2010 First Annual Blues, Bandits and BBQ Block Party in Oak Cliff Texas...

Screw Ethics, Good Barbecue Is More Important...

Yesterday's Blues, Bandits & BBQ competition in Oak Cliff was a success on every score but flavor.

Organizers estimate more than 1,000 people turned out to celebrate tunes and barbecue at the grassroots festival, which may have been the first in the nation to require its pit teams to use sustainable, grass-fed meats. But at least one disenchanted judge says so-called "ethical" meat isn't suitable for smoking.

"After dozens of samples of BBQ made from sustainably raised, grass-fed beef and pork, I must make the broad generalization that it sucks," tweeted Daniel Vaughn, the respected Texas barbecue sleuth behind the Full Custom Gospel BBQ blog, a must-read for 'cue devotees statewide.

Asked to elaborate via e-mail, Vaughn assured me his fellow judges shared his opinion:

"(We) were unanimous in our meat fatigue as our judging wore on," says Vaughn, who's had his share of multiple barbecue shack days. "It wasn't from the amount of the meat or how it was prepared, but the quality of the raw product."

That's not a knock on the farms which provided the meat. It's an indictment of grass-feeding, which reliably produces lean, mean cows and pigs.

"The grass-fed beef and pork had so little fat that every bite was tougher and chewier than the last, and wasn't to the least bit enjoyable," Vaughn writes. "This form of sustainable meat just isn't conducive to good BBQ."

Smoking Grass in Oak Cliff at the Blues, Bandits & BBQ Festival...

 

The first question one needs to ask oneself when one has volunteered to serve as a judge in a barbecue contest is: what am I going to eat for breakfast? I went with watermelon, hoping that the fiber would ameliorate the deleterious effects of gorging myself on meat for three hours. More on the success of my plan in due time. But you need to know right away that if you missed the first annual Blues, Bandits & BBQ festival thrown by the community-minded folks from Go Oak Cliff, you missed a hell of an event. You also missed a chance to sweat off about 5 pounds of water weight. It was hot and humid yesterday.

Rob Shearer, who organized the event, estimates that about 2,500 people turned out. Of those, 750 bought special wristbands that entitled them to serve as peoples’ choice judges. But, despite the whole populist vibe that they foster in the OC, who cares what the hoi polloi think, right? You want to know what we trained judges thought.

The judges were divided into two panels. At my table sat the unfortunately bearded and pushing-40 Jeff Whittington (KERA), the Saint Tropez-born Melissa Boon (Edible Dallas & Fort Worth), the delightfully randy Andrea Grimes (Dallas Observer), the very knowledgeable Daniel Vaughn (Full Custom Gospel BBQ), and yours truly, with a solid base coat of watermelon lining his gut. We started at noon with sausage and progressed through three more flights of barbecue, tackling chicken and pork ribs before wrapping it up with brisket. I felt full after the first course of sausage. By my count, we ate 36 samples of meat.

I think Andrea Grimes came up with the most apt description of the day, applied to one particularly offensive serving of pork ribs. Or was it brisket? I forget. At that point in the proceedings, perhaps two hours in, I was beginning to sweat, not so much from the heat but from my manful effort to choke down yet another bite of overcooked barbecue. This one serving of pork ribs, I’m telling you, they smelled like cat piss. I said to our table, “This serving of pork ribs, it smells like cat piss.”

“No,” Andrea corrected me. “It’s not just cat piss. It’s the entire litter box. And not the good litter, either. The really cheap stuff.”

She was right. What had gone wrong with those pork ribs? I suspect it was an acute case of what went wrong with much of the barbecue we sampled. The event was billed as the first “sustainable” barbecue competition in the country (despite the woman pictured above, whose t-shirt made me laugh). So all the meat was provided by Urban Acres, the all-local organic market on West Davis Street. I like the concept. But like a lot of ideas that sound attractive at first (pulling that fire alarm in the Richardson hotel, going as a baby that one Halloween and wearing only an adult diaper), “sustainable” and “cooking the flesh of animals with hot smoke” turns out to be something best avoided. I’m sure the meat carried by Urban Acres — Nitschke Beef, a cattle operation owned by some Cliff dwellers), Burgundy Beef, Juha Farms pork, and Windy Meadows chickens — can be prepared in delicious ways, but, save for the possible exception of the chicken, it ain’t made for barbecuing.

