video of the Princess

2010-06-16T21:42:00.000-07:00

My friend Anthony Quintano was kind enough to put together this video for me. He is AWESOME. I had no idea when I was begging for his help that dude is a serious professional! (And a super nice fella to boot!) Let me know what you think.

Ubon's at the 2010 Big Apple BBQ Block Party New York City from Anthony Quintano on Vimeo.

Big Apple Barbeque Block Party

2010-06-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

Our family is heading out for our favorite event of the year. Today Daddy, Mama, and Reggie left Mississippi pulling our BBQ Trailer. Tomorrow my family...all of us...Jacob AND Ellie...will be hitting NYC.

We've been cooking competitive bbq for more than 20 years. It is so exciting to see a national interest in BBQ. We are honored to be included in the 2010 Big Apple BBQ Block Party. We've got a huge group coming. I can't wait. People I love, People who are dear friends, People I don't even know sharing in the culinary interest of BBQ.

Please come see us.

The very best hamburger I ever had

2010-06-05T18:06:00.000-07:00

Occasionally (more often than I'm willing to admit) I totally earn my "Princess" status. Today has been one of those days. I've lounged around, gotten familiar with the Cooking Channel and had people I love cook food that I want. We started our with breakfast at Mama's...homemade biscuits, cinnamon rolls, fried eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, gravy. I had to rush home and get in a nap before my bed tousled hair started to calm down.

Refreshed from my morning nap and in a hurry to catch my afternoon nap, I watched a show on the Cooking Channel. It showcased one of the new hot restaurants in NYC: Minetta Tavern. On my 2nd trip to New York I happened upon this restaurant, and I made it my 1st stop until it closed for renovations 2 years ago. I was having a hard day and when I saw that the Minetta Tavern was closed after more than 25 years I almost cried. I've sworn that I wouldn't go into a hyped up version of my favorite restaurant. But...today that may have changed. The new incarnation is apparently a tavern style steak house. They have a hamburger that's $26. After seeing that burger I decided I would indeed pay $26 for it. OR...

HAVE DOC MAKE ME ONE!!!

So today, on Super Princess Saturday Doc made me the greatest burger of all time.

He started with 2 Ribeyes, 1 sirloin and 5 slices of bacon. All of those went into the food processor. (*never, ever again will I make a hamburger with grocery store ground beef. This I promise you!) Doc put it into the processor in batches and pulsed it until it "looked right." (He says to give a shout out to the king of the food nerds, Alton Brown. I believe he's outlined this process well.) That's it. That's all you have to do to grind your own meat. After this was formed into patties and put onto the griddle, he basted it with...yep...clarified butter. The burger was topped off with caramelized onions.

Oh delicious meat.

Yazoo City Tornado

2010-04-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

Well, the Ubon's family was blessed this weekend. We made it through all of the damage without even a scratch. Our roof has a stick through it but it's small and Mama lost some glass in her turret. Many of my friends are without tonight. Keep our little town in your thoughts as we begin to rebuild.

Jewish Penicillin

2010-03-15T20:33:00.000-07:00

15 days after the end of February, also known as March 15, the Ides of March, or spring allergy season in Mississippi. It's beautiful, but I started coughing and wheezing and being generally pitiful.

Mama used to make chicken soup for me when I got sick. After church yesterday I decided to make some for myself with some extra love.

In a large pot I placed a whole chicken, parsley, a sliced lemon, sliced shallots, carrots, celery, salt, crushed garlic, basil and black peppercorns. I let this simmer together for about 2.5 hours. I saved the broth and added 2 bags of frozen vegetables and the meat from the chicken. Into the soup I added a teaspoon of curry, more salt and pepper, more basil and chopped parsley. I let this simmer for another hour and added frozen dumplins and a cup of cream. This cooked for another 40 minutes or so.

My mama made homemade sho' nuff real buttermilk cornbread and my daddy ate 3 bowls. I'm not exactly sure if it cured me, but I promise I feel much better. I'm pretty sure this was 1 matzo ball short of being the perfect Jewish Penicillin.

Loose Caboose Festival in Newton, MS

2010-03-07T16:31:00.000-08:00

I saw the first signs of spring this weekend: sunburned scalp, pecan wood smoke, ribs, mahogany colored whole hogs. Ah yes, 28 degree nights and 60 degree days, 18 hours of smoke. BBQ Spring has sprung!

The town of Newton hosted the first contest of the year, the Loose Caboose Festival. What a great contest. The first contest of the year brings out some major heavy hitters: Diamond D, Party Q, 10 Bones, Magnificent Steve, Red Hot Smokers, just to name a few. We found our way into a 2nd place whole hog (that in my opinion was THE hog to compare hogs to), 4th place shoulder and 5th place ribs. Our friends Red Hot Smokers won a Grand Champion with their shoulder.

What a great day! I'd suggest that all of our friends make a plan to come for next year's event. If you're new, or new to the MBN, this is a great contest to start with simply because there isn't a team there who won't help you figure out what you're doing.

I've been thinking about putting together an outline for doing a barbeque on site presentation. Any interest in this?

What does it mean to be "Southern?"

2010-02-20T19:15:00.000-08:00

I had my annual vestry retreat this weekend. We're a very small church with a very faithful congregation. Our Senior Warden is a great guy who drives a long way just to come to church. He's one cool cat. But today he made the comment, "I don't like chicken salad and I don't like sweet tea."

Well, I was taken aback! How can you consider yourself southern and not love chicken salad and sweet tea? I love sweet tea so much that I gave it up for Lent!! Sweet tea is supposed to help me get closer to God! Sweet tea is an art and our birthright as southerners.

I decided to protest my southern yankee friend and make chicken salad for dinner....fancy chicken salad. Here's the recipe.

remove and chop meat from one whole smoked chicken. Chop 3 stalks of cleaned celery. slice 1 cup of red seedless grapes and add. Add 1 package of honey glazed slivered almonds. add 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley. Add 1/2 cup of mayo, 1 teaspoon of curry, salt and pepper to taste.

Then come tell me you don't like chicken salad!

Spicy Mustard

2010-02-09T21:26:00.000-08:00

This afternoon my shipment arrived!

I haven’t been able to get it all together to make a much needed trip to NYC. The new sweet baby and the big kid don’t do so well when they are the only 2 at home, so that just wasn’t an option. I’ll make it to New York. We signed our Pitmaster Agreement today so I will be there by June!

All of my pregnancy with Ellie I craved Katz Deli. Please keep in mind that I’ve never been to Katz. Oh, I’ve had my share of New York Delis. (I’m not ashamed to say that I love a boiled egg sandwich from my nearest neighborhood bodega after a hard night of drinking….but we all know that’s not New York Deli.) Something about the way “Katz” rolled off the tongue made me hungry. I threw hints and received a promise or two to shlep a pastrami sandwich back to my home…unfulfilled.

When it became clear that I would be missing my regular February trip to New York, I ordered an overnight shipment from Katz.

*Jewish Rye Bread: There is indeed a heaven.
*Pastrami: Delivered from lackadaisical subpar sandwich meat.
*Chocolate Babka: Sorry cinnamon, you are indeed the lesser babka.
Most of all:

Spicy Yellow Mustard. This perfect blend of tangy yellow mustard and spicy brown mustard has almost made me weep. Damn, just thinking about it makes me want to go into the kitchen and construct a Rye and Mustard sandwich.

I think I will.

Venison Stew with Mushroom Tarragon Porridge.

2010-01-12T20:50:00.000-08:00

I think it must be the weather. It’s been cold, cold around here for the last week or so. All I’ve been able to think of for during this cold weather has been steel cut oats. This drafty ole house has been so cold I’ve checked to see if we are living at Hogwarts. JK Rowling always described dinners with very hearty soups and stews that would fight against the cold. So, I suppose nothing is ever original. This recipe might be as close as I get. The idea of porridge isn’t anything new. I doubt the idea for a savory porridge is anything new, but it is new to Mississippi.

This is one of those times when I need to ask you to trust me. It’s going to seem very strange. I didn’t try this with rolled oats or with any quick-type oats, I don’t know that I would. So much of this was textural. I cooked a mushroom porridge and a venison stew. (you’ve seen the stew recipe before.) I served these together in the same bowl. If you’re looking for something different, this is it.

Mushroom Porridge
2 cans beef consume
3 cups of water
1.5 cups of steel cut oats
mushrooms
tarragon
cream
butter
salt and pepper

bring consume and water to a boil. Add steel cut oats and boil for about 30 minutes. Sautee mushrooms and add to the oats after about 30 minutes. Add fresh tarragon, cream and butter, salt and pepper.

serve with:
Coat 2 lbs of venison (this may be a roast that's cubed or stew meat.) with flour. In a big pot heat 3 tbsp OLIVE OIL. Add beef and 2 large chopped onions and cooked until beef is browned. Once beef is brown add 2 cans BEEF BROTH, 1 cup RED WINE, 3 cups WATER, chopped (large pieces or baby) CARROTS (to taste), chopped POTATOES (large pieces or small red potatoes), MUSHROOMS (I'm using shitake), 2 tbsp UBON'S SEASON T'UP, 2 tbsp THAT OLE THYME, Salt, Pepper to taste. The longer this simmers the better it will be. If you've got a fair amount of flour on your venison that will serve as a roux to thicken.

Quick Christmas Party Food

2009-12-14T18:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight I put together something new. I think it's going to be a Christmas favorite.

In your food processor pulse 1 orange. (cut into slices, but leave on the rind). Add 1 bag of cranberries and continue to pulse until completely mushy. Add 1 bunch of basil, 1/2 cup of sugar and a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar and run until almost smooth.

Mix with goat cheese and use to fill tart cups.

Add as a condiment for turkey sandwiches

Mix with cranberry sauce

Smoked Catfish with lemon and capers.

2009-11-11T19:31:00.000-08:00

I'm always looking for something new this time of year. Today I had my dad smoke 5 lbs of very fresh catfish from Simmons.

Mix together cream cheese, flaked smoked catfish, seasoning, lemon juice and zest and dill. Serve on a cracker with capers and a lemon wedge. I'll get a better picture soon.

I post, therefore I am

2009-11-03T18:51:00.000-08:00

I've had a lot of absences in the last year. I'm ready for my loudest confession. I ate mostly vegetarian while I was pregnant. Less than even really vegetarian, I ate white rice and corn and cake. Mmmm cake.

I got sidetracked by cake. Anyway! I had a few creative ideas, but mostly, I stuck with frozen rice or corn. I couldn't figure how to marry my whole hearted support of eating pig with my newfound respect and craving for only vegetables. The missing connection?

Vodka

Oysters!

2009-10-31T20:38:00.000-07:00

Last night Heath and I went to Lucedale for his brother's annual "Hogg" Party. This started 10 years ago with a small hog that Heath and I helped Seth cook. It's grown into an amazing 2 day party. Last night was awesome!

My niece Meghan works at a couple of John Currence's restaurants in Oxford. She can shuck and plate a dozen oysters in less than 2 minutes. Last night I ate oysters with crackers and cocktail sauce shucked with love by sweet Meg. By this morning, I was popping open those babies myself, slurping them down and enjoying every bite.

We had a couple of hundred oysters on the half shell this morning that Heath's brother Seth put onto his grill. This is something we'll do again. Each oyster was sprinkled with tobasco and parmesan cheese and left to smoke for about 10 minutes.

I can die now.

Seafood Crepes with a Lemon Dill Sauce

2009-08-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

Could it be? My grand return to the blog? Let's talk about my dinner and then I'll fill you in on my absence.

I can't pretend that I made those beautiful crepes. I found them in the produce department at Kroger. This recipe would be much more impressive had I made crepes myself. But given my eminent birth to an 8lb baby...I think you'll give me a pass. Here's what I did with the store bought crepes.

filling: (this will sound familiar)
1 lb ground sausage, browned *1 block of cream cheese * 1 cup of lump crab meat * 2 teaspoons of season it up. mixed well.

spread filling along with 3 steamed asparagus spears over the crepe, roll up and cook over the griddle at 350.

For topping/sauce:
melt 1/2 stick of butter together with a 1/2 cup of olive oil. Season peeled shrimp (1 lb) and drop into oil/butter mixture. When shrimp begins to pink, add 2 tsp of flour and use whisk to make sure everything gets mixed well. Once the butter/flour mixture begins to thicken, add 1 cup of chicken stock and continue to whisk. incorporate 1/2 cup of half and half. Add chopped dill, lemon zest and about 2 tbsp lemon juice.

top the browned crepes with shrimp and sauce.

This took less than 20 minutes to cook and we loved it. My daddy said "I don't like crepes. Well, I never had any." He's a convert!!

Thanks for putting up with my absence. As many of you know I'm very pregnant. I have a section scheduled for next tuesday September 1. One of the pregnancy symptoms I've had has been a strong craving for foods I don't always eat....fresh fruit, vegetables (I mean who craves celery??) I've found myself eating probably 80% vegetarian. What kind of princess of bbq does that???

I planned a grand return to the blog a few weeks ago and gave up when my caramelized endive and riddicho was NASTY. I hope that I'm getting back to what we all like. But please be patient. I've got to get this baby here! I plan to be cookin in Cleveland at Octoberfest...well, I'll be there!

