GeekOrchard

When we visited Texas this year, a friend of Robin’s from college took us to a great BBQ place, The Salt Lick, they do real Texas BBQ, but with a sauce on the side like North Carolina BBQ….so you can be pure or get saucy.

I’ve never had barbecue sauce like it before and started a new quest. I must make this BBQ sauce as part of my canning for friends, family, and our own attempts to ‘think globally and eat locally‘- it was a vinegar and mustard sauce- no tomatoes.

My first searches started by looking at Texas recipes for BBQ sauces, then I learned was schooled by a another friend that real Texas barbecue has no sauce.

He explained, using a documentary, since he’s a teacher. Aparently this wasn’t a simple topic at all.

I need a smoker, and this wasn’t going to get me the same outcome I hoped for. For now I’m considering one of these. Until I can afford a contraption like that. I’ll still cooking it then serving with sauce. And thanks to all the teaching, I finally found a recipe for the North Carolina style sauce I fell in love with at the Salt Lick.

These or variations on them will be tested in my kitchen very soon:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Eastern-North-Carolina-BBQ-Sauce/Detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Eastern-North-Carolina-Barbeque-Sauce/Detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/East-Carolina-Barbeque-Sauce/Detail.aspx

And I will be cheating will my crock pot until futher notice.

And now for something a bit sweeter. My friend Spring used to work at a place where they made the most heavenly muffins, and it looks like she’s finally devised her own version of this recipe. She just passed it to me yesterday, and I can’t wait to try it. Yum!

PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS

Makes 24 muffins

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese (the best cream cheese for this is
cheesecake-flavored)
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Pinch of cardamom (optional)
2 cups cooked or canned pumpkin (not pie filling)
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
Chopped nuts* (walnuts, pecans) (optional)

Put the entire tub or brick of cream cheese on a piece of aluminum foil, and shape it into a long log; wrap in foil. Put it in the freezer while you mix and fill the pans, up to an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins or line with paper baking cups.

Stir together the dry ingredients. Mix together the pumpkin, oil, and eggs. Stir into dry ingredients just until blended. Fill muffin tins (greased or paper cups) half full.

Unwrap and cut the cream cheese with a sharp knife. If the disks are too big around, cut thick slices and then cut them in half. This keeps the cream cheese in one big lump, and also lets you push it down into the batter. Put 1-2 tsp cream cheese in each muffin cup in the middle of the muffin batter, pressing down. Sprinkle with 1 tsp of the chopped nuts.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the muffin part (do not touch the cream cheese!). Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to racks to cool completely. DO NOT TOUCH THE CREAM CHEESE OR EAT THE MUFFINS UNTIL COOLED, AS THE CREAM CHEESE IS VERY, VERY HOT.

Thank you Spring!

Perfect for those fall evenings when it’s just starting to get chilly….I just emailed it to my great Aunt, and thought maybe I should post it here too.

I took this recipe:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/104280

And changed it to:
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

3 lb. or so butternut squash
3 to 4 celery stalks
2 med. white onions
3 to 4 carrots
1 garlic head (Robin prefers two, I think it overpowers)
1tsp. olive oil
6 cups chicken broth (low-salt), or 6 cups water and 2 or 3 bullion cubes
1 tbsp butter
1/8 tsp cumin
1/2 whipping cream
chopped fresh sage for sprinkling on top
creme fraiche, to put a dollop on top
dash paprika or tumeric for color on top before serving

Preheat oven to 350*, Half the squash lengthwise, clean inside of gourd and rub olive oil on cut edge. Cut onions in half or quarters, and celery in half, carrots in half, and clean all the cloves from the head of garlic. In a 9×12 shallow pyrex dish with just enough of the broth to cover the bottom (depending on size of squash I sometimes end up using two), arrange carrots, onion, celery, and garlic so they will fit under the dome of the gourds and roast inside it until done (about an hour, but longer with a bigger gourd or two pans, I always divide the veggies between so there a bit of each kind under both halves of the squash). While the roasted veggies cool, prepare stockpot on low heat with broth, pat of butter, and cumin, and I tend to improvise and add a little oregano, thyme, or other spices depending on my mood.

Pour contents of roasting pans minus the gourds in the stockpot. Scoop out the interior meat of the squash into stockpot, then puree with hand immersion mixer in pot, or in parts in the blender (this way is messy if the liquid is too hot).

You can freeze it for later at this point, or turn up heat to medium, and add cream, and serve with a dollop of creme fraiche (or sour cream), chopped sage, and a dash paprika. Better the second day.

Also, you can add any/substitute other root vegetables you like (turnips, parsnips), but stay away from potatoes as they ruin the texture in our opinion, and try not to get the ratio of other veggies to squash too high. The real key is the roasting of all of them together I think, and I almost never make this the same way twice. It’s soup, so I use whatever I have fresh. The Kobucha squash or acorn is also good done this way but have a different texture, and my vegan friend adds an apple and/or a pear and uses yellow curry in place of the cumin, plus she drops the dairy altogether (including the butter) .