This is one of those “I’ve Never Made This Before” kinds of things. I knew I’d always wanted to give sausage gravy a shot – but I didn’t want to risk the heart attack of having an entire pan to eat. Some family coming in from out of town this weekend provided me the excuse.

Sausage gravy is one of those “the fatter the better” sauces. So don’t imagine that you can buy the reduced-fat sausage and skim milk and have this work out well. It’s gotta be fatty. Work it off later, tons-of-fun. This is good stuff, and I was surprised at how easy it was to make.

Ingredients:

12oz. breakfast sausage (I used Jimmy Dean)
2T all-purpose flour
2C milk (I used 2%, whole milk would be better)
Fresh ground black pepper
Crushed red pepper flakes

Hopefully you have a cast iron skillet. Heat that sucker up and cook your sausage until it’s no longer pink. Make sure the meat breaks down to tiny pieces about the size of a pea or smaller. After that, powder the flour sausage crumbles and stir until the flour is incorporated with the meat. Do not skim the fat from the pan.

Add your milk and simmer. Add pepper to taste – I like it nice and hot. Other hot sauce will work as well – Texas Pete’s or Cholula would be a great addition. In approximately 5 minutes, you should have the consistency of gravy about correct – you should be able to “paint” a line down the center of the pan when you pull your spatula or tool of choice through the skillet.

Serve over biscuits, or the real overachievers will love this gravy over hash browned potatoes with cheese and eggs, skillet style. Or just pour it into a bag, attach an IV and gravy your way into congestive heart failure. (Not recommended.)

Tags: biscuits, breakfast, flour, gravy, Hot Sauce, sausage, skillet

I’ve made this a couple of times and while others always liked it, I never thought too highly of it until my most recent batch. The key for me was to treat this as an apple sauce as much as a hot sauce, so I added sweet spices. It’s a good thing to make when you’ve got apples that the point where you wouldn’t want to eat them raw, but aren’t spoiled.

You will need:

3 large apples (I used Braeburns) peeled and sliced
4 – 6 habañero peppers or more depending on how spicy you like it
1 cup water
1 cup cider vinager
1/2 – 3/4 cup of rye whiskey
1/2 cup of maple syrup
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp of ground clove (optional)

Boil the ingredients together (I added the rye about halfway through, however) until apples and peppers are soft. Puree ingredients in the blender until smooth. If the mixture is too thin return to the pot and cook until the desired consistency.

This is exceptional on pork either as a glaze or at the table. I’ve also used this on sauteed carrots to tasty results.

Tags: apples, Hot Sauce, whiskey

What’s the point, you ask? Well, I see what you’re driving at, and I agree – a heaping plate of deep fried chicken parts is truly one of life’s great pleasures. Pulling apart some dangerously hot meat covered in vinegar, spices and butter with no regard for personal safety could probably be in some ways considered illegal in many southern states. I have personally walked out of wing restaurants so full of fried meat and spice, I was lightheaded. I was literally high on buffalo wings.

Point is this – frying stuff is messy. And unless you have the patience to clean up a few pints of boiling hot oil off of everything in your kitchen (I’m assuming none of us have a handy-dandy McDonalds sized fryer in our homes), it’s a hell of a lot easier to throw some wings on a baking sheet, throw them in the oven and forget about ‘em for an hour. Oh, and it’s healthier too. But don’t tell anyone else that.

Besides, you don’t want to make ‘em better than the bar does, right? What other reason do we have to go out and drink excessive amounts of beer on a Monday night? It’s ten-cent wings night, honey! See you in 5 hours!

Ingredients:

2 lbs. chicken wings, separated at the joint
1 cup hot sauce
1/2 stick butter
Spices to taste
Celery & carrot
Blue cheese dressing (No ranch. Ever.)

