Each year Mom’s everywhere will be treated to he obligatory Card, flowers and dinner out. If they are lucky maybe breakfast in bed or brunch. How about something different for your Mom. Something that shows you put thought and care into her special day.

My first recommendation isn’t BBQ. This may come as a shock. As a Mom of 3 and a busy one at that I like nothing better than coming home to a clean house. Yes that makes me very very happy. IF the laundry is done even better. Even if you are broke a little sweat equity is sure to make your Mom happy.

I love these coupon templates. Perfect for giving your Mom a break.

Once you get through the coupon giving or cleaning … then I think you need to give your Mom this if she likes to cook:

The super fast splash proof Thermapen from Thermoworks. Every person on the planet that cooks should have one.  I love mine. Available in an array of colors you can even co-ordinate it with her purse. Plus if she carries it in her purse (and yes I have one in my purse at all times- you just never know when you will be grilling or cooking) she could also protect herself from creeping marauders, wanna be thugs etc. The thing is sharp. Sharp as a shiv. (Please note in no way does Thermapen  support this use of a Thermapen in this manner – just my own ideas).

If your Mom doesn’t cook well then its time for you to giddyup and stock her freezer full of BBQ goodness.  BBQ Jerk Chicken, Smoked Meatloaf and Pulled pork all freeze wonderfully. Stocking your Moms freezer would give her a break come meal time planning.

There is also of course the option of making your Mother a beautiful BBQ feast.

Start with a yummy cocktail:

Mix 2oz Jack Daniels honey with 4 oz Peach cider or Mango nectar. Serve shaken over ice in a chilled stemmed glass.

Then serve with a grilled appetizer flatbread

Diva Q Goat Cheese Spinach Flatbread 

A terrific quick mid week dinner or a delicious appetizer for BBQ parties…..

Ingredients
1 Flatbread
1/2 cup Roasted Red Pepper Spread
1/2 cup Baby Spinach Leaves stems removed
140 gr Goats Cheese thinly sliced
1/8 cup Basil Chiffonade
1/4 cup Thinly sliced ham (prosciutto, black forest etc)
1/2 tsp garlic pepper

Preheat grill to 325F
Hickory Oak Apple pellets/wood chunks/chips recommended

Spread the 1/2 cup Roasted red pepper spread over the flatbread
Layer the spinach, slices of goats cheese and thinly sliced ham.
Sprinkle the garlic pepper and basil over the flatbread
Grill until the cheese is just beginning to melt and the spinach begins to wilt.
Slice into 12 pieces.

*****

Main Course

One of my all time favorites is herb crusted Prime Rib served with grilled asparagus and parmesan topped grilled mushrooms. Any Mom I know would be happy to feast on this.

For dessert I love anything to do with apples and caramel. This simple grilled dessert pizza paired with a glass of Prosecco is a wonderful finish.  Then make sure to drive your Mom home. She has had a few cocktails by this time.  Happy Mothers Day to all.

About The Show

Hosted by Marilyn Denis and broadcast live before a studio audience, THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW is a daily entertainment and lifestyle talk show featuring Canadian and international celebrities and experts, established and emerging alike. Building on Marilyn Denis’ connection to her fans, interviews and ideas are delivered with the ease and humour of a conversation with your best girlfriend. Celebrities who have appeared on THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW include Sir Elton John, Bradley Cooper, Shania Twain, Anderson Cooper, Donny & Marie Osmond and many more.

THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW airs live Monday-Friday at 10 a.m. ET on CTV and CTV.ca, and then again at 11 a.m. ET (CTV Two) and on demand at marilyn.ca. Fans can also watch Marilyn seven days a week with THE BEST OF THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW, airing Saturdays at 2 p.m. ET on CTV and Sundays at 2 p.m. ET on CTV Two (check local listings).

 

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Today we covered lots of great tips on cleaning your BBQ and grill. No matter what grill or bbq you have make sure to consult your manufacturer’s instructions. Also all of the items for the show from the heavy duty cleaning brush to the grill wipes came from a store I love to shop at Ontario Gas BBQ. They also stock replacement parts for your BBQ’s so check them out. As the worlds largest BBQ store they have everything you need and more. (Its also the only place my always cool hubby gets nervous for my shopping- shoe stores and malls are no problem- but when I walk into Ontario Gas BBQ its just so darn hard to resist all the great BBQ stuff cha-ching!  )

Click here to see the entire segment

Much thanks to Marilyn, Tara and the entire crew. Lots of fun yet again!

I have been on a BBQ crawl all over Maryland, Virgnia and North Carolina. I ate everywhere and anywhere I could get to and as time allowed. I also had a great experience at a place called Serenbe with the great group of Char-Broils all star bloggers along the way.

AS I head home back to Canada I am just trying to play catch up to everyday life.  Over the next week or so Ill blog about all the fantastic places I got to eat and where I got to meet some awesome BBQ people. It was one heck of a trip and another thing off my own personal BBQ bucket list.

