2008 Food Blog Awards: Nomination Period Open
Now is the time to nominate your favorite food or drink blog for the 2008 Food Blog Awards. All the details can be found on our main site.
Holiday Break
Thank you so much for making our site a part of your regular routine. Without you, we wouldn’t be here. We will be taking a short break to celebrate the holidays with our family and friends, and will resume regular postings on Monday, January 5th (the official kick-off of the annual Food Blog Awards!).
Happy holidays!
Smoked Chicken Faux Pate
I needed something “new” for an event this past weekend so after a few conversations with other bbq enthusiasts and reading a couple of recipes I came up with the following: I smoked a bunch of chicken thighs rubbed with DDog’s “Apple Rub.” After the thighs cooled, I removed the skin and pulled the meat off the bones. I then used the food processor to chop the chicken meat into a really fine consistency.
Threw some neufchatel cheese into a bowl:
Java Crusted New York Steak with Stout Glaze
Guy Fieri is one of the popular winners from The Next Food Network Star who has made it beyond the competition. He has gone on to either host or be part of several Food Network shows since then, and his fame and popularity seems to be on a steady incline. I love his exuberance and the uniqueness of his recipes, and this one is no exception. On a recent episode of his show, Off the Hook, he made a Java Crusted New York Steak with a Stout Glaze. So good, and surprisingly, the coffee flavor is not as strong as I thought it would be. Happy eating!
Spares on the 26″ Weber Kettle
Smoked two racks of ribs with indirect heat on the new 26″ Weber Kettle to find out how it performed on some low and slow bbq. Here’s the racks ready to go. Already trimmed and rubbed with Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy Rub.
Close up of the rub fantastic rub:
The ribs are on cooking over an in-direct fire. I only used one side of the kettle for heat and it seems to be okay. The thermo in the kettle reads 275 while the digital on the grate reads 235. We shall see how hard it is to keep the temp up.
Book Review: Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue
“North Carolina is home to the longest continuous barbecue tradition on the North American mainland.” Whoa. Really? Them’s some pretty strong words. Some folks might say them’s fightin’ words. Some folks in Texas, Tennessee, Missouri and not to mention South Carolina may not take kindly to them words, but John Shelton Reed, Dale Volberg Reed, and William McKinney seem to prove the point in the superb book Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue.
This is a great read. I received this book on Friday and spent the weekend reading it. It’s one of the few barbecue books that I couldn’t put down. I really enjoyed some of the humorous side notes on the pages.
In the tradition of Peace, Love and Barbecue by Mike Mills and his daughter Amy Mills Tunnicliffe and Legends of Texas Barbecue by Robb Walsh, Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue is part cook book, part history book and part depository of cultural folk lore of the smoke. It’s all here.
Oh Yes! Baconnaise!
Justin and Dave, of Bacon Salt fame, sent me some of their new Baconnaise to try out. I gave it a try on a couple of items.
Nice texture:
Went looking through the refrigerator for something to make a sandwich and found a leftover hard boiled egg. How about a simple egg salad sammie on good old plain “Grandma Sycamore’s White Bread.”
Dug out a couple of ABTs from the freezer. Mixed some Baconnaise with chipotle for a sauce on them:
On the egg salad it rocked. On the ABTs the sauce, even with chipotle mixed in was overpowered by the bacon, cheese and jalapeno.
Here Piggy Piggy Piggy
With all the holiday parties starting up and with the explosion of barbecue restaurants now open in New York City, where in the Big Apple can one get a whole smoked pig? I called around town using Pigtrip, which lists the BBQ joints in the city (not to mention just about every one from Maine to New Jersey) for my starting point and worked my way from there. Pigtrip saved me an enormous amount of time and weeded out many of the pseudo ‘que places listed under BBQ in the phone book.
If you’re a restaurant owner or a pitmaster and you serve whole smoked pig, and by some chance I missed your place, please let me and our readers know.
I have not included caterers in my list. I would assume that just about every BBQ caterer can provide you with a whole smoked pig. But don’t assume anything. ASK. I was surprised by the responses of some of the places I called where I assumed they would cook whole pig. And you know what happens when one assumes don’t you?
So here’s the list of the barbecue joints that sell whole smoked pigs in NYC. Let me be clear here, all of the bbq joints listed require advance notice when you want a whole pig; you can’t just walk in and take one home. As far as I can tell, only Daisy May’s has a whole pig on the menu; everywhere else you’ll have to ask for it special.
So if you’re craving whole smoked pig in two days or so, try any of the following…
2008 Food Blog Awards Kick-Off
At long last, it’s that time of year again, time to recognize your favorite food and drink blogs with the annual Food Blog Awards. This year, in the interest of the upcoming holidays, we’ve moved our schedule up a bit, so it will not get underway until after the holidays.On Monday, January 5th, we will put out our call for nominations in fourteen different categories, and this is your chance to nominate the food and drink blogs that you think are the best of the best. The nominations period will close on Friday, January 9th, 11:59 pm, EST, giving you five full days to nominate your favorite blogs. Any nominations after that period will not be considered.
On January 19th, we will post the Top 5 nominations in each of the fourteen categories. These spots are decided by our judging panel, and only blogs nominated the week before will be considered. The amount of times a site is nominated does not have any bearing on its placement, it only puts it in the running.
Once the top 5 sites are announced for each category, the voting begins. Voting will be open from Monday, January 19th until 11:59 pm EST on Friday, January 23rd. You will have five full days to vote for your favorite site, determining the winners. The winners will be announced on Monday, January 26th.
During the rest of this pre-Food Blog Awards time, we will be unveiling our distinguished panel of judges, the official rules of the Food Blog Awards, and the list of prizes donated for the winners from our very generous sponsors.
Go on and spread the word … and let the fun begin!
Smoked Salmon
We usually make up a batch of this recipe for the holidays. The cured salmon makes a great appetizer served on crusty bread spread with a little cream cheese and topped with capers.1 cup Kosher salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
Several grinds of fresh black pepper
2 Salmon fillets (about 4-5 pounds)
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