Ubon's and Jubon's

2009-05-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

David Rosen, long time resident of New York City, raised in the metro area, had just finished standing in a very long line for a plate of Memphis style pulled pork from Ubon’s Barbeque at the 2007 Big Apple Barbeque Block Party in Madison Square Park. He commented to one of the guys pulling pork, "This is terrific." Allen Campbell, member of the Ubon's cooking team, replied, “You know, you’re eating that all wrong….” David responded "then I'll get back in line and do it the right way." After all, he wanted to experience barbeque the way it’s intended. Instead Allen brought David up onto the trailer, within arm's length of Ubon's smokers, and taught him - everything on the plate, goes on the bun - especially the cole slaw. David and his family spent the next 4 hours visiting with Allen, Garry Roark, Leslie Roark Scott, and Brian Campbell. And so, an obsession began.

Ubon’s Barbeque was invited to join Danny Meyer’s Big Apple Barbeque Block Party in 2004. Danny's dream was to help New Yorkers come to love the kind of BBQ he grew up on by inviting top pitmasters from across the country to the Madison Avenue festival. “We were completely honored and totally unprepared for what we were getting into,” says Pitmaster Garry Roark. Roark’s Ubon’s Restaurant, in Yazoo City, Mississippi, had been open for almost a year when Garry and his daughter Leslie headed to the Big Apple for the first time. “We were so nervous about how we would be received. It’s hard to explain a serious relationship with barbeque to people who think cooking a hot dog on a grill is barbeque,” says Leslie Roark Scott, “but from the very start we were treated like rock stars!”

David, Allen and Leslie stayed in touch and the Ubon’s family invited him to bring some friends to the Memphis in May World BBQ Championship in 2008. The New York boys booked hotels and got their airfare; they were coming to Memphis. But, they didn't know what to expect. They actually made back-up plans just in case they felt uncomfortable or "in the way." What they found was the complete opposite! The hospitality extended past a friendship and into the realm of family.

Three weeks after MIM 2008, on a sunny, hot NYC June day, David and his future teammates: Brian Jay, Adam Rosen and Bob-O Livingston, suited up in cotton and disposable gloves and joined Ubon’s on Madison Avenue for the 2008 Big Apple Barbeque Block Party. “You entertain friends…you make family work,” said Garry. David and his friends found that their passing interest in the art of barbeque had turned into a passion for smoke.

Over the next year, plans were made for Jubon's (David and his friends) to enter Memphis In May’s 2009 “Patio Porkers Division” and cook ribs to be judged. They chose the name Jubon’s in honor of their mentors and their heritage. First, t-shirts were made, then, the rub and ribs were developed and perfected. Ubon’s helped get a smoker, tent, tables, fence, Ubon's BBQ Sauce and raw ribs to Memphis. Jubon’s weathered rain, wind, mud, heat, humidity, and a new smoker, not to mention putting together a blind-box for the first time. They had great ribs, but didn’t make it to the Finals. They missed being in the top three by 0.3 of a point (which they would learn after the awards ceremony).

Ubon’s, cooking in the Professional Shoulder Category, made Finals! This would be their 3rd trip to the Finals in 18 years. Their Finals' presentation began and ended with hoards of people wearing Ubon's and Jubon's shirts cheering, yelling and clapping on the muddy walk out in front of the booth. Ubon’s made it to the big stage with a 3rd place win.

Then, out of nowhere, a little bird brought great news for those four Jewish kids from NYC, Jubon’s would get up on stage too. The boys from NYC received a 4th place trophy! When asked what a Jubon's is, David replied “We’re four Jewish kids from New York City cooking barbeque in the Deep South -- At least the salt is kosher!"

With MIM 2009 still fresh in their memories, Ubon's focus has already turned to packing up the trucks and trailers and making the long drive back to the 2009 Big Apple Barbeque Block party the weekend of June 13-14. Its just around the corner. Aside from getting to see their new family and friends, Garry Roark says, “Come on, we’re a bunch of Mississippi Rednecks cooking barbeque in the big city This is what barbeque is all about.”

Jack Daniels World Championship BBQ

2008-11-02T18:34:00.001-08:00

Ubon's was one of 78 teams drawn to participate in the 20th annual Jack Daniels World Championship BBQ Contest. This invitation only contest featured teams from all over the world. We were one of 2 teams from Mississippi. We were in good company. I think we felt a little intimidated as soon as we pulled up next to the creek there in Lynchburg. We were fairly prepared to face the weather: 55 degrees and raining. Much different from where we qualified: 115 and sunny. I think we represented Mississippi well. We brought home a 2nd place trophy in the Jack Daniels Pork category.

We went old school. Warm Ubon's painted it onto our pork entry. Ain't no school like the old school.

Diamond D got me thinking!

2008-10-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

This Barbeque Season has been busy for us. We've cooked in: Vidalia, LA (1st place hog), Madison, MS (2nd ribs, 3rd shoulder) and Cleveland, MS (4th rib, 1st hog, Grand Champions). It's been a good season and will continue to be as we get ready to head to the Jack next week.

We've touched base with some old friends and reestablished some old relationships. We've had time to strengthen our family/barbeque family relationships as well. This was our 13th year with the Campbell family. Our team has also met and gotten to know some new faces. We've spent the last weekend with our new team member Reggie. Reggie is awesome and I can't wait for you to meet him if you haven't already.

The last 3 weekends we've spent with Dr. Swinestein and Diamond D. These are some of the most amazing folks you'll run into. They are good spirited, funny and very talented.

Michael Wayne (Diamond D) started talking about his mama's Green Chili. I have been thinking about it for days now. Tracy (Diamond D also...and one of the finest bbq chicks ever) found me this recipe and I think it will be friday night supper for the crowd:

Sun of Nikki Chili Verde

Instructions:

Heat 2 tbsp Wesson oil
Brown 3 pounds cubed pork loin
Add ½ diced Vidalia onion
Add 1 can chicken broth
Add 3 tablespoons chicken base
Add 1 tablespoon hot Italian sausage mix
Bring to a boil - cook for 45 minutes

Dice one 27 oz can of green chili peppers

Then add 1/3 of green peppers with the following ingredients
½ lb tomatillos diced
5 Serrano peppers diced
2 packets of surgar
1.5 teaspoons garlic granules
1 teaspoon celery salt
½ teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 tablespoon cumin
4 jalapenos diced
1 can green enchilada sauce
6 tablespoons goya recaito sauce

Continue to cook for 1 hour then add the following ingredients:
1/3 of green peppers
1 teaspoon of hot green chili powder
1 teaspoon of mild green chili powder
2 teaspoons of cumin

30 minutes later add the following ingredients:
2 teaspoons of cumin
1 dash of hot green chili powder
1/3 chopped green peppers
Salt to taste
Cook additional 15-20 minutes

Ready to serve!

YUM! I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thanks Tracy!

Crab Bisque

2008-09-23T21:12:00.001-07:00

Sunday night we had about a pound and a half of hand picked snow crab meat. I decided to make one of my favorite things...bisque.

I needed some seafood shells to make this work so I started a veloute:

1 stick of butter. 1/2 cup of flour. melt and stir until blonde. Add beef or chicken stock and allow to simmer. season. In a separate pot add olive oil and allow to heat. To the heated oil add coarsely chopped carrots, celery, and onion. Once they have browned, add shells from 2 lbs of shrimp/crab. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and 2 teaspoon of paprika and continue to brown. Add 1 cup of white type wine to deglaze. AFter deglazing add your veloute.

This mixture needs to cook for about 45 minutes. add seasonings of choice and continue to taste through the process. After 45 minutes push your bisque through a sieve. it's important to both drain and to push all available flavor through.

Return to stove and continue to heat. Add 1/2 cup of cream. once the bisque is steaming add thawed corn, about a cup, cooked crab meat and shrimp. This will only need to heat gently. adjust seasoning with worchestishire, seasoned salt.

drizzle with sherry.

Yum. It's a little labor intensive but 100% worth the work.

The Jack and The Story

2008-09-04T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today is a good day! We found out late this afternoon that we've been drawn for The Jack Daniels World Championship Barbeque Contest. This is a pretty big deal! It's been at least 10 years since our last trip to The Jack. This invitation only contest is held in Lynchburg, TN on the grounds of the world famous Jack Daniels Distillery.

On our last outing to The Jack I was still playing with our ribs. Heath and I decided that this was as good a time as any to do a bit of experimentation and for some reason we thought tequila flavored beer would be the key to winning. We came in last. Dead Last. Granted it was in a field of talented professionals, but still. LAST. I'll admit it: I cried. Like a whiney titty baby. If you think there's no crying in bbq, you're wrong. It was like being the last place Ms. Universe contestant. You know you can't be that bad, but you're still the biggest loser in the world.

About a month ago my daddy and I recorded an interview with The Story's Dick Gordon.
Daddy let me do most of the talking. OK, I did nearly all of the talking because I occasionally like to be the center of attention. Ha! The interview airs tomorrow night at 7:00 on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. If you can't catch this tomorrow night, please download the podcast.

A busy weekend

2008-09-02T16:57:00.001-07:00

My cousin got married and Jacob was in the wedding. We catered both the wedding and the rehearsal. We had a great time. The wedding was beautiful. My friend Melanie handled all of the flowers and I think we made a good team! Most of the food was stuff you've seen the recipe here for. Except:

Marinated Cheese Salad:
1 lb cubed cheddar cheese, 1lb cubed pepper jack cheese, 1 can black olives, 1 can of artichoke hearts, 1 jar of roasted red peppers, 1 jar of green olives, 1 jar of pickled mushrooms. Mix together. For the marinade: 1 bottle of balsamic vinegar, 1 bottle of red wine vinegar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 package ranch dressing seasoning, 1/2 cup of season 'tup. Allow to soak for at least 24 hours. If you're going to hold this salad for a while...and it will hold for a good while, wait for about 2 hours before serving to add cheese. It will start to dry out after a day or so.

Monday was Labor Day AND Jacob's birthday. We had a weekend of party food. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Today, I felt a little down. I think sometimes that happens when I've been blown away and busy. When I've accomplished everything I needed to and have the chance to decompress, I find that the slow pace can be mistaken for being down. So tonight we needed something hearty, something different. I think mixed influences and took fusion to the limit. I'm thinking this was Greek sauce, Middle Eastern Meatballs and Semi-Indian vegetables. But, it seemed to work.

Sauce:
Blend together: 1 small container of cottage cheese, 1 cucumber, seeded, 1/2 cup of mint, salt, pepper, 1/2 cup of milk. It was simple and a great dipping sauce for the meatballs. I think it would work well as a summer salad dressing too.

Meatballs:
Mix together: 1 lb of ground lamb, 1lb ground beef, 1 cup mint leaves chopped, 1 shallot chopped, 1 teaspoon cilantro, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon season 'tup. Form into a patty and skewer with 2 bamboo skewers. A small skewer will hold about 3 of these patties. Grill for about 3 or 4 minutes per side. Ours weren't quite done so we microwaved for about 2 minutes.

Vegetables: slice mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, red bell pepper. salt and drizzle with olive oil. Microwave for about 7 minutes. Heat 1 can of coconut milk, 1 tablespoon mint, 1 teaspoon green curry, 1 teaspoon garam masala seasoning, 1 tablespoon splenda/sugar.

I think it was just what we needed.

X MAN

2008-08-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

X MAN

Kansas City Barbeque Society Contest

2008-08-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

We cooked this weekend in Madison, MS. We broke a long-standing Ubon's rule: Don't cook when it's hot. On Saturday evening I got in the car and it was 115 degrees. We cooked the 4 KCBS categories: chicken, beef, pork and ribs. We spent hours on chicken. My daddy has been cooking chicken my whole life. His daddy cooked chicken daddy's whole life. Sheesh! We experimented and tried and played and sampled. We looked at sample boxes, we played with how to place the chicken. In the end, we had 5 people sweating and threatening and spiting and cussing over some damn chicken! We didn't do too bad. We got an 8th place with the chicken we turned in.

Ultimately we borrowed a recipe from our friends over at Hebrew Hogs.
We marinated the chicken thighs over night in an acidic orange marinade:

5 cups of Ubon's BBQ sauce (OR 1 cup ketchup, 1 cup cider vinegar, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup hot sauce) and 2 cans of mandarin oranges, 1/2 cup of your favorite seasoning pureed in a food processor. Before smoking, we injected with an apple juice seasoning solution. We smoked our chicken for about 40 minutes and then finished on a charcoal fire. We used our rib sauce but any super sweet sauce that is warm from the grill will work. It's best if it isn't a super thick sauce. Dip the chicken into the sauce and return to the grill. repeat about 20 times.

Grillin for Life was a great contest. It was as hot as the very 3rd floor of hell, but we enjoyed the process. We finished up with 8th place chicken, 4th place brisket, 2nd place pork and 1st place ribs. Oh, and GRAND CHAMPION! So we're qualified for the draw for Jack Daniels in 2009. We had a great sponsor and look forward to working again with Smithfield. Our ribs were perfect. We're excited to be working with such an amazing product!

Next post: the X MAN movie!

Seafood Left Overs

2008-07-31T14:44:00.000-07:00

We've started going to Dauphin Island, AL when we need some beach time. Dauphin Island is not crowded, it's remote and quiet. From one beach house you can see the gulf and the bay.

