BOURBON, HONEY, APRICOT, MUSTARD

You will need to show an ID to partake of this recipe. This is mustard that you never had as a child. Now that we are all grown up, let me start again. Now that we all are adults it is nice to have a little libation in your cooking repertoire once in a while. This recipe will not disappoint at your cocktail hour. One cup of your favorite bourbon is mixed with mustard seeds, honey and dried apricots. The mustard seeds are seeped in the bourbon overnight and ground and mixed with other components the following day. The ingredients are few but add up to a huge wallop of adult flavor. It is best to use your favorite bourbon because this mustard is not cooked and you will get the full strength onslaught of bourbon liquor and flavor.

Adults Only; Bourbon Mustard

1. 1 cup of mustard seeds (Yellow)
2. 1 cup of bourbon
3. 1 cup of water
4. 1 cup of dried apricots chopped
5. 5 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
6. 5 tablespoons honey
7. 1 tablespoon salt.

Combine mustard seeds, bourbon and water and let soak for at least 24 hours. Add chopped apricots and let soak for another 12 hours. Strain mixture and reserve liquid. Add soaked seeds and apricots to food processor and add rest of ingredients. Process seeds honey, salt and vinegar and apricots until desired consistency is achieved. Add reserved liquid while processing. The mixture will thicken as it sits in the refrigerator.

“Wow! Bang, Zoom, To the Moon Alice” This mustard was sweet with apricot flavor and thick with a peppery hot flash from the freshly ground mustard seeds. The alcohol flavor is very prominent but is mellowed from the honey and apricots. Your last flavor sensation is a hint of vinegar to finish this ‘Adults Only’ mustard. This was tried on a sausage and ‘Nathan’s’ chili dog Mad Meat Genius creation. The chili was from a secret recipe from ‘Andy’s Oak Pit’ restaurant. The secret chili may be a story for another day. Today’s mustard was a hit. Sweet, tangy with mustard seed bite, and a finish of bourbon to warm your soul made this mustard a wonderful adult treat.

GREENLEAF BBQ

Green is the new Black. ‘Sustainable Practices and All Natural” are the key buzzwords in today’s market. Can you apply this to barbeque? Of course, Carrie Brunelle and Tim Bryan have created a barbeque store called ‘Green Leaf BBQ’ to fill this void. These two entrepreneurs’ have opened a barbeque store in Livermore California that embraces these contemporary concepts. To visit Green Leaf was a Mad Meat Genius homework assignment that had to be completed. A short sixty minute jaunt on our local highway without a traffic jam was an intervention from a higher source suggesting this BBQ store may be on to something.

I was greeted by Carrie and was enlightened to a store full of non propane, non gas, but efficient fuel burning barbeque cooking vessels. Several sizes of the ‘Green Egg’ were on display. These barbeques use little fuel to lower the carbon sin. One little ‘Egg’ in the window reminded me of a puppy that needed to be adopted to a deserving and wanting home. (Hint). A combination smoker/ pizza oven was a dream of mine that materialized in this crazy wonderful store. This is a atore for a Mad Meat Genius full of barbeque delights.

Sauces and rubs occupied a wall of this store. These were not your Wally-Mart variety of concoctions. These were competition worthy sauces that will save you a mail order fee. Blues Hog is a special sauce that we love and was stocked on this rack of goodyness. This will definitely bring us back again and again.

My favorite section of Green leaf BBQ was the selection of smoking woods. This collection of wood reinforces Carrie and Tim’s policy of sustainable products. This wood is recycled from wine barrels and from the burn pile. Wine stained oak barrel chunks are their signature wood. Grape vine wood with different fruit and hardwoods are stocked in the bins of this smoking devilishly pile of delights. You can mix and match to create a cornucopia of smoking material and then pay by the pound.

Green Leaf BBQ store is a destination store for great BBQ material. I did not mention all the tools and gadgets that the have in stock. They also have cooking classes. What a great place! I am bringing Ms.Goofy just to see that cute little ‘Green Egg” in the window. Come for the ‘Green Barbeque’ items and shop for ‘Christmas wishes!!!

Green Leaf BBQ
25 S Livermore Ave #111

Livermore, CA 94550
925-440-2135

BIG BOB GIBSON ORIGINAL WHITE SAUCE

Chris Lilly is one of my favorite BBQ celebrities. He has won numerous BBQ championships. He is a television personality and the ‘Corporate Pitmaster’ for ‘Kingsford Charcoal”. This last October I had the privilege to meet this barbeque icon in person at the “American Royal BBQ Championship”. He took the time to meet, greet and pose with yours truly. He was a gentleman and very personable. Chris Lilly is in charge of an award winning restaurant; ‘Big Bob Gibson’s of Decatur, Alabama. ‘Big Bob Gibson’s’ has a signature white sauce. This is a mayonnaise and vinegar based barbeque sauce that hat been around since 1925. It is used to coat barbequed chicken. It is very unique and may be a regional and an acquired taste. We have tried it in the past and were not to happy. After meeting Chris Lilly and realizing he is a ‘Barbeque Superstar’ we decided to give the White Sauce another shot.