Daniel Vaughn was the first to make this observation at our judges’ table. Hormone-free animals likely smoke up just fine, but when they eat only grass, their muscles aren’t marbled with the kind of fat that corn-fed critters have, the kind of fat that you need to keep meat moist when you smoke it for four hours or longer. Daniel talked to one contestant who told him that his normal pork ribs preparation calls for four hours of smoking; after only two hours in the smoker, his ribs were already too dry.

Point being, we ate a lot of tough, dry barbecue. But not all of it suffered so. While none of the brisket our table tasted was worth a damn, I can recall at least one good sample of pork ribs, a couple decent chickens, and a smattering of sausage (which is, oddly enough, the title of my band’s third album). Here are the winners:

Sausage: Lagarto Catering (a Highland Park-based catering company, which just has to rub raw some of those fedora-wearing hipsters in Oak Cliff); chicken: Texas BBQ Posse (a handful of Dallas Morning News guys); ribs: Pecan Lodge (a BBQ restaurant in Shed 2 at Dallas Farmers Market); brisket: Heavy Metal Cookin’ Team (a bunch of Oak Cliff natives). Lagarto Catering, headed up by Rick Fairchild, also won the Grand Champ prize for most total points across all categories, and they won the People’s Choice award. So big props to Fairchild.

In all, as I say, it was great event, especially considering this was its the first year. The Better Block Project once again gave us a glimpse of what might be possible if people were given a little slack by City Hall. The live blues and barbecue smoke wafting through the neighborhood were both a delight. The legendary Bobby Patterson was showing up to play just as I left. Oh, and I ought to note that not all the smoke found its way to too-lean meat. Many of the two dozen contestants brought their own meat to cook, and I understand that those with the coveted wristbands were treated to much better barbecue than we judges were duty-bound to endure.

They’ve really got something going in Oak Cliff. The word “community” gets bandied about quite a bit, but these folks really have fostered a true community. Whether it’s the Bike Friendly Oak Cliff gang making you long for a fat-tire cruiser or Jason Roberts transforming a block just to show people it can be done or Eno’s throwing a Beer Riot or the Go Oak Cliff guys coming up with another food group to gorge on (they did mussels a few weeks back), you get the sense that some brainpower is at work out there. Those Gen X hippies aren’t just sitting around on their hands, bitching about where Dallas falls short. They’re making it happen.

Ah yes. One last loose end to tie up. Or, rather, the opposite of a loose end. The prophylactic helping of watermelon appears to have had no effect. I can feel about 10 pounds of meat camped out in my bowel, and a successful trip to the men’s room still feels like a long way off. My apologies if I’ve shared too much.

Stevie Ray Vaughan memorial model could be hot topic at Oak Cliff blues and barbecue bash

08:14 AM CDT on Friday, September 10, 2010

By ROY APPLETON / The Dallas Morning News
rappleton@dallasnews.com

Twenty years after his death, more than a few fans of Stevie Ray Vaughan have been asking and wondering why Dallas lacks a memorial to the guitar great.

Victor L. Rangel/Courtesy

A model of a Stevie Ray Vaughan memorial will be on display Sunday.

Austin has one. Why not the city where he was born, raised and buried? So the questions go.

Nothing's etched in stone or bronze by any means, but a quiet effort to publicly and permanently honor Oak Cliff's native son is taking shape.

And a conceptual model, Stevie Ray in clay, will be among the draws appropriately at a barbecue and blues bash Sunday in north Oak Cliff.

They're calling this latest Oak Cliff street party Blues, Bandits and Barbecue. It runs from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday along and near the 1300 block of West Davis Street. Admission is free.

The model of Vaughan by San Antonio artist Victor L. Rangel will be on public display inside the Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis St. Roughly one-fourth the proposed finished size, the piece features the blues master lounging with a guitar in his lap atop the letters SRV.

"This will start the dialogue," said Edwin Cabiness, owner of the Kessler. "We want to stand up and see how much public support there is for this."

Other questions need to be resolved: How much would the piece cost? Who would pay for it? Where would it be placed? Is the proposal acceptable? And what does the Vaughan family think about the project?

"We would not want to do anything without the blessing of the family," said Cabiness, who will contact them "when we get our ducks in a row" with specifics.

"We realize it's going to be expensive, and we realize it's not going to happen overnight," he said. "But I'm very optimistic. If not us, who? If not now, when?"