Skinner's Seafood sells shrimp that was caught the night before. Heath and I stopped on our way out on Sunday and bought shrimp, crab claws and lump crab meat. We shared with our friends and had some left over shrimp. We did dinner for our friends and had this:

Seafood Au Gratin: (because I never think I have enough food I also added some Simmon's Catfish)

Layer catfish fillets, shrimp and lump crab meat. Top with this sauce and bake: 1 stick of butter melted and lightly browned with 1/2 cup of butter. add 2 cups of chicken stock, 2 cups of milk. When the sauce returns to a simmer add cheese, at least 2 cups. You can choose the cheese. We used cheddar, colby, jack. Pour sauce over the seafood. Heath melted butter, crushed crackers, cheese and added to the top before baking. *My secret to this kind of a sauce is that I will always add a splash of cooking sherry, and a few dashes of hot sauce. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Grits and Greens: (Alright so I just finished reading Hissy Fit and Keeley made this. I did adjust!)
In a sauce pan heat 2 cups of chicken stock and 2 cups of half and half. Add a cup and a half of grits when the liquid comes to a boil. Honestly, I just poured in grits, and when it was too many grits I kept adding water until the consistency was was right. After your grits are creamy add 2 cups of mozzarella cheese, 2 teaspoons of hot sauce, salt, pepper and 1 bag of frozen turnip greens. Pour into a greased casserole dish and top with parmesan cheese. Bake for 30 minutes or so.

Corn Potato and Tomato Salad:
Cut corn off left over crab boiled corn (or use canned white corn), chunk up left over boiled potatoes, and dice tomatoes. Mix together 1 cup of mayo, 1/2 cup of ranch dressing (homemade is best), chiffonade basil, 1/2 cup of sour cream, and seasonings. Pour over vegetables and allow to sit for a couple of hours.

I love feeding my friends.

Summer Figs

2008-07-17T21:02:00.000-07:00

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I apologize for my absence. I've had a little surgery and have been out of commission for a couple of weeks. It's almost killed me! I guess you don't realize how much you love something until you have an extended absence from it.

It's full on fig season! Most homes in Mississippi have at least a small fig tree either on the property or their neighbor has one close by. We have questionable luck with most fruit trees, but for some reason figs nearly always are plentiful. My neighbor, Jim, has a huge tree in his back yard. He fought off the birds to pick me a gallon of figs. I offered a barter, he bring me the figs, I'd cook him my chicken and fig pasta.

On my first trip to NYC back in 2001, I had a day alone. You can imagine how scary that was for a Mississippi girl new to any big city, especially one where I didn't have a car and needed others to help me find my way. I know how to get around the city now without being afraid. That first day alone I was starving and stopped at the first Italian place outside the Spring Street Station. I sat on the side walk cafe and ordered the special for the day: chicken with figs. I was homesick by that Saturday and figs sounded like home. I had something that wasn't comfort food, but it was an inspiration.

figues chez les porcs

This easy starter translates to: figs in pigs. Wrap each fig in 1/2 a slice of bacon. Arrange in a dish and bake for about 20 minutes at 350. Leave stems on and watch for bacon to begin to firm. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar to serve. This is so elegant and unexpected. The sweet and savory are the perfect mix.

For an unexpected Chicken and Fig Pasta

Fry 1lb of bacon. Remove bacon and brown 2 diced chicken breasts and 1 chopped onion. Remove from pan. Add 1/4 stick of butter to bacon drippings. Add 1/4 cup of flour and stir to a blonde roux. To roux, add 3 cups of chicken stock and 1 cup of wine. I used red because it was open, white would be fine. Also add 1/4 cup of golden sherry, salt, pepper, and basil. Allow to reduce until thick.

While sauce is reducing. I roasted 20 figs on a char-grill until caramelized and allowed to macerate in balsamic vinegar for 20 minutes. Boil Bowtie pasta until al dente.

To assemble: Add chicken, onions and crumbled bacon to the reduced sauce. Add figs, including vinegar to the sauce. Toss with Pasta and serve warm, with a salad and crusty bread.

Berry Berry Good Pizza

2008-06-24T14:44:00.001-07:00

Sunday night we had dinner at Jim's house. We decided to go after I'd already been to the grocery store, so I had limited decisions for putting together a dessert. Here's my Berry Pizza:

In a pan add 2 cups of frozen peaches and a cup (or two) of frozen berries. Add 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of sherry and allow to come to a boil. Make a slurry of 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of water and add to the boiling fruit. Roll out one tube of refrigerated pizza dough. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Spoon the fruit and some of the syrup over the pizza crust and bake for about 15 minutes. While the pizza is baking mix together a block of cream cheese, a cup (or so) of powdered sugar and enough of the left over syrup for the frosting to thin.

When the pizza crust is beginning to turn golden, drizzle the cream cheese mix over the top and allow to cool to room temp. Jim had some 'delta blues' bluebell ice cream. and it was a good mix.

A Pie for my friend Melanie

2008-06-20T22:31:00.000-07:00

My neighborhood is an amazing one. We try to get together every week, especially the few families who've got children the same age and who just 'clicked' from the first day. Tonight we went to the Yates' home for crawfish and shrimp. Melanie's house is always so perfect, so welcoming and truly beautiful.

I always feel like one should bring a gift if visiting another's home. It almost seems tacky to me not to. There's the added bonus that I love, truly love, cooking for my friends. We only had a few minutes so I put together this pie. It needed at least an hour to reach proper consistency, but we couldn't wait that long and ate it with a spoon.

In an Oreo Cookie Crust, layer caramel (from the ice cream section) sauce. Heat 1/2 cup of whipping cream in the microwave until steaming and bubbling. add 1 cup of dark chocolate chips. add a cup of whipping cream to keep the sauce thin. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a pan and mix with 1 tablespoon of flour. add in the chocolate sauce and cook until thick. If this breaks (mine did) put into a mixing bowl and whisk whisk whisk. Add to your pie crust and chill. Would be good with whipped cream or a meringue.

Melanie said it had a 'fancy' 'chocolate truffle' taste.

It was yum.

Father's Day at the Lake

2008-06-15T20:13:00.000-07:00

My sister and I decided to have a family party at her house on Lake Lorman. We had a small crowd, just us and our families and our parents. We spent a few hours taking turns being humiliated and delightedly pulled behind their boat on a two seated inter-tube. We spent a couple more house lazing in the sun next to the pool, then a couple of hours taking turns playing guitar hero. We somehow managed during that time to progressively eat everything that Jen and I cooked or assembled. Jen and I were going for a very salad-y cold menu that could be easily transported from the kitchen to the boat to the pool and back to the TV room.

My sister can make something as simple as a relish tray look elegant and complicated. It's one of those standard southern dishes that people don't always remind you to throw together. I think Jen has made it her mission to always include it because of our family gatherings at my mom and dad's house. For some reason our genetics require that we constantly buy pickled items. My parents could have 30 jars of assorted pickled stuff at any given time. With backups in the pantry. Jen began the tradition of the relish tray at some family gathering. It was essentially a means of consolidating the fridge, but she made it seem that it was a sharing of the pickled bounty: pickled okra, mushrooms, olives, onions. Sweet, dill, sour, bread and butter, spicy cucumber pickles. Pickled pepperoncini, cherry or red bell peppers. My sister has the relish tray down to an art. She and her kids also made a really good chicken cheeseball and 7 layer dip.

We threw together some turkey tortilla wraps. These were simple but fairly creative: a thin layer of cream cheese, then homemade mayhaw jelly (peach or apple would be a good substitute) then the turkey. Rolled up and sliced as a pick up food. Another is guacamole dip spread over the cream cheese and layered with turkey and cheese. The kid's favorite was a simple peanut butter and jelly wrap.

I threw together a few cold salads:

Broccoli and Fruit Slaw
2 packages of shredded broccoli stalks with carrots and cabbage, 1 jar of bottled coleslaw dressing, 1/2 cup of dried cherries, 1/2 cup of dried cranberries, 1/2 cup of golden raisins. Combine with salt and pepper.

This was great in a pita with some grilled flank steak and some roasted red peppers and onions.

Southern Cucumbers

During my childhood days with my next door garden we had thousands of cucumbers every summer. My grandmother kept a bowl of white vinegar, onions and cucumbers in her fridge at all times. Usually with ice floating in it if it was coming to the table. This is my version:

Heat 12oz of red wine vinegar, 1/2 cup of white vinegar and 1 cup of sugar. Bring to a boil and combine. Set aside to cool. Slice 3 cucumbers. Layer cucumbers, dill and basil, cucumbers, dill and basil, cucumbers. Add 6 pieces of candied ginger and a handful of whole black peppercorns. Pour vinegar mixture over and allow to marinate for as long as you can. Last night I added 2 more cucumbers to the brine for later.

Artichoke salad

In keeping with my genetic code I throw this salad together any time I have people coming anywhere near my table:

1 can of artichoke hearts, 1 jar of pickled baby corn, 1 jar of cherry peppers, 1 can of black olives. Drain and cover with 1 container of red pepper italian dressing and 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar. Allow to sit over night if possible.

Tomato Moz

I stopped at the Fresh Market and got vine tomatoes, hand rolled mozzarella, and basil leaves. I sliced layered and drizzled with basil olive oil and good balsamic vinegar. This was good with sliced turkey in a pita.

I'd like to pretend that we were so very elegant and that this is what we feasted on all day but there were also cheetos and snickers in attendance. It wouldn't be a super snack day without those.

Happy Father's Day to the wonderful men in my life.

More NYC

2008-06-12T16:56:00.001-07:00

I can't say enough how much fun we had in NYC. We worked out butts off in the heat. Maybe the best part was the time we spent with our friends. Here are more pictures:

Barbeque Princess' Pictures

If you'll notice part way through there's a few pictures of Brian serving Iron Chef America's Ed Levine. Pretty cool for us foodies!

Summer Food

2008-06-11T18:14:00.000-07:00

We moved into the house I grew up in when I was about 2. Mr. and Mrs. Westbrook lived in the house next door. I can remember how the house smelled. It was a combination of the two things that seemed to sum up the two of them: fresh baked something and cedar. Mr. Westbrook was retired and he swore up and down that he'd once owned a monkey. He worked daily in his wood shop and shot squirrels with his bb gun. Each spring he put in a huge garden. They didn't have any family in town, but we were right next door. In fact, their chairs faced a big sliding glass door that looked out into our front door. They literally watched my sister and I grow up. Jennifer and I always looked forward to helping him in the garden. He had the patience of Job. We knew he loved us because he planted 10 plants with "tommy-toes" (cherry tomatoes) and he didn't eat them. We would eat them right off the vine until we were almost sick. The garden was full of all of the best things: squash, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, pink eye purple hull peas, butter beans, green beans, sweet potatoes, and cucumbers.

During peak garden season we'd walk outside each morning and he'd have a 5 gallon bucket full of whatever he'd picked before the sun was too hot. I came up with my spaghetti sauce one summer out of sheer desperation. I couldn't bring myself to throw away all those tomatoes. And I mean, really, how many tomato sandwiches can one person eat? Well, a lot, but by August they aren't quite the delicacy they were in late May.

I made a trip to Sunflower last night and had a moment of pure nostalgia. Something in the zucchini made me miss growing up, Mr. Westbrook's garden, Mrs. Westbrook's cakes, shelling peas and tomato sandwiches. I bought zucchini and eggplant and wished for a 5 gallon bucket full of fresh vegetables. I like to think they would have liked what I made while thinking of them:

Slice 2 zucchini and 1 eggplant and lay out on a rack. Salt heavily and allow to sit at room temp. After about 30 minutes, turn and repeat. Rinse the vegetables thoroughly. This process helps remove the bitterness and keeps the vegetables from turning to mush.

Layer zucchini and eggplant in a casserole dish. Spread a layer of softened cream cheese. Top with 1 lb of browned sausage. add another layer of the vegetables. Pour one can of tomatoes over the top. (I wish I had that bucket of tomatoes!) (I think it would be better if you sliced fresh tomatoes.) Sprinkle a layer of mozzarella. Now, I will admit that I cheated here, but it made it so easy: Top with 2 pouches of tomato/basil pasta sauce. top with mozzarella and parmesan. This is weird but helped...microwave for about 10 minutes and place in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes.

Serve with pasta.

Pictures

2008-06-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

NYC Pictures

thanks Alex!

My friend Alex

2008-06-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

My friend Alex over at http://carefree-beachbum.blogspot.com/ spent the weekend with us up in NYC. I've spent most of the last couple of days obsessing over what people had to say about us at the Block Party. By and large the comments have been kind. Alex was our official documentarian and did a great job. Have a look:

http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/nn173/Alexousa104/BBQ/?albumview=grid&mediafilter=images

If only I knew how to turn something into a link! Help!

Maybe we should start again...

2008-06-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

We just got back from the Big Apple Barbeque Block Party. In fact, the Ubon's trailer and crew are still in transit from the big city. Over the weekend my daddy and I were able to spend some time with Elizabeth Karmel (http://www.GirlsattheGrill.com/). She something of a celebrity in my world. I will admit to you that I was more than a little star struck. Elizabeth is a major champion for us Cue Chicks. At Elizabeth's suggestion I'm going to backtrack and tell you the story that I should have started this blog with: Why I am the Barbeque Princess.

When I was about 11 my dad decided to start the process of bottling and selling my grandfather, Ubon's, sauce. In 1989 Daddy, Mama and a few of their friends decided to cook in the backyard competition at the Cleveland, MS Octoberfest Contest. Daddy had a grill and a card table and cooked some wicked chicken. Who knew that plain ole barbeque chicken, delicious though it may be, was nothing close to what the judges were looking for. They didn't win a trophy but Daddy made friends and found a new love. Daddy and his friends invested in t-shirts (I mean it's official if there's a tshirt for it, right?) and they hit the road. The first few contests were a bust. In 1990 I was a senior in high-school and my daddy forced my sister and I to drive up to Octoberfest. We showed up on Saturday (show day is never ever the fun day) and we cut out as soon as we didn't make the finals. It was official, my parents were enjoying old people fun.

At some point that barbeque season we got a pass down for Memphis in May and the Friday before my graduation from high school mama and daddy made my sister, Jennifer, and I catch a ride to Memphis. Mama called us and told Jen and I to bring out mud boots. We balked because we’d agreed to wear the t-shirts with skirts. When we got to Tom Lee Park, we found a good 6 inches of mud. And lots of old people. Having fun.

