So where oh where did we go?  Let us just call it a place called burnoutville.  Between holidays, other obligations, beer, more obligations, general disdain for discussions about SEO over why we got into blogging which is FOOD!!!!!!  Not saying I would not like to make it rich and relax on a private island for the rest of my life but we just care more about the food we cook than if golly gee someone from Food Network sees this and wants to offer us a million dollar contact to get in front of a camera and act like idiots to show users how to properly chop an onion (I can already see people hitting the unsubscribe from blog button).

Also, I would like to point out that this recipe does not contain beer.  This is shocking because our last runs contained nothing but beer.  Fear not you hobos slamming your 40s discretely wrapped in paper bags we will be providing more beer soaked food in the coming weeks. 

Well work summons so off to do what allows us to afford web space so we can ramble about nothing and everything all at the same time.  Yeah we are that good…

For this recipe you first need to make the meatballs.  If you do not have a super secret family recipe here is a pretty idiot proof one:

1. 2 # Ground Beef
2. 1 # Ground Pork
3. 1 c breadcrumbs
4. 3 T minced parsley
5. 2 T minced garlic
6. 1/2 onion, minced
7. 2 eggs
8. Blue cheese

To make the meatballs:

1. Combine all ingredients except blue cheese.
2. Form into balls and shove a piece of blue in the middle because let us face it everything is better with more cheese.
3. Put in fridge for a couple of hours to harden up.

For the rest of the recipe you will need:

1. 2 cups of Frank’s hot sauce (used the extra hot)
2. 1 onion diced
3. Couple stalks of celery diced
4. Carrot diced

Steps for glory:

1. 8 TB of butter
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
3. Melt the butter over medium heat. Add in the meatballs in batches and brown all over. Remove and set aside.
4. Add in the celery, carrot, and onion and sauté until softened.
5. Add the meatballs back in and pour the hot sauce over top of them
6. Put in the oven for 20 minutes or until they are done. Serve with more blue cheese

Serve and enjoy!

*** Contest is CLOSED – But the rib tip recipe still ROCKS!!! ***

Everyone has a favorite holiday. For most that holiday is rapidly approaching in the form of a jolly fat man dressed in red with a bag of toys. Mine comes in the form of the walking dead dressed in rags with a bag of candy.

Ah yes – Halloween. All Hallows eve. The day when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is the thinnest. When ghosts and skeletons and the walking dead roam the earth for one last time. Mostly hoping for a king-sized snickers.

Well my apologies dear goblins. I don’t have any king sized snickers to give away today. As a matter of fact, I only have one treat to give to a lucky trickster. But it is a freakishly AWESOME treat, if I do say so myself.

My good friends over at SodaStreamUSA know what a CRAZED fanatic I am for their SodaStream machine. I have been an avid user for about 5 years. I have mastered the art of the fizzy water and I rave on a regular basis on the magic and wonder that is the home made Soda. I have even turned Jeff into a SodaStream Zombie!

One lucky ghoul will receive the following:

This package includes everything you need to make fresh fizzy water in your own home.

* Fountain Jet Home Soda Maker
* 1 60 liter Carbonator
* 2 Carbonating Bottles

Retail value of $109.94

SodaStream will also throw in a sample pack of all their soda flavors so that you too can make the AMAZING recipe we bring you below. This was made using soda we made RIGHT THERE ON THE SPOT with the SodaStream machine.

First things first:

1) Fill bottle with cold water. (Chill for optimal results)
2) Attach to Soda Maker
3) Push button to carbonate. We push the button 4 times. 1 to set and seal, and 3 more times to inject the bubbles.
4) Release the bottle from the Soda Maker, and add a cap full of “Root Beer” flavoring. (We find that you can add as much or as little of the flavoring that you like. We added a little extra for the recipe that follows.)
5) Cap and gently rock to mix.

And POOF! You have fresh tasty home made root beer for this scarily good recipe.