To Cabiness' thinking, there's no question where. "He was from Oak Cliff, and we want it in Oak Cliff."

Two years ago, Oak Cliff leader Jason Roberts asked Rangel, then living in Dallas, if he would like to work on a monument for Vaughan, who died, at age 35, in a helicopter crash on Aug. 27, 1990.

Roberts and others liked his concept. Now, his volunteer effort is ready for public review.

"I made the piece for him, what I thought was reflective of who he was," said Rangel. "I'm going to get it out there and see what people think."

Festival organizers are predicting a turnout of 2,000 to 3,000 people. Besides streets, vacant land on Davis Street east and west of the action will be available for parking.

"There are a lot of moving parts," said Amy Cowan, a member of festival organizer Go Oak Cliff. Lots of parts, as in:

•A 23-team barbecue showdown and smoke-down featuring backyard stars, professional chefs and meats from free-range, organically raised animals.

•Blues musicians performing inside the Kessler Theater and on an outdoor stage nearby.

•A temporary sidewalk along Davis, featuring patio seating, lights and trees in promoting the possibilities of public space.

•Appearances by members of the Adamson High School football team and a performance by Sunset High School's Bisonettes drill team. Part of the event's net proceeds will go to those Oak Cliff schools.

The barbecue teams will cook on Seventh Street behind the Kessler beginning at noon Saturday. The judging and tasting begins at noon Sunday.

Nearby on Davis, Go Oak Cliff will reprise the Better Block project it demonstrated earlier this year on Tyler Street.

A temporary boardwalk, outdoor seating, lights and trucked-in vegetation will be set up.

The goal will be to enliven a blighted area, to show what walkable neighborhoods and an easing of zoning restrictions could mean for public spaces and city life.

"It's exciting to take some of these places and re-imagine them," said Roberts, founder of Bike Friendly Oak Cliff and a Go Oak Cliff organizer.

GO & DO: BLUES, BANDITS AND BARBECUE

When: Noon to 6 p.m. Sunday

Where: Along and near the 1300 block of West Davis Street in north Oak Cliff

What: Barbecue cook-off and blues festival

Admission: Free, but $15 wristband required to sample cook-off meats. Organizers will sell 300 wristbands from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday and beginning at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis St.

oak cliff bbq contest..

ready to go...

Lunch at Pecan Lodge: Is this the best brisket in Dallas?

http://texasbbqposse.blogspot.com

Dallas is a city in desperate need of great barbeque. The chains are on every corner, but I'm talking GREAT barbeque.

You have Meshack's, oops, that's in Garland. What about Randy's BBQ? That's in Red Oak, doesn't count. Fort Worth had some great joints, but that ain't Dallas either. It's been pretty lonely for the Baby Back Shak over the past few years, reigning as the best joint in Dallas.

Enter Pecan Lodge at the Dallas Farmer's Market. Once again, Daniel Vaughn and his Full Custom Gospel BBQ blog blazes the trail when it comes to new and upcoming BBQ joints, giving Pecan Lodge his first four-star rating in the city of Dallas.

Four members of the Texas BBQ Posse headed east down Young St. to check out Pecan Lodge today. We were really happy to see some signs of life in shed #2 at the Dallas Farmer's Market, the potential of the place seems obvious. We beat the lunch crowd and ordered as soon as we walked up, meeting owner/pitmaster Justin Fourton in the process. Justin and his wife Diane, aka "Boss Lady" run the joint.

Long story short, the brisket and ribs were tremendous. Despite the mesquite smoke they had in common, the rubs and cooking techniques were completely different. I have to agree with The Dallas Observer, sliced brisket at Pecan Lodge is one of the top 100 Favorite Dishes in Dallas.

Check out Edible DFW for the back story on Pecan Lodge, it's a great tale. And head down to Dallas Farmer's Market Shed #2 if you want to taste what might just be the best brisket in the city of Dallas.

Pecan Lodge: 1010 South Pearl Expressway, Farmer's Market Shed #2, Dallas, TX, 75201, (214) 748-8900. Open: Thur-Sun 9am-5pm

It’s Time To BBQ!

The first annual Blues, Bandits and BBQ Sustainable BBQ Competition takes place this weekend, September 11th and 12th, and it’s shaping up to be an event you don’t want to miss.