Alright, alright, about 4 hours in and we were hooked. We were so hooked that my sister stopped being a vegetarian and started eating ribs. We were so hooked that the next fall if there was a contest, Jen and I were there.

In the fall of 1992 we headed to Possum Town Pig Fest in Columbus, MS. I had grown weary of doing gate duty. Jen and I were obviously BBQ Eye Candy. I was at a pretty decisive time in my life. My daddy has always been easily persuaded by his girls. I’ve been a master of manipulation for a long time. The best way to get my way with daddy was to convince him that putting me at the presentation table was his own idea. I may have even protested a little so he’d really think it was his idea. Daddy cooked some show ribs that you wouldn’t believe. I smiled, I flipped my hair, I flirted, I sold some damn good ribs. I used every skill I had as a southern woman. I got lucky that my daddy knew what he was doing when he cooked those ribs. When we got the notice that we’d made it to the finals my dad and I looked at each other and knew...we make one hell of a team. My research tells me that history was made that day. I was the first female to do a table presentations in the finals round and the first to win a State Championship/Grand Champion.

By 1993 I was tired of getting the look to my daddy to check facts. So I got my butt up and I learned. I started cooking the ribs myself. I watched my dad step gracefully back so that I could find my own place at the table. I’ve prepped and presented in 50 or more contests in the 16 years since my first start. I’ve changed recipes and methods. I think after all this time, I may have finally found the right combination that will help me continue getting into the finals. I’ve stepped far out on a limb and created my own sauce. I was always afraid of making too many changes. Daddy likes to “dance with the girl that brung you.” I think you should always dance with the better looking one.

We cooked in Pearl, MS back in April. An old family friend watched our finals presentations for hog, shoulder and ribs. When I began the presentation, I knew I had some beautiful ribs. I was full of energy, full of pride. My daddy stood right behind me in his traditional spot. My sister accidentally laughed too loudly when I described my rib rub as having ‘paprika, the sweet and smokey friend of the rib.” I was unfazed! On I went because I knew I had a winner.

My friend said later that she teared up because of how my daddy looked at me, at how proud he was of me, at how she could tell how pleased he was to have me smack up in his old people fun.

So I’m not so sure that I consider myself barbeque royalty so much as I consider myself my daddy’s Barbeque Princess.

For my new friend Elizabeth...a couple of sauces

Ubon's Comeback Sauce:

1 cup prepared mayo
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of cider vinegar
2 tablespoons of hot sauce
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
1 small onion, minced (I would consider sauteing in butter until wilted, depending on personal prefrence)
salt, pepper, red pepper, lemon pepper to taste.

mix together, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or so.

serve with fried pickles, sweet potato fries, as a salad dressing, or as a dipping sauce for chicken or sausage.

Ubon's Come Hither sauce

(My friends the Rosen boys, don't like mayo so this is for them:)

1/2 cup of yellow mustard
1/4 cup of honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup of ketchup
2 tbsp hot sauce
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
minced onion optional

serve with chicken, on beef sandwiches, over cream cheese with crackers

2008-06-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well, as reported we had a fabulous time at Memphis in May. I thought you might want to see for yourself. Please note the pictures at the shopping cart parade/walk about.

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn104/cbuckalew/Memphis%20N%20May/

We are getting ready to head to New York for the Big Apple Barbeque Block Party. I will keep you posted!

The Legend....oh and Mike Mills too!

2008-05-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

My friend Amy Mills Tunnicliffe and her daddy Mike Mills co-wrote one of the greatest barbeque books ever: Peace, Love and Barbeque. (don't have it? shame on you! get it on amazon.com) Amy and I share many things in common. One is that she and I love our daddies. Amy went so far that she wrote a book and pretended her dad helped! (Just joking. When I envision it it's more like how it would be with me and my daddy...I'll write the book if you'll stop telling me that story daddy!) By the way, Amy's dad is Mike Mills. In case you haven't read about him in Bon Appetit or Vogue and in case you've never seen or heard of the Food Network, Mike Mills is known as 'The Legend'.

Mike own Memphis Championship Barbeque and 17th Street Bar and Grill; he's the creative consultant for Blue Smoke in NYC. Mike also "owns" a little contest called Memphis in May due to his holding the Grand Champion title oh 3 or 4 times, some trivial record that stands to this VERY day!

We got to spend some time with Amy and Mike at this year's Memphis in May. Thanks to Mike we are included each year in the Big Apple Barbeque Block Party. http://bigapplebbq.org/2008/ It's an honor to be included in the block party, but for Daddy and I, it's a big deal to be included at Mike's suggestion.

Amy sent me an email with a recent article about "comeback sauce." It seems that comeback is a southern staple, but nearly totally Mississippi-centric. I've looked at lots of descriptions and 'thousand island dressing meets remoulade" seems to be the most apt. Most of the recipes I've seen have 2 secret ingredients and several steps. All restaurants in Mississippi have a special comeback sauce/dressing. We are no exception. Mine is just very very simple (yet oh so Ubon-centric!)

1 cup Mayo. 1 cup Ubon's BBQ Sauce. 1 tablespoon Ubon's season t'up. Mix. pretend you worked all afternoon. squeeze a lemon or wave a magic wand over it and call it a secret ingredient, but it's just those 3. But sh! don't tell. There are people who want us to bottle it!

This little magic sauce is good on anything you can imagine. Onion rings. Fried pickles. Sweet Potato Fries. Pork sandwiches.

The picture is my mom, Mike and the Princess herself (me).

Think if I start calling myself the princess it will catch on? hm. I'll give it a try.

Doc had a birthday

2008-05-23T06:08:00.000-07:00

This week was my husband's birthday. Sometimes I feel like I've stolen him from his family of origin and displaced him into my own world. Reality tells me that we've done a good job of creating our own world with very good friends and close family.

One of my strengths is how easy it is for me to plan and feed a dozen friends. I decided this week to celebrate Heath's birthday with 12 or 15 close friends. Heath loves lasagna and so that's what I did for him.

Lasagna for 12

3lbs of ground beef browned with 1 bag of season blend (onions, peppers and celery. You could do the chopping but I didn't.) Add 4 cans of diced tomatoes, 4 large cans of tomato sauce, 1 cup of red wine, garlic, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, sugar. (a teaspoon or so of each.) Allow to simmer for as long as possible. You will need to assemble this at least an hour before it starts to bake to re-hydrate the lasagna noodles. No I refuse to precook those! I suppose you could but it's a pain in the ass and doesn't change anything. OK to assemble. layer sauce, then dry noodles, then ricotta cheese. sprinkles shredded cheese of choice: I used parmesan, mozzarella, assiago. You can adjust to your taste. cheddar isn't a bad idea, but for the love of heaven, let's avoid processed cheese food. NOW repeat layers, sauce, noodles, cheese, cheese. I would make sure I had at least 3 layers. Here's the secret to lasagna that will slice and not fall apart. cook low, 275 for about an hour and allow to sit for about 15 minutes before serving.

I also did a freak out. What if I didn't have enough food? This is almost never the case. But to be safe, and to make sure the little kids had a 2nd option I made a cheese lasagna. I think I made this one up on the fly:

melt butter in a pan and add an equal part of flour. To this add chicken stock and a splash of sherry. ok, maybe a gulp of sherry. Once this is bubbly I started adding cheese. cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan, colby...whatever I had. The sherry gives it sort of a fondu flavor. I layered my cheese sauce with the noodles and separated noodle layers with ricotta cheese. this baked with the lasagna.

And of course the cake...

Jacob and I decided to try our hand at baking and we made a pretty good effort. We used a strawberry cake mix and added an extra egg to make the cake, hm, i don't know, more dense? we also added fresh strawberries. these turn purple in the cake and maybe it wasn't the best idea but it sure was good. after our cakes cooled we layered the first with sliced strawberries then a layer of a simple chocolate ganache. This is so simple that I am almost ashamed! heat 2 cups of heavy cream and pour over 2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips. blend with a whisk until all combined. it will be glossy and yummy. place the top layer of the cake on. for the icing: 1 sick of butter flavored crisco. Trust me here, it holds up better than regular butter. Add a couple of cups of powdered sugar, then a couple more. You will know when the consistency is right. add a little vanilla paste and cream to help everything come together. Now I was frosting this cake after I took a sleeping pill so it was UGLY. I couldn't figure out how to get a good crumb coat and my layers were a little uneven. Even so, this cake was pretty good.

OK, I'm off to the barbeque world.

Memphis in May

2008-05-18T14:13:00.001-07:00

Well, we've managed to survive another Memphis in May. What a great one! We were honored to have some great friends and fabulous cooks to hit the big stage: Sassy Sows (the real queens of bbq!), Gwatney, and Mark Lambert all are familiar with Ubon's and made us proud! Our BBQ neighbors Natural Born Grillers did a great job with a first place Whole Hog and a Grand Champion. (They don't use our sauce but we helped keep them sauced all weekend.)

We had a beautiful couple of hogs. We had a big team and everyone jumped in and pulled their weight. Brian is a fearless leader and a hog magician. Maybe we can talk him in to running through the entire process to cook a whole hog. All together now: BEEVE BEEVE BEEVE BEEVE.

We had a number of awesome moments this weekend. I love an audience and secretly so does Brian. We had the chance to talk a little about our cooking process, sauce and general bbq ideas with a great group touring with the Memphis in May Cooker Caravan. Thanks to everyone for listening and indulging Brian and I.

Our standard Memphis weekend calls for a few traditions. 10 am calls for a Ubon's Special:

1 part Jim Beam
1 part pineapple juice
1 part Sprite
1 fresh pineapple spear
Mix with ice, drink quickly and have a 2nd.

This year we added to our repertoire. I'm still trying to find the right name for this Ubon's Bloody Mary. Seriously this is the best bloody Mary of all time. My biggest problem is that I don't have the recipe for the most important element. Vivian made some homemade dill pickles. (All together: V V V V V and maybe she'll email me the recipe to post.) So this is the actual and then the make at home as best you can version.

1 part vodka
1 part tomato juice
1 part bloody mary mix
1 part Vivian's pickle juice
1 large sprig of dill
2 table spoons Ubon's BBQ Sauce

My best guess for pickles and I'm sure I'm very far off...but you'll mostly need the juice.

boil 1 cup of vinegar 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1/4 cup of pickling salt, and 2 table spoons of pickling spices.
cut cucumbers into spears and place in a jar. quarter an onion and place the jar. throw in a handful of garlic cloves. pack every available space with fresh dill. pour boiling liquid over the vegetables and allow to sit until cool. When cool cap and place in the fridge.

At noon on Memphis Fridays we have the perfect sandwich. Prime Rib sliced and layered on an onion roll with mayo, mustard, horseradish and Videlia onions. Sweet mercy!

We had some new friends join us for this year's Memphis. These guys paired with our old friends helped us have a great weekend. Did you know that there are Rednecks in NYC? Well, they will be until their sunburns wear off. See if you can spot them. I watched male bonding at it's best this weekend: diverted fights where the benches cleared and everyone was the insulted's brother, fake threats being made by a short man (my dad) because he knew he had some big guys around, affectionate insults hurled at old friends, and cheers for Rusty at the dogtrack. Thank goodness the included me.

If you got pictures, please send them to me at leslie@ubons.net. My mom doesn't quite remember if she had a good time or not. Did I mention you CAN have too many of those Ubon's Specials?

Snack attack again!

2008-04-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

I'm on the board of directors for the Yazoo Main Street. We're trying to get some new stuff going and to create a buzz with our awesome down town. Friday night Joann Adams is hosting the party for us. Her family owns a good many buildings in the down town area and they have got some exciting stuff happening. If I were single I'd be moving in down there!

Can you imagine that I'm doing the food? Official caterer! So here we go:

Delta Caviar:

This one is so simple and so yum. It's a beautiful bowl filler and serves up perfectly with crackers, toast rounds, or Fritos. There's no mayo so it's a great snack for trips or summer. I'm sure it would be even more yummy if you had summer vegetables. This is the easy version:

1 can each: BLACK BEANS, BLACK EYED PEAS, WHITE CORN, WHOLE KERNEL CORN, DICED TOMATOES. 1 small jar PIMENTOS, 1 small jar finely chopped JALAPENOs, 1 large bottle ITALIAN DRESSING. 1 tablespoon SEASON T'UP, SUGAR. 1 large bunch chopped CILANTRO. Mix and let sit over night for best results.

Smoked Chicken Pate:
We have a restaurant and I'm always looking for a way to use everything we have and this is a perfect use for our smoked chicken. I think it would work with regular chicken BUT I wouldn't recommend it. The smokey flavor of the chicken is what gives this it's flavor.

1 lb PULLED SMOKED CHICKEN into the food processor until it's a paste. Add 1 BLOCK CREAM CHEESE, 2 tablespoons MAYO, 1 teaspoon SEASON T'UP. Mix well and form into a block. Serve with crackers or toast rounds.

The Statesman Cheeseball

My sister, our husbands and I went to Delta State. The Delta State mascot is the Statesmen. Who ever heard of the Statesmen? Well, years ago (as legend has it) my friend and old neighbor Robert Black suggested that Delta State adopt a more suited mascot: something green and white and tough. His answer was okra. So the non-mascot for Delta State has become the Fighting Okra. (Picture a stalk of okra wearing boxing gloves.) here's my homage:

1 block CREAM CHEESE, 6 stalks PICKLED OKRA chopped fine, 1 jar OLIVES chopped fine, 1 tablespoon RANCH DRESSING MIX, 1 teaspoon SEASON T'UP, chopped HERBS of choice. Mix well and form into a ball. serve with crackers.

