“It’s the mooost wonderful tiiime of the yeeeear…” That’s what plays in my head when the first sugar pumpkins land in stores each Fall. Not because retailers drop the Christmas hammer too early. No, my mood turns to thoughts of those pumpkins heating low and slow inside my smoker.
4 Great Articles for your Sweet Heat Arsenal
In rock band terms, hot sauce and peppers are going so mainstream it’s almost as if they’ve sold out. When McDonald’s and its fast food ilk are all running McChipotle this and that, it’s time for the cool kids who were chileheads before everyone was doing it to branch out. Gene splicing spicy with sweet is an awesome way to do just that. Here are some ideas from the Super Site to kick start your noggin into high gear.
12 Brazilian Recipes to Honor the World Cup
Before the World Cup started, I thought it would be a good idea to present a selection of Brazilian recipes, in honor of the WC’s host country. But then I forgot about it. With the WC entering its hot phase, below is the list of Brazilian recipes on Fiery Foods & BBQ that I’ve assembled over the years. Just click on a title to see the recipe.
3 Great Salsa and Hot Sauce How-to Articles
Why wouldn’t you try making your own salsa or hot sauce? Our cousin, the Fiery Foods and Barbecue SuperSite, has all kinds of useful information on smoke, spice, and heat. Here are three articles from it to get you started cranking out your own custom fire.
Smoked Turducken for Thanksgiving
Most of you probably know what it is, but for those who don’t, it’s a chicken, stuffed into a duck, stuffed into a turkey. The chicken usually has Cajun stuffing in it and other types of stuffing are often used as mortar between the building blocks, as well. If you want to build one, you have to de-bone all three birds first, making sure not to cut the skin on the turkey while doing so. Once that’s done, you stuff them together, then use cooking twine to hold it all together as a cohesive unit, coat it with seasoning, and you’re ready to cook. Or you can do what I did.
Making a Pumpkin Smoker
Three years ago, I started turning monster pumpkins into smokers for Halloween. Not only was it a good excuse to play with freakishly large vegetables, it was an even better excuse to put an attractive woman into a devil outfit and take pictures for the blog. I also like the idea of food that smokes itself. The basic idea was simple. Clean out the pumpkin, cut holes in the top and bottom, and place it over a small electric hot plate as the basis for the smoker.
The Gilroy Garlic Festival: Vampire-Free for 35 Years
I love the Gilroy Garlic Festival almost as much as I do our own National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show. For the last thirty five years, California’s garlic hub, Gilroy, has hosted an annual event dedicated to The Stinking Rose (aka garlic). The event was founded way back in 1979 by Dr. Rudy Melone, Val Filice, and Don Christopher. Mostly likely as a way to celebrate garlic and raise money for charities, not so much as a way to deal with Northern California’s notorious vampire infestation.
