Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

When I make mustard greens I just add a little crushed red pepper, but I do know about making Texas Pete style pepper sauce. In fact I have some Chimayo red pepper flakes that I got from going out to New Mexico that I should use.

 

I know that style. You can buy it with sport peppers and vinegar. I thought it was Texas Pete, but I am probably wrong about that. I usually end up taking the peppers out and using them on hot dogs. It is a Chicago thing.

I bet that something like that with datil peppers would be awesome and I have a bumper crop of datils.

Added in edit:

This is the Texas Pete sauce I was thinking about:

 

Time to clean stuff out of the freezer before the holidays.

I had some ground pork and ground chuck so I'm making Bolognese sauce.

 

As an experiment I got some white wine vinegar hot and poured it over some datil peppers with slits in them and some smashed garlic and put that in a canning jar to make some pepper sauce. Undoubtedly a kick up or two in heat from the normal pepper sauce.

Even after washing my hands I needed to be careful to keep my fingers away from my eyes after handling the datil peppers. For those that don't know them, they are the same species as habs and Scotch bonnets but with a stronger citrus flavor to go with the heat. They are truly awesome. I like using them for making jerked chicken because of the extra flavor as opposed to Scotch bonnets which would be more traditional. My Jamaican friends have never complained.

I have a feeling that all of this pepper sauce will be mine.

 

BBQ chicken finished with Pat's, real mac and cheese (no box is involved except for the elbow pasta) and green beans.

Started the Christmas dinner prep. Only six for dinner as of now, but we have been known to have a few strays on occasion. I ordered an 8 rib pork loin roast to pick up on Sunday morning. It is the same cut that is used for "crown" roasts. I will then "french" the rib ends because that looks great, wrap the roast in bacon, and cut an "X" through the middle and then stuff it with an apricot, prune, shallot, butter, and ruby port stuffing. I will then have to take it out early on Christmas morning so that it comes up to room temperature before roasting.

I have got to get some arrowroot for the sauce and I am out of it. It is a thickener much like corn starch, but it makes the sauce very glossy and hence makes a great presentation with this dish. Fortunately I know where to get some.

Garlic mashed potatoes will be on the menu by popular demand. And some form of brussels sprouts because the head cook likes them. Some sort of salad as well, but that is to be determined.

 

Leftover BBQ chicken and mac & cheese along with mashed potatoes and celery soup.

Something sounded bad to my wife (?) and she is bringing home some sort of salad fixings. Married just days from 36 years and she is still a mystery. That is a feature and not a defect.

 

Grilled a turkey yesterday, so leftovers for lunch today. Also leftover roasted veggies and rewarmed potato and fennel gratin.

Not cooking tonight was we will be going to two Christmas Eve open houses for a lot of heavy grazing. Lots of cooking tomorrow.

 

Longnecks AFTER the chainsaws are put away. :^)

Merry Christmas!

 

Dinner will be 6-ish Eastern time. Maybe a little bit late because I spaced out for 15 minutes on starting the pork roast.

Now to make the pumpernickel, smoked salmon, cream cheese, Russian salman roe treats.

 

Not enough leftovers for dinner tonight so I am smoking two chickens.

 

Took my MIL's dog for a walk after I had the grill/smoker for the chickens set up perfectly. When walking back I could smell it a quarter mile away which I thought was a little weird. The fat dripping were igniting, but not making a raging inferno like what happened one time with some ducks. I don't use a drip pan when smoking chickens over indirect heat, but maybe I will in the future.