Carterpants

This year’s weather has not been conducive to good growing conditions for our garden. Our tomato yield was much less than last year, our beans and peas only sprouted once (but were incredibly good), and we gave up on a few different items. One item, though, has grown out of control. Peppers peppers peppers! We tried peppers last year and had limited luck but this year we don’t even know what we’re going to do with all of them.

About two handfuls have already been harvested and I couldn’t wait to turn them into something. I decided on a very basic yet very concentrated hot sauce base, something that can be added to those sissy BBQ sauces and score you some man points. This is super easy and practically fool-proof.

What you’ll need:
Apple Vinegar – 3 cups should do it, depending on the number of peppers
Brown Sugar – 1 Tbs
Kosher Salt – 1 tbsp
Ketchup – at least 1/3 cup to be safe..
Peppers!!

1. Grab a handful of peppers. You can use any pepper really, depending on the level of heat you want to obtain. We grew cayenne peppers this year so our sauce turned out borderline nuclear. How hot, is hot?
2. Cut the lids and stems off the peppers, toss the peppers into a sauce pan
3. Pour enough Apple Vinegar into the sauce pan to cover the peppers by 1/2 inch or so. You’ll be simmering this for awhile so you can be generous with the vinegar, you can always pour off excess
4. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer on medium heat for 30 minutes. Be sure to open a window or two… its vinegar for gawd’s sake.
5. After 30 minutes remove the lid and pour off any vinegar so the liquid level is slightly lower than the peppers
6. Pour the peppers and vinegar into a food processor (the Magic Bullet is great for this) but don’t turn it on yet!
7. Add the following to the food processor: Tablespoon of brown sugar; teaspoon of kosher salt; and 2-4 Tablespoons of ketchup to start
8. Blend this all together until you have a slightly watery paste, kinda like bar-b-q sauce but just slightly thinner. If necessary add ketchup to reach this consistency.
9. Refrigerate overnight before mixing into your victim, I mean, sauce of choice

After a few tweets/FBSU’s (Facebook Status Updates) about grilling out today, I got a few PM’s, @replies asking what I use to season my burger? Apparently some people are very passionate about what goes into their burgers, so here we go..

Jim Baldridge’s Secret Seasoning
Salt, cracked black pepper, dried onions, garlic powder, dries rosemary and thyme.

Cayenne Pepper (from Archer Farms even!)

Cajun Mix from Gourmet Blends
Salt, brown sugar, chili peppers, garlic, onions, paprika, dried bell peppers

I toss 1-2 Tbsp each of Jim’s and the Cajun Mix along with 1/2 Tbsp of Cayenne into a Magic Bullet cup, mix it all together for a few seconds and work into the ground beef. Let the burgers sit in the fridge for at least an hour to absorb all the goodness.

Before tossing them on the grill give them a light brushing of Worcestershire.

We are SO doing this!
http://mixthatdrink.com/skittles-vodka-tutorial/

I’m rather shocked when I find out how many people really have no clue how to identify a good cut of beef, steak in particular. Today, CNN had a great article detailing the different beef raising techniques as well as some quick tips on buying the right cut.

The point of most interest for me:

• Inspection and grading: USDA inspectors examine all live animals and beef shipped out of state, which encompasses most of today’s supermarket beef. Grading is voluntary and done by the same inspectors. The more marbling — the small white flecks of fat within the muscles — the higher the grade. Three grades of beef are sold to consumers. Only three percent is highly marbled Prime, sought after by top steak houses and butcher shops. About 57 percent is moderately marbled Choice, the most common supermarket grade. The remaining 40 percent is lean Select.

In short..
Prime = best (Straight from the butcher, sometimes Fareway)
Choice = typical (Hy-Vee, most Fareway, Target on occasion)
Select = crap (Wal-Mart, Target, Beef n’ Go)

For more info on steak types, cooking methods, and suggestions, check out this link to What’s Cooking America, an excellent site for everything cooking related.
Know yer beef!