Walking Dead Rib Tips Braised in Deadly Hemlock Root Beer

Gather ye ingredients of toxicity…

Couple lbs of rib tips from your local Zombies, dusted with flour
2-3 T bacon grease (or peanut oil)
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, diced
3 cups of root beer
1 T oregano
1 T thyme
2 t chili powder
pinch of cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper

Flour the rib tips and brown in the bacon grease.

Remove the rib tips and add in the onion. Cook till softened.

Then add the garlic and cook another minute.

Finally add the root beer, oregano, thyme, chili powder, cayenne, bay leaves and cumin.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Cover and let it cook for an hour and a half.

Check seasoning and serve to your minions.

This was so good I refused to send the leftovers to work with Jeff the next day. And made with your VERY OWN HOME MADE ROOT BEER? Well won’t you be the hero.

We also flavor the fizzy water with natural ingredients. Crushed cranberries and sugar, smashed lemons, muddled mint and lime, cucumber slices, sweetened pumpkin puree, vanilla beans and even more. The favor possibilities are endless only by your imagination. Another really cool thing? Fizzy Jello! Over carbonate the water (Like 6 button pushes) and mix with jello. You jello will be all bubbly and that fun meter is so kicked up.

So have I convinced you that you want one yet?

Well this one can be yours. Enter by doing the following:

Leave me a comment here telling how you would flavor your first bottle of home made fizzy water. Check out SodaStream for their list of flavors or come up with one of your own. The possibilities are endless.

For a bonus entries:

Click the button below to send out the following tweet on Twitter:

I just entered to win my very own @SodaStreamUSA Soda Maker thanks to @BodaciousGirl & He Cooks She Cooks – Enter Now! http://t.co/x51NYPc

Tweet

Or share this post on your FaceBook.

Make sure you come on back here and leave us additional comments for each bonus entry.

The contest runs through Friday November 5th 2010 at 7 pm e.t. The winner will be selected randomly by Random.org. and announced at that time.

GOOD LUCK and HAPPY HALOWEEN!

It is 7am on Saturday. We have begrudgingly gotten out of bed in order to start the smoker for the FIVE pounds of Boston Butt that has been sitting in the fridge. We decided that a PHOTO TUTORIAL on SMOKING PULLED PORK would be a rather SWELL idea to thank you for your votes during the FoodBuzz Culinary Internet Writers Championship to the DEATH tournament. Yes we advanced once again. HOW do we KEEP pulling this off? Anyway, I THOUGHT that getting out of bed WITH Jeff rather than pulling the blanket over my head would have been received with love and appreciation for the assistance he was about to receive. Instead I got barked at and just felt devalued as he grumbled and stomped in and out of the house with camera / no camera / one shoe off / pork / camera / etc. I DID get to place the already seasoned pork on the grate in the smoker. Probably because he saw the pout that was starting to form on my lips. Or probably because he was out of hands and actually required the use of mine. Whatever.

But in truth this was a lesson of sorts for me as well. As often as we have used the smoker I am not the one who mans said smoker. I am not the one who creates the rub. I am not the one who rubs the pork. (Well. You know what I mean…) I am merely the one who creates all the side dishes to compliment the star of the show. So we are learning together. YAY us! Which really is rather good for you. I get all the abuse and you get all the knowledge. Of course I get to EAT the end product. But trust me, in some twisted way – you are still coming out way ahead. So let’s begin shall we?

NOTE: This may SEEM like a tragically long post, but it is chock full of AMAZING photography and KILLER instruction which is needed to pull off the perfect pulled pork. So suck it up.

For purposes of this tutorial we are utilizing the Weber Smoky Mountain Cooker Smoker. So when we refer to the WSM, THAT is what we are talking about. And here it is – disassembled.

First things first, get those coals going.

A chimney coal starter is the best way to start coals. If you do not have one. Just stop reading now and go get one. We will wait here. Back? Ok now fill the chimney one-quarter full of charcoal (about 20 pieces), shove some paper under the chimney to act as the coals ignition, and light it with your chosen fire starting method. We used a welder’s torch. A match, however, would be just fine.