We’ve got 23 teams signed up for the competition, featuring the best backyard BBQ experts in the area and a few Dallas area professional chefs who are branching out beyond their typical culinary categories. Matt Spiller of Eno’s Pizza and Tony Gardizi of Decanter and Capriccio have entered teams, as has Justin Fourton of Pecan Lodge (the BBQ restaurant in shed 2 at the Dallas Farmers Market, which according to some may have the best brisket in the Dallas city limits). David Uygur, winner of the Bastille Day Mussel Competition, has also signed up for the sausage category. Given his pedigree (Lola and the much anticipated Lucia) and experience in the art of salumi and charcuterie, we’re betting he brings something amazing to the smoker.

The cooking will start Saturday morning at 11am and continue through the night. The judging and tasting starts at noon on Sunday, September 12. Make plans to stop by Saturday afternoon or evening to meet the teams and take a smell of whats cooking. And if you are interested in tasting the BBQ and participating in the People’s Choice portion of the competition, here’s what you need to know: there are going to be a limited number of wristbands sold that will entitle you to the tasting. We’re talking 300 or so for a crowd that is estimated to be over 1500 at this point. The first batch of 200 wristbands will be sold for $15 each at The Kessler Theater on Saturday from 2pm – 4pm. The remainder of wristbands will go on sale Sunday morning at 10:30am… we’re guessing they’ll be long gone by the time the tasting starts at noon.

If you miss out on the wristband have no fear – we have also made arrangements to have Smoke and Luckie’s Smokehouse come out and sell BBQ to the masses. We’ve even got our friends at Spiral Diner coming out to hook up the veggie lovers in the group!

You’ll also be able to buy cold beer to wash down all this tasty food, and there will be an incredible lineup of live music, games, pop-up shops and other fun activities to entertain the whole family.

Don’t miss out – there’s not a better place to be this weekend then on Davis Street and 7th Street between Winnetka and Edgefield.

Chew on this if you want to officially sample the goodness at the Blues, Bandits and Barbecue cookoff this weekend.

Festival sponsors will sell 300 wristbands ($15 each) that will allow the wearer to taste the brisket, ribs, chicken and homemade sausage 23 BBQ teams will turn out Sunday.

The first 200 bands will go on sale Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at The Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis. The final 100 will be sold beginning at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the Kessler. (cash or credit card). "Once the wristbands are gone, they are gone," says cookoff organizer Rob Shearer in an e-mail.

The competitors will embrace their allotment of grass-fed, organically raised meats (supplied by Oak Cliff's Urban Acres from such producers as Oak Cliff-based Nitschke Beef) beginning at noon Saturday. Are we getting fired up yet?

The judging and music-food festival begins at noon Sunday along and around the 1300 block of West Davis.

Organizers Go Oak Cliff are expecting at least 2,000 people. Vacant land in the 700 and 1800 blocks of West Davis will be available for parking.

If you don't get a wristband or can't mooch meat from the competitors, you won't go hungry. Or thirsty.

Smoke, Luckie's Smokehouse, Urban Acres, Nitschke Beef and Spiral Diner will be among the food vendors from noon to 6 p.m.

Blues musicians will perform from noon to 6 as well Sunday both inside the Kessler and on an outdoor stage nearby. Free.

Here's the lineup assembled by the Kessler's Edwin Cabiness and Jeff Liles:

Lucky Peterson and Bobby Patterson, Ann Armstrong & Steve Hughes, Blue Mountain bandleader Cary Hudson, 17-year-old-hotshot Hunter Hendrickson w/ Jim Suhler of Monkey Beat sittin' in. And the Cliff Blues Band.

Members of the Adamson High School football team will attend. The Sunset High School Bisonettes drill team will perform. A portion of the event's proceeds will be donated to Adamson and Sunset high schools.

See you there?

yesterday's tornadoes and storms...

What a crazy day of weather yesterday! Dallas Morning News photojournalists were dispatched all over the DFW area yesterday to bring you unmatched visual coverage from Wednesday's tornadoes and storms.

These two photos show the funnel cloud touching down after crossing the Trinity River and then the resulting damage. The tornado photo was shot by Dallas resident Paul von Wupperfeld from a high rise in Turtle Creek looking west towards the Trinity River. DMN photo editor Brad Loper shot the damage photo at Daniel's Trading, located at 616 West Mockingbird Drive in Dallas.

do your cardio and you wont end up here, at the doc's office...

Blues, Bandits & BBQ...