Source

This isn’t so much aa recipe as it is a method of how I make stuffed burgers.

start with your ground beef. I use ground brisket wherever possible but use whatever you prefer.  The final mixture should be 80/20. I have found any more % fat – the stuffing comes out too easily.

Place your ground beef on a cutting board. Here I have made mine into balls that give e a general idea how many burgers I will be making. Each was the size of a hardball.

Squish them down into one large rectangle shaped patty. Cover with plastic wrap and roll out with a rolling pin. This really does help make sure they are all an even thickness.

Using a pizza peel makes cutting easy. Much easier than dragging a knife through.  Figure out how many burgers you want. I decided on 8. Enough to feed my family and also provide lunches the following day.

Then take inventory of your fridge. You can go out and buy foie gras and lobster if you would like but I need to get rid of some stuff in my fridge.

I love this stuff. We always have it on hand.

Bacon, jalapeno, mushroom, red onion and to bring it all together in one creamy package Philadelphia Herb and garlic cream cheese.

Spread out a few tablespoons of the cream cheese mixture on one patty for each of the burgers

Add some sauteed mushrooms

Add some sauteed onions, roughly chopped cooked bacon and finely minced  jalapenos

Generously sprinkle the burgers with freshly cracked black pepper and kosher salt.

Time for the assembly. I use a slotted fish spatula. Its easy to side under the ground beef and flip it over.  Then seal the edges pressing them together and molding the burger shape.

Then its time for the grill at medium high heat. I used my Big Green egg for today’s burger cook. I also used Basques an all natural lump charcoal.

Cook until the internal temperature is to your liking. The recommended minimum temperature for ground beef is 160F

These burgers hold up well even with all the stuffing. You won’t have a lot of leakage. Using the rolling pin really helps you make sure that you have a uniform thickness.

Lots of flavor and great texture. This is a favorite of our house.

Make sure you let them rest for 10 minutes after they come off the grill.

This is a fully biased post. Be forewarned I am in love with this stuff. I will  be gushing and oohhing and awwwing all over this stuff. IT freaking rocks.

Full disclosure….

I got an email from Texas Pepper Jelly owner Craig  Sharry. I had met this gentleman a while back and he had asked me if I would like to try his products. Now they have been around a while but I just had not gotten around to ordering some.  Craig has been working on these recipes forever. Nice to see such an amazing product on the market. I have seen there logo and products on the competition circuit and I had read about them. I jumped on the opportunity. Craig sent me a nice assortment of his items.  Please note he did not in any way pay for this endorsement.  This is just from what I have tasted.

As it is March break I have a bit more time to play on the grills. Today has been designated wing day. 12 lbs of wings to play with.

24 designated to try these 4 items.

I used my Traeger Texas style with oak and hickory pellets for the wings today.

Half were lightly coated in Obie Cues Double Strength Garlic Pepper (another product  I love)

The other half was coated with Dizzy Pig Pineapple Head Rub (this stuff is the bomb) – this will be on another blog post late this week.

They were grilled for 1 hour at 275F (I prefer them crispy)

I then took 6 wings for each sample. I used 1/4 cup of jelly on each batch then returned them to the grill for 10 minutes to set.

Cherry Habanero

Peach Habanero

Strawberry Habanero

Apple Habanero

The colors were incredible. Love how sticky they apply to wings.

SO how did they taste?????

The Cherry by far was my favorite. I love the lingering heat on all of them and the flavors are great.  Surprisingly they are not overly sweet – certainly they have more depth to them than I expected. I have tried the peach and the apple on pork chops as well and they are delicious. The strawberry was ok- but not my favorite on wings. I think Ill have it on ice cream next as it was recommended to me.

My advice. You need to get some. Really. They are excellent. I can’t wait to try them on more items like ribs, a stuffed baked brie and more!

Thanks Craig. You made my wing day a blast. Awesome product. Keep up the great work and winning GC’s!!

Texas Pepper Jelly on Facebook 

Texas Pepper Jelly on Twitter

]]> http://divaq.ca/texas-pepper-jelly-damn-good-stuff/feed 2 http://divaq.ca/texas-style-beef-ribs-with-mop-sauce http://divaq.ca/texas-style-beef-ribs-with-mop-sauce#comments Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:09:30 +0000 admin http://divaq.ca/?p=5032

I love Texas. Hopefully this year I will be able to go back and eat at some of the legendary BBQ joints. For now though I spend a lot of time over at Full Custom Gospel BBQ reading his reviews and experiences.  These ribs were inspired by my last trip there.

One of the challenges that I always have is finding beef ribs that have enough meat on them. It seems that outside of a few locations this is quite a daunting task.  A friend of mine Mike the owner of Big Bone BBQ came to my rescue. His restaurant serves up BBQ Beef ribs once a week at Big Bone BBQ Barrie. I got some from him and I was all set.

Removing the membrane was easy with a clean bar towel. Better grip than a paper towel for this tough membrane.

I also used a spoon to scrape off the large pockets of fat. Whatever you do though don’t discard the fat. Put it aside into a small saucepan and Ill get to it in a bit. After a bit of trimming I had about 2 cups of fat and beef bits.

