I get sent an assortment of bbq related books and cookbooks each year to review. Some are good, some are simply awful and a few just are just awesome. The Whole Hog Cookbook falls into the latter category. In fact it is probably one of my all time favorites now. The Pig is my favorite animal. No shock there. Cooking pork for me is always a task I relish and enjoy thoroughly. I have not been able to put this book down. I have gleefully read each page. I have been sucked in I could not help myself…. Beautifully arranged, wonderfully styled it is a terrific read with practical everyday recipes and simple instructions..

Libbie Summers childhood was spent on her grandparents hog farm. She has been around hogs her whole life. This is her first (and hopefully not last) foray into the cookbook market. In her own words she says she wanted to make a cookbook “pork for chicks” I disagree in my opinion this book is for everyone!

Take a look at her own words about the Whole Hog Cookbook..

My favorite quote from the video: “Its a great day to be alive ..its a good day to be hanging with the pigs…”

The Whole Hog Cookbook from Libbie Summers on Vimeo.

 
She has worked with Paula Deen for years and is her culinary producer. There is a really nice foreword from Paula Deen at the beginning of the book that lovingly talks about her. It comes through on the paper how much admiration she has for Libbie.

Libbie has incredible writing skills. She really does an exemplary job of taking you through each cut of the hog. In addition she talks about knowing where your pork is from. Making informed choices. I admire that.

I love the How To’s. Great composition on each topic makes it easy and empowering for any cook to take on the recipes and instructions..

I love that in addition to the wonderful recipes with all things pork it includes a few desserts. Not just any desserts soulful desserts like the Best ever Family reunion chocolate sheet cake with leaf lard and bacon pecan icing.

I recommend you get this book. In fact I recommend you buy multiples of this book -one for you and the others to share -if you have any interest in pork- because the moment you open this book up …it captivates you. There is so much in this book to love from the tea brined pork roast to the pork belly gyros to everything in between….

This is more than a cookbook. Its a love affair with pork put to paper.

Maybe you won the lottery.. Maybe you bought microsoft stocks years ago…. Maybe you were a long lost relative of Steve Jobs and he left you a load of cash in his will… or maybe just like me you just have to dream….for now

Here is my ultimate BBQ Christmas Wish list….

Pitmaker Pits are absolutely gorgeous. Incredible cooking machines and fabricated to incredible specs. I have seen many of their pits in person. Awesome paint jobs tricked out to the 9′s with pop up LCD tvs, deep fryers and if you can dream it they will build it. Wicked cool.

Extreme BBQ trailers

To be able to design a trailer and have it custom made would be a dream. These are some of the most beautiful trailers I have seen.

Now if I am dreaming I may as well get a new truck too !! 2012 Super Duty F-450 King Ranch. It would have to be black

But its going to need this grill:

I have had the pleasure of working on this great BBQ more than once.The Traeger COM 200. It has 50 square feet of cooking space. Love the capacity and ease of use. Its a dream to cook pork butts on the traegers and the color and flavor just rocks.

Mack Daddy Outdoor Kitchens. Who wouldn’t love to cook outside in one of these? Down to the last brick I have one figured out. Now if I can just find the property and cash to make it a reality.

The FEC 500 is really an amazing cooking machine. Double walled insulation & double walled stainless steel interior. I have enjoyed cooking on a few of the smaller FEC100′s and they do an excellent job.

I ♥ Texas. I would love to own a big a$$ Ranch in Texas and get a real experience in cattle farming. Then BBQ out under the moon and the stars!!

I would think that spending a weekend with this guy would absolutely be wickedly awesome. Wouldn’t it be cool to just load up on groceries fire up some grills and cook with this guy. Steven Raichlen is a legend in BBQ. With multiple successful cookbooks and tv shows he knows BBQ and grilling.

Speaking of legends there are lots of awesome BBQ people that I would love to spend a weekend with too many to mention in fact……

Now to get around to all those Legends of BBQ and the legendary BBQ joints all over North America, to travel to every competition possible I am going to need one of these:

Prevost Luxury Centurion RV

There are lots of toys out there and lots of options to dream these are just a few of mine

Christmas season is right around the corner and its time to think about wrapping up some terrific gifts for those who love to grill or BBQ.

