Vegan Jerky? What could go wrong? Louisville Vegan Jerky Co.

How good or bad could Vegan Jerky really be? I had to find out for both of us!  Here's a link if you want to try it: http://amzn.to/2DxIufp

I tried:
Enid's Sriracha Maple,
Pete's Smoked Black Pepper,
Tod's Smoked Chipotle

On their site, Louisville Vegan Jerky Co. says "We like to think we stand out from the other folks — our jerky is hand-seasoned with thoughtful ingredients and spices, and each flavor contains a little piece of our hometown." I like that.

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#VeganJerky #Vegan #FakeMeat #Jerky #FAKEAF #KeepItFake

Eating the Calendar: July 4th is National BBQ Day! Or is that Barbecue Day?

Of course July 4th is National BBQ Day but if you don;t care to make or eat BBQ it also happens to be National Cesar Salad Day. In fact, there's nothing wrong with enjoying a nice Cesar salad with your BBQ.

Visit http://howtobbqright.com for excellent recipes and to get some of Malcolm's BBQ Rub.  Also, check out his Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/howtobbqright

Eating the Calendar: July 3rd is National Chocolate Wafer Day!

Since National Chocolate Wafter Day is clearly a food holiday for kids I was able to gather 5 of our 7 grandkids around to taste test a couple different chocolate wafers.

Eating the Calendar: July 2nd is... NOTHING!

How can this even be? With all the things that don't have their won official day how can there be a day on the calendar with nothing to celebrate? Is there a National Pixy Stick Day? Shouldn't there be?

Eating the Calendar: July 1st is National Ginger Snap Day!

Yeah, I got this one right!
July 1st is National Ginger Snap Day, and though I've never been a fan of them I give them another try so you don't have to.

Eating the Calendar: June 30th is National Mai Tai Day, but I thought it was Ice Cream Soda Day!

Being a non-drinker, when I saw that June 30th was Mai Tai Day the first thing I thought was "OK, I'll get a virgin version of the drink, but after reading the recipe I realized that it just wouldn't work. After a bit more Googling I found out that it was also Ice Cream Soda Day, so I preceded with that as my plan. Low and behold, I come to find out that no, Ice Cream Soda Day was June 20 and that I'd missed it!

So, here's a video of me enjoying a delicious Chocolate Ice Cream Soda on National Mai Tai Day.

Eating the Calendar: June 29th is National Almond Butter Crunch Day! Microwave recipe and video

I had no idea what Almond Butter Crunch was until I Googled it and was thrilled to learn that one of my favorite candies, Heath Bar, is considered an almond butter crunch!  While not an entirely original recipe, mine was unique in that I was determined to make this as easily as possible. That meant utilizing the microwave for the cooking and skipping the traditional roasting of the almonds... sort of.

Ingredients:

1C (2 sticks) Unsalted butter. (Don't have unsalted? See note below) 

1 1/2C Sugar
1/4tsp Salt (Omit if using salted nuts and butter)
3Tbs Water
1Tbs Light corn syrup
1tsp Vanilla or artificial vanilla
1/3C Roasted, salted sliced almonds, coarsely chopped
1/4C Roasted, salted almonds, finely-chopped (Reserved for toping)
1/2C Dark chocolate chips (Or semi-sweet, or milk chocolate)

NOTE: Because I was using  pre-roasted and salted almonds as well as salted butter I opted to omit the salt. 

On a microwave safe plate scatter the whole, pre-roasted almonds in a single layer and microwave on high for two-three minutes, stopping at two minutes to stir.  Set aside to cool and once cool enough to handle.

Remove 1/4C  of the almonds and finely chop with a knife or food processor and reserve.

Coarsely chop the balance of the almonds with a knife or food processor and reserve.

In a large microwave safe container melt the butter on high for a minute or two. We are looking to melt but not actually cook the butter at this stage.

Add the sugar, corn syrup and water and mix evenly with a spoon or silicone spatula.