This Sunday September 12th will be the 1st annual Blues, Bandits & BBQ competition and street festival. Oak Cliff has has been the home to many famous bluesman such as T-Bone Walker to Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Blues, Bandits, and BBQ will be along Davis from Nova who will also be having a art show CRAVE show (put on by photopol.us), and over to Tyler Street. There will be BBQ competition will be held behind The Kessler at 1230 West Davis. Live music will be in multiple locations, with both indoor and outdoor stages at The Kessler. (Bands & times to come shortly!). Part of the proceeds raised from the event will go to Sunset and Adamson Booster clubs in order to help the High School kids start the year off right.

A highlight of the event will be the 1^st annual Sustainable & Grass Fed BBQ competition on September 11 & 12, 2010. Teams will be required to cook on-site starting Saturday afternoon. Judging will take place Sunday afternoon – there will be both an ‘official’ winner for each category as well as a ‘People’s Choice’ winner.

There will be vendors, live music, games and good people. Look for The Tamale Company next to Chango Botanica. We will be setting up a Tamale stand with BBQ Beef tamales and Cheese and Jalapeno. So stop by to get a hot tamale!

• 

So Now It's "Blues, Bandits, and BBQ" And Better Block Redux on September 12...

In late June, the Better Block project -- which, in April, transformed the dangerous intersection of Kings Highway, W. 7th Street and N. Tyler Street into a pedestrian-friendly plaza -- reached the pages of the Houston Chronicle. And, some time after that, it found its way to Anderson Cooper's producers at CNN, who, in recent weeks, have been reaching out to certain Cliffdwellers wondering: "So, when are you doing that again, anyhow?" Because maybe that's something CNN would like to, ya know, cover.

Jason Roberts, chief among its creators and organizers, had no good answer. Except: On September 12, Go Oak Cliff is hosting its First Annual Blues, Bandits & BBQ at 1230 W. Davis, site of The Kessler. And Roberts thought, well, that'd be an awfully good time to build another Better Block. So, then, that's the date. And the place: W. Davis, between N. Edgefield and N. Clinton Avenues. And this time, Roberts has "roped in" (his words) SWA Group, the Lamar Street landscape architectural firm, to assist with the build-out.

"We're building out a series of decks using old pallets, and building those into the parking lanes, like the Parking Day event in San Francisco," Roberts tells Unfair Park this evening. "We're not going to do the whole area, but create several areas of cafe seating. And we'll partner with Shag Carpet to do the props again. And then we'll create some identifiers. Our hope is you've entered an area that's more walkable. It'll be a little trickier because it's two-way with a center turn lane, so we'll create landscaping in between with safe areas in between as people walk across. We're really going to make the area more humane. I mean, there's a lot of broken sidewalks.

"The exciting thing is we'll also create pocket parks in the alleys. That's something we're hoping becomes permanent because we have a lot of alleys. We'd like to string up lighting, put out seating, use creative placement of furniture and landscaping." (Which, speaking of, is what downtown McKinney has been doing recently -- I was up there about a month ago, and an antique shop had set up in long stretch of alley ... and, suddenly, a small stretch of Collin County felt a little like NYC.)

On his Facebook page, Roberts also mentions something about there being a Deep Ellum Better Block project in the works for September 18. And he's heard from groups in other cities around the country, including Baltimore, interested in reclaiming their streets.

"Waco and Austin and other places too," he says. "But that was the plan all along -- to create and this national movement of people who could look at blighted blocks and see much more."

terriers...

The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint... ima shedhed shedhopper...

Jody Clarke & Big Poppa Smoker's Spare Ribs...

VIDEO: Watch the contestants battle it out in these videos from TLC's smokin' show BBQ Pitmasters.

Note from the TLC Editors: This recipe is an authentic BBQ Pitmasters recipe. Our Pitmasters are really spontaneous and like to create their recipes on the fly, so measurements and cook times are a little loose. Tweak the recipes to suit your tastes and check out How to Grill Food for more tips.

INGREDIENTS

RUB

mustard

salt

cayenne

chili powder

brown sugar

paprika

garlic powder

onion powder

WRAP

honey

brown sugar

liquid margarine

peach juice

spare ribs

PREPARATION:

1. Trim ribs to St. Louis style, remove membrane.
2. Coat a thin layer of mustard. Apply rub over mustard. Allow 15 min for ribs to sit & absorb.
3. Cook at low temp for 3 hours, then place in wrap and return to heat for another 45 min.
4. If necessary, place ribs for a short time on high heat to prefect caramelization.