The ingredients listed are basically herbs, vinegar and ingredients that create mayonnaise. Herbed mayonnaise with a vinegar spike is all she wrote. We fired up our trusty portable grill with Kingsford charcoal briquettes. The wings were lightly dusted with our favorite rub. Once the wings were done they were doused in the white sauce.
  The wings were spicy from the rub and smoky from the grill. The White Sauce was not so very terrible, but it was not our cup of tea. Barbeque and mayonnaise is a concept that I personally cannot grasp. The sauce did taste good with our vegetables and would probably make a good salad dressing. Chris Lilly is still a celebrity in our book and we gave the ‘White Sauce a second chance. It sure was fun to fire up the grill!!!!!!!!!!!

DEE'S STUFFED PORK CHOPS

 I did not last very long on the 'Vegan MoFo' band wagon. The first turn the wagon took we fell off right in front of 'Dee's Meats. Dee's is my kind of butcher. He has great bacon, hams and stuffed pork chops. These stuffed pork chops were music to my meat deprived eyes. Ms. Goofy wanted some Malfatti from Val's so we drove the wagon to Napa too. I did not want to snuff 'Vegan Mofo' entirely so we had some green beans smothered in a bacon and cream sauce. This meal should stop my meat cravings for tonight.



Dee's Stuffed Pork chops come two to a package and are frozen. They are priced reasonably at 4.89/pound. This sandwich of pork is stuffed with  bread stuffing and pork sausage. This 'pork on pork' mixture cannot be easier to prepare. I first rendered some bacon fat from some home made bacon. We are just looking for the bacon fat today, so you can dispose of the cooked bacon any way you see fit. Our left over bacon went in to our creamed bean dish. A couple of tablespoons of bacon fat is heated in a cast iron pan. The oven is being preheated to 375 degrees. The pork chop was seasoned with salt & pepper on both sides. It was then browned on one side for 7 minutes. It was flipped over and put in the oven for another 10 minutes. The aroma that wafted from the oven could stop a charging Mad Meat Genius right in his tracts unless if was half time and Ms. Goofy was on strike for beer retrieval duties.



Malfatti is one of Ms. Goofy's favorite pasta dishes. This is a spinach and flour pasta like creation covered in a tomato sauce  that is comforting and very filling. There is a small store in Napa that has an evener smaller kitchen in back that Clemente Citonni turns out these Italian treats daily. Clemente also makes many other pasta's, soups, and Italian dishes that are all sold to go. We brought ours home and put a pot of water on to boil. These pasta pillows covered in sauce and cheese will go well with any dish and particularly stuffed pork chops.



Some Organic green beans were baked with cream, bacon and Parmesan cheese. This would be the anchor for our falling off the wagon meal. Oh what a meal it was. It is just what our Dr. Biggles would have ordered.

GIANTS SUNSET

San Francisco Giants, World Series Champions,  Sunset Colors. 

SMOKED CHILI PEPPER SALT (VEGAN MOFO)

Today and all month is an event called “Vegan MoFo”. This is a month long celebration of ‘Vegan’ food. Two hundred bloggers will be posting daily vegetable recipes and tips for non meat cuisine. I thought I would jump on the band wagon and help out the cause. I actually really enjoy vegetables. I love to grow them and consume them usually with dairy products and bacon. Why do people embrace vegetarianism? It may be because of; religious beliefs, health reasons, possible mental retardation, and mainly because vegetables can be darn tasty. We will give, “Eatwells Chili Salt’ sprinkled on some vegetables a gander today in honor of ‘Vegan MoFo’.

‘Eatwell farm’ is 105 acre organic farm located in the Sacramento valley. They are a Community Supported Agricultural farm that sells to subscribers and farmers market. The label on this product claims the ingredients are; unrefined French Atlantic grey sea salt and smoked dried organic chili. The website does not elaborate on these ingredients, except the suggestion that there may be smoked Serrano chiles. This leaves a lot of questions. Chili, not chile? What the tarnation is French Atlantic grey sea salt? One can only guess at the origins of these ingredients.



This salt has a pleasant smoky pepper aroma. A little taste on the finger tip and I could not identify the pepper. There is no pepper burn. The smoke is not overpowering. It tasted wonderful on my tomato and radish taste dish. Later these seasoned vegetables tasted great in my salad. The pepper flavor was not very strong and was only a nuance of salty chile essence. This will be an easy way to add smoke flavor to a dish with out having to use a grill. This flavored salt would be wonderful as a finishing garnish for corn on the cob.

I hope you liked my contribution to ‘Vegan MoFo’. I need some bacon!

BACON WRAPPED CHICKEN LOLLIPOPS

The Bay Area is alive with 'Worlds Series' fever. The Giants have won the first two games and everybody is excited. This is a great reason to makes some bacon wrapped chicken lollipops. It just so happens we have some home cured, applewood smoked bacon for this endeavor. Chicken drummetes will be 'frenched' to form a sort of lollipop. Sliced bacon will be wrapped around this drummete and all will be smoked with a combination of apple and hickory wood.

A sharp knife is crucial to form these lollipops. Slice all around the wing joint. Pull and scrape the meat down the bone and pull over tip. After the first one is completed it gets a lot easier. Use your favorite rub to season the meat. Wrap the drummette with a thin slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick. The 'Chile Grill' was the perfect vehicle to hold these adult lollipops.

The smoker was set to 230 -250 degrees and wood was added to the fire. Our appetizers were smoked for an hour and one half. Oh man, did these baby's smell good. A little drizzle of our favorite barbeque sauce of the moment was the finishing touch. We will be sitting on the edge of the couch rooting for the Giants. Bacon wrapped chicken lollipops will be the perfect rally snack. Go Giants!