Microwave on High for 6 minutes, keeping an eye on mixture to prevent overflowing.

Remove from microwave and stir quickly to prevent the mixture from cooling.

Continue cooking in one to two minute intervals until the mixture begins to develop a light brown color, or when the temperature reaches 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove the mixture from the microwave and quickly stir in the 1/3C of coarsely chopped almonds and the vanilla and pour out and pat to  a1/4" thick layer on a nonstick sheet pan.


Scatter the chocolate chips in a single layer across the mixture and cover for two minutes with a second sheet pan to retain heat.

Using a spatula spread the melted chocolate chips across the mixture and then scatter the reserved 1/4C of finely chopped almonds.

Allow to cool until firm. If you are impatient as I was place the sheet pan into the freezer for 30 minutes. 

When cool, give the pan a slight twit to break the candy free and break into cookie-sized pieces with your hands.  

Enjoy or store in an airtight container of zipper-top food storage bag.

Finally this is happening! Happy Pigs in a Blanket Day!

Tonight’s #Aristogrub was some savory homemade #LowCarb #PigsInABlanket. Happy Pigs in a Blanket Day! #PigsInABlanket2018 #PIAB#PigsInABlanketDay #FatheadDough
via IFTTT

Frisch's for a Super Big Boy!

via IFTTT

Heading for home today we just had to stop by Frisch's for a Super Big Boy! #Aristogrub #FrischsBigBoy

Tonight's Aristogrub was the Idiot Burger at The Village Idiot

via IFTTT Tonight's #Aristogrub was the Idiot Burger at The Village Idiot gastropub in downtown Lexington, KY. This burger has a 1/3 lb patty, smoked pulled pork, an onion ring and in a moment of inspiration that should have been on the menu, #Bacon.

This, ladies and gentleman, is a HotBrown.

This, ladies and gentleman, is a HotBrown.  Apparently this is "THE" meal to eat in Lexington, KY. This is an Atkins dieter's dream! #LowCarb #Bacon #Cheese #Aristogrub #HotBrown

Tonight's Aristogrub was some excellent chicken and waffles at a place called "Saul Good".

Tonight's #Aristogrub was some excellent chicken and waffles at a place called "Saul Good". What a clever name. #SaulGood With @dumpsterbobbo

Sausages.

Once you've said "Sausages" you've just about said it all. #Sausage #Aristogrub

Super Cheese at Marions Piazza in Mason, Ohio.

Oh yeah, I forgot to share yesterday's lunch #Aristogrub which was the Super Cheese at @marionspiazza in Mason, Ohio. In retrospect I should have just stuck with our normal #MarionsDeluxe. #MarionsPizza #MarionsPiazza #Ohio

Mrs Aristocob is thrilled by me snapping her photo

@mrs.aristocob is thrilled by me snapping her photo (and thus taking her soul) but she did enjoy her #Aristogrub.

Tonight's Aristogrub was tacos three ways at Tortilleria y Taqueria Ramirez

Tonight's #Aristogrub was tacos three ways at Tortilleria y Taqueria Ramirez in Lexington, KY: Carnitas (pork) Tripa (intestine) and Cabeza (head meat) #mmmmm

Celebrating Seth Markwood's April Fools Day birthday with all you can eat sushi!

Celebrating @sethmarkwood's April Fools Day birthday with all you can eat sushi! #Aristogrub

Take & Bake pizza cooked on a Camp Chef Pellet Smoker

I still struggle with whether the Camp Chef SmokePro is a smoker or a grill, but today what I do know for sure is that it makes a fine pizza oven.

Actually, at these temps there is very little smoke, but we'll get enough of the smoke taste to make it worth the while.

We started with two Papa Murphy's Take & Bake pizzas, which were purchased a day in advance. Personally, I like a little bit of a yeasty taste and on the day that they make them they just don't have quite enough "funk" for my taste. By popular demand of the grandkids, we purchased one large cheese and one large pepperoni pizza.  These are 14" pizzas that can feed 3 people each. The "Family" size pizza is 16", and while I was tempted to go along with the "IF some is good. more is better" crowd I opted for the oxymoronic smaller "large".