Carolee is an inspiration!

2008-04-20T17:39:00.000-07:00

We spent a large part of the weekend helping Heath's mom move into her new house. The new house isn't far from the old one, maybe 100 yards. But moving furniture is always a big job and can be a hungry one.

In the days and weeks that have passed before and since Heath's dad died we've been able to spend time getting reacquainted with Heath's brother Seth, his wife Carolee and their kids.My sister in law Carolee has always been one of my very favorite people. She is a woman of many talents. She's always thoughtful and has been a great encouragement to me during the years I've known her. In fact...lots of what I do in my own home is in an effort to emulate hers. (Oh yeah, that soup and sing along at Christmas? STOLEN from Carolee. Those 'impromptu' gatherings? STOLEN!) Their home is welcoming and warm and always, always a place to find an over the top snack option.

This weekend Carolee came to the moving not just to help but, as always, to feed. She said she found this recipe in one of those chick-ish magazines, but in my heart and mind I just know she was blessed with it in a dream!!! OK, my version. (which is essentially hers.) THE most delicious bread, well, ever.

3 cups of SELF RISING FLOUR, mixed with 1 cup of SUGAR, and one BEER. I did a test run and tried a plain ole Miller Lite and a separate loaf with one delicious SMITHWICKS. (Smithwicks is an Irish red beer.) We loved both, but slightly preferred the one with the Smithwicks. It just had....something. OK, so mix those 3 ingredients. The dough will be sticky and heavy. Pour into a greased loaf pan. put into a preheated 350 degree oven. cook for 30 minutes and pull out of the oven. melt 1/2 stick of butter and pour over the top and return to the oven for another 15 minutes. Carolee would be ashamed because she topped with 1 whole stick of butter. I feel sure that the entire stick of butter will make it even more delicious. total bake time is 45 minutes.

Now for dinner I made a grilled turkey and havarti sandwich and cried a little at the perfection. I feel sure it will make me cry in delight again when I try it with some homemade mayhaw jelly.

Back!

2008-04-20T17:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the absence!
It's been a while. We've had a tough spring. We lost Heath's dad on Easter. Our hearts are still sad, but our friends have had strong arms and warm hearts. We are fortunate.

Ok, so on to food!

I've been playing with some cold recipes. Spring always makes me think picnics are a good idea. They almost never are. But dinner with friends and some time on the porch is a great idea. Try these:

Southwest salad:
pop the woody ends off of a bunch of ASPARAGUS. put them into a ziplock bag with some OLIVE OIL and KOSHER SALT. make sure that the asparagus is oiled and throw onto a grill. Add 2 RED BELL PEPPERS to the grill. Char the outside of the pepper and the asparagus. Put the asparagus into a bowl and the peppers into your zip lock. Close up the zip lock and allow the peppers to steam. Take a FLANK STEAK and drizzle olive oil and heavily season with UBON'S SEASON'T UP. grill steak and allow to rest. Peel your pepper and remove ribs and seeds. cut into chunks and add to asparagus. I mix up a little olive oil with some good good balsamic vinegar and pour over the peppers and asparagus.

Combine 1/2 cup of MAYO, 1/2 cup of MILK, 1/2 cup of SOUR CREAM, 1 packed of RANCH DRESSING MIX, 1/2 cup of SALSA. Mix well and allow to sit in the fridge.

for assembly: in a bowl add your SALAD GREENS, crumble some CHEVRE, add sliced rested FLANK STEAK, and drizzle with your salad dressing. toss with tongs. spoon over asparagus and pepper mixture. sometimes I add some calamata olives for some salty. don't leave out the chevre. it's yum.

Delta Muffaleta:

Easy sandwich that turned out pretty good. slice a round of HAWAIIAN BREAD. fill with HAVARTI CHEESE, ROAST BEEF, TURKEY, HAM. I made a chutney with sliced and mashed STRAWBERRIES, HONEY, SALT, PEPPER, AND BALSAMIC VINEGAR. I mayo-ed the bread and topped. I know it sounds strange...but it was really good.

OK...I'll be back

Serge's Southern Chicken Salad

2008-02-18T20:38:00.000-08:00

If you haven't read him, read Tim Dorsey. NOW! This recipe is what happens when I'm reading, have taken my sleep pill and cooking a salad that was originated by a fictitious serial killer with a purpose.

Here goes my version:

Left over chicken from KFC. Chop all chicken including the 'fry'. I had a biscuit so i crumbled that in as well. Chop one APPLE, 1/2 cup SALT AND PEPPR CASHEWS, one handful of VARIOUS HERBS. Add 1/2 cup LITE MAYO and a table spoon of BALSAMIC VINEGAR. Mix well.

I took 1 cup of mixed greens and drizzled them with basil olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste. Add Serge's chicken salad. awesome!

Happy Val-um-times!

2008-02-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

Dinner for my sweetie tonight. It's kind of a tradition for me to cook dinner for my darlin on Valentine's Day. I did have to work tonight for awhile, so I wanted to have a quick but elegant dinner. I stopped by Paul Anthony's in Jackson and picked up a few things including some AWESOME fresh scallops. Here's what we had tonight:

Start out a pot of boiling, salted water and add some thick linguini. Surprisingly, this took longer than anything else. Finely dice one SHALLOT. Add about a tablespoon of OLIVE OIL to a pan and then the shallots. Cook for about 1 minute until shallots are translucent. Add 1 cup of SEAFOOD STOCK, 1 cup of WHITE WINE of your choice, 1/2 cup of LEMON JUICE. Allow this to reduce until it's nearly dry. (called au sec for you nerds that need to know.) Add about 1 stick of BUTTER one small pat at a time. I'd wait until the very end to add the butter and whisk whisk whisk! Make sure the butter is cold. I used some cultured butter that I found at Paul Anthony's and it was fab. OK, on your Viking Griddle (or your lame-o skillet) spray with a non stick spray and place SCALLOPS. Let these begin to sear and form a brown caramel crust. After there's some color on both sides, add 2 tablespoons of butter and 1/4 cups of lemon juice. Salt and pepper the scallops.

Place 4 or 5 cups of SPINACH in your colander and pour your pasta over the spinach. The heat from the water will wilt your spinach and not overcook it so it will be fresh and delicious. Add the pasta and spinach into the lemon burre blanc sauce. (yup, that's what it's called.) Add some salt and pepper as needed. I finished with some really good lemon infused olive oil.

I kept saying that this was very pure, very bright flavored. (Modest huh?)

Ireland, Mississippi Delta, it's all the same

2008-02-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

The summer after Heath finished medical school we went to Ireland with some of Heath's family. What a place. We wound around country roads, we stopped to look at water or trees or the beach or the ruins of a keep. We roamed the Burren. We saw Druid burial sites. On one of our best days we visited the Allwee Caves (http://www.aillweecave.ie/). At the center of the road leading to the caves there is a cheese shop. The cheese shop housed a bakery as well. We enjoyed a sunny picnic lunch of baps and wine. (A bap is a sandwich made from homemade rolls, homemade cheese and homemade chutney.) As I sat there drinking wine, eating fresh cheese and taking in new sights I was fairly sure that there is nothing at home anywhere close. I maintained that thought until today.

My mom had surgery on her ankle last week and has been homebound. Today she felt like getting out and I talked my family into doing a baloney run. We left Yazoo City and headed down the levee in Panther Swamp. We stopped and threw some rocks into the channel, we saw a weir, we listened to some of my dad's Mississippi Folklore. We wound around levees and dirt roads and forgotten highways until we got to Holly Bluff. At Mike's Grocery in Holly Bluff dad, Heath and Jacob went in and got us a snack. We had saltine crackers, hoop cheese and baloney. As we sat in the middle of that little Delta town I realized that maybe there are some universal truths:

Home is just as pretty as far away if you remember to look at it.

If you forget to look for a long time, sometimes home is the prettiest place in the world.

Hoop cheese, baloney, crackers and mustard make a damn good delta bap.

Oh sweet mother...fried mac and cheese!

2008-02-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, today I created food porn. We're always looking for something new and exciting and different. Lots of my restaurant customers are there a couple of times a week. My customers in the restaurant are my best audience. I've got a few who are also my best guinea pigs. (you know who you are, Tony!)

Today in my ever enduring quest to find the perfect food...I may have found the most delightfully unhealthy, most delicious combo in the world.

How, you may say, could you make macaroni and cheese even less healthy? by frying it of course. Here is what I did to make my Mac and Cheese Fritters.

Make your favorite Mac and Cheese or use your left overs. Dont be ashamed if your left overs are from the boxed kind. (I can't really live in a world where there is left over mac and cheese...but we'll assume) To cold or cooled Mac and Cheese, lets say about 4 cups of mac and cheese, add 2 EGGS, 1/2 cup FLOUR, 1 table spoon SEASON T' UP, and EVEN MORE CHEESE! I'd add 1 cup of SHREDDED CHEESE. Make sure that your mixture is pretty thick, if it's not, add more flour. Roll about 2 tablespoons of your mixture into a ball and then roll in seasoned flour. Drop into 350* oil. They will be golden brown. I'm pretty sure you could form into patties and fry in a shallow pan like you would a johnny cake.

These things were awesome.

Shank You Very Much!

2008-01-23T16:31:00.000-08:00

So I'm rereading the Harry Potters again and in light of our recent CCCCOLD weather I have been wanting some of Hogwart's 'warming soups and stews.' What's more British than lamb? Well probably lots. But this was extra good on a cold, wet Mississippi night.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of OLIVE OIL. When hot, put in 2 lamb shanks. Brown on all sides. In fact, brown more than you think. Pull shanks out and add 1 sliced ONION and 1 cup of sliced MUSHROOMS. Brown until nearly caramelized. Add 1 large can of DICED TOMATO. de-glaze the pan with tomato's juice. Add 3 cans of beef broth. Add ROSEMARY, GARLIC, SALT PEPPER, SEASON'TUP. add lamb shanks back into the stew. Allow to stew for as long as you can. I stewed for 3 hours. Remove the shanks and pull the meat and add back into stew. I served over red skin mashed potatoes.

Alright, this is pretty reminiscent of osso bucco. We had some amazing veal osso bucco back at Christmas that was prepared by my super cool neice, Meghan. Meg cooked dinner for the Scotts after her mom was in a car accident...at her mother's insistence. This recipe was something off the top of my head, but after eating and thinking I was sooo original I remembered Meghan's yummy veal osso buco. So much for originality. Oh yeah and this was mostly braised lamb in espagnole sauce. So much for originality! I'm pretty sure this would work with ox tails too. I may try that next time.

Trout Stack from Beeve

2008-01-10T17:35:00.000-08:00

He cooks a mean hog...but this is one of my new favorites. Here's Beeve's Trout Stack. He left out that this can be served on toasted french bread for a very involved but delish bruschetta. PS I love some of Brian's words. He's so cool:

This is a very involved deal, but it is worth it.

Trout stack

For the casserole:

2 fairly large onions
1 green bell diced
1 red bell diced
10 - 12 speckled trout fillets (if you don't have this, try catfish or
whatever, but it must be a white fish).
Flour
Seas'n up
Butter
Olive oil
Italian bread crumbs
Dill
4 way cheese (or whatever)
Heavy cream (or 1/2 and 1/2).

Julienne the onions and start these at a slow sauté with butter and
olive oil. You want these to be very caramelized (not onion soup
caramelized, but fairly dark). About 10 minutes before it looks like the
onions are going to be done, add the diced green peppers. When these get
soft, turn the pan off and add the red bell peppers (you want these to
stay crunchy). Stir this around and set off to the side to cool.

Dry the trout fillets very well. Sprinkle these with Seas'n up. Salt
and pepper your flour. Dredge the trout fillets in the flour and brown
in butter and olive oil. DO NOT COOK ALL THE WAY, just get them
brown. When you've browned all of the fillets, assemble your casserole.

Get a small but deep casserole dish. You want something that looks
like it will hold the fillets if you stack them at least 2 deep.
Put enough fillets in the bottom of the casserole to cover it up.
Sprinkle with dill.
Cover with onion/bell pepper mixture.
Cover with 4 cheese.
Cover with bread crumbs.
Repeat.
Pour enough cream in until it looks like there is about 1 inch in the
bottom. (Or until it looks like enough, I don't know).
Put in a 350 oven covered for 20 minutes. Uncover and cook another 10
(or broil for 5, whatever). After this, take it out and let it cool
for at least 10 minutes. This keeps it from getting runny.

This is really good over cracker crusted eggplant (my favorite) or
fried green tomatoes (your Daddy's favorite).

Eggplant.

Choose a good round, long eggplant. Cut into 3/4 " to 1" slices on a
90 degree (Like a tomato. You want round pieces). Kosher and cracked
black on both sides.

Take a sleeve or 2 of Ritz crackers and beat the hell out of them (or
if you want to be fancy, use a food processor).

Set up a 3 compartment breading station with:

Flour (the same stuff you used on the fish). 1st
Egg wash. 2nd
The previously beaten the hell out of Ritz crackers. 3rd.

Fry in olive oil and butter. DO NOT use the same stuff you used on the
fish, it will turn too dark.

To assemble:

Set one or two eggplant rounds on a plate, depends on how hungry you
are.
Spatula out a portion of trout stack and set it on the eggplant (Kind
of like you do for lasagna, you want it to stay in layers. That is why
you let it cool).

Eat it. With a salad. And French bread. And a Daddy pop. Or a glass
of Chardonnay.

