Food, Wine & Just Good Living With SaucyJoe

It started with a love of food, wine & fun and blossomed into a maddening pursuit of the best recipes, techniques, grills, smokers, wines, crafted beers, rubs, marinades and sauces... We do more than play with our meat though -- we review and discuss all things cooking, drinking, reading, laughing and living at SaucyJoe's.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Roll 'Em Up!



Youngest brother, Joe, got married this past weekend, which brought lots of out of town family to gather at middle brother's house. And what do people do when they gather?
So, in preparation for the "after party", the day of the wedding, we made food...lots and lots of food!
Brother Dave, of Dr. Dave fame, brought delicious smoked pork butt and smoked beef brisket which he reheated to perfection. I wrangled some sous chefs and spent two afternoons making roll ups: Pastrami/sauerkraut/Jarlsburg, Ham/cream cheese/Asparagus spears, Tortilla/cream cheese/sour cream/green onion, and Pinwheels: Tortillas/Ham or Pastrami/Artichoke dip/Jarlsburg/diced tomato/Spinach. Add in mashed potato casserole, 4 Bean Salad, Coleslaw and a large amount of crudite (thanks to Mom's mad chopping skillz) and you have a tasty and colorful spread!
I imagine the leftovers have extended the party for a few days extra!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

How to Keep Your Smoker Warm in Winter


Saturday, September 25, 2010

Fried Black Eyed Peas

This snack has been quite a hit at the office. A savory and sweet crunchy snack recipe from the lovely Linda Sullivan!

Fried Black Eyed Peas

Ingredients

8 oz Dried Black Eyed Peas
¼ Cup Dark Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Coarse Salt
¼ tsp Smoked Spanish Paprika
1 Tbsp Cayenne Pepper (optional)

8 cups Vegetable Oil

Directions

Soak the black eyed peas in a bowl of cold water for a minimum of 3 hours.

Drain and pat dry.

Combine the dry ingredients and whisk together. Set aside.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large, heavy pot over medium heat to 375° F (reading on a deep fry thermometer).

Working in batches, fry the black eyed peas until golden brown.

Transfer to and drain on paper towels.

Toss black eyed peas and the dry ingredients together to coat the peas.

Store in a covered plastic container (It won’t be needed long!).

Friday, September 03, 2010

Intimidation comes in many flavors

Saw this today courtesy of our friends at The Wandering Palate.
NOTE: You may need to turn your speakers down a bit.

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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

HELLO Reuben!



Saturday I was rooting around in the freezer, and I found a corned beef brisket flat cut. It was just begging to be smoked (Yes, corned beef brisket does talk. You just have to listen properly.). So I pulled it out, thawed it and marinated it overnight in a pint of Guinness Draft.
The next day, I made up a quick slather of dijon mustard and Worchestershire sauce (the magic ingredient!). I slathered it over the brisket and sprinkled on some Ribber City Coffee/Chipolte rub I had bought from our friends at The Grill Works here in Marion, Iowa (How's that for two plugs in one sentence?). I poured the Guinness marinade into the water pan in my smoker, loaded up with lots of cherry and mesquite wood chips and fired it up. Into the smoker went the corned beef. Next, being the upright, responsible husband and father that he is, Dr. Dave went off to play golf.
18 holes later, I arrived home to find a cooling brisket. The smoker had run out of propane! The Dr. had made a rookie mistake! It was getting late by then. The corned beef brisket had taken on all of the smoke it needed, so I wrapped the brisket in aluminum foil and placed it into a 250° oven to finish cooking. An hour later, it was not up to temperature. Patience had worn thin, so dinner was made from the side dishes. The brisket was put into the fridge to be heated another time.
Monday, I got to thinking about what to do with that corned beef. My wife is always on the lookout for a good rueben (sandwich). What are the best reubens made from? Pastrami. What is pastrami? Smoked corned beef! I was going to surprise my wife and make reuben sandwiches!
Getting home from work, the corned beef brisket, still in a foil wrap, was placed in a 250° oven. It would come out when the internal temperature, read with a meat thermometer, was 180°F. At this low and slow temperature, the brisket took three hours to finish cooking.
Toward the end, I heated up a small can's worth of sauerkraut. I made a homemade thousand island spread which consisted of 2 parts mayonnaise, 2 parts katchup and 1 part dill pickle relish (not sweet).
I removed the corned beef brisket from the oven and allowed it to sit for half and hour so some of the juices given off during cooking could be reabsorbed. I sliced it up. 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices were nice.


Next, I buttered two pieces of russian rye bread and put them, buttered side down into a hot pan. I spread the thousand island spread onto both slices of bread. I put sauerkraut on one bread and a couple of slices of swiss cheese on the other bread.



To help melt the swiss cheese, I added a generous helping of smoked corned beef. A couple of minutes later, the cheese melted, the two halves were made whole. A fabulous reuben sandwich was born!









Enjoy.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Young (Under 30's) People Making an Impact

As part of a recent assignment, I am researching young (under 30) professionals making an impact in ecology/environment fields. There are a plethora of directions to follow, but I thought I'd try to pick the brains of the rather astute readers of this blog.

Any suggestions? Links?

Just comment in this post if you know people (or nominate yourself) that are making a difference.

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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The Dr. is planning a BBQ extravaganza! Brisket, Pork Butt, Ribs, Salmon, Trout!