From there several things conspired against me: It was cool and windy, I forgot to preheat the MASSIVE "pizza stone" and I didn't pull the pizzas out of the fridge soon enough.

Because of the cold air and the high winds, I whipped out my Harbor Freight fiberglass welding blanket: Chicago Welding, Item # 67833. It is amazing that it was touching a grill that was boarding on 400 degrees and yet it was only warm to the touch as I removed it each time. That is until the one time that I grabbed it by one of the steel grommets. Perhaps one day that moment will make it into a blooper reel!

An EPIC Fail and a Win, but enough talk, let's smoke a pizza!

A Tale of Two Butts: Smoked on the Camp Chef SmokePro Pellet Smoker

Today was forecast to be a beautiful day with highs in the mid 70's. That's amazing because it's February 12th and we've been freezing our butts off most of the winter.  So the plan was to cook two pork butts and to make pulled pork for our family as we gathered to celebrate the birthdays of one of our granddaughters and grandsons.  It would take two butts to feed everyone so for the first time I decided to get the butts at Costco.

One nice thing about living in North Carolina is most every grocery store stocks pork butt, but a good friend swore that the quality of the pork butt at Costco was second to none, so I thought it was time to give them a shot.  They were priced a bit above what I typically expect to pay, but they did look good and fresh, so I pulled the trigger.

What I didn't notice until I opened the package was that they were boneless!  To my way of thinking that is not a good prize.  For one thing, I always prefer to cook meat as whole as I can to prevent moisture loss.  Second, bones add flavor.  Finally, God gave pork butts a bone so that BBQers had a built-in thermometer to know when butts are ready to be removed from the heat.  If you didn't know this already, the bone in the butt becomes loose and pulls out cleanly when the butt is cooked, and I was counting on the bone to be intact.  How did I miss this on the label? (Click pic to Biggie Size it)

The night before the cook I washed and dried the butts then gave them a thin coat of yellow mustard. This step must be news to a lot of people based on the number of comments that the pics I posted on Instagram @Aristocob.  I've tried adding rub directly to the butts and applying it after applying a coat of oil, but mustard just seems to work best. Does it impart a flavor? Note that anyone has ever mentioned, including my mustard-hating grandkids.  The rub that we use is from Killer Hogs and we all love it, but it doesn't contain much salt, so prior to applying the rub I apply garlic salt and freshly ground pepper and some of Weber's Kick'N Chicken seasoning. Both this seasoning and the Killer Hogs rub contain MSG, which none of us have a problem with, but I know some folks do, so be forewarned.  I figured that these butts would need about 9 hours of cooking at the planned 225F, so now all I needed to do was to get a good night's sleep and be up for a 7am start.

I overslept!  The butts made it onto the smoker at 8am and I was thankful that I had given myself a buffer before dinner, so it should be good.  A 9am I checked on the smoker and the fire was out!

It didn't take long to figure out that the problem was the crazy-high winds so I had to come up with a solution. Thankfully I remembered that I had purchased a fiberglass welding blanket a few weeks back from Harbor Freight that should do the trick.  I had to tuck the smoker into a corner and surround it with some of the grandkid's yard toys and with the blanket in place we were back in business.

After five hours on the smoker the butts were nowhere near the temp I was expecting and though the smoker was set at 230F the smoker was holding steady at 211F!  Something had to change, so I adjusted the temp dial up to 250F and made the decision to wrap one of the butts in foil.  The "Texas Crutch" as it is called, has a couple advantages and one big disadvantage: It will hold in heat and therefore will speed the cooking process BUT it also holds in moisture so the lovely bark that we work for will likely turn soft.

In the end, the family preferred the smoky taste of the unwrapped butt but preferred the texture of the wrapped butt. That figures.

The rest is covered in the details below.