If you don't have eggplant or a green tomato, try a car bumper. It's
almost just as good.

Not my daddy's pork

2008-01-09T16:31:00.001-08:00

I just got back from NYC. There is something about the city that just makes me feel alive and well. I had dinner at my favorite place, Minetta Tavern, and I got my favorite lamb. I saw their veal and wished I'd made that my choice. So I decided to bastarize it for dinner tonight. Of course there's no veal in Yazoo City, in fact, I didn't find any in the regular grocery in Jackson. My version:

PORK LOIN CHOPS pounded until fairly flat. Dip into and EGG WASH and dredge in seasoned FLOUR. Pan fry in 3 tbsp OLIVE OIL. Put into a warm oven. Chop 1 cup of FLAT ITALIAN PARSLEY and 1 small TOMATO. Add 2 tbsp of OLIVE OIL (I used citron olive oil), 1/4 cup LEMON JUICE, salt and pepper. Spoon on top of PORK CHOPS.

I paired this with:

Cooked PASTA. I used the fresh linguini. Melt 1 cup BUTTER. Let the butter cook until it starts to turn brown. Add fresh SAGE LEAVES, salt and pepper. Stir to keep butter from burning. Add the pasta and toss.

I've got to tell you....this was awesome. Try it. it took less than 20 minutes and I'm proud!

Christmas Snacks!

2007-12-22T16:18:00.001-08:00

Man are the holidays upon us! This week has been a tough one, Heath was sick and then Jacob and now I'm on the living edge of the same! Before the sick set in, I hit the kitchen to throw together a few snacks for tomorrow at my mom's house. All the Roarks and all the Johnsons (my mom's family) will get together to eat until we're ill and then play dirty santa.

I'm making:

My sister in law Kim made these last night and of course, one to steal a recipe...here's my version

about 30 BABY BELLA MUSHROOMS. cook and drain 1 lb GROUND SAUSAGE and add 3 blocks of cream cheese. Season mixture with UBON'S SEASON'TUP AND UBON'S MEAT MARINADE. Stuff cheese mixture into mushrooms and throw a few teaspoons of butter in the bottom of the pan and bake.

I made this up after some serious thoughts. I thought it would end up more like a cheesestraw, but it didn't. It ended up tasting like a buttered biscuit with jelly. not too bad.

2 sticks of BUTTER, 1/3 cup of SUGAR go into the mixer and beaten until fluffy. Add 2 EGG YOLKS and incorporate. add 1 teaspoon of SALT, 1 teaspoon of UBON'S SEASON T'UP, 2 cups of AP FLOUR, 1/4 teaspoon of BAKING POWDER and mix. Make sure you push down the sides of the mixture to ensure even mixing. add 2 CUPS OF SHREDDED CHEESE. mix well. Roll into 1 inch balls and push a thumbprint into the ball of dough. Into the little dimple, add a dab of HOMEMADE JELLY. I'm using some strawberry peach that one of Heath's patients made. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.

I had some of the mushroom filling left over so i added some chopped basil and some olive tempanade and turned it into a cheeseball. not too shabby for leftovers

One more

2 cans of ARTICHOKE HEARTS chopped. 2 blocks of CREAM CHEESE, 1 package of shredded MOZZERELLA. add some of your favorite seasonings and bake for about 20 minutes at 350. Serve with crackers, toasts, or pita chips.

If I don't post before Tuesday, hope your Christmas is beautiful!

1st annual Scott's Soup and Sing a Long

2007-12-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

Now I'm not one to brag, ok, I am. Last night we had our first holiday party. We invited about 30 or 40 folks that we work with or have made friends with here in the Yazoo area. Heath's sister in law has hosted a long tradition of soup and drinks then a drive to 3 or 4 homes to carol. Before joining the Scott family I'd only gone caroling with my church as a kid...and that nearly never included liquor! We decided to borrow that tradition and make a move to take our neighborhood by storm.

We set out walking and stopped at about 5 houses. You can imagine the sight...30 people, one guitar and an accordion. After an hour or so of wandering the neighborhood and serial caroling we came back to the house for soup, drinks and snacks. I'm going to lay out a few of the snacks that we had.

Chevre Tart: 1 package GOAT CHEESE broken up and mixed with fresh herbs. I used BASIL, DILL AND THYME because its what I had. I used premade FILLO DOUGH CUPS. into those I layered CARAMELIZED ONIONS, the GOAT CHEESE, and CARAMELIZED DICED PEARS. YUM!

Easy Sweets: 2 packages of crushed GRAHAM CRACKERS, 2 cups of CHOCOLATE CHIPS, 2 cans of SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK. mix together and pour into a baking dish lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Easy!

Lamb Chops: I removed the silverskin from 4 racks of LAMB. I coated each with BASIL INFUSED OLIVE OIL. I mixed together GARAM MASALA, UBON'S SEASON'T UP, AND A LITTLE KOSHER SALT. I coated the lamb with this rub. Beginning with the fat side down, I seared the lamb in OLIVE OIL. After it had a nice crust, I flipped the lamb and did the same thing to the other side. I removed the lamb from the pan and let it sit at room temp for about 2 hours. I put the lamb into a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes and cooked the lamb to rare. When we removed it from the oven, we allowed it to cool for about 15 minutes before cutting into chops. I served with a mustard sauce: YELLOW MUSTARD, CREOLE MUSTARD AND HOMEMADE JELLY. about 3 tsps each mixed together and served on the side.

Over the Top Cocoa: 2 quarts of WATER, 2 cups of COCOA MIX, into a crockpot. to each cup add a shot of GODIVA LIQUEUR, and one shot of CARAMEL LIQUEUR.

Snowflake Martini: for a pitcher, 3 cups of WHITE CRANBERRY JUICE, 2 cups of VODKA, 1 cup of COINTREAU. Shake and Serve with a cranberry floating in the drink

Pictures later!

The Princess and Beeve

2007-12-09T19:24:00.001-08:00

A New Development for Ubon's BBQ

2007-12-09T18:55:00.000-08:00

This weekend was the 15th annual Christmas at the Riverplace. For those of you not in attendance, that's the throwdown at Brian Campbell's family home. Brian and his family are Ubon's team members.

About 15 or 16 years ago my sister and i meandered down the way at Tom Lee Park during Memphis in May. We weren't really old enough to be drinking, but we'd found a way. A strange man dressed as an arab offered to purchase my sister and I for a camel, a chicken and 3 barrels of oil. Of course it was love at first beer. I'm sure you've guressed the weirdo was Brian.

After a couple of years we needed a whole hog cook and Brian was in the market for a non-arab-dressing team. It was a match made in heaven. Last year Brian won his first Grand Champion with the whole hog in Murphysboro, IL. He won't always admit that he cried and cried...I think all of us did. We won the Mississippi Delta State Championship this October with the Whole Hog.

We are excited to have surprised Brian last night. Next year will be our 17th Memphis in May, and our first to compete in the Whole Hog division. 2 hogs, lots of beer and a large time!

Memphis here we come!

Christmas Parade Dinner

2007-11-25T19:24:00.000-08:00

Well, Tuesday night is the Yazoo City Christmas Parade. This parade is held on Yazoo City's Main Street. My family lives about 3 blocks from the parade route. We're excited because this is our first year in Yazoo and we will be able to host our family after the parade. My daddy always makes a thermos of hot chocolate and another of hot spiced tea. He and mama plan ahead and have a bunch of snacks...so I'm not sure why we have dinner!

Tuesday night I'm going to make a hearty beef stew for the family. I saw Tyler Florence cook a beef stew once and I took some of his ideas. My cousin Buddy once told me that he was making some sort of beef dish and he threw in some of 'that ole thyme' (pronounced like time but with a th). While I love making fun of him, he's right, that ole thyme and beef are like peas and carrots. Here's what I'm making...it's going to be enough to feed at least 9 of us.

Coat 2 lbs of BEEF (this may be a roast that's cubed or stew meat.) with flour. In a big pot heat 3 tbsp OLIVE OIL. Add beef and 2 large chopped onions and cooked until beef is browned. Once beef is brown add 2 cans BEEF BROTH, 1 cup RED WINE, 3 cups WATER, chopped (large pieces or baby) CARROTS (to taste), chopped POTATOES (large pieces or small red potatoes), MUSHROOMS (I'm using shitaki), 2 tbsp UBON'S SEASON T'UP, 2 tbsp THAT OLE THYME, Salt, Pepper to taste. The longer this simmers the better it will be. If you've got a fair ammount of flour on your beef that will serve as a roux to thicken.

I'm going to make corn bread, nah, I'll get mama to fix that...I usually cop out and make JIFFY.

Something from my Father in Law

2007-11-11T16:02:00.001-08:00

I started dating my husband almost 14 years ago. Before we officially started dating he took me home to meet his family and told his nephew "she's NOT my girlfriend." Of course that's a rookie mistake made by many men and served as a means to seal his fate. Before we left headed back to school I made sure I was his girlfriend.

I always found my husband's dad to be interesting. He has methods of doing things that are sort of complicated. He makes a wonderful chowder. It's very rich and I can't eat much of it, which of course always hurts his feelings. He always fusses about how long it takes and how complicated the process is. Same with his beef stroganoff. Now understand me, when he cooks, it's awesome. But you always hear about how complicated it is and how long it takes.

On one trip to the beach my husband decided to make his dad's chowder. We accidentally found out it isn't quite as complicated as was rumored. I tried to come up with a stroganoff recipe for the restaurant and had to go to the source of the best I've ever had. I took part of my father in law's recipe and uncomplicated it. I'm cooking it tomorrow for lunch and serving it with a side salad. Here's my less complicated version:

Take 1 lb of BEEF. Use whatever you can find. Stew meat, sirloin, whatever is cheap. Cut it into strips. Mix 1 cup of FLOUR and 1 tbsp of UBON'S SEASON'T UP (or your lesser seasoning). Dust your beef in this mixture. Chop one small ONION. Dust in your flour mixture. You can pan fry this in batches or do what I do and deep fry. Melt 3 tbsp of BUTTER OR OLIVE OIL and add 3 tbsp of your leftover flour mixture. Allow to cook until slightly brown. (this is a roux) Add about 3-5 cups of BEEF STOCK. Dump all your flash cooked beef and onions into your stock/roux mixture. Add 1/2 cup of SOUR CREAM. Add salt, pepper and seasoning to taste. Allow to simmer until thick. Serve over rice or pasta.
Variations to this could include using ground beef instead of stripped beef or using leftover potroast. Sometimes I add mushrooms to the panfry/deepfry. Some people add cream of mushroom soup. I don't see the merrit in this. (GASP! I'll be lynched by southern women everywhere so don't tell on me.) If you want mushroom flavor add mushrooms. If you want the cream of flavor add some extra cream. I just don't get that cream of whatever recipe must!

IF you want you can talk about how difficult this is to fix and I won't tell a soul.

My meds are kicking in

2007-11-08T19:54:00.000-08:00

this maybe a bit outside of how i usually post. I constantly diet, so of course I bought a box of bridge mix. it's gone down hill since even last christmas. where are my chocolate raisins! Ah ha! there was the one in the box. My dad always has the coolest and most awful christmas candies. Maybe I will do my research and give you the recipe for my Great Granny Sally's Fruit Cake.
(I took my sleep meds...so sorry if this makes no sense) I think its time to bring some of the older Roark Family recipes. This weekend I'll get some together to post when I'm lucid.

So I was thinking

2007-11-07T17:14:00.000-08:00

Last night I started some ground beef with peppers and onions. I asked the boys what they wanted for dinner after I’d already started. I realized that with those 3 ingredients could have started several things. Add beans, tomato sauce, chili powder etc (see earlier chili post) and you’ve got chili. Add tomato sauce, tomatoes and basil and oregano and you’ve got spaghetti. How can we not have ground beef in our fridges when dinner is right there?

When my sister and I were in highschool we did a lot of the cooking and grocery shopping for our family. My neighbor, Mr. Westbook, had a huge garden. Like a good neighbors all over the country, Mr. Westbrook shared his bounty with us. We would wake up and find a 5 gallon bucket of vegetables waiting for us. Toward the end of the summer we’d started getting tired of tomatoes with salt and pepper. Ever the experimenter I decided to put those tomatoes to work. I came up with this sauce that’s served over pasta and isn’t italian at all, so I hesitate to call it spaghetti. Lets call it summer vegetable sauce.

Start by browning 1 lb of GROUND BEEF. I prefer leaner ground round. Add 1 large ONION diced. Add 1 large GREEN PEPPER diced. Add 1 tablespoon CHOPPED GARLIC. Cook until vegetables are wilted. Add 8-10 FRESH TOMATOES peeled and diced. For best results, peel over the pot and allow juice to drop into the pot. Then squeeze the tomato into the pot. Chop the remainder (remove seeds if you’d like). Add 1 small can of TOMATO PASTE. Add 1/4 cup of RED WINE (of course I didn’t use this in highshool. I was drinking Boone’s Farm then!) Your taste may prefer more than 1 can of tomato paste. Add 1 tablespoon of SALT, PEPPER, OREGANO, THYME. Toast 1 teaspoon of FENNEL SEEDS and add. (You really need to toast them, surprisingly it’s that flavor you can’t put your finger on.) Chiffanade 5 or 6 BASIL LEAVES, or add 1 tbsp dried. This is weird but it works: add 1 dash of CINNAMON and 1/4 cup of SUGAR.
Let this stew, the longer the better. Serve with pasta of your choice or (weird again, but trust me!) over toasted French Bread.

This recipe can be made with canned tomatoes, which is what I did last night. This taste always reminds me of Mr. and Mrs. Westbrook. If only I could replicate her hummingbird cake!

