Cheenies

I love Cheenies, the Brazillian cheese bite rolls. I want to try and wrangle a factory tour, since they are made close to my house. You buy them in the freezer section of the grocery store (I find them at Whole Foods near me). They are made with yucca flour and cheese and are incredibly tasty and crunchy. They seem expensive for the little box, but they pack them in there, and you can pull a few out to bake at a time. The house gets pretty excited when its a Cheenie night. I haven't figured out what kind of meal goes perfectly with them yet, but I use them sort of in the place of rolls or breadsticks.

I want this book

The Foods of Vietnam by Nicole Routhier

I went to Borders and pulled all of the Vietnamese and Asian cook books off the shelf and have decided this is the one for me. After going home and checking it online, I realized that this is the newer edition, and a lot cheaper than the one at Borders.

Someone try this!

When someone says the best refried beans they've ever had, that's sort of saying a lot. I probably won't try this soon, we're still working off Thanksgiving leftovers, but someone try it and tell me how it is! (even if the world has gone a little chipotle overboard.)

Chipotle Bean Tostadas

PS Thanksgiving leftovers we've had: Turkey enchiladas, a brunswick stew type vegetable soup with ham and vegetables. Any other good ones? I also tried to make my first creme brulee. Disaster. Apparently the torch didn't come with butane so we tried it under the broiler and it just melted everything. Oh well. Better luck next time.

Sloppy Joses

Sorry about all the meat heavy recipes on here. I'll try to mix it up more next time.

Ingredients
1 bottle of Heinz Chili Sauce (it's next to the cocktail sauce)
1 pound of ground beef or turkey
green or red or hot pepper (optional)
onion (optional)
tortillas
cheese

Directions

chop some onion and pepper and brown it with the ground meat. Drain. Spoon into some heated tortillas and top with cheese.

This seriously takes maybe 12 minutes. I always feel like I should be hosting a sleepover when I make it.

Sweet Potato Tacos

I end up eating a lot of tacos on those days that before I might have had a sandwich or frozen pizza for dinner. If you have a stack of corn tortillas and cheese in the fridge, you might as well.

For some reason, sweet potatoes taste really good in a taco.

This recipe is not really an entertaining or serve to anyone else recipe its more of the oh crap I hate my eating problems what am I gonna have for dinner type recipe. so obviously you can get as fancy as you want with this or just let it slide.

Ingredients

1 sweet potato regular sized
1 can of black beans
cheese
1 jalapeno or some sliced jalapenos from a jar
sour cream
hot sauce (I like Tapatio on tacos)
lettuce
tomatoes
minced garlic (the jarred kind. who cares.)
tortillas

Cooking part

Heat the can of black beans on the stove, drain it if you want, but you don't have to. Add a spoonful of the minced garlic.
Put the sweet potato in the microwave for about 5 minutes. Slice it open length wise and check to see if its done.
Slice some cheese slices. I guess you could have the shredded kind, but I'm too cheap to buy that kind.
slice the jalapeno or pull a couple from the jar
rip off some lettuce into shreds
chop up some tomatoes small enough that they fit in a taco
Heat some tortillas for about 1 minute in the microwave in the warmer

Smear some sweet potatoes on one side of the tortilla, and spoon some black beans in the taco. I'd probably double up on the tortilla at this point.
Put the cheese on now so it has a chance to melt on either the hot sweet potatoes or the black beans.
Add some peppers and lettuce and tomatoes and sour cream and hot sauce if desired

I can't explain how hard it is for me to not add "Enjoy!" to the end of every one of these recipes. When I was about 10 I went through and rewrote every recipe in my mom's recipe box so it would be legible and added "Enjoy!" to the end of every one. I don't know where I got it from but I still want to do it every time.

Barbecue Salad

One of the best things about making barbecue is not only sharing it with a big group but the leftovers. I used to be overwhelmed but then I was introduced to the barbecue salad. The first time we went to a restaurant in Danville, VA called Short Sugars (or something like that) everyone at every table was eating bbq salad. Yes, this was a few years ago at the height of Atkins, but its not like Danville is a huge bandwagon town. So on the menu its something ridiculous like $2.95 (this could be a false memory) and Noah goes ahead and orders it, with Italian dressing upon recommendation.

It's great! Its better than any kind of Chef's Salad which for some reason just seems gross to me.

Ingredients

Leftover pork barbecue

And I'm gonna let you imagine the rest of the salad ingredients. I started to list things like "lettuce" "carrots" etc but that seems ridiculous. You know what goes in a salad.

Dressing of choice, preferably a vinegar based one
BBQ sauce

Directions

Make your salad
put bbq in the middle
Dress it and drizzle some bbq sauce or Texas Pete on top

That's it and you can talk yourself in to thinking that its slightly better for you than regular bbq.

NC Slow Cooker Barbecue

Like many of my recipes, this isn't too exact, and varies based on cheap meats and available ingredients in my pantry. (not panty like I typed the first time by accident.)

Ingredients


Small pork shoulder or butt, preferable boneless. It needs to fit in your slow cooker, and the bones take up unnecessary space. It also has to be fatty or else why bother making bbq. So no pork tenderloin here.

1 onion
squirt of ketchup
1/4 cup of cider vinegar
1/3 cup of brown sugar or some molasses
1 Tbl. of crushed red pepper
black pepper to taste

Directions

Quarter the onion and layer the bottom of the dish.
Mix the brown sugar, crushed red pepper, and black pepper in a small bowl, and coat the shoulder with it, rub style.
If you don't do this then put drizzle some molasses on there and shake in the peppers.
Place the shoulder on top of the onions.
Splash in the vinegar.
Squirt in some ketchup (not very much, we're not making Western 'cue here).
Shake some more crushed red pepper, if desired.

8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. Take the meat out into a strainer or a colander in your sink or another bowl. A lot of fat will drain off, and it will shred by itself. I serve it from the bowl in the sink, and either make additional sauce on the stove or just put the fatty stuff on the table. Dig out the onion from the bottom which will now be all shredded. I eat them about half the time.

Serve with slaw bbq plate or tray style. What type of slaw is a whole 'nother post.

I think I adapted this recipe from a brochure in one of the NC rest stops.