My #1 gift this year under $20.00 is the GriLLr made by the fine folks at SkrAPr. I was sent one of these tools easier this year and truly it shocked me how durable it was.

Features of  The GriLLr include:

• Revolutionary cutlery-grade stainless steel blade.
• Unique chisel-point on blade to chip away and remove even the hardest of deposits.
• Ergonomic handle.
• Contoured radius in blades side allow for easy cleaning of different sized grates.
• Cleans grates either rounded or flat.
• Anti-bacterial handle and dishwasher safe.

This red kettle grill ornament from Amazon would make your tree much more festive !

BBQ Rubs and sauces are always terrific gifts. Here are some of my favorites from this year!

or
Or how about a BBQ bucket(dollar store) filled with awesome Marinades, some tongs(dollar store) and a gift certificate from a local butcher!

BBQ Books are always a terrific gift I always check at Book Closeouts they have a great selection and low shipping prices!! All of these are under $10.

Orgasmic Onion - Yes you read  that right (Ted comes up with terrific product names!!) – this stuff is awesome on everything…. Give this to your BBQ lover and they will thank you.. in fact pick up a couple one for you as well!!

Available at Ontario Gas BBQ and many other retailers.

I love Firewire flexible grilling skewers and use them regularly. They have shown up on the blog before because they are just so user friendly!! Available at Ontario Gas BBQ and many other retailers!

Forschner makes some really decent inexpensive knives. This flexible straight 6″ Boning knife is great to trim butts and briskets with !

Weber Charcoal Chimney Starter – I have tried many different chimney starters over the years and the Weber has outlasted all other brands!

Pair the Weber chimney with Weber firestarter cubes for a terrific gift under $20.00

For those who write recipes – A customizable recipe binder cover:

You can order a custom recipe binder from the Cookbook People. A great and personal unique gift for the griller in your life!

It doesn’t have to cost a lot to give a great gift this Christmas!!

Pig Candy is a truly versatile ingredient in recipes. You can serve it up whole, add it to cookies, cakes, ice creams and everything in between.

This time I decided to make a fun pretzel with it.

Super simple easy and absolutely bad for you deliciousness.  You can make it as spicy as you would like. This time I traded the chipotle powder for 1/2 cup Piri Piri hot sauce. It was a good change and I really liked the results.

Recipe

• 2 lbs pig candy (finely chopped)
• 2 cups Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips  (or substitute dark chocolate) melted
• 1 bag Great Value Honey twist pretzels 283gr

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler or microwave.

Trimming and tying your own beef tenderloins is a really easy process. We do quite a few of these each year for various holidays caterings etc.

Start by removing the tenderloin from the cryovac.

Running your finger to the one side you can part out most of the chain.  Then slice off the chain and set aside.

Peel off any excess membranes and bits of fat.

Scrape off all membrane and fat from the silverskin.

Insert the tip of your knife under the silverskin and run the knife pointing upwards along the length of the tenderloin to remove.

Turn the tenderloin over and trim and hard pockets of fat off.  Trim any remaining fats and membrane from the tenderloin.

Flip the tenderloin back over and tuck under the thinnest end so that the thickness of the tenderloin is even.

Tie the roast with butchers twine at 1-2″ intervals.

Ready for the grill. Use the scraps to make stock or grind for some delicious hamburgers.

Check out this excellent video for more tips on trimming & Tying a Beef tenderloin.

MMMM Steak!

Back in 2009 I posted these pictures about how I like to do my steaks. I have found it is more juicy and much more beneficial to reverse sear steaks.  A friend of mine that writes a fantastic blog Greek Food & Beyond asked what steaks we prefer (my fav is a porterhouse- truly the best of all world).  It reminded me of this post I had done.

Start with an indirect method for charcoal. Maintain a grill level temp of between 225-250F

PLace your steaks on the indirect side of the grill. Close lid and bring the temperature of the steaks up to 115F internally.  Depending on your steaks thickness this can be 20-25 minutes.