In the base of the WSM, fill the charcoal ring with unlit charcoal and scatter 4-5 chunks of wood (we used apple and hickory) within the charcoal.

Sure this doesn’t seem like a lot, but a little bit goes a long way. We want faint whispers of smoke, not nuclear reactor smoke. Let the smoke kiss the meat and move along. Too much smoke and the meat will taste vile.

—

Once the coals in the chimney starter have grayed over, add them to the unlit ones in the base of the WSM.

Make sure they mix in with the unlit ones and the wood chunks. This is known as the Minion Method of lighting the coals and will ensure you do not need to add more fuel (coals) during cooking, unless you go longer then 12 hours…

—

Now fill the water pan with… you guessed it water. This water acts as a buffer between the heat and the meat. And assemble the center of the WSM.

First put in the water pan which should be full of water. Then the bottom grate and finally the top grate. Now carefully put this assembled center part on top of the prepared base.

Put the lid on and open the bottom vents and let it go until the WSM’s temperature reaches 220° F.

While you are waiting for it to reach 220° F. Prepare the meat.

—

Unlike grilling and roasting, this rub does NOT impart any real flavor into the meat. That is what the smoke is for. So marinades or rubs that are applied hours / days / weeks earlier don’t mean a hill of beans. This rub creates a wonderful crust on the meat that is To. Die. For. The following is our go to recipe:

Pulled Pork Rub

• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of paprika
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon whole chili powder
• 1/2 tablespoon cumin
• 1/2 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• Crushed red pepper to taste (advise adding this a little bit at a time, shake, taste, adjust)

As you can probably tell from the previous photo – you take all of those ingredients and combine well.

Next take your pork and slather it with mustard.

Just some plain ole’ yellow mustard. We have found that it imparts no real flavor to the end product. You are using it simply as a glue of sorts for the amazing rub you just mixed up. So yes you know what is next.

Take the rub you just prepared and apply it all over the entire surface of the pork. Looking good!

—

Time to check the temperature of the WSM. Which should be happily at 220° F.

We are a little high here. Which is ok. You can easily adjust it with the 3 vents at the bottom of the WSM.

Don’t close them completely or you kill all of the oxygen that is getting to the fire. I learned this when Jeff yelled at me from the driveway, “Heather! It’s remedial science here. No air – no fire!” See I told you this would not be all fun and games for me…

—

So you now have your WSM at the perfect 220° F degrees. Time to get the prepared pork.

I was very excited at this point because *I* got to put the pork on the WSM! Yay Heather! We… I mean *I* placed it on the top grate, and inserted the probe of the thermometer into the side of the pork at its thickest part. We ran the cord through the top vent of the smoker and attached it to our handy-dandy electronic heat-resistant thermometer of INSANITY! You need one of these because the last thing you want to do once you put the lid on is take it off every half hour to check the meats temperature and ruin your perfect WSM temperature! Once the lid goes on it stays on. The pork will not magically disappear in all that mystical smoke. Trust us.

It is now 8:30am. The starting temperature of the pork is 67° F. We have quite a wait ahead of us. We are waiting for 160° F. We try to fill that time constructively while keeping an eye on the temperature.

—

I suppose we could rake the leaves…

Temperature check at 10:30am…

Maybe do some laundry… oh look! Scary!

Temperature check at Noon…

We’re getting closer… Ok what now? I don’t know, cut the grass?

Temperature check at 2:00… EXCITED!

Ok screw this – time for some video games!!!

Pause game – check temperature at 4:00…

YAY! We have reached a milestone temperature here! You are looking for an internal temperature of 155° – 160° F. Disconnect the temperature probe and remove the lid and check out PORK PERFECTION.

Remove the pork from the grill (don’t forget to put the lid back on the WSM!) and wrap completely in foil. Put the temperature probe back in and return it to the grill.