Johnny Trigg & Smokin' Triggers' Spare Ribs...

VIDEO: Watch the contestants battle it out in these videos from TLC's smokin' show BBQ Pitmasters.

Note from the TLC Editors: This recipe is an authentic BBQ Pitmasters recipe. Our Pitmasters are really spontaneous and like to create their recipes on the fly, so measurements and cook times are a little loose. Tweak the recipes to suit your tastes and check out How to Grill Food for more tips.

THIS RECIPE IS FROM THE LINK BELOW. NOT ME.

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/trigg-ribs-recipe.htm

INGREDIENTS:

JOHNNY TRIGG RIB RUB

salt

sugar

garlic

paprika

black pepper

red pepper

brown sugar

onion flakes

JOHNNY TRIGG BBQ SAUCE

tomato sauce

molasses

corn syrup

JOHNNY TRIGG WRAP

squeeze butter

brown sugar

hot sauce

honey

PREPARATION:

1. ) Trim ribs 3 1/2 inches for a St. Louis cut. Remove excess meat & membrane.
2. 2.) Season ribs w/rub. Let sit 45 min. Then wrap.
3. 3.) Place ribs on cooker for four hours at 275 degrees. Unwrap and glaze with BBQ sauce for last hour of cook time.
4. 4.) Remove from cooker and apply more glaze. Cut with electric knife for clean cut pieces.

file these under "Sweet ASS Pics"...

liq seasoning for ribs test #1... & #2...

1/2 cup apple cider
1/4 cup apple jelly
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tbs rib rub
heat slight simmer
pour 1/2 cup over "backside" of ribs and wrap...

sauce used,
1 1/2 cup chipolte sauce
1/2 cup honey
1 tbs TX Passion/ TexasPepperJelly.com
heat to simmer before sauce up.

test #2 was Peach Texas Pepper Jelly.

Myron Mixon/ Jack's Old South Bar-B-Que...

Zeus & Leslie...

smokin ronnie's bbq catering in little elm texas...

http://smokinronniesbbqandcatering.blogspot.com

Announcing smokin ronnie's bbq Catering Party Package. Feeds 20 to 25. Package includes:

1 gallon coleslaw, 1 quart homemade slaw dressing, 1 gallon baked beans, 3 large packages Lays Chips, 6 packages Mrs. Bairds Buns, 2 quarts homemade bbq sauce, 2 briskets, 1 pork shoulder, 3 mama janice southern pecan pies. 27 lbs. cooked meat. $360.00

All Party Packages need 48 hour notice...

People everywhere are discovering the wonderful flavors of "Old School Texas Style BBQ." Low & Slow cooked and flavored by a real wood fire. Smokin Ronnie's dedication and respect toward Texas BBQ will bring our bbq lovers great meats,sauces and sides that have been sought out and perfected throughout time. With Texas BBQ you always come back for more. CALL ME to find out if i'm cookin in the garage, talk a little bbq, or order some Q for a special event. 469-734-647O or 972-294-4733 eat more bbq!!!

www.meat.org

i pray to the good Lord in heaven, that the leaders of our country and our planet do something about our slaughterhouse's.

Will Rogers’ Chili...

You’ll find more recipes online at texasmonthly.com. You can also share recipes and food questions with other TEXAS MONTHLY readers at the Recipe Swap.
Will Rogers’ Chili

Recipe From Miriam “Ma” Ferguson

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 pounds ground beef
2 teaspoons cumin seed
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon tabasco
2 cans diced tomato, do not drain
2 cups hot water
salt to taste

Heat olive oil in large saucepan and sauté onions and garlic over medium heat until tender, about 8 minutes. Do not brown. Add meat and sauté until lightly colored. Drain off excess fat before adding cumin, chili powder, and tobasco. Add tomatoes with their juices and hot water. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer about one hour. Salt to taste. Serves 6 to 8.

Texas Pepper Jelly

Craig Sharry of TexasPepperJelly.com

bosco guarding the pit, early smokin ronnie's bbq shak pics, doug and carole ritter at traders village bbq contest 2008...

sweet...

Fire up the grill! Time for chicken and ribs...

Barbecue experts Chris Lilly and Eddy Maurin share scrumptious summer recipes.