This is a Hard one!

2007-11-05T20:05:00.000-08:00

Well, so soon and I've got bloggers block. My husband emailed and fussed at me for stopping and I tried to explain to him as I will try to explain here. Sometimes a culinarian can get blocked. We can reach a point where we can't think of a dang thing to cook. I'm in the midst of being unable to think of a dang thing to write about, recipe about, and tell about. For instance, tonight I was home on my own, not a traditional time for me to cook something nice, but at least something that makes sense. I made a tuna casserole. ME. I cooked it like I had no shame. and then I ate part of it. when I wouldn't finish what i started I realized that I do have some sense in me. Tuna should be treated like the raw fish it wants to be. not something smushed in a foil pack that causes my child to say "whats that stinkin mama?"
I've fallen into a bland world. Luckily a couple of things are going to be different tomorrow. First, Heath will be home so I will feel that I need to cook. Second it's going to be cccccccccold. We're pretty cheap and I don't believe in turning on the heat so I will need to concoct something warm and snuggy. In the mean time I'll go drink some of my general mills mochas and eat some pre packaged pimento cheese (a travesty!) say a prayer for my taste buds, precious.

Low Country Recipe for a Cold Night

2007-10-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

Alright I posted today, but then I cooked dinner and I'm afraid I will forget what and how I did for dinner tonight. I think it's a new favorite with my audience. We had some Low Country Food. I think it may have been bastardized and could easily be further bastardized and turned into Grillards. (GREEEEE-ARDS). Tonight it was Shrimp and Grits.

For the Shrimp

Start with 1lb of BACON. chop the bacon and put into a skillet to brown. While it's browning, chop 2 ONIONS, 1 BELL PEPPER, 1 CU. MUSHROOMS. After bacon gets a little brown, add vegetables and cook until they begin to wilt. Bacon will be sticking to bottom of the pan and bacon grease will need to be drained. Add 1 cup of RED WINE. In a pot warm 1/2 cup of olive oil with 1/4 cup of butter and some of the discarded bacon grease. Add 1 cup of FLOUR. and stir. stir. stir. stir. this roux will turn blonde and then nutty brown. Let it go just beyond nutty brown. be patient! if it burns start over. Once roux turns brown add 2 cans of BEEF BROTH. watch out for steam! Stir well and add 2 cans DICED TOMATO. (If I'm not mistaken this is pretty close to an espagnole sauce, one of the mother sauces.) To bacon mixture, add 1 cup RED WINE. Deglaze pan and add all ingredients into your sauce. Add SHRIMP. As much as you like. I added 2lbs tails off. Add 1 tsp THIME, 1 tsp DRIED BASIL, 1 tsp BLACK PEPPER, 1 tbsp KOSHER SALT, 1 tbsp SEASON T'UP. (or your favorite season-all) Allow shrimp to simmer.

In a seperate pot add 2 cups WATER, 2 cups HEAVY CREAM and bring to a boil. Add 1 cup of quick cook GRITS. Not instant!!! Stir and combine. Add 1 tsp SALT, 1 tsp SEASON T'UP (or your lesser season-all). Stir until grits get thick. After they get thick add freshly grated PARMASAN and about 1/2 cup MOZZARELLA. Stir until melted.

Mound grits in the bottom of a bowl. cover with ladles of the Shrimp Sauce.

Good heavens it was good. Even if I did cook it myself. We served it with small biscuits. Try it.

Well it's about Barbeque time!

2007-10-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

I was thinking. I've given myself the title of "Mississippi Barbeque Princess" and I have yet to give a barbeque recipe. I've yet to discuss how-to or given a good tip for producing great Memphis style barbeque. In 1992 I wanted to be more involved with our cooking team. My sister and I would show up and we'd be gate guarders. For those who compete on the Memphis circuit, you know what a gate guarder is. It's important in that that person is responsible for keeping out spectators when there's a judge present. It's also the job you give to the new person who shows little signs of being adept at anything 'Que. My dad thought we were pretty and we were little more than decoration in a team shirt. I got fed up with being the girl at the gate. (Even if I was hung over!) Soon after we started cooking ribs in 1992 I talked my dad into believing that I could give a rib presentation. Back in those years ribs were different. All the cooking methods we use now were developed over time. (Maybe I should say that our ribs were different and not assign this to everyone.) In the early 90's we did a straight forward cooking method: skin ribs, marinate ribs, season ribs, cook ribs over a 220 degree fire for 6 or more hours. sauce ribs. serve ribs.

At Possum Town Pig Fest in Columbus Mississippi in 1992 my dad let me do the table presentation for our ribs. I'd heard his presentation and thought I could replicate it. Keep in mind that in 1992 barbeque was like the "Little Rascals" club the "he-man-woman-hater's" I can't be positive of it but from what I can find out, that table presentation was the first uttered by a chick. We went on to win that contest with those ribs and boy I was hooked! I noticed in 93 that no one would look me in the eye when I presented facts about the cooking process and would go so far as to ask my dad questions because they didn't buy my knowledge of the process. In 93 I started getting my tired and hungover butt up and going out with dad to cook those ribs so that he could in good concience say: don't look at me she cooked them.

In that time we had a huge problem with burnt ends. the ends of our ribs were always over done due to lack of protection. We came up with a way to help our ribs along, ensure that the ends were not only edible but also fabulous. If you're cooking at home, this is a great way to get ribs ready for a party the next day:

Start with a 1.5-2 lb BABY BACK RIB. This will work for as many slabs as you'd like to cook and will also work with a less expensive ST. LOUIS CUT RIB. (I don't know about spare ribs, my eletism won't allow me to try). Remove the membrane from your ribs. It's found on the underside close to the bones. If you use a knife or better a screw driver to slide along one of the bones you'll find the membrane and it's easily removed. *this is called 'skinning' your rib. (side note: this is why people boil their ribs to make them tender, removing this membrane eliminates that horrid and very non-barbeque step). After ribs are skinned it's your choice: to marinate or not to marinate. If you decide that you want to here's a marinade suggestion:

EQUAL PARTS UBON'S MEAT MARINADE AND APPLE JUICE with a cup of UBON'S SEASON T'UP. If those aren't on hand try SOY SAUCE, LEMON JUICE, APPLE JUICE, BALSAMIC VINEGAR and your favorite cajun seasoning.

If you decide not to marinate that is ok too. We've won and lost championships both ways. If marinading remove from marinade after 4 hours-24 hours. Lay out your ribs meat side down. I use UBON'S SEASON T'UP but you could use any of 1000 rib rubs. My suggestion is that you find one that doesn't start with salt as an ingredient. If your favorite starts with salt as an ingredient use 1/2 rib rub mixed with 1/2 paprika, garlic, black and red pepper mixture. Season your meat thoroughly, the ribs should be orange with seasoning. Flip and repeat. Rub to coat. Flip bottom side up again and coat with GRANULATED BROWN SUGAR . Flip and repeat. Rub to coat. The brown sugar helps mellow the rub and works well with pork. it won't burn or make the ribs too sweet. Let your ribs sit at room temp while you are fiddling with your fire. Get your smoker or grill to at least 200 degrees. I'd suggest a little higher. If you're using a barbeque grill, I'd suggest that you place a water pan under your grill to help with moisture. When you put ribs on to cook, make sure you rotate them in and out of your grill's hot spots. Every time you look at the ribs us a mist bottle with apple juice to soak them down. this also helps with moisture and color. Don't forget that old addage "if you're looking you're not cookin" BUT if you're forgetting about your ribs, they are burning right up. After 1.5 hours on 220-250 take ribs off. Lay out foil and place rib meat side up on foil. here is a great spot to get creative. Add HONEY, BARBEQUE SAUCE, APPLE JUICE, PINEAPPLE JUICE, PEACH PRESERVES, APPLE JELLY anything that you want that will melt and join with the juices from the ribs. Wrap in the foil and return to the grill for another 45 minutes. After 45 minutes place the ribs in a dry ice chest and close the lid. Do not open for an hour or two. If you're serving ribs the same day unwrap and put back on the 200 degree grill. When you unwrap, these ribs will be almost too tender. putting them back on the grill with help firm them up. You'll discard the juice that's in the wrap or add it to your water pan. Go ahead and add the sauce of your choice. After about 20 minutes your ribs are ready to eat.

My sauce is based of course with Ubon's. I take UBON'S SAUCE, HONEY, PRESERVES (any kind), AND BROWN SUGAR and run them through the food processor until smooth. A simple barbeque sauce if you don't have Ubon's as a base (you poor dear!) is: 1 Cup KETCHUP, 1 Cup VINEGAR, 1 tbsp YELLOW MUSTARD, 1/4 cup BROWN SUGAR, 1/4 cup HONEY, 1/4 cup HOT SAUCE. Cook this with preserves of your choice, and allow to thicken before adding to ribs. You will mop your sauce on your ribs several times. If the sauce is warm it will make the ribs a shiney red.

If you've precooked your ribs for tomorrow, remove them from the dry icechest and lay them out on the table to cool. Once cooled, refrigerate until an an hour an a half before serving and put on the grill to rewarm and sauce. Make sure your sauce is warm when mopping it on.

Chili Day in Mississippi

2007-10-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

Today has been a cold and rainy one. I love this weather. You need a sweater here in the house because it's about 55 degrees. I did give in and turn on the heat for my little guy. Today was indeed a Chilli Day. When the weather turns like this everyone that comes to the restaurant gets a bowl of soup or chili. Daddy makes chili a couple of times a week just to keep us covered. His is one of the best chilis I've ever had. I've watched and i still can't get it just like him.

One of the side effects of a big change in the weather is the waking up snuggled down, but feeling awful. I had a great dog, Murphy. Murphy would start caughing about 10 hours before we'd have a weather change. we thought she was choking but it turns out she was having sinus problems. We had to sneak her benadryl in some cheese. I've been hoping to get the loaded cheese all day, but so far no such luck. My answer to that was to cook one of my favorite chili recipes. This one is easy because I didn't feel good. you can complicate it any way you want to.

Brown 1lb LEAN GROUND BEEF. Add an entire bag of SEASON BLEND (ONIONS, PEPPERS, CELERY, PARSLEY.) cook until onions become transparent. After browned, add 1 tbsp CUMIN, 1 tbsp CHILI POWDER, 1 tbsp RED CHILI PASTE (if you have it), 1 tbsp KOSHER SALT and 1 tablespoon PEPPER. Allow to incorporate. Add 1 can DICED TOMATOES, 1 can CHEAP HOT DOG CHILI SAUCE, 2 cans CHILI HOT BEANS, 1 can YELLOW CORN, 2 cans TAP WATER. Allow to simmer for 30 mins to 4 hours. (longer the better! in fact if you want it really good, cool it down and have it tomorrow night.) We had ours with a touch of cheese, sour cream and crackers. Always remember you season to your taste.

Quite possibly the most awesome "i don't feel good do I have to get out of bed" food.

Here comes Monday

2007-10-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

And so ends another weekend. This one was especially good. We spent some time with my daddy's buddies at the deer camp. My little boy and his cousin spent the whole weekend out in the woods. Jacob came home with 2 splinters, 3 scrapes, 1 marshmallow induced burn, 5 non descript scrapes and one bee sting. All on his little hands. Somehow though none of those maladies kept him from chasing off down the road after a cow or colt or squirrel. Daddy got the boys these $0.88 plastic guns that you stick into a potato for ammo. Pump that gun and it will turn that potato plug into a projectile danger. I think that's what they used to hunt squirrels. Dad said that Jacob was in the golf cart with him friday afternoon while they were looking for wood for their fire and Jacob said, "Pop, this has been a good day." I'm pretty sure dad could have died then and not felt like he'd missed a thing. It thrills me to no end for my child to have the same kind of relationship with my dad as I did with his dad.

An outdoor weekend begs for food cooked outdoors. This weekend we had grilled hamburgers and hotdogs with some 'poppy beans' and chips. The patties and weenies were the cheap kind, but I'm not sure I've ever had a better burger.

We have a good friend, Mr. Bill Michaels, who used to cook with us competitively. Mr. Bill always brought a big pot and a butane stove and cooked Jambalaya for us when we were at a contest. It took him all day to cook. It was cooked start to finish outside. you could smell the chicken and the sausage all around. It was especially good when it got a little cooler. I loved his jambalaya so much that when I was planning my wedding I asked Mr. Bill to make some for me to share with guests at my reception. (There was only a little for us to take to eat later!) He is the master of Jambalaya. I've always tried my hardest to duplicate his and even with coaching, it just isn't the same. I've whittled down a recipe and plan to use my version tomorrow for lunch at Ubon's.

Boil a WHOLE CHICKEN. Remove cooked chicken and reserve liquids. I pull my CHICKEN and remove all skin. In a heavy bottomed pot put 1 tbsp OLIVE OIL 1 tbsp BUTTER and allow to melt together. As this melts add chopped ONION, BELL PEPPER, JALAPENO PEPPER (If you're awesome!) and a fresh chopped TOMATO. Allow this to turn pretty close to brown. add 2 cups LONG GRAIN WHITE RICE. Stir the rice around and let it get familiar with the veggies and the fat. Don't let the rice brown, but make sure it gets at least pretty shiney and a little opaque. Add reserved chicken stock. You'll need at least 4 cups or so. To this add about 1 tbsp SEASON'T UP (or your favorite cajun seasoning if you're not awesome), 1 BAY LEAF, SALT AND PEPPER to taste. put a lid on this and don't check it for a few minutes. give the rice time to cook in your flavored liquid. check occasionally in case you need to add more stock. Last 15 minutes of cooking add all PULLED CHICKEN, SLICED SAUSAGE. Here I'm going to add some pulled pork (because Mr. Bill ALWAYS does.) You can also add shrimp, crab, or almost anything else you need to get rid of in your fridge.
I serve with cracers, maybe cornbread depending on how it turns out, and a salad.

