Honey Balsamic Peanut Sauce.

Decided to list another sauce recipe today because this one was absolutely wonderful on chicken wings. This is just a classic idea I had from a previous dish that I made with chicken and rice and I loved the flavors so I replicated it into a wing sauce that is very tasty. Here's the things you will need:

1/2 cup Clover or Orange Blossom Honey.
1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp Peanut Butter
1 tbsp hot sauce
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tsp red pepper flake
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions: In a small sauce pot, put the balsamic vinegar, honey, oil, hot sauce and soy and mix thoroughly while heating. Go ahead and add the garlic, red pepper flake, and hot sauce and then once you see no separation left, add the peanut butter. Continue to mix vigorously every minute for at least 20 seconds at a time so the peanut butter melts but doesn't scorch. Once the peanut butter is fully melted, add in the chili powder and cayenne pepper. Reduce heat to low and let it just stay warm until ready to use.

I would recommend this sauce for anything chicken related. It is sweet, salty, fruity, spicy, and will absolutely make your tastebuds flip a couple of times. I'm going to include the picture of the wings that used the sauce on.

Creamy Garlic Cole Slaw.

Here is a simple fix for a side to any bbq or get together. I make dozens of different variations on potato salad and cole slaw because I always like a nice surprise. A lot of people say that they can't make cole slaw because it makes a mess and prep time takes forever. Just use the same thing you see in the supermarket for under two bucks that comes prebagged. It's fresh, its good, its cheap. Just dump the bag of mix in a mixing bowl, add a cup of mayo, 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar, 2 tbsp of pickle relish, 2 tbsp minced garlic, salt and pepper the mix until you think it tastes right. Stir everything around. You have a delicious cole slaw on your hands. Feel free to write back with some of your recipes. I welcome any feedback you may want to send.

Carolina BBQ Burger

I was thinking of ways the other day to improve on a favorite burger of mine that I enjoyed from my days of working at Rafferty's. Then I thought of one thing I always loved about a Carolina style BBQ sandwich; put some slaw on it. So what you do is fix you're favorite burger, put on some good cheddar cheese, fry up some bacon, and cook a yellow onion in the rendered bacon fat. Top with the onion, bacon, pile on some good creamy cole slaw, and to with some really good BBQ sauce and you're good to go. Making the sauce and slaw from scratch is really simple. I'll put my cole slaw recipe on the blog just in case you want to use it. Just remember that recipes can be altered and experimenting with good flavors is the key to having fun in the kitchen.

Laura's Italian Sausage and Shrimp Alfredo Pizza

Laura and I always go back and forth creating new and interesting ideas in the kitchen and this time, she truthfully came up with an idea that was so insanely good, I actually wanted to slap my mama. She decided to make an alfredo pizza with Italian sausage and shrimp. The flavors on this thing were nothing short of breathtaking. Simple ingredients. Simple preparation. Simple and so amazingly good.

Here's what you need:
2 pizza crusts
1 jar of Alfredo Sauce
1 pound of precooked shrimp
1 pound Italian Sausage
1 package of shredded Mozzerella Cheese
1 large onion.
Garlic Powder

Set oven temp to 425 and preheat. Spread Alfredo Sauce on pizza crust. In shallow pan, start to brown up the sausage, and once seared on both sides, add onion and cook until onion is slightly transparent. Add 1/2 mixture of sausage and onion on top of the crust. Use 1/2 lb of precooked and de-tailed shrimp on sauced crust and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for about 7-9 minutes or until cheese is melted and turns slightly golden. Repeat for second crust.

I'm sure that this will be a hit in your kitchen as well as it was in mine.

Easy Sweet BBQ Sauce

A lot of people I meet think that bbq sauce is some magical concoction that they have to buy. Thing is that it is quite easy to make on your own. Once you do a traditional sauce it is very easy to make other ones. It's very simple to make a good sauce and it usually involves using stuff that you aleady have. Here's a sweet bbq sauce that I make a lot of. The only thing you need to start is a small sauce pot.

Ingredients:

1 cup Ketchup
1/2 cup brown or yellow mustard
1/2 cup Apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce
3 dashes of hot sauce
2 tbsp honey or agave nectar
1 tbsp garlic sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chilli powder

Here is the easy thing about it. It takes about 10 minutes to make once you get it simmering. Mix the ingredients in order that I wrote them, working from wet to dry except for the sugar. All you have to do is mix the stuff into the pot on medium heat until it starts to boil and then you reduce the heat to low. I happen to use agave nectar because I like the taste a little better than honey, but to each their own. Remember to be creative in your kitchen and mixing in other ingredients. I've been known to make beer sauce, bourbon and rum sauces, mustard sauce, soda sauces, Eastern Carolina vinegar sauces, and countless others. Once you can taste the ingredients in things you can experiment with different flavor profiles. If you want to add some heat, add some red pepper flake or more hot sauce. More sweetness? Add some more sugar or honey. More smokiness? Add some liquid smoke, or Worcestershire Sauce. Just have fun with it. Hope I can add some more new recipes soon. Until then, love your food.