Put the lid back on, reconnect the temperature probe and go back to your video games…

Man I love this game… but anyway… we are now waiting for the pork to reach an internal temperature of 200° F. Pulled pork on the smoker takes massive amounts of patience. Of which, truthfully neither of us have. But for the perfect pulled pork. We will wait a lifetime.

OMG OMG OMG! See that? It says 200° F! OMG JEFF! Please can we take it off the smoker can we can we can we? CAN WE??? He gave me this very un-amused look, rolled his eyes and said “well get a pan for it woman!” (Then I saw him laugh so he was actually very much so amused but let’s not tell him I told you that. He has after all, a reputation to uphold…)

—

So now you want to take the pork off the smoker, bring it in the house and let it sit, still wrapped in foil, for an hour. After that painfully long hour has passed, it is time to pull it off the bone. At this point for us it actually FELL off the bone, and Jeff and his pork pulling professionalism, i.e. his hands went to work.

Pulling the pork is very easy. You can take two forks or use your hands. If you choose the sissy forks then with one you hold the pork, with the other you pull the pork into beautiful ribbons of pork excellence.

Serve it on a toasted crusty roll, in a warm tortilla or just on the plate. But whatever you do. Serve it with the sauce of your choice on the side. It tastes so amazing on its own, you don’t want to drown it in some sticky sauce.

Congratulations! You have just smoked your first pulled pork! And if it turned out the way ours did (damn AWESOME!) your taste buds will LOVE you!

If you found this tutorial educational and informational, I hope you decide to vote for us in the FoodBuzz Food Blogger Challenge of SCHOLASTIC RIGHTEOUSNESS! If you found it to be quite the knee-slapping, humdinger as well… then we really did our job damn smoothly.

Apparently, someone out there likes us. I don’t know who you are but mahalo. Because it looks like we advanced to the next round in the Food Buzz Competition – Project Food Blog of Magic and Wonderment. For the next phase – we were to take an ethnic classic dish that we were not familiar with and tackle it. Wow. So violent FoodBuzz! I guess just making it and eating it isn’t enough for you huh? FINE!

Well this shouldn’t be a tough one but naturally it is. We are both of European descent and both cook from our culture regularly so that wasn’t going to fly. Mexican? Nope – I have mad cantina skills. American? Jeff has that market cornered. I said Greek? Jeff said you can make Tzatziki in your sleep. I said Chinese? He hit me over the head with our 10 year old thoroughly seasoned wok. Sushi? African? Lebanese? No No NO! I was overwhelmed and frustrated and mumbling to myself as I stomped and whined my way all through the house. Then it hit me. I ran into the back room where he was working (more like avoiding me because I was getting bitchy…) I said HAWAIIAN!!! He stopped pretending to work and looked up. I said and what do those crazy Hawaiian folk love to eat? He thought for a minute and said SPAM?? I laughed and said YES! And there is nothing quite outside our comfort zone like overly processed meat!

Hawaii’s fascination with spam goes back to the time of WWII when American soldiers ate it as part of their rations and in turn introduced it to Hawaii. Fresh meat was scarce so the Islanders stocked up on this canned salted meat which required no refrigeration. It has remained exceptionally popular and one of the classic ways the Hawaiian’s eat it is called Spam Musubi (pronounced moo-soo-bee) I think I may have had spam once at a luau themed party I went to many years ago. Jeff has never had it and has made it quite clear to me that this is my baby and only I will be eating it. I told him please even President Obama stopped for a Spam Musubi snack while playing golf at Oahu’s Olomana Golf Links. You like golf!!! He said well when President Obama buys me some Musubi and a new set of Pings I’ll take it under consideration. I guess my you golf too so you must like spam equation wasn’t convincing. Jeff is a tough nut to crack.

