My Aplogies
November 25th, 2011I am terribly sorry to everyone to whom I told we have actual recipes on our web page! We have ideas, something other then just chips.
We Don’t have recipes and here is my Logic. We all have different tastes and preferences for our pallet.
Our children have a completely different taste then Teri an mine. Now my children range in ages from 25 to 19, and there are four of them. Their taste are as different from ours as their personalities are from each other, though they were raised in the same house by the same parents, Us!
How do we look at cooking as we grow older? As a necessary evil? Are you raising children? Do you ever get a minute to rest? We’ve been raised on the perception that if it’s not finished in 10 to 30 min. we don’t have time. We are the Fast Food generation.
Stop!! Take the time to pamper yourself. Cook yourself a good meal, a real meal. It may sound funny, but eat a vegetable, a starch, a protein, a fruit! Take the time to discover what you really like! Eating should be fun( you do it every day )not a chore. Why is it that we watch the Food Channels and ooh and ahh at what they do, become so passionate about it that they are one of the most watched programs on TV, and all of the recipes are on the Net( plus everyone who likes to cook has their favorite recipe on the web) you have over 1 million to choose from, and we still order out a Pizza? Taco Bell, Mickey D’s, Sub Way? That’s the availability we live with, and don’t get me wrong, I’ve been to everyone of those places mentioned above more then once! Failing to leave out on of my Favorites Moe’s.
Cooking a good meal is just like cleaning your House, Room, Truck, Garage, or Exercising! The hardest part of any of them is getting started.
How Do I Get Started, I’m Not A Good Cook?
Look in your cook book, if you don’t have one look on line!
Remember one thing, recipes are not the Ten Commandments, they are a basic guide line to how to put a meal together. You don’t have to use all their ingredients, tweek it to your own taste.
I never took a cooking lesson, and no I’m not gifted(if you ask my wife sometimes she tells me I’m Special, but then again so did my teachers, and I never really new what they meant either) I know what I like and I know what taste good. So when I cook I try to put things together that I happen to like, and I mean like sweet and sours. Salt and Pepper, Garlic goes with almost anything. I use a lot of Salsa’s in our food, to a degree, to add a spiced flavor, not overpowering and yet it can be recognized. Spices are great, yet sometimes we get carried away with covering the flavor of what we are cooking, to the point of not even knowing what we are supposed to be tasting! Look at yourself and ask” what do I prefer? are you a burger person, a Fish, Beef, Pork Poultry, Vegetarian, a Soup, Stew? When you figure that out you will have conquered 1/2 of cooking. You don’t have to like it all. practice with the dishes you look at most favorably, you will enjoy preparing them an your confidence will grow, you will expand your thoughts about your abilities in preparing food for those whom you love or just for yourself.
Cooking is a matter of taste, your taste. There are a million restaurants out there and a million and one recipes. Cooking could be compared to Snowflakes, never are two the identical same, but they are all made the same stuff. So be cooking, made from the same stuff, but not always prepared the same.
Hints:
Cooking Chicken Parts:
I never cook chicken all at the same time. On a grill, at 250 degrees:
Legs- 1 hour
Bone in Thighs-45 min.
Boneless 25-35 min.
Bone in Breast 35-40 min.
Boneless 25-35 min.
I always use BBQ Sauce, it seems to help keep moister in the meat. I Flip every 5 min. saucing it with every flip. It works, never had a complaint about my chicken
Steaks: Fillet- 1 1/2″ thick 18-19 min. start off with 450 degree 2min. ea. side, then drop heat down to 250-275 and finish off the last 14min-15min. - 4min. per side, yes it will come out to a 2-3 min. side
that’s O K. take it off let it stand 5 min. eat it Med. Rare. I add no seasoning, bbq, the only thing i will add to a Fillet is my Teeth and Tongue.
I have never eaten a Done, or well done steak in 37 years, so I suppose if that is how you like it? just keep it on the flame till it says Mooowww!
Pork- I eat shoulders and Butts- slow cook on a smoker 5-6 hours or a roisterer till it reaches 150 degrees internal temp, remove, chop(or pull it) add “Pride of Carolina BBQ”, wrap up in tin foil throw on a grill at 250 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, take off and YOW! Fantastic. It also taste great with any of our other BBQ’s on it as well.
Baby Back Ribs: I don’t boil the Ribs first, I don’t put a Rub on them, I don’t Smoke them either, I like my Baby Backs to taste like Baby Back ribs.(and yes I’ve had Ribs done in all different ways, and no I’m not saying that they are wrong, look in previous Paragraphs, I cook to my liking) Any how I am not trying to take away from anyone’s prep., this is mine. 250 degrees, rack of Ribs, every 5 min. I flip the Ribs. After 3 flips I start mopping on the BBQ sauce(Pineapple Chipotle is the Finest) a light coating till you start to see the Glaze, Brn. Sugar starting to Marbleize, then just lightly( or how ever you feel) add to you base. By the time you finish the Ribs should have lost their ability to bend and ready to eat. Now I have done BBRibs for as little as 45 min. and a long as 2 1/2 hours. It’s all up to your taste, not someone telling you how you should like it.
Fish: At a low temp. till it starts to flake, cover with “Dill, Smokin, Roasted salsas, Toss in a salad and Chow.
Will wright some more suggestions later, again i want to Apologize for misleading any of you
Doug Clarke
Cape Fear Salsa
PS. I only cook on a Grill, there is no substation for a real flame or real coal or real wood for cooking. I never Deep fry, I never Coat with Bread crumbs or any way else. As some may summarize or say, just like a Caveman, Yah Baby!