Barbecue expert and chef Chris Lilly shares two delicious dishes for your end-of-the-summer barbecue. You won’t be able to get enough of his mouthwatering chicken and ribs.

Recipe: Airline chicken breast
Chris Lilly
Ingredients

* 4 airline chicken breasts (skin on breast with only the wing drummette attached)
* Kosher salt
* Black pepper
* Basil butter
* 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

Preparation

With a sharp knife, remove the bones and cartilage from the underside of the chicken breast. The only bone left in the breast should be the drummette bone.

Season the chicken breasts lightly on both sides with salt and black pepper.

Build a charcoal and/or wood fire on one side of grill, leaving the other side void. This will create two cooking zones; indirect and direct. The heat over the coals should be very hot, approximately 450 to 500 degrees.

Melt the butter in a small pan. Add the basil and mix well. Place the chicken breasts directly over the coals, skin side down and baste with half the basil butter.

Grill the chicken for 5 minutes or until the skin is golden brown and crisp. Transfer the chicken to a shallow baking pan skin side up and place it over the void side of the grill.

Baste with the remaining basil butter.

Cover the grill and cook with indirect heat (approximately 400 degrees) for an additional 35 minutes. The internal temperature of chicken breast should reach 160 degrees.
Serving

Slice the chicken breast across the skin and into small medallions to serve.
Serving Size

Serves 4
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Recipe: Apple cider ribs
Chris Lilly
Ingredients

* 2 slabs loin back ribs (baby back)
* Dry rub
* 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
* 4 teaspoons garlic salt
* 4 teaspoons chili powder
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
* 1/4 teaspoon red pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon white pepper

* Liquid seasoning
* 1/2 cup apple cider
* 1/4 cup apple jelly
* 1/4 cup honey
* 1/4 cup brown sugar
* 1 tablespoon dry rub mix (above)
* 1 cup Big Bob Gibson Championship Red Sauce (substitute favorite BBQ sauce)

Preparation

Remove the membrane from the back of the rib. In a small bowl, combine the dry rub ingredients and mix well. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the rub for the liquid seasoning mixture. Generously apply the dry rub onto the front and back sides of ribs. Gently pat to ensure that the rub will adhere.

Build a charcoal fire for indirect cooking by situating the coals on only one side of the grill, leaving the other side void. Add a small aluminum pan to the void side of the grill and fill it half way with water. When the charcoal grill reaches 250 degrees, place ribs meat-side up on grill grate and cook over indirect heat for 2 hours 15 minutes.

Remove the ribs from the grill. Place each rib meat-side down on its own doubled aluminum foil square. The foil should be large enough to completely wrap each rib. Mix the liquid seasoning in a small bowl. Pour ½ cup of the liquid over each rib. At the same time, tightly wrap and seal each rib with aluminum foil. Place the wrapped ribs back in cooker for 1 hour at 250 degrees.

Remove the ribs from the charcoal grill, unwrap and discard foil. Brush finishing glaze on both sides of the ribs. Place the ribs back on the grill for 15 minutes, or until sauce caramelizes.
Serving Size

Serves 4-6






Recipe: Fast Eddy's chicken
Eddy Maurin
Ingredients

* Chicken breasts
* Brine
* 1 cup of Kosher salt
* 1 cup of honey
* 1/2 cup of roasted garlic rice wine vinegar
* 4 quarts of water

Preparation

Mix ingredients together in a pot bring to a boil and then chill.

Brine chicken overnight.

Add rib rub from other recipe and grill indirect at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

Finish on charbroiler with a brushing of unsalted melted butter on both side. Take the bones off after cooking.
Tips

Eddy likes using the breast because it's a leaner piece of meat.
search for more recipes in TODAY's Cooking School

Eddy Maurin
Ingredients

* Rib rub
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1/2 cup Hungarian paprika
* 1/2 cup Lawry's seasoning salt
* 2 tablespoons garlic salt
* 1 tablespoon allspice
* 1 tablespoon cumin
* 1 tablespoon onion salt
* 1 tablespoon freshly and coarsely ground black pepper
* 1 teaspoon celery seed

* Rib glaze
* One 18-ounce bottle KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce
* 1/2 cup honey
* 1 cup water
* 3 slabs of baby back ribs
* 1/2 cup brown sugar

Preparation

For the rub:

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

To make the glaze:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Put in a foil pan and cook the glaze in the smoker for 3 hours (while you cook the ribs).

