BACON WRAPPED BACON HOT DOGS

Bacon hot dogs from 4505 Meats, is a special dog stuffed with our favorite meat treat. When you bite into these meat tubes of tubular joy they have that familiar hot dog snap. The bacon flavor is sublime but the taste lets you know you are eating something special. How can we improve on these cured swine stuffed frankfurters? How about we wrap them in some home cured bacon and make our own hot dog rolls? That will be the ticket for today’s culinary ride on our lunch time meal.


Bacon and hot dogs are usually cured. My bacon was cured with a combination of pink salt, salt and sugar. This pink salt does have nitrates and nitrites that inhibit the growth of bacteria. “4505 Meats” proudly advertises that these hot dogs are uncured. This is a little misleading because they are cured with celery juice powder. This is a natural way to deliver nitrates and nitrites. They are still cured. What about the bacon inside the hot dogs? I just had to get that off my chest. They still are mighty tasty! The hot dog rolls are our English muffin recipe that is cooked on our stove top griddle. The bacon was sliced very thin and secured to our dogs with tooth picks. A quick sear on the flat top and we were in business.


Some of our new favorite sauerkraut from ‘Farmhouse Culture’ was served with this bacon on bacon dog treat. Some habanero flavored mustard from ‘Mustard Seed Farms’ put this dish over the top. Home made rolls, cured and “uncured” meat, sauerkraut, and habanero mustard is the way we like to spice up our lunch. It was:
' Lip-smacking
'Whip-crackin
'Paddywhackin
'Knickaknackin
'Silabawhackin
'Scalawhackin
'Crackerjackin' give the dog a bone good.

BLACK FRIDAY

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving is the traditional day to kick off the Christmas shopping season. Numerous stores advertise ‘Doorbuster’ sale items to lure bargain driven customers. Mayhem and disorder sometimes is the result of this shopping frenzy. I have never even got off the couch to participate on this unofficial shopping day. Who in their right mind would rise at the crack of dawn to do battle at a shopping mall? This year things were different. Ms. Goofy mentioned Home Depot had a great Doorbuster deal on some bamboo cutting boards.



I set the alarm for 500 a.m. to make a turkey and stuffing sandwich for breakfast. Since I was up I decided to venture out into the masses of desperate shoppers at the Home Depot. I miraculously survived and returned home with the boards and an additional head lamp. This image shows the head lamp with the optional beer helmet accessory. This will be perfect to illuminate our barbeque in case of natural disaster and possible loss of electrical power. Thank goodness for Black Friday.

ANCHOR CHRISTMAS ALE

Since 1975 'Anchor Steam Brewing Company" has produced a Christmas beer for the Holiday season. Every Thanksgiving we look forward to the years new release. The beer usually is a brown ale that is spiced. The label has a different tree every year to celebrate and symbolize the winter solstice when the earth and its seasons appear born anew. This years tree is a Bristlecone pine one of the oldest living things on our planet.

This beer poured a dark reddish brown with a thick head of foam. It smelled of chocolate, molasses and cloves. This years beer is a little on the sweet side. Malty, fruity with noticeable spice and hop finish made this for an interesting flavor sensation. A glass was poured and we savored it while waiting for our Willie Bird to cook.

Anchor Steam Brewing

TURKEY DAY

It is Thanksgiving eve and wild turkeys are cruising through out our neighborhood. The image below was taken one block away from our house. These turkeys are a nuisance and probably will eventually take over our neighborhood. Ms. Goofy will have to practice her bow and arrow skills for protection. We do have a domesticated Willie Bird in our refrigerator. Tomorrow this bird will be visiting our grill. I cannot wait. We would like to wish everyone a delicious Thanksgiving.

TOM’S CHILE VERDE

Tom a friend, Mad Meat Genius reader, and certified barbeque judge wearing his KCBS shirt and badge, approached us at our last BBQ competition and asked us if we had found the ultimate plate of chile verde ? He proclaimed; “Search no further, I have brought you the ultimate chile verde.” He gave ua a small sample of his home made chile verde. Needless to say it was very delicious. Tom was gracious enough to share his recipe and I would like to pass it on to you delicous tasty readers. We were able to purchase all our ingredients at Las Montanas. We bought pre-cubed pork shoulder. It is a nice convenience. How about breaking out a large pot and join us in the kitchen.

Tom’s Chile Verde

3 pounds pork butt roast cut into ¾ inch chunks
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon cumin
Freshly ground pepper to taste
2 quarts of chicken broth
3 jalapeno peppers seeded and chopped fine
1 yellow bell pepper
2 Serrano peppers
3 poblano peppers seeded and chopped
2 pounds tomatillos husk removed
1 bunch cilantro leaves coarsely chopped

1 In a large stock pot, over high heat, sear the pork in vegetable oil until golden brown; Remove the pork from the pot, reserve 2 tablespoons oil in the pan. Cook the chopped onion and garlic, seasoned with salt and pepper n the reserved oil until onions are tender. Season with cumin, then stir in the pork and chicken stock. Simmer for 1/ 2 hour or until the pork is tender.
2 Stir in the poblanos, jalapeno and bell peppers. Puree the tomatillos in a blender and add them to the pot with chopped cilantro. Cook an additional 30 to 45 minutes. For a thicker texture add cornstarch slurry as needed. Season to taste.

Tom Judge Extraordinare

This is an easy recipe to make. I would like to let you in on a Chilebrown secret. I have a difficult time following recipes. I stuck to Tom’s recipe with the only addition of a little oregano and a pinch of sugar.. We did use a slurry of cornstarch to thicken this pot of green gold. What a fun and delicious recipe. I might crank up the heat next time and use a little less chicken stock and more hot peppers. We served this over a bed of rice with salsa. Yummy Noodles! What a great recipe. Thanks Tom!!!

VEAL BACON

It is Sunday morning. We rise at the crack of dawn for the journey and experience of foraging through the Marin Farmers market. We go early to beat the crowds of politically correct Marinites and to visit with our friends Cookiecrumb and Cranky. This market has everything we need or want for our football themed meals later in the day. Today we found veal bacon from Rossotti farms. Let’s listen to what Rossotti farm has to say about their veal.

“We have returned to the historic traditions of veal production, starting with the selection of high quality meat producing breeds — Black Angus, Herford and Gelbvieh beef cattle.
Our calves are raised on certified organic open pastures alongside their grass-fed birth mothers. Their diet consists entirely of mother’s milk, clear water from natural coastal aquifers, and native local grasses and forage in a low stress environment. This results in a veal that is rose colored and intensely flavorful when compared to pallid commercially raised veal.
Our Pastured Veal is hormone and antibiotic free. All of our calves are born and raised on our family’s ranch on the Point Reyes Peninsula. As members of generational ranching families dedicated to sustainable animal husbandry practices and property management, we believe we produce the most humanely raised veal on the market today!”


Now that we all feel warm and fuzzy inside lets cook up a couple of rashers. Our trusty black iron vessel will be perfect for this task. . We do not have any information on the cure or the flavor of smoke so we will have to let our taste buds be our guide. . The first thing we notice is the deep rose color. This bacon is very lean so we use a tiny bit of oil in the pan to help it along. “Drum roll please!” Possibly because this bacon was so lean, it did not crisp like traditional pork bacon. We bit into this young Herford and got a jaw workout. Yes, it was very chewy. It had a pleasant beef taste. No smoke and no sweetness was the verdict. We are open to trying new things, but this product will be passed by next Sunday.

Rossotti Ranch

BACON LUBE

J & D's BACON LUBE

I am speechless.