Decided to keep the rub super simple only 4 ingredients. Granulated garlic, granulated onion, Morton’s Kosher salt & freshly cracked black pepper.

3/4 c Salt

3/4 c Pepper

1/2 cup garlic

1/2 onion

Generously rubbed (I used about half of the rub and stored the rest for future use) they headed to the grill at 225F . I used mesquite pellets for these.

Then I got around to making the mop. The first step was to render out some beef fat from the trimmings. This measured out to be 1/4 cup when finished.  You could also add 1/2 bottle of beer to this Mop if so desired. In addition pay attention to the sodium levels on the beef broth. Some are horrendously high. I used a reduced sodium broth and opted not to use Soy Sauce in this recipe.

Mop Ingredients

2 c beef broth

1/2 c  Worcestershire sauce

1/4 c Apple Cider vinegar

1/4 c Rendered Beef fat

1/2  bottle BV beef upper  ( approx 1.5 oz – you can also substitute Kitchen Bouquet)

4 tbsp Tiger Sauce

2 tbsp Mustard powder

2 tbsp dried onion flakes

Bring all of the Mop ingredients to a simmer. Set aside.

About 4  hours in I started Mopping every 15 minutes. I wanted to wait until the ribs had developed a very thick bark (crust).

Before Mopping:

After mopping:

After two additional hours mopping every 15 minutes the ribs were done.  Rested them covered tightly in foil for 15 minutes.  They were dark and crusted over and absolutely delicious. Some of the ugliest ribs I have ever made and it just didn’t matter. Paired with cornbread, cheesy pasta casserole and green beans they made an excellent meal.

Bacon apple chestnut stuffed pork loin

Ingredients

3lb pork loin
10 slices bacon

For the stuffing

3 c large seasoned croutons
2 ½ c diced apple
1 c reduced sodium chicken stock
1/3 c chopped parsley
¾ c chopped roasted chestnuts
6 slices bacon chopped
2 onions diced
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp black pepper

In a medium sized pan on medium level heat fry bacon until crisp. Using a slotted spoon or bamboo strainer remove the bacon and set aside.

Add chopped onion, thyme, salt, pepper and garlic to the residual bacon fat. Stir often scraping any bacon residue from the bottom of the pan. Sauté until the onion has softened. Add the diced apples and reduced sodium chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and add the croutons. Mix thoroughly cover and remove from heat.

Butterfly the pork loin using 3 cuts to open like a book. See this video for instructions -

Cover the pork loin with plastic wrap. Pound the pork with a mallet to make it a uniform thickness. Remove cover from the stuffing and fluff with fork. Add parsley to the stuffing mixture.

Spoon the stuffing mixture onto the pork loin leaving a 1 inch frame around all of the edges.
Starting at one end – roll the pork and stuffing together to make a tight roll.
Wrap pork with bacon lightly overlapping each layer. Secure with butchers twine.

Grill indirect at 275F until a digital thermometer reads 155F. I used oak and hickory wood pellets. Rest for 10 minutes then slice. Feeds a crowd.

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. …

 Let me introduce you to my friend Jack!

 One of our important stops !! Duty Free!

The weather was grey and overcast the entire trip.. Mass pockets of rain hindered what is usually a beautiful scenic drive.

Getting to the Jack and our hotel as fast as possible was our goal. We had decided that it would be in our best interests if we drove through the night as much as we could safely.

Vlad – drove 99% of the way he is a trooper! 

There were four of us in the truck from the team – Vlado, Jamie, Mike and myself. Lets just say the ratio of testosterone to estrogen was a bit skewed. The boys talked about sports and argued the validity of their teams. Jamie had downloaded a lot of 80′s music that was great to listen to. Mike was in charge of candy procurement and snacks.

With all the rain and fog and mist we didn’t take a lot of pictures but how cold you miss this Dinosaur LOL 

It seemed like it took forever to get here. It almost did – almost 28 hours after we left we arrived in Nashville.

Now I am a very superstitious BBQ lady and I believe if you have done something in the past and it has worked then you should repeat the process. SO off to Jack’s BBQ for some food and a slice of chess pie. Just like I did 3 years previously.

At Jack’s I made sure to pet his pig at the front.  Then we grabbed a couple of plates of food to share with each other.  I think it is really important to try as much BBQ as possible wherever you are. I think it is a lifetime of learning about the different ways ppl make BBQ.

The guys about to Chow down!  

It was a good meal and a great kickoff to our time in Tennessee.

Texas Sausage, mustard greens and sweet potatoes all of it was delicious. 

Great memorable beans, cornbread, delicious brisket also ribs, pork and mac & cheese. 

After Jack’s BBQ we finally got to our hotel in Tullahoma TN and after cleaning up it was time for a few cocktails and talking to some of the teams that had already checked in.

We love Motts clamato caesars and Yeungling and we are well stocked for the next few days! 

That’s it for day 1 !! (well that’s all that can be published lol) Today we are off to the legendary Mrs. Mary Bobo’s