Getting the Spam out of the can was probably the most unpleasant experience in all of this. It took some coaxing and stabbing and cussing on my part but as it gracefully slid out of the can making this god awful squishy sound and then hit the plate with a thwack my tummy turned just a little. I wondered just how uncomfortable did FoodBuzz want me to be? Enough is enough already here is a taco… I have never made them before I swear! But I made a Spam commitment to myself and Hawaii and I was going to have Spam Musubi today if it killed me. So I sliced up the slimy Spam and worked up a marinade:

For those of you playing along at home here is the recipe:

1 Can of Spam
Nori sheets, toasted
2 C cooked sushi rice (sprinkled lightly with seasoned rice vinegar and a pinch of sugar)

Marinade:
1/2 C Shoyu
2 T brown sugar
3 cloves garlic minced
2 T sweet Hawaiian onion, minced
2 T grated ginger
1 serrano pepper chopped
1 cayenne pepper, chopped
Splash of sesame seed oil

Tamago omelet if you so desire. I so desired and so experienced massive Tamago failure… (I took the recipe from the book Easy Sushi.)

But I salvaged one…

Mix all of the marinade ingredients together, toss in the slices o’ Spam, cover and refrigerate for about 4 hours. (I know the suspense is killing me too…)

To make a proper Spam Musubi you need a Musubi press. I happened to have a sushi press that I hoped would do the trick because this is Indiana and ha ha ha they may be outlawed here.

So after about 4 hours remove the Spam from the fridge. Take the Spam slices out of the marinade and fry them up in a pan. I even fried mine up in some bacon grease hoping that would LURE Jeff to the Spam side. He is not biting. Get them nice and crispy then remove to cool.

Lay the nori sheets on a flat surface. And place the frame of the press on top of the nori. Fill the frame 1/2 full of rice.

If you are using the illusive Tamago omelet lay that on top of the rice and then top with the Spam. Now take the press part of the press and press down the whole thing so that you press it into a nicely pressed layer cake of sorts.

Then remove the frame.

Remove the press and take the exposed edges of the nori and fold up over the roll, wet edges of the nori to seal. Slice into big bite sized pieces and enjoy!

So I had my first taste of Spam Musubi and I have to admit, once the Spam was marinated and fried in bacon grease and pressed into a roll with seasoned rice and tasty tomago it was pretty good. It won’t be a part of our regularly scheduled meals however. I will leave that to the Islanders.

I hope I haven’t completely scared you off my dear readers and if not, please take the time and tell FoodBuzz that you want us to be the next Duo of Food Blog Supremacy!

First off you better be voting for us in the latest Foodbuzz challenge.  The winnings will go to our new favorite charity…..Prevention of Sobriety.  You can vote by clicking here.

This is the perfect time of year because apples are flying errr…falling off the trees.  When Heather came home with apple cider that was made with maple syrup (The Saint by Crispin) the drunk inside me goes ohhh…..going to be a good weekend but then the evil pork genius side kicked in and goes this would make an awesome pig bath especially when it all starts with bacon grease.

If you have not tried this stuff you must run your butts to the latest liquor store and buy some.  Not only is it great for drinking but culinary wise this cider is freaking amazing.

Without further rambling I am off to crack open another one and enjoy the fall weather…………

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of pork shoulder cut in 1 inch cubes
• All purpose flour
• bacon grease
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 liter of crispin with maple aka “The Saint” (or 2 bottles of regular hard cider)
• Tablespoon of fresh sage
• 2 bay leaves
• pinch of crushed red pepper
• 2 carrots
• couple handfuls of quartered red potatoes
• 1 medium head of cabbage
• 1 granny smith apples cut into small dice

Steps to success:

1. Flour the pork. Add in a couple tablespoons of bacon fat in a large Dutch oven over high heat. Brown the pork and set aside.
2. Drain all but 1 TB of fat and add in the onion and cook until softened. Add in garlic and cook for 30 more seconds.
3. Add in the crispin, crushed red pepper, pinch of salt, black pepper, sage, bay leaves, and pork. Cover and simmer for about and hour.
4. Add in the carrots and potatoes. Cover and simmer for 15 more minutes.
5. Add in the cabbage and apple on top. Cover and simmer for 30 more minutes or until the cabbage is soft, pork pulls away, and the potatoes are done.

Serve and enjoy!