Remove, cover with foil, and reserve.

To make the ribs:

Rub the slabs all over with the brown sugar and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning prepare the cooker for indirect grilling at 275 degrees using pecan wood for flavor.

Rub the ribs with Fast Eddy's rib rub 30 minutes prior to cooking.

Put the ribs in the smoker meaty side up for approximately 3 hours.

They are done when the meat starts to separate when you pick up the middle of the rack with tongs.

Brush both sides with Fast Eddy's Rib Glaze 10 minutes before taking them off the smoker.

Who’s got the best ribs?

Who’s got the best ribs? TODAY brought together some of the best pitmasters from around the country to have a spareribs showdown. Check out the restaurant recipes from Chris Lilly, author of “Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book,” Kenny Callaghan, pitmaster at NYC’s Blue Smoke, and Ed Mitchell from The Pit in Raleigh, N.C.

Recipe: Black pepper beef ribs
Kenny Callaghan, Blue Smoke, NYC
Ingredients

* Ribs
* 2 racks of beef back ribs (with membrane removed from underside of ribs)
* Rub:
* 2 tablespoons butcher ground black pepper
* 2 tablespoon kosher salt
* 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon Spanish paprika

Preparation

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix all of the rub ingredients together, making sure to break up the brown sugar. Take the rub and coat both sides of the beef ribs evenly.

Place ribs on a baking pan oven in the oven, and cook for 6 1/2 to 7 hours (or until tender). Serve immediately.

Each rack can be wrapped individually in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to three days. To serve, simply reheat in the oven or on the grill.

Recipe: Cherry-pineapple sweet ribs with Zin-sational glaze
From Chris Lilly, Big Bob Gibson BBQ
Ingredients

* 2 slabs St Louis cut spareribs
* Dry rub
* 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
* 2 tablespoons paprika
* 1 tablespoon garlic salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons onion salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
* 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon red pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon oregano
* 1/4 teaspoon cumin

* Liquid seasoning
* 1/2 cup pineapple juice
* 1/2 cup black cherry juice
* 1 tablespoon reserved dry rub mix
* 1 1/2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

* Zin-sational Glaze
* 1 cup Red Zinfandel wine
* 1 cup black cherry juice
* 1/2 cup Rainier cherries
* 1/2 cup blackberries
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 1/2 jalapeno pepper, veins removed and seeded
* 1 1/2 cup Big Bob Gibson Championship Red Sauce (substitute favorite BBQ sauce)

Preparation

Remove the membrane from the back of the rib. Combine rub and mix well. Reserve one tablespoon of rub for liquid seasoning mixture. Generously apply rub onto the front and back sides of ribs. Gently pat to ensure that rub will adhere. Preheat charcoal cooker to 250 degrees F. Place ribs meat-side up on grate and cook over indirect heat for 2 1/2 hours.

Remove ribs from the cooker. Place each rib meat-side down on its own doubled aluminum foil square. Foil should be large enough to completely wrap rib. Mix the liquid seasoning. Pour 1/2 cup of the liquid over each rib. At the same time, tightly wrap and seal each rib with aluminum foil. Place back in cooker for 1 hour 15 minutes.

While the ribs are cooking, pour the red wine and the black cherry juice into a saute pan and simmer over medium heat. Reduce the mixture to 1/2 cup (about 15-20 minutes). Add the cherries, blackberries, sugar, and jalapeno pepper to the mixture and simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Remove the fruit from the mixture, add the barbecue sauce and stir well.

Remove ribs from cooker, unwrap, and discard foil. Brush the Zin-sational glaze on both sides of ribs. Place ribs in cooker for 15 minutes, or until sauce caramelizes.
Serving Size

Makes: 4-6 servings; prep time: 20 minutes; cook time: 4 hours
search for more recipes in TODAY's Cooking School

Mary's Argentinean Chicken Dinner...

the meal is called "Pollo al Disco de Arado". { chicken in the plow disc }
ingredients: chicken, olive oil, onion, leeks, garlic, red & green peppers, mushrooms, hot red peppers, green peas, & potatoes.

seen here cooking using mesquite wood.



to see the video: http://www.mundofox.com/la/videos/carnes-argentinas


Chef Ariel Rodriguez



also: http://www.mundofox.com/la/videos/carnes-argentinas/episodio-5/31710059001/



episode 5 contains 2 recipes.


the second recipe is the pollo al disco.