Remove steaks and tent lightly with foil.  Bring your grill up to 400-500F

Return steaks to grill directly to form a great crust on both sides and an internal temperature of  125F Rare or 130F for medium rare.

Remove from grill and rest for 5-10 minutes.  As you slice into the steak you will notice that it is pink from top to bottom with no “gray line” .  The crust will be well developed. It will be much more juicy and flavorful throughout. I really encourage anyone to do this method and compare it side by side to a traditionally cooked steak seared first then with lower temperatures.

Enjoy!

I fell in love with deep fried hand pies as a kid travelling with my family to or place in Florida. I had commercially made ones from lots of convenience stores and they were an ooey gooey delight. A few years ago on one of our trips to a BBQ competition I had a homemade hand pie. Its ragged edges super crispy and flakey. The filling wasn’t overly sweet and was packed full of fruits.

On our recent trip to the Jack I missed having Mary Ruth’s Fried Pies while we we there. When I came home I knew I was going to have to attempt making these.

There was one problem with all of this. I seriously have an inability to make really great pie crust. So… I opted out of that step altogeher and bought these.

Then for the recipe…

I went here… Emeril Lagasse Fried Apple Pie Recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/fried-apple-pies-recipe/index.html

I made the filling the day before Halloween. Then on Halloween night I assembled the pies and followed the instructions for deep frying.

They came out awesome.

Super flaky not too sweet and uber easy to make.

I may not ever go back to making a regular pie again. …. Enjoy.

I have a well noted serious love affair for my thermapens. They make it onto my Christmas giving list each year.

I have 3 of them. One is red, another is orange and the newest is pink. One stays in the trailer during competition season. One is always at the house and the other stays in my purse. You never know when you may want to temp something. Also in 5 years I have only had to change the batteries once. I use them often they have been through a lot and I am impressed with their durability and endurance.

What? You don’t know what a thermapen is?  Here is the breakdown right from their website:

The Super-Fast™ Thermapen™ has been a favorite among restaurant chains, health inspectors and quality managers worldwide. Hundreds of thousands are in use. The clever fold-away probe and the simple pocket design replace more costly and bulky handheld thermometers while using the same professional thermocouple technology. This new generation Thermapen™ introduces a robust, splash-proof design with molded-in seals to protect the thermometer from wet hands and kitchen splashes.

Speed & Accuracy
Even more accurate than before and slightly faster! Our proprietary circuit yields accuracies better than ±0.7°F. That includes all errors! (many competitors don’t include the probe error in their spec.) Each unit comes with a NIST-Traceable certificate of calibration showing test results for the individual thermometer. Resolution is now 0.1° over the full range. Improvements in the probe technology now yield a blazing fast speed of 3 seconds to a full temperature reading.

No Cables! 
The components most likely to fail in a commercial thermometer are the cable and its connector. Also, the typical handheld meter and probe combination requires two hands. What do you do with the cable when you’re through with it? The competition want you to wrap it around the meter, which is time consuming and a natural trap for grime and bacteria! The one-handed Thermapen™ eliminates frayed cables, snags, germ traps and wasted time while freeing your second hand.

Simple Operation
Just open the probe and the Thermapen™ comes on. Close it and it shuts off. No buttons or switches to catch germs, confuse staff and cause errors. Configuration settings in the battery compartment allow management to easily set the Thermapen™ for °C or °F, read in tenths or whole degrees (0.1° or 1°), and disable the auto-off for continuous readings till the probe is closed. Although likely to never be needed, a calibration trim button fine-tunes the Thermapen™ calibration at a single temperature such as an ice-bath.

Incredible Value 
The closest commercial competition for the Thermapen™ sells for about $200. Other meter and probe combinations sell for up to $250! In most cases, you can buy a whole new Thermapen™ for about the price the competition charges for just a replacement probe. Compare speed, convenience, accuracy and the new durability of the Splash-Proof Super-Fast™ Thermapen™ and you’ll see how you can save significant money while improving your own product quality.

BBQ friends and I talk on twitter back and forth through the day. One of them Wayne Brown from Big Wayners BBQ Blog.