Come try it!
ubons.blogspot.com

Spending more time in the kitchen

2007-10-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long hard week. Today was a slammed day which is always good in the restaurant business. We don't have but about 60 seats so we're not a huge restaruant. Since we're small, when we get started before 11am we know that it's going to be a big day. We are training someone new in the kitchen and to her credit she did a great job, worked hard and tried harder. It's always an interesting process. Even people who know how to cook, can make anything out of almost nothing don't just know how to work a line. If you've been in the kitchen, you know what I mean when I say that its easy to get in the weeds and loose pace. Today was a prime example of that in the weeds feeling. It's overwhelming if you're new in the kitchen. It's worse if you've been doing it and can't get it under control.
In my past professional life I did hospice as a social worker. Every day I was faced with issues surrounding a family member's dying process. I was "the girl who came to talk" about dying. You see, with this as your first professional experience, it's pretty hard to get worked up about 8 tickets sitting in line waiting to be completed. Oh I freak out. But I'm lucky in that I don't freak out then. Dad came out front today and said "Leslie, go make a loop and pull some weeds," and 3 minutes later we were done. I'm a chronic list maker. I've been known to make a list of my lists. I will rewrite a list 10 times. Orders waiting to be filled are just small lists. You see, these folks are hungry, but they aren't dying!

Today I did a rescue on some meat for my dad. Last year we had a function serving roast beef and grilled chicken. Daddy got some beautiful shoulder clod roasts and burned them right up. They were tastey, but as moist as a cardboard box. Daddy freaked a little and said for me to do something. So I made a beef veloute. Before that day, Daddy wouldn't bother learning the word 'veloute'. He said it was nothing but gravy. This delicious velvety mother sauce is more than gravy! This sauce can serve as a vehicle for anything you cook. Keep in mind that I'm used to making this for the masses so I make it a couple of gallons at a time, so I'm whittling this down as best I can.

Chicken or Beef Veloute

Equal parts BUTTER and FLOUR. Melt butter and add flour. If you use 2 tbsp butter, use 2 tbsp flour. The butter/flour mixture becomes a roux. Let this cook for just a little bit, at least 30 seconds, so that the flour and butter can bind. Add 1 cup BEEF OR CHICKEN STOCK. watch out for steam burns...it will hurt! Wisk this together well. You will probably have a paste, don't freak out. get the lumps out and add more stock. repeat. The sauce will not reach full thickness until it comes to a soft boil. Once you've got the sauce going add whatever you want. With a chicken veloute you can add cooked potatoes, bacon, cheese, scallions, salt, pepper, seasoning and you've got a rockin potato soup. Or add chopped rosemary, parsley, salt, pepper and seasoning and serve over grilled chicken. With the beef, add some worcestirshire, soy sauce, garlic and spices and do a rescue on your dry ole roast, dry ole meatloaf, or add potatoes, carrots and browned stew meat and have lunch.

Oh yeah...In Yazoo City this weekend?
ubons.blogspot.com for our specials. I'm sure I'll be in the kitchen.

A very long day

2007-10-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I found out that somehow our catering service was triple booked for today. We had to deliver lunch to Rolling Fork (40 miles west), Lexington (40 miles north east) and to the Parker Roark House (also known as 'home' to my mom and dad). Finding this out on a Monday after being gone all weekend is pretty bad in the restaurant world. Monday is our order day. We get a grocery truck on Tuesday. Most Mondays find us out of almost everything. Yesterday was no exception. We were out of beans, potato salad, slaw, dessert, rolls, everything necessary to feed our crowds on Tuesday. We scrambled yesterday and luckily our friends working for us helped us plan for today. We started early this morning furiously restocking our standard sides for both the restaurant and for our catering trips. In the midst of all this we fried our awesome chicken and got everything else ready.
I will admit I was pretty freaked out yesterday. I told my husband last night that for a few minutes it could have gone either way...it was either off to Whitfield State Hospital or going to be ok. Luckily I didn't find Chuck E. Cheese standing at my oven baking pizza and struedel. (OK, that's the best picture I can come up with to indicate insanity.)
This morning we had a kitchen full of folks, each handling something that had to be done to get us open for lunch. When I'm in full blown freak out mode, I always forget that Ubon's Slaw is the easiest thing I've got to do. Try it:

Empty 2 bags of CABBAGE SLAW MIX into a bowl. Add 2 tsp BLACK PEPPER, 1 tsp KOSHER SALT, 1.5 tsp UBON'S SEAZN'T UP (if you don't have it use one of your lesser awesome cajun seasoning mixes) and 1/4 cup SWEET PICKLE RELISH. Mix thoroughly. Add about 1 cup of COLE SLAW DRESSING. Mix again.

This is our official side order for the Big Apple Barbeque Block Party. After making thousands of pounds of this stuff you reach a point where you can make it by feel. By the Way....I hate to measure anything. It's great to experiment and learn to trust your judgement. It's cooking! You can treat it like science but why? We have a rule that if it's gross, we'll throw it out and go to MacWhatever.

When Daddy started learning how to cook Boston butts, we had some awful stuff. Every now and then he'd get it right, and I think those times were an accident. Daddy has never been one to sorta do something. We had so much sourdough bread one winter that I still can't handle the smell. I digress. We had so much pork that Daddy decided to experiment to get rid of it. We've used it in jambalaya...that works. We've used it on salads...that works. But Smoked Meat Soup is a disaster. It was a MacWhatever night. Daddy, never one to throw anything away unless necessary, put the soup in the cat's bowl. The cat sniffed, gagged and ran away. It never hurts to try though.

A new week

2007-10-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

Each Sunday morning Daddy and I spend a few minutes planning out our weekly menu. Lots of it is set in stone: Fried chicken EVERY Tuesday, Chicken Strips EVERY Friday. We've recently added catfish to the weekends and it's starting to take off. It's hard to beat Daddy's fried catfish. One of the hardest things to do in a restuarnat is to keep it fresh while pleasing your customers who have their favorites. Thursdays were our Chicken and Dumplin' day for a couple of years. We had a group of guys that came in every Thursday...I called them the Dumplin' Gang. (Adorable old geezers...don't tell them I'm writing about them!) But other than the Dumplin Gang, everyone got tired of dumplins. So we changed the daily special to meatloaf. Now I'm going to tell you we've got the best meatloaf I've ever had, none of that ketchup topping junk. I have a friend who expects a reminder text message on meatloaf day. But our crowd started thinning out again. Now we're doing both.
It's our job to think of what people might want to eat, what is different, and what is economical. Mondays are the grocery order day and lots of times they are the days when we've got to be creative because we've got some sausage and that's about it. I've started having Monday as our soup(ish) and salad day. Tomorrow is Gumbo and Red Beans. (oh yeah, we've got sausage!)
I started making these Red Beans and Rice years ago and will debut them at the restaurant tomorrow. Traditionally Red Beans and Rice are served on Monday for just the reason I'm serving them, they are good, filling and incorporate what I've got fresh and on hand. Try these if you can't come by and have a bit with us:

Red Beans and Rice

In a large stock pot add 3tbsp OLIVE OIl and heat. Add 1 CHOPPED ONION, 1 CHOPPED BELL PEPPER, 1 CHOPPED CELERY STALK, 1 tsp MINCED GARLIC. (A modified miripoix). Once translucent add 3 tbsp FLOUR and cook until you have a fairly dark roux. To the roux add 2 OR 3 cups BEEF OR CHICKEN STOCK. While this thickens, open and drain 3 or 4 cans of 1/2 dark red 1/2 light red KIDNEY BEANS. Add 2 cans CRUSHED TOMATOES, then the kidney beans. To this add 1tbsp to 1/4 cup of UBON'S SEASN'T UP (or your favorite cajun seasoning). Add 4 inch pieces of SAUSAGE. (I'm using cajun pork sausage...cheaper the better). Allow to simmer for about 1 hour or more. 30 minutes before serving, remove 1/2 cup of red beans and process in food processor, or us a sieve. This will help to thicken and add texture.

Serve over rice. Each bowl receiving sausage.

**here's a secret. I will add about 2 Tbsp of UBON'S BBQ SAUCE and CAYENNE PEPPER to my roux to make it darker and add more flavor.

*********OR************
Call me at the restaurant and I will fix you up Red Beans and Rice and you can pretend you spent the afternoon cooking for your grateful family!

It was our day

2007-10-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

Well, after a season of not great results Ubon's redeemed themselves at Cleveland's Octoberfest. I'd like to congratulate Dr. Swinestein and City Hogs for a close race. This contest was so much like the 'old days.' (No I didn't get drunk, ditch my dad and spend the day under a tree nursing a wicked hangover.) This trip we spent time with our friends, The Sassy Sows, Delta Smokers, Dr. Swinestein, City Hogs, Ronnie Hamelton's team, judges and volunteers, organizers and reps. We were in touch with Mark West from 10 Bones (who also had this day as his in Covington...1st place rib and shoulder with a GRAND.)

We had our entire team there. Craig and Lori, Jen and Kevin, Brian and V, Mom and Dad, Doc and I. This trip we also had all our kids there, Aden, Sara, Jacob, Erin and Claire. We also added my neighbor Jim this trip. It was so good to have the entire team there. I think when we go this long without all cooking together, we forget that we all have jobs and that it's so much easier when everyone is there to pull his/her own weight. On top of that, we really like each other.

I've got to give some love for today's hog. Brian always says 'we all did it' when we win with a hog, but truth is he's been up all night, he's who's perfected that pig and while we help him when we can, he's the man behind the pig. It seems that Brian has figured out what needs to happen to end with a great product. I'm proud of all of us, but very proud of him. This hog was one high class hog.

No recipe today. Just a big smile for getting to spend time with all our friends this weekend.

for Ubon's....1st place Brisket 1st place whole hog 2nd place shoulder 3rd place rib. Grand Champion for the Whatever it's Called so you get a place in the Jack Daniels Lottery and overall Grand Champ. it was a good day.

On the Cookin Trail

2007-10-11T20:12:00.000-07:00

We're off to Octoberfest tomorrow. I'm excited to go. I usually see lots of people that I was friends with at Delta State.
There is a little controversy with Memphis In May. (I think that's an UNDERSTATEMENT) MEMPHISBARBECUENETWORK@yahoogroups.com has been created to deal with many of those controversies. The MBN is forming to fill the void that Memphis in May left a long time ago.
Any way (after my plug for Memphis Barbeque Network) this year's Octoberfest is doing its second year with blind finals judging. Lots of teams are less than thrilled with this. Mostly us old folks. We're going to adjust but it's not our prefrence.

We are going to be cooking some pretty good chicken for competition

Competition Chicken
take chicken thighs, legs, breast and debone.

season the chicken with your favorite citrus and pepper seasoning.
Smoke chicken until almost done. about 30 minutes begin mopping chicken with this yummy sauce:
put sauce in smoker or heat on a stove before you start mopping.

Sauce:
your favorite bbq sauce (Ubon's of course!) blended with honey and peach jam.

This sauce is great on meatballs too.

Today's the Day!

2007-10-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

So I guess I'm going to start blogging. I guess this is a good bit like thinking aloud but with the written word. My plan is to throw out some of my day to day stuff to encourage and discourage people from thinking...hey I can fry a mean chicken so I think I should open a restaurant.
My dad started working on his barbeque techniques in about 1987 or so. I can remember eating some crappy pork. He started out with an old propane tank that someone with a blow torch turned into a smoker. We started competing in 1989. Our first contest was in Cleveland, MS at Octoberfest. This weekend is our 18th Octoberfest competition. Our team has changed over the years. We've gone from a fabulous party team to a bunch of old folks who bring their kids and turn in early.
I can remember one Octoberfest while I was at Delta State. (Maybe it's bits of all 4 years and I don't really remember an entire one at all.) My roommate and I took my cousin and our friend Paul out to the college bars after a long afternoon of drinking. I found out that it's not good to take a couple of older brother types out to places where your college friends are mackin'. I should have known it wasn't a good idea when they locked some dude in a port-o-john because he was being obnoxious. One contest since I've been married I shot tequilla with Linda Hitt and my mom and well if you were there remind me. I spent the entire next day of competition sitting under a tree with a wicked hangover. I think Linda judged us the next day and still calls out for the 'Bad Roark' to come play.
We've had fun. About 4 years ago my dad was downsized from Mississippi Chemical. He started working on the restaurant then. About 3 years ago I agreed to join his maddness and enter into the restaurant business. Some days I can capture the absolute fun that we have going to competition. Some days I can see that it's possible to continue wishing and hoping and working. Some days feel like 4:30 at a contest when you're trying to pack up, repack, clean up and know you didn't make it to the finals.
How about a little recipe I tried this week. It's weird, but it is yummy. We couldn't decide between BBQ meatballs and spaghetti. This was our compromise:

BBQ Spaghetti
Meatballs
1lb ground beef, 1 small onion, 1 egg, 1/4 cup bread crumbs mixed together. Roll into 2 inch balls and brown.
Sauce
3 cups your favorite BBQ sauce (as long as it's Ubon's!), 2 cups bottled marinara sauce, 1/2 caramelized onion
Pasta
I prepared 1 box angelhair

After meatballs are browned, add them into the bubbling sauce. Let them simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove meatballs and toss sauce with pasta. Arrange 2-5 meatballs on top of pasta for serving.

My 4 year old loved this.