My BBQ Sauce Recipe

My son and I bought a smoker a couple of weeks back. Today we are preparing to smoke some baby back ribs tomorrow. Nothing like picking one of the hardest things for our first venture into smoking.

This summer, I stopped buying barbecue sauce in a jar and starting making my own. I just thought it would be fun to make my own sauce, plus there is a lot of preservatives in store bought sauces that I can do without.  I'm actually cooking some of this sauce right now and it is making the house smell so good that I thought I'd share.

This recipe is a fairly simple barbecue sauce, adapted from the Neely's Recipe on Food Network.  I'm finding more and more that I prefer simple recipes because they are easier to make and they always seem to taste good.  Sometimes a ton of ingredients just muddies the flavor.  If you follow the link to the Food Network, you'll see that I haven't changed this recipe much. 

Ingredients:
2 cups ketchup (I prefer Hunt's)
1 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
5 TBSP brown sugar
5 TBSP white sugar
1/2 TBSP black pepper
1/2 TBSP onion powder
1/2 TBSP ground mustard
1/2 TBSP garlic powder
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
1 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 TBSP liquid smoke

In a saucepan, combine all ingredients.  Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, for 1 hour 15 minutes.

I've tried a few other barbecue sauce recipes and this one is the best, and it's super easy.  If you like tomato/ketchup based barbecue sauce, you will like this.  It ends up being sweet and tangy with a peppery kick at the back of your throat.  I think this recipe tastes very similar to Famous Dave's Rich and Sassy, just not quite a sweet.

Where's the Beef?

Wendy's has been running a commercial where a young guy buys a "Where's the Beef?" T-Shirt at a Goodwill-type store, and then as he's walking around, everybody is reading his shirt out loud.  He super confused because he's too young to remember the commercial, until he arrives at a Wendy's and sees a sign that says "Here's the Beef."  It hearkens back to the commercials of 25+ years ago where the old ladies are asking "Where's the Beef?" about burgers that compete with Wendy's.  Wendy's is bringing back this old catch phrase to highlight their newer, slightly bigger burgers and better toppings.

Today we were driving back from visiting family and we stopped at Wendy's.  Being super hungry, I decided to try one of the new burgers.  I got a double bacon cheeseburger...yes I'm going to regret that later.  I know as a food guy I'm supposed to show disdain for fast food, and I generally do.  But, I have to say, this was a darn fine burger.  The burger patties were thick and juicy, and the bacon was actually a thick cut of bacon so it added a ton of flavor.  My mouth is watering now just thinking about how good it was.

I hope I don't lose points as a "foodie" for this.  I was forced to eat McDonald's on the trip and that was miserably bad...hopefully that earns points back.

Wrangler Jeans

On Thursday, I bought 2 pair of Wrangler Jeans at Target.  As you all know, one of the main pitchmen for Wrangler Jeans is Brett Favre, former NFL QB, most famously of the Green Bay Packers, but also of the NY Jets and Minnesota Vikings late in his career.

I gotta tell you, these Wranglers really make me feel like Brett Favre.  When I first put them on, I had the strong urge to retire, and then unretire, then retire again, then unretire, then retire, then unretire when my friends show up, and then finally retire and go on radio bashing my successors.

Good thing I've been able to overcome those urges brought on by these powerful blue jeans.