That’s it. Pretty simple, huh? Heat your oven to 350 degrees, grease up a baking sheet or two and put those wings in there for about 45 minutes to an hour. When you’ve got about 5 minutes to go, melt down the butter and incorporate it with the hot sauce. The brand isn’t important; most supermarkets will have a big 32oz. bottle of average stuff one can kick up with your preference. I typically add in a few dashes of whatever I have in the fridge, usually Crystal, some cayenne pepper and so on. Toss to coat your wings and enjoy with the sporting event of your choice.

Beer pairing: 40oz. of Old English 800, or 7 bottles of Miller High Life.

Tags: bar food, beer, blue cheese, celery, Chicken, fried food, wings

After a heavy dinner, a nice long concert and 7 open bars last night, I was in the mood for something nice and comforting. I started making Coneys (full name – Coney Island Hot Dog) Detroit Style a couple years ago when my Michigan-bred love of life requested her homestate hot dog concoction. There are two styles, Flint or Detroit: Flint Style is a drier meat mix, basically just seasoned ground beef – these are Detroit Style, a “wetter” chili sauce style.

Never having made them (or even eating them) prior to trying this recipe, I had no idea whether or not they would even be close to the real thing. Having done some field research to Flint area and Detroit area Coney joints, I’ve found that this is the closest thing to being there.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
14 oz. chicken broth
6 oz V8 juice
4 T. Flour
1 T. Chili powder
1 T. Paprika
1 T. Turmeric
1 T. Cumin
1 T. Chicken Bullion Powder (or three cubes, crushed)

Hot dogs with a natural casing – Koegel’s if possible
Hot dog buns
Yellow mustard
Diced onion (optional)

Brown the ground beef in a skillet. In a blender, mix together the broth, V8, flour and spices. Blend to combine, and add to the ground beef. Let reduce (about 10-15 minutes) and in the meantime, heat water for the dogs, dice the onion, sort through your mustard selection, pound aspirin for the headache, wonder exactly how you got home last night, and so on.

When the Coney sauce mixture is reduced, return half to the blender and puree. It’s not going to look good – but it’s going to taste good. Heat the dogs for 3-4 minutes, and top with Coney sauce, yellow mustard, and diced onion. Other options include a “loose only,” serving the sauce in the bun – no dog – or just out of a bowl, topped with mustard, like regular chili. Best part – it reheats perfectly, so make a ton and freeze it.

Tags: chili, coneys, detroit style, flint style, ground beef, hot dogs

I eschew recipes generally, which may not makeme the best candidate for this blog, but you’re stuck with me now. To me cooking requires a great deal of adjustment and nimbleness, and a set of instructions fly in the face of that because people are often afraid of making mistakes.

I did not write this down as I made it but I am confident in my memory, though you’ll still have to adjust this as you go

12 – 15 dried chipotle peppers
1 cup white wine plus ¼
1 cup rice vinegar plus ¼
½ cup bourbon plus ¼
½ cup lime juice
2 tsp of sea salt
1 tsp of black pepper
6 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp of honey (optional)

A week ahead of time soak the peppers in a small amount of water, just enough to cover them. This is important as dried peppers will continue to absorb liquid for days if not weeks and not doing so will leave you with a paste rather than a sauce. Once soaking is complete retain the liquid to help thin the sauce if you end up with a spicy sludge. It will carry with it a lot of the smoky flavor from the chipotle.

Put everything in a sauce pan, excluding garlic and bring it to a boil, then set the mixture. Lower heat, let simmer until pepper are leathery to soft (about 20 min). Remove from heat add garlic. Let sit until cool. Put it in a blender and puree the bejesus out of it. The lime and rice vinegar should provide a nice even tartness that doesn’t overpower the other flavors.

Pour into a large open mouthed container for easy access. You may have to blend a few more times and add more liquid if the sauce continues to thicken.

Suggested variations: honey will help to cut the heat slightly and other citrus flavors will work very well with bourbon. Great for remoulade, glazes (try with plum sauce), marinades. Great for pork or turkey sandwiches, Cajun, Caribbean, or for phenomenal hot wings.