You can find him on facebook, on twitter and his own website. We finally got to meet at the Jack this year and we had a blast:

Photo credit: Wayne Brown

We talked about thermapens and a new shipment he had received and I said they really need to come out with one with flames. I mean yes they have the beautiful assortment of colors but flames would just be awesome. Within minutes Wayne sent this picture back to me:

I want this.

I think thermapen needs to make this happen. Send them a tweet if you agree! Post on their facebook!

Not quite sure where to begin and where to end this post. Good Gracious what a ride though.

Friday was a busy prep day on site. We all worked on our entries for the categories of Dessert, Taste of the Homeland and the 4 main categories, Chicken Ribs Pork and Brisket. I got a bit behind as I was prepping my pork and we missed the parade for the teams.  No worries though as we walked with the uber talented ISS (I Smell Smoke!) up to the distillery.  The bus ride up to the Dinner on the Hill was uneventful but completely packed with people.  Got to see some friends, have some fried chicken and come right back down.  I wasn’t interested in having any cocktails on the hill.

Friday night at the Jack I was as focused as I could have been, however, I still got to see some really great friends as they popped by for some “pops” and a chat or two :

Our friends Bill Gillespie, Shaune Connolly and Alan Burke from Smokin’ Hoggz came by and we had a blast with them. The night previous we had been having a lot of fun at the hotel. There may have been some cocktails involved. Then some other folks showed up from Michigan (Steve Coddrington) and NY folks Moffats and  our great friends from England !! Miss Piggy BBQ !!! Got to see our beloved friends Smoke on Wheels and their entire gang as well. Got to see my sisters in Smoke  - Angie Quaale and Jenny Lawler Windsor and their boyz David and Jack ! (Didn’ spend nearly enough time with them!)

Everywhere I turned there were folks I wanted to spend some time with ! Big Wayne and Jay Prince, Joshua all made a stop in and it was great to see these guys!  From out neighbors next door – Big Bob Gibson to every other corner. Quau right across from us, Tommy Kelly Mike and the list goes on and on. Then the International teams !! Belgium, the UK, Grill Ueli and more!! Nancy & her daughter from Team Top Chick and just getting a hug from her is special. There just isn’t enough time to see all those amazing people. Missed spending time with my Sister in Smoke Angie and David Gassaway

We did however receive many very kind gifts throughout the weekend from some very generous people- Gorgeous shirts from Miss Piggy’s BBQ, Lots and lots of Apple Pie from (Thanks so very much!!) from quite a few teams and friends, wines, coffee and cheese from Buzz, cookies, candies and cakes. An uber cool Diva shot glass from Momma Prairie Smoke & Spice! The list could go on and on. Good gracious I know I am forgetting a whole lotta folks! I am so lucky to have so many great friends.

Jessie and I with help from Jamie worked right up until 3am on the dessert then I crashed out for a couple of hours. We had a Mack Daddy site! Greg and Debbie Talley from Sam Dog BBQ  brought their 5th wheel out for us to use. It just goes to figure that the one time I have every luxury in the world I get the least amount of sleep. LOL    The boys kept watch until 5 am in between power naps – they rocked!! It was cold as heck out and they kept the fire burning all night!

Dawn came and I took a walkabout with my teammate Patrick – got to see some folks power cookers lighting their pits and getting ready for their day. It was a beautiful start to the day !!

Then we were off to the races as they say. Sauce went in and it was yummy. Cooking from the homeland dish went in and it was delicious then came the meats!! Chicken went in without a hitch its looked amazing and there was loads of flavor throughout. Ribs went in. They looked fantastic but were average. Nothing spectacular.  Pork went in and it rocked on flavor however presentation could have improved. Brisket went in and it was the bomb -awesome flavor in every bite! If you had asked me then I would have had high hopes for our brisket, then pork then chicken. Not so much for ribs.

Dessert went in and it was a 100% team effort. We all helped with the plating the carrying and the blocking to the turn in table. Its always a worry that someone will jostle the tray from your site to the turn ins at the Jack. Over 25,000 people are walking about !!

