Month May 2011

Sangria all around…Sangria BBQ, Blueberry Basil Sangria…..Hello Summer!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carroll 1 Comment

Sangria season to me is like pool season to a kid.  I just can’t wait for sangria season to start, and on Monday it officially does!!!  Memorial Day thru Labor Day, the short season of sangria.  During this time we reinvent the tradional recipe over and over, cocktails, dips, sauces, spreads-

What I had in the pantry

Today I made Sangria BBQ  Sauce, perfect to cook on the grill (if you have room to spare, or a fancy grill with a burner attached).  We will use this sauce on BBQ Chicken, Pork Tenderlions, Flat Breads, Pulled Pork, Ribs- anything that the Bull’s Eye BBQ might have made it on.

BBQ Sangria

1/4 Cup Ketchup

1/4 Cup Orange Juice

1/4 Red Wine

1 Gala Apple, peeled, seeded and cut into 1″ pieces

1 Navel Orange, zest first and set aside for later use, peel and seperate segments, double check for seeds

1 Lemon, zest first and set aside for later use, squeeze juice being careful of seeds

1/4 Teaspoon Smoked Salt

Put all in a pot and slowly simmer until fruit is tender, broken down.  Depending on the legnth of time you have, the apples will break down by themselves, or you can puree the sauce in a blender.

Starting off

Simmer down Chef

I’ll save the zests and make a gremolata or add them to a light salad …no way they will be around for long!

Sweet Summer Goodness- Sangria BBQ Sauce

Happy Memorial Day and God Bless our Soldiers!

Go git um….

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When I started cooking I was given a lot of advice, had a lot of people guiding me, looking after me- I was green, in fact I was green enough to look in the china storage area for the china cap, that the chef sent me for.  Yup, green enough to fall for that trick.  The best piece of advice that was delivered to me, that serves in many area’s in my life, not just the kitchen, was – “Just go in and pretend you know what you’re doing”.

So true, so helpful, the number of chefs I have tricked into thinking I know what I am doing thru the years is vast.  Now, I do credit them a bit- they might have suspected, but I made sure not to leave any concrete evidence.  Well, after 12 years of working in a kitchen, sharpening my skills, I have learned a thing or two, had a lot of great leaders to learn from, and a lot of bad ones to also learn from!

I did take that advice with me, and have in fact passed it on to many young culinary warriors!  It rings true in many parts of my life, right here, right now…pretend I know what I am doing…my first blog entry!

Hope you enjoy!!