Ryan "Mr. Wizard" did the major cooking for this weekend. He made all-day ribs on his Big Green Egg, this mighty ceramic grill that looks like something Mork would get excited about flying. This thing is amazing, and well... so were the ribs. He did one with bbq and one with a tropical islandy spicy sauce. They were being spritzed with apple juice every 30 minutes or so. There were also smoked baked beans with bacon. And he topped this off with his own "found" recipe for cheddar drop bisquits. I had only the night before found that I had lost 9 pounds over the previous week. Oh well. I am still full. Mr. Wizard certainly approaches things in a technical manner, so the post-meal wrap up included critiques and explorations of the details of his cooking process. I think he is already soaking wood chips for the next cookout.
We attended a party Sunday night for that football game (I am so not a sports person), and I got to make some food for that. I made a chili that was pretty good. It had turkey, tomato, bacon, corn... tomato. It is actually kind of a blur. I ran around the kitchen, rifling through the fridge and pantry looking for salvagable leftovers and spices. It must have been alright, because my entire 4QT crock pot was emptied by the end of the party (which was punctuated by a vicious Nerf gun battle, but that is another story). I also made bacon wrapped water chestnuts. This has little to do with cast iron, but I have made them in one of my skillets, covered, on charcoal, so there you go. These are always party pleasers.
1 pound of bacon (I like hickory smoked)
3 cans of whole water chestnuts to a pound
1 bottle of BBQ Sauce (no brand, I used Publix brand Hickory and it was good)
Good toothpicks (important, so they don't splinter, I like "Diamond Elegance Toothpicks")
Take the bacon and cut it in half. Wrap each 1/2 piece around one water chestnut. Skewer this combination with a toothpick. Collect all of the wraps in a bowl. Once you have finished off skewering all the bacon, empty the bottle of BBQ into the bowl all over everything. Seal the bowl and roll it around to coat everything thoroughly. Put this in the fridge and marinate for however long you can. I usually do this overnight if I can, but even an hour or two will help. Spread the bacon wraps out on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 25 minutes. When you remove from the oven, you should find quite a bit of grease that has cooked off of the bacon. Use tongs and pick the wraps straight up from the grease to keep from dragging them around. The grease and bakes BBQ sauce doesn't really add to the flavor, and makes them just a little messier. They are ready to eat at this point. If you have a small or medium sized crock pot, this is a nice way to serve them and still keep them warm. If there are any leftover, they reheat very well, and are a delightful breakfast add-on. I wouldn't hold out on there being any leftover though...
The party was great, food, friends and fun! I heard there was a ball game of some sort on as well.
Love and iron, Del
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