We got cleaned up as best we could had a whole lotta apple pie and cocktails and loaded up on bevvies for the awards ceremony.  Took some pictures at the staging area:

My husband and I finally have a picture of us at the Jack.

My sister in Smoke Jenny & I

We had a blast at the awards ceremony so cool to see so many of our friends!! Then we got our first call !! Happiest Home in the Hollow!! We need to thank our friends at Brown Forman Canada for helping us with some incredible Jack merchandise to show our love for their brand!! This is the second time we have won this award!!

We watched with great pride other teams from Canada get their names called !! Well Seasoned & the Black Pig BBQ for their taste of the Homeland Dishes!!! Awesome to see.

Then our beloved friends from Kansas Smoke on Wheels won Cooks Choice!!!!!!  Uber awesomeness!!

Everything passes by so fast at the Jack that its hard to keep up

We didn’t receive a call in Chicken or ribs but we got to see so many terrific people take walks. My phone was completely dead and I was sad not to be able to update peeps with Jack results and take pictures.

Then pork came and we cheered on Prairie Smoke and Spice for their 2nd place win!! Everything after that is pretty much a blur. We got called for 1st place PORK! At the Jack. Oh my flip I thought I was going to have a heart attack. They almost had to call a medic cause this Canadian chick lost her mind.

Head to 1:25 and you will get a better idea of what I am talking about.

The rest of the time and the night were a dream. We had quite the party after the awards!! Seeing our friends from big Bob Gibson get the RGC and then Smokin’ Hoggz win the GC was incroyable!!!

I left my team to party and I went and crashed for a few hours. I was done in. I had come with some goals and had achieved them. Wired BBQ at the beginning of the Jack gave me an interview asking what I wanted to come out of the Jack with. I told them a 1st in Dessert a 1st in Happiest Home in the Hollow and a 1st in pork. Other than dessert I achieved my goals!! The big one for sure!

World Champion for pork. That’s freaking amazing. We could not have done it without our friends and sponsors:

Traeger Canada
Basques Charcoal
BBQ Guru
Ontario Gas BBQ
Smoky Mountain Smokers
Butcher BBQ
Sam Dog BBQ
Brown Forman Canada

Novelis

City of Barrie Ontario

Patrick Brown Office

Big Bone BBQ Barrie

MY ENTIRE TEAM ROCKED!!

Jamie Parisi

Jessie Sweeney

Patrick Weir

Mike Miller

Vlado Dimovski

Jason Rees

Thank you to everyone who supported us. You are all awesome.

The road to Lynchburg. Its been 3 years. You know you have to pinch yourself to see if it is real. As we left our hotel and headed to Lynchburg it was almost surreal. Wow. We are heading back to the Jack. It is incredible to be here again. The last couple of days have been so overcast and rainy. As we drove towards Lynchburg the weather brightened the sun was shining and it was just lovely. I got goosebumps seeing the Lynchburg signs. Exciting at the same time.

As we approached the competition area we took it all in. Traffic jam at the entrance gave us a chance to see our friends from MR. Bobo’s travelling all stars BBQ team and the Burnside BBQ team from Canada.

We got to our site and we were introduced to Jim Johnson who was doing an International dinner in the pavillion where our site was to be. We set up what we could and we headed to the town square where we picked up our Jack merchandise. I could drop a lot of coin at the store. So many fun Jack Daniels items.

At 1pm we had reservations at Mrs. Mary Bobo’s

The meal was delicious and we had a great time. It was the first time the entire team has been together. There are 8 of us and since we all live in different cities etc. it is hard for us to get all together prior to the Jack.

The rest of the evening was a great get together with all of the International teams as they chowed down on catfish fries and a whole lot of other food from Jim Johnson. It was a lot of ppl to feed.

The rest of the night was spent drinking and fraternizing and having a really great time with so many folks we don’t get to see often enough. (No pictures LOL)

Now we head off to the hollow overnight to BBQ our very best. Ill catch the blog up on Sunday since Internet in the hollow is not that great. Make sure to check the twitter feed